Free Web NovelWhen Namgung Hyun informed the Clan Head that Tang Sohwa had disappeared, he could not relate the details. He knew she had gone to the Great Desert in search of the Blood Demon, but he could not tell the truth.
Even if the Clan Head or the Tang manor’s retainers went over, they would be no match for the Blood Demon, and if Tang Sohwa had needed them, she would have taken them herself.
Because Tang Sohwa had crossed over alone, Namgung Hyun could not send anyone.
If one knew the future, then that choice on her side had to be the right one.
Also, he was confused about how he should even face Tang Sohwa.
Namgung Hyun merely said that he thought she would return to the Tang manor within three days. He had expected the Clan Head to grow angry, but the Clan Head instead asked if they could trust Sohwa and simply wait, and Namgung Hyun replied that they could.
The Clan Head’s face grew darker by the day, but he patiently waited out the three days.
Perhaps they had now grown used to her vanishing without a word, because the other retainers also believed the story that she had gone out to attend to the Clan Head’s business.
Fortunately, Tang Sohwa returned before the three days were up as if nothing had happened.
He had spent a long time thinking about what he should ask her first when she came back, but when the time actually came, he still did not know what to ask.
Two days had passed since Tang Sohwa’s return, and Namgung Hyun still had not gone to see her.
He merely kept himself busy doing the tasks the Clan Head had asked of him. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
If one could call it a relief, Tang Sohwa also shut herself up in the Oral Transmission Pavilion as soon as she returned and did not come out beyond the inner compound.
Namgung Hyun knew he could not avoid things like this for the rest of his life.
He spent his days constantly worrying about when he should go to her and what he should say.
'What should I ask first...?'
He was standing at the gate to guide the visitors coming into the Tang manor.
Because many of the Tang retainers had been badly injured, outsiders were helping with their work. Even so, guiding visitors was not a job for outsiders.
The Clan Head regarded him as a benefactor and had entrusted him with tasks of the Tang manor.
Since Tang Ji-ha knew how Namgung Hyun had been treated in the Namgung clan, he was also keenly aware that Namgung Hyun’s position changed each time the Clan Head showed him interest.
Namgung Hyun, for his part, had no desire to refuse that goodwill and accepted the request.
It made him feel at ease that, by guiding outsiders outside the main gate, he would have no occasion to run into Tang Sohwa.
Even so, he could not keep avoiding her forever.
Namgung Hyun let out a sigh, frustrated.
He had picked out a few things he needed to ask Tang Sohwa. Among them, what he was most curious about was... the reason she had ended up killing him.
The more afraid he was of hearing that answer, the more he ended up avoiding Tang Sohwa.
Just then, a cry from a Tang manor retainer at his side snapped Namgung Hyun back to himself.
“Stop, halt there!”
A single carriage came rushing forward as if it meant to smash through the gate. The distance between it and the carriage behind it had opened up wide.
Recently, the number of people entering the Tang manor had steadily increased. Perhaps judging that the situation had stabilized, support had begun pouring in from all over.
Some of them were groups who already had dealings with the Tang clan, but others were people whose ties had once brushed against the Tang and then broken off, now seizing the timing as an opportunity to rush over.
Namgung Hyun stared at the carriage that had stopped in front of him.
More than the freight bed piled high with goods, his eyes first caught the merchant lord getting off the horse and the young boy beside him.
They were the father and son of Myeongcheon Trading Company, who should have formed a tie with the Tang manor long ago but had, for unknown reasons, grown distant.
The Blood Demon had originally meant to attach Myeongcheon Trading Company to oversee the Sichuan branch in order to control the flow of funds handled by the Tang clan, but because the greedy Crimson Blood Hall Lord had tried to concentrate the funds in Anguk Trading Company, Myeongcheon Trading Company had been stripped of the connections and assets it had accumulated thus far.
With its influence diminished, Myeongcheon Trading Company no longer had any advantage that might attract the Tang clan, and naturally, they had grown distant.
The young merchant heir, lavishly adorned, took stiff steps forward. The boy, who had not even reached the age of ten yet, looked around with a frightened face.
Sensing the merchant lord’s quick adjustment to circumstances, Namgung Hyun swallowed a wry smile.
In the midst of things, he could clearly feel the intent to seize the opportunity to push his son forward as a prospective son-in-law.
Was it loyalty toward the Blood Demon?
Or a ploy to read the situation in the Central Plains and stay alive?
