A dark night. Namgoong Mucheon’s gaze was heavy as he watched his granddaughter sleep as if dead.

‘Am I the Clan Lord’s daughter?’

The eyes that asked that question were filled with anxiety.

What had it been like five years ago, when the child returned to the Namgoong Clan?

‘Isn’t it the Namgoong who should be the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) ones looking for a missing child? And yet, why must I prove myself?’

That bold voice, brimming with absolute conviction, had been enough to collapse their wariness in an instant.

Seop Mugwang and the Chief Steward, who were there as well, could not have cast this child out in that moment.

Even if the child had not been Seolhwa.

‘And yet.’

What had swept this child into anxiety?

No doubt it was the fault of these incompetent adults.

‘Am I... the Alliance Lord’s... granddaughter...?’

Seolhwa looked tormented as she asked.

As if she were desperately contending with something inside herself—she looked in pain.

‘Please... answer me....’

But he could not answer.

If he said there and then that she was their daughter and granddaughter, the cruel power ruling Seolhwa would rampage.

Seolhwa shed tears.

And, without hearing an answer, she lost consciousness.

[Only now have things settled a bit.]

The snake coiled by Seolhwa’s pillow slid down to the floor with a soft sound.

As it headed for the window, Namgoong Mucheon dipped his head briefly.

“Your remaining by Seolhwa’s side to shield her—I can only be grateful.”

[She is the child I chose. I could hardly leave her to die.]

“May I ask how Seolhwa is?”

[The Blood Demon’s power still suppresses this child. I am breathing strength into her, but in the end, breaking free is this child’s task.]

Ever since returning to Seolhwa, the Imoogi had peered into her Heavenly Gate whenever she fell asleep.

Where its own Shard had once rested, a very foul, unpleasant energy had taken seat.

Death and resentment, fury and screams—

As if every negative thing had been gathered up and mixed together.

It sought to knead Seolhwa at will, to move her as it pleased.

[But do not worry overmuch. I say again—she is the one I chose.]

Namgoong Mucheon let out a long sigh and slowly nodded.

****

[How long do you mean to sleep! Get a hold of yourself, insolent human!]

Seolhwa’s eyes fluttered open.

‘Where is this...?’

A hollow space shrouded on all sides by darkness.

Seolhwa looked down at her hands.

The dark was so dense she could not even see her own body.

She hugged herself.

‘Cold... scared....’

I want to get out of here.

[Then get out.]

A voice slipped into her ear.

It was matter-of-fact, as if this darkness were nothing at all.

‘Imoogi?’

You hadn’t left?

[Insolent thing! I am not a being who goes because I am told to go and comes because I am told to come! Leaving is at my whim!]

For all that, you left me as promised before returning to the Blood Demon.

And here you are again.

A quiet chuckle escaped her.

Then Seolhwa hugged herself again and shivered.

‘Cold.’

She wanted to feel even the Imoogi’s touch.

‘Where are you? I can’t see you. Are you by my side?’

[I am near you. You must open your eyes to see.]

‘I have them open. But I can’t see. Anything.’

[Open them!]

‘I am! Truly! But it’s too dark here...!’

[Namgoong Seolhwa! Do not miss it! You must see with your own eyes! The path will surely—]

The Imoogi’s voice receded, little by little.

Seolhwa thrust her arms out, groping frantically around her.

‘Don’t go...! Imoogi! Don’t go...!’

[Your... own... light... come forth....]

‘Imoogi!’

“!”

Seolhwa opened her eyes.

Hff—

Air surged into her lungs at once.

Guhk— kuhk! Hff! Cough! Cough—

Seolhwa clutched her chest and expelled her breath.

Her ragged breathing, little by little, barely came back under control.

Hff... hff... huff....

As she slowly steadied her breath, confusion clouded her face.

Her gaze wandered, unmoored, unsure where to look.

Ha... haa....

At length, the harsh breaths subsided.

Seolhwa fixed her eyes on the brightened edge of the bed, lit by moonlight streaming through the window.

A faint voice slipped from her lips.

“I remember....”

****

Srrrk—

On a moonlit night, Seolhwa’s door opened softly and Cheongun entered.

With cautious steps, he masked his presence and approached the bedside.

After dinner, they had moved Seolhwa to her room, and while Namgoong Mucheon kept watch at her side, Cheongun had finished the remaining work and returned.

Tomorrow, he meant to spend the entire day with Seolhwa.

So she could accept naturally that she was his daughter.

So she could realize that such a thing was only right.

As they had done after Seolhwa returned before—go out together, go to the market, buy a pretty haircomb, eat candied hawthorn.

He wanted her to feel how loved she was.

“Doon-gi, doon-ga. My small and lovely Snow-White. Whence have you come, to be so fair.”

When Seolhwa was little, he would cradle her and murmur that song.

“Do you take after your mother to be so lovely, or the peach blossom to be so fair? Heaven has sent me a fairy.”

Snow-White.

My lovely Snow-White.

Cheongun brushed back the hair from the sleeping Seolhwa’s brow.

