The Immortal Maidens of Nakseongguan (3)
A pond of wine and a forest of meat.
If such a place existed anywhere, would it not be right here?
The banquet hall at the heart of Nakseongguan’s fifth floor.
The meal had ended, empty wine bottles piled high.
“Aahng, you mustn’t, my lord♡”
“Mustn’t? Looks to me like you’re enjoying yourself just fine!”
“Kyaa~”
Two high-ranking courtesans attended each official, and the sight of them nestled in the men’s arms from time to time was almost decadent.
Among them, the host himself—Seo Hyeong-won—already had four or five girls clinging to his side.
“Hhk… if you knead them like that…!”
“Yes…. This is how breasts ought to feel. If that other bitch earlier was merely ordinary, then you are a true superior grade. Now then—shall we hear how you cry?”
Squeeeze—
“Hhk…!! This girl’s chest is s-sensitive. A little gentler, please….”
“Hmm? What’s with that face? Got a complaint, do you? If this alone has you like this, how do you plan to endure what comes next?!”
Seo Hyeong-won’s hand abandoned the whole breast and pinched the courtesan’s nipple hard.
“Kyaaaak!! I-it hurts…!! It hurts…!!”
“Hurts?”
Twist….
“Augh… Aaaagh!!!”
“I praise one lump of flesh and this bitch starts climbing over me? Do you take Seo Hyeong-won for your friend? Fearless little….”
“Let… sob…!!! Aaagh….”
“L-Lord Seo! There are many eyes watching! There are other girls—simply cast this one aside—”
“—Let go! If I don’t tear this bitch’s nipple off and chew it to pulp, my rage won’t settle!”
“Spare me…!! Aaaagh…!!!”
Blood welled where his nails dug in, the flesh beginning to split and tear—
That was the moment.
Ding— deeng—
“…? What’s that gong?”
“M-my lord. That sound means the ‘Hee’ of Nakseongguan are entering.”
“Hoh… so these are the famed Five Hee I’ve only heard of? Coming out rather early, aren’t they!”
Seo Hyeong-won shoved away the breast he had been gripping as if discarding trash.
The girl who tumbled to the floor was instantly supported by two other courtesans and vanished beyond the curtains.
It was the practiced motion of veterans who had seen this far too many times.
“Come, let them in! The greatest courtesans of Yangzhou!”
With that expectant shout—
Whoosh—
Every lamp inside the banquet hall went out.
“…?? What? What’s going on!!”
The only light that entered was the red glow from the lanterns hanging on the pavilion, and even that was blocked here and there, leaving the room dim.
Then—
Hwee—
The clear notes of a daegeum flute rang out, and everyone who heard them held their breath in the darkness and silence.
“Long, long ago. In a time very far away.”
It was Mokhwa’s voice.
“There were two demons cultivating on Mount Emei in Sichuan.”
Next came Wolbaek’s alluring voice, then Geumryang’s youthful one, in turn.
“The white snake who had cultivated for a thousand years, Bai Suzhen.”
“Her younger sister who had cultivated for five hundred years, the blue snake Xiaoqing.”
Chiii—
A sound like a firework catching fire, and then a large oil lamp in the center of the banquet hall flared to life with a crackle.
In that light, Seo Hyeong-won’s face—caught between startlement and anticipation—was brightly illuminated.
“The Legend of the White Snake, is it?”
The oil lamp’s flame raced along thin oil-soaked threads to the four corners of the hall and lit the candles waiting there.
“Yet Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing were so captivated by the beautiful scenery of the human world that they abandoned their cultivation, transformed into human form, and wandered about enjoying the mortal realm.”
Apprentices hurriedly carried that fire onward.
Every time the small torches they held touched the threads on either side of the banquet floor, the lanterns hanging from the ceiling lit one after another.
Those lights gathered and gathered until the innermost part of the hall was brightly illuminated…
Hweeii—
Once more the joyful notes of the daegeum rang out.
