"How far did you go with Sister Dang?"
"What?"
Seol Ri-hyang's question came at me out of nowhere. It was so unexpected that I flinched before I could stop myself.
She licked her slightly dry lips with a quick flick of her tongue before continuing.
"If it's up to that point… you have my permission. Okay."
"…"
Her arms were wrapped around my neck, so our faces were suddenly very close. Her body, which had been cool to the touch, had grown a little warm by now.
Whether my warmth had transferred to her, or her coolness had chilled me, one thing was certain — our body heat was mingling.
From Seol Ri-hyang, who had revealed the Yin Energy she usually suppressed… no, to be precise, who had revealed herself a little more honestly, a strange seductive aura emanated.
Somehow, I began to see the Seol Ri-hyang of before the regression in her current form. Mostly the version of her from the bed.
"Hey, Cheon Hwi. So how far did you go with Sister Tang?"
"How far, you ask."
I quietly looked down at Seol Ri-hyang. Did she herself know? How she looked right now? How attractive she was to me?
Nostalgia for the past. A hint of impulse. And beneath it all, rising from a faint sense of forbidden pleasure, was a single sentiment.
She's beautiful.
I knew it in my head, and since I often interacted with the others in our group, my impressions had long since dulled, but…
Seol Ri-hyang, who was drawing ever closer to the age I had been before my regression, was beginning to truly bloom into that beauty.
But I swallowed all these thoughts along with my saliva and opened my mouth in a deliberately calm voice.
"It was a kiss."
"…Huh?"
"I said it went as far as a kiss. And even that was back during the Heavenly Poison Sect incident."
"…"
Seol Ri-hyang froze mid-tilt of her head. Then her black eyes widened, and her voice rose as well.
"Is that really all?!"
"All? We haven't even held the wedding ceremony yet, so isn't this about as far as it should go?"
"All! It's absolutely all! You two stick together like glue all the time, rubbing against each other, and the best you managed was a kiss?!"
"Rubbing against each other…"
It wasn't quite to that extent, I thought.
As I looked a little sulky, Seol Ri-hyang unwound her arms from my neck and sat up straight.
I watched her pull away with a pang of regret, and she raised her index finger with a snap before continuing.
"Think about it. A couple that loves each other to death like that, and you only barely managed a kiss recently? How ridiculous is that?"
"You and I both came from the streets, so it might feel slow, but Tang So-wol is a young lady of a noble house. Naturally, she can't help but be a little slow in this sort of thing."
"It's true that Sister Tang is a proper lady, but that has nothing to do with it! Remember that Peng what's-his-name and Eon what's-her-name we met before?"
"You mean Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye? At least memorize their names."
"I forget people I'm not interested in quickly. Anyway, those two also came from noble houses that don't fall short of the Tang Clan. But how did it go?"
"What do you mean, how? I thought they lived tiring lives because of the bloody relations between their families."
"And?"
"…In that sense, I was lucky. No matter how capable I was or what favors I did, I was able to become Tang So-wol's betrothed without much opposition."
"You idiot, Cheon Hwi! You should be focusing on the part where you did everything you needed to do even while being pressed for time and hounded by others' gazes!"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, that was true. We had even bought a small house and lived together for a short time, or taken a boat out and enjoyed ourselves on the water.
"It's been four years since you and Sister Tang became betrothed! In all that time, we've had minor squabbles, but for the most part you two were so sweet together it made my teeth rot!"
"Why your teeth?"
"Because it was so saccharine! Unbearably saccharine!"
Seol Ri-hyang shouted that out, then huffed in frustration. I lightly patted her back as she struggled to catch her breath and spoke.
"I had my reasons too."
"What? Don't tell me you're impot—"
"It's because if my father-in-law caught us, we'd have to fight a life-and-death duel right then and there."
"Ah."
This time, it was Seol Ri-hyang's turn to fall silent.
And so, as the two of us fidgeted in that awkward silence for a moment, Seol Ri-hyang let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"Whew. Well, fine. So all we have to do is kiss, then. …Kiss?"
Stopping mid-sentence, Seol Ri-hyang flinched and raised her head to look at me with stiff, jerky movements.
Her gaze fixed on my lips. It was only at that blatant stare that I finally realized—even though she'd been speaking so casually until now, the moment she thought it was actually her turn, she was completely tense.
Seol Ri-hyang's lips moved soundlessly, as if she was trying to say something only to swallow it back, or as if she was practicing something.
Even until just before One Da-kyung, she had exuded a Seductive Aura thick enough to recall her pre-regression self, yet now she had returned to her usual demeanor.
Part of it was surely pure shyness or Resolve, but in the end, being unable to contain the abruptly surging Yin Energy was likely one of the reasons as well.
Letting out a snort of a laugh, I lightly tilted up Seol Ri-hyang's lowered chin and made her look this way.
"Anyway, I understand what you're trying to say. A kiss is all it takes, right?"
"Th-that's… true, but."
"Up to that point, I've already heard things from Tang So-wol in advance, so I have no qualms."
I slowly brought my face closer. Seol Ri-hyang's gaze wandered here and there, at a loss for what to do. But before long, she quietly closed her eyes. And then.
"W-wait a moment!"
Thud.
She covered my mouth with her palm and said that. It was soft.
"Mmph. Mmph."
"What's the matter? Well…"
Her words were muffled by her hand, but the meaning came through clearly. At that, Seol Ri-hyang hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"It's just—doing it all of a sudden, you know? Isn't it too anticlimactic?!"
"Mmph?"
"Ah, right. I'll let you go for now."
Seol Ri-hyang nodded and took her hand away from my mouth. When I stared at her, she fumbled and continued what she had been saying.
