Namgung Hyun, who had been staring at the ceiling, lowered his gaze. He saw his torso wrapped in cloth. Lifting his head again, Namgung Hyun waited for the Divine Physician to arrive as soon as possible.Being doused in poison had been an unforeseen accident, but letting Namgung Gangchang have his way was his own will.For whatever reason, Namgung Gangchang had crossed the line.Namgung Hyun willingly let himself be swept up in that fit of temper. Since he was offering up his leash himself, refusing would have been impolite. Of course, Namgung Gangchang believed what he held was not a leash but a club.Looking at the ceiling, Namgung Hyun let out a sigh.That did not mean he was in a good mood.Namgung Hyun found his situation irritating.'…Still, just endure a little longer.'He could endure it.If he could become the master of Namgung and step on those who had despised him one by one.If he could capture in his eyes those hollow faces at the moment their lives were cut off.He could endure this much humiliation as much as needed.—Young hero is a direct scion of Namgung; you need not watch others’ faces so much.Recalling Tang Sohwa’s words, Namgung Hyun let out an involuntary hollow laugh.Ignorant words that only a woman who had always been treated as a direct scion could say.Mocking that voice, Namgung Hyun exhaled a bitter breath.Just then—Clatter.The door opened, and Tang Sohwa appeared.Namgung Hyun narrowed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things. But the afterimage before his eyes did not fade.Rather, as if to prove she wasn’t a phantom, Tang Sohwa drew together her snow-white brows. Rolling her jet-black eyes, she examined him."Are you all right?"Startled, Namgung Hyun sprang up and snatched up the outer robe he had thrown on the floor."Why is Miss Tang here…?"Even as he covered himself, Tang Sohwa didn’t mind and stepped in beside him."Please show me the wound again.""Ah, no, it’s nothing. I’m fine—just the clothes, please."Namgung Hyun reached for the new clothes Tang Sohwa was holding. But Tang Sohwa calmly drew her hand back."If you show me, I’ll hand them over immediately.""Despite how it looks, it doesn’t hurt. It’s not a wound that needs treatment, so there’s no need for you to ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) trouble yourself."Smiling, Namgung Hyun declined her treatment.He had thought she might chide him with regret, but Tang Sohwa spoke in a level voice, as if agreeing."Then at least let me tell you how to manage the wound."Setting the clothes down beside him, Tang Sohwa opened the box on the bed. She explained disinfection methods and even the ingredients of the salve, then closed the box.Handing over a small wooden case of medicine, Tang Sohwa asked,"Why do you let it happen to you?"At that, Namgung Hyun gave a small, wry smile."It seems you think I’m strong."Tang Sohwa stared at him. She fixed him with an unreadable gaze for quite a while. Uncomfortable beneath those eyes, Namgung Hyun asked back,"Miss Tang doesn’t know me well, does she?""Even if I don’t want to know, I can see it."At that incomprehensible reply, Namgung Hyun furrowed his brow.Tang Sohwa lowered her gaze and looked at the old scars on Namgung Hyun’s body."It seems Namgung Gangchang has tormented you for quite some time, yet you weren’t afraid of him at all. No, rather, I had the feeling you were going easy on him. If I could think so, then Namgung Gangchang must have felt that even more strongly."She paused briefly, then went on."Yet even so, that one did not put much effort into establishing the pecking order."Sohwa extended a hand and indicated near Namgung Hyun’s solar plexus. The skin between his ribs was clear. She lowered her hand with a little space left between them.Namgung Hyun flinched.Even without her touch, a ticklish sensation spread through his whole body."Without putting a hand where the dantian lies."Her hand, tracing the path linking the middle dantian and the lower dantian, rose to Namgung Hyun’s shoulder."I heard your upper body was pummeled, and yet the muscles of the arms and shoulders weren’t touched at all. It means he’s venting his anger only up to the line you’ll tolerate."When the gentle movement of her hand withdrew, a fleeting chill passed.Watching Namgung Hyun’s face as expression drained from it, Tang Sohwa smiled."I am a person of a martial clan. I grew up seeing countless warriors carried into the Medical Division after pecking-order fights. From the traces left on a body alone, I can roughly tell the hierarchy."Sohwa drew back her hand, but her gaze remained entangled with his."This is why I told you not to endure. They already know. That you stand higher in the pecking order than they do."While silence flowed, a presence stirred by the door."Young Lady."A maid cautiously called to her. Sohwa’s gaze shifted toward the doorway. Since she had threatened not to leave it alone if the Clan Head entered the secret chamber, she had to leave before anyone saw her."It seems I should go. I’ll step aside so you can change in comfort."Namgung Hyun, who had only been listening, opened his mouth as she was about to leave the room."Why."Tang Sohwa’s gaze returned to Namgung Hyun."Why are you good to me?"At that question, Sohwa’s eyebrows rose, as if to ask what he meant."I do not understand why Miss Tang treats me this way."Namgung Hyun spoke in a calm tone, but he was in a very emotional state. He looked unable to bear his confusion. It wasn’t a positive reaction. His expression was as cold as if he had just suffered a great insult."Are you trying to use me?"Had Namgung Hyun not blurted out his true feelings at once, Tang Sohwa might have followed by revealing her own.But Namgung Hyun began to get angry at her with an expression she had never seen in her life."If you’re using me to attract Brother Namgung Jin’s attention, you’re making a needless effort. My brother covets nothing I possess. On the contrary, he’ll lose interest in you."At the out-of-the-blue remark, Sohwa knit her brows."