Tak. Tak.

Light footsteps spread through the underground dungeon.

Beyond the wavering firelight, someone’s shadow swayed.

Seolhwa, seated in a corner of the dungeon with her knees drawn in, lifted her gaze to the approaching shadow.

At last, a pair of dark crimson shoes stopped before her eyes.

“My, my. I told them to treat you with the utmost care.”

Seolhwa raised her eyes and looked up at the man.

The Blood Demon.

The last person she ever wanted to face was looking down at her from beyond the bars.

“The floor must be cold. Come out. Let’s go to your room.”

“...”

Seolhwa turned her gaze instead of answering.

“With the utmost care,” he says.

He dragged her here after killing those precious to her.

“With the utmost care,” huh.

“...”

“...”

A heavy stillness packed the dungeon tight.

After staring at Seolhwa for a long while, the Blood Demon opened his mouth at a leisurely pace.

“Ilhwa.”

“That name...!”

Seolhwa glared at the Blood Demon, her eyes steeped in venom.

“Don’t... call me by that name....”

The Blood Demon’s lips crooked with a fishy smile.

“Shall I call you Seolhwa, then?”

“...”

Seolhwa curled her hand into a fist.

“Don’t put my name... in that filthy mouth.”

The name given by a mother you drove to her death and a father whose world held only his daughter.

A name given because she was a flower that came on a snowy day.

Seolhwa fixed a fierce glare on the Blood Demon, who had the gall to mouth her name.

He arched a brow and spoke.

“Then what shall I do? If you dislike this and that alike, what should I call you?”

“...”

“I let slide your little dash for freedom for quite some time. Why such anger? Did you not have enough time to enjoy yourself?”

“You’re the one who abducted me in the first place!”

Seolhwa shook with loathing so bitter her teeth chattered.

His words—prattling as if her rightful place were the Blood Cult, as if this were where she should return.

“I belong to the Namgoong.”

The Blood Demon snorted.

The gaze with which he looked down at the girl who called herself a child of the Namgoong was full of derision.

“Did you not topple that precious clan with your own hands?”

“...!”

“And? Were the ones you ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) killed unscathed?”

“...”

Seolhwa’s eyes quivered in fine tremors.

As expected, the Blood Demon knew she had returned to the past.

If she retraced what he’d said when they met the Shadowless Demon God, he too must have returned—and perhaps not just once.

“If so, even with the course changed from the previous life, he’s at ease because...”

“...”

Seolhwa clenched her fist.

A flood of uneasy thoughts surged, but she forced her feelings back into order and faced the Blood Demon.

He had only hinted at her return in front of the Shadowless Demon God.

It was the first time he revealed it before Seolhwa herself; suspicion was warranted.

“You know I came back to the past.”

“Know it? Of course.”

A low laugh rumbled from his throat.

It was the very laugh from that moment in the previous life—after he killed her and turned his back.

“I am the one who revived you.”

“!!”

Shock flooded Seolhwa’s eyes.

“...What?”

The one who brought me back... was the Blood Demon...?

“Why such surprise? Did you think I was being toyed with by you?”

In that instant, the words of the long-scarred, bamboo-hatted man who had appeared and vanished during the Tournament flashed through Seolhwa’s mind:

Don’t assume everything you do is carrying you down the right path.

Thump. Thump.

Her heart raced.

Her mind felt distant and dim.

So, in the end, she’d been inside the Blood Demon’s palm?

No matter what she did, was there no stopping the Blood Cult—no stopping him?

“Then what in the world have I been....”

“Do not despair so. It was a rather enjoyable time, all the same.”

Seolhwa lifted her trembling gaze and glared at the Blood Demon once more.

A faint fear colored her pupils.

“Why... did you save me...?”

You killed me with your own hands.

Why did you bring me back?

“What... are you?”

“I’m your benefactor.”

“...What...?”

Benefactor...?

“You live, and the clan you treasure so dearly has become the head of the martial world. Is that not thanks to me?”

Seolhwa’s lips parted.

The one who made the Namgoong Clan fall and took her life had, in this life, saved her and set up the Namgoong Clan.

If the one who revived her truly was the Blood Demon, then paradoxically—as he said—enemy and benefactor both were him.

But—

“You really are insane.”

Save her, and she should be grateful?

After doing what he did in the previous life using her?

“Whatever reason you had for saving me, for any reason at all—I will not dance in your hand again.”

For any reason, she would never move for the Blood Demon again.

“Now I know who I am. I am...”

I am Namgoong.

Loved by Namgoong, and loving Namgoong.

“Namgoong Seolhwa.”

A child of the Namgoong.

The Blood Demon reached into the cell.

Thick iron bars spread to either side in an instant, as if they were soft rubber.

He seized Seolhwa by the chin and lifted.

Caught in a grip she could not evade, Seolhwa met the Blood Demon’s gaze.

He leaned in close; his eyes bored in, staring into her pupils with a razor’s edge.