"Anyway, since this is my first time, I'd like a bit more of an atmosphere, or a proper reason, something like that."
"I think this is plenty."
"But…"
"But?"
"But if we leave it like this, I'll just look like some weird woman who barged in at midnight, kissed you, and left."
"Don't worry. The moment you barged in at midnight without warning, you already looked like a weird woman."
"…"
Seol Ri-hyang silently tapped my chest with her fist. Normally, she would strike with the base of her palm like a massage, but the way she was hitting with a proper fist-thrust stance made me think I had a slight idea of what she was learning these days.
After all, many of the North Sea Ice Palace's martial arts involved releasing cold energy through the hands.
I let her punch me a few times before grabbing her fist and subduing her in an instant, leaving her unable to move.
Then, this time, it was my turn to grin as I spoke.
"If you're going to be a weird woman anyway, what's the difference between doing it and not?"
"What are you—"
"More importantly, what kind of move is it to provoke me like this and then suddenly pull back?"
"Ugh."
Seol Ri-hyang, unable to say anything with her conscience pricking her more than once, hung her head low. As he brought his face close to hers once more, her nape trembled with tension and excitement.
He savored that small movement for a moment before whispering softly.
"But there's some truth to your words, Seol Ri-hyang. Atmosphere matters, doesn't it?"
With that, he lowered his head and kissed her. Not on the lips, however, but on her nape, white as freshly fallen snow.
"Hnn."
She flinched as if holding back a ticklish sensation. He sucked on the tense nape of her neck, hard enough to leave a mark.
Smack.
As he slowly pulled his lips away, a vivid lip mark remained. Seol Ri-hyang, who had been squeezing her eyes shut, slowly opened them again with a dazed expression.
Her expression made it clear she had no idea what had just happened.
"Uh. Th-that was…"
"Just as you wished, the lips are for next time. Is this enough?"
"Mm."
"Stop making that dumb face. Since we're on the subject, let's properly decide when it's going to happen."
"Hey! It's just that you're suddenly being so forward compared to usual, so I was surprised! And as for next… the only thing I can think of right now is the achievement."
"Surely you're not talking about after reaching Transcendent Peak?"
"Of course not. I mean when I've fully made this increase in internal energy my own."
"Well, well. So you were aware of it after all."
"That I was being swayed by the Yin Energy? …I was, a little."
Seol Ri-hyang nodded her head slightly, then flopped backward and turned over onto her stomach.
With her back exposed to me without any guard, she swung her feet lazily as she spoke.
"At first, I came to ask for meridian cleansing, but seeing you asleep like that, Cheon Hwi, I suddenly just… yeah. That's how it happened."
"Hoh."
I shook my head for a moment. But she wasn't finished—Seol Ri-hyang tapped my thigh with her toes and continued.
"And on top of that, after seeing the people of the North Sea Ice Palace, it's true that I've been thinking a lot about my roots lately."
"That's a problem people like us can't avoid, after all."
"Perhaps. But Cheon Hwi, it seems you've already reached your conclusion."
That's true. After the deaths of Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin, I learned that even someone like me could hold another person in my heart.
And after meeting Tang So-wol, I'd come to see her as the place where I could put down roots.
Seol Ri-hyang was probably the same. The reason she'd brought up such a topic was… she was asking whether it was alright for her to take root in me, whether I was confident I could truly treat her well.
Who else but I could understand that heart?
Instead of answering, I shrugged once and grabbed her fluttering legs, gently pinning them to the floor.
"It's a secret. But meridian cleansing, I can do that for you anytime."
I settled onto the spot near Seol Ri-hyang's hips, adjusting my posture. I channeled a suitable amount of internal energy into my fingers, placed them on her shoulder blade… and pressed down firmly.
"Ahh…"
Seol Ri-hyang's voice sounded half-melted. Why was that? Somehow, this felt more intense than when I kissed the nape of her neck.
I let out a silent laugh and continued the meridian cleansing, repeating the process who knows how many times.
When one side was done, Seol Ri-hyang shifted her position with a squirm, tilted her head, and spoke.
"That's amazing. Actually, these days whenever I train, I get meridian cleansing from Sister Seomun too? It's not bad, but…"
"But?"
"Strangely, when you do it, Cheon Hwi, the effect is much better. …And it feels good too."
Seol Ri-hyang murmured the rest under her breath, then raised her voice slightly to cover it up as she asked.
"What's the difference, anyway? Is there some kind of secret technique?"
After a brief moment of thought, I brought my finger, once again focused with internal energy, to Seol Ri-hyang's waist and answered.
"This is a secret too."
***
The next morning. Tang So-wol saw the mark left on Seol Ri-hyang's nape, cautiously leaned in to sniff the scent, and then.
With a satisfied expression, she gave a thumbs up.
"Well done, young hero Cheon!"
"It's a bit frightening that you can figure out what happened just from the scent."
Well, when you train in the poison art, you also train your sense of smell to identify poisons, so that must be the influence.
Seomun Hwa-rin, who had been watching this strange sight, also followed Tang So-wol's lead and circled around Seol Ri-hyang, sniffing the air… but.
She could only tilt her head as if she had no idea what was going on.
"You there. It seems there's a bruise on Hyang-i's nape—what on earth does that have to do with the scent?"
"…Senior Seomun Hwa-rin, that's enough."
I lightly patted Seomun Hwa-rin's head as if stroking it. She didn't seem to dislike it.
And so, a new day began with a bit of commotion. The days that flowed by without any particular incident came to an end before long.
It was because of the news of Tang So-wol's success in developing the poison.