And right in the middle of that melody, Wolbaek and Geumryang appeared, dressed as immortal maidens, backs pressed together in elegant poise.
“Ohh…….”
Ding— tiring—
From one side of the stage, Mokhwa set her hands upon the pipa.
With the first note of that pipa, Wolbaek and Geumryang began to turn as if they were a single body.
Their breasts and lower bodies were both covered by layers of thin garments, yet the men gathered in the banquet hall could not tear their eyes from the two of them—more than from the half-naked courtesans serving at their sides.
“So this is why they are called immortal maidens….”
Unable to finish the sentence, Seo Hyeong-won smiled like a child who had just been handed a stick of candied hawthorn.
Soft, elegant, beautiful…
The waistline that appeared whenever a sleeve fluttered, the underside of a breast that flashed for the briefest instant when an arm rose, a beauty never before seen in the Central Plains.
Wearing every one of those beauties like ornaments, they smiled brightly as if they truly were two demons who had at last escaped long, grueling cultivation and were now savoring the human world—and before anyone realized it, they had transformed the banquet hall into a scene from legend.
A paired dance with backs and breasts pressed close.
The slightest error between them would tangle their clothes and arms and send them tumbling in an ugly heap.
Yet the two of them kept raising the tempo of the dance with such ease that they could even smile while facing each other.
“Waa…….”
Guest or courtesan, everyone could only stare, entranced.
—Tiring!
Suddenly the pipa note cut off sharply, and Wolbaek and Geumryang stopped dead.
They looked around as if something had gone wrong, then—flustered yet orderly—descended from the stage and walked down the central aisle.
At the same moment every courtesan clinging to Seo Hyeong-won fled.
He was so absorbed in the stage that he never even noticed they had run.
Mokhwa continued the tale.
“Then one day they met a sudden downpour. Where should they go? Where could they take shelter from the rain?”
In that instant the two women’s footsteps slowed, and their gazes…
…turned toward Seo Hyeong-won.
“…Huh?”
“Just across the bridge, beneath a willow tree, they decided to take shelter from the rain.”
Imagine two peerless beauties approaching you with earnest eyes.
What man would not feel his heart stir at that sight?
“Young master…♡”
“Beneath that tree they met a fated encounter with a young master named Xu Xian.”
“Haha… hahaha!!”
Wolbaek slipped under Seo Hyeong-won’s left arm, Geumryang under his right.
Exactly the picture of one man claiming two women.
Yet these two were no ordinary people.
They were snakes beautiful and lewd enough to be called demons who bewitch men.
“I-I like this! So this Seo Hyeong-won is the legendary Xu Xian, is that what you’re say—”
“—Shh.”
“Young master, won’t you play with us?”
Gulp.
The sound of a throat working was clearly audible.
Even the great Seo Hyeong-won could not withstand two peerless beauties gazing up at him from either side and begging to play.
Judging by the fact that he could not so much as twitch a finger while holding both women under his arms.
“V-very well! I am already prepared! Let us play together! Bai Suzhen, Xiaoqing!”
The two demons giggled.
The moment they both rose, Seo Hyeong-won stood as if supported by them.
Almost as if being led, the three of them climbed onto the central stage and sat.
Seo Hyeong-won felt dizzy.
He had drunk heavily, and the seductive movements and fragrance of the two women were driving blood to the crown of his head and the tip of his groin.
His heart was pounding far too fast.
The liquor was hitting him much harder than usual.
“Young master, if you feel too dizzy, lean on me♡”
Wolbaek said this as she took his right arm from Geumryang.
Before he knew it, both of Seo Hyeong-won’s arms rested on the shoulders of Bai Suzhen—that is, Wolbaek.
Press—
Wolbaek’s breasts crushed against the flushed Seo Hyeong-won’s solar plexus.
“Heok….”
“Have you ever touched breasts this large, young master?”
“O-of course. Naturally. The great Seo Hyeong-won has handled this much—”
Pressss—
“Heuk…!!”