“...”

“Your eyes have become good. Giving you a short time to catch your breath was the right choice.”

Ssssss...

A dark crimson energy poured off the Blood Demon, crept along the floor, and slowly drew near to Seolhwa.

It was as if his shadow were gliding toward her.

“But I am a little disappointed. You have not even opened the Life-and-Death Threshold. Did I rate your potential too highly?”

The dark crimson energy slid over Seolhwa’s hands and forearms and slowly bound the nape of her neck where he held her.

“I will help you. It’s time you took your power back.”

“I don’t want your power.”

Seolhwa clenched her teeth hard.

Lest even the smallest fear show itself to him.

“What I want is...”

She clenched her fist so tight it could have cut her palm.

“The Namgoong’s power.”

In that moment, the Blood Demon’s ever-leisurely face chilled and hardened.

He looked down at Seolhwa with an icy gaze.

The dark crimson energy cinched tighter around her neck.

“The Namgoong, is it.”

“Hhk...”

Seolhwa sucked in air as the dark power closed off her windpipe.

Watching her struggle, the Blood Demon’s mouth twisted with that same fishy curl.

“Very well. I promise you.”

The world around her blurred.

“If this time, too, you can flee me on your own feet...”

Darkness washed over her vision—into deeper darkness.

“Then I’ll let you go.”

That was the last of the Blood Demon’s voice that Seolhwa remembered.

In perfect darkness, Seolhwa thought of the people of the Namgoong Clan—

Of all those who must be worried for her.

Of the faces of those who would stake even their lives to find her.

“I won’t forget.”

I will return, without fail.

To the Namgoong Clan. To my home.

To the arms of those I love.

****

It had been about two months since Namgoong Seolhwa vanished.

To find her, the Martial Alliance and the Namgoong Clan formed search detachments.

“Search” was in name only—these were elite units rooting out Blood Cult forces hidden across the Central Plains and gathering intelligence.

It came about thanks to the active push from each sect and clan, who had belatedly grasped the Blood Cult’s danger after the Dragon & Phoenix Gathering incident.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of war between the Blood Cult and the Martial Alliance.

Some time after that—

“I’m telling you, it was Namgoong Seolhwa! I saw her during the Tournament—I know her face!”

“So what? Why would Namgoong Seolhwa attack the Martial Alliance? That makes no sense—she’s the Alliance Lord’s granddaughter.”

“Ugh, you’re infuriating...! How would I know why! Anyway! I saw it with these two eyes, clear as day! Namgoong Seolhwa stood in front of our Patrol Unit and blocked us!”

“Tsk... there’s no way....”

The warrior cocked his head.

At the Dragon & Phoenix Gathering when the Blood Cult invaded, he’d seen Namgoong Seolhwa risk her life to protect the young elites.

That person would suddenly betray the Martial Alliance and stand against her own clan?

When her own grandfather was the Alliance Lord?

“What in the world happened?”

“If that’s true, then maybe those rumors from the Gathering were right?”

“?”

“You know, that thing—Namgoong Seolhwa lured in the Blood Cult and then walked... mmph...!”

The warrior hastily clapped a hand over his comrade’s mouth.

Behind his comrade, the Chief Division Lord was striding by in the distance.

“Wha—hey, what? Why? What is it?”

Shaking off the salty hand that had muffled him, he looked—and his mouth gaped.

The Chief Division Lord was Seop Mugwang, Namgoong Seolhwa’s master.

He was personally leading the elite detachment formed to find her.

What’s more, when the absurd rumor that Namgoong Seolhwa had colluded with the Blood Cult began to circulate, hadn’t he flipped the Martial Alliance upside down?

Since that day, even the foremost figures of each clan and sect had not dared to speak lightly of any tie between Namgoong Seolhwa and the Blood Cult.

“D... did he hear us?”

“No idea.”

The distance was far, but a martial artist’s ears were keen.

“If you want to live long, watch your mouth.”

The two warriors’ eyes followed Seop Mugwang’s long strides toward the Alliance Lord’s office.

Thud, thud, thud!

“Brother, it’s me.”

From beyond the door came Namgoong Mucheon’s reply to come in.

As if he had been waiting, Seop Mugwang flung the door wide and entered the Alliance Lord’s office.

The moment he stepped in, a thick Qi Screen wrapped around the room.

“Did you confirm it?”

From Seop Mugwang’s hardened face alone, Namgoong Mucheon could guess the answer.

But because it was an answer he did not want, he asked again.

“How was it...? Was it true?”

Thud—!

Seop Mugwang slammed the desk, hard.

From the moment he set foot in the Martial Alliance, the fists he could not unclench even for an instant were trembling in fine shakes.

“She was there.”

Blue veins stood along his jaw.

Seop Mugwang closed his eyes and held them shut.

For a long time.

At last, he opened his mouth in a voice that collapsed out of him like a sigh.

“She was leading a Blood Cult strike force.”