The light that came in through the window lit the interior. However, it was far from enough to illuminate the entire floor, and there were still places sunk in dimness.
Sohwa propped Hae-rak against the basin and pulled aside all the cloth.
Swoosh.
As Sohwa returned to Hae-rak, she noticed the bloodstains engraved on the floor.
The droplets of blood scattered around the basin ended where they met the pile of clothes beside it. They were the servant’s clothes the Blood Demon had been wearing.
"..."
Sohwa soon inferred the situation.
It seemed the Blood Demon, too, had been considerably injured. With no mind to look after his own body, he had hastily washed off the blood, thrown on whatever clothes came to hand, and fled to sleep.
Sohwa gazed out at the sandy ridges beyond the window.
The desert had wiped away everything that had happened in the night; it was nothing but peaceful.
Listening to the sound of the tranquil wind, Sohwa gathered water and the servant’s clothes.
Rustle.
Sohwa stripped off the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s upper garment and used a cloth soaked in water to wipe away the caked bloodstains. Then, as if filling the holes, she spread salve thickly over them and brought new cloth to press on top.
Just then, her wrist was seized. The gripping strength was so fierce it was astonishing he still had that much power left.
Wearing a displeased expression, Sohwa looked at the face of the one holding her.
The shadow cast by his long eyelashes slowly shortened. Min Hae-rak, who had opened his eyes, asked,
"Weren’t you at least supposed to be the clever one?"
It was not the sort of remark that could be called praise; it came out in a cracked voice.
"Do you not know you shouldn’t have come here?"
"Is there a reason I shouldn’t?"
"Are you saying that because you don’t know what the Blood Demon wants from you?"
She answered in an unruffled voice.
"Considering the things the Blood Demon has demanded of me so far, this is not a bad option."
Min Hae-rak’s eyes narrowed. His face said he had no idea what he had just heard.
Sohwa rose when his grip on her wrist briefly relaxed. As she was about to go down to the first floor, Hae-rak spoke in haste.
"Don’t go wandering around carelessly. This place..."
"There is a way for me to lay down a heavy poison on you and then go out, but your condition doesn’t look good, so stay still."
"..."
"And I’ve already finished talking with the Blood Demon. I’m going to find clothes you can wear, so it won’t take long. It would be even better if you put your internal injuries in order while I’m gone."
Just as she was about to step outside, Sohwa stopped.
It was because warmth suddenly flowed from behind her, as if Hae-rak had gathered what little strength he had.
When she turned her body, Sohwa’s face grew cold.
The basket beside him was open, and Min Hae-rak was holding something pipe-like in his mouth.
"Your wounds haven’t even closed yet, and your internal injuries don’t look light, so don’t smoke. If you strain your lungs, breathing will become difficult, and then it will be hard for me to work your qi."
Hae-rak not only failed to set down the pipe in his hand, he spoke in a mocking tone.
"You’re the first one ever to lecture me about qi work."
Smoke began to rise from the dried leaves packed into the pipe.
Without a word, Sohwa stepped forward and picked up the wet cloth from the floor.
Swoosh.
When the damp cloth smothered both Min Hae-rak’s face and the pipe at once, the smoke vanished.
Shoving the cloth aside, Hae-rak scowled.
"What kind of person has their hands move before their mouth?"
"I clearly spoke first. You just didn’t listen."
Without getting angry, Sohwa answered in a calm voice.
"I’ll go find clothes for you to change into, so wash yourself in the meantime."
"I don’t want to have to move my hands first either, so do me the favor of listening."
Setting down the wet pipe, Hae-rak spoke in an icy tone.
"Don’t go out."
"The Blood Demon has dozed off, so there’s nothing to worry about."
The corner of Hae-rak’s mouth twisted in an odd way.
"That old man is still sleeping?"
It was not a situation where there was anything funny, so Sohwa unconsciously narrowed her eyes. In response, Hae-rak explained.
"Weren’t you the one who said it? Before I blacked out, I asked him to hide himself for one double-hour. From the look of it, that old man also seems to fall asleep when it’s time for him to die. So I did my very best to create the one double-hour he would need to recover."
Sohwa was a little surprised that Hae-rak had inferred the Blood Demon’s weak point through her own.
No—the spirit he had shown in trying to force the Blood Demon to sleep was even more astonishing.
"If he’s still sleeping, then he must have taken quite a critical wound. If I grow my ability a bit more, the day will come when I cut off his head."
Pride seeped into his once-cold face. It was not an incomprehensible reaction. After all, it meant he had driven someone who had ruled as an absolute for so long to the brink of death.
