While suspicion was spreading in Hae-rak’s eyes, the Fourth Seat opened his mouth.
“The way it looks, she seems to have received the Northern Sea Ice Palace’s blood. I need to check.”
Hae-rak let out a dry laugh.
“There’s no such thing as yin energy in her. She hasn’t built up inner power; she hasn’t even opened her meridians.”
“We’ll see when I look.”
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord threw off the Fourth Seat’s hand and said,
“What’s there to see to know? Old man, you already know her meridians are completely blocked.”
The Fourth Seat did not want to pick an unnecessary fight with an unconscious person lying next to them, so for now, he backed down. It was not something urgent, so he could check again later. No—when he thought about it, it was proper to get her permission and then examine her. Realizing he had been hasty, the Fourth Seat straightened his body.
“Do you intend to keep staying here?”
“I should stay at least until she wakes up. Who knows if a shameless old man like you will come again.”
“......”
“Why make that wronged face? Is peeking at a sleeping person’s blood something a man who’s lived as long as you should be doing?”
The Fourth Seat could not make excuses. To sneak a look at the meridians of someone who was asleep was a despicable act his pride could not allow.
That was how deeply the Fourth Seat had been shaken by what he had seen in the Northern Sea. The corpses of blood fiends drifting on the black sea. It was a scene that called to mind the Blood Demon’s will.
He felt the need to calm his mind.
Thinking he would step away for a moment, the Fourth Seat spoke.
“I plan to go check the Passage on the mainland. You stay here in the meantime.”
“If you were really planning to block the Passage, you wouldn’t have time to stand here talking, would you?”
“They say the other children have already gone to break the Passage, so I only need to confirm.”
“I didn’t ask about your kids, so don’t drag it out, just go.”
The Fourth Seat silently looked at the Blood Demon’s dog for a moment. Just as he had felt three years ago, the man was endlessly frivolous and rude.
Perhaps annoyed by the silence, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord frowned and asked,
“Is it because you’re old? Can’t hear well anymore? I’m not stopping you—so why are you still here?”
The Fourth Seat spoke in a cold voice.
“...You must wait here until I return.”
If, when he came back, this murderous intent was still there unchanged, the Fourth Seat intended to kill the Crimson Blood Hall Lord.
Unaware of that intention, the Blood Demon’s hunting dog answered with a mocking tone,
“Can’t promise that.”
His gaze dropped to Tang Sohwa.
“When she wakes up, I’m thinking of going to the Great Desert.”
“Why the Great Desert?”
“From the looks of it, they’ll probably try this nonsense again in the Great Desert, so I want to shorten things a little.”
He lowered the Tang Sohwa’s raised sleeve and pointed to the cloth wrapped around her wounds as he spoke.
Even with that unfriendly explanation, the Fourth Seat understood the ellipsis.
“You intend to recapture the desert branch?”
Hae-rak nodded.
“Alone?”
“Recapturing it isn’t such a hard thing that I need to drag people along like ornaments. The problem is how long I can hold it after taking it back.”
Hae-rak’s gaze lifted.
“And it’s not like you stayed your hand because taking the Ice Palace itself was too hard, right?”
Whether it was the Sun Palace or the Ice Palace, recapturing the palace itself was an easy task. What came after recapture was the true beginning of war.
To prepare for that day, the Fourth Seat had been training children born with extreme-yin bodies.
In truth, the Fourth Seat had been waiting for a perfect situation, but he could no longer insist. Those who remained in the gorge could not hold out any longer, and with the Crimson Blood Hall Lord away from his post, now was a chance worth compromising for.
As if reading that thought, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord asked,
“Seeing how you joined hands with the Central Plains bastards, it seems you’re ready to fight to some extent. What’s your current strength like?”
“And you’re asking because you think I’ll tell you?”
Hae-rak gave a small, hollow laugh.
“Well, I suppose you’re confused whether I’m the Blood Demon’s dog or the Great Desert’s heretic, so it’d be hard to tell you my strength.”
He backed off easily, as if to say he understood.
“Then listen and decide for yourself.”
Min Hae-rak laid out the situation for the Fourth Seat.
