“What do you mean by that all of a sudden?”
Geom Mugeuk spoke as if he had read her mind, saying she should help her mother, and Han Seol was inwardly surprised.
The reason Geom Mugeuk said that was because he was thinking of the hidden forces behind this incident.
If the Blood King was targeting the Ice Palace, they would have to join forces to stop him.
Of course, he couldn't tell her this.
“The Ice Palace Master accepted my condition likely because she made some sort of deal with the Northern Blood Sect. She must have saved the Northern Blood Sect Master's second child and received a reward for it.”
Han Seol couldn't deny it.
“Under these circumstances, we have entered the Ice Palace. Your mother will be occupied with the Northern Blood Sect's affairs, so I was saying that you would have to handle us.”
Was that really why he said it? It felt a little more important than that.
“Young Cult Master, you have no need to involve yourself in the affairs of this Palace.”
“But I said it for your sake.”
Han Seol never had long conversations with anyone except her mother.
She always spoke concisely, and who would dare to drag on a conversation with the Young Palace Master?
But this Young Cult Master kept making her talk.
No, he made it impossible not to.
“Why would you do something for my sake?”
“I just want to help.”
“There's no such thing as a favor without a reason in this world.”
She said firmly and started walking.
She disliked receiving favors, but she disliked the situation of having to return them even more.
To her, the exchange of emotions between people felt like passing poisoned hidden weapons back and forth.
Geom Mugeuk walked behind her.
“Why are you following me?”
“That's not something the person who was hiding and eavesdropping on me should say.”
For a moment, Han Seol flared up.
“Eavesdropping? I was merely…”
“Merely?”
“I just didn't have a chance to step forward.”
“Just as there are no favors without reason, there are no graves without excuses.”
Han Seol made a look of disbelief and started walking again.
Then she realized that she had flared up for the first time in a very long time.
She really hated people like him, who teased others and stirred their emotions as they pleased.
“Don't be under the illusion that everyone in the world will fall for you. They just… pretend to like you because you are the Young Cult Master. If you were a low-level martial artist, do you think they would have liked you?”
“They probably would have beaten me severely, saying I talked too much for a low-level martial artist.”
Han Seol wanted to snap at him that she wasn't joking, but she stopped herself.
He would just respond with some other absurd remark.
She said no more and continued walking.
Passing martial artists greeted her respectfully.
Han Seol accepted their greetings with a consistently expressionless face.
Then, Geom Mugeuk interfered with everything.
“Are you always this stiff with your subordinates?”
“We are martial artists. Why would you expect kindness?”
In the end, she stopped walking again.
Her values were too different from this man's.
“Did those people come here to play? Can I laugh and joke with them and then order them on a dangerous, life-threatening mission? If I give the order, will they willingly go?”
Geom Mugeuk said nothing.
“Why are you silent?”
“You're right. What can I say?”
Han Seol, who was staring silently at Geom Mugeuk, left him with a final word and turned away.
“Even as the Young Cult Master and not a low-level martial artist, you will get beaten to a pulp someday.”
Han Seol strode away, as if telling him not to follow.
Geom Mugeuk's voice came from behind her.
“Let's have a drink sometime! The Drunken Demon is abstaining, so I can't drink! Lee Ahn will refuse out of loyalty.”
He's like this to the very end.
The Drunken Demon abstaining? And what? His subordinate refuses out of loyalty? Is he asking me to drink because I seem disloyal? Just how much does he intend to mock people?
And so, she left that place.
As he watched her go, the playfulness disappeared from Geom Mugeuk's face.
She had put up an invisible wall, and he couldn't get close to her through ordinary means, so he was trying to break through like this.
His reason for doing this wasn't to brighten her personality or fill the hole in her heart.
It was for her safety and the safety of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
If the Blood King had infiltrated the Ice Palace, he would have surely extended his dark hand to Han Seol.
Or he would be trying to.
That had been their way until now.
Geom Mugeuk looked around.
In this barren land, towering buildings and giant statues of martial artists made of ice reflected the sunlight, shimmering brightly.
‘Blood King, where are you?’
Where are you hiding that cruel, red blood?
*
The Northern Sea Ice Palace provided them with three rooms in total.
Geom Mugeuk said to Lee Ahn.
“You take the middle room.”
“So that you two can protect me from both sides?”
“I have to protect you if I want to eat your delicious noodles.”
They didn't know what was happening in the Northern Sea Ice Palace, so they had to be as careful as possible.
The Drunken Demon would protect himself, and if it was just the next room, his Heavenly Demon Body-Protection Art, which had reached Great Mastery, would react.
