“Clan Lord!”

Chief Steward Namgoong Mun hurried over and supported Cheongun.

“You shouldn’t be coming out like this. In your condition, the cold air will only make it worse.”

“No. A treasured guest has come from the Imperial Palace; it would be discourteous to lie in bed the whole time. I’m fine.”

Namgoong Cheongun scarcely finished speaking before he broke into a fit of coughing.

Staggering and leaning on Mun’s arm, he looked, to anyone’s eye, like a man grievously ill.

Seomun was taken aback.

“N-no... Clan Lord Namgoong... what in the world has happened...? Only two days ago you were so hale...”

Could a man become a dying invalid in the span of merely two days?

“My apologies for causing you worry, Sir. In truth, I suffered a severe internal injury during a bout a few days ago... cough...! cough!”

Cheongun steadied his roughened breath for a moment after hacking.

“...I was never in robust health to begin with. Not knowing in advance that you would visit, I neglected my condition.”

“No...”

Then when he received me two days ago, he was already unwell?

He hid that he was sick?

His face was pale, true.

But was that a bad complexion?

Wasn’t he simply fair-skinned?

“How could you possibly spar in such a way that you let yourself {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} be hurt to this extent?”

“That is...”

Cheongun’s expression darkened.

“Shamefully, it was my mistake.”

Then he gave a sheepish smile.

Seomun knit his brow.

Namgoong Cheongun’s reaction clearly suggested he was concealing something.

Yet one could hardly cross-examine a sick man while keeping him standing.

More than anything, the looks from the Namgoong retainers—at a man who had brandished steel in ignorance of their Clan Lord’s state—were prickling.

With a short sigh, Seomun asked,

“Then when may we meet? As you know, His Majesty is waiting.”

“Grant me just three days’ grace. I’ve sent for a rare medicine that’s good for mending internal injuries.”

“Very well.”

Seomun nodded as he sheathed his sword.

“I was in the wrong to cause a commotion without knowing the Clan Lord’s circumstances. Let us meet again when you’ve recovered and in good health.”

“Yes. Thank you for your understanding, Sir.”

“But mind this. I bear His Majesty’s command; three days—any longer and I will be in difficulties as well.”

“Yes.”

Seomun returned straightaway to the Celestial Guesthouse.

Cheongun watched him until he was out of sight, then, still supported by the chief steward, went back to his quarters.

The instant the two men entered and the door closed behind them, a Qi Screen settled over the room. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Have we accounted for the Imperial Palace soldiers in full?”

Cheongun slipped off the long coat he was wearing and hung it over a chair as he asked.

The chief steward shook his head.

“As you said, we’re short by about ten men. According to the gatekeepers, that number departed the moment they arrived and seem not to have returned.”

“Among those ten, was the soldier I mentioned there? The one moving with the Commandant.”

“He was not. However, according to the Black Dragon Unit Lord, that man has been roaming about the estate. Of course, entry to the inner quarters has been forbidden.”

With a grave face, Cheongun tapped the chair with his fingers.

He had set Lord Namgoong Hyeok of the Black Dragon Unit to shadow the most skilled soldier who stood behind the Commandant.

The Black Dragon Lord had recognized that man’s martial attainment at a glance, so watching him was no trouble; the problem was the soldier’s behavior.

“He is clearly probing the estate’s defensive arrangements.”

At the chief steward’s words, Namgoong Cheongun nodded.

“I agree. And he has surely set his subordinates to watching the estate’s perimeter.”

To see if even a rat might slip out.

They brought the Emperor’s decree to a great house of power yet sent no prior notice—that must be why.

So as not to give Chor Yeon time to flee.

“You notified the Martial Alliance, I trust?”

“We received aid from the Beggar’s Union.”

“Then the Chief Division Lord will be here soon.”

He is not a man to sit idle after hearing of Chor Yeon.

Namgoong Mun let out a low sigh.

Just as the season was beginning to blossom for those two, what untimely blizzard was this?

Truly a twisted fate.

Mugwang, that poor man. Tsk.

“For now, let’s wait for the Chief Division Lord. If it’s him, he can take Chor Yeon out.”

If they could go to the Martial Alliance together with the Chief Division Lord, Chor Yeon’s person would be safe.

The Offices and the Martial World do not violate one another.

By tacit principle long observed between the Imperial House and the Martial World, the government and the martial realm do not interfere with each other.

So long as that principle exists, not even the Emperor can easily lay hands on the Martial Alliance.

“Until then, we must not let them learn where Chor Yeon is.”

“I’ll bear it in mind.”

****

“I hear there was a great commotion within the Namgoong Clan not long ago.”

