Chapter 061. Lovers of the North Wind (6)
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the plaza, another pair walked without managing to close the distance between them.
Bam ignored Hoyeon's suggestion that they return to their lodging and marched ahead.
Her mood had improved slightly while spending time with Cheongyeon and visiting the fortune teller.
But now that she was alone with Hoyeon again, dark and anxious thoughts rushed back.
The conversation she had overheard during his secret meeting with the noblewoman...
And the fortune teller's words...
Everything mixed together inside her head.
When Bam looked back on the life they had shared until now, almost every possible answer seemed both correct and incorrect.
Hyeon slowly followed behind her.
He could have caught her in only a few steps.
But Bam's atmosphere was different from usual, so he silently watched her.
"I told you to stop worrying about me and go ahead."
Bam's words were filled with thorns.
"You've been going off alone plenty since we came to Hui Kingdom."
She glanced back.
"So why?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"Did you suddenly decide you wanted to watch me again?"
She seemed to be hiding something beneath those sharp words.
Yet Hyeon could tell from her back alone.
Bam felt unbearably awkward around him.
Suddenly, people rushed out of a roadside drinking tent.
"Fire!"
Flames climbed through the dry air.
In an instant, the fire spread across several tents and became one enormous mass of flames.
People stood around in drunken confusion.
They could not even gather enough sense to extinguish it.
Then one of the tent poles cracked.
Craack.
It tilted.
And began falling toward Bam.
A large shadow instantly wrapped around her.
For one moment, the entire area seemed to disappear into darkness before returning.
Hyeon moved without the slightest hesitation.
It was almost as if the action had been carved into his body long ago.
Ever since he had been a young mercenary...
For only one person.
There had not been enough time to draw his sword.
He blocked the falling pole with his body.
A sharp pain shot through his right shoulder.
His mind briefly turned white.
Then he recovered and looked down with dark gray eyes.
Bam was crouched directly against his chest.
Like a mountain cat hiding beneath the shade of an ancient tree.
His small mistress barely reached his chest.
"Are you all right?"
Bam's fingertips moved toward Hyeon's face.
Then suddenly stopped.
This was why she always became defenseless around him.
He always acted like this.
She could not even manage to say thank you.
Instead, Bam simply stared at him with huge blue eyes that seemed ready to overflow.
Hyeon silently nodded.
Then he returned to his usual indifferent expression, as if protecting her had merely been the natural duty of a hired man.
After danger had actually reached Bam, there was no reason to remain at the chaotic festival.
Hyeon placed one hand beneath her waist and the other beneath her skirt.
Then he lifted her into his arms and pushed through the crowd.
"Put me down!"
Bam struggled violently like a cat trapped inside a sack.
"I can walk by myself!"
Hyeon ignored her.
Only after reaching the building where the Rang Merchant Group was staying did he lower Bam to the ground.
Then he finally spoke the words he had been holding back.
"Please do not behave recklessly."
Bam stared at him.
He continued quietly.
"Even when I am not there."
Bam's eyes narrowed.
In the past, she would have ignored a comment like that.
But now...
It sounded strange.
Almost as though he were someone preparing to disappear.
When she was young, her father, the great merchant Rang, had once given her advice.
[Many people live believing what they want to believe.]
[But reality is usually the thing they least wish to believe.]
[The smaller you make that difference, the more clearly you will be able to see the truth.]
It had been advice warning her not to allow personal wishes or expectations to cloud her judgment as a merchant.
Bam suddenly felt as though she had awakened from a dream.
Her confused weakness disappeared.
Her thoughts became cold and sharp.
"I know you aren't an ordinary man."
She stared directly at Hoyeon.
"Your martial arts."
"Your ability to command people."
"And the way your eyes always seem to desire something..."
She paused.
"None of it has ever belonged to an ordinary mercenary."
Hyeon remained silent.
Bam asked the question she had been carrying for years.
"Why did you become a mercenary of the Rang Merchant Group?"
Was it because of love?
For someone as outstanding as Hoyeon to remain in an ordinary trading company merely because of affection seemed far too cheap a price.
Bam stepped closer.
"What do you want from me?"
Hyeon met Bam's intelligent blue eyes.
Her instincts had allowed her to understand that something was wrong.
But she still did not know Hoyeon's true identity.
Hoyeon gave her a long silent look instead of an answer.
Bam smiled bitterly.
She had expected that.
She knew he would never give her a proper answer.
Biting her lip, Bam spoke in a low warning voice.
"I don't care what it is."
Her gaze sharpened.
"But if your private decisions damage the merchant group, I'll make you pay the proper price."
For a moment, Bam's expression became cruel and murderous, like those of her older brothers.
"I'll destroy the thing you treasure most."
Hoyeon smiled emptily.
"Lady Rang cannot destroy what I treasure."
Bam frowned.
His polite voice clearly drew a line between them.
"Because I intend to send that person somewhere far away, beyond my reach."
Bam stared at him.
"Really?"
She stepped closer.
"The people of the Rang Merchant Group never break our family rules."
Her eyes gleamed.
