Free Web Novel"It is not."
Sohwa answered without a shred of hesitation.
At the same time, a question rose in her heart.
Was it really all right to say she had nothing to do with the Blood Cult when she had received the Blood Demon’s blood?
But the moment the Heukcheon Amgui let out a long breath, all her doubts were crushed.
"Good."
At that one word, her mouth closed.
"That is a relief......."
With just a single question, the Heukcheon Amgui swept away all suspicion. There had been more than a few dubious points, and she had not even attached a plausible excuse, yet no further questions came.
Tang Min seemed to lose his strength; he ran a hand down his face once and tried to regain his composure.
Sohwa felt that Tang Min had not understood what she said, but rather had decided to believe her.
Watching him like that, Sohwa discarded her guilt.
This seemed right.
After a brief silence, the Heukcheon Amgui spoke again.
"If you stay at headquarters, you will be dragged off to the dungeon."
"Sagye Hall promised to buy us some time, so I should be able to remain in this pavilion for a while."
"It means little. As you said, if the Alliance Leader intends to hand you over to the Blood Cult, then this pavilion is dangerous as well."
Sohwa did not so much as flinch at the Heukcheon Amgui’s warning. Since she was hoping Blood Cult people would come to obtain the antidote, that was only natural.
Tang Min was worried about Sohwa’s confidence. It did not come from the illusion that she was strong, but from bravado born of having been injured and yet not dying.
Just as the Heukcheon Amgui was about to pour out nagging words, Sohwa spoke first.
"Everyone is worried that the Heukcheon Amgui might beat me to death. If this takes too long, the Four-Directions Hall Administrator may barge in, so how about we hold a private talk later? It would be better to show them that the Supreme Elder has forgiven me and then speak."
"Why would I beat you to death? Have you ever seen a tiger kill a mosquito?"
Sohwa knew the Heukcheon Amgui had been about to throw a throwing dagger at her, but she pretended not to know and let it pass.
"I may know the Supreme Elder’s temperament, but aside from Hak, everyone else is an outsider, so they might misunderstand the Supreme Elder and feel uneasy."
Among those who knew the Heukcheon Amgui’s temperament best, Tang Hak was the one who felt the most uneasy, but Sohwa lied without so much as a change in expression.
Tang Min looked at Sohwa with displeased eyes, then pushed open the window.
Creak.
The moment the window opened, the gazes of the Four-Directions Hall Administrator and the Little Clan Heads on the first floor lifted upward. Sohwa saw their eyes fix on her.
The Heukcheon Amgui suddenly bellowed.
"Why are you looking at me like that! I did not so much as lay a finger on her!"
No one turned their eyes away from the Heukcheon Amgui; they only examined Tang Sohwa.
Perhaps angered by that, the Heukcheon Amgui sprang up from the seat.
"What do they take me for!"
At that moment, the Four-Directions Hall Administrator turned their gaze aside.
In the silence, unreadable looks passed back and forth.
The Heukcheon Amgui quietly watched the Four-Directions Hall Administrator, then let out a sigh.
"......Let us go. As you said, we will have to do the private talk later."
It seemed the two of them had exchanged a soundless conversation.
When the Heukcheon Amgui left the room, only then did Sohwa rise from her seat. She retrieved the throwing dagger and the poison bottle from the table and left the reception room.
***
Tang Hak and Hwangbo Rim went out to the front gate, saying they would stand guard, and Namgung Jin, who might be expelled from headquarters if he was caught, stayed inside the pavilion with Sohwa.
When Tang Min and Pang Shihyeon’s private talk went on too long, Sohwa shook Namgung Jin off and went down to the Medical Division.
If the Four-Directions Hall Administrator failed to persuade Tang Min, she might have to return to the Tang Clan, so she intended to prepare antidote to Dokgo in advance to hand over to Sagye Hall.
Creak.
As she was checking the medicine drawers, Sohwa let out a hollow laugh.
'They took all the precious things, I see.'