Upon returning to the Celestial Guesthouse, Seomun immediately set his men to finding out why the Namgoong Clan Lord had suffered internal injuries.

It was to determine whether his illness was feigned.

“A commotion?”

Seomun arched a brow, halted his steps, and looked back at his subordinate.

Because he had granted Namgoong Cheongun three days’ grace, he had nothing to do and was strolling the guesthouse gardens.

“They say the Clan Lord and his daughter clashed fiercely.”

Seomun’s brows drew even tighter.

“He quarreled with his daughter? What parent fights a daughter until he takes internal injuries?”

“Well...”

The soldier gave a detailed account of what he had learned inside the Namgoong Clan.

That Namgoong Seolhwa had been abducted by the Blood Cult, had returned without her memory, and, in the process of regaining it, had attacked her own father.

“I hear it was... suggestion.”

“Huh.”

Having heard it all, Seomun sighed, unconsciously letting his arms drop from the clasped position behind his back.

“He nearly died by his own child’s hand.”

“I also hear Namgoong Seolhwa’s martial attainment is extraordinary. There are even rumors she’s near-Transcendent.”

“I’ve heard those rumors too. They say she stands shoulder to shoulder with masters of the martial world at a young age.”

For word of such prowess to reach even over the palace walls—

If he had nearly died by such a child’s hand, Namgoong Clan Lord’s condition was understandable.

“Then where is Namgoong Seolhwa now?”

“After regaining her memory, she entered the clan’s training quarters for convalescence, and it’s been some time.”

“I see.”

If the Clan Lord’s internal injuries were this severe, the daughter would hardly be unscathed.

“Hoo...”

Seomun let out a long breath.

Now that he knew Namgoong Cheongun’s illness was real, there was nothing for it but to wait three days as promised.

That aside—

“Is Chief Eunuch Joo still wandering around the Namgoong manor?”

“Yes, it seems so.”

“What is that man thinking...”

As a mere soldier, he could not even enter the inner quarters of the Namgoong estate.

What was he doing, traipsing about?

“I understand. You may withdraw.”

“Yes.”

After dismissing the soldier, Seomun, lost in thought, resumed his walk.

As befitted the wealth and power said to be first under heaven in the Central Plains, the guesthouse gardens were truly beautiful.

“Ow, that stings!”

A thin line of red welled at the tip of Chor Yeon’s index finger.

She furrowed her brows and put the fingertip to her lips with a soft pop.

“Harder than you thought, is it? I assumed you’d be deft with your hands, Medicine Hall Lord.”

Sitting opposite and sorting tea leaves, Moyong Yeonhwa let out a gentle laugh.

Chor Yeon spoke with a slight knit to her brow.

“Manual dexterity isn’t a physician’s foremost virtue. I’ve even made medicine sachets before, but sewing really is difficult.”

Since the Imperial delegation’s arrival, Chor Yeon had been hiding in Moyong Yeonhwa’s quarters, disguised as a maid.

Because Moyong Yeonhwa’s quarters lay within the inner quarters, and were the only lady’s quarters within the estate, the imperial soldiers could not easily approach.

Though Moyong Yeonhwa did not know Chor Yeon’s circumstances in detail, at Clan Lord Namgoong Cheongun’s request she readily offered her rooms.

Thanks to that, though only her garb was that of a maid, Chor Yeon was spending her time alongside Moyong Yeonhwa.

“Are you making that little pouch for the Chief Division Lord?”

“Yes.”

Chor Yeon’s face flushed slightly as a smile touched her lips.

Since returning from Shanxi the other day, Seop Mugwang had come looking for Chor Yeon so often the threshold was wearing down.

A man with ties to the Martial Alliance visited near daily, and he did not bother to hide his affection for her; by now most within the Namgoong Clan knew of the two of them.

“He’s terrible about looking after himself. I thought I’d pack him a medicine sachet...”

“The Chief Division Lord will be delighted.”

“Do you think so?”

“Of course.”

Moyong Yeonhwa flashed a bright smile and bolstered her courage.

Her gaze drifted for a moment toward the open window.

Beyond the wall of the quarters, the distant voices of inner-quarters guards drifted by as they passed, conversing.

“...He’s a man who bears great burdens; he really ought to take better care of himself.”

Moyong Yeonhwa looked back to Chor Yeon.

“Right.”

Chor Yeon nodded.

“So shouldn’t the Hall Lord always be by the Chief Division Lord’s side?”

“...”

At Moyong Yeonhwa’s words, Chor Yeon’s hands paused for a moment. A subtle, indescribable emotion flickered over her features.

When the silence drew on too long, Moyong Yeonhwa glanced at her.

Instead of answering, Chor Yeon wore a faintly bitter smile and then set her hands busily to work again.