His voice was gentle, but the meaning was clear enough: Why are you staring?

He was still a Taoist, so I hadn’t expected him to say anything so directly. Caught off guard, I blinked.

While I stood there blankly trying to find the right words, Yeon Ryang jumped in, rubbing his hands together.

“Oh dear, our apologies, Taoists. Our youngest loses her mind whenever she sees a handsome man, so she caused you offense. The Taoist sitting there is so strikingly handsome her eyes just rolled right over....”

What the hell was this old man saying?

Horrified, I drove my elbow into Yeon Ryang’s side.

“Brother!”

Of course, Yeon Ryang didn’t budge in the slightest. The muscles along his side were so hard that only my elbow ended up hurting.

Damn it, that hurt.

“She’s a foolish child, so I hope you’ll forgive her generously. It’s my fault for not keeping a better eye on my sister. Gyeonga, apologize at once. Staring so openly at someone’s face without manners is making the Taoist uncomfortable. No matter how handsome he is, you can’t look at him like that. Is that how your brother raised you?”

Putting on the act of a stern older brother, Yeon Ryang pointed at me. The Taoist, looking a little flustered, gave an easy smile and waved his hand.

“It’s all right. It’s not something worth scolding her over, so don’t trouble yourself.”

“I’ll make sure it never happens again, Taoist. I sincerely apologize. Come here and apologize. Go on.”

In the blink of an eye, I had been turned into some fool who swooned over handsome men. I opened and closed my mouth.

Yeon Ryang, you absolute thug.

Still, judging by how much the Taoist’s attitude had softened, it didn’t seem to have been a bad choice.

Rolling my eyes around for a second, I belatedly played along.

“This young woman was rude, Taoist. I must have briefly lost my senses. Up close, you’re even more striking.”

I lowered my lashes and blinked as if shy, but Jinseong’s reaction was cold.

“...”

He said nothing, only stared at me as though a rock had suddenly started talking.

Hm. So this wasn’t working.

I kept an awkward smile at the corner of my mouth and studied him.

His handsome face sat right at the boundary between boy and young man, but the lines of it were bold and sharp.

His healthy bronze skin was flawless, and those gray eyes with their strange light looked as steady as though no storm in the world could shake them.

His hair, pulled up with not a single stray strand out of place, seemed to speak of a meticulous personality.

There was something about the stubborn shape of his mouth that vaguely reminded me of Deokju.

He had that look of someone who was taciturn, rigid, and hopelessly straight-laced.

I suddenly wondered why the novel had never described Jinseong’s looks.

He was handsome enough to qualify even in a contest to choose the most beautiful man under heaven.

“The Taoist’s uncomfortable. Come over here.”

As if to say that was enough staring, Yeon Ryang suddenly lifted me right off the ground. Dangling from his grip, I asked,

“Taoist, may I ask your Taoist name?”

“...Jinseong.”

With a peculiar look on his face as his gaze moved back and forth between me and Yeon Ryang, Jinseong answered. His voice was a pleasant, low baritone.

I smiled sweetly and greeted him.

“Thank you for telling me, Taoist Jinseong.”

Since he had told me his Taoist name himself, at least no one could ask how I knew it now.

Jinseong glanced once at me being carried off like a misbehaving puppy, then shifted his gaze down to the plate in front of him with a stiff expression.

The Taoists who had been watching our exchange stroked their beards and laughed heartily.

“Hahaha, so it’s true there are many young ladies infatuated with our youngest junior brother.”

“Our Jinseong certainly does cut a fine figure.”

“It’s because he’s young, because he’s young. When I was Jinseong’s age....”

“Senior Brother. Stop talking nonsense and eat. You were ugly even at Jinseong’s age.”

“What, you little—”

I pretended to move my chopsticks while eavesdropping on the Taoists’ conversation.

Judging by the atmosphere, these men seemed to dote on their much younger junior brother the way uncles would a favorite nephew.

“Oh, right, Jinseong. Did Master tell you? I hear you’ll be leading the third-generation disciples being dispatched to the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Martial Alliance.”

“Is that so.”

“‘Is that so,’ he says. You brat. Once you get to Wuhan, you’ll have to keep an eye on those Song-generation boys for at least three months. Do you think you can handle it? This senior brother worries whether you’ll be able to manage all the trouble they cause.”

“He’ll handle it. Even if they’re about the same age, Jinseong is still their grand-uncle master, grand-uncle master. Why wouldn’t he be able to handle his martial grand-nephews?”

“Even so. Just in case. If those brats start trying to destroy the order of master and disciple, smack them on the backside. I’ll take responsibility for what comes after.”

“Oh, listen to the wonderful things you’re teaching a child. Don’t go around calling yourself a Taoist.”

Snorting, an old Taoist shot his senior brother a look and crunched down on peanuts.

Jinseong kept eating silently, apparently used to the comic routine of his older senior brothers.

I glanced at him and fell into thought.

I think Jinseong was around six years older than Namgung Hwi. Then that would make him four years older than me, so is he twenty?