…I don’t know why the Little Clan Head suddenly enters the conversation.""Because."Though Tang Sohwa quietly waited for the rest, Namgung Hyun could not continue.The inferiority he had kept turning away from suddenly pushed to the surface. It was an ugly feeling he didn’t want to acknowledge, and he regretted dragging the Little Clan Head into it. He came to his senses late, but the words were already out.While Namgung Hyun hesitated, Tang Sohwa spoke again."I don’t know what rumors are circulating in Namgung, but the Little Clan Head Namgung Jin and I have never shared our hearts."Sohwa added with a small smile,"And even if there had been tender feelings, I’m not so base as to beg for someone’s attention by using another.""But then why…"His head was full of questions, yet the more he chewed on them, the more pitiful he felt, and he couldn’t readily speak.He hated being swept up in emotion, and he had never been swept up before, but his thoughts kept slipping out of his control. He loathed this unstable heart.Clearing the questions from his head, Namgung Hyun returned to the one thing he most wanted to know—the first thing he had asked."Why are you good to me?""I would like to ask you instead, young hero."She did not answer the question Namgung Hyun had forced out with difficulty, but returned a question of her own."Is what I’m doing unpleasant to you?"Namgung Hyun should have said no.From the start, this was the command given to him.Two Passages and the Tang Clan Head’s eldest daughter.If he was to become the head of Namgung, he had to bring this woman into the Blood Demon’s embrace. Yet his lips would not open, as if pasted with glue.At that reaction, Sohwa lowered her eyes."If it makes you uncomfortable, I will be careful.""I do not understand. I have done nothing, and I am not someone who can give Miss Tang anything. My brother is more outstanding in character and has greater fame. Even though he shows interest in you, why do you show interest not in him, but in me?"Namgung Hyun reacted sensitively to attention that approached him as if he had never once received love. So Sohwa could not open her mouth for a moment.She had never had such a raw conversation with Namgung Hyun at this age.Thus she did not know how she ought to answer.She knew he was not well treated in his clan and that he had many wounds. But because he had always shown a calm face before her, she hadn’t known there were twisted traces left in his heart.Still too young to completely hide his feelings, Namgung Hyun doubted the attention that came toward him.Sohwa did not take this as aversion.Rather, she thought what he wanted was the opposite.Not indifference, but assurance.It was a feeling she herself had wanted in her younger days.Though it was an affection of a different grain than the tender feelings Namgung Hyun spoke of.Reflecting on her past, Sohwa slowly opened her mouth."If you ask for the reason why I took you into my heart, I do not know the reason either."She recalled the answer of one who had once given her assurance."Someone who has lived several times more than I have said so: If the heart reaches because there is a reason, that’s called courtship."It was one of Tang Min’s drunken mutterings.Words she had hated to hear and let pass roughly now flowed from Sohwa’s lips."If the heart moves without a reason, that’s called fate."Seeing the maid’s shadow forming at the door, Sohwa brought the conversation to a close."I sincerely hope you recover quickly."Leaving that greeting, Sohwa stepped out of the room.Namgung Hyun stared at the door through which she had exited, then lowered his eyes. On the bed lay the clothes Tang Sohwa had left behind.Thud.As he picked up the clothes, Namgung Hyun narrowed his brows. An envelope, caught in the hem, had fallen.Inside the envelope was a blank sheet. Nothing was written on it, and it was all the more precious for that—a piece of fine paper.Namgung Hyun remembered Tang Sohwa’s promise that, as a gift for the calligraphy duel, she would give him whatever he desired.Without even changing clothes, Namgung Hyun spent a long time feeling the soft texture of the paper in his hands. It was a gift that made his thoughts tangle just from imagining what he might write. At last unable to let it go, he carefully tucked the paper into his breast.In the end, he admitted that, for the first time, he had been overcome by desire.

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