“You mustn’t lie, you know? I am Bai Suzhen, a snake demon…”
“Th-that is…”
“A wicked human like Young Master Xu… I will devour whole, you know?♡”
“Devour…”
In that moment Wolbaek felt the rod that had been poking insistently against her lower belly since earlier begin to tremble violently.
“Bai Suzhen, fallen in love, continued to seduce Xu Xian…”
The corners of Wolbaek’s eyes lifted slyly.
You want me to seduce this pathetic man?
That was as easy as snatching candy from a child’s hand.
In moments thick with sexual tension, her teasing sometimes crossed the line.
She gently parted the front of Seo Hyeong-won’s upper robe—already half-undone from playing with the courtesans—and drew her waist back.
Space opened between Wolbaek’s full breasts and Seo Hyeong-won; she folded at the waist and slipped her face into that gap.
There, trembling pitifully, was Seo Hyeong-won’s nipple.
As if terrified of being eaten by a predator.
Then… she would make that fear real at once.
“Haa—eup♡”
“Heuk… hhk, haeuk…!!”
She pressed her lips to his chest.
Then slowly caressed from areola to nipple with her tongue.
Seo Hyeong-won’s head snapped back.
The rod against her belly was vibrating almost like a living thing.
Wolbaek loved men who fell apart so completely before her.
Especially men who swaggered with power when met outside—those she liked even more.
Males, men, beasts—they were more pathetic, more sensitive, more fragile than one expected…
“Feel good?”
“Hnnngh… euk…!!”
“Come for me♡”
She truly loved slipping a hand into those openings and stirring until they collapsed.
Crunch—
She bit down hard on Seo Hyeong-won’s nipple with her fangs.
“Haeuk?! Hhk, haak, hnnngh…!!”
His waist rocked forward and back as if it had nowhere to go, then his whole body went rigid.
“Having won Xu Xian’s favor, Bai Suzhen eventually married him… and…?”
How many seconds passed?
Wolbaek smelled the musky night-flower scent rising from between his legs.
“W-Wolbaek unnie…?”
“Yes, Xiaoqing?”
“Is he… dead?”
“Hmm…?”
Geumryang pointed at the stiff Seo Hyeong-won.
But at that very moment—
“Euhnnngh…♡♡”
All strength left his body and he toppled sideways.
“Kyaaaak?!”
“He’s not dead. He’s sleeping, look.”
Wolbaek took Geumryang’s index finger and held it under the closed-eyed Seo Hyeong-won’s nose.
“Y-you’re right….”
Geumryang let out a breath of relief, but Wolbaek—having already shaken off the sexual mood—began surveying the surroundings with veteran calm.
The Legend of the White Snake had barely even begun.
The storyteller was Mokhwa, the male lead “Xu Xian” was Seo Hyeong-won, the heroine “Bai Suzhen” was Wolbaek, “Xiaoqing” was Geumryang, and the villain “Master Fahai” was Gyeonghwa.
When the story ended, the curtain fell, and the lights went out, Cheonsua was supposed to provide after-entertainment in Seo Hyeong-won’s bedchamber.
But “Xu Xian” had died far too early.
Of course the reaction had been superb.
They had shown the caressing right in front of everyone, and the resulting sight of Seo Hyeong-won trembling and finishing—
so every courtesan and every official in the banquet hall sat frozen with flushed faces.
Wolbaek looked around further and spotted Cheonsua waiting in a corner for later.
Xu Xian, want to take over?
She mouthed the words while pointing at Seo Hyeong-won’s seat.
Cheonsua immediately shook her head.
“What do we do…. If we make another man the lead and Lord Seo wakes later and hears of it, he’ll fly into a rage.”
“Then….”
“…In any case he seems satisfied, so we have no choice but to rise.”
Gyeonghwa, dressed as a man, appeared from somewhere and spoke in a gloomy tone.
In truth, acting was Gyeonghwa’s greatest strength.
