Fortunately, Hae-rak had not gone very far. He was standing on a roof spread wide like a flat plain.
Here too, sand had piled up in places to form uneven patches, but it had not built up into a hill. With nothing to obstruct the wind, the sand seemed unable to accumulate and simply flowed away.
Hae-rak stood in the very center of that flat space.
When she drew closer to him, a large structure came into view. On a pillar that rose to about her waist, a huge plate large enough for three or four people to lie on was set. The hollowed space beneath made it look something like a basin.
He brushed off the sand piled on the silver plate, even wiping away the fine dust with his palm. Each time the smooth surface, polished like a mirror, tilted under his hand, it reflected a sharp light.
Tweet.
Just then, a bird appeared from who knew where.
Soon another flew up to join it. Before long, numerous birds were flocking, their bodies casting a shadow over their heads.
Sohwa, her gaze drawn up to the sky, asked,
“Do they keep birds in the palace?”
Hae-rak also looked up. He seemed to recognize what kind of birds they were.
“No. Those things are the kind that swarm whenever they smell something that crawls.”
“Then why do they go out of their way to fly this hot path?”
“To eat it.”
“......”
“I’m joking. Their nerves are too weak to eat anything living. They only pick at dead corpses. There are so many people dying in this area that they must flock and live somewhere nearby. Once a scout shows up, the rest rush over at once.”
Sohwa could not continue speaking.
If it was people dying near the Sun Palace, it did not seem likely they were simply travelers who had lost their way and died of exposure.
They had said the Blood Demon raised frames around the Sun Palace. The place he called a farm must also be somewhere nearby.
Just as Hae-rak had said, soon the countless points nailed into the sky formed a vast shadow.
She lowered her gaze to the front again. The sleek silver plate shone white. Yet whenever a bird passed over it, a black dot was drawn on it like ink splattered on paper.
Sohwa grew curious about the identity of the object she could not place.
“What is this?”
“I heard it’s something like a cremation place the Palace Lord uses.”
If it was a cremation place, it was a cremation place; she did not see what “something like” was supposed to mean.
When she kept quiet, Hae-rak reluctantly added an explanation.
“It gathers sunlight to create fire. On good days it can cremate a corpse, but on days that aren’t, it’s an awkward thing that can’t properly hold a funeral.”
Pointing to the hollowed-out center, Hae-rak spoke.
“So if the weather didn’t cooperate, the Palace Lord would personally raise heat to cremate the body, they say.”
Sohwa quickly understood the situation. Hae-rak looked as if he meant to conduct a funeral.
“If the Palace Lord himself laid a hand on it, then not just anyone could be given a funeral here.”
“I heard only the direct line of the previous and present Palace Lords could.”
Seemingly bothered by the bird shadows that kept falling on the silver plate, he threw the Blood Demon’s fingers one by one. The birds chased the fingers and scattered in all directions.
Only then did Hae-rak place the Blood Demon’s index finger on the silver plate.
Whoosh.
With a strange sound, smoke billowed up.
The heat pooled on the silver plate burned the small piece of flesh to ash in an instant. It was an uncanny object. Rather than merely fascinating, it was terrifying that it could hold such heat.
The blackened finger soon lost its shape.
There was no further ceremony that followed.
The descendant of the Sun Palace merely watched in silence as the finger turned to ash.
He had heard bits and pieces about the Sun Palace’s culture, but he did not seem to know the details. Then again, there was no way the Blood Demon would have properly taught him such things.
To the Blood Demon, the value of the Sun Palace’s descendants lay in the qi their bodies contained, not in their corpses. He would have thrown the empty shells away as useless; there was no way he would have concerned himself with what happened after their deaths.
Only after quite some time did Hae-rak open his mouth.
“She was my older sister.”
The words came without preamble, yet Sohwa understood what he meant.
“If she’d been alive, she probably would’ve helped you. Unlike me, she was greedy—she thought she’d be the master of the Sun Palace herself.”
Sohwa did not know what she ought to say and held her tongue.
Being able to ease the mood with words was a kind of skill. And she did not have that kind of skill with words. For her, keeping silent so as not to make a mistake was the best she could do.
Hae-rak seemed to swallow his words alone a few times. In the desert where not a single blade of grass grew, a peony scent spread. Just as the scent grew thicker and thicker, it was suddenly swept away by the dry wind.
“It feels like I did something pointless. What would the dead know? Even if they did, they’d probably just laugh at me in the afterlife for doing something strange.”
Though it sounded like he was muttering to himself, the words landed heavily.
Watching the ash turn white, Sohwa sank into thought for a moment.
It was because a notion she had never once considered before had surfaced.
Sohwa suddenly grew curious as to what had happened to her own body after she died.
Even the Alliance Leader had not spoken in detail about what came after her death.
Back then, she had exterminated the Namgung Clan Head and core family, then taken her own life. There was no way that corpse had been treated gently.
