Sohwa went to the window. A party in blue clothing was entering the hot spring.
“Hey— you must not come in here!”
An Eom family house servant blocked the way, and from afar the Family Head of the Eom family ran over. Yet the party in blue ignored him and busily moved their eyes. Soon those gazes rose to the red pavilion.
Perhaps it was only her feeling, but it seemed the gaze touched her.
A martial man, head lifted high, stood still with a face without expression.
Then, as if he exploded at the intruders’ attitude, the Family Head of the Eom family shouted loudly,
“Were we not already finished speaking! How can you come all the way here and make a scene...!”
Even at the bellowing voice, the middle-aged martial man did not lower his gaze.
Still with his head raised, he answered the Family Head of the Eom family,
“I heard you came from the Central Plains to obtain Binggeukjicho, so I secured the goods as quickly as possible. Since you came such a long way, would you not rest easy from your travel fatigue only if you had Binggeukjicho in hand?”
Though it was not such a loud voice, it rang distinctly in the ear. He seemed to have put internal energy into it. One could not tell if he was an outstanding martial artist, but the internal energy he had cultivated was not small.
The Family Head of the Eom family gave a dry cough.
“Khmm, if you have secured it, then hand it here. I will deliver it to the Branch Lord in her stead.”
“No. Since I have come this far, I too would like to join the evening banquet.”
The one called Branch Lord suddenly lowered his gaze.
A woman’s back was visible.
It seemed the Four-Directions Hall Administrator had come outside at the commotion.
Looking at Pang Shihyeon, the Branch Lord said,
“I regretted that we did not have a proper talk earlier, so I came using Binggeukjicho as a pretext. If it is fine with the people of the Central Plains, I would like to converse a little more.”
The Branch Lord lifted his gaze again.
“It seems there was a guest of honor I failed to notice as well.”
***
It was a night of the full moon. Thanks to the bright moonlight illuminating every corner of the snowy mountains, the view opened far.
Because the Northern Sea Ice Palace bloodline had lived confined in the snowy mountains, they knew the terrain well, but they did not know the exact locations of the Passages.
At times, saying they were holding matches, the Blood Cult people brought frameworks from elsewhere into the Ice Palace, so they could only guess that there were Passages in the mountains.
They searched the area where frameworks employing unusual martial techniques had poured in.
They had already broken one Passage in the west, and now they were looking for the Passage that would be in the center.
At that moment, one subordinate sent a signal.
“Bloodline Master, we have found it.”
Baek Unhyeon went to the place the subordinate indicated and felt along the rock face. Feeling knobby engravings, he gathered internal energy.
When he flowed energy into the inscribed formula, a fierce wind blew.
It was a Passage.
Before the Passage opened, he withdrew his hand and slashed the engravings carved into the wall. Then the wind vanished and the surroundings fell quiet.
With a bright face the subordinate said,
“Now only one remains!”
The Han family was a house famous for precise architectural technique. As they erected the city for the Blood Demon, they made the Passage entrances, and all of them were positioned on the island’s outer rim. It was a structure by which Blood Cult men pouring through the Passages could seal the island at once.
The Han family always praised their own ability, and Baek Unhyeon had heard that boasting before.
Three within the palace and three outside the palace. A total of six entrances kept equal intervals. Thus there was no need to set markers. The vertices of a hexagram formed by overlapping two triangles precisely revealed the locations of the six Passages.
Now that they had found two Passages, finding the third would be easy.
Marking the Passage locations on the map, Baek Unhyeon traced two triangles over the points and inferred the next Passage’s position.
Watching, a subordinate said in a delighted voice,
“My old quarters are near there. I know a shortcut, so let me guide you.”
They soon arrived at the snowy mountain where the third Passage lay.
But their speed gradually slowed.
Bloodstains were scattered around as if some mountain beast had torn through.
Two subordinates looked at Baek Unhyeon with tense expressions.
Baek Unhyeon carefully searched the surroundings with a cautious gaze.
There was a presence felt nearby.
The frequency with which bloodstains appeared increased.
Suddenly Baek Unhyeon stopped walking altogether.
It was because he saw corpses piled like a mountain, and a red light settled over them.
Baek Unhyeon turned his gaze to the side.
