Camellia 166

Hayeon opened and closed her hand. Qi cracked in the air. Her clear blue eyes reflected the full moon. The gaze of the heavens met the gaze of the divine beast.

The girl’s eyes were calm, as if she were saying to the heavens, that she would be the one to step onto the stair and enter their embrace.

Seolyeong wanted to speak, but his body was too broken to make a sound. He tried to push himself up from the ground, but Hayeon stopped him.

“If you use more Qi, your meridians will be damaged.”

He had done enough. If a being of the earth had come this far, then it was time for the heavens to respond. The imugi, who had stood motionless at the center of the staircase, spoke in a solemn voice.

“I can feel Hwaryun’s energy from you.”

Hayeon shrugged and replied casually.

“I share his blood. And yours too.”

The child born from the twisted bond between Namgung Seonju and Hwaryun showed no trace of anger toward her parents. Instead, the girl seemed to offer comfort to the imugi’s sorrow.

“My danjeon holds your energy too, so maybe that withered love of yours wasn’t such a failure after all.”

Just as every leaf dries and withers with the seasons, the imugi’s love had lost its vitality once the season called Hwaryun passed. It was a season that could never return. That love was buried deep in the divine beast’s chest, rotting slowly in silence.

Hayeon smiled and stepped toward the staircase of light.

She had always stayed by her brother’s side. There were so many moments she had wished to speak openly with him after revealing who she was. But the heavens had allowed her only to watch. She had sensed that if she tried to intervene in his fate, she would lose even the chance to observe. The divine power granted to her would vanish before she could do anything at all.

Her instincts had been right. Power surged within her, tossing and twisting like a ship caught in a storm.

‘Almighty God…’

Even so, her steps did not falter.

“Please return the man who can make flowers bloom even in the dead of winter. Don’t you know how beautiful the flowers he has bloomed this winter?”

All Seolyeong could do was watch the girl, groaning softly. This child, who had been trapped in Gyehong Mountain, tormented endlessly, killed before she could ever find happiness, was now walking the path of destruction.

His hand scraped across the dirt. Tears finally fell. He prepared to risk his voice and speak.

“Ah. Seonwol-do asked me to pass this on.”

A gentle voice reached him in his despair. Seonwol-do felt relieved that it could say goodbye to its master this way.

“Don’t cry, my radiant child.”

A child so strong and so full of love that even the Wonsi Cheonjon’s favor made sense. A child who always found it harder to hate than to be hated.

“I want to be born as a sword again in my next life, just so I can protect you. You must never let your husband take over this role.”

Seonwol-do added bluntly, thinking of Sahyeol Amje who had dared covet its place. “Let that man have his fill of love with the kid, then.”

“When grief drives you to the edge of a cliff, I will always be the wings on your back.”

Seolyeong’s face was soaked with tears. He remembered the moment Seonwol-do caught him when he fell. Since that day, the sword had always been by his side. People came and went, but the sword had never left. It made the loneliness bearable.

At last, the girl placed her foot on the stair. The imugi watched her closely. She climbed with such ease, unlike him.

Now he understood.

The imugi, ready to ascend, looked up at the full moon. This staircase of light had not been built for him alone. As if acknowledging his realization, the moonlight grew even brighter.

Still wearing Tang Yujae’s form, the imugi reached out his hand toward the girl.

When she placed her hand in his, the imugi whispered.

“As a imugi who has spent more time on this earth than you, I can promise you this.”

Hayeon looked at him with soft eyes. After so long, the siblings were standing face to face again. Even if just like this, it was enough to hold hands.

“The heavens will not punish you. They will reward you.”

As his voice faded, the staircase began to collapse from the bottom up. A storm of wind howled so fierce it was hard to keep one’s eyes open. Dust swirled from every direction.

Coughing harshly, Seolyeong finally managed to open his eyes. Beyond the haze, he saw a man falling. Just like when Seonwol-do had caught him, this time Seolyeong forced his broken body up and caught the man himself.

Their bodies crashed and rolled. He held him tightly, crushed beneath the weight. The scent of herbs filled the air. Black hair brushed against Seolyeong’s white cheek. Sahyeol Amje, sleeping like the dead, lay quiet in his arms.

Seolyeong’s fingers brushed across his husband’s face, where the mark had vanished. He looked up at the staircase.

Only the step closest to the full moon remained. The rest had crumbled. A man with long, silver-blue hair tied high gripped Seonwol-do. A falcon with matching blue-tipped wings perched on his broad shoulder.

The moment of ascension had come.

The black night burned bright with moonlight. Clouds gathered and shaped themselves into a dragon. Seolyeong stood frozen beneath the sight, overwhelmed.

Wings of a dragon rose above the man’s back.

–Those who obey heaven live. Those defy it resist perish.

The imugi spoke the words Seolyeong had cursed so many times before. As if bestowing a reward, he raised the sword.

–You were right, monster.

The sword’s energy spread in a cold wave and awakened the mountains and rivers. It was a gift left by the imugi for his contractor.

Red camellias bloomed in full across all of Sipman Daesan. In Yurigung, people began to wake one by one. As if possessed, they opened their windows and stared blankly at the landscape wrapped in red blossoms.

As the full moon disappeared and dawn broke, Seolyeong sobbed. The imugi had gone. Seonwol-do had gone. Sahyeol Amje’s sister had gone. All of them had left. But there was still one person beside him.

Seolyeong raised his voice to the heavens, both in gratitude and as a warning.

“Since before I can even remember, I’ve believed this. Martial arts are strong. Chivalry is beautiful.”

His voice cracked, breaking between tears.

“You gave me the chance to save this man. So now I’ll live saving others. So from now on… please stop taking people’s fates away without asking. All right?”

If the imugi had heard him, he would’ve laughed dryly at how bold the words were.

Seolyeong, carrying Sahyeol Amje on his back, swallowed down the grief and walked.

‘When grief drives you to the edge of a cliff, I will always be the wings on your back.’

The words Seonwol-do had left behind still echoed in his ears. But he couldn’t cry forever. If he kept crying, even the dumb mutt would be heartbroken.

He wiped his tears, sniffling, and walked the camellia-lined forest path. Until the man on his back finally woke, wiped his tear-streaked cheek, and rested his cool hand, now faintly warm, on Seolyeong’s face.

The sun rose. A new day came.

When a quiet voice called, “Ahyeong-ah”, Seolyeong answered.

“Let’s go to Haedong soon.”

They said peregrine falcon ms lived there, soaring close to the cliffs over the sea. He planned to stare at the sky as long as he wanted, watching them fly. And after that.

“Let’s finally become a true couple there, my husband.”

He would force a ring onto Sahyeol Amje’s finger. Force one onto his own hand too, then grab his chin and kiss him.

At his bride’s stubborn proposal, Tang Yujae let out a tired laugh.

“I guess you really did manage to save me…”

Seolyeong, still sniffling, replied.

“No.”

“Hmm”, Sniffling again, he added slowly.

“A righteous heart saved you.”