The child who returned after exactly two full weeks had completely changed.
She no longer looked for her mother, didn’t cry, didn’t fuss over food, and wasn’t afraid anymore.
It was as if she could no longer feel any emotion at all.
From that day on, the child went out every ti, and grew visibly stronger with each passing day.
It wasn’t until it beca Twelve Moons and she was allowed to stand by his side that she realized he had been teaching the child directly.
It was also then that she began to feel jealousy and hatred toward the child.
When she found out that the brat who had once known nothing—who could barely survive unless she personally protected and fed her—had been receiving special treatnt far beyond her own.
“Why... Why are you always so special?”
Seolhwa furrowed her brows.
“I don’t understand... I follow and respect him, but you—I just can’t understand you...! Out of all the children, why did it have to be...!”
Not the strongest, not the cleverest, but the weakest and biggest crybaby—it was you?
“Why are you always different...?”
Why is it always you who’s special?
Even now, when everyone else is doing everything they can to gain his favor, even now, when she herself has thrown her life away to end up like this—
He still treasures you.
So why are you trying to escape his gaze?
“If you find that out, you’ll die.”
Seolhwa’s cold voice severed his thoughts.
The reason the Blood Demon treated her as special was simple: because she was a child of the Namgoong Clan.
‘If Pawol—who once burned with jealousy toward —finds out about that...’
He’ll explode in rage and die from it.
Because then he’d realize that the thing he could never overco no matter how ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) hard he tried... was a fate decreed by the heavens.
“I can at least answer one thing with certainty.”
“What is it?”
“You and I are no different.”
Dying by the Blood Demon’s hand, according to his plan, after being used by him—that fate was the sa for both the Twelve Moons and herself.
The only difference was how long they’d be used... and in what manner they’d be discarded.
“So let’s help each other out. We’re in the sa boat.”
Seolhwa pulled sothing out from within her robes.
It was the mangled remnant of a bell, so crushed that it could no longer make a sound.
Pawol’s body flinched and trembled at the sight of the twisted bell.
“You recognize this, don’t you? Don’t even think about pretending you don’t. You were the one who pulled it out just a mont ago.”
Pawol looked up at her, eyes trembling.
Just earlier, he’d clearly heard her say she wouldn’t kill him—but his gaze was now overflowing with fear.
“Do you know how to break a Suggestion?”
The air changed in an instant, and it beca hard to breathe. It felt like terror and the pressure of death were strangling his neck.
It was as if her face were slowly darkening into pitch-black.
And in that blackness, only the eyes burned with fire—an illusion.
“I—I don’t... I don’t know anything...!”
“...Really? Absolutely nothing?”
“J-just... Lord Ruzhu said it—it was a gift...! Said it would let him control you freely, because the Suggestion was placed on you...!”
“Hmph...”
Seolhwa gradually withdrew the killing intent she had raised.
Her killing intent sharpened the opponent’s senses and drove them into the depths of fear.
And fear was an excellent tool for drawing out confessions.
The more ruined the body and mind, the easier it was to be consud by fear. And those consud by fear often ended up spilling everything they knew without realizing it.
Pawol right now—his body completely destroyed, at his weakest.
‘If even after all this, he can’t give anything...’
Then it ant Pawol truly knew nothing.
And thinking about it, it made sense.
The Blood Demon probably knew that Pawol would never be able to defeat her.
‘He wouldn’t have entrusted him with anything important.’
Seolhwa rose to her feet.
Her vision blurred for a mont, then cleared again.
“...”
She lifted her head and gazed at the sky with an indifferent expression. At so point, the sun had fully set, and a brilliant moon had risen high above her.
“You should go now. Get treatnt before it’s too late.”
“...!”
“That way, you’ll live long enough to deliver my ssage to him.”
Pawol’s eyes were full of distrust.
Even though just monts ago he had rejoiced at the chance to survive, he clearly didn’t believe she would actually let him go.
Leaving him behind, Seolhwa turned and began walking away. But she hadn’t taken more than a few steps when—
Thuck—
“Hkk!”
“...!”
Just as Seolhwa turned around, the sound of breath being cut off rang through the air.
And soon, her gaze fell on Pawol, who collapsed limply, drained of life.
With a dull thud, Seolhwa turned her eyes toward the one who had killed him.
A presence so faint, it was hard to sense even while watching.
There was only one person in the Blood Demon Cult with this level of stealth.