So Sohwa hesitated for a moment over whether she should say anything. Hae-rak, however, was the first to notice she was holding back words.
"...What is that look? If you have something to say, say it."
In the end, Sohwa told him honestly.
"The Blood Demon is human. It makes no sense for a human to live for hundreds of years. No matter how strong he is, there are things that are simply impossible. The Blood Demon is someone who faces death every single day, so he probably has to sleep whenever he can. So... his waking hours themselves are likely different from those of an ordinary human."
"So you’re saying that old man is just sleeping because it’s time for him to sleep?"
Hae-rak spoke in a voice full of displeasure, but Sohwa was unconcerned and continued with her thoughts.
"I haven’t lived as long as the Blood Demon, and I’m not as strong as he is, so I can’t be certain, but—except right after a battle, the likelihood is high. So don’t judge his condition by his sleeping time."
Because the Crimson Blood Hall Lord moved in such a reckless way, she worried he might get the situation wrong and charge at the Blood Demon.
Sohwa had never shared her secret with anyone, but with the Crimson Blood Hall Lord in front of her, she found herself speaking of many things on her own.
"..."
She recalled something she had once heard from him. An urging, telling her to try trusting the people around her, seemed to echo by her ear.
In that moment, though she did not know the exact reason, Sohwa felt she could dimly understand why she had overreached herself to cross the Great Desert.
"Again with that strange face of yours."
"...You tell me I’m making a strange face every time you look at me."
"It’s not like I want to repeat myself, but you keep making that expression from time to time. Why is it that every time I see you, the frequency keeps going up?"
Looking at her with questioning eyes, he shook his head. Hae-rak rose and walked toward the pool of water.
"Forget it. I’ll finish in half an hour, so don’t go out."
Watching him enter the water fully clothed, Sohwa spoke.
"I’ll give you an hour, so wash yourself properly."
He did not answer and simply immersed his body in the water. After he swept back his long hair, clotted with blood, he seemed to decide he was reasonably clean and got out again.
Sohwa watched him and then opened her mouth.
"I have no intention of mixing my body with someone who still smells like blood."
Thud.
Hae-rak, who had been about to step out, took a spectacular fall. She was not particularly worried.
This was someone who had tried to smoke a pipe as if nothing were wrong despite having holes all over his body; that much would not be a problem.
Besides, Hae-rak’s body had already healed considerably since coming out of the water. He was not completely cured, but there was no place still bleeding, and the bloodstains in the water had been washed away, so he looked more or less clean.
Judging from the way he checked his acupoints in the water, residual heat remained in his body. In the sunlight touching his skin, faint wisps of steam rose.
As she took in that sight, Sohwa unconsciously brought her hands together. Her fingertips brushed against the Han Cheol hidden in her sleeve.
Lowering her gaze, Sohwa stayed silent, thinking of something. When she turned back toward the door, Hae-rak approached.
"Hey, I told you not to go out."
Swoosh.
Sohwa drew the cloth closed and covered the entrance. It seemed she had not been about to step outside after all.
Unable to understand, Hae-rak looked back and forth between the cloth and her and asked,
"Why are you closing that?"
She replied in a matter-of-fact voice.
"I have no intention of making frames where the Blood Demon can see."
"Oh, so now you’ve started to enjoy teasing me?"
"Why do you think I’m teasing you?"
Sohwa turned from showing her back to facing Hae-rak. The unshaken face of the Crimson Blood Hall Lord met her gaze. Shaking his head, he said,
"I know very well you’re not someone who will make frames for the Blood Demon."
"Is there any reason not to?"
"I’m going to go insane. Why are you acting like this?"
Now Hae-rak grew irritated.
"If he doesn’t touch the Tang Clan, I no longer have a reason to stop the Blood Demon from coming to the Central Plains. And if, instead of taking me to Geumeunsan, he lets me stay at the Sun Palace, isn’t that a better end than being locked up at Geumeunsan?"
"I know you’re not the kind of person who would hand your own child over as feed for the Blood Demon."
"There’s no reason not to hand them over, is there?"
Because her voice was so calm, it sounded all the more grotesque.
"In exchange for making and handing over something I’ve never seen and never had, I can protect everything precious that I do have."
So it sounded like the truth.
Expression vanished from Min Hae-rak’s face.
It was not something one ought to say to someone who had been born as a frame and lived that way all his life.
Sohwa could not tell whether the heat tingling against her skin came from the sunlight entering through the window or from the aura flowing off the martial artist standing in front of her.
Hae-rak took one more step closer.
"Are you hoping I’ll play along with your prank?"
