Poisoning 4
I was lost in thought for a moment, wondering how to smooth this over cleanly, when something itchy and prickling suddenly rose up my spine.
I looked around. Every gaze in the room was locked on me.
Come to think of it, in the middle of a deadly serious situation I had burst out laughing alone. Of course every eye would snap toward me.
Hwa-eun’s voice cut in, as if she were trying to throw me a rope out of the awkwardness.
“What is it, So-ryong? What’s wrong?”
“Just a second.”
The stares still stung, but I leaned in quickly and whispered against Hwa-eun’s ear, checking whether my guess was right.
Just in case—even the slightest chance—I was wrong. Please let it just be wrong… Because telling Eumbong, “You’ve been wearing cinnabar lipstick and making out with Ji-ryong so often that you poisoned him!” was going to be incredibly, mortifyingly awkward.
Hwa-eun, that… thing women put on their lips—what do you call it? Is it rouge?
The stuff you put on your lips? All of a sudden?
It’s important…
Hwa-eun blinked at me, looking thoroughly baffled that I had suddenly asked about lip cosmetics. I nodded again with an awkward face, and her answer came back.
I don’t know why it matters, but… yes, it’s rouge.
The name matched what I knew. I pressed on about the ingredients.
Then… do they ever use cinnabar in that rouge?
Rouge is usually made from safflower. You ferment it, strip out the yellow, and leave only the red.
Huh? No? Then why did Ji-ryong get poisoned?
Just when I was starting to fear my theory was completely off, Hwa-eun’s explanation continued.
The kind made with cinnabar isn’t called rouge—it’s called danji, cinnabar rouge. It’s more expensive, so only high-ranking families or palace ladies can afford to buy and wear it.
Damn it. I was right. No way around it now.
This was locked in—practically certain. I had confirmed the rough outline, and I could not go on being the psychopath who laughed while someone was dying, so I turned to Elder Jegal Hu.
I had already decided to handle this quietly.
“Elder Jegal Hu. Since Ji-ryong’s condition doesn’t seem likely to get any worse for now, would you have everyone step outside for a moment? I think I’ve figured out who the… culprit—no, the perpetrator—no, what do I even call this. Anyway, I think I’ve found who did this to Ji-ryong. I’d like to discuss it quietly…”
“What?! You’ve already found them?!”
“You found them?!”
When I said I had identified the person responsible for the… negligent injury(?), everyone’s eyes flew wide with shock.
I had spoken that way because I wanted to settle it discreetly, but their reaction was nothing like what I had expected.
“Who is it! Speak at once! If you’re worried the criminal might flee, don’t be! I already sealed the surroundings of the Murim Alliance so no one can slip out!”
“No, that’s not it…”
I had been trying to protect the social standing of someone who might one day become the daughter-in-law of that house, yet they were clearly taking it in an entirely different direction.
Jegal Hu, the military advisor, continued with a deadly serious face.
“Ah! Is it because of the person’s status or position? Are you worried it might create friction with them or the faction they belong to? Don’t worry about that either.
You still don’t know the murim very well, it seems. The place you belong to is the Sichuan Tang Family. And now you’re a man of the Beast Palace as well, are you not?
What’s more, this is someone who dared poison my own nephew. The Jegal Family will stand behind you, so speak without fear! And the Alliance Leader himself is watching over you—what is there to worry about?”
“That’s right, young hero. Speak without worry. Our Wolyeong Palace will also stand behind you together with the Jegal Family.”
“No, it’s really not like that…”
Jegal Hu kept listing off the powerful houses and factions that would back me. I could not wipe the troubled look from my face, and Hwa-eun chimed in, telling me not to worry.
“So-ryong, caution is good, but right now that kind of hesitation could be taken as disrespect. Elder Jegal Hu will have filled the room only with people he trusts, so you don’t need to worry. Isn’t that so?”
Hwa-eun was a pure blank slate when it came to things between lovers. Even after I had asked her about rouge and cinnabar rouge, she still had not the faintest idea what I was driving at.