Soone unparalleled in concealnt and assassination—
‘The owner of the Second Moon seat.’
“Eunwol.”
At Seolhwa’s voice, the man turned around.
A man whose face was half-covered by a black cloth offered her a martial salute.
“I greet the Young Cult Mistress.”
Seolhwa’s expression darkened.
Unlike the Six Blood Lords, who supported the Blood Demon Cult, the Twelve Moons—assassins directly under the Blood Demon—had a constant turnover of their seat holders.
Whoever killed the current holder of a Moon Seat would take it for themselves. Because of that, the cult’s mbers were always looking for a chance to steal a Twelve Moon position.
If her mories from her previous life were correct, even Pawol, the current Twelve Moon, would be dead within a few years.
Even before the Blood Demon Cult made its move into the Central Plains.
But among the current Twelve Moons, there were only three—
The First, Second, and Third Moons, collectively called the Upper Moons—they would remain in their seats even five years later, when the cult entered the Central Plains.
Even now, they were already strong. Within the Huaoru Pavilion, they were among the few who even recognized the existence of the Blood Demon Cult, and they held the Blood Demon’s trust.
“For soone like the Second Moon to call the Young Cult Mistress... it ans they have no intention of letting go so easily.”
And that must be the Blood Demon’s will.
Seolhwa’s expression stiffened.
She didn’t like it. It felt as if she were still a part of the Blood Demon Cult.
“Did the gift please you?”
“A gift?”
“This man, I an.”
Eunwol pointed to Pawol’s corpse lying on the ground.
Seolhwa looked at Pawol, who hadn’t even had ti to close his eyes before death took him, and responded.
“So you're saying you killed my gift?”
“There was an order, that if the Young Cult Mistress tried to let a Twelve Moon live, I was to kill him right in front of your eyes.”
“He was my ssenger pigeon.”
“If you have sothing to deliver, I’ll deliver it. Please give the command.”
“Then why did you bother listening to it all?”
“...”
What were the odds that Eunwol had just so happened to appear at the perfect mont to kill Pawol?
He had probably been watching this situation unfold from sowhere since the beginning of her fight with Pawol.
Or maybe even from the mont she slipped out of the Namgoong Clan estate.
It irritated her pride that she hadn’t sensed Eunwol trailing her at all, but Seolhwa didn’t act rashly.
This wasn’t the sa as back when she fought the Twelve Moon.
This was the Second Moon.
And in her current state, Seolhwa couldn’t beat him.
“Go deliver the ssage I gave Pawol. Don’t you dare change a single word.”
“Namgoong cannot stand against him.”
It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a declaration.
Seolhwa agreed.
“For now, Namgoong can’t.”
But short and long are only known when asured.
“You can raise a kitten all you like, but it’ll still be a cat. A cat can’t face a tiger.”
“I’ll handle that myself.”
Yes, right now it was impossible.
No matter what she tried, the Namgoong Clan couldn’t stand against the Blood Demon Cult.
The Blood Demon himself was already beyond asurable realms, and the Six Blood Lords had reached the Flowing Realm. anwhile, Namgoong had only Namgoong Mucheon.
If war were to break out now, Namgoong would face inevitable defeat.
But even so, it didn’t matter.
Even if she couldn’t bring the Blood Demon down, even if the Namgoong Clan never grew strong enough, she would still—as a child of Namgoong, in the na of Namgoong—stand against the Blood Demon and block his will.
“The Cult Leader says you may return whenever your little ga is finished.”
“Tell him to shut up. I’m not going back.”
“Even if you don’t wish to, it will happen.”
A thick killing intent rose from Seolhwa’s body.
Her murderous energy flowed like tangible threads, slithering up Eunwol’s body.
Like a massive serpent, the energy coiled around him and finally wrapped around his throat.
Eunwol involuntarily sucked in a tense breath.
He knew that the Young Cult Mistress’s martial level was high for her age—but this level of killing intent was far beyond anything he’d anticipated.
“Watch your mouth. If you want to live long.”
With that chilling voice, the killing intent that had bound his whole body gradually returned to where it ca from.
Eunwol silently stared at her until the killing intent fully subsided. Then, he offered a polite martial salute.
“We’ll et again, Young Cult Mistress. Please take care of yourself.”
“...”
It lasted only a mont.
Before she knew it, Eunwol had vanished into the darkness.
In the space where he’d disappeared without a trace, only Pawol’s corpse and Seolhwa remained.
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