Ancient Gear Ruby (2)

I was at a loss.

She had said she would help me. And then Soso had come in looking thoroughly embarrassed, only to tell me, out of nowhere, to lie down on the bed.

She said it wasn't for anything strange, but...

The Heavenly Demon Cult and the Yeon clan had preserved a great martial sect across generations. In a family with roots that deep, the continuation of the bloodline was a matter of the highest importance.

If I thought back to the conversation I had just had with Yeon Moon-woo, it was possible this really was what he had been implying.

Soso's skill as a swordswoman is formidable. Bright, though, she is not.

Yeon Moon-woo was an elder of the family. If he had decided I would make a suitable match for Soso... a late hour, the two of us left alone like this — he might well have been thinking of seeing that bloodline carried on. He had seemed to think quite highly of me.

No. That's still too much of a leap.

The countless sects of Muguk, and the great martial houses in particular, were known for things that would be unthinkable anywhere else. But I was not the Cult's successor, and the idea that something so absurd would actually come to pass was ridiculous.

And yet the thought crept in all the same. If Soso truly wanted me even like this... I had no idea what I would do. It might have been nothing but a vain delusion of my own making.

Back when I had attended Eins, I had used her feelings. I still had not properly apologized for the wounds I had given her because of it.

And Soso still...

The way she had held my hand so tightly on the plane that afternoon. She still had feelings for me.

So if Soso wanted to bind me to her, even by force... that guilt of mine meant I would never be able to hurt her the same way again. Of that, I was certain.

So I did as she said and lay still on the bed. And in that moment of unconscious tension, Soso spoke.

"There's no need to be so tense...! I'll be clearing your meridians for tomorrow's secret technique. It's nothing more than a massage."

At those words, I immediately felt deflated. It really had been too much of a leap. The anxiety of the coming technique had conjured up a pointless fantasy.

Soso's a good kid. I was reading too much into it.

I had taken her kindness and twisted it into something strange. I felt sorry toward her all over again.

As I lay there in an awkward posture, Soso stammered, looking embarrassed.

"To palpate the meridians and energy channels, clothing gets in the way. It would be better if you removed your upper garments."

I obediently took off my shirt as she asked. Then Soso's hands came to rest on my body.

Soso could hardly still the pounding of her heart.

Her great-uncle and Minsu had talked for a long while. And after everything had been said and Minsu had gone to bathe, Yeon Moon-woo had called her over.

"That young man Minsu — perhaps because he's recovering from a grave injury — the qi flowing through his body is turbid and sluggish. Tomorrow I'll try to stabilize his dantian with the secret technique. Soso, will you help him?"

Soso nodded vigorously. If it was for Minsu, she would do anything.

But then, once the old man explained the method, Soso was horrified.

"Minsu has to... take his clothes off?"

"Of course he does. To feel another person's qi, there is no method more precise than flesh against flesh. And the dantian sits in the upper body, so only the shirt needs to come off. Nothing to be embarrassed about, is there?"

"B-but still..."

It was only then, catching that her reaction was far from ordinary, that the old man finally understood.

"Oho. Now I see it, Soso. You have feelings for that young man. Don't you?"

"What? Grand... uncle, what are you saying..."

"I can tell just from looking at your face. Hmm..."

Yeon Moon-woo's expression turned pleased — and then, somehow, heavy.

"Well. An old man like me meddling in the affairs of young men and women would be unbecoming. Even so, Soso. Young as you are, time is fleeting. There are things that can never be undone once the moment has passed. If your heart is with that young man, there is no need to hesitate."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"The room I gave him is clean, and the night is long. I mean for the two of you to spend some intimate time together. A young man of such excellence... if that blood were to continue, it would be a great help to the Heavenly Demon Cult's future as well."

"Granduncle!! D-don't say things like that even as a joke!!"

"Haha. I am not joking. The Heavenly Demon's bloodline is a matter of the utmost importance — not merely strength, but intellect as well."

Yeon Moon-woo was not wrong. Soso's father, Yeon Se-hwi, had not only possessed overwhelming martial power; he had been so gifted at governing the sect that he had multiplied the Heavenly Demon Cult's influence several times over.

But I'm an idiot...

Her martial strength had risen quickly enough, if belatedly. But no matter how hard she tried, anything that required her head had never improved at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all.

That was why she had fallen for Minsu — for that kind, intelligent presence of his. But listening to her great-uncle's meddling any longer was mortifying.

Minsu isn't even the Cult's successor. He has nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Cult at all. Saying something like that is rude in itself.

So Soso made a rough excuse to the old man and left.

Night deepened quickly after that. With her heart still fluttering, unsettled, Soso eventually found herself walking into the room where Minsu was staying.

And hiding every one of those inner feelings, she spoke to him.

"There's no particular need to be tense. I'll be setting your turbid meridians and mana to rights through my own qi. Loosen your body and simply receive it."

"I'll leave it in your hands, Team Leader Yeon."

At last her hands touched Minsu's upper body. In that moment, the one who went taut was not Minsu, but Soso. His skin and hers met.

It was not a strange thing, nor an embarrassing one. And yet the memory of holding his hand so tightly on the plane that afternoon sent heat flooding into her face.

And Minsu... has he always been built like this?

He had clearly been diligent with his weights. His shoulders were broad, the muscle of his upper body settled and well-defined.

As the daughter of a martial house, it was not the first time Soso had seen a man's bare torso. Ordinarily, those bodies had felt no different from stones by the roadside.

But now, for reasons she could not name, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

Shut up!

She barely managed to ignore that devil's whisper. And so as not to let any of those inner feelings show, she traced Minsu's major meridians with her fingertips.

Then she froze.

