Anew
Gayul heard Hoeyeon's blade strike something aside, but she had no attention to spare for that now. She could only trust in Hoeyeon.
Ironically, the poison the snake-man had used on Arang was serving as a paralytic. Mounted atop the giant fox's back, Gayul parted the fur at the nape of Arang's neck and found a dark crimson orb — a Masu core — pulsing beneath.
Weak. No — weakened.
Cracks spidered along the core's edges, and even its dark crimson hue had gone dull and cloudy. It would reach its limit and shatter before long. But if it shattered while still embedded like this, the damage to Arang would be far worse.
Gayul chose her magic with care.
Keep the poison currently subduing Arang from harming her further — while still maintaining the paralysis. Separate the core rooted in Arang's body and draw it out. Heal any of the exposed wounds that could prove fatal, all at once. And protect herself so that handling the core would not corrupt her in turn.
"Even a master physician wouldn't attempt this alone."
If she failed, Arang — this beautiful, indomitable Hoin — would die or be crippled. Cold sweat beaded on Gayul's brow. Hoeyeon clenched her teeth.
There was no other choice.
"Mercy Blossom. Radiant Blade Flash. Cat's Guise…"
As she intoned the spells, Gayul swore an oath deep in her chest.
She would punish them. The criminals who had caused this — she would punish them, without fail.
Hoeyeon and Sasa were fighting to kill each other, just as they had that night.
But much had changed since then.
First, Sasa's right arm had been replaced from the elbow down with a razor-sharp blade. Her legs were hidden beneath wide trousers, but her gait was nothing a pair of ordinary human legs and feet could produce.
And above all else, there was unmistakable personal malice between them now.
Last time, the look Sasa had leveled at Hoeyeon had been the look one gives a target to be processed — a job. There had been a touch of mockery in it, but nothing more. To Hoeyeon, Sasa had been a sudden attacker, and though she had tried to drive her off and kill her, bewilderment had outweighed hatred.
But now there was a grudge. A personal grudge, person to person.
Resentment toward the swordsman who had carved up her body. Resentment toward the snake who had burned and wounded what she held dear.
Not duty. Not obligation. Not a job. Just the raw hatred of wanting to kill the enemy before her with her own two hands.
"Your swordwork's sloppy. Did something go wrong when you swapped out that arm?"
At Hoeyeon's taunt, Sasa laughed.
"Thanks to your kind concern, I'm quite well. And your disciples — are they in good health?"
"They're fine. Though I figure they'd be even finer if I caught a certain worm and wrung it dry."
Hoeyeon swatted a poison needle from the air as she spoke, and Sasa laughed again.
"Haha, is that so? Then I shall have to test a new poison on you, young lady!"
Screeeeeeeech—!! The sword in Hoeyeon's grip crashed against the blade affixed to Sasa's arm, and Hoeyeon's edge scraped down the length of it in a long, shrieking grind of steel.
Hoeyeon immediately pulled back and switched targets, aiming for Sasa's legs. Sasa dodged, and the two opened the distance between them.
"Aren't you being foolish? If you'd followed through, you would have cut me and only scratched yourself."
"You smeared poison on the blade, didn't you."
"Quick on the uptake. Perhaps you're not a frog but a rat? Looking closely, the coloring matches, too."
"You know worms get eaten by rats, right? Though you're so disgusting even bugs wouldn't bother."
There was no room to spare a thought for Gayul and Arang behind her. Unlike last time, the enemy before her was not underestimating Hoeyeon the swordsman. She had entrusted Arang to Gayul. That meant she could only trust Gayul. This enemy was hers. Therefore, she would be the one to kill her.
Hoeyeon raised her sword.
"Have you finally lost your mind?"
Sasa's bewilderment was understandable — the distance between them was far too great for a blade to reach. And yet Hoeyeon had already settled into the stance of a downward cut.
"I don't particularly want to do this," Hoeyeon sighed. "But in my experience, with the likes of you, this ends up being the fastest way."
Hoeyeon swung. A perfectly true vertical slash, without the slightest deviation.
It split Sasa — who by all rights should have been well out of reach — lengthwise into three. Hoeyeon had gathered sword qi at the tip of her blade and extended its length, and she had done it in a single instant too fast for Sasa to react.
The reason the pieces numbered three rather than two was that Sasa had tried to flee at the last moment by transforming into a snake, and the undulating body had been carved lengthwise.
"So that was the real body."
A massive white serpent. Thick as a human thigh at its narrowest, as thick as a waist at its broadest.
"Wait—"
The snake's head tried to say something final, but Hoeyeon split that head lengthwise without a moment's hesitation. For any living creature, that was certain death.
But she did not stop there. Among the three segments of the snake's body, she searched for the one seeping black energy. She split the Masu core within it on the tip of her blade, and she did not let her guard down until the shattered core collapsed into black powder, and the powder dissolved into mist and scattered on the wind.
"Hooo…"
Only after confirming beyond any doubt that the enemy was completely, irrevocably dead did Hoeyeon finally exhale. She wiped her blade, returned it to its sheath, and sank down onto the ground.
"Using sword qi really takes it out of me."
Strength refused to gather in her limbs. She wanted to look behind her, but it would have to wait a moment. Maybe she should just lie down.
And more than anything — Gayul would have handled it. She was sure of that.
The sound of Arang's breathing at her back had, at some point, grown easy and even.
