Moyong Hee-ah barged into the room.
Perhaps it was because Moyong Hee-ah had entered, but the cramped room seemed to grow cold.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, you’re being extremely intrusive.”
“Thank you.”
“...”
At this point, wasn’t she practically asking me to curse her?
Moyong Hee-ah had always been cold, fierce, and ill-mannered.
But she had never seemed shameless.
What had happened to her?
‘Or had she always been like this?’
That was possible, but regardless.
This was an extremely awkward situation.
“Um...”
“Please, speak.”
“I heard about it. That you made a deal with the Moyong Family.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Even as I spoke to her, I examined Moyong Hee-ah.
The scent of powder that I usually sensed from her.
Her heavy makeup.
Even the ornaments she normally wore were nowhere to be seen.
Unlike her usual embellished appearance, this was Moyong Hee-ah in her natural state.
‘She looks like she did back in the Demon Realm.’
Back then, she hadn’t been in a situation where she could worry about dressing up or not.
She had been struggling simply to survive the day and live through the next.
From my perspective, she looked better like this.
[You say you dislike her, yet you still took a good look at her face.]
‘I only looked because she was right in front of me.’
[…Well, if she looks that beautiful, it’s impossible not to look.]
Old Man Shin muttered those words in an extremely soft voice.
But since they rang directly inside my head, there was no way I could fail to hear them.
‘Old Man Shin.’
[What is it?]
‘Have you perhaps not forgotten her?’
[…Hm?]
‘The beautiful woman from the Moyong Family....’
[Hah.]
Old Man Shin reacted to my words as though they were beneath him.
[Do you think I would still be unable to forget something so trivial after all this time, brat? You are more romantic than I thought.]
‘...I see. Never mind, then.’
I gave a small nod at Old Man Shin’s words, accepting them.
I also decided to pretend I hadn’t heard how violently his voice had been trembling.
If I dug any deeper, he would sulk and refuse to speak to me for several days.
For someone who called himself a Daoist, he certainly had the narrowest of minds.
[Hm? What did you say?]
‘I didn’t say anything.’
[Really? That’s strange.... I could have sworn you were insulting me.]
His ears were sharp, too....
“First, there is something I would like to ask you, Miss.”
“Please ask. I’ll listen carefully.”
“...Why are you doing this?”
“Pardon?”
It was something I had to ask.
“I understand that the Moyong Family intends to construct buildings and an industrial district in Shanxi while also providing us with official support and conveniences.”
“Yes.”
“But from my perspective, the conditions seem absurdly favorable....”
“That’s right. Our family pulled a few strings. Is this still insufficient?”
How could it possibly be insufficient?
Although the Gu Family did not make a great financial contribution and did not particularly pursue profit for its own sake, it was not a place that refused money.
‘It’s not as though we do things to make money, either.’
Others received patronage in exchange for protecting people from monsters.
Families like the Moyong Family and the Tang Clan accumulated wealth through businesses that made use of their family specialties.
But the Gu Family did nothing of the sort.
Though we were responsible for the safety of the Shanxi region, we did not receive any substantial patronage for it.
Of course, we received a certain amount through our relationships with the merchant groups....
‘But not enough to live extravagantly.’
More precisely, we were not particularly wealthy for a family known as one of the great houses.
“I’m not asking about that. I want to know why you’re willing to suffer such a tremendous loss just to buy something as trivial as my heat.”
“Ah.”
She wore an expression as though she had simply forgotten to explain.
Unlike her usual cold and alluring expression, Moyong Hee-ah put on a cute look, as though she had made a mistake.
‘What is she doing?’
I knew even that was an act.
Moyong Hee-ah knew her strengths all too well.
She knew that displaying such a contrast in her demeanor could be extremely effective.
“Hmm....”
Perhaps because I was still staring at her with a dubious expression despite that performance.
Moyong Hee-ah immediately returned to her original expression.
“As expected, that doesn’t work on you.”
Tsk.
Seeing her click her tongue in disappointment actually put me at ease.
‘As expected, her personality hasn’t changed.’
The only slight difference was that the gaze she directed at me was somewhat different from before.
“The more I see you, the more fascinating you become. Is there perhaps some problem with you?”
“A problem...?”
“...No, nothing. I was just wondering.... Perhaps there’s some issue with your masculinity....”
“Are you sexually harassing me right now?”
“But when I look at how you act around the Poison Phoenix and Sword Dance Fairy, that doesn’t seem to be the case....”
