Hyeok Gi-rin Is a Crossdressing Woman! -1
“Ahem.”
Heukmyo giggled as she watched Ho Cheon-an clear his throat with obvious discomfort.
Idiot.
The man who had once been as lazy as a lounging cat had become a first-rate warrior and promptly turned into a fool with nothing but martial arts filling his head. She understood the explosion of pent-up desire well enough—someone so hungry for the martial path that he had become the Sichuan Nangin, only to have his advancement blocked by his constitution. Still, lately he had gone too far.
In the past, at least he would flinch and acknowledge her when she drew close. These days the times he did not even glance her way had skyrocketed.
Back in the underwater cave…
The memory of those days made Heukmyo’s face burn even as irritation flared. She had shown him bare skin, soaked and clinging, yet he had not laid a single finger on her. She had swallowed her shame and raised the level of exposure day after day, but Ho Cheon-an never went beyond a fleeting glance.
Of course the week in the underwater cave had been a happy memory. That was that, however, and this was this. Would she ever again have a chance to bare herself so naturally? She had wanted to display more of her charm and capture his gaze… and he had simply thrown away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The wind had gone right out of her sails.
She had endured the embarrassment and tried so hard precisely because she doubted such a chance would come again.
It was in that deflated state that she received Hyeok Gi-rin’s request. Studying the back of the rider ahead of her, she felt a strange sense of dissonance. Not in the outward appearance—something about the aura…
A faint prickling, as though something were being stimulated. The sensation was tiny, yet Heukmyo found herself watching Hyeok Gi-rin more carefully. She probed the other’s qi with meticulous care and discovered nothing suspicious, so she had no choice but to dismiss it as imagination.
The longer she observed, the more she marveled.
So men like this really exist in the world.
Short for a man, slender of build—more boy than youth. Even the way he sat a horse made one feel he might need a hand to dismount. Closer to a pretty youth than a handsome man, yet that did nothing to mar the face. If anything, the small frame and large eyes only solidified a charm unique to Hyeok Gi-rin.
Admiring the looks of one of the realm’s most celebrated beauties, Heukmyo sent a few telepathic messages to Ho Cheon-an. She was curious how Senior Ho saw this pretty youth.
Yet the mere act of praising the Jade Dragon Hero, Hyeok Gi-rin, made Ho Cheon-an gesture sharply for her to stop talking.
An unexpectedly fierce reaction.
One possibility flashed through Heukmyo’s mind.
Could it be… he dislikes me talking about other men?
The thought made a laugh slip out before she could stop it. The sight of Ho Cheon-an hating praise directed at another man. So he did mind when her attention wandered elsewhere. The idea left a ticklish sensation in a corner of her chest.
What name should she give this feeling? Swept along by the emotion that set her heart aflutter, Heukmyo sent another message.
Senior. Are you jealous because I’m praising the Jade Dragon Hero right now?
Ho Cheon-an turned his head, lifted the brim of his black hat, and mouthed the words.
No. I’m. Not.
He seemed to want nothing to do with any conversation about Hyeok Gi-rin at all.
Heukmyo, however, had no intention of letting the subject drop. The same man who remained indifferent even when she bared her skin was reacting this violently—how could she possibly let such a topic go?
This is all because you haven’t been paying me any attention lately, Senior. You brought this on yourself!
She wanted to savor the rare taste of Ho Cheon-an’s focus a little longer.
When I think about Super-Peak martial might pouring out of that cute little frame, it somehow feels charming. Is this what they call reverse charm?
Watching his expression sour, Heukmyo beamed and continued the telepathy.
I’d love to see that face set in a resolute glare as he stares down an enemy. Maybe we’ll get the chance if we run into bandits.
Listening to Heukmyo’s messages, Ho Cheon-an…
swallowed dryly.
Heukmyo, Heukmyo. Why did it have to be Hyeok Gi-rin…!
He had never once imagined she might take an interest in a man. Her behavior had always been the opposite—she had never so much as glanced at Ha Seon-su, a handsome enough fellow to approach women with confidence.
Yet here she was, refusing to stop praising Hyeok Gi-rin’s looks even after he told her to quit!
Was the pretty-youth type simply her preference? Ho Cheon-an thought it possible. A woman who had spent her life tormented by aggressive macho types might well find the exact opposite—soft, small, delicate men—appealing.
And Hyeok Gi-rin, by appearance alone, was a pretty youth worthy of the title “Jade Face,” one of the central plains’ representative beauties.
Even Heukmyo could feel genuine romantic attraction toward such a person.
Why else would she keep listing praises of Hyeok Gi-rin’s looks over telepathy when he had already said he disliked it?
Heukmyo… Hyeok Gi-rin is… Hyeok Gi-rin is a woman…!
Considering her upbringing, the mere fact that interest in the opposite sex had sprouted at all was a miracle. A fragile shoot that had somehow bloomed in the eternal frost of the Heavenly Altar Barrier—curiosity or fondness toward the other gender! And the object of that fondness turned out to be the same sex?
It was the sort of revelation that could leave a deep wound on the heart.
Heukmyo already carries enough scars from the opposite sex…! I can’t let her pile on any more!
Hehe, jealous Senior Ho. So cute!