“Before coming here, I contacted Silver Moon and the Heaven-Reaching Pavilion. I asked them to focus all their intelligence resources on the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Northern Blood Sect.”
If the two intelligence organizations joined forces, they would wield powerful influence.
“I believe the ones behind this incident are the same people who plotted in the Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance.”
The Drunken Demon and Lee Ahn nodded in agreement.
They were the same ones who had been secretly active in the Wind Heaven Sect of the Outlands.
It would be stranger if they weren't in the Ice Palace.
“Since we've been attacked before, the situation is even more dangerous. Please be careful, Young Master!”
“It's fine, this brother will protect me. Right? Why aren't you answering? I'll take care of it for you! Why won't you say it again?”
Urged by Geom Mugeuk, the Drunken Demon feigned ignorance.
“Ah! I want to drink.”
“You can't go back to your old self!”
Watching their conversation, Lee Ahn smiled faintly.
She never dreamed the Drunken Demon was this kind of person.
He was a person she feared she could never communicate with, as he was always drunk.
She thought that when he got angry, he would get drunk on his emotions and burst into a crazed drunken fit.
Above all, she had thought he would overcome his sorrow with alcohol.
But he knew.
Drowning one's sorrow in alcohol was not true mourning.
Instead, he had quit drinking and was calmly observing the world, controlling his heart.
In that way, he was comforting himself.
He knew that one must know how to comfort oneself to truly mourn.
“We must be especially wary of the Northern Blood Sect. We found out what they were trying to hide.”
Hearing the Drunken Demon's words, Lee Ahn asked worriedly.
“Then won't the Northern Blood Sect try to destroy all the evidence and cut their losses?”
“They will.”
The one who answered was Geom Mugeuk.
“Then, is it okay for us to just stay here like this?”
“It's fine. The act of cutting off one tail will just create another.”
“I see.”
She answered as if she understood, but she didn't know exactly how they planned to handle it, so Lee Ahn let out a sigh.
This kind of fight, she had never experienced before.
Hidden forces, the Northern Blood Sect, the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
It truly felt like standing in the middle of enemy territory, surrounded by terrifying foes.
“How do you feel?”
“I'm nervous.”
But she looked at the two people she would fight alongside and added another word to that nervousness.
“In a good way.”
*
The next morning, the investigation into the brewer's death began in earnest.
Han Seol came to fetch the three of them herself.
She treated Geom Mugeuk calmly, as if she hadn't flared up at all the day before.
“First, I will guide you to the late brewer's room. The Palace Master ordered that it not be cleaned yet, so it has been preserved as it was.”
It was fortunate for the investigation of this case.
But why did the Ice Palace Master order it not to be cleaned? Because they were close? Or because the Ice Palace Master also had doubts about her death?
“What was her cause of death?”
Han Seol answered the Drunken Demon's question.
“She drank poisonous wine.”
At the words "poisonous wine," the corner of the Drunken Demon's eye twitched.
“Couldn't she have been poisoned?”
“That's impossible. She left a suicide note.”
“May I see it?”
As if expecting the Drunken Demon to ask, she took the note from her robes and handed it to him.
It contained a confession that life was hard, and an apology to the people of the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard where she made wine.
And it ended with a plea for the Ice Palace Master to forgive her disloyalty.
As the Drunken Demon read the note, a peculiar light flashed in his mournful eyes.
“The investigation confirmed it was the brewer's handwriting.”
“That's right, it's definitely her handwriting.”
The Drunken Demon acknowledged it too.
He had seen her writing more than anyone, so it meant that, at the very least, the note was not written by someone else.
“Where did she get the poison?”
“We did not investigate that.”
It seemed they conducted no investigation because they were certain it was suicide.
“What happened to the brewer's body?”
“She was buried in the tomb where the martial artists of this Palace are laid to rest.”
If she had already been buried, they couldn't determine what kind of poison had been used from the body.
Han Seol guided the three of them to the brewer's room.
“I heard she had no family, so there was no one to claim the deceased's belongings.”
In that sense, the Drunken Demon was the brewer's only family.
They entered the brewer's room together.
Upon entering the room, the Drunken Demon mourned her for a moment.
‘I've known you for so long, yet this is the first time I've entered this room.’
The room was neatly decorated.
There was a small bed by the window, just big enough for one person, and next to it was a small desk and chair.
‘You must have sat at that desk and sent me your letters.’
The image of her sitting there writing a letter appeared in the Drunken Demon's mind.
Most of the books on the desk were related to wine.
Various parts and devices used in the brewery were placed in a corner, and the clothes she wore for work were neatly folded.
Everyone felt the same thing.