What didn’t seem to be the case?
What exactly did she mean by that?
I let out a deep sigh at Moyong Hee-ah and asked,
“That’s enough with the jokes.”
“I wasn’t joking....”
“...Please explain what you meant by wanting to buy my heat.”
Enough with these pointless conversations.
I needed to get to the main topic quickly.
The longer I talked to Moyong Hee-ah, the more likely I was to get swept up in her words and grow even angrier.
As soon as I brought up the main matter,
Moyong Hee-ah’s expression hardened for a moment, and she adjusted her posture.
She knelt with both knees on the floor.
In other words, she clasped her hands politely and assumed a respectful posture.
Seeing that, I straightened my own posture as well.
“As I told you before, I need the heat within you, Young Master Gu.”
“So why?”
“If you wish to hear the reason, you may have to accept a Silence Restriction.”
“A restriction?”
I wondered what kind of story could require a restriction.
But if my guess was right,
it was probably related to Moyong Hee-ah’s Frost Meridian affliction.
“For reference, the current head of the Gu Family did not hear the reason.”
“...So you’re saying he sold off his own son without even hearing why?”
“...”
She didn’t deny it, so it seemed to be true.
Was my father actually a far greater materialist than I had thought?
I considered that for a moment before speaking to Moyong Hee-ah.
“Then I won’t hear it eit—”
“I actually suffer from a Frost Meridian affliction.”
“Hey, if you weren’t going to listen to my answer, why do you keep asking questions?”
“...It is an illness in which cold gradually accumulates within the body unless it is controlled with internal energy.”
I had already known about it, so I hadn’t intended to listen.
And yet she had told me everything herself.
Was she actually insane?
Since I had ended up hearing what I did not want to hear, I frowned in disgust.
Moyong Hee-ah’s eyes widened slightly.
“Young Master.... You don’t seem particularly surprised?”
“You said whatever you wanted, and now you expect me to be surprised as well?”
“That’s not what I mean.... It’s simply not the usual reaction.”
To be honest, even as I spoke, I realized I had made a mistake.
I should have at least pretended to be surprised.
I hadn’t reacted properly even after hearing that she suffered from a Frost Meridian affliction.
‘I got a little swept up in the atmosphere.’
Was it because I was speaking to someone completely opposed to me?
Or was it because of the memories from my previous life?
My stomach felt slightly unsettled, so I surrounded it with internal energy to calm it.
“...So you’re saying that has something to do with why you need my heat?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not the only person who can use heat. Why me in particular?”
I could tell that Moyong Hee-ah’s Frost Meridian affliction was not something that could be improved or worsened simply by ordinary flames.
If it were that easy, she would not have suffered all this time.
‘Besides, I’m not the only person in the Central Plains who uses fire techniques.’
There was my father, of course.
And Gu Huibi.
Gu Ryeonghwa belonged to Mount Hua, while Gu Yeonseo had yet to produce any flames, so they were excluded from consideration.
Moreover, although the Gu Family currently held a leading position among those who practiced fire techniques,
we were not the only ones.
There were even fire practitioners among the top hundred experts of the Central Plains.
I had to think about why Moyong Hee-ah had specifically sought me out.
‘Could it be because she thinks I’m easy to deal with?’
No.
She was not the kind of woman who chose people for such a trivial reason.
‘Then what is it?’
The thought briefly crossed my mind that perhaps only my heat could affect Moyong Hee-ah’s affliction.
‘But if that were the case....’
I knew from what had happened on ‘that day’ in my previous life that it was not so.
Even though we had held each other so many times,
unlike my body, which had been burning hot then, Moyong Hee-ah’s body had been cold as ice.
I was still questioning it when Moyong Hee-ah gave me a firm answer.
“It has to be Young Master Gu’s heat.”
“...”
“I felt it last time. Young Master Gu’s heat will work.”
I saw a pale finger cautiously reaching toward me.
The fingertip approached slowly and touched the tip of my finger.
It was a careful touch, as though she could not bring herself to grasp my hand.
“...Please.”
It was a sudden request, but I had a vague idea of what she was asking.
Without saying anything, I used that faint point of contact as a link
and sent over a very small amount of heat.
Flinch.
I felt Moyong Hee-ah’s body tremble slightly as it received the heat.
Seeing that reaction, I thought,
‘...Seriously?’
Was it actually effective?
Why?
‘Why on earth?’
No matter how much I thought about it, I could not understand.
