Coming down the cliff, Sohwa faced a forest of white birch. Fixing her gaze on the harbor visible between the trees as she walked, Sohwa suddenly stopped.
She brushed the black protrusion attached to a tree pillar.
At first she thought it was a knot, but the shape was different. Something that looked like charcoal had pierced through the bark.
Looking around, she saw that other trees also had plenty of black formations stuck to them, as if blisters had risen.
Perhaps thinking something was strange, Namgung Jin approached Sohwa and asked, “What is it?”
As Sohwa plucked off that black fragment, she answered, “Chaga (Inonotus obliquus).”
“Chaga?”
“In the Northern Sea it’s treated as a medicinal elixir mushroom. The colder the climate, the stronger the efficacy, so chaga from the Northern Sea is incomparably more precious than the kind from the Central Plains.”
Receiving the chaga from Sohwa, Namgung Jin examined its shape. “This is the first time I’ve seen a mushroom like this.”
For a mushroom, its shape was bizarre and its feel was strange. It felt not like touching soft flesh but like touching hard coal.
She said in an even voice, “Chaga grows very slowly, so if it’s this size, it must have been left alone for years.”
Lifting her head, Sohwa swept the surroundings with her eyes.
There was no fence or mechanism formation blocking the way in. There was no notice saying not to touch.
It was a forest without an owner. If a Northern Sea resident passing by had discovered this chaga, they would have harvested it immediately.
Chaga parasitizes inside a tree and only barely reveals itself outside the bark after a dozen or so years. Even after it takes form, it is known to grow slowly, and at this size it meant it had been left alone for at least a year.
It seemed that for at least a year, no Northern Sea people had come and gone through the harbor.
If it were even the size of a fingernail, they would have flipped their eyes and collected it.
As Sohwa’s face darkened, Namgung Jin asked as if puzzled, “But is it a big deal that there are mushrooms here? Your expression isn’t good.”
“If you entered a cave, Young Clan Head, and there was refined oil pooled at the entrance, what would you do?”
“I’d hurry and scoop it up before anyone came.”
Namgung Jin let out a hollow laugh. “And I would also think no one had come into the cave.”
Since refined oil is said to collect one drop in a hundred years, one would think human hands hadn’t touched it for a long time.
“It looks like no Northern Sea people have passed through here for years.”
Understanding why Sohwa had grown wary, Namgung Jin rubbed his temple. “When I think the Northern Sea people haven’t passed through these parts, it becomes disheartening.”
A harbor where people should gather had no people entering.
Silence flowed between the two.
The environment before their eyes was unnatural.
Even setting aside the Northern Sea people, there should have been people from other regions at the harbor. Since it was the beach closest to the island of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, a merchant would have settled.
But people of the Central Plains could not make it to the harbor, and the Northern Sea people were avoiding the harbor.
“What on earth is happening in the Northern Sea?”
It was unsettling, but neither of them said they should turn back.
Rustle.
Sohwa took the first step.
They pushed through the forest and entered the harbor.
Namgung Jin pointed to a pavilion. “It seems to be over there.”
There was a pavilion with black cloth attached to it, far from the beach.
Creak.
When they opened the main gate, a chilly cold leaked out.
Even so, perhaps it had been cleaned recently, for the interior was spotless without a speck of dust. The medicinal ingredients inside the drawers were well organized, and there were even five golden beds on which a person could lie.
“Why didn’t they tell us the harbor had fallen into ruin when they took such care as this?”
Sohwa suspected Baekgeumgak’s actions, but she couldn’t find a particular answer.
Knowing the Blood Demon was pursuing her, perhaps they had prepared a dwelling to tell her to take refuge.
If it was a matter of turning the Blood Demon’s insides upside down, the owner of Baekgeumgak would gladly roll up his sleeves, so she did not doubt his eccentricity.
“To think I assumed someone the Blood Demon couldn’t tame would obediently listen to me. I was complacent.”
Swallowing a sigh, Sohwa looked around the pharmacy and opened the inner door.
Rattle.
When she opened the inner door, the living space was revealed.
It had a peculiar layout with a corridor wide enough to serve as a sitting room between two rooms.
“Was this pavilion used as a tavern?”
If one set up several tables in the corridor, the two facing rooms seemed like the kind of rooms one would offer to customers who wanted a quiet spot.
It didn’t matter if it had been a tavern.
In an empty harbor, her plan had already become useless long ago.
Opening the first room, Sohwa was surprised. The room was in excellent condition. It was no less than her bedroom in the Tang Clan’s quarters.
Muttering in a grave voice, Namgung Jin crossed over to the inner room. “Even if we light a fire, it doesn’t warm up quickly. We’d have to keep the fire going all day for our bodies to thaw at all.”
Sohwa nodded and checked the second room.
The moment the door opened, Namgung Jin and Sohwa fell silent.