Before a cliff, people who had set up tents were making a campfire and chattering noisily. From their speech they seemed drunk.
Baek Unhyeon quickly grasped the situation.
It seemed true that the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was away from his seat. Seeing Crimson Blood Hall underlings hiding in the Ice Palace and enjoying amusement.
Baek Unhyeon’s gaze returned to the corpses.
The corpses wore yellow clothes and purple clothes. They were the symbols of the Eom family and the Dong family.
From time to time the Eom family and the Dong family would bring martial artists from the Central Plains, raise them, and then present them to the Blood Cult.
Having senselessly done the same thing to the Crimson Blood Hall, after a few of them had their heads cut off, they had stopped; but it seemed they had gone and done that again to the Crimson Blood Hall.
Meeting the subordinate’s eyes asking what to do, Baek Unhyeon deliberated and gave a hand signal ordering retreat.
They were at a numerical disadvantage, and the pile of Eom family corpses bothered him.
It was a situation where the Eom family had brought people of the Central Plains to their own quarters.
If, as that Young Lady had said, the Northern Sea nobles were loath to clash with the Martial Alliance, it would be fortunate; but if they set their minds otherwise, it would be a problem.
The island was the Northern Sea nobles’ land.
Moreover, none of the Passages outside the palace had yet been broken, so if even the Blood Cult’s reinforcements came, the people of the Central Plains could be surrounded.
Having moved away from the Passage, Baek Unhyeon spoke aloud,
“Let us go to the Eom family, inform the people of the Central Plains of the situation, and move again.”
***
The banquet was held in the main building. It was the pavilion where the Family Head of the Eom family had told them to choose house servants.
Because the city, not the hot spring, could be seen out the window, it felt at least a little more proper.
The mood was solemn.
No—one should say uncomfortable.
The Family Head of the Eom family blatantly glared at the Northern Sea Branch Lord, and the Branch Lord stared fixedly only at the people of the Central Plains with a face of unknown meaning.
The Four-Directions Hall people reacted as if it were nothing, as though they had received such gazes every time they visited another hall.
Sohwa lowered her gaze to her cup and then lifted it. At once she met the Branch Lord’s eyes.
Having just heard from Hae-rak that the Branch people were all house servants of the Han family, the Branch Lord’s gaze grated on her.
Among the three houses, the Han family was the only one recognized by the Blood Demon as useful and, in effect, the core personnel who had offered the island to the Blood Demon.
Sohwa did not avoid the gaze fixed on her; she met those eyes for so long it was almost rude.
“Has our party committed some discourtesy toward the Branch Lord?”
Unable to bear it, the Four-Directions Hall Administrator interposed.
“No.”
Smiling, the Branch Lord shook his head. Yet his gaze still rested on Sohwa.
“She looks as though she resembles someone I am looking for, so I keep finding myself studying her face.”
“She is a Young Lady young enough to be your daughter’s generation, Branch Lord. Since you say she resembles the one you seek, I hesitate to ask what that relationship might be.”
When Pang Shihyeon put thorns in her words, the Branch Lord laughed.
“I have not actually seen her. The granddaughter of someone I know left home, and since she is about the same age as this Young Lady, I unconsciously paid attention.”
“That child came from the Central Plains. She cannot be the granddaughter of someone you know, so withdraw your gaze now.”
As Pang Shihyeon openly showed displeasure, the Branch Lord turned his gaze.
“I have played the discourteous host to my guests.”
Emptying his cup, the Branch Lord continued his conversation with the Four-Directions Hall Administrator.
“By the way, was your journey without trouble? If you departed from the Central Plains and came up from the southwest, you likely passed through the gorge.”
“Yes, we did pass through the gorge.”
“It is fortunate to see that you all arrived safely.”
Pang Shihyeon lifted her cup to her lips and then stopped. When she looked as if to ask what he meant, the Branch Lord spoke.
“Was the gorge not peculiar? It runs long as if a mountain had been cleaved in two, yet for its length the width is narrow. In places the width is no more than a single measure.”
The Branch Lord stretched out both hands to show the span.
“Since more than a few have died in that gorge, the Northern Sea folk, if they can help it, do not enter Western Mountain. Yet all the outsiders survived and crossed Western Mountain, so it is something to congratulate.”
Pang Shihyeon drained her cup without a word.
