Chapter 3

If Jaheon could kill a person at random right this instant, the one he would choose without a moment’s hesitation was precisely Wang Yun.

“As expected, it was Wang Yun.”

Had it not been Wang Yun, Choseon would not have met such an end. Jaheon could not comprehend Wang Yun’s very idea that Choseon must be sacrificed for the sake of the Han imperial house. Why should our Choseon be sacrificed for a Han court that would collapse anyway? An age of chaos that would arrive with the fall of the Han? Jaheon had no need for any of it. So long as Choseon could be happy, he did not care whether the country crumbled or not.

But Jaheon knew.

Even so, it was not possible to flee the chaos forever.

“…If the age of turmoil arrives, there will be limits even to protecting Choseon like this.”

To protect Choseon, Jaheon had been living a peripatetic life, moving regularly. There were many reasons, but the greatest was the siblings’ looks. How many disgraceful incidents had befallen them because of their appearance?

Yet they could not live while hiding their looks. To live, the siblings needed to earn money, and they needed to spend money. In doing so, they would come and go in and out of villages, and in doing so, rumors of the siblings would spread and spread…

—They say she’s a beauty.

—They say she’s a peerless beauty of the realm?

It was yet another repetition of disgraceful events.

They had left villages for that reason three or four times. Jaheon had killed men three or four times as well. Only because it was an age when bandits ran rampant and killings were common; had it been a peaceful era, Jaheon would already have been in the county jail, wailing only Choseon’s name.

“Ha.”

It was while Jaheon let out a sigh at the thought.

“Brother. Take your medicine.”

Choseon handed the medicine to Jaheon. Jaheon managed to lift the corner of his mouth in a smile. He did not want to let it show to Choseon.

“Thank you, Choseon.”

To clear his mind of stray thoughts, Jaheon downed the decoction she had given him in a single gulp. The taste of the decoction was bitter. It was like reality. If only reality were as sweet as candy. Jaheon let out another deep sigh.

“……”

At that sigh, Choseon looked at him with a worried expression and asked,

“…Is something the matter?”

Waving his hand at her expression, Jaheon replied,

“No. Nothing.”

“……”

But it was not something that would pass with Choseon. Seeing the clear signs of worry on her face, Jaheon answered apologetically,

“I’m sorry. When this brother is ready, I will tell you.”

“…Is it dangerous?”

“I will do everything in my power to keep it from becoming so.”

After pondering a moment at Jaheon’s answer, Choseon said she understood and stepped out of the room. Once she had gone, Jaheon ran a hand down his face. He loathed himself for being unable to tell even Choseon the truth.

“To be a brother, and to show such a weak side to my sister….”

Recalling Choseon’s worried expression, Jaheon lightly slapped his own cheek. He needed to get a grip. He had to devise a way to protect Choseon before the age of upheaval arrived.

“Wang Yun….”

Protecting Choseon was not a matter that could be resolved simply by snatching her from Wang Yun’s clutches.

“Even if we flee to another village, someone else may appear wanting to ‘adopt’ Choseon; in that case, sending her to Wang Yun might actually not be a bad—”

In that instant, Jaheon felt he wanted to beat himself to death.

“Damn it.”

It was because, before recalling the memories of the 21st century, he had ended up understanding the choice of Jaheon the ancient man.

The choice of sending Choseon to Wang Yun as an adopted daughter.

“Is there truly no other way?”

In this era, a woman’s happiness meant marrying and living a happy life. No matter how well one married from an ordinary family, there were limits to the households one could enter. But what if Choseon became Wang Yun’s adopted daughter?

Moreover, Wang Yun was a gentleman-scholar of such reputation that he would become one of the Three Excellencies, the highest offices of the Han.

Thus, sending Choseon would have been the best option from the standpoint of Jaheon the ancient man.

“Damn it.”

But Jaheon, who had recalled the memories of a modern man, was different.

Marriage is not the end of life. A woman’s life does not end thus. A household into which she married might suffer annihilation overnight. To begin with, even if she married into a good family, could Choseon truly live happily?

To begin with, was that the life Choseon wanted? Was a woman’s life just to live as some man’s wife? It was not. Choseon, too, was a human being, and she was his precious family.

“I want to let her live the life she desires, but….”

Yet reality was not so easy.

“…I do not have the power for that right now.”

Jaheon again fell into self-reproach.

“What on earth should I do.”

Even knowing the future was of no use. Perhaps Jaheon would yet again lose Choseon. Jaheon lamented to the heavens.

Why had the heavens made him recall knowledge of the future? It was not as if he were of a status that could not use such knowledge in the first place….

“Status?”

All at once, Jaheon’s eyes flew open as if struck by lightning.

“Couldn’t I use someone who has the status?”

If Jaheon did not have the status, he could use those who did. Jaheon picked up an empty bamboo slip lying open about the house and began to write with a brush.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion.

The Liang Province Rebellion.

The Eunuch Catastrophe.

The campaign to suppress Dong Zhuo.

The Sanbo Rebellion.

They were the major events that occurred in the Three Kingdoms narrative. He also wrote the figures related to them. Among them, there was only one person whom Jaheon could meet right now.

The only one was Wang Yun, who was said to be seeking an adopted daughter.

“If….”

Jaheon fell into thought.

“If I could use Wang Yun?”

He was a man it would not be satisfying even to beat to death, but Wang Yun’s status was quite useful. The status system of the late Eastern Han had higher barriers than one might think. To attain office, it was possible through the recommendations of renowned gentlemen. In other words, in his current situation—without lineage or backing—attaining office was out of the question.