“Now that war has broken out, the Northern Sea can’t pull its feet out. Once the Northern Sea and the Blood Cult start fighting, the Cult’s strength will be spread thin—good timing for the Great Desert. No, if not now, the desert may never have another chance to get away from the Cult.”
His voice lowered.
“But as you know, the Blood Demon’s current priority isn’t the Great Desert or the Northern Sea—it’s the Central Plains. That old man is more obsessed with this Central Plains person’s body than with either you or me.”
Hae-rak fiddled with Tang Sohwa’s sleeve hem.
“This Central Plains person still doesn’t know what kind of obsession the Blood Demon has. But you and I know. If he finds out she’s gone back to the Central Plains, the Blood Demon might personally cross over to the Central Plains.”
“The Blood Demon will go to the Central Plains?”
The Fourth Seat asked back, as if he found it hard to believe.
He had tried to quietly listen to the desert man’s thoughts, but at that, he could not keep the attitude. It was that absurd.
The Great Desert man slowly nodded.
“He chased her all the way to Cheonghae and then only came to his senses and turned back, so we have to consider the madness that he might cross to the Central Plains as well.”
Hae-rak spoke in a voice laced with a sigh.
“Maybe that too could become a chance for us. Once they know the Blood Demon has appeared, the Central Plains people, overflowing with competitive spirit, won’t sit still. If the Great Desert, the Northern Sea, and the Central Plains all rush at the Blood Demon, even he will suffer some.”
“Don’t call that a chance. Whether Central Plains or Northern Sea—the Blood Demon coming out of Geumeunsan is the worst situation. The best thing is to keep him from leaving there at all.”
“I agree. It’d be best for everyone if that crazy old man quietly died in Geumeunsan. But is that likely? He’s not some old man who’ll spend his years peacefully in Geumeunsan and die neat and quiet, is he?”
The Fourth Seat stayed silent.
He also did not believe the Blood Demon would quietly remain in Geumeunsan. He had only pointed out that the Blood Demon leaving Geumeunsan and moving in person was the worst-case scenario.
To face that worst, he had spent three years training with his blood relatives, staking their lives.
Listening to the Fourth Seat’s silence, Hae-rak continued,
“It’s only speculation, but if we recapture the Ice Palace and the Sun Palace at the same time, even the Blood Demon won’t move so easily. Neither you nor I are opponents the Cult can handle easily. He’ll have to send the forces he treasures most, but if he sends out both Crimson Blood Hall and Blue Blood Hall, Geumeunsan’s defenses will weaken.”
On top of that, the Blood Demon had already sent Crimson Blood Hall to the Northern Sea, and the hall’s strength was effectively half-destroyed. The Blue Blood Hall’s Hall Lord was also failing to do his job; if they crossed to the Northern Sea or the Great Desert, they would be annihilated on arrival.
So the Blood Demon would have to summon the forces he had placed Outside or go over himself—but that choice was not easy either.
Most of the forces the Blood Demon had placed Outside were troops he had raised intending to settle them in the Central Plains. If he sent them to the Northern Sea or the Great Desert, they could only be badly damaged, and to rebuild his forces would delay his plan to cross into the Central Plains.
And having the Blood Demon himself cross over was dangerous as well.
Hae-rak raised a finger and pointed at himself and the Fourth Seat.
“There are two rebels who know Geumeunsan’s location, so it’ll give him a headache. If people learn the Blood Demon has left his seat, they’ll start by stripping Black Horn first. Knowing how cautious that old man is, I don’t think he’ll rush straight to the Central Plains. At the very least, we’ll buy some time for him to hesitate.”
The Sun Palace man spoke in a bitter voice.
“While this girl is returning to the Central Plains, you and I will draw attention for a while. The Great Desert and the Northern Sea don’t need to form an alliance, but grabbing the Blood Cult’s limbs at the same time will give us a better chance of success than each doing things separately, don’t you think?”
Hae-rak wanted to send Sohwa to the Central Plains.
She wanted to separate the Muhyeongak believers in the Central Plains. She intended to draw out the Blood Demon’s dokgo and sever them from the Blood Cult.
Just as she had done with him.
