As the Crimson Blood Hall Lord drew closer, Sohwa realized that the heat tickling her skin was the aura flowing from him.
Subtle disappointment and disgust lay in his golden eyes.
A hot hand touched the tip of her chin.
"Do you know what it means to create a frame?"
The heat that descended as if warming each acupoint slid past her nape, brushing over her shoulder.
Thud.
With a light motion, a layer of thick clothing slipped off.
Thud.
Another garment from the layers she wore fell to the floor.
The woman who had been on the verge of either asking him to take her body or striking his solar plexus did not stop what he was doing.
Unlike that day, there was not even rejection in her eyes.
When, as if his temper were roused, he slid his hand inside her clothes and gripped her waist, she only gave a great start.
It was an action more than sufficient to make it obvious she had not steeled herself, yet the Crimson Blood Hall Lord did not take his hand away. On the contrary, that hand seemed stuck to her skin, unable to move.
He stubbornly held on as if intending to wait until Sohwa spoke.
However, even after quite some time, no sound came.
He knew that, once again, he was the one who had to back down first. Her stubbornness was even worse than his.
Yet strangely, he could not withdraw his hand.
Rustle.
As he lightly stroked down her waist, reluctant to retreat, the faint sound of cloth brushing tickled his ears.
All he was doing was hovering in place because he could not pull away, and yet a peculiar heat spread through his whole body.
Min Hae-rak’s hand began to drift upward bit by bit.
At that moment, Sohwa sensed a faint scent of blood.
Although he had promised not to watch, the Blood Demon must have noticed something strange; he woke and spread his aura sense.
He focused as if not wanting to miss even the smallest sound.
Thus, the foul aura the old man exuded grew more and more distinct.
It seemed Min Hae-rak also felt that aura. His gaze moved past Sohwa’s shoulder.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s aura, looking toward the door, grew even hotter. It felt as if he would pull aside the cloth and step out at any moment.
Sohwa grasped the back of Hae-rak’s hand just as he was about to withdraw. The reaction that came back was even greater than when she had first flinched.
As if his heart had dropped to the floor, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord gave a great jolt; his gaze fell on her.
Hae-rak tried to ask why, but no sound came out.
The pale skin glimpsed through the gap in her clothes filled his eyes.
He could not tell whether Tang Sohwa knew that or not.
No—he suspected she did not. Her gaze had lifted and remained fixed on him the whole time.
Through the thin cloth, the outline of their intertwined hands was visible. Slight though it was, her small hand was pulling to keep him from escaping.
At the movement holding him back, telling him he must not go out, he felt a strange sensation. His stomach fluttered.
Disturbed by the feeling, he tried to take his hand away, but in the rebound his hand slipped. Because of that, his fingers brushed a softness entirely different from any sensation he had felt until now.
He felt goosebumps rise over his entire body.
A faint line appeared between Sohwa’s brows. Her eyes widened slightly, as if she were flustered.
At that expression he was seeing for the first time, Hae-rak felt as if something inside him snapped.
Soon a thought he had never clearly recognized before began to fill his mind.
He wanted to know how completely he could fill those eyes, how far those red lips could part.
It was not some grand calculation. It was a primal desire to draw nearer and make contact.
Without realizing it, he raised his hand.
Min Hae-rak stroked her neck, which looked as if it might break if he gripped too hard, then lowered his head beside his own fingers.
Startled by the damp sensation that touched her nape, Sohwa said nothing.
Nor did she push away the Crimson Blood Hall Lord when he pressed his lips to her neck.
His lips climbed upward little by little, as if seeking permission.
The heat that had reached the end pressed down firmly on her jaw.
He could not go straight to the place he wanted and circled around it instead.
However, even as time passed, his desire did not scatter; if anything, with each small bite he took, his hunger deepened.
In the end, he moved to the spot where he had wanted to stay.
The moment warm breath flowed across her red lips, with only the width of a sheet of paper between them, he followed that warmth and pressed his lips to hers.
He had imagined they would be sweet, but the breath he actually swallowed was sweeter than anything.
Parched, he pried open the narrow gap and burrowed a little deeper inside.
Their tangled breaths as one tickled his ears.
The Blood Demon’s unpleasant aura also grew thicker and thicker, but Hae-rak could not tear himself away and sank into rapture.
Just then, Tang Sohwa bit down on his lips. When he moved to kiss her again, she turned her head and brought her mouth to his ear.
"The Blood Demon is watching."
"...I know."
He had thought she was telling him to stop, but after swallowing her scant breath, she whispered softly,
"I don’t know how to spread a qi curtain, so you do it."
He did not answer. However, soon the sound of the sand wind outside the window vanished, and his ears grew muffled.
When Sohwa offered her lips again, he came back inside.
The tentative approach he had made at first turned so impatient and deep that he could no longer remember it.
Heat that felt hot enough to burn their clothes spread between them.
