Chapter 389. The Pursuit
There was no place that could truly be called a cremation ground.
It was simply an empty field.
Patches of black earth showed through here and there amid the snow-covered plain, and even the snow that had fallen the night before had failed to cover all the soot.
Perhaps this was where they disposed of bodies that had no family to claim them.
Most of the enemy dead from the recent battle had also been burned here.
The smell of death was foul.
No—the smell created in the attempt to cover death was worse.
The odors of damp firewood, burning flesh, and singed hair hung low over the snowfield.
As Youngwoo turned to leave, Okjeong was waiting for him.
"Were you able to confirm it?"
From the way she asked, she seemed to know about the suspicions surrounding the matter.
If so, a person's attitude ought to change accordingly.
Yet that rarely happened.
An arm always bent inward.
Youngwoo shook his head.
"They burned him immediately to erase the traces. Whatever they were so afraid of, they did not even ask his family's permission. Even the body of someone who died of plague would not be handled this way."
Okjeong lowered her head.
"May the deceased rest in peace."
Youngwoo pointed toward the flames.
"Go over there and say that."
Okjeong pressed her lips together for a moment.
She looked at the flames and smoke, then at the grieving family, before turning back to Youngwoo.
"You know who did it, don't you?"
Youngwoo did not answer.
Okjeong narrowed her eyes.
"What is someone like me supposed to do?"
No matter how chaotic the world became, in the end the question always turned back toward oneself.
"What do you mean?"
"If he truly is the kind of man Commander Yi suspects him to be, then what am I supposed to do?"
It was an odd question.
It was the question of someone who already knew something of Go Youngchang's true nature.
Someone who knew nothing at all would never have asked it.
Youngwoo gave a faint laugh.
"Why ask me?"
"Because I think you might give me a proper answer."
Youngwoo looked up at the sky.
Snow clouds hung low overhead.
A bad man.
The woman betrothed to that bad man.
A father determined to force the marriage through.
And how were any of them supposed to live through an age like this?
"I don't know either. I can barely manage my own life."
Okjeong spoke quietly.
"Tell me. Honestly."
Youngwoo answered only after a long silence.
"If I'm honest, I'm restraining myself from killing him."
Okjeong's face stiffened.
"You believe he killed the novice monk."
"Yes."
"And that he killed the first man who reported the death in order to erase the trail."
Youngwoo raised a hand and pointed toward the burning pyre.
"There he is. The first reporter."
Okjeong looked toward the flames.
Gi Mincheol's family was still crying.
The fire was consuming the man's face, his wounds, and whatever injustice he had suffered.
Yet the very haste with which they had burned him only made what someone had tried to hide stand out more clearly.
Youngwoo suddenly remembered Okjeong once saying that she wanted to become queen.
"Many people are looking to him. He came from the Balhae nobility, he once ruled this place, and at one time…"
Youngwoo let out a long sigh.
"What does any of that matter now? You asked me, so I'll answer only for myself. I don't think I would want to live that kind of life."
With that, Youngwoo turned and swiftly left her behind.