Book 9 Chapter 17

Palace of the Hyolong

"Phew……."

"Hah……."

Re.

"Phew……."

Hyo-Ryong let out a series of heavy sighs.

His face was grim, and his eyes were downcast. He had been on the anti-rejuvenation path lately, sighing like an old man. In fact, he hadn't been cheerful since the tragedy at Mudang Mountain. In front of many people who cared about him, he would force a smile, but he had never laughed from the heart. The honeyed aura emanated from him like the lingering aroma of food that had been left out for two months, and it was almost painful to watch.

"Ew! I feel like I'm going to rust away, infected by your melancholy just by being near you. I have never learned to swim in the sea of sorrow… what can I do?"

The even worse Bi Ryuyeon couldn't help but say something.

"I'm glad you're comfortable."

Feeling a great deal of envy for the easy-going Bi Ryuyeon, Hyorong sighed heavily once more. The burden on his heart hadn't gone away. On the contrary, it was only increasing. He didn't want to put the blame on any one person, but it had all been happening since Eunseulan came here.

Hyo-ryong stepped outside to cool off in the cool night air, which seemed to ignite a fire inside him, and he felt that he would not be able to sleep if his mind was too confused.

He headed for Yun Xiang Pavilion, the very place where Bi Ryuyeon had stolen Na Yerin's lips and made the majority of the men in the Heavenly Martial Academy feel indignant.

Lately, when I've been feeling overwhelmed, I've often come here to calm myself down, but today there was a pre-emptor.

As the clouds that had obscured the moon lifted and moonlight once again spread across the land, the figure of the traveler emerged from the shadows of the night.

Hmph! Hyorong stiffened at the sight of his first guest. His eyes widened to the size of fire lanterns.

"Oh my God!

I didn't want this… but the heavens were grumpy and not very good at helping those who help themselves.

Misfortune seemed to stick with you the longer you avoided it.

"Wait!"

Hyorong stood tall at Eunseulan's call. It was too much for him to run away from her voice.

"What can I do for you?"

Hyo-Ryong said, frowning.

"Is it necessary to speak so stiffly, you Confucius, and why do you keep avoiding me?"

"I don't deserve you, because I don't deserve to see you."

His head snapped downward. He truly could not bear to look at her.

"…When I look at you, I keep thinking of my brother, and I think of my sins. Goodbye!"

Hyorong turned and walked away quickly, afraid to finish his sentence. He urgently wanted to get away from the heavy feeling in his chest.

"You Confucius!"

Hyorong was forced to stop walking as fast as he could. He was desperate to get out of this place as soon as possible, but his feet wouldn't listen.

"Don't dodge! Why do you keep trying to avoid me? Look me in the face."

"……."

At this moment, Hyo-Ryong was faced with a difficult choice. Should he continue to ignore her and walk forward, or should he answer her call?

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, he turned his head to look at her, but he still didn't have the courage to meet her eyes directly. His heart ached in the pit of his stomach.

He wanted to avoid direct confrontation with her if he could, because he was afraid. To meet her! He didn't know what to say to her. What was he supposed to say?

"I killed my brother with my own hands!" But artificially avoiding her had reached its limit, and I finally confronted her. And it was alone, at night, in the dark. It was the worst possible situation.

I wasn't out for a walk to drown my sorrows. How could I have imagined running into her in a place like this!

"……."

Both men remained stoic in their silence.

Two people were now sharing the shadow of a man they could never forget.

Tens of thousands of words of silent conversation passed between him and her.

"Do you know how hard it was for me after he died? There were more days I wanted to die than I wanted to live, because the world without him was meaningless to me. But I couldn't die, because if I did, he would be really angry with me."

Tears streamed down her usually smiling face. Her most powerful weapon scattered its faint glow in the moonlight.

"Sister!"

Hyo-Ryong froze. He could no longer reach out and grab his shoulder. Suddenly, his brother's smiling face stopped him.

"Why are you in so much pain?"

She looked up at him, her eyes still brimming with dried tears. He felt a stabbing pain in his heart.

"It's my sin."

It was a bottomless pit.

"What is your sin?"

"…everything is my sin."

Hyo-ryong replied in a weak voice. He couldn't bring himself to say more, but Eunseulan didn't give up.

"I'm sure Confucius knows what I've come here on a mission, but even apart from that, I think I have a right to hear the truth of the matter."

There were no words to refute. Of course, as Gal Hyo-fong's consort, she had every right to hear the truth of the matter, but Hyo-ryong himself could not bear it.

"Tell me. What the hell happened that day?"

In a mournful tone, Silver Snow asked. It was a voice that touched a person's heart. But…….

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you, I'm a coward."

He didn't have the courage to tell her about it.

"What are you so sad about? What are you suffering for, and why do you keep it to yourself and wallow in your sorrow?"

Every time he heard Eunseolan's gentle voice, Hyo-ryong felt his heart sink.

"Blah blah blah, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Despite repeatedly apologizing, Hyo-ryong refused to tell her the truth. Eunseolan couldn't bear to see him suffer any longer.