This was someone whose heartbeat I could hear just from holding her hand—who would ever have guessed they had been kissing?
“That’s right, Poison Flower.”
“Indeed, young lady.”
“Yes, young hero. Nearly everyone in this room is either of the Jegal Family or a physician who has received Elder Jegal Hu’s grace, so you need not worry.”
“That’s right, young hero. Speak freely.”
No—Eumbong is about to get socially executed in public!
I had chosen my words carefully, yet everyone kept urging me to speak without grasping the situation. I looked around the room and asked again.
“Is it… really all right?”
“Of course. Speak at once.”
“Please speak quickly, young hero.”
Ah, to hell with it. If the people involved say it’s fine…
Before I spoke, I asked Eumbong one last thing.
“Understood. Before I say anything, there’s something I want to ask. Eumbong, do you happen to have the cinnabar rouge you put on your lips with you right now?”
“Cinnabar rouge? Yes, of course I have it… but why?”
“Could you show it to me for a moment?”
“Rather than that, the criminal first—”
“This is extremely important!”
Thinking I was dodging the real issue by asking for something useless instead of naming the culprit, the swordswoman tried to redirect me. When I raised my voice, Eumbong flinched and pulled a small mother-of-pearl case from her robes.
—Click.
A vivid, brilliant red. Exactly the color that had been on Eumbong’s lips. I held it out to Hwa-eun and quietly asked her a favor.
Can you check how much cinnabar is in this?
?
A question mark practically floated above Hwa-eun’s head at my request. She looked completely lost as to why I wanted her to check it all of a sudden. I silently pointed at the cinnabar rouge, then pointed at her lips, and whispered right against her ear.
Kissing.
!
The question mark above Hwa-eun’s head seemed to snap open in shock and turn into an exclamation mark. Her eyes flew wide; her skin flushed scarlet from the nape of her neck all the way to the roots of her hair, as if she had just drawn up her inner energy.
Even pure, snow-white Hwa-eun understood once I put it that plainly.
She ducked her head deeply and, with trembling hands, drew a silver needle from her robes and began probing the cinnabar rouge.
Half a ke later she gave a tiny nod, still unable to meet my eyes, her face turned away.
The cinnabar content was clearly high.
“Haa…”
I took one deep breath, then spoke to the people waiting for my answer.
“Then I will now tell you about the two people who made a mistake in this matter.”
“Two?!”
“There are two of them?!”
“Of course something like this couldn’t have been done alone!”
What, you think people kiss by themselves?
As expected, everyone was still imagining something completely wrong, but what could I do?
Reality was not that. I gripped the red pill of truth and prepared to scatter it among them.
“Eumbong.”
“Yes, young hero. Please speak quickly.”
She answered without the slightest idea that she herself had just been named as one of the culprits, thinking I had simply called her name in passing.
“And Ji-ryong.”
“““?”””
The same question mark that had floated above Hwa-eun’s head earlier now appeared above the head of every single person in the room.
A moment later, Eumbong finally grasped what I meant and cried out in sheer disbelief.
“Don’t tell me you’re saying I helped Ji-ryong try to kill himself?!”
No, that’s not it either.
But that reaction was limited to Eumbong, whose name had been called. Everyone else was still wearing question marks—except for Military Advisor Jegal Hu.
As expected of the Murim Alliance’s strategist, he did not simply gape; he searched for the meaning behind my words. Unfortunately, his romance cells were practically dead, so he still could not figure out how any of this had actually happened.
“So-ryong, there must be a reason. Explain it so I can understand. I can’t follow this at all.”
“Understood. Eumbong, you calm down as well and listen.”
I soothed the trembling Eumbong and began the explanation.
“Originally, the mercury that poisoned Ji-ryong is produced by roasting cinnabar. When it is burned it gives off a deadly smoke; if you inhale that, you can be poisoned and even lose your life. That is why people who refine mercury have to be extremely careful…
The problem is that there are cases of poisoning even without eating the mercury itself or breathing the smoke.”
