Camellia 153

Given everything they had been through, Seolyeong hadn’t expected a grand reunion. Sahyeol Amje, after all, had made a life out of drawing blood and tears from others. He had never once imagined that man would now hold him gently and promise days to come.

But he didn’t expect him to get under his skin this fast, either.

“Are you kidding?”

Seolyeong asked with a look that pleaded for it to be a joke. The warm herbal water suddenly felt cold. The look in Sahyeol Amje’s eyes, as if all will to live had left him, stabbed at his chest. He wanted to scrub off that mark covering half of his face until it vanished.

Tang Yujae spoke with a deliberately playful tone.

“What use is clinging to something that’s about to die?”

He had a month left.

A month to send his bride back to the martial world, and yet things were already off to a rough start. Seeing the way Seolyeong looked at him with twisted brows made him want to take back everything he had planned to say.

Just as he had when urging his sister to descend the mountain, Yujae spoke again in a calm voice.

“Leave while you have the chance.”

“I don’t need you to give me chances.”

“You think you’ll be safe after your husband dies?”

Seolyeong may have reached a new realm, enough to protect himself. But the problem was the pavilion lords. Daeyeong Pavilion’s head was dead, so that one could be ignored, but if the others turned against him, even with a blood fiend’s body, he’d have a hard time surviving.

Especially if Jongryegak, which had seized power in place of the ruined Gwiryunggak, got involved.

Jo Cheonhyeong, the head of Jongryegak, held a stockpile of spiritstone weapons, which the Gwiryunggak Lord used to control blood fiends. The moment he emerged from his closed-door training, things would become very difficult.

“There’s no reason for you to carry the burden of my absence.”

But the future Tang Yujae dreamed of for his bride wasn’t one shackled by the Cheonma Divine Sect, where he would be forced to atone for his husband’s death.

“You’ve a talent for teaching. Why not start a school?”

“…Husband.”

“Teach letters, teach martial arts. Maybe twenty kids. You could take more if it’s not too hard.”

As he continued, sounding more and more like he was looking forward to it, Seolyeong felt the urge to spit in his face. Teaching? A school? He was already emotionally exhausted just dealing with this one cunning man.

“That’s enough.”

He warned in a low voice.

“My eyes, and my future… they’re mine to decide. Not yours.”

Sahyeol Amje, who had been listening with ease, replied without changing expression.

“Then isn’t mine the same?”

“…”

“My future is mine to decide, too. So try to understand what it feels like for a husband facing death, Ahyeong.”

When it came to wounding others, no one could compare to Sahyeol Amje. Seolyeong immediately pulled him into an embrace. To stop him from saying anything more infuriating, he bit into the back of his neck. Sahyeol Amje only responded by stroking the back of his head.

“Go on, bite.”

Was this man kind, or heartless?

Seolyeong couldn’t tell anymore. He closed his eyes tight and bared his fangs. It had been a long time since he’d last drunk blood. He should have taken care of the thirst with some animal blood, but things had been too chaotic to even track down livestock.

If it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t have dared to open his throat. But because it was Sahyeol Amje, he could drink in peace. He knew this was the one man who wouldn’t flinch even if his flesh was torn. The one man who would offer his neck without hesitation, even if Seolyeong truly became a monster.

As he drank that sweet blood, tears the size of chickpeas rolled from his eyes. The taste filled his mouth. He felt like he had finally gone past the point of no return.

Would Hyeon still treat him as her brother if she learned he now survived by drinking human blood?

Just imagining his sister recoiling in disgust made his chest ache. Seolyeong already had a vague apprehension. That by choosing Sahyeol Amje, he had abandoned his past. That all the promises he once made to his sister, about living as a person instead of a blood fiend, were now meaningless.

And yet, he still couldn’t let this man go.

Maybe it was because being by his side made Seolyeong feel freer than anyone else in the world.

And because he wanted to give that same freedom back to him.