At the time, she had no family left who could fight in her stead, and the clan had long since been expelled from the Martial Alliance.
Up until now she had cared so little that she only now realized that fact, yet belatedly she began to tack clumsy imaginings onto that sudden notion.
If Tang Hak, who had gone missing on the Yangtze River, had not died and had rebuilt the Tang Clan on his own, what would have happened—such a foolish, empty thought.
'If Haki had found even a single piece of my remains, which would have been discarded somewhere in Namgung, and buried it in the Tang Clan...'
As she followed the line of thought, Sohwa let out a small laugh.
At the soft sound, like a passing breeze, Hae-rak’s gaze shifted to her.
“Why are you suddenly laughing?”
“If I were your older sister, I would’ve been grateful to you.”
“......”
“Grateful that you became the palace’s master again, and that you didn’t leave me in that horrible place but came back to take me away.”
She meant it.
She had only imagined it briefly, yet warmth spread beneath her chest.
There was no way to know whether such a future could have existed.
But if Tang Hak really had survived and in the end killed the Blood Demon and rebuilt the Tang Clan, then even if she failed to fulfill the purpose of this life, she felt she would be able to close her eyes in peace.
Watching her in silence, Hae-rak’s mouth curved.
“Sohwa.”
At that call, Sohwa turned her gaze.
With a faint smile on his lips, Hae-rak asked,
“Didn’t you say we should think about what comes next after the Blood Demon dies?”
Sohwa {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} did not particularly nod. He was not the sort to forget what had been said a moment ago, so it would not have been a question.
“Thinking about it, I’ve never once really dwelled on what comes after the Blood Demon dies. So I must have gone on about leisure and whatever else, telling you to think about other things. Once the Blood Demon disappears, there’s nothing for me to think about, nothing I have to do.”
Hae-rak laid his hand on the hot silver plate. As a bit more heat accumulated, the remains crumbled finely and were swept away by the wind.
The handful of ashen powder scattered into the air.
Just then, the birds that had left returned and circled overhead.
As if lured by the scent, the birds drifted here and there, following the wind.
But once one quick-witted bird realized there was no more death to eat, it flew off into the distance. Then the rest left as well, seeking shade away from the sun’s heat.
“Having something to dwell on afterward isn’t so bad.”
He seemed to be thinking about what would follow the end of something he had long believed to be the conclusion.
It was a face she had never seen before. It looked light, and clear.
Sunlight fell across the face she had always thought of as dazzling, making it seem all the more pure.
It was as if the something he had worn like armor, made of malice, had been cleanly washed away.
“So then, what are you going to do now?”
At Hae-rak’s question, Sohwa looked out over the wide stretch of sand.
Now she had to wait for help from others. For at least three days.
“We have to hope luck is on our side.”
“Mm, that’s the area I’m least confident in.”
Hae-rak let out a sigh.
When she turned to move first, he moved along with her.
Returning to the Sun Palace, they covered all the windows and waited for the opportunity that would come.
***
Not a single cloud hung in the night sky. Thanks to the moonlight that was brighter than on any other night, the main compound could be seen clearly even without lighting any lanterns.
The Alliance Leader’s residence, in particular, where no one came and went, showed the greatest difference.
The Alliance Leader’s residence, lush with greenery, was filled with tree shadows. It felt strangely odd that in the darkness, shadows could still form. The Alliance Leader, sitting in the pavilion, voiced that sudden thought for no real reason.
“Isn’t it fascinating that shadows fall even at night?”
The one who had entered without a sound stopped walking.
“It’s because there’s never a moment when light doesn’t touch the world.”
His voice felt so peaceful that it came across as eerie.
The Sagye Hall Administrator climbed the pavilion steps, even though the Alliance Leader had not given permission. The Alliance Leader did not stop Zhuge Inhwi’s action either.
Stopping at the landing of the stairs, the Sagye Hall Administrator asked,
“Why did you try to use Oseoksan on me?”
At Zhuge Inhwi’s blunt words, the Alliance Leader let out a hollow laugh.
Only then did the calm eyes move, looking down at his guest.
“Isn’t that what I should be asking you?”
The Alliance Leader asked in all seriousness.
“Why did you use Oseoksan on me?”
“I hoped you would do nothing.”
“What did you think I was going to do?”
The Alliance Leader shifted the question again.
“What reason did you have to stop me?”
Several thoughts crossed Zhuge Inhwi’s mind, but he gave one answer.
“I didn’t want you to stand on the Blood Demon’s side.”
“You say I was going to stand on the Blood Demon’s side?”
The Alliance Leader laughed as if the idea were absurd.
His laughter grew louder and louder.
“Ha, did you really think I wanted to help the Blood Demon?”
“I’m not interested in what your intentions were.”
Zhuge Inhwi’s voice was cold.
“In the end, if it benefits him, it’s no different from aiding him.”