What was different between the Moyong Hee-ah of that time and the one before me now?
‘Could it be because she’s younger?’
Her Frost Meridian affliction grew more severe over time, so perhaps that was possible.
But I doubted it.
‘Could it be.... because of the changes to the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique?’
As far as I knew, the only thing that had changed from my previous life was that.
If the Heavenly Demon’s power absorbed the energy of others,
perhaps it could take away cold energy as well.
But if she was reacting specifically to heat,
then it was more likely to be the power of the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique.
‘Could it be pushing out the cold the way it purifies demonic energy?’
Thinking of the changes to the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique in this life,
I could think only of its power to burn away demonic energy, purify it, and transform it into internal energy.
Since that had not happened in my previous life,
that seemed to be the only possible explanation.
“...Hng....”
“Ah.”
I withdrew my hand at the moan that came from in front of me.
I had been so absorbed in my thoughts that I had forgotten about it.
I hurriedly raised my head to check on Moyong Hee-ah.
“Are you all ri—”
Judging by the way she had lowered her head and was trembling, she was clearly not all right.
“See... I told... you.”
Moyong Hee-ah struggled for a long while before murmuring something in a tiny voice.
It was too soft for me to hear.
It seemed she was trying to hide the trembling in her voice, but she could not manage it easily.
“It’s you.... It really is you....”
“What?”
After uttering those incomprehensible words, Moyong Hee-ah suddenly sprang to her feet and straightened her clothes.
“...I’ll be leaving for today.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Yes.... I don’t think I can endure any more.”
What did she mean by that?
I was somewhat concerned as Moyong Hee-ah moved with slightly unsteady steps,
but there was something I needed to ask first.
“What will you do about the restriction?”
“Pardon?”
“You said that I would have to accept a restriction if I heard about your circumstances.”
It was a rather unpleasant matter,
but things had come to this, so I would have to accept it.
A restriction placed by one of the great families could be removed somehow or other if necessary, so it did not matter.
I could accept it and remove it later.
At my words, Moyong Hee-ah wore an expression as though she had just remembered saying that, then smiled faintly.
“That was a lie.”
“What?”
“It is true that I would normally have to place one.... But I never intended to do so to Young Master Gu.”
“Why not?”
When I asked why she had made that choice,
Moyong Hee-ah considered it briefly before answering.
“I thought I could make an exception for someone as trustworthy as you.... You wouldn’t believe an answer like that, would you?”
“...”
Moyong Hee-ah met my eyes, then abruptly turned her head away and covered her mouth.
It was obvious she was trying to hold back laughter.
“...I’m sorry. Your expression was rather amusing, Young Master.”
My expression was amusing?
That sounded so much like an insult that I felt terrible.
Besides, I still wasn’t sure whether this was actually having any effect on Moyong Hee-ah.
I could still sense a faint chill emanating from her.
“Does this really have any effect...?”
“Young Master.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I think I should leave now.”
That was certainly good news,
but our conversation was not yet over.
“...I would love to continue our pleasant little chat.”
“It wasn’t exactly pleasant.”
“But if I stay any longer, I don’t know what might happen to me.”
What did she mean, what might happen to her?
As Moyong Hee-ah spoke, her gaze was directed somewhere else.
I followed her line of sight.
“...”
Three pairs of eyes were peeking into the room, watching us.
The fact that each pair was a different color made the sight even more unsettling.
“What are you three doing over there?”
I asked in an incredulous voice,
but the eyes merely continued staring at me without uttering a word.
How had they even found out and come here?
The precarious feeling sent a shiver down my spine.
“I’ll be going now, Young Master Gu. Thank you very much for today.”
Perhaps she felt it too.
Moyong Hee-ah left my room at a noticeably quicker pace than usual.
As she stepped outside,
Moyong Hee-ah glanced at the three women, then added one last remark toward me.
“I had a wonderful time. I’ll be counting on you again next night.”
“What?”
After dropping those highly misleading words, she disappeared with light, graceful steps.
“Wait.... At least explain what you mean before you leave!”
I immediately sensed that I was doomed and tried to stop Moyong Hee-ah.
But first,
squeeze.
Something grabbed me.
Then came a voice.
“Explain.”
At Namgung Bia’s firm voice, I swallowed dryly.
Not only had Namgung Bia become far more expressionless than usual,
but the two squirrels hiding behind her were a problem as well.
‘Haha.’
It seemed I would not be getting a peaceful night’s sleep today, either.