The White Dragon Priestess of the Rear Palace (3)
Mid-level consort candidate, Ryu Hong.
True to her name, which called to mind a red willow, the woman with the seductive figure... could not hide her considerable alarm at the sudden visitor who had appeared at her private quarters.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Seo Seoryeong, a priestess from the Shaman Temple."
With a bright, friendly smile, the woman who had come to her residence possessed striking white hair, coral-like yellow horns sprouting from her head, and... shimmering blue scales covering both hands.
"I heard some interesting rumors about you, Lady Ryu Hong, and decided to pay a visit."
One of her personal maids offered tea with hands that trembled violently. Seo Seoryeong drank it down in a single gulp without the slightest wariness, then continued.
"It seems you're aiming for the opportunity to become an upper-level consort candidate."
Ryu Hong's hand twitched and shook. The moment her eyes flickered with unease, a spark of interest lit up in Seo Seoryeong's gaze.
"How rude. Just because His Majesty has shown you a little interest, you dare come to my quarters without permission."
Ryu Hong met those golden, vertically slit pupils—eerie beyond words—without flinching and spoke sharply.
"Leave. I have nothing to say to a monster like you."
"That's too much. Calling me a monster straight to my face. Still, I'm a person, you know?"
It was revolting. Something inhuman was speaking like a person and staring at her. And what in the world was that on her chest? The front of her robe was so swollen it looked ready to burst. Truly, even her breasts were not those of a human.
"...Excuse me, but you've been staring at my chest the whole time."
"Hah."
Ryu Hong stepped back as if the gaze burned, covering her own chest with a wide sleeve. Only then did she realize she had been staring fixedly at the other woman's bosom. She cleared her throat several times in belated embarrassment.
"...So what exactly do you want?"
"I already told you. It looked like you, Lady Ryu Hong, wished to become an upper-level consort candidate, so I came."
"Then how would someone like you possibly know..."
"At the very least, His Majesty remembers my name, doesn't he?"
Seo Seoryeong smiled brightly, her eyes coldly sunken as if to say his mind held no trace of Ryu Hong's name at all. Ryu Hong's eyes widened in fury and she nearly snapped back, but—
"Wow, you do have a conscience after all."
The certainty that her own name had left not even a single mark in the Emperor's memory made Ryu Hong's face twist. She bit her lip hard.
"You... Do you even know who I am...!"
"Let's see. His Majesty's one-night plaything?"
"You—!"
Ryu Hong struggled to suppress the urge to rip the smiling mouth off the woman standing before her.
She might be the daughter of a renowned wealthy merchant, and even as a rear-palace consort candidate she could not simply lay hands on Seo Seoryeong, who belonged to the Emperor.
"I could help you, though."
Ryu Hong took another step back as if fleeing from Seo Seoryeong, who looked at her with a mocking curl at the corner of her mouth.
"...How exactly would you help?"
Only now did she seem willing to listen. With a sour expression, she sat down across from her.
"What else could I do? When I meet His Majesty, I could casually mention your name."
The words were simple, yet only an extremely limited number of people could actually carry them out. And among those few... Ryu Hong was no fool. She knew the priestess named Seo Seoryeong before her was one of them.
"...Fine. What do you want?"
It had already been nearly a month since Seo Seoryeong arrived at the rear palace. Recalling that the Emperor would soon set foot in the rear palace, Ryu Hong looked at her with eyes that carried a faint crimson glow.
"I heard you're the daughter of a famous merchant house."
"You are well informed."
"In that case, I'd like you to obtain a few items for me..."
Looking at Ryu Hong, Seo Seoryeong spoke the final words meant to test her.
"What I need are dark orchid flower, blue-blood wood, and stone-bright grass. Those three."
"That's...!"
At the names of the three items—especially the words dark orchid flower—Ryu Hong's face flashed with shock. She shot to her feet in visible panic.
"Those are all deadly poisons...!"
She added in a small voice that such sinister items could never be brought into the rear palace.
"You know more than I expected. Most people wouldn't even recognize the names."
"Hmph...! Isn't it only natural for the daughter of a merchant family?"
"So, can you get them? Or not?"
Seo Seoryeong watched Ryu Hong's reaction with an odd glint in her eye and pressed once more.
"...Let's pretend I never heard this. It's true I want to become an upper-level consort candidate, but not enough to stake my entire clan's fate on it."
Bringing poison into the imperial palace would mean the whole family would be punished if discovered. Ryu Hong's face had gone deathly pale as she refused.
"Can't be helped, then. I'll take my leave."
Without any reluctance, Seo Seoryeong stood and turned to walk out of Ryu Hong's quarters.
"......"