That was why, in this play, she had taken the role of the villain “Fahai”—a character who stood out on his own rather than one who seduced the lead….
“Who could have known it would end this quickly?”
So saying, she took one of Seo Hyeong-won’s arms.
“Hnnngh♡♡”
The instant Gyeonghwa’s breast brushed his forearm, Seo Hyeong-won’s waist twitched and the front of his lower garments began to darken with a deep stain.
The stimulation had been enough to make him leak.
“…Wolbaek unnie….”
“Gyeonghwa, no. This time it really wasn’t me, okay? He came the moment you grabbed him…!”
“Honestly….”
It did not take long for other high-ranking courtesans to take over Seo Hyeong-won—who was being passed between Gyeonghwa and Wolbaek like laundry on a line—and carry him off to the bath.
Immediately afterward, the gentle notes of a tungso and pipa filled the banquet hall once more.
At the same time, three or four courtesans each began clinging to the remaining officials as if to paper over the earlier accident.
High-ranking girls alone were not enough; mid-ranking ones arrived from time to time as well.
Once again, a pond of wine and a forest of meat.
They ate the sweets the courtesans fed them, sucked those fingers…
buried their faces in breasts from time to time, suckled like infants, until gradually women mounted men and men mounted women in a scene of pure decadence.
Taking the men’s members into their own holes was almost entirely the mid-ranking courtesans’ duty.
“Haeng♡ Ahnn, young master, you’re so big♡”
“So deep♡ Young master… it feels so good♡”
Cries that were half pleasure and half crude acting filled the banquet hall.
Acting so crude it was on a completely different level from the White Snake Legend the “Hee” had just performed.
Yet in that lewd space, the figures of the Five Hee were already nowhere to be found.
“Hoo….”
“Why are you here on the pavilion instead of the banquet hall?”
“Jin Yu, you’ve come.”
“Yes.”
“Have you been inside the banquet hall?”
“Not yet.”
“I see. It is still a bit early for you.”
Pale moonlight.
The scent of Suseo Lake’s water.
The fragrance of flowers rising beside it.
And Mother, Cheonghwa, gazing down upon all of it from the very top of this pavilion.
It was truly rare to see Mother governing her heart in such quiet stillness.
Ordinarily, when she had worries, she would throw herself into even more work so that both anxiety and sorrow would be forgotten.
“Is something troubling you?”
“Troubles…. Nothing of the sort.”
“I only find it strange that Mother is in the place I always come when my own heart is restless.”
“Restless, is it.”
She chewed on the word, then laughed once, loudly.
“Ha, yes. Perhaps that is so.”
I did not ask again what the matter was.
Mother had always answered questions in a roundabout way.
So to hear the truth, one had no choice but to prepare silence.
“…Cheonsua.”
“…….”
“That child ultimately refused the overnight service.”
“…If that is her will—”
“Yes. Correct. I respect that will fully as well. Though I do not know the reason.”
“Well… perhaps she has someone she loves.”
“You have lived with her for ten years and still know nothing of that child.”
“….”
Mother drew a deep breath.
“That child dislikes men.”
“…Pardon?”
“To be precise, she dislikes physical contact with men. Having men around her is fine. But the moment they reach out a hand toward her, she struggles like a soldier on the brink of defeat.”
“How does Mother know that….”
“I know every single action of every courtesan in Nakseongguan. Look at Cheonsua’s beauty and tell me. Do you think not a single guest has ever tried to lay a hand on her?”
“….”
Mother turned to face me.
She looked so clear, so beautiful, so noble, so full of vitality that one would never guess she was a mother with a son.
Only that vitality did not come from drawing a man’s essence the way a courtesan did; it felt as though she gained yang energy simply by overseeing Nakseongguan.
At a glance she could pass for the same age as Wolbaek or Gyeonghwa.
“I lost today as well.”
“…Did they threaten her life or something?”
“Life? Haha! If it had been that, I would have bound her hands and feet and put her in Seo Hyeong-won’s bedchamber myself. Physical problems are usually forgotten once something is shoved between the legs.”