When the frail-looking young merchant heir hiccuped, the merchant lord patted his back.
Perhaps his trust in his father was deep, because the boy buried his face in that large hand and hid himself entirely behind the merchant lord.
Namgung Hyun felt a flash of envy.
His own father had also wanted Namgung Hyun to enter the Tang manor, but his heart had not been like the merchant lord’s.
The merchant lord, though he had already secured a position for himself, was not satisfied. He was striving not to let other Blood Cult members take his seat and to leave the trading company to his son.
What the Blood Demon had wanted was merely to grasp and hinder the Tang clan’s flow of funds, but the merchant lord had meant to seize that connection as a chance to separate his son from the Blood Cult and entrust him to the Tang clan.
Of course, it did not particularly seem likely that he would succeed.
Even so, to someone who had to do everything alone, having someone beside you who helped like that was an enviable thing.
Having a family who cherished one another seemed like an extraordinary blessing from Heaven.
It was then.
Clatter.
The door of the second carriage opened and someone stepped down.
Namgung Hyun’s gaze rose toward that person.
Dressed in a bright, light-purple robe, the dazzling figure stepped forward ahead of the merchant lord as if they were the owner of Myeongcheon Trading Company and said,
“I heard the Tang clan was in difficulty. I do not know if it will be of help, but we have brought goods you might need.”
It was the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, imitating the young merchant heir of Anguk Trading Company.
He briefly glanced over Namgung Hyun, then lifted his head to look up at the high outer wall of the Tang manor.
Ever since Tang Sohwa had returned within three days, he had already expected it, but it seemed things in the Great Desert had been well resolved.
'How did Young Lady Tang bring the Crimson Blood Hall Lord back from the Blood Demon’s hand?'
Now that fact rankled him.
Instead of revealing his true thoughts, Namgung Hyun answered with a gentle smile.
“I had thought the preparations had been made by Myeongcheon Trading Company; I did not expect Anguk Trading Company to come in person.”
In Sichuan, most people did not know the face of Anguk Trading Company’s young merchant heir.
Even though the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had not introduced himself, Namgung Hyun deliberately spoke his true identity aloud for all to hear.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord, who had been measuring the qi beyond the outer wall, lowered his gaze.
The green-brown eyes that stared at Namgung Hyun were hidden by their curved eye line.
“Myeongcheon and Anguk are like brothers, so my conveying my heart is no different than theirs doing so.”
“Hic.”
The young merchant heir of Myeongcheon Trading Company let out a loud hiccup, seemingly frightened.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s gaze slid aside for a moment. He was smiling, but that look was cold.
It seemed their coming along had not been Myeongcheon Trading Company’s will.
The merchant lord subtly pointed to the young merchant heir and spoke to Namgung Hyun in his stead.
“In any case, there are many waiting behind us, so it would be best if we moved our carriages inside first. Where should we go?”
Namgung Hyun was not pleased by the situation of running into a Blood Cult member at a time when the Central Plains’ resentment toward the Blood Cult was intense.
Yet thinking that no one would be able to recognize them, he still had a nagging sense of unease, and in the end he did as the merchant lord suggested.
“Follow that man. Once he has guided you to where the carriages should be moved, we will arrange a place for you to meet with members of the Tang clan, so please wait inside.”
A retainer came up to guide them, but the Crimson Blood Hall Lord walked slowly and fell a little behind the procession. He looked over the Tang manor’s moat and outer wall with an unreadable gaze.
“Is there something you do not like?”
“No. What could there be that I do not like?”
Feigning Anguk Trading Company’s young merchant heir, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord spoke politely. But he could not hide his characteristically base smile.
“And you really are working hard. If someone saw you, they’d think you were not Namgung Hyun but a Tang man.”
His tone was gentle, but the look that brushed past him was sharp.
Even so, perhaps he had no intention of talking at length, because the young merchant heir turned his steps toward the open gate and added an enigmatic remark.
“I was just briefly distracted, wondering what kind of heart someone would live with, being born and raised in a place like this.”
By the time Namgung Hyun’s silence had stretched on, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was gone.
He could not answer the visitor who was already walking away, and instead he stared for a long time at the man’s receding back with uneasy eyes.
***
“Ugh, there’s a limit to how much work there can be, isn’t there?”
Tang Hae-han groaned as he set down a box.