And today, she seemed to have found an answer.
Hae-rak recalled the cultists’ corpses floating on the sea.
Tang Sohwa had said she wanted to wound herself. She had said she needed to see blood touch blood to find the answer.
But uncharacteristically, she had been afraid, not knowing what result it would bring.
Hae-rak now understood the reason.
It did not seem to be a simple problem of superiority and inferiority.
The Blood Demon had said inferior blood would be annihilated by superior blood, but it could not be that the Crimson Blood cultists had all been slaughtered merely because the Blood Demon’s dokgo had disappeared.
Min Hae-rak toyed with the hem of Sohwa’s sleeve and then pulled the blanket sideways to cover her arms, ragged from the blade.
“Whether today becomes a chance to escape the Blood Cult—or the day this tiresome life finally ends, I don’t know, but let’s try. One way or another, something will come of it, won’t it?”
“What an amusing situation.”
At the Fourth Seat’s sudden words, Hae-rak lifted his head again.
The old man spoke in a calm tone.
“A child who has received the Blood Demon’s blood is holding the same will as the Great Desert and the Northern Sea, and trying to ruin the Blood Demon’s plans—doesn’t that make fate amusing?”
“Fate, huh. Please.”
Hae-rak gave a short, bitter laugh.
“It’s karma.”
The Fourth Seat’s gaze dropped.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s hand rested on top of the blanket. With his fingertip, he simply stroked the edge of the cloth.
Watching that, the Fourth Seat asked,
“Have you taken on... feelings of the heart?”
Even without a subject, Min Hae-rak understood the question.
“Who knows.”
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s hand moved upward. He stroked the woman’s red lips as he answered,
“I don’t know either. Whether it’s curiosity, or some other feeling.”
“Good times for you, then.”
At the Fourth Seat’s dry words, Hae-rak let out a laugh.
“Good times? This isn’t the time for that.”
Contrary to his words, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord did not withdraw his hand.
“At least, I know it’s not now.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to do anything that benefits that old man.”
It was an answer others might find hard to understand, but the Fourth Seat understood.
The Blood Demon cherished extreme-yang bodies. The Great Desert man before his eyes was the only heretic who had ever risen to the position of Hall Lord. The Blood Demon would never have left that body alone.
It had been a long time since he had reached adulthood, so the Blood Demon must have tried to continue Min Hae-rak’s bloodline. The Fourth Seat knew all too well what measures the Blood Demon was capable of.
Seeing that he had no intention of doing anything that pleased the old man, the Fourth Seat judged that this desert man must have ruthlessly rejected all of the Blood Demon’s temptations.
He did not know how that was possible, but rumors that the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was not normal had spread all the way to the Northern Sea, so he had no trouble believing it. They said he was a madman even the Blood Demon found intolerable.
It was a choice opposite to the one he himself had made—leaving behind many descendants of the Ice Palace to form a fighting force.
The hunting dog before him did not seem suited to patience; he looked like someone who would choose death before handing his child to the Blood Demon.
It was a choice worthy of respect. Even he, who had made the opposite choice, often found it hard to endure.
As he watched the young man and woman, a fundamental question suddenly arose in the Fourth Seat’s mind.
“But... is the feeling mutual?”
The man who never stopped chattering fell silent.
The Fourth Seat frowned.
“...If the feeling isn’t mutual, is there any need to use the Blood Demon as an excuse?”
Hae-rak lifted a cold gaze.
“Aren’t you going? You said you were going to check the Passage.”
Seeing the Fourth Seat’s expressionless face, Hae-rak sneered.
“Judging by the level of those Ice Palace brats who’ve been running away, I’d say they’d die instantly even to one of the guards the Blood Demon drags around. What makes you so relaxed? How much could someone even grow in three years?”
The Fourth Seat did not respond to Hae-rak’s provocation.
“Stay strong, boy.”
Even though the voice was indifferent, mockery could be felt.
“And three years is plenty of time for many things to change.”
Leaving behind those words whose meaning was unclear, the Fourth Seat vanished.
The pointless remark annoyed him, but he could not say anything to someone who had already left, so Hae-rak quietly closed the window.