However, if Wang Yun were to take Jaheon as an adopted son instead of Choseon?

It did not even need to be adoption. It would suffice if Wang Yun pushed him forward. Even if Jaheon’s status did not allow him to use future knowledge, he could use it if he borrowed Wang Yun’s status and reputation. In this accursed antiquity, Wang Yun was a man with status and renown enough to make that possible.

Perhaps even in this accursed antiquity, Jaheon might obtain the power to grant Choseon the life she desired.

“In that case.”

Jaheon stared at the bamboo slip—a near breach of the laws of heaven—and then tossed it into the brazier.

“I will make use of anything.”

The bamboo slip burned in a bright red flame.

“Until I make Choseon the most exalted in status.”

With eyes gone calm and still, Jaheon watched the bamboo slip turn to ash.

A small village on the border of Bing Province.

The headman who governed it had been in a good mood of late.

Naturally so.

It was said that Im Jaheon, who was ever making his insides churn, had fallen ill with some unknown sickness and was bedridden!

“Thank goodness! Thank goodness!”

How venomous that pretty boy could be. Even that pretty face could not veil his venom. Not only would he treat the villagers like rats if they so much as spoke a single word to his sister, but the families who dared propose marriage to his sister were all torn apart and scattered to the winds.

On top of that, even Go Sun—the village’s notorious troublemaker—had thrown in with Jaheon.

—Teach me those wiles, big brother!

Then incidents doubled!

With two troublemakers gathered, it was nothing short of a natural disaster.

“This is why, with those who have no parents, it’s not something you can fix by being kind…!”

Thus the headman was delighted. To hear that Jaheon, who had been making trouble in the village along with Go Sun, was laid up in bed—how could he not be pleased!

“And besides…!”

Smirking, the headman recalled the content of the bamboo slip he had asked Go Sun to deliver.

Some time ago, the headman had happened to obtain from the county magistrate the information that a central inspector, the Registrar, was seeking to acquire an adopted daughter of outstanding appearance.

—It seems the Registrar is looking for an adopted daughter.

—For what purpose?

—I heard he must marry. But from what I gathered, the Registrar seems to want to take in as adopted daughter a lovely child, though of humble family.

At those words, the headman thought of every girl in the village. Among them, there was one who was undoubtedly supreme. It was Choseon, who had grown virtuous despite being raised under a viper of a brother!

—If I happened to know of such a girl… what would come of it?

If only, while Jaheon was bedridden, he could persuade Choseon and send her as the Registrar’s adopted daughter…!

—The Registrar would look upon you favorably.

He might even receive an office!

Recalling his conversation with the magistrate, the headman chuckled to himself. By now, Choseon would have read the bamboo slip and be making her decision. If only Choseon would secretly accept this proposal without her brother’s knowledge, the headman planned to escort her personally to the place written in the slip and present her to the Registrar.

Shouldn’t he at least leave an impression on the Registrar?

“If only that accursed Im Jaheon—before he gets well—Choseon would read it first and decide….”

But suddenly, the headman felt a chill. Shivering as his body grew clammy, the headman trembled.

“That’s odd? Did I leave the window open?”

It was at the very moment the headman turned his head to close the window.

“Uwaargh!”

The headman came face to face with a ghost—no, with Jaheon.

Hair like a cascade of midnight silk, skin so pale it was white. A gaunt appearance from five days of illness, and those blade‑sharp golden eyes. There was even bright red blood at the corner of his mouth.

“Sir Headman. Were you planning to send Choseon as an adopted daughter?”

However beautiful Jaheon might be, he was the very image of a ghost. The headman’s face went sheet‑white.

“Y‑you, you…!”

In abject terror, the headman felt his breath stop. Before him, Jaheon smiled coolly and whispered,

“Since I’m dead, you may send her as an adopted daughter.”

“…D‑dead? You? Th‑that can’t be…! You couldn’t possibly die! You’d come back even if you died!”

“Exactly. And so I have come back alive.”

Grinning, the ghost‑like Jaheon stretched out his hand, grasped the headman’s throat, and murmured,

“To take you with me.”

The veins stood out in Jaheon’s eyes as he clenched the headman’s neck. Strength tightened in his hand. Choking, the headman dragged in heaving breaths without end. Yet the air would not go down. That accursed Im Jaheon—tormenting him even after death! In the end, unable to breathe properly and gasping, the headman fainted on the spot.

“……?”

Clicking his tongue at the headman passing out earlier than expected, Jaheon released his hand. Looking down at the headman collapsed on the floor, Jaheon muttered,

“That’s what you get for coveting another man’s sister.”

Then he drew out a small bottle from his breast. It was a bottle filled with chicken blood. Sprinkling the chicken blood over the face of the unconscious headman, Jaheon smirked.

“You should have just lived righteously.”

The next morning.

The headman, waking covered head to toe in chicken blood, ran screaming through the village streets.

“A ghost! A ghost, I say! Im Jaheon—that wretch—he became a ghost and came to my house…!”

At the sight of the headman raving like a madman that he had seen a ghost, the villagers whispered that the headman ought to be replaced.

Thus, three days later,

In the end, the village headman was replaced.

All according to Jaheon’s design.

Footnotes:

1. “Registrar” translates a bureaucratic title rendered here as “Jongsa” in Korean context; posts like this in the Han administrative system could involve supervisory or staff roles within central or provincial organs, and titles vary in translation depending on the exact office.

2. “Three Excellencies (삼공)” were the highest civil offices in the Han hierarchy; being counted among them signified immense status and influence, enabling patronage such as recommendations for office.