A man holding an armful of fine silk in both hands flared his nostrils and blinked his eyes.

“Seeing your beautiful appearance, I think I understand what it means to feast my eyes. As I gaze upon the Young Madam’s appearance, which seems to embody beauty beyond this world, I believe this silk brought from the west would suit you exceptionally well. Would you kindly accept it?”

He pointed to the young man standing behind him. In his arms were numerous rolls of silk piled up. Even at a glance, the texture and color of the silk seemed to assert that it was by no means cheap.

“This is silk imported from the west. It has been dyed with colors created by melting various beautiful gems and flowers. As you can see, the texture is very fine. It’s a top-grade silk among silks, so precious that it’s even supplied to the imperial court. Would you like to touch it?”

The man flashed his eyes and pushed the silk towards me. Startled by his sudden action, I pulled my hand back, and in that moment, Hyuk Dojin’s hand covered the space.

The man flinched at the hand blocking his way and turned his head. Hyuk Dojin silently looked at him and clicked his tongue.

“That’s enough.”

The man, who had been blinking his eyes until just now, hesitated at Hyuk Dojin’s words, then glanced at me and bowed his head deeply. The man timidly took his people and disappeared. As he vacated his spot, I could finally exhale.

“Miss.”

Joo Hwarin handed me a cold drink as if she had been waiting, and after taking a sip, I leaned back in my chair. Hyuk Dojin, who was sitting next to me, smiled. I glanced at him and then quietly spoke while looking at the people.

“I’m not in my right mind.”

From the start of the banquet until now, all I had done while sitting in the chair was receive congratulations from people.

But when it happened not once or twice, but dozens of times, I couldn’t tell if I was receiving congratulations or enduring torture in the name of congratulations while sitting.

And what decisively made me tired was the fact that these people were from the Demon Cult.

Most of the people I had met, including Hyuk Dojin and Man Do, were either those who had cultivated the Demon Cult’s martial arts to an extreme degree or those whose power was weak. As a result, even when they were beside me, I forgot whether they had learned demonic arts.

However, the people in front of me were completely different. I didn’t notice when they were far away, but the people who came close all emitted traces of deep demonic energy. Even when they were still, the cold energy and subtle internal energy that seemed to pierce the skin flowed out.

Continuously being exposed to the energy emanating from those who lacked the ability to contain their energy internally wasn’t easy to endure.

Hyuk Dojin examined my face and cleared the people away before quietly speaking.

“How about going back if you’re tired?”

“…”

I shook my head at his words. It wasn’t so tiring that I felt like dying. It was just that being constantly exposed to demonic energy made me feel fatigued easily.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine if I rest for a bit.”

“But if you collapse again…”

“I’m diligently training. It’s alright, this much. It’s not a big deal.”

I smiled brightly at him, but Hyuk Dojin still looked at me with concern. Accepting his gaze with a smile, I looked ahead again. It wasn’t that I was being needlessly stubborn. I was simply fulfilling my role.

I don’t think eating, playing, and resting comfortably is my entire life. Leaning back, I took a brief rest and looked around at the people. They were people who were conversing with each other and tilting their cups, but I could feel where their attention was directed.

To them, I was an outsider. Regardless of who was beside me or what position I held, I was a person from the Righteous Sect and simultaneously an unfamiliar existence.

Their gazes towards me weren’t for me. They were for the person beside me. It was because Hyuk Dojin was there that I could receive this level of treatment.

In other words, if Hyuk Dojin had treated me harshly, I would have had a terrible experience from the moment I arrived here.

He was like a benefactor to me. He was a man who didn’t make my end hideous and painful, but rather brought me only good memories. So I had no intention of backing down from this fatigue.

Perhaps it was thanks to Hyuk Dojin clearing the people away. As I leaned back in the chair and rested, I could feel the fatigue gradually dissipating. Feeling the energy circulating, I opened my eyes.

Getting up, mingling with them, engaging in conversation, dancing, and playing instruments were difficult tasks for me. So let’s do the minimum I can do. Just the minimum.

I told Joo Hwarin to call the next person and corrected my posture. My throat, which I hadn’t spoken much, felt slightly stinging. As I pressed my throat with my fingertips and was adjusting my voice, a familiar face appeared, stepping on the stairs.

“Man Do!”

“Haha, it’s really tiring to come all the way here. I waited for a long time down there.”

“No, why… did you do that? Why did you wait so hard?”

“When everyone else is waiting, shouldn’t I wait too? And the better the occasion, the more delicious it is to slowly savor and enjoy it.”

Man Do smiled gracefully and approached closer. Unlike others who brought several subordinates to boast about their enormous treasures, Man Do took out a small birdcage instead.

Inside was a bird with a black feathered head, staring at me with its round eyes.

“This is…”

“It’s a magpie.”