They camped that night.
Contrary to Hoeyeon's wish for a long rest, the three of them had to move almost immediately. Soldiers had heard the commotion and come running. They slipped past the troops and crossed the border through a gap left by the diverted manpower, but that truly marked the end of Hoeyeon's endurance. Gayul and Arang took turns carrying her, and though they managed to put some distance past the border itself, they could not travel far enough to reach the safety of a town.
Hence the camp.
At the foot of a mountain they found a stretch of level ground, built a fire, and spread the blankets from their packs across the earth. There was nothing to cover themselves with, but it could not be helped.
"You all right?"
"I have slept in far harsher places than this, back when I still held the throne."
Hoeyeon had thought to check on the former Her Imperial Majesty first, and Gayul answered with a smile. Well — Gayul had never been the type to simply sit on a throne.
"Why dost thou not ask this one as well?"
"…Are you hurting?"
"Hoeyeon, this one is a Hoin, not a wild wolf. And even a wild wolf hath its own den."
"…Are you hurting?"
"To make one's bed upon the open earth is a common thing for this one. It is of no consequence whatsoever."
"Then why did you ask…?"
"Bestow some attention upon this one as well."
"……Fine. I'm sorry."
"Thou art forgiven."
So saying, Arang gave her plush fox ears a triumphant little twitch.
In apparent age she looked roughly Hoeyeon's equal, or perhaps a touch younger. She was taller than Hoeyeon. Of the three of them — Gayul included — her figure was by far the most curved. She had not fastened her robes tightly, leaving the upper swell of her chest bare. Her tail was lush and looked impossibly soft, about the length of an arm.
This was Arang's true form — not one forced younger, but the original.
"I can't get used to this…"
"That is hardly this one's fault."
It was Arang, and yet it was not Arang. Meaning — it was Arang, but not the child who looked six years old. This was Arang the adult, in every sense of the word.
She was beautiful. Beautiful — and those golden eyes had been calling out Hoeyeon! Gayul! with pure, sunny brightness only that very morning… Well, the look in them hadn't been quite like this then, but still—
"Come to think of it, this one hath one question for the two of you."
"What is it?"
Gayul asked without much thought, and Hoeyeon, equally without much thought, was cycling kid, adult, kid, adult… through her head.
Arang paused with a thoughtful hum, then spoke.
"Since when have the two of you been a mated pair?"
"!?"
"!!? !????? !!?!???"
"? Why have you both fallen silent?"
Because neither of them had the faintest idea how to answer. That was what both Hoeyeon and Gayul were thinking.
"Perchance — and this one says this only as a possibility — are the two of you not a pair?"
"…"
"…"
Still with no idea what to say, Hoeyeon and Gayul could only open and close their mouths uselessly.
"Hah… How dull. To have done something so heated and yet claim you are not a pair."
"Hea— what?"
When Hoeyeon asked, Arang looked at her instead — as if to say, why are you pretending not to know all of a sudden?
"That Cheomyeopin ears are keen is widely known, yet to think one could reach completion from mere play of that sort… One truly doth live and learn."
"Lady Arang was — at the time — asleep, was she not?"
Gayul's face had gone scarlet.
"This one was drifting between dream and waking. The moment this one lay down, the two of you began your dalliance — is it this one's fault for having overheard?"
Arang looked at Gayul with her eyes full of mischief. Mischief, right? Not sadism — just mischief? Arang had dropped to her knees the moment she came to her senses and bowed her head to Hoeyeon and Gayul in deepest gratitude, and Gayul was the former emperor — they wouldn't cross any lines with each other… right?
"'The child's finally asleep' — thinking back on it, truly delightful. And then, 'Do it for me too' — was that, perchance, jealousy toward this one?"
"'Gayul.'"
"…This one shall stop."
"'I don't wanna be a grown-up~'"
"Cease at once! Thou pointed-ear knave art underhanded!"
"Says the furred beast who started this and won't shut her mouth!"
"And what of this one's fur?! Behold! It is fine and lovely fur!"
"Ah yes, lovely indeed! Unlike my ears! This — like so!"
"Ayahhh! That hurts! Unhand this one! If the tail-fur comes out it shall be a disaster!!"
"Both of you, calm down!!"
Hoeyeon shoved herself between them and pried the two apart to either side.
Squish.
Squish?
Hoeyeon's mind locked up. What was that squish? What her arm was touching — no, not touching, what her arm was buried in—
"Hmph! Since thou hast plucked this one's tail-fur, this one shall claim something in return!"
"Oh-ho, by all means try! I pride myself on the thorough eradication of thieves!"
Soft.
Soft?
Wait, what — her other arm wasn't just touching something either. Her other arm was also wedged into something.
"Uh, uhhh??"
Her head spun. Soft. Left side was Arang, right side was Gayul, right? The left buried her a little deeper, the right was a little softer. But why were both of them swallowing her arms? Was this normal? Were they supposed to be big enough to sink into like this?
"Thou art not even her mate to begin with! Then is this one not free to have a taste as well?!"
"And thou hast no interest in Hoeyeon to begin with! Using her as a tool simply because thou wishest to sink thy teeth into me is an insult!"
"Heh. Then does our pointed-ear lady mean to say she does have an interest?"
"Wha—"
The campfire lit Gayul's face, flushed a brilliant red.