The Red Flower Falls
The red flower had fallen. The place Yeon Minha's crow led me to was the inner residence, separated from the annex by a corridor. A place no one but the direct bloodline of the Red Fire family could enter without permission. I hid among the garden trees and shrubs, surveying my surroundings. On either side of the passage leading to the inner residence stood soldiers, vigilantly guarding the area. They wore visored helmets and were clad in heavily armored particle suits. Combined with the alarm magic encircling the perimeter and physical intruder detection devices, no sane person would charge straight into the middle of it all.
The crow perched on a high branch stared at me with eyes that seemed to ask why I wasn't moving already. Then, without a sound, it spread its wings and flew off toward the sheer cliff on the opposite side from where the soldiers stood. That direction led straight into the inner residence grounds connected to the passage.
Surely it wasn't telling me to climb up there. Did it think I was a bird?
"…"
Still, it was true that I couldn't think of any other way. Time was not on my side either. The backlash from overexerting my body before fully recovering was setting in. My limbs felt unbearably heavy and sluggish, as if weights had been attached. On top of that, poison from the demon's claws was spreading through my wounds. Blood still seeped from gashes that refused to close, and a feverish heat rose throughout my body. I felt as though I might melt into the ground at any moment.
With no other choice, I moved toward the base of the cliff where the crow had disappeared. The height was dizzying—several adult men stacked atop one another wouldn't reach the top—and the angle was nearly vertical. A sigh escaped me, but there was no turning back now. My goal was to get Yeon Minha out of this den of evil as quickly as possible. Avoiding unnecessary clashes with the soldiers was the wiser course.
"Hoo…"
Grabbing onto protruding roots of ancient trees and jutting rocks, I began scaling the cliff. After much struggling, I finally set foot inside the Red Fire inner residence. The view that unfolded before me felt like an entirely different world, cut off from the outside. I stood in the middle of a meticulously maintained garden. Unknown flowers glowing with blue light bloomed across the surrounding hills, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. I hid among exotic garden trees with bark cracked like a turtle's shell and sharply pointed leaves, then moved deeper in search of the crow and Yeon Minha.
At first, I wondered if Yeon Minha had deliberately drawn me here, but that made no logical sense. The demons had infiltrated as servants only after she left the main house for treatment, and the magic circle from earlier clearly needed more time to complete. She wasn't foolish enough to risk exposure by summoning an outsider under these circumstances.
Then, from nearby, I heard a woman's voice shouting loudly. Even from a distance, it sounded strangely familiar. I immediately closed the distance toward the source.
—Father…! Please, just a moment…!
Soon, along a garden path beside the inner residence, I caught sight of the Red Fire family head seemingly trying to leave, with Yeon Minha holding onto him. Despite her desperate posture, her eyes looked hollow and empty. Tears even welled at the corners of her eyes.
"I… I just heard something strange from Mother… She must have been too drunk and misspoke, but…"
She pleaded earnestly with her father. I felt a wave of confusion. What on earth had happened in that short time? Hidden between the foreign trees and the night shadows, they hadn't noticed my presence yet. But before I could decide my next move after this sudden encounter, Yeon Minha's next words froze my thoughts completely.
"She said… that I'm the child born between you and my aunt…?"
A faint sense of guilt, as though I had violated a taboo, seeped into my mind. I felt like I wanted to wash my ears after hearing words I shouldn't have. Reflexively, I recalled the woman from the photo I had seen yesterday—the twin sister of the current Red Fire head, who looked eerily similar to Yeon Minha except for her eye color.
"That's why I can't calm down… I just wanted you to confirm it once, Father…"
Yeon Minha pleaded again, her voice both desperate and sorrowful. But the man maintained his dry, expressionless face, showing no particular reaction. It was as if he couldn't hear his daughter's voice at all. He simply stood in silence for a long while before finally parting his lips indifferently.
"So that woman finally said it…"
"…What?"
The man's reply was closer to affirmation than denial. Yeon Minha's eyes widened vertically in shock. She staggered violently, barely managing to stay on her feet. Regardless, the man continued speaking as if it were nothing important.
"Tsk. So be it. You should know the truth anyway. I never thought I could hide it forever. The timing is quite convenient, too…"
"Ah, Father… What do you mean by that…? No matter what, calling Mother 'that woman' is…"
"Why are you so flustered? You said you just heard it yourself. From your attitude, it seems you were already almost certain. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with what she said."
The Red Fire mistress, whose appearance bore no resemblance to her daughter. Her attitude toward her daughter had felt almost hostile rather than maternal. All the circumstances lent more weight to his words. Only the utterly nonsensical background remained impossible to fathom.
