Yu Gang and the Heavenly Demon’s Lady sat facing each other.

Sensing that something was off, the Heavenly Demon’s Lady dismissed the attendants who were always at her side.

Yu Gang looked at the warm tea set before him—and at the hand placing the cup down, with its lavish, long fingernails.

Then he slowly lifted his gaze to meet hers.

“Did you come here straight from the training grounds? I thought you’d gone back to your quarters.”

“I went to my quarters.”

“And came again.”

“Yes. Because I wanted to see you, Mother.”

As she was taking her seat, the Heavenly Demon’s Lady paused for a beat.

But she soon sat as if nothing were amiss and poured her own tea.

Only now did Yu Gang see her movements clearly.

The hesitation came from fluster; the composure was merely an act.

Because she wants to appear as a mother who loves her child.

“Baek Yeong paid me a visit.”

“Even if you hadn’t said so, I saw him step out right after you left the training grounds. It seems he went to find you.”

“Yes.”

“What did he say? If he followed in such haste, it must have been something important.”

“He said you’re not my biological mother.” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“...”

The Heavenly Demon’s Lady fell silent, teacup in hand.

An understated smile still hovered at the corners of her lips, reflected in the tea.

She slowly blinked and lifted the cup, savoring the sip.

“So that’s what he told you.”

“It must be true, then.”

“It is.”

She acknowledged it at once, as if she had no intention of hiding it.

“Why did you hide it?”

“I didn’t hide it. I simply didn’t say it. You hadn’t yet adjusted to the Cult, and I didn’t think it wise to shock you further.”

“As if you were my real mother...”

Under the table, Yu Gang’s clenched fist trembled in small shakes.

Remembering the warm words and actions with which she had treated him for the past few days—he felt sad.

“Blood alone doesn’t make a family. Just as two people marry for love, I thought you and I could become a good mother and son.”

There was nothing wrong with those words.

Yu Gang agreed with her on that point as well.

Only—

“Soyah.”

“I asked you not to call me ‘Soyah.’”

She does not respect him.

No—she does not love him as a son.

“I told you... I don’t like it.”

He had overheard the attendants gossiping: the food she claimed to have made with her own hands had in fact been prepared by the assigned cook.

As for the clothes she gifted him—precious, yes, but no different from the Cult’s finery that already filled his wardrobe.

Before the Heavenly Demon, her eyes were fixed on him alone; even when father and son clashed, the only one she worried over was the Heavenly Demon.

Even when the son slipped out of the training grounds alone, she did not look back.

She returned to her residence laughing and chatting with the attendants.

What parent could treat the son they’d lost in childhood that way?

“You don’t think of me as your son. You simply regard me as the successor to take after Father.”

Since he is to succeed the Heavenly Demon and become the next Cult Lord, she likely just wants to get along.

The Heavenly Demon seems firmly resolved to hand this Cult to his own blood.

“Yes. I can’t deny that, to a degree.”

Yu Gang lowered his eyes.

He had said the words himself, yet hearing her admit it without the slightest hesitation, right to his face—came as a fresh disappointment and wound.

“But what can I do. It would have been nice if I could have borne a child, but that’s not possible. Since we’ll be seeing each other regardless, trying to get along isn’t such a bad thing, is it?”

“...Right.”

Yu Gang let out a short, dry laugh.

So, she does regret that he isn’t her own child.

If she had borne a child herself, would he have received this kind of welcome in the Cult?

More likely, wouldn’t his life have been under threat even before he set foot here?

“Now I understand why my mother left the Cult.”

“She didn’t leave. She was expelled.”

The answer, escaping on a laugh as if it were an amusing story, made Yu Gang’s face harden.

The Heavenly Demon’s Lady started and covered her mouth, as if realizing her misstep.

With an awkward smile, she said,

“Your father had no choice. Your mother was the daughter of a common household who fled from the Central Plains. How could she have been any help to your father?”

Yu Gang’s father, the current Heavenly Demon, was said to have won the vicious succession struggle against his brothers to ascend as Cult Lord.

If he failed to become Heavenly Demon, death was the only fate. He must have made his choices to build power—but that was not what he wished to hear from the woman who had pushed out his mother to take the seat of the Heavenly Demon’s Lady.

“But don’t worry. If I take you as my own son, you won’t be driven out. My clan will be your backer.”

Her clan is a house of elders well known within the Cult.

They maintained their authority by backing the current Heavenly Demon in the succession fight.

Yet because of that overwhelming power, the Heavenly Demon could take no other consort, and thus Yu Gang had no choice but to be the only blood heir.

