Camellia 45
by LiliumA physician must not pity their patient. It might sound strange, but Yuwon’s definition of medical ethics came from an old-fashioned belief: emotions should never interfere with medicine.
That was why Yuwon also tried not to pity the camellia flower cast into such a tragic fate. When Seolyeong, whom she had nursed day and night for two days, finally recovered, she packed a hexagonal tea box with suyucha, a tea known for calming the mind.
“Please make sure to drink it after meals, Sogyoju-nim. It’ll help settle your nerves.”
She called him Sogyoju, but the title felt meaningless. On paper, it suggested the successor to the Sect Leader, but in reality, it was an empty honor.
What kind of madman would place his heir in a life-or-death situation? The Sect Leader merely threw Seolyeong a useless title because he didn’t want a man being called his ‘bride.’
In the Cheonma Divine Sect, where power ruled all, no one truly acknowledged the Sogyoju as one.
Whether the Sogyoju existed or not, if the Sect Leader’s seat ever became vacant, the Eight Pavillons Lords would battle for succession on their own terms. As for the nominal Sogyoju, they’d just kill him. With a bitter smile, Yuwon saw Seolyeong off. She offered to escort him to his quarters, but he refused.
He walked off with an empty mind.
To be honest, he didn’t even know the way to Yeonhwa Hall. He just wanted to take a walk alone, get some fresh air.
Yuwon understood his bitter mood, she made sure the bride could stroll freely by temporarily delaying his watcher.
Si Pungjae, who would rather kill himself than disobey the Sect Leader, had no choice but to tend to her when Yuwon collapsed in feigned illness. He hurriedly carried her to bed and checked on her condition.
And that gave Yuwon a bonus opportunity to monopolize him. It wasn’t a bad trade.
“…My neck hurts.”
As he walked, Seolyeong muttered occasionally. It wasn’t his throat that hurt, but the skin over the muscles.
The Sect Leader’s words, “You seem to admire chivalry, so I’ll give you a gift”, had meant he would be branded on the nape.
“I didn’t even get what I came for and just got burned… Damn it.”
He grew even more dejected.
Originally, his goal had been to meet the Sect Leader, demand an apology for destroying his danjeon, and ask him to find his lost disciple. Honestly, he could have postponed the apology. The important thing was finding his disciple. Without any Qi, he had no choice but to rely on the Sect Leader’s power. But he had been thrown out before he could even say a word. And all he got in return was this hideous mark.
He opened the tea box, grabbed a handful of dark brown tea leaves, and tossed them into his mouth. They were meant to be brewed, not chewed, so of course, all he tasted was bitterness.
Ptooey, ptooey. Spitting the leaves out, he realized he was lost.
Before him stretched a snow-covered field.
Still, there was no need to panic. He had Seonwol-do with him. Seolyeong bit down on his silver ring playfully and spoke.
“Find the way, you dumb mutt.”
His tone was flat, and Seonwol-do seemed to pick up on it, its glow dimmed. A faint line of light touched the ground. All Seolyeong had to do was follow it. And yet, he didn’t move.
“That’s clearly not a path people walk. I didn’t ask for just any road, I meant the way to Yeonhwa Hall. I guess I wasn’t clear enough.”
But Seonwol-do didn’t change its direction.
“…Are you saying I have to go there?”
Seolyeong was puzzled that the usually sharp sword suddenly didn’t seem to understand him. That’s when it happened. Sensing its master’s thoughts, Seonwol-do suddenly transformed. It reshaped into a long stick and began writing in the snow.
Seolyeong quickly scanned the characters.
“…You want me to go outside? To search for the child?”
Seonwol-do hummed brightly in agreement.
“Mutt, this place is sealed by a powerful formation.”
Now that he was no different from a normal person, he couldn’t distort or break through a formation using Qi.
But then the stick wrote again, this time in flowing cursive. The answer surprised him with its cleverness.
