Chapter 48. Dream of the Jade-Blue Sea (5)
“A trap...?”
Bam gave a humorless laugh.
“It was strange from the beginning.”
She tightened her grip on Cheongyeon’s wrist.
“Everything felt like someone was deliberately trying to lure the Heavenly Maiden into this isolated village.”
She looked around at the darkness.
“And now black fog suddenly appears?”
Cheongyeon frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would someone go this far?”
Bam answered immediately.
“Who knows?”
Her blue eyes narrowed.
“Maybe they want to frame you for something.”
She shrugged slightly.
“Or maybe they want to use the Heavenly Maiden’s power.”
Bam began walking while pulling Cheongyeon with her.
The black fog became even thicker.
The faces of the hundred or so villagers who had been sitting in the courtyard disappeared behind a curtain of darkness.
Through the heavy fog, they could barely see broken rooftops, piles of stone, and bare branches.
Bam glared at the darkness.
Then something occurred to her.
She reached inside her clothes and pulled out a small mother-of-pearl box.
Inside was a butterfly glowing with fluorescent light.
It was a rare insect found only inside ancient caves and ruins.
The butterfly flew out of the box and circled Bam several times.
Then it slowly began flying in one direction.
“I put powder that this butterfly likes on our carriage.”
Bam pointed after it.
“It will fly toward the carriage.”
She smiled.
“All we have to do is follow it.”
Cheongyeon looked impressed.
“Lady Lang, you’re very capable.”
Bam was weak against praise.
A faint blush immediately appeared on her cheeks.
“Well... running a merchant guild means always preparing for terrible situations.”
The butterfly’s bright yellow light flashed through the black fog.
It looked like the glowing eyes of a cat in the middle of the night.
The two women followed it.
They had almost reached the place where the Lang Merchant Guild’s carriage was waiting when a sudden gust of wind swept through the road.
A wooden sign standing beside the path toppled over.
The wind tore through the butterfly’s fragile wings.
Its light scattered.
Then disappeared completely.
Bam’s eyes trembled.
Her grip loosened.
The two women lost each other’s hands and began reaching through the darkness.
“Heavenly Maiden?”
By the time Bam turned around with the Lang Merchant Guild servants, the darkness had already completely separated them.
Meanwhile, Cheongyeon stumbled through the fog.
She nearly tripped over a bush.
Then her foot slipped into mud.
She looked around desperately.
“I have to get out of here.”
Her heart pounded.
“Where is Lady Lang?”
She swallowed.
“Where is Jeongyo?”
The darkness clouded both her thoughts and senses.
People who had become lost wandered around calling for one another.
Their voices echoed faintly as if coming from far away.
Inside this black fog, nobody knew where they were.
Nobody knew which direction they were moving.
Then a man suddenly emerged through the thick fog in front of Cheongyeon.
He wore thick clothing made from plain cloth.
A half-mask covered one side of his face.
He appeared to be in his thirties.
Yet almost all his hair had turned gray.
A forgotten image suddenly appeared in Cheongyeon’s mind.
A heavenly garden filled with pinwheels.
A young man with long hair blowing in the wind as he carved bamboo into little pinwheels for her.
The man standing before her looked strangely familiar.
A name she had not spoken in many years slowly left her lips.
“Senior Brother Heonwon?”
The man looked straight at her.
Beneath his thick eyebrows were intelligent eyes filled with deep suffering.
His pale face...
His naturally gloomy atmosphere...
Nothing had changed.
Cheongyeon’s eyes widened.
“You’re alive!”
Tears suddenly poured from her eyes.
“You’re really alive!”
Someone she had believed dead had returned alive.
She could barely believe it.
“Or...”
Her voice trembled.
“Have I somehow met the spirit of a dead man?”
Heonwon looked at her quietly.
“I understand why you would think that.”
A faint sadness crossed his face.
“After all, I clearly fell into the empty sky that day.”
The moment Cheongyeon confirmed that the man in front of her was truly her senior brother, she rushed toward him like a child.
She clung to him and cried.
“Senior Brother... I missed you.”
The painful years they had spent together in Cheonhui Kingdom passed through both their minds.
Heonwon had been the guardian who raised Cheongyeon from infancy.
He was her only family.
He had recovered the bodies of the dead members of Jeongilhoe and built graves for them.
He had created a hidden shelter in the Heavenly Valley where he and Cheongyeon could live.
He taught her to read books.
He taught her writing.
He also taught her basic martial arts.
He rarely spoke and deeply disliked revealing his emotions.
He often trained alone in the mountains or read scriptures.
Sometimes he shut himself inside his own world and wrote down whatever thoughts came to him.
As her eldest senior brother, he had sometimes protected Cheongyeon too much.
At other times, he deliberately kept his distance and treated her strictly.
But his love and concern for her had always been genuine.
Cheongyeon loved the days when Heonwon made wooden toys for her most.
On evenings when the sun stayed in the sky for a long time, the two of them sat in the Heavenly Garden and played with pinwheels.
Those peaceful days had not lasted long.
The residents of Cheonhui Kingdom, who had transformed into ghosts that shed endless hair, began hunting Heonwon and Cheongyeon, the final survivors of Jeongilhoe.
After a long night of running for their lives, Heonwon fell from the Heavenly Valley while bleeding heavily.
After losing her only family member, Cheongyeon created a blue barrier and hid inside the small temple in the Heavenly Valley.
She lived there quietly and alone.
Until Seongha came to Cheonhui Kingdom.
Cheongyeon wiped her tears.
“Back then... I told you I didn’t need a senior brother who kept controlling me.”
Her voice broke.
“I regretted it for so long.”
“I kept thinking you disappeared because I said something so cruel.”
As a child, Cheongyeon had wanted the warmth of a family.
Instead, Heonwon constantly spoke about her duty as the Heavenly Maiden.
It had hurt her.
So she had become angry.
She simply had not known that would be their final day together.
“After that, I did everything you told me.”
“I copied the scriptures.”
“I trained hard.”
Her voice became quiet.
“But there was no one left to talk to.”
“No one left to show what I had done.”
Tears filled her eyes again.
“I was alone the entire time.”
Heonwon’s heart also grew heavy as he listened.
Cheongyeon had been abandoned in the heavens without understanding anything.
How silent and lonely must those years have been?
However, Cheongyeon was now a grown woman.
Neither of them could remain trapped forever in the memories of their childhood.
Once Cheongyeon had calmed down, Heonwon gently made her step back.
She wiped her tears.
“What happened to you?”
She looked him over.