The fire qi is boiling over like this...

Just as her great-uncle had said. The qi — the mana — running through Minsu's meridians was in chaos, thrashing without order. The fact of it struck Soso like a blow.

Minsu's mana control used to far surpass anything a cadet should have been capable of... and now it's like this?

It was with that precise control that he had once produced Blue Flame, a working only high-ranking pyromancers could even attempt.

For a moment the guilt of having awakened the Blood Demon shook her all over again. But she forced her senses into her fingertips.

I have to help him.

Through her own qi, she began to purify the turbid mana inside him.

"This time, lie on your stomach."

"...Understood."

Fortunately, her palpation did not seem to be going poorly. She could hear it in his voice — the way it had gone languid. He was finding the massage deeply comfortable.

By the time Soso's qi had finished purifying even the meridians along his back, Minsu had already fallen asleep.

"Phew. This should be enough."

Her head was not a good one. But her concentration when it came to martial arts was not bad at all. Even that much, she had only come to know because of Minsu.

Soso brushed away the hair plastered to her forehead with sweat. Minsu's upper body was soaked through as well. A considerable amount of her qi had gone back and forth, holding down the fire qi — so it was hardly strange.

She sat for a moment in the chair beside the bed and checked the time. Two hours had already passed.

A deep night, edging toward dawn. Beyond the window, the moon hung in the sky. In Muguk there was a custom of making a wish upon the moon — especially a wish concerning someone you yearned for.

Whether in her Eins days or now, the person Soso thought of when she looked at the moon had always been only one. She leaned down against that person's back and buried her face there.

Minsu's warmth, and the scent of him, reached her all at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠once.

The divine beast of Muguk legend — the Vermilion Bird. In his Eins days, Minsu had been just like that creature.

Crushed under the weight of being the Heavenly Demon Cult's young mistress, able to do nothing, running from the fate she had been given — Soso had been nothing like him. Minsu had been free, and strong, and warm.

But now, having lost all of that power, even this body he had trained so diligently looked like the desperate beating of wings that would never fly again. It was pitiful.

And she was the one who had broken those wings. In the end, the Blood Demon was her, and she was the Blood Demon.

Lust, was it.

Even as her heart tore itself apart at the sight of him, another part of her was relieved. If Minsu was this fragile... if he had become so desperate that he needed even the Heavenly Demon Cult's connections... then even if she became his cage and bound him tight, perhaps he would not be able to run from her.

If there was anything he needed from her, she would give him everything. And in return, she wanted to bind him.

Not to Yuri. Not to Arin. She would never give Minsu away. The man she had believed she could never have was lying here, this defenseless, this close.

Just as her great-uncle had said. She wanted to make him hers, right here, right now.

And the Blood Demon said it, didn't she. That Minsu feels guilty toward me.

That guilt would only make the cage door sturdier.

But at the same time, Soso cried out inwardly.

Be quiet, Blood Demon.

She knew how vile and cowardly her own desire was. If Minsu ever learned of these thoughts, he would surely come to despise her.

So she kept screaming at herself to shut up, as if every feeling and every thought belonged to the Blood Demon alone.

But Soso knew the truth. From the moment the palpation had begun in earnest, the Blood Demon had not spoken a single word.

In the silence that followed, Soso only held the back pressed against her that much tighter.

The next day.

Yeon Moon-woo's secret technique began the moment the sun rose, and by noon it was finished.

"The technique was a success. Handling any seals beyond this will be your responsibility. However — up through the second-stage seal, the fire qi shouldn't reverse-flow. Even if you release the third-stage seal, your dantian won't collapse immediately."

"Thank you, Elder."

Just as he said, the mana I could feel near my Mana Heart — that fire qi unique to pyromancers — had settled. And through the first-stage seal Yeon Moon-woo's technique had released, I confirmed that fire spells were usable again.

Much better than a lighter, at least.

The crown jewel of fire magic — Fireball — could now be cast while still maintaining Blue Flame. It was still a far cry from what I had been capable of at the time of my Eins graduation, of course. But the more seals I released, the more of that power would return.

I bowed at the waist to Yeon Moon-woo in thanks, and tried to press on him the expense funds that had been allocated for this trip. He refused.

"That's enough. What would an old man like me need money for? I've no children to leave it to, so I've no use for it."

Yeon Moon-woo seemed never to have married, having devoted his entire life to Ancient Gears and Strange Gate Formations. And then, unexpectedly, he held out a book.

"Ahem. And this is a record of my lifelong research on Ancient Gears and Strange Gate Formations. Take it with you."

"You're giving something this precious to me?"

I had not expected this in the slightest. Yeon Moon-woo was a craftsman of such caliber that even Professor Seong Chaerin knew of him — and he was holding out, as if it were nothing, a secret treatise containing his life's work.

"That's right. It's nothing special. No need to look so shocked."

"But this is..."

If it went to auction as it was, every major hunter corporation in the industry would come running. It was anything but nothing special.

"Don't you start with that 'you haven't much life left' talk. It was research that would have been forgotten anyway. In that case, it's far better in the hands of someone who understands the principles of Strange Gate Formations. It will help with what you'll be doing from here."

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tucked the book carefully into my coat.

"I'll put it to worthwhile use."

"Good. Anyway — I've talked far too much thanks to you two showing up. Hurry on down. I prefer the quiet of this mountain."

Even as he said it, he looked reluctant to see us go. All the same, Yeon Moon-woo walked us all the way down the mountain.

And along that path, Yeon Moon-woo — a man well-versed in the legends of Muguk and the ancient Eastern Empire — gave me a piece of information more precious than I could have hoped for.

A clue to the word the Doubtful Monster had spoken.