The sounds filling the room were certainly louder than before, and the auras were leaping wildly. Even so, she could not smell blood, nor could she feel the foreign aura the Blood Demon carried.
She could not tell whether he had really kept his promise and withdrawn, or whether Hae-rak’s qi curtain was simply that solid.
"I’m very suspicious..."
"I know."
Cutting off her words, Hae-rak covered her lips again.
"Even though I made him promise not to listen... whether he’ll really keep it."
When she turned her head, a small laugh slipped into her ear.
"How would he know, when we’re using aura to deceive what he senses with aura?"
Pressing his lips to her small ear, he stroked the woman’s head.
"It’s not a matter of whether it’s outstanding or not. Contradictory waves interfere with each other, so unless that old man is a god, he can’t know what happens in here."
At that, Sohwa set her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away completely.
Only then did Min Hae-rak sense that something was off. As his eyes narrowed, Tang Sohwa pressed a warm piece of metal into his hand.
It did not take Hae-rak long to understand the situation.
As he lifted the Han Cheol in his hand with his other hand to inspect it, Sohwa reached out.
Because his body had grown that much more sensitive, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord reacted sharply to that small contact, but whether she knew it or not, Sohwa went a step further and curled her fingers around his so that he would not drop the Han Cheol.
"Today, Min Doyu left for the Northern Sea Ice Palace. They’ll attack Ice Palace Island and Geumeunsan to lure the Blood Demon, so in roughly three days the Blood Demon will return to Geumeunsan."
"..."
"When the Blood Demon goes to Geumeunsan, we’ll go back to the Central Plains."
"So that’s what this was about?"
When the Crimson Blood Hall Lord let out a sigh, Sohwa closed her mouth.
She knew very well what he was feeling.
If she had suddenly told him to spread a qi curtain out of nowhere, the Blood Demon would likely have become suspicious, so there had been no helping it.
She felt sorry for making him into a fool, but she had not been certain Hae-rak could deceive the Blood Demon.
It was not the wrong choice. Even she, who had gone into it determined to deceive him, had nearly forgotten the situation and let herself be swept up in pleasure for a moment. They had probably fooled the Blood Demon completely.
Even so, in a way that was unlike her, Sohwa apologized while telling herself she had done the right thing.
"I’m sorry."
"Don’t apologize. It just makes me feel more pathetic."
Letting out a hollow laugh, Hae-rak raised a hand to her face. His fingers moved as if wiping around her lips, then pulled back quickly.
"And there’s nothing for you to be sorry about. I’m the one at fault for losing my mind after talking big about how I know what kind of person you are."
"I wanted to tell you as quickly as possible."
Before she could finish speaking, her mouth was blocked.
After a brief kiss, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord spoke in a voice as if nothing had happened.
"Don’t say you did it for my sake. If you go there, I’ll forget about the Blood Demon and everything else and go all the way right here, so it’s better if you stop."
Though he said it like a joke, it sounded sincere.
He still did not back away, keeping his waist bent so their eyes were level.
Sohwa knew that deceiving and using a person’s emotions, especially feigning romantic feeling, was not right.
Nor was she so irresponsible that she would exploit another’s feelings under the sway of a passing heat.
That did not mean she was feeling nothing at all in this moment.
It was too calm to be called rapture, yet too weighty to dismiss as a passing breeze. That emotion filled her head.
Whatever this feeling she now had might be, she had no leisure to take stock of her own heart. She believed that such leisure was a privilege reserved for the strong.
By contrast, the man before her had once advised her that, if she wanted the Blood Demon gone, she needed to have leisure. Not to become desperate, but to erase him. Only then could she endure.
When she did not respond, he asked whether, if he bought her some time, she would be willing to entertain other thoughts.
Sohwa knew why Hae-rak, who had been indifferent to the idea of reclaiming the Sun Palace, was here.
The holes covering his upper body filled her black eyes.
The time he had bought for her had, in the end, allowed her to think of something else.
Sohwa moved the hands she had placed on Hae-rak’s shoulders. As she did, the man who had matched her height drew a little closer.
Wrapping her arms around Hae-rak’s shoulders, Sohwa hesitated, then confessed,
"...What I said before wasn’t sincere. About making something new that I’ve never seen and never had and handing it over to protect what I have now."
"That’s a relief."
"As you said, I’ve never once thought of handing my family over to the Blood Demon and surviving alone. I’m sure most people would be the same."
Soon a sound that might have been a scoff or a hollow laugh tickled her eardrums.
Sohwa repeated herself, as if to emphasize that she meant it.
"I think there should no longer be any lives that exist for the Blood Demon’s sake."
"I agree."
"So, after the Blood Demon is gone..."
She was not sure whether she should let these words out, but the sound slipped past her lips like wind leaking through a crack in the window.
"If, even then, things are no different from now... let’s think about what comes next."