She was truly a person who knew nothing but wine.
A display cabinet on one wall held dozens of wine bottles of various shapes.
“Seeing as she collected them separately, they must be precious wines, right?”
The Drunken Demon didn't answer.
No, he couldn't.
Among the collected wines were the ones he had sent her.
Many of them were ordinary wines that could easily be found in the market, but she had collected them together with her other rare wines.
That wasn't all she had collected.
The Drunken Demon found a box under her desk.
In the box, she had carefully collected the letters she had received from him.
‘She kept all of these!’
The Drunken Demon didn't know where the letters she had sent him were.
Some might be lost, and others might be tucked away somewhere.
But the brewer had organized the letters by date and kept them.
The Drunken Demon took one out and read it.
It was worn from being read so many times.
‘Ah, something like this happened.’
He remembered something from a very long time ago.
The letter contained details he had forgotten he'd even shared.
His own history was truly contained within those letters.
“May I take the letters we exchanged?”
Han Seol readily agreed to the Drunken Demon's request.
“Please do.”
Even as he tucked the pile of letters into his robes, the Drunken Demon showed no emotion.
“Now, let's go to the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard.”
*
The Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard was bustling with activity.
Behind those loading raw materials onto carts, he could see the place where the wine was fermented, and also a place for aging.
There were also people bottling the finished wine.
As they watched the work for a moment, the man who was serving as the temporary brewer of the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard was summoned.
They said he was the person the late brewer had trusted the most.
“I have something to ask about the former brewer.”
“Please speak.”
“Was there anything strange about her before she died? Did she act differently?”
“There was nothing of the sort.”
“Anyone she fought with?”
“The brewer was not one to fight with anyone.”
They spoke with a few more people besides this man, but it didn't seem like there had been any internal conflict.
Before leaving the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard, the Drunken Demon investigated the wine made there.
The types of wine being made, the production schedule, and where the wine was being sent.
After finishing their investigation, the four of them left the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard.
“It seems so clearly a suicide. Is there a need to investigate further?”
If it was certain that she had committed suicide, the three of them would no longer have a reason to stay in the Ice Palace.
But against Han Seol's certainty, the Drunken Demon showed a different kind of certainty.
“It wasn't suicide, so we must begin a full-scale investigation. Have the Ice Palace assist us more actively.”
When Han Seol showed a puzzled expression, the Drunken Demon spoke with confidence.
“In today's investigation, I found three pieces of suspicion and evidence that it wasn't suicide.”
“What were they?”
Not only Han Seol, but Geom Mugeuk and Lee Ahn also looked curious.
Three of them?
“First, even if she were to commit suicide, she would not have died by drinking poisonous wine.”
“She loved wine her whole life, so isn't it possible she wanted to be with wine on her final journey?”
The Drunken Demon shook his head firmly.
“A drunkard like me might have. But she was not a drunkard; she was a person who made wine.”
To Han Seol, who still didn't understand what he meant, the Drunken Demon explained further.
“She would have sooner jumped off a cliff. She was not the kind of person to ever allow poison to be mixed into the wine she made. Because she was a person who purely loved wine.”
Geom Mugeuk understood that sentiment this way.
A martial artist might take his own life by stabbing his heart with his own sword, but a craftsman who makes swords would not want to stain the sword he created with blood.
“What are the other reasons?”
“Earlier, I looked at the schedule for the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard. The Ice Wine for the Palace Master’s Hall was completed five days after she died. This highest-quality Ice Wine can only be made at this time of year. It is also the most important day of the year for the Hundred Wines Snow Courtyard. But she committed suicide without finishing that final wine? That's absolutely impossible.”
Geom Mugeuk and Lee Ahn both nodded.
Han Seol didn't react outwardly, but she also thought the Drunken Demon's words made sense.
It was a doubt that had been obscured by the fact that a suicide note was found.
“What is the third and final reason?”
“That's the decisive reason.”
The Drunken Demon said calmly with somber eyes.
“The fact that she didn't leave a note for me.”
He was certain that she would not have left without saying anything to him, at the very least.
“By not leaving me a note, she sent her final message. Asking me to uncover her wrongful death.”
What if she had been threatened while writing the note? If she had anticipated her death, she might have left a final word for the Drunken Demon.
But by leaving no message at all, she was telling the Drunken Demon that this death was not a suicide.
This was only possible when there was deep trust.
“Do you know what their mistake was? They killed the person who would have protected them.”
The Drunken Demon slowly caressed the Blood Tears gourd hanging from his waist and said.
“The person who would have stopped me from getting drunk and going on a rampage.”