Camellia 131

He was a despicable man. Perhaps it was only natural that the love directed at such a man would also feel despicable.

Seolyeong, who had wanted to rebuke him out of pride and say it was up to him to decide, hesitated at the thought that he might actually treat him coldly.

“…I will not leave.”

The words barely made it out, steeped in sorrow. Seolyeong had never before felt his heart in such tatters. Not even on the day when the Swordsman feom Cheonghae, bought off by the Murong clan, destroyed his danjeon, had he felt this hollow.

Instead of looking at the cold eyes of Sahyeol Amje, he turned his gaze toward the clear sky and quietly continued.

“It is already far too late to leave. You know that.”

He should have left before this cursed love had sprouted. Whether out of fear or horror. But he had not. As a result, he ended up loving a serpent coiled within the demonic sect.

Seolyeong no longer tried to find the face of the gaunt boy behind Sahyeol Amje’s emotionless expression. What he saw now was the face of a man who loved him.

A man named Tang Yujae, who allowed him to express hatred and resentment freely, who comforted him and said it was all right to feel those things. To that man, Seolyeong whispered,

“Even if I die, I will die at my husband’s side.”

Born a blood fiend, he had lived his life treated like a monster. No matter how much he explained that he could live as a human, that he would not harm others, the martial world refused to believe it. He had believed that the only way to prove his innocence was not to resent such a world. But beside Sahyeol Amje, there was no need for that.

At least by his side,

“So stop putting on that pitiful act of cruelty. The more you do, the more stubborn I become.”

He did not need to prove anything. And that, for Seolyeong, was nothing short of a miracle.

***

He had returned to the snowy mountain he longed for. The cold scent of winter tickled his nose. One deep breath made it all real. He was back within Sahyeol Amje’s territory. But in the rear garden of Yeonhwa Hall, Seolyeong was alone.

“Abandoning me the moment we return…”

The sect leader had gone to Haeseong Pavilion to take care of pending duties. Lying on the snow-covered ground to clear his tangled thoughts, Seolyeong noticed a slender shadow fall over him.

“It’s been a while, Murong boy. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

It was Hwang Choseon, who had become nothing more than a borrowed straw mat since the sect leader and his bride had departed for the martial world.

Especially after Yeoso, Nabisalsoo, noticed he was a man and warned that if he dared pretend to be a woman again, he would not be spared. So today, he wore plain white robes. Yeoso had said he could not overlook a crossdressing pervert trying to defile the land of Cheonsin.

Without the pale makeup, Hwang Choseon had a rather fair and handsome face.

“Why aren’t you wearing a skirt?”

Seolyeong asked with a dry expression. Choseon plopped down beside him and replied glibly.

“I was relieving myself out back when that Yeoso or whatever caught me. One glimpse of my grand, majestic part and he nearly fainted. I almost decided to give him a proper drilling.”

“Relieving yourself outside?”

“Don’t scold me. I got lonely living alone, drank a few bottles, and did something foolish.”

“How many bottles did you drink?”

“Let’s see. About… seven?”

Having poured enough liquor into himself to wear out his body, Choseon dramatically followed Seolyeong’s example and lay down. Then, just as quickly, he sat up trembling.

“It’s freezing. Why suffer out here when Yeonhwa Hall is like a palace?”

Seolyeong, still sprawled out, calmly answered.

“I wanted to see the sun.”

“The sun?”

“Sunlight. The rays falling down feel wonderful, don’t they? They’re not as harsh as they once were.”

“I suppose… maybe?”

Seolyeong smiled softly. Even if wounded by his husband’s harsh behavior, he knew that man now enveloped him in warmth, and that made it hard to stay angry. Only sadness lingered.

Did that man push him away because death truly loomed near? If he had a mountain of days left to live, would he have simply stayed faithful?

Suddenly, Seolyeong turned to Choseon.

“Mumyeong.”

Praised as the Flower of Sacheon, Hwang Choseon had toyed with many men, reading their hearts with ease. Seolyeong decided to seek a bit of help from such a man and carefully began.

“This is about a friend of mine.”

“You don’t have any friends besides me.”

At the biting remark, Seolyeong scooped up a handful of snow and flung it in Choseon’s face. Splat.

“Argh!”

Choseon let out a short scream and fell back. He tried to retaliate by kicking at Seolyeong and scooping snow in return, but the heat radiating from Seolyeong’s blood fiend body melted the snow on contact.

After carrying on for quite a while, Choseon finally tired himself out and lay still, listening to the story of the Mad Bride.

“Her partner is a rake who stole countless hearts, so it’s hard to grasp what he’s really thinking. Sometimes he seems to care for my friend, but other times it’s like she means nothing to him. When he’s sweet, he acts like he’d pluck the stars and moon from the sky for her, but when he’s cruel, he’s so heartless it makes you wonder if he’s even human.”

“So… Sahyeol Amje is tossing you around in the palm of his hand? Aaaagh!”

Choseon got another faceful of snow and flailed, brushing it off. Narrowing his eyes, he glared fiercely at Seolyeong. But Seolyeong showed no interest, silently demanding a solution instead.

Choseon stood with a sigh and brushed off his bottom. If he sat in the snow any longer, he’d catch a bad cold. The physician at Mount Yeonhu was gone, and he couldn’t afford to neglect his health.

“A man in love never confuses his beloved. If he makes you anxious, it means you’re not truly his beloved yet.”

Choseon rolled his stiff shoulders as he spoke.

“So first, get the ring and hold the wedding already. At least while someone you call a friend is still here. What will you do if you become a bride with no one around? I’ll make you the most beautiful bride in the world and then leave the mountain. The physician’s nowhere to be seen either, and I’ve started wanting to go back to Sacheon. I have a home there and people I care about.”

Smiling lightly, he tousled Seolyeong’s hair. Lost in thought over the blunt conclusion that he wasn’t yet the true beloved, Seolyeong watched Choseon exit the garden and immediately headed for Haeseong Pavilion. Instead of the first floor, he flew straight up and flung open a window.

Tang Yujae turned as he was in the middle of discussing the matter of Si Pungjae’s admittance to Geukmunggak with Sa Yeoho. When their eyes met, Seolyeong clung to the window frame and huffed.

“When are we holding our wedding?”

Now that he thought of it, he was only a bride in name. He had not received a ring as a gift, nor had there been any proper ceremony.

In other words, there was nothing to prove that he and the sect leader were truly husband and wife.

Thanks to Choseon, Seolyeong realized what he had overlooked, burst into the study, and confronted his husband.

“Why haven’t we held a wedding yet? And why are my hands still bare, without even a single ring?”

“…I have prior appointments. Come back around early evening.”

Annoyed by the reply, Seolyeong turned to the Geukmunggak Lord and pressed him.

“You.”

Sa Yeoho was barely holding back a fit of laughter.

“Go out. The two of us need to have an honest conversation.”

Seeing the Supreme One being scolded by his wife felt surreal, but the sight of the bride glaring at him like he was a homewrecker was even more entertaining. Sa Yeoho, who had a talent for stirring up romantic drama, replied with a subtle flirtation.

“Forgive me, but this humble servant obeys only the beloved Cheonsin’s commands. Only the Supreme One’s orders can move me. Like the flowers of winter that bloom only at his beautiful call.”

As expected. He purposely looked at the Supreme One with gleaming eyes, and the bride’s face flushed with irritation and jealousy.