“Pardon?”

At my surprised reaction, Man Do smiled brightly.

This is a magpie? Its appearance was so different from the magpies I knew that I hesitated, and Man Do calmly explained.

“A long time ago, I got to know a friend who engaged in maritime trade. He was a friend who traveled between islands for business, and he once told me that he had obtained a very rare bird and would give it to me as a gift. This bird is that bird.”

Are magpies extremely rare in other places? There was nothing particularly rare, and it just had a black head, nothing strange. I quietly looked at the bird and tried to put my hand inside the cage, but Man Do stopped me.

“This bird is for viewing. It’s a bird that shouldn’t be touched.”

“Why? Will it die if it touches a human’s hand?”

“No. It’s the opposite.”

“Opposite?”

Man Do nodded his head.

He put his hand in the cage. Unlike when he told me it was dangerous to touch it, he calmly inserted his hand and made the bird climb onto his finger.

Man Do leisurely took out the bird, stroked its small back, and smiled brightly.

“This bird carries poison.”

“Poi… son?”

At his words, the people around flinched. Hyuk Dojin also seemed startled and moved his body forward as if trying to distance me from the bird.

However, thinking that Man Do had no intention of killing me, I dissuaded Hyuk Dojin and asked again.

“Where is the poison?”

“It’s in these feathers. It’s known to be quite venomous. That’s why this bird was initially rejected as a trashy bird that couldn’t even be eaten and was hunted even more. They claimed it threatened humans. But in the beginning, it probably didn’t have poison. It was simply judged as dangerous because its head color was different, and as a result, it was killed and changed into a different form.”

He calmly handed the bird to me. When the bird, which had been motionless on the back of Man Do’s hand, only tilting its head, came in front of me, Hyuk Dojin flinched.

But before that, I reached out my hand to Man Do. The bird quietly looked at my hand placed in front of Man Do’s hand, slowly climbed onto it, and opened its mouth while looking at me.

“Can I touch it?”

“Sowol…!”

“It’s alright. Fortunately, it doesn’t carry poison now. I heard that this bird generates poison when it eats a specific insect located in the place where it grew up. Now that it’s being fed other feed instead of that insect, there’s no problem.”

At Man Do’s words, I slowly moved my hand. The bird sitting on the back of my hand quietly looked at me and tilted its head.

I placed my hand on its head and gently stroked it. It was soft and warm. As if saying it was alive, the bird opened its mouth. At that sight, I slightly parted my lips. Man Do’s voice settled in front of me.

“Perhaps, like this bird, someone may be rejected and ignored simply because of one very small difference. For the person discriminating, that small difference may be ‘just’ or ‘merely’ one difference, but in the end, that difference can cause great pain to someone.”

He handed the birdcage to Joo Hwarin and smiled brightly.

“Will you possess the poison, Miss, or will you endure all of that for a lifetime?”

Man Do lightly bowed his head.

“That is for you to decide, Miss.”

* * *

After Man Do left, the people following him, perhaps conscious of him, didn’t bring subordinates. Having seen the Vice Cult Leader personally standing in line and delivering gifts with his own hands, those below him couldn’t possibly bring a string of subordinates and behave arrogantly towards me, taking up a long time.

Whether Man Do did it intentionally or not, thanks to that, the time consumed by people offering congratulations was reduced. As a result, the fatigue also significantly decreased.

I should thank him later. Should I treat him to a meal? What does Man Do like?

As I was rolling my eyes, trying to find Hyuk Dojin who had briefly left his seat to ask him, I noticed a person climbing the stairs.

An old man with a shaved head like a monk. However, his sharp eyes, his appearance that didn’t emit any demonic energy, and the smile he directed at me were eerie.

He approached close, bowed deeply to me, and spoke in a slow voice.

“I am Elder Lee Seonghak of the Snow Willow Sword.”

Elder? Until now, except for Man Do, there had been no case of an elder offering congratulations. Then, is this man also one of the leaders of the Demon Cult?

Then suddenly, I realized that this person’s name wasn’t unfamiliar. As I was pondering where I had heard it, his voice was heard again.

“I have come to greet you as a representative of the Holy Stream League.”

“…”

Holy Stream League. The moment I heard those words, I realized where I had heard his name.

-Especially the elders of the Holy Stream League. And even more so with the Snow Willow Sword, Lee Seonghak, who is rumored to be the most greedy among them. He is…

The last words Cho Hong had spoken came to life in my mind.

-He is… the person most deeply involved in Lady Geum Soso’s death and the mastermind who drove Lady Geum Soso to her demise.

Lee Seonghak smiled.

“I have come to greet you like this because it seems we will see each other often in the future.”

A strong smell wafted from his body. It was the scent of blood, deeply embedded, that even I, who hadn’t smelled it often, could recognize at once.