The medicine ingredients had been supplied by headquarters, and among them were rare materials that were traded at high prices in Sichuan.
In the midst of that chaos, Tang Hae-han had gathered up all the expensive ingredients and taken them back.
In a way, it was fortunate. If she made a lot of antidote and the stock of ingredients did not decrease, that would draw suspicion.
Rather, she might have to endure reproach for using so much medicine.
Sohwa took out several jars that had collected dust and wiped them clean with a dry cloth.
Whoosh.
After burning the dried ingredients, Sohwa divided the ash among the jars. As her hands moved busily, they paused for a moment. She had heard the sound of footsteps.
Crunch.
Sohwa regretted burning the ingredients. Because of the scorched smell, her sense of smell had dulled, and she had failed to notice the presence. freewёbnoνel.com
Click.
Listening closely to the sound, Sohwa closed the lids of the jars one by one. By the time she was closing the last jar, the owner of the presence stepped into the Medical Division.
"What are you doing?"
It was Namgung Jin’s voice.
However, the pine-resin scent the Little Clan Head always carried was nowhere to be felt.
"I was making medicine."
At some point, his voice had come up close.
"What sort of medicine are you making?"
When she lifted her head, Namgung Jin’s eyes, which had been looking down at the jars, followed her up.
It was different from the Little Clan Head’s usual way of briefly skimming over things or people with a clean, light glance.
The way his gaze slowly swept over her face and scooped it up was unfamiliar.
"I am curious what kind of medicine it is for. Why will you not tell me?"
When she had returned to the Tang Clan, Han-won and Tang Hae-han had made a huge fuss telling her about the Blood Cult person who had mimicked her.
Not only the face, but the build and the voice had been identical, and that had terrified them, they said.
She thought she understood now why they had made such a scene.
Seeing someone you knew acting like someone else made you feel as if you had run into a ghost.
Sohwa recalled the Blue Blood Hall Lord who had lured her inside headquarters. The Blue Blood Hall Lord, who had imitated the old monk, had become someone entirely different the moment he took off his human-skin mask.
She did not know who was inside that body now, but Sohwa decided to be deceived for the time being.
It was not certain, but it seemed they had snuck in after hearing the rumor that she had returned.
If that was the reason, there was no problem.
In the first place, she had hurried back to headquarters to let the Blood Demon know she had returned to the Central Plains, so if the Blue Blood Hall, which enjoyed the Blood Demon’s favor, confirmed it personally and reported it, that was all to the good.
Only, it was unsettling that they had come wearing Namgung Jin’s face.
Looking straight down at her, Namgung Jin smiled.
"May I take this nasty medicine?"
"How do you even know what kind of medicine it is for?"
"I just want it. Because it was made by Young Lady Tang."
Sohwa heard something Namgung Jin would not have said, but she nodded.
Since there were strange rumors outside that the Namgung brothers were fighting over her, it was plausible enough that a Blood Cult person would pretend to be a lover.
'It seems information inside the Blood Cult is not perfectly shared.'
Seeing how the Blue Blood Hall was not filtering their information properly.
Quietly gauging the Central Plains branches of the Blood Cult, Sohwa answered.
"It is not finished yet, but if you want it, you may take it."
At Sohwa’s words, Namgung Jin lifted one corner of his mouth, then tucked the jar into his breast.
Sohwa’s gaze dropped to his chest.
Namgung Jin was wearing the same clothes he had had on earlier in the reception room. Only, there were no bloodstains or signs of fraying.
Fixing her eyes on him, Sohwa quietly reached out and pushed open the window.
Click.
The moment the window opened, clean air pushed in.
As the haze of smoke lifted, she could faintly smell iron.
"Young Lady Tang, you should go to your room and at least close your eyes for a while. You will have many tiring things ahead of you, will you not?"
Instead of answering, Sohwa curved her lips.
Leaving behind that strange remark, Namgung Jin left the Medical Division.
The instant the strange one’s presence vanished, Sohwa hurried out of the Medical Division and went up to the floor where Namgung Jin had been.