…Is that the sort of thing one says in front of one’s son?
I wondered, but since Mother’s mouth had finally opened after so long, I chose silence.
“…She cried, and so very sorrowfully.”
“…….”
“Lamenting the life of a courtesan she had become, lamenting the fate of having to offer her virginity to a man whose face she did not even know….”
Mother turned her head toward the red lanterns; a shadow fell across her face.
“She only shed silent tears, drop by drop, yet I understood. As long as this child remains a courtesan, she may well live her entire life a virgin.”
“Her entire life….”
“Cheonsua is a monster. That much I can guarantee.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that if she had not been in Nakseongguan, she would certainly have borne a dozen children of different surnames.”
“Th-that….”
Suddenly she was slamming Cheonsua with the claim that she was destined to become a slut?
“It is not an insult. For a courtesan, craving men is a talent. But…”
So saying, Mother rested her arms on the railing once more.
A flower-scented breeze rose and set her long hair streaming.
Full moonlight.
The faint fragrance of apricot blossoms.
When her hair lifted, the sharp line of her jaw and the soft line of her neck were revealed.
Breasts lightly pressed against the railing.
Sleeves and cheeks flushed red in the glow of the lanterns.
It was a scene like a painting.
“…Is it not truly paradoxical? That because she is a courtesan who ‘must’ couple with men, she has become unable to crave men.”
“…….”
Then something seemed to occur to her; she burst out with a soft “puhu.”
“But you appear to be the exception. Do you remember? The ‘final education’ you and Cheonsua shared.”
“Th-that….”
Yes. Of course.
How could I forget that.
“She doesn’t bite or scratch or scream when you touch her with your hands, does she?”
“N-no….”
“What an amusing child.”
That was true.
Rather, during the “final education,” it had been Cheonsua who approached me first and acted coquettishly.
Even now…
judging by how she had eagerly accepted the dragon-water hall, she might not hate me?
“…Jin Yu.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“You must not touch Nakseongguan’s property.”
“I know.”
“No matter how much the ‘Hee’ feel like family to you, what is not allowed is not allowed.”
“Yes.”
“But….”
At that voice I lifted my head and found Mother looking at me from the corner of her eye.
…That sidelong glance felt as though it looked into me more deeply than when she faced me straight on.
“…the only person who can teach them the joy of being women… is you, it seems.”
It was a voice barely louder than a passing breeze, yet to me—whose hearing had grown keen after reincarnation—it was perfectly clear.
I…
the “Hee”…?
“…Mother, just now—”
“—What a pity!”
“…….”
“If we had pierced Cheonsua’s entrance this time, we could have made her want to mount men from now on…. Ahai, honestly.”
So saying, Mother turned and began descending the pavilion.
In that instant a strange fragrance rode the breeze and brushed my nose.
An ordinary person might not notice, but anyone in the pleasure trade would recognize that faint scent.
“Mother.”
“What is it, my Jin Yu?”
“Did you use Dream Soul Incense?”
An incense that, if an entire stick is burned, can put even a full-grown adult to sleep for three days.
“…You always did have sharp ears and a sharp nose.”
“On whom did you use it?”
“I lit it in Seo Hyeong-won’s bedchamber, of course.”
“If everyone falls asleep, then Cheonsua cannot offer her virginity inside in the first place—”
……Wait?
“How truly dull-witted my son is.”
“Uh… since when?”
“Who knows?”
Hahaha—Mother laughed brightly as she went down the stairs.
“Ah, how expensive it will be! ‘The virginity of the Three Hee that even the great Seo Hyeong-won could not take’!”
“Heo….”
“And…”
Mother paused at the turn of the stairs and looked up at me.
“…enduring unwanted overnight service—having me do it is enough.”
Murmuring those words, Mother hid her figure below the stairs.
The terrifying instructor-like presence she always showed when teaching me was gone; in that moment only a single slender woman… stood upon those stairs.