“......”
“......”
The room they saw first had all new furnishings. Thick cotton quilts were set atop the golden bed, and the desk and display cabinet were also made of well-finished wood. There was even a large brazier by the window.
But this room had only a thin quilt and a single desk. Even that was crude. There wasn’t even a brazier; cold air came in, and one could feel the chill from the door itself.
“Ha ha.”
Standing behind, Namgung Jin let out a laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It seems this is my room.”
Sohwa knit her brows. “No. Young Clan Head. There’s no need for you to yield.”
“No. It isn’t yielding. Since the person in charge decided so, I should stay here.”
“......Have you met the owner of Baekgeumgak?”
Namgung Jin shook his head. “I haven’t seen him, but while staying at Baekgeumgak, I felt that he was not favorable toward me.”
Since it was natural for a Blood Cult hall lord to be unfavorable toward a member of the Martial Alliance, Sohwa couldn’t offer a polite denial.
In truth, it was strange that Hae-rak showed her favor.
Of course, to Hae-rak, before she was a member of the Martial Alliance, she was the attending physician who would remove the Blood Demon’s blood.
Staring at the shabby room, Sohwa said, “But it’s difficult to sleep in a place like this.”
“This is more than adequate for me... even so, I will sleep outside.”
For Namgung Jin, who had trained for years in a sealed cave, this room was comfortable enough to get a good night’s sleep. But for another reason, he intended to sleep in the outer room.
“The layout of the pavilion is ambiguous.”
Namgung Jin pointed to the inner door where they stood. “Since the pharmacy is separated from the living space, it’s hard to respond to an intrusion at the main gate, and the two rooms are far apart, so there’s no need to stay in the inner room to guard. It’s more efficient if I sleep on a golden bed in the pharmacy, which is between the main gate and Young Lady Tang’s room.”
Namgung Jin took it for granted that he would stand guard.
Sohwa wanted to tell him not to, but she stayed quiet, thinking it would be better to sleep in the pharmacy than in this shabby room. At least the pharmacy had a stove, so if he put the golden bed in front of it and slept, he could at least keep his body warm.
“Thank you.”
Sohwa went into the room, unpacked, and came back out to the pharmacy.
In that time, Namgung Jin had moved the table in front of the fireplace and even boiled tea, placing it at her seat.
“So then, what do you intend to do now?”
Wrapping her hands around the steaming teacup, Sohwa answered, “Originally, I planned to imitate the Yeonjuda troupe and leak information to those who came to the pharmacy, to lure the bloodline of the Ice Palace.”
Keeping his eyes on the tea, Namgung Jin replied evenly, “Mm. It seems that operation will be difficult to carry out, I suppose?”
Sohwa let out a sigh. “Yes, it seems we’ll have to go out ourselves and look for another harbor.”
“Will there be a harbor elsewhere?”
“There should be, but... I don’t know.”
She was doubtful as well.
After warming her body with hot tea, Sohwa took out the map she had brought from Baekgeumgak.
Her gaze fixed on the island where the Northern Sea Ice Palace was located.
“If the Northern Sea Ice Palace is still functioning properly, there must certainly be a place that conveys outside goods to the island.”
“Since the island is large, wouldn’t it be possible to be self-sufficient for most things?”
“Since they say people of the Central Plains and nobles of the Northern Sea live on the island, there will be demand for goods from other regions. Even if not luxuries, they will procure medicinal ingredients from the mainland, so exchange with the outside is also a matter directly tied to survival.”
Sohwa lowered her gaze to the sea area closest to the island.
“So if they are to move goods, there must be a harbor on the coast. There must be inns and taverns where the trade caravan can stay, and there must be settlements on the coast where Northern Sea people have settled in search of work. It would be normal for a bustling district to form along the beach.”
The place where Sohwa’s gaze stopped was the harbor they had just arrived at.
The southernmost tip of the Northern Sea.
The beach closest to the Great Desert and the Central Plains.
Merchants move by the shortest route. Travel distance is directly tied to cost. Having heard Yehwa’s grumbling to the point of exhaustion, Sohwa knew well how sensitive merchants were to costs.
Since the people accompanying a caravan are not just one or two, the cost of their lodging and meals at inns was no small matter. Needless to say, the longer the itinerary, the greater the risk of theft.
Especially since the snowy mountains of the Northern Sea are dangerous to outsiders, it was common sense to use the southernmost route.
Sohwa’s eyes darkened.
“But if the southernmost harbor is like this, would exchange be happening elsewhere?”
She thought not.
She quietly stared at the isolated island on the map.
“Could it be that those living on the island do not need a sea route? There’s no way there’s another road connecting to the mainland...”
Realizing something, Sohwa swallowed a breath.
“...If there is a Passage even on the island, then they would not need a sea route.”