After Seo Seoryeong left, only silence filled the room.
"...Heukmu."
Ryu Hong quietly called a name.
"You called, my lady."
From empty air, a shadow rippled into existence, coalescing into the form of a woman wearing a black mask.
"Can you kill her?"
"If you command it."
The woman—Heukmu—prostrated herself, saying she would obey if it was her master's will.
"But will that be wise? The Emperor's pet... Moreover, she has already met you, my lady. Unnecessary suspicion will surely follow..."
"I already have a plan for that, so it's fine. Prepare a substitute and leave traces of sorcery. Since His Majesty's cherished pet has died, there must also be a culprit who killed it, no? Of course... that culprit will happen to be discovered by me."
"Understood."
With eyes brimming with killing intent, Ryu Hong recalled the image of Seo Seoryeong mocking her before she left.
"A mere pet... daring to mock me... Fine. Just as you wish, I'll use you to catch His Majesty's eye."
A short while later.
"Haa... That took everything out of me..."
"Are you all right?"
"Ah, thank you, Miss Jina."
Back in her own quarters—in the pavilion of the garden prepared just for her—Seo Seoryeong drank the cold water Jina had brought.
"So, how did it go?"
"It's definite. She's the one. She reacted the moment I mentioned dark orchid flower."
At Jina's question, Seo Seoryeong recalled the woman she had just met—the mid-level consort candidate named Ryu Hong.
"She must have tried to poison one of the upper-level candidates."
Coincidentally, one of the upper-level candidates—a woman named Yerim—had been in grave condition around the time Hwaryeon disappeared.
From what she heard, the symptoms at the time were excruciating pain that left the body completely immobile. Fortunately the imperial physician arrived in time and she survived, but the cause and symptoms matched exactly what Seo Seoryeong had guessed about Hwaryeon's death.
"She used Hwaryeon to administer the poison. Whether the child knew what it was, I don't know."
"...Once the girl had served her purpose, she killed her to erase the evidence."
"Most likely."
Seeing Seo Seoryeong press a hand to her forehead with an angry expression, Jina looked at her in surprise.
"It's unexpected."
"What is?"
"That you would be capable of something like this, Priestess."
Seo Seoryeong had almost never shown her true appearance to outsiders. She hated letting anyone see her deformed body. She would wrap herself completely even for occasional trips to the market, so there was no need to elaborate.
Yet that same Seo Seoryeong—though she hadn't revealed her tail—had gone to meet someone with her eyes, horns, and hand scales fully exposed. She had even extracted information.
It was genuinely shocking. Until now, the Seo Seoryeong Jina knew had been nothing more than a shaman who fluttered about at the temple's command.
"...There was never any need for this kind of thing back at the Shaman Temple."
At Jina's reaction, Seo Seoryeong scratched her head sheepishly.
"Anyway, what matters now is what comes next."
Having uncovered both the cause of Hwaryeon's death and the culprit, the real work lay ahead. With a subtle glint in her eye, she turned her gaze to Jina standing beside her.
"Have you thought of something?"
"Mm... I have an idea, but it's not something to discuss right now... For the time being, just act normally."
Perhaps finding Seo Seoryeong's attitude strange, Jina tilted her head with mild curiosity.
"...If you need anything, please tell me."
"I will."
With those words, Seo Seoryeong naturally drew a long pipe from her bosom. Jina could only sigh deeply at the sight.
"Must you really smoke that?"
"It feels like I can't live without it."
"It smells terrible."
"I'm not even smoking cigarettes. I'm just burning some herbs. Isn't that a bit harsh? I keep telling you it's good for the body."
"...Yes, yes."
She insisted that once it became a habit, the scent was far more fragrant than cigarettes and let the refreshing herbal energy permeate the body... but to anyone else it was hardly different from the harsh smoke of tobacco.
"Call me when you're finished. I'll take a look around the garden."
Jina watched with a pitying gaze as Seo Seoryeong, with practiced hands, took out the herbs, crushed them, and packed the pipe. Then she fled the pavilion to escape the potent herbal smell that would soon fill the air.
"But it really is good for the body..."
Even as she muttered that, Seo Seoryeong clearly had no intention of putting the pipe away. She pulled a small metal rod from her pocket and tapped the blue scales on her hand.
Hiss...!
"Tsk... It would be nicer if we could smoke it together..."
She simply looked regretful... her mouth filled with the refreshing yet bitter aroma of the herbs.
"Phew..."
Quietly... gazing at the blue sky, as if mourning someone.
—Ah! Over there! What are you doing right now! Priestess!
She simply recalled the child who had once approached her as she sat on the pavilion railing smoking her pipe just like this.