“We can escape by digging deep underground? Because the formation’s influence doesn’t reach below ground? Wait, mutt, are you…?”
Of course! Just like one can’t set a formation under the sea, it made sense that the same would apply underground. In the past, he would’ve just broken through the weak points of any formation, so this had never occurred to him.
Seolyeong genuinely admired the idea.
“If you were human, you’d have made a great disciple of mine! I’m truly regretful I didn’t get to take someone as brilliant as you under my wing.”
As if. In truth, the sacred sword Seonwol-do had lived far longer than Seolyeong, if it were a person, it would be past 180 years old. It had seen emperors rise and fall four times over, so what was this about being a disciple? Still, Seonwol-do preferred the loud, confident Seolyeong to the gloomy, defeated one. That bold arrogance was his charm.
So the sacred sword didn’t mind doing a bit of digging for its master.
“That’s it! Good job, my mutt!”
Seonwol-do briefly wanted to knock out its master, who was cheerfully whistling while doing none of the work. But it held back, not wanting to harm someone who had already been through so much. If Seonwol-do had been a person, it would’ve sat down cross-legged to meditate and calm its frustration.
*
He had disappeared again. That runaway colt of a bride.
The Sect Leader had thought he’d lay low for a while after getting trampled, but clearly, that had been wishful thinking.
On the second floor of Gwanju Hall, where he was holding a meeting with several elders about a troublesome issue, Cheonsin rubbed his tired eyes.
Si Pungjae, who reported the bride’s disappearance, looked devastated.
“I told you to keep a strict watch.”
“O Supreme One who moves against the heavens. I shall offer my life in apology.”
His low-voiced reply made Mae Somyeong, the head of Okhaenggak1, scoff.
“As if your life means anything…”
She honestly wanted to ask whether he truly thought that would suffice. As the one in charge of planting and growing hidden shrines across Jungwon, she was cold and meticulous. She had never liked Si Pungjae, who had made countless blunders.
She couldn’t understand why Cheonsin still kept the man around.
From his very nature, Si Pungjae was unsuited for the sect. As the head of Okhaenggak, she could say with certainty, he had the disposition of someone who belonged in the righteous path.
If he were truly born to be a demonic cultivator, he wouldn’t be so stubborn and foolish. It hadn’t even been a year since he reached the peak level of martial arts.
Why on earth did Cheonsin keep such a sorry excuse for a man so close?
Si Pungjae simply waited for orders.
“Did he run off again to search for that disciple of his?”
This question was answered by the lord of Geukmunggak2.
“Most likely toward Singang. One of our plants there sent word that they saw a red-eyed beauty.”
He winked at Si Pungjae as he spoke. Unlike Mae Somyeong, he found Si Pungjae rather endearing. There was something amusing about a prudish little mouse flailing around, and the fact that he was a celibate homosexual only made him more appealing. The idea that this shy man was secretly enjoying himself with men twice his size was downright delectable.
At the mention of Singang, Mae Somyeong’s mood shifted.
As someone from one of the Five Noble Families of the former sect, the name stirred deep memories. It was the region where the Cheonma Divine Sect had originally been established, near the Tianshan Mountains. Now, it was managed by Jipilgak.
That land was her true home.
She stepped forward.
“I’ll send one of my people to retrieve him, Sect Leader.”
But Cheonsin replied indifferently.
“Leave him.”
“…Pardon?”
“Let’s just continue the meeting.”
His face remained blank, impossible to read.
Leave him? The runaway bride?
Mae Somyeong was stunned, and so was Si Pungjae, who looked like he had just been hit in the head. All the more so because he knew that the child the bride was desperately searching for was none other than Cheonsin himself.
With a snap of his fingers, Cheonsin expelled Si Pungjae.
The forceful blast flung him straight through the sliding door. His groaning could be heard through the hole in the wall.
Only after his presence faded did the meeting resume, on which unfortunate soul would be sent to serve as a breeding slave at the Northern Ice Palace.
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