Jingle.
Unlike the sinister energy it carried within, the bell's sound was remarkably clear.
The moment they registered it, Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, and Seomun Hwa-rin's minds were stained black by something, and they began to fall.
A sensation of being sucked into something. Tang So-wol had experienced this once before, but for the other two, it was their first time, and they began to flail about in a fluster.
The two flailed their limbs as they continued to fall through the dark passage. Seeing this, Tang So-wol nodded as if relieved.
'I was worried about what would happen if we were separated and each saw a different scene… but it seems that won't be the case.'
Of course, whether Tang So-wol was relieved or not, it wasn't exactly a matter of great importance to the two who were currently plummeting in real time.
Tang So-wol let out a wry smile and waved her hand at the two, who were now reflexively trying to draw up their internal energy.
"Don't worry, this is just how it is. And Sister Hwa-rin, if you keep drawing up your Intent, you'll end up resisting the Grand Ritual that was so kindly cast for us, so please bear with it a little longer."
"Wh-what do you mean, this is just how it is, Sister Tang?"
"Eung? Oh dear. I let that slip without meaning to."
Only after confirming that Seomun Hwa-rin had sheepishly withdrawn her Intent did Tang So-wol speak again.
"Yes. It seems the pace is a bit faster than before… but it's more or less the same. If that's the case, then it should be about time for it to end."
The moment Tang So-wol finished speaking, a white landscape reflected beneath their feet. Blinded by the brilliance, the three closed their eyes for a brief moment—and when they opened them again.
The scenery around them had already changed completely.
Instead of the narrow, stifling black passage, a wide-open white landscape.
Snow piled thickly atop the slightly worn buildings. And as she looked down on it all from the sky—a view both unfamiliar and yet somehow experienced—Seol Ri-hyang's eyes sparkled.
"Wow. It's pretty."
"It seems quite a lot of snow has fallen. But how do we land?"
"Ah, don't worry. The closer we get to the ground, the slower we'll go on our own."
Tang So-wol said this to reassure Seomun Hwa-rin, but the more she looked around, the more serious her gaze became.
'Somehow, this place feels familiar…'
She pondered the strange sense of déjà vu for but a moment. Then, suddenly, as if she had been plunged into water, a considerable resistance to her fall began to press against her.
At the same time, the scenery that had merely been white began to come alive.
Icicles formed beneath the eaves as the snow slowly melted. Occasionally, snow that could no longer bear its own weight would slide off the roof, and a few servants—though not many—appeared, trying to clear away the accumulated snow.
It felt as if the density of the world had suddenly increased. Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin widened their eyes in admiration.
Only then did Tang So-wol understand the source of the dissonance she had been feeling.
"This is… the Black Alliance."
Though she had set foot on the snow-covered ground, her feet left no footprints—legs simply passing through the snowfield.
Seomun Hwa-rin, who had taken a couple of steps out of curiosity, tilted her head.
"Hm? What do you mean by that? Most of the Black Alliance's buildings were newly constructed, and from what I recall, they were decorated so ostentatiously—like a nouveau riche—that they glittered no matter where you went."
"Yes, that's right. But no matter how I think about it, the overall structure is definitely one of the buildings I saw in the Black Alliance. Do you remember the banquet hall where the Heavenly Demon appeared?"
"…Ah! Now that you mention it, Unni, the structure as seen from above did feel like that!"
Seol Ri-hyang nodded, having recalled the memory immediately. Seomun Hwa-rin, on the other hand, mulled it over as if sifting through her memories before finally speaking.
"The structure is certainly similar. However, upon closer inspection, it's strange beyond measure. Would you care to look here?"
Seomun Hwa-rin pointed at the surrounding wall with her index finger.
Not only was it cracked here and there, but near the edges it was half-collapsed, exposing the inside completely.
Traces one would only see in a house left abandoned for a long time.
"From what this one remembers, the place where the banquet was held was the most recently constructed building. Yet this bears clear marks of age. And a building of this size—rather than leaving it abandoned, wouldn't it be better to sell it off…"
"Could it be a different time period? After all, this is supposed to be Cheon Hwi's mindscape. It's meant to show the most memorable memories, so naturally it would be some point in the past. Perhaps this place used to be this rundown, and the Black Alliance recently renovated it."
"Hmm. That does make sense. If so, that would mean Hwi has had ties with the Black Alliance since childhood. …No wonder he fits in so well."
A light laughter spread at Seomun Hwa-rin's remark, which she added with a smirk.
It was a rather off-base guess, but for those who couldn't even imagine that time could flow backward, it was the most reasonable conclusion they could reach.
Having surveyed their surroundings and speculated on the time period, the three began to move slowly.
Unlike when Tang So-wol had entered Cheon Hwi's mindscape before, interacting with the scenery within the memories was nearly impossible.
That was only natural—this time, the goal wasn't to snap Cheon Hwi back to his senses and pull him out, but to quietly peer into his memories.
Having been told in advance that they could stay for a much longer duration in exchange for giving up interaction, the three began walking along the path at a leisurely pace.
The buildings, neglected and untended, exuded a desolate atmosphere, half-ruined.
But as they kept walking, at some point a path that had been maintained to some degree began to appear. And people who lived here began to show themselves as well.
Though they were clearly seeing them with their own eyes, their features were as indistinct as if shrouded in fog.
Still, from the clothes they wore and the way they struggled to clear the snow, it wouldn't have been difficult to guess they were servants.
Seomun Hwa-rin, who had been quietly observing this, spoke up.
"…Indeed. I have a suspicion."
"What is it?"