***

“Hey! Were you crying by yourself again?”

The rear garden of Gwanju Hall, where he had secretly begun planting seeds. Seolyeong, sniffling as he dug into the dirt with bare hands, shook off the hand grabbing his shoulder in irritation.

“Don’t touch me.”

Choseon ignored his sour tone.

“Let me see your face.”

“Get lost.”

“Oh wow, Murong boy. That mouth of yours is really something today.”

Choseon smacked the back of his head with a loud thud, then walked around to sit facing him.

“Seriously, why do you cry so much?”

As expected, Seolyeong’s face was a mess again today. Lately, it was like he had waterfalls behind his eyes, shedding tears dozens of times a day. Choseon had witnessed it more than ten times himself. If you counted every instance, it probably exceeded a hundred or two.

“Did the Madu hit you?”

Seolyeong sniffled and warned him.

“If you keep saying ‘Madu’ out loud around here, the fanatics are going to cut your throat first.”

“…Then I’ll correct it. Did the ‘Sahyeol Amje,’ who is as great as the heavens, lay a hand on you?”

Choseon gave him a look full of pity. With his years in the pleasure house, he’d already noticed long ago that Seolyeong had completely fallen for the man considered the martial world’s greatest enemy.

Every time he came out of Gwanju Hall, his eyes were red and swollen. For that friend, Choseon offered advice.

“Love that hurts you isn’t real love, Murong boy. That’s just self-destruction. If you really want to love, find someone who won’t make you miserable.”

In a small voice, Seolyeong replied, “You should take your own advice.” Choseon let out a dry laugh. He placed his own hand in the dirt next to Seolyeong’s and began digging, too.

“Where’d you get all these seeds?”

“I figured if I planted a bunch, maybe at least one would bloom.”

“What kind of flower?”

“A camellia. Like me.”

“What?”

Choseon gave him a baffled look. Sure, the Camellia Prince of the Murong clan had red eyes as beautiful as the flowers themselves, but to say it like that out loud? It was hard not to grimace.

Seolyeong glanced up at the window of Gwanju Hall, where the Sect Leader might be watching him.

“I want him to think of me every time he sees them.”

But would camellias even bloom in a garden filled only with frozen magnolias? Choseon shrugged and began scattering seeds in his place.

“The soil’s too cold. They’ll die before they even sprout. Just like your love, frozen stiff, ha ha ha! Ow!”

Seolyeong smacked the back of Choseon’s head with the same force he’d been hit with earlier. Rubbing his head, Hwang Choseon grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it straight at him.

Soon the two were grabbing each other by the collar and hurling insults.

“Falling in love with a murderer, are you out of your mind, you idiot? I’m the one letting it slide, but if it were Hyeon standing here, she’d punch you in the face and cut ties on the spot!”

“My Hyeon wanted to beat the nonsense out of you first, you pervert!”

“Ha! How am I the pervert? You’re the one getting beat up all year and suddenly acting like his lover!”

Ever since they came to Yeonhu, the resentment between them had piled up endlessly. Now that the chance had come, they wanted to let it all out. Their bickering only stopped when Yuwon appeared in the garden.

“Oh, Physician…”

Choseon, who had been kicking wildly, immediately put on a show of weakness as if he’d been waiting for her.

He let go of Seolyeong’s collar and slumped like he was collapsing. Seolyeong looked down at his friend with an expression of pure disgust.

Don’t get in my way.

Choseon mouthed the words, then leaned obediently against the physician’s shoulder as she helped him up. Seolyeong thought of warning him that marrying this woman would make Sahyeol Amje Amje his brother-in-law, but decided to keep quiet. The physician didn’t seem to have even the slightest interest in his friend, and there was no need for him to get involved.

Left alone in the garden, the blood fiend continued planting camellia seeds with a face full of sorrow. He resolved that if not a single one bloomed, he would at least draw some and stick them in the soil.