In that sense, Yu Gang—who has neither background nor power—would be a fine tool for the Cheon clan to preserve its influence.

In other words, if they formally adopted Yu Gang—whose succession is all but certain—into their clan, they could retain their power even after he became Heavenly Demon.

“What can we do. The Cult Lord insists he wants no one but you. You and I getting along is best for everyone.”

As if to say she didn’t desire it, but for the sake of the clan’s interests she had no choice but to love him.

Even if no blood ties bound them, the Heavenly Demon’s Lady’s bearing was by no means that of a mother who loves her child.

“...”

Only now, after learning all of it, Yu Gang wore a bitter smile.

As expected, he should never have hoped for a parent’s love.

He should never have expected it.

What greed makes a man who originally had nothing keep hoping, only to be disappointed each time?

It’s about time he stopped.

“Don’t look so disappointed. That’s how the world works. At times you must do what you don’t want to do, and in doing so, good things come as well.”

“...”

“You can sit still and become the Cult Lord of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—what could be better than—”

“You don’t need to play the mother for me.”

Yu Gang cut her off, his expression hard as stone.

The mildness he had shown her of late was nowhere to be found, and the Heavenly Demon’s Lady flinched before she realized it.

The corners of her mouth curled, ever so slightly.

Because in Yu Gang she saw the Heavenly Demon.

“And I have no intention of becoming Cult Lord the way you people want. Once this business is finished, I’m returning to the Central Plains. Take it as you will.”

With that, Yu Gang rose.

He had confirmed she was not his mother, and that he could not expect a mother’s love from her; there was no reason to linger.

“Is it because of that girl?”

The Heavenly Demon’s Lady’s words snagged his heel just as he was about to [N O V E L I G H T] leave.

“The girl from that Namgoong Clan, or whatever they call themselves.”

She looked at Yu Gang, who had halted.

He gave no answer, but the silence spoke for him.

“Breaking free as you please will be difficult. The Cult Lord is a very stubborn man. I’m telling you this because I still want us to get along.”

Yu Gang curled his hand into a fist.

Bringing up Seolhwa’s name, and that attitude—thinking that even with his clear refusal he would end up dancing on their strings.

“I know well my father’s stubbornness.”

He disliked every bit of it.

“On that point, you seem to take after him.”

Yu Gang left the Heavenly Demon’s Lady’s residence at once.

The attendants who had been whispering outside started when they saw him come out and hurriedly bowed their heads.

Yu Gang gave them a cool glance and walked toward his own quarters.

He kept walking, silently, until the Heavenly Demon’s Lady’s residence was out of sight.

At some point he stopped and looked up at the sky.

The air of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was at least twice as cold as Wuhan, where the Martial Alliance was.

Haa—. As he let out a deep breath, a pale plume burst from his lips.

“I miss Seolhwa.”

With that breath, what Yu Gang had buried deep inside slipped out—an impulse he could not hold back.

****

Before entering the capital, Chor Yeon climbed into the prisoner cart.

It rolled on cheap wheels that jolted fiercely; the sparse iron bars did nothing to hide the prisoner from view, so she had to bear people’s scorn and contempt in full.

Clicking his tongue like he disliked the whole affair, Seop Mugwang stood beside the cart where Chor Yeon took her place.

“Who made this thing? An ox cart would be more comfortable than this. Want me to get you something to sit on?”

“Come on, Lord Seop—if the prisoner rides easy, what will people think? You want us getting stoned?”

“No! Still...!”

But because she was right, Seop Mugwang smacked his lips.

“C-couldn’t you, I don’t know, do something with your—your skirt hem—cover it up somehow?”

“I said no.”

“You’ll wreck your back at this rate!”

Chor Yeon snorted, stifling little laughs.

“Once we enter the capital it’s all well-paved roads anyway. I lived there quite a while, you know?”

It hadn’t been a short time, learning medicine to kill the imperial prince and gritting her teeth to endure life in the palace.

“More than that—are you going to be all right, Lord Seop?”

With a sly grin, Chor Yeon jerked her chin at him.

Seop Mugwang was dressed in a eunuch’s robe.

“They won’t... check you at the gate, will they?”

“What?”

As if to say what are you talking about, Seop Mugwang’s brows arched—and then his face flushed scarlet a beat later.

“Y-y-you little—! H-how can you say that! Hey! You—! Ha! Unbelievable...!”

He spluttered in outrage, utterly put out.

Even so, watching him slowly edge backward step by step, Chor Yeon burst into laughter.