"I am your father, but that woman is not your mother."
"Father…"
The man's mouth, still speaking in that dry, indifferent tone, cast Yeon Minha straight into hell.
"You are… the child born from my beloved younger sister."
"Ah, ah…"
Unable to endure any longer, Yeon Minha collapsed to the ground, hands braced against the dirt. Her hands trembled as she clutched at the soil.
"But… Aunt was said to have died in an accident…"
"It was an accident. She died in childbirth while giving birth to you."
Still clinging to a thread of hope, she stammered another question, but the man's answer only drove her deeper into the abyss.
"Why… why would you and Aunt…"
"…We loved each other more than anyone. We were each other's entire world."
A hint of moisture finally appeared in the man's previously parched voice.
"We were always together. In childhood, during our time at the cradle, even when we dealt with the remnants of the Heaven-Sundering faction. With her, nothing was frightening. Even if it was a trial sent by the gods."
There was a pure affection bordering on madness.
"That's what I thought back then."
But his words suddenly lost their momentum and crumbled.
"We were too young. Too naive. We believed that if we loved each other, we could overcome anything. How could we have known that the fruit of that love would take everything away? How did we realize it so late…"
It was one of the most basic facts taught in biology class at the cradle. Inbreeding between those with magical aptitude carried far greater risks. While the chance of producing offspring with powerful talents increased dramatically, the survival rate of both mother and child plummeted in equal measure.
Yeon Minha trembled like someone thrown into a midwinter snowfield, her body shaking at the resentment dripping from his words. After standing motionless for a long time, the man finally lifted his head again.
"It was an unbearably painful and lonely time. But that, too, is coming to an end. The time draws near. Soon, that child will be with me again."
"Time…? What do you…"
While Yeon Minha asked in a daze, her father suddenly twisted his expression into something vicious and whipped his head around. His gaze remained fixed on the middle of the garden filled with glowing flowers and shrubs.
"It seems a rat has slipped in."
—BOOM!
In an instant, a violent wind condensed at a single point with such force that it was difficult to keep one's eyes open. The whirlwind exploded like a bomb, uprooting the beautiful glowing flowers and shrubs and tearing them to pieces. As the dust settled, the staggering figure of someone was revealed.
"Cough… cough…!"
The smooth white mask faintly reflected the light of the glowing flowers. Perhaps due to the accumulated impact from the previous blow, the crack running across the right eye of the mask had grown even larger, looking dangerously close to breaking.
Yeon Minha, turning her head, immediately recognized me. She flinched in surprise, her face filled with fear, as if she herself were the criminal. With no other choice, I stepped forward and stood before the collapsed Yeon Minha.
"How dare you set your filthy feet inside the inner residence, a place reserved only for the direct bloodline. And on top of that, you even eavesdropped on our private conversation."
The Red Fire head directed a chilling voice at me.
"The recommended student from the Black Lotus this time is truly an insolent and ill-mannered child. Did you learn that from that scoundrel young master? Hm?"
I ignored his words and turned to Yeon Minha. When our eyes met, she lowered her head and couldn't continue speaking properly.
"Just now… the story… I mean…"
"Cough…! It's fine. You don't need to explain."
Honestly, it would be a lie to say I wasn't shocked, but in the end, it was a story that had nothing to do with me. My only concern right now was getting Yeon Minha out of this place. It would have been nice if things had gone according to my original plan of waiting until the conversation ended. Had he spread spirits around the area?
"More importantly, can you stand? We need to leave here immediately."
"Y-Your body is burning up… And your wounds…"
I took Yeon Minha's hand and pulled her up with force. The icy touch of her skin transferred directly to me. Yeon Minha, who had staggered to her feet, looked at me with a startled expression. Due to the poison from the demon's claws, the wounds across my body still hadn't closed, and dark red blood continued to seep out.
"How presumptuous. Do you really think I would permit this?"
The Red Fire head, Yeon Jeong-mun, no longer bothered to hide his hostility.
"I can't just let a thief who trespassed into the Red Fire inner residence and overheard confidential matters go free."
His displeasure was evident in his tone.
"You will receive the punishment you deserve. And that price can only be paid with death."
"Father…! What are you…!"
I stepped forward again, blocking the horrified Yeon Minha. I didn't want to criticize her father in front of her, but what he had done was a sin far too great and horrific to be covered up.
"The one who needs to be punished is you, head of the Red Fire family."
"What nonsense is that now…"
"The plague magic circle."
At the words that left my mouth, he—who had been radiating a menacing aura—froze in place like a wax doll. Soon, his face twisted into that of a vicious demon, as if his most deeply hidden secret had been exposed.