At this time, Hyorong was alive, but not alive; he was in a state worse than a corpse, with all of his soul drained out of him and nothing but a shell. For days and nights, he was in a daze, like a madman.

Seeing him like that, Bi Ryuyeon said coldly.

"Don't you think you have too much faith in yourself, you're putting yourself down!"

There was no knife in his hand, but it was a full-blown assault with his tongue.

Hyo-Ryong's body flinched in response to the assault.

"What? What did you just say?"

Hyolong's face was gaunt with worry and anguish. His formerly handsome features were nowhere to be seen. His eyes still hadn't fully regained their focus.

In a fit of rage, Bi Ryuyeon grabbed Hyo Rong's slap with one hand. She was too angry to watch from the sidelines.

"Now spare me your lame self-deprecation. You had no power to change the fate of that day, so it's not your fault! You were a victim of fate, not the master of it, so don't you dawdle over a subject you can't defy the heavens over! I'm tired of watching you lose your mind."

Each word was cold and dispassionate. These were the words that knocked Hyorong's closed heart open. If it weren't for Bi Ryuyeon's unrelenting words, Hyo-ryong might have remained silent, his heart still closed. For some reason, those words stuck in his mind and came back to him now.

He felt his nerves calm down, the anticipation in his heart dull, and he was barely able to return to the real world.

The sight flashed before his eyes like an arrow, like a light, like a lantern.

Blood, blood, blood!

And the layered corpse.

Your blood, your sword, my sword, and your death!

I felt like I was losing my mind. My mind had become like a tangled thread. I didn't even know where to start to untangle it. It suddenly occurred to me that I might go crazy. The warnings of my instincts were fierce, as I realized that this was not going to end well.

It was a nightmare, a nightmare I never want to relive again.

Unable to bear to see him in pain, Eunseulan comforted him in a soft voice. Any further questioning would be too much for her to bear.

"I'm sorry, I won't ask you any more about it today, but if you ever feel like it, you can talk to me. Stop suffering now! Confucius would be very upset to see you like this, wouldn't he?"

Eunseulan grabbed Hyo-ryong's hand, which was clenched so tightly it was bleeding.

"Is that true?"

"Sure."

She laughed. At that moment, one of the strings of tension that had been holding Hyo-ryong back was released. He shed the tears he had been holding back.

"Kaaaaaaaah! Kaaaaaaaah! Kaaaaaaaah!"

Wailing, lung-crushing wailing, filled the pavilion. Even the moonlight seemed to mourn.

Eun Seolan wrapped her slender arms around Hyo Ryong, who was sobbing like a child.

Hyo-Ryong has always wanted to be forgiven by someone for his deepest sins! Ever since that day, he has been craving forgiveness, but no one has ever answered his thirst.

There was no one worthy to forgive him. In his constant self-pity, he waited for a judge to punish him, or someone to forgive him. And then he met her.

Will she judge or forgive herself?

But to her, he resolved in his heart, he would one day, when the time was right, tell her everything and seek her judgment.

My frozen heart seemed to melt.

This usually always happens unintentionally, meaning that Lee Jin-sul was curious about Hyo-ryong's personal life and finally couldn't resist and followed him. It was definitely not intentional. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time, that's all. Lee simply liked Eunsulan and wanted to talk to her in private. That's all, she didn't have any personal feelings, so the blame can be placed on the heavens for manipulating this fate, not on people.

It was just a little joke in the sky, but the frog that got stoned is a sore one.

Some coincidences are meant to be. It was a very sudden coincidence. Four people happened to be heading to the same place at the same time. That place, of course, was Unhyangjeong. It was a place she had always chatted with Na Yerin, so it was a place she was very fond of. Eunseulan had no choice but to hide herself, just as Mo Yonghui had done.

Besides, this wasn't a situation where she could pretend to be Tae-yeon and show her face.

How many would have the audacity to appear in front of a man and a woman on a lustful night when they were cuddled up together? Her heart fluttered in her chest.

Her heart sank when she realized that the person she wanted to talk to, Eunseolan, was hugging Hyo-ryong, the man she had a crush on.

Lee's head felt like a blank slate.

'What is that… what is that… is something wrong with my eyes, maybe I'm mistaken…….'

I wanted to deny this devastating reality if I could. I wanted to dismiss it as a mere optical illusion caused by a sudden loss of vision.

Of course, the binary theory couldn't have known that, but Hyo-ryong's feelings for Eunseulan were never selfish. His feelings for her were pure favor for his future brother-in-law. His feelings now were no more or less than those of a child in his mother's arms.

But it didn't change the fact that Hyo-ryong had been seen by Yi Jin-sul talking in hushed tones and seriousness, crying and being held. The interpretation of this situation was now up to Lee Jin-sul, her discretion.

Lee Jin-sul just wanted to cheer Hyo-ryong up since he's been so down lately, so she decided to pay him a visit. But first, she wanted to meet and talk to Eunseol-ran.

But there she was. Lee Jin-sul subconsciously hid herself, only to see Hyo-ryong and Eunseol-ran embracing.

Stars flow down the river of night. Time flows along the Milky Way, a river of stars. And tears run down her cheeks.