“I mentioned it to the Clan Head, but the Medical Division Lord, who was beside him, stopped him, saying that even if we were to bring in more people, now is not the time.”
The Oral Transmission Pavilion Lord went on, looking as though he had aged ten years in the meantime.
“He said it’s been only a few days since the wall was breached because of a spy, so how could we open the Oral Transmission Pavilion’s doors now—and I had no answer to that.”
Speaking with swollen lips, the Pavilion Lord moistened his throat with some water hovering at his side. He too seemed to be at his physical limit.
Sneaking a glance at Tang Hae-han, the Pavilion Lord said,
“Hae-han, you try persuading the Medical Division Lord. He’s your father, after all, isn’t he? If his own child says he’s having a hard time, the Division Head will waver.”
Lifting the box he had just put down, Tang Hae-han answered,
“I’m sorry. I’ll just work harder.”
“...Are you afraid of the Medical Division Lord too?”
“It’s not so much fear as that I don’t have the strength to waste on impossible things.”
“Right. There’s no one as stubborn as he is. Go on, then.”
The Oral Transmission Pavilion Lord nodded as if he understood. He had, in a roundabout way, spoken ill of Tang Hae-han’s father, but Tang Hae-han did not get angry; he left with deep sympathy.
The Medical Division, in which the Medical Division Lord held full authority, had always been plagued by problems of budget and manpower.
Right now they were barely getting by with free help pouring in from all sides, but if they had had to hire people with money, the Division Head would have rejected it outright.
Because Tang Hae-han knew that well, he simply climbed the stairs, thinking only of finishing the work quickly.
As he was moving the medicines that had been made, Tang Hae-han faltered on the fourth floor.
He went back down the stairs and looked along the fourth-floor corridor.
The corridor was full of boxes.
The lower the floor, the more common and mild the poisons stored there, but the poisons on the fourth and fifth floors were the ones used most often.
They served as ingredients when making other poisons, and since they were not greatly dangerous to the user, they could be carried around like a kind of standard weapon(?).
But now the boxes containing those poisons had been brought out and were filling the corridor, which was absurd. They had been told to fill the storerooms, but the poisons had been made and not put inside.
Because the person in charge was Tang Sohwa, Tang Hae-han’s eyes filled with fatigue.
“What is she up to now?”
He could not just dismiss it as a mistake or as her slacking off.
She undoubtedly had some bizarre scheme in mind again.
Over the past several days, Tang Sohwa had been going out to attend to the Clan Head’s affairs.
Whether she had actually been doing other work or whether the Clan Head had covered up a mess she had made, he did not know, but the fact remained that she had not come to the Oral Transmission Pavilion.
Perhaps her conscience pricked her, because Tang Sohwa had said she would clean the entire fourth floor and fill it with poisons herself. Because she was quick-handed, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° they had trusted her and left the fourth floor to her, but now it was in an even worse state than when the demonic warriors had attacked, and it was exasperating.
Putting his box down, Tang Hae-han went to look for Tang Sohwa and searched the fourth-floor storerooms.
Creak.
Opening the door of the first storeroom, Tang Hae-han gagged and stepped back.
“Ugh, what in the world is this smell?”
Covering his nose with his sleeve, Tang Hae-han stood at the doorway and looked inside.
The shelves were packed with small jars.
The stench was coming from there.
“Ugh, what did she put in there to make it smell like this?”
Taking out a pungent salve, Tang Hae-han dabbed some on his upper lip and covered his nose and mouth with a cloth.
He went in and opened one of the jars, then held his breath for a moment. A wave of reek rose up, but thanks to having thoroughly blocked the smell, it was bearable.
However, the color of the liquid inside bothered him.
'This looks like blood.'
He went to the window and drew back the cloth. Originally, no sunlight was supposed to enter this room, but since Tang Sohwa had taken all the poisons out into the corridor, it did not matter right now.
To confirm what the unknown liquid was, Tang Hae-han brought the jar right up to the window.
The moment light hit it, the color of the liquid turned vivid.
A dark red, it really did look like blood.
“......”
Tang Hae-han’s gaze slowly rose to the ceiling.
His eyes took in the shelves full of jars. Even counting roughly, they easily numbered over a hundred.
'...Surely this isn’t all blood, right?'
He had no idea what they could possibly have slaughtered in that short time to obtain so much blood.
Feeling uneasy, Tang Hae-han covered the window again and left the room.
He searched the pavilion for Tang Sohwa.