The small, tiny baby had, before he knew it, grown into a lovely young lady.

Now, truly, he could see a wife’s face in hers.

“Do not be ill. If you are in pain...”

This father’s heart will crumble.

“Just... grow up healthy....”

That, alone, had been all he wished for.

Cheongun lifted his head and looked up at the bright moon beyond the window.

A dense bank of clouds was massing a handspan from the moon.

Soon, the world would darken.

Cheongun rose to his feet.

Tomorrow would be entirely for Seolhwa.

Thinking quietly of the things he would do with her, he left the room.

****

The grey of dawn.

The hour when birds’ calls pass high overhead and a chill breath lingers.

“....”

Seolhwa opened her eyes.

Awake from sleep, she rose quietly and felt out the presences around her.

A hush lay over the quarters.

It seemed no one had yet begun the day.

Seolhwa rose from the bed and went to the chest of drawers.

Opening the drawers one by one, she took a black martial outfit from the third.

She changed into the outfit, wrapped a black cloth over the lower half of her face, then went to the sword rack.

Her hand reached toward the sword she had received from Seop Mugwang last night—then halted.

A beat later, she picked up the shabby sword the old woman had returned to her, lying beside it.

Srrng—

A blade dull, made of cheap iron, heavy in the hand.

But it would suffice.

Tak—

After tying the sword at her waist, Seolhwa slipped quietly out of the room.

Meanwhile, at the same hour,

Cheongun had sought sleep in his old quarters for the first time in a while.

Since ascending to Clan Lord and moving to the Clan Lord’s Hall, he had not come often to the rooms where he had lived with Seolhwa.

He had finished his work so he could spend the whole day with her, and thus could rest here, for once.

Rustle—

“?”

A faint presence outside brought Cheongun from his sleep.

Perhaps because he had returned after some time away, the bed had felt a little unfamiliar and he had not slept deeply.

Raising himself, Cheongun felt out the presences for a moment.

Someone was close by.

‘A maid?’

But for a maid, the presence was too light, the steps too soft.

“Who is there?”

Cheongun called out, but no answer came.

A faint crease touched his brow.

Sensing something amiss, he rose quietly and took up the sword propped to one side.

At the same moment, a shadow fell across the door.

“I asked who is there.”

A tingling crept over his skin.

Even with the door between them, the killing intent pouring off the one beyond threatened him.

Shiiing—

Cheongun drew his sword.

‘A dangerous one.’

Surely a killer come to murder him.

‘Who sent an assassin?’

Which forces stood in enmity with the main house?

‘Don’t tell me—!’

Cheongun’s gaze snapped up.

Had the Blood Cult sent an assassin to take Seolhwa?

‘No...!’

He must subdue the assassin at once and go to Seolhwa—that thought had barely formed when—

Kwah-jik— Shwiik—!

“!”

Something burst through the door and flew in.

Cheongun twisted reflexively, evading the incoming thing.

A throwing knife, the size of a palm.

‘That is...!’

It’s Seolhwa’s...!

Cheongun jerked his eyes to the assassin.

At the same time—

Ka-ang—!

“Gh...!”

A weighty blade drove for the nape of his neck.

Cheongun flipped his sword and caught the assassin’s blade.

Kang—! Ka-kang! Kang!

In Cheongun’s room, the two clashed in a fierce melee.

Kwah-jik! Bang—!

The assassin’s sword was heavy and rough.

The strokes he deflected shattered furniture and ornaments all over the room.

Ka-ka-kang! Kwa-ang! Ka-kang! Bang!

The narrow room somewhat hemmed in the assassin’s rampage.

Thanks to walls and furniture hindering the assassin’s movement, Cheongun received the blade without undue difficulty.

But perhaps the assassin realized it as well.

Hwoong— hung—!

“!”

Force Aura...!

Cheongun fell back toward the door to evade the Force Aura the assassin sent.

At the same moment—

Kwa-gwagagak! Ku-koong!

One wall of the room gave way entirely under the Force Aura and collapsed.

Sssrk—

The assassin squared once more to Cheongun.

Cheongun’s gut clenched.

‘That way lies Seolhwa’s quarters...!’

He must not let another blast fly!

Tadat—!

Decision made, Cheongun plunged at the assassin without hesitation.

By then a clear, blue blade aura was already swathing his sword.

Bang—! Kang! Ka-ga-gang!

Their swords crashed through dozens of exchanges in an instant.

Unlike before, it was Cheongun pressing the assault.

Ka-ga-ga-gang—!

He meant to drive the assassin outward like this, away from Seolhwa’s quarters.

Perhaps the assassin had not expected Cheongun to burrow in so doggedly; a flicker of disconcertment showed.

Ka-kang—! Kang!

The swords they swung could not be seen.

Only the afterimages carved around them by sword, one crimson-dark, one blue, marked their positions.

Chwaaa—

At last, as Cheongun’s blade sliced through the cloth hiding the assassin’s face—

“...!”

Cheongun could only go rigid where he stood.