“Poisoned without eating mercury or breathing the smoke?”
“Yes, Elder. When someone ingests the cinnabar that is the raw material for mercury. Of course its toxicity is lower than pure mercury, so it doesn’t poison someone easily—but even with lower toxicity, if it is taken over a long period, poisoning can still occur.”
“So our Yong-cheon has been eating cinnabar, and was poisoned by the mercury mixed into it?”
“Exactly, Elder.”
As expected of the Alliance’s military advisor—his position clearly had not been won by playing rock-paper-scissors. Jegal Hu was sharp. He was already turning over things I had not yet said.
“Then where has our Yong-cheon been continuously eating cinnabar? From the way you mentioned both Eumbong and Yong-cheon, it seems the two of them made some kind of mistake…”
While he frowned in deep thought, I brought over the cinnabar rouge Hwa-eun had examined and showed it to Elder Jegal Hu.
“The rouge women put on their lips is made from safflower, but this kind of danji—cinnabar rouge—is made using cinnabar.”
The moment I said that, the question marks above the quicker people in the room began flipping into exclamation marks, just as Hwa-eun’s had earlier.
“Ah!”
“Hah!”
“Ahem!”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Have you all realized something?”
One or two people still looked as blank as if they had lost a few teeth—mostly the older ones. Their romance cells were on the brink of extinction.
And Elder Jegal Hu was among them.
“So he was poisoned by eating cinnabar rouge? Why on earth would anyone keep taking the rouge a woman puts on her lips for so long…?”
At this point it was time to drop the decisive hint. He seemed to have roughly grasped it, yet still could not accept reality and was overloading. I looked toward Eumbong—who was in the same state—and spoke the one word that would grant enlightenment to anyone.
“Kissing!”
The remaining question marks instantly turned into exclamation marks, and a wave of gasps rolled through the room.
“““Ah…”””
The corners of the men’s mouths twitched upward, unable to hold back. The ears of the two maids and of Hwa-eun flushed bright red.
And the person at the center of it all, Eumbong, buried her face in the chest of Ji-ryong—who was still lying there with his pressure points sealed—and pounded on him without even lifting her head.
—Thump. Thump.
Somehow it felt like Ji-ryong’s share of the blame in this incident was larger than Eumbong’s.
I was just thinking the explanation was roughly finished when Elder Jegal Hu’s voice rose again, still not fully understanding.
This was something you had to understand with the heart, yet being a military advisor he was trying to understand it with his head.
“No, I understand what you’re saying, but didn’t you say cinnabar doesn’t poison someone easily? Just how often did they…?”
He roughly grasped the cause, but still wanted to know just how frequently they had been kissing for it to reach the point of actual poisoning.
Every gaze in the room turned to the back of Eumbong’s bowed head.
Hwa-eun, looking embarrassed herself, asked her carefully.
“T-to treat him we need to know how frequently he was exposed to the poison, so…”
“Ohhh, so treatment is possible?!”
“Yes. If we bring Grandfather and have him draw out the mercury… but for that we still need the exact…”
Hwa-eun’s question fell like a death sentence. Eumbong’s body shuddered; she lifted her head with vacant, dead eyes. Her lips parted weakly, and an answer came out so faintly it was almost inaudible.
“M-morning and evening…”
Morning and evening, she said.
But who was our Hwa-eun? A direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Family, was she not?
Hwa-eun grabbed Eumbong’s shoulders and shook her head.
Is that her way of saying ‘don’t lie’? That much wouldn’t cause poisoning?
Eumbong burst into tears and wailed,
“A-at any time! Hwaaah…!”
The dictionary meaning of “at any time” is: not at fixed, predetermined times, but according to the circumstances of the moment.
In other words, whenever their eyes met, they had done it.
—Thump! Thump!
Along with Eumbong’s sobs, fierce fists slammed into Ji-ryong’s chest.
Looks like I saved one person… and killed another. No—the one I saved might die too…
That was how the case of the Murim Alliance military advisor’s nephew being poisoned came to an end.