"If a clan that once enjoyed great prosperity fell for some reason and was slowly waiting for its own extermination, wouldn't it feel just like this?"
"That is…"
"Indeed. It is also the reason this one abandoned the Seomun Clan, which had become nothing but ruins, and began to wander—and it resembles the fate of those enemies who lost their clan head and sect leader to this one's revenge."
As Seomun Hwa-rin pieced together an answer based on her own experience, Seol Ri-hyang's eyes widened.
"Unni Seomun, are you saying that Cheon Hwi came from a once-renowned family?"
"Would it not be so? His sword art shows signs of having been learned here and there, taking only the strengths of each, just as he himself claims—but what of Hwi's mental cultivation method? To my eyes, though exceedingly violent, it appeared to be a complete method from the very beginning."
"…Indeed. Young hero Cheon was already using his current mental cultivation method when he kidnapped me at the age of fifteen. The killing intent was so thick that I remember it clearly."
"Then a rough picture emerges. Hwi was originally born into a prestigious house of the Unorthodox Sects, but… for some reason the clan was exterminated, and he fled to a small village in the countryside, would you not agree?"
"In the investigation of the Tang Clan that I glimpsed before, young hero Cheon's parents were recorded as outsiders as well."
"Then it was the Demonic Cult that exterminated Cheon Hwi's clan, after all?"
Adding words one by one, the three women began to piece together the secret of Cheon Hwi's birth (there was none).
But this did not last long. Before long, Cheon Hwi appeared before the three of them.
"…Huh?"
"Mm?"
"This is…"
Was it because he was the master of this mental realm? Or perhaps the seal did not extend this far.
Unlike the others whose features were blurred, Cheon Hwi alone stood out clearly, his face visible in full detail.
However, the figure before them was completely different from what the three had seen and imagined so far.
What appeared before the three women, who had expected a small, adorable baby Cheon Hwi, was… a Cheon Hwi who looked slightly older than the current one.
Roughly grown, unkempt black hair hung loose. His equally black eyes were shrouded in gloom, yet a fierce longing flickered within them.
The Aura surrounding him was sharp, but it carried a roughness closer to fangs than to a sword.
A man radiating a ferocious presence that overall evoked a starving wolf.
The women felt a sense of both familiarity and strangeness from this picture-perfect image of an Unorthodox Sects Martial Artist, and they fell into confusion.
"Is he Cheon Hwi's father?"
"Who knows. Perhaps he could be an older brother."
Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin, faced with a sight that flatly denied their guesses, looked to Tang So-wol as they always did, hoping to hear a reason they could understand.
But Tang So-wol was different.
"…No. It is the young hero Cheon."
A voice filled with confusion, yet in some sense, overflowing with conviction.
When the other two women silently looked at her, demanding an explanation, Tang So-wol began to lay out her reasoning in a calm tone.
"First, his gait is identical to the young hero Cheon's. His center of gravity is well-maintained, but it leans subtly forward, giving the feeling he could lunge at any moment."
"I-Indeed, that's true! But that is the influence of the Thunder Step. Surely Hwi said he learned it from a survivor of the Seomun Clan other than myself…"
"And look at the angle of the sword scabbard at his waist. The young hero Cheon keeps it slightly pulled toward himself so he can draw and swing his sword at any moment. That way, he can strike the instant the blade leaves the sheath."
"I've heard of it before. Cheon Hwi doesn't use any particular techniques, so he said that rather than taking the time to set his stance, it's more important to just swing first."
"Of course, that's not all. Look at the angle of those eyebrows. Whenever he's displeased about something, he always furrows his brow at that exact angle. It's a face he doesn't show us, but it's one he often wears when looking at others."
"…?"
"For some reason, his height seems a little shorter than now, and while his muscles are well-trained, they don't feel systematic. However, the shape of his shoulder muscles is exactly the same as the young hero Cheon's. Normally, that's a trait seen in those who swing their swords in a similar manner… but the young hero Cheon has said that his sword has neither master nor disciple."
"…"
Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin's expressions grew increasingly rigid at Tang So-wol's explanation, which still showed no sign of ending.
Their faces said they couldn't understand why anyone would remember something like the shape of someone's muscles.
"Most of all, that gaze. Those eyes that measure everything they see from time to time—that's him gauging whether or not he can cut them down. There is no one who satisfies all the conditions above and is this obsessed with the sword other than the young hero Cheon."
"Ah, yes."
"Is that so…"
Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin answered lukewarmly, but the two of them were also people who had watched Cheon Hwi up close for a long time.
They had no choice but to admit that Tang So-wol's words were right. And naturally, a question began to rise.
If all the common-sense deductions they had come up with so far were wrong. If the man before their eyes truly was Cheon Hwi.
Then what on earth was going on here?
Why did he seem to have aged a bit more than the current Cheon Hwi, why was his development poorer than the current Cheon Hwi, and why was his level lower than the current Cheon Hwi.
And yet, why was he still Cheon Hwi?
All sorts of questions tangled together, shattering every hypothesis she had formed so far. And though she couldn't say exactly what she would gain from it, she was now certain that there was a secret here beyond anything she could imagine.
The three women had finished preparing themselves to accept a conclusion that defied common sense.
…But the moment they saw the man hand a single pill to the limping woman and then walk into the room with her, the two of them starting to strip off their clothes, they withdrew their resolve.
"W-What is this! I cannot accept this…!"
"Cheon Hwi?! Who is this woman? She looks familiar, but who exactly is she?!"
"And what is the meaning of that pill?! Is it some kind of slang among the young these days that only I don't know?!"
Even as they stamped their feet in frustration, not a single one of them turned her gaze away or stepped outside.
It was winter.