It seemed clear what she was thinking.
The Branch Lord had said that all of the Four-Directions Hall people had survived.
It seemed he knew the faces of those who had set out for the Northern Sea from the Four-Directions Hall.
As the Administrator had feared, information including physiognomic sketches might already have crossed over to the Northern Sea.
Seeing that he was raising vigilance unnecessarily, either the Branch Lord’s head was poor, or he did not care about the Four-Directions Hall’s reaction.
The Branch Lord’s gaze flowed this way again.
'It seems a variable has appeared...'
There was no reason in the Northern Sea to rashly touch the Four-Directions Hall. It seemed a °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° variable had appeared that dared to hinder the Blood Demon’s objective.
And that variable seemed to be herself.
The Blood Demon was searching for her.
However, she had not thought the search net would already be spread as far as the Northern Sea. Physically, it was impossible for her to arrive in the Northern Sea at this time.
Soon, Sohwa loosened her tension.
It did not seem highly likely that the Blood Demon or the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was already in the Northern Sea.
If so, they would have come themselves.
Even if the Blood Demon had given orders to the Northern Sea, it was likely no more than a warning to report at once if she appeared.
'Not that it is something to feel safe about...'
Sohwa saw the Branch Lord’s lips curve.
To gauge the Branch Lord’s intent, she watched his expression and continued the conversation.
“Yet I am curious why people keep dying in Western Mountain.”
“Ah, there is a curse upon that gorge.”
Smiling, the Branch Lord continued,
“When the Blood Cult invaded, the Second Seat of the Ice Palace held the Blood Cult off alone in Western Mountain. At first he slaughtered cultists with ease, but after facing the Blood Demon, well... he was no match.”
He let out a sigh as if it were bitter, but it did not seem sincere.
“The Second Seat, squeezing out his last strength, cut the mountain, and with that strike Western Mountain split in two. That is the gorge of Western Mountain now. They say that day the Second Seat shouted he would surely sever the Blood Demon’s breath, that he would return from hell if he had to and kill him; perhaps because of that curse, those passing through the gorge have died without cause. So the Northern Sea folk avoid the gorge as far as possible. We call that the Second Seat’s curse.”
Sohwa let the Branch Lord’s words pass in one ear and out the other.
He was calling poisoning by yellow vapor the Second Seat’s curse.
It seemed that when the Second Seat’s sword cleaved the mountain, the ground cracked. Each time yellow vapor leaked from those fissures, fatalities occurred.
Perhaps it was only her feeling, but the Branch Lord seemed to mock the term “the Second Seat’s curse.”
Sohwa observed those subtle changes in expression with which he ridiculed superstition.
“We will have to take care not to pass through the gorge on our way back.”
With the corner of his mouth curling, the Branch Lord set down his cup.
“Yet having come all the way to the Northern Sea, do you not want to see the island?”
Sohwa thought the Branch Lord was trying a trick to take her along. After a brief silence, she spoke.
“I do want to look around. I also have to buy gifts for my family.”
She answered as if she would go of her own feet into the Han family’s territory. Whether he understood she meant to buy time or not, the Branch Lord smiled and said,
“The center is the Han family’s territory, but many buildings there were once owned by the Northern Sea Ice Palace. There are many high-end shops where you can buy gifts. I will speak to the Han family and send a carriage, so take a look around.”
Though she felt the gazes of the Four-Directions Hall Administrator and Namgung Jin, Sohwa did not turn her head and instead smiled—as if pleased by the Branch Lord’s offer.
Without waiting for her answer, the Branch Lord spoke at once.
“I will contact the Han family and have them send people immediately.”
“Branch Lord, I was to entertain the guests...”
Unable to endure it, the Family Head of the Eom family cut in, and the Branch Lord raised his palm.
At a gesture as if to a dog, the Family Head of the Eom family’s face flushed bright red.
She had heard that the Eom family and the Dong family were effectively beneath the Han family; it seemed true.
Not even the Han Family Head, but a mere house servant of the Han family had insulted the Family Head of the Eom family. What was more, the act was utterly natural. With hurried eyes that held her, he urged her again,
“I will send a carriage, so do not reject the favor.”
In a calm voice, Sohwa accepted the offer.
“Yes. I am grateful for your favor.”