“Haha, once this outing is over, our Jinseong will probably get a sobriquet too. To think the youngest junior brother we raised while changing his diapers is already twenty. Time really does fly, Senior Brother.”

“You changed them? I changed them.”

“Don’t act proud just because you changed a few diapers. Senior Brothers, it was me who broke the ice on the frozen stream and washed the whole pile of diapers Master kept stacked up.”

So twenty really was right.

As I counted on my fingers, figuring up Jinseong’s age, Yeon Ryang—who had been watching me—grew alarmingly serious.

“Gyeonga.”

“Yes?”

“Wudang Taoists can’t marry. I know you’ve taken a liking to that young Taoist, but you may want to reconsider—”

“What are you even talking about anymore, seriously!”

I stomped down hard on Yeon Ryang’s foot to tell him to shut up. He only chuckled and propped his chin on one hand.

“If you don’t like him, and it’s not as though you even know each other, why are you so interested?”

Because he’s the protagonist’s rival. He’s basically Namgung Hwi’s combat measuring stick.

That was not the kind of reason I could say out loud, so I gave him a vague answer instead.

“He reminds me of someone I know.”

That wasn’t a lie. That impossibly inflexible air about him really did remind me of Deokju.

“A friend? Or family?”

“Not... a friend. More like family.”

“Must have been one of the household, then. That happens.”

Nodding, Yeon Ryang laid a piece of tender fish onto my plate.

It was his way of saying he wouldn’t press further. The tiny bit of consideration made me smile for no reason.

He really was a thoughtful person in all kinds of ways.

I put the fish into my mouth and chewed.

At some point Cane had climbed into Yeon Ryang’s lap too, accepting little morsels of meat he pulled apart for it.

Even while rubbing its swollen belly, it kept chewing endlessly. The sight made a laugh slip out of me.

“Cane. Stop eating. What are you, a pig?”

“Kii!”

Cane cried miserably, as if protesting that I shouldn’t bully it over food. Chuckling, Yeon Ryang stroked its fur and said,

“I think we should stay the night here and take a carriage tomorrow, sister.”

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

“We should probably buy some rations. Do you want to look around the shops today, or do it all at once tomorrow?”

“You must be tired, so let’s do it tomorrow. You kept taking the night watch, didn’t you? You need a chance to breathe too.”

For several days, I hadn’t once seen Yeon Ryang properly asleep. Even if he had snatched a little rest here and there, the exhaustion had to be piling up.

Both he and I needed real rest before setting out for Wuhan.

At my answer, one corner of Yeon Ryang’s mouth curled up.

“Haha, are you worried your brother might be tired? You’re kindhearted, sister.”

That was rich coming from the man who had picked up someone collapsed in the mountains, saved her life, and then volunteered to escort her.

I smiled faintly and answered back,

“Not nearly as kind as you. If you’re done eating, let’s go upstairs and rest.”

Just as we were about to get up, the Wudang Taoists—who had finished around the same time—also started bustling to their feet.

“Oops, the Sect Leader will be waiting. Let’s go up before we’re any later.”

“Senior Brother. Before we go up, just one bottle of old wine—”

“Shh, you idiot. Jinseong will hear. Go buy it quietly.”

One old Taoist jabbed his junior brother in the side and pressed a handful of copper coins into his hand.

When I glanced at Jinseong, his brows were twitching with displeasure. But he didn’t seem inclined to say anything harsh to senior brothers so much older than he was....

“Eldest Senior Brother. You must not bring alcohol into Jasogung.”

“Haha, Jinseong, you must have heard wrong. Alcohol? What alcohol?”

“You mustn’t. If even Eldest Senior Brother, who ought to lead by keeping the rules, talks of alcohol....”

He really did have no trouble saying unpleasant things. That one was a strict principles-and-rules type.

“That brat, honestly. Fine, fine. I won’t drink it inside Jasogung, so don’t worry.”

The old Taoist laughed and tried to soothe Jinseong.

Even when the young junior brother rebuked him so bluntly, he wasn’t offended at all. If anything, he looked fond, as though Jinseong were adorable.

The age gap really was big enough that anything the younger one said probably just seemed cute.

When Jinseong looked ready to argue further, the old Taoist cut him off by pushing him lightly from behind.

“There, there, Jinseong. Let’s go before we get any later. The Sect Leader is waiting, after all.”

In the meantime, another Taoist had already slipped the wine flask into his robes with lightning speed, then cleared his throat as if nothing had happened.

“Ahem. Eldest Senior Brother is right. Shouldn’t we head up before the sun sets? Come, let’s get moving.”

As the Taoists briskly changed the subject, coaxed along their junior brother, and filed out of the inn, Yeon Ryang gave an incredulous shrug.

“So Taoists don’t live on dew alone after all.”

“Didn’t you see what they ordered? It was all meat.”

The table the Taoists had left behind was piled high with bones picked clean of every scrap of flesh.

I watched the back of Jinseong’s head as he disappeared into the distance, then slowly turned away.