Hyeok Gi-rin rode ahead, lost in serious thought about how to drive the bandits out of Sichuan. Behind that figure, two people were lost in entirely different thoughts of their own.
The horses, knowing nothing of what their riders were thinking, simply galloped hard along the road.
This was an emergency.
Heukmyo seemed to have started taking an interest in Hyeok Gi-rin.
No. Cheon-an. Ho Cheon-an. Don’t jump to conclusions. Nothing’s confirmed yet. If I start drinking the soup before the kimchi even arrives, I might end up thrashing around under the blankets later for nothing.
“Ahh~ I really want to talk alone with Young Master Hyeok Gi-rin~”
Yeah, it was definitely screwed.
The way she said even that so only I could hear it—making it feel as though she were conscious of Hyeok Gi-rin—was not my imagination.
We had arrived at the inn. The last one on the road to Mount Jeongnam. People whose faces had gone ashen after losing their luggage to bandits, and travelers trying to pass through Mount Jeongnam from Sichuan toward other provinces, had all been stranded here; the place was packed to the rafters.
“Great Hero! Please defeat those vile bandits for us!”
“Of course. I will resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.”
“Great Hero! We place our trust in you alone!”
“To do so, I will need everyone’s cooperation.”
Hyeok Gi-rin was apparently handsome enough in other people’s eyes. Every woman in the inn wore a dreamy expression and could not tear her gaze from that face.
“Ahh, if only I could hold Lord Hyeok Gi-rin in my arms…”
“I wonder how adorable the expression would be if those eyes filled with tears…”
“Haah, someone I could stroke forever…”
Something felt off about the whole atmosphere, but I decided to chalk it up to my imagination. In any case, Hyeok Gi-rin’s face was growing subtly darker; clearly the reports about the bandit alliance kept getting worse.
Gathering the people’s testimonies was purely Hyeok Gi-rin’s job. This place was only a day and a half’s walk from Sichuan—why would anyone treat the Sichuan Nangin kindly? The moment Hyeok Gi-rin asked a question, answers poured out in streams; there was no reason for us to go around begging for information ourselves.
Heukmyo already had such skewed relationships that she barely understood her own emotions. And now the man she had taken a liking to was—ta-da!
Actually a woman in men’s clothing!
Just imagining the shock she would take made me wonder whether I ought to reveal Hyeok Gi-rin’s true gender right this moment. The problem was that if I got grilled on how I knew, I would have nothing to say.
“Heukmyo. Do you know anything about Hyeok Gi-rin?”
“Only what everyone else knows. Even if I am the head of an information network, I can’t keep every detail in my head. Especially… in Hyeok Gi-rin’s case there are signs of imperial connections. Matters involving the imperial family are better left unknown if at all possible.”
Right. Dig too carelessly into that sort of thing and you could vanish without a trace. If Heukmyo had already held information on Hyeok Gi-rin, explaining myself would have been easier. How was I supposed to casually brush past the fact that I knew the gender?
Watching Hyeok Gi-rin collect testimonies, Heukmyo murmured,
“It might be fun to learn about the person through the person.”
“Hoo.”
“Hehe, is Senior bothered?”
She laughed and poked my cheek with a fingertip. This kid had no idea what was going on inside me and was having the time of her life. Why the sudden excitement, the pounding heart, the eyes that kept drifting toward Hyeok Gi-rin?
“Ugh.”
I let out a sigh and looked over at Hyeok Gi-rin. The women gazed with affectionate eyes; the men simply sent looks of admiration. Not a single person would ever guess that Hyeok Gi-rin was a woman.
The Jeomchang Sect was not steeped in the ideology of male superiority, so perhaps people simply assumed there was no reason for Hyeok Gi-rin—foremost among the Later Ten Heroes—to hide a gender.
Overall the disguise was excellent, yet I still thought there were grounds to suspect a woman cross-dressing as a man.
Was it only because I already knew the truth that I saw it that way?
In the end Heukmyo had not noticed the gender either, and among everyone in the inn not a single person seemed to harbor any doubt.
“What’s wrong, Senior? Is something the matter?”
When I started glancing around, Heukmyo asked. Come to think of it, she herself had seemed to sense something about Hyeok Gi-rin when we first mounted up.
“Those telepathic messages you sent earlier today—did you feel any dissonance from Hyeok Gi-rin?”
“Mm. My nerves must have been on edge. I thought I felt something, but even after watching continuously afterward, nothing registered.”
Yes—that was it. I finally understood the identity of the dissonance I had felt while looking at Hyeok Gi-rin. Two birds with one stone, you could say.
They say necessity is the mother of invention; while I was racking my brains for a way to explain things to Heukmyo, something useful had fallen into my lap. With this I could give her a story she would accept.
“Heukmyo, listen carefully and don’t be shocked.”
“What is it this time, all of a sudden?”
It might prove terribly cruel for her. But what choice was there, Heukmyo? Better to take the beating early and settle the feelings before they grew any larger.
Completely unprepared for the bombshell about to drop, Heukmyo leaned her upper body in with bright, excited movements, clearly thinking, Senior’s about to tell another fun story!
“Hyeok Gi-rin is a crossdressing woman.”
I truly felt sorry for the excited Heukmyo.
But I delivered the cruel truth all the same.