But Namgung Jin was not in the reception room. She even went to the room assigned to him, but she could not find him.
After searching through the pavilion, Sohwa came down to the first floor. Thinking that perhaps Namgung Jin had gone outside, she intended to check with Tang Hak.
When she opened the door, Tang Hak and Hwangbo Rim, who had been bickering in front, turned their gazes to her at the same time.
"Older Sister, why have you come out?"
"By any chance, have you seen Little Clan Head Namgung Jin?"
"I thought he was with you, Older Sister. Did he not go to his room?"
"He was not in his room either."
"Why are you looking for the Heavenly Palace Sword in the dead of night? You even went to check a man’s room where he is sleeping alone."
"Hyungnim!"
Hwangbo Rim joked, but Sohwa ignored him.
"We should find him quickly. I have a bad feeling."
Hwangbo Rim’s lips twitched, as if he were about to make another bizarre joke. Fortunately, before Hwangbo Rim could test Tang Sohwa’s patience, someone called out to him.
"Little Clan Head!"
A young martial artist came running toward the pavilion. Judging from his clothes, he was a Hwangbo family retainer.
Sohwa asked Tang Hak,
"Who is that?"
Hwangbo Rim answered in his stead.
"Ah, he is one of our retainers. He is practically my childhood friend, so you need not doubt him."
But despite Hwangbo Rim’s guarantee, Sohwa asked in a voice full of suspicion,
"How does a Hwangbo family retainer leave the Little Clan Head alone and go anywhere?"
"I sent him on an errand. No, strictly speaking, it is an errand from the Heukcheon Amgui."
Hwangbo Rim replied in a peaceful voice.
"The Heukcheon Amgui ordered him to send a letter to the Tang Clan, then went off to stir up trouble at headquarters, so on my way to stop the Heukcheon Amgui, I had that boy deliver the letter instead."
The retainer, having reached the door, nodded vigorously.
"Yes, that is right. I ran back as soon as I sent the letter."
Sohwa’s gaze slid over to Hwangbo Rim.
"What sort of letter did you send?"
"This fellow tipped us off that Young Lady Tang seemed to have returned to headquarters, and when the Heukcheon Amgui heard that, they told us to inform the Tang Clan of it at once. Think about it carefully. If this fellow were a spy, why would he leak to us that Young Lady Tang had returned? He would have kept it quiet."
Straightening his shoulders proudly, Hwangbo Rim continued.
Sohwa asked in a flat voice,
"Why did you go out of your way to borrow a messenger bird outside when you could have sent a letter from headquarters?"
Hwangbo Rim snorted.
"Young Lady Tang, you were not here, so you would not know, but the Heukcheon Amgui has not drunk so much as a single sip of water given by headquarters. And you think they would use headquarters’ messenger birds? Ha, you should at least say something that makes sense."
With a crooked smile, Hwangbo Rim jerked his chin.
"If you really doubt it, go out and ask yourself. He probably went to the inn on the Yangtze. It is an inn where outsiders often stay, so the owner will lend out messenger birds and messenger hawks. I went there because they said the fish dishes were famous, and I saw it......."
"Where is that inn?"
When Sohwa cut him off, Hwangbo Rim turned his head and asked the retainer,
"It was that place, right? The inn between the pleasure house and the ferry dock." freewēbnoveℓ.com
"Yes, that is right!"
When the retainer chimed in, Sohwa’s expression changed.
"By any chance, is it the inn with the black cloth hanging on the first floor?"
"Oh, so Young Lady Tang knows it too!"
Delighted, Hwangbo Rim started chattering about how good the fish dishes were there, but Tang Sohwa’s face had darkened.
It was the place Min Hae-rak had taken her on her first day at headquarters.
An old Blood Cult building.
They had said it belonged to the Blood Cult even before the Crimson Blood Hall had settled there.
Sohwa’s gaze, which had dropped to the floor, lifted upward.
In the distance, a red light was scattering as it drew closer. Sensing that presence, Tang Hak and Hwangbo Rim also frowned.