"An eye for an eye."
"A tooth for a tooth."
"We always return exactly what we receive."
Bam approached Hoyeon and placed a silver shackle around his left wrist.
Click.
The ring locked shut.
Unlike the heavy iron restraints used on prisoners or slaves, this one was delicate and beautifully crafted.
It looked almost like a silver bracelet.
Yet under the circumstances, the meaning behind the action felt far heavier.
"You can remove the shackle and run if that's your choice."
Bam stared into his eyes.
"But once something becomes mine, it stays mine forever."
Her voice lowered.
"Remember that clearly."
Hyeon quietly allowed himself to be restrained, accepting the strange hobby of the Rang Merchant Group's little tyrant.
Bam turned away.
"You probably hurt yourself earlier."
Her voice had returned to cold businesslike calm.
"Go inside and rest."
"We have a busy schedule tomorrow as an official merchant delegation."
Then she walked into the building.
If this had been the usual Bam, she would have made a huge fuss about treating his injured shoulder.
Or mocked the idiots they had seen in the street.
She certainly would have spent half the night talking about what kind of profit they could make tomorrow.
But now...
Only silence remained where she disappeared.
It was the final day Hyeon could live as Mercenary Captain Hoyeon.
That night, he stood guard beneath the window of Bam's lodging.
A door and wall separated them.
So close.
Yet impossibly far.
Hyeon had spent countless nights like this in lonely silence.
Years hiding his identity and living as though being chased.
Years twisted by hatred and pain.
The thing that had always dragged him back to reality was the refreshing laughter of someone who resembled the sea wind.
May she continue living freely, traveling across the entire world just as she does now.
Hyeon lightly shook his left wrist.
The silver shackle made a soft sound.
Without realizing it...
A restraint called fate had apparently been left behind on him.
The night deepened.
Clear, cold air settled over the streets.
The heat of the eve celebration slowly faded.
The Geum River, the lifeline of Hui Kingdom, flowed calmly through the capital of Hongyang.
Near the center of the river, where several currents met and turned, there was a small rocky island.
A gigantic hawk descended toward a flat rock with its wings spread wide.
Seongha climbed down first.
Then he helped Cheongyeon down from where she had been sitting in front of him.
Cheongyeon immediately stood beside the hawk and buried her face in the feathers near its wing.
Blue feathers covered its body.
Its sharp, hard beak resembled the tip of a spear.
It was a magnificent creature.
"I had great difficulty taming him in the Ancient Forest."
Seongha watched Cheongyeon interacting with the hawk and smiled.
"Yet he became friendly with the Heavenly Maiden almost immediately."
Perhaps beings of the sky naturally understood one another.
The two stood together on the sandy shore of the rocky island.
After spending hours in Hongyang's crowded streets, they finally had time completely alone.
The atmosphere was peaceful and quiet enough that each could hear the other's breathing.
A pleasant trembling nervousness passed between them.
Cheongyeon looked around.
"It's like another world."
Her eyes widened.
"It feels as though the sky and earth are connected."
Constellations decorated the black velvet sky.
Across the river, the lights of Hongyang formed a long line.
Both the lights of heaven and earth seemed to float upon the dark river.
"I wanted to come here with you."
At Seongha's words, starlight filled Cheongyeon's eyes.
She quietly listened to the river flowing and the sound of insects in the grass.
Under the stars, the two looked like lovers meeting on the Seventh Night.
Why did anxiety always arrive together with happiness?
Inside Cheongyeon's heart, the darkness and ominous prophecies that had followed her for so long appeared again.
She shook her head.
She did not want to show such thoughts in front of Seongha.
Seongha had never cared what kind of being Cheongyeon truly was.
He had never cared what destiny awaited the world.
He simply treasured her exactly as she was.
That was why she did not regret her choice.
Coming down from the heavens with him.
Depending on his gentle heart.
All of it.
Seongha looked at her with a soft smile, as though he understood everything she was thinking.
Then a tiny spark spread through his heart.
The feeling seemed endless.
There was no confusion anymore.
His heart had already made its choice.
There was no reason to hesitate.
"I don't think I will be able to say this if I miss this moment."
Seongha placed both hands on Cheongyeon's shoulders and gently turned her toward him.
His expression became serious.
The gaze fixed on her seemed deep enough to search through her entire heart.
Unlike the comfortable distance he usually maintained, he slowly leaned closer.
His hand supported her waist.
The touch was gentle yet steady.
Then he spoke.
"I love you, my Cheongyeon."
Seongha's face came closer.
He was breathtakingly handsome.
A cool, clean orchid fragrance came from him.
Their lips touched.
It was a soft, delicate kiss.
As they slowly became colored by each other, the entire world seemed to disappear except for the place where they stood.
When their lips separated, Cheongyeon stared at Seongha with a bright, pale face.
She blinked repeatedly as though unable to believe what had happened.
Only now did she seem to finally understand what the feelings inside her meant.
"I don't really know what love is."
Cheongyeon's voice trembled.
Then she smiled.
"But I can give you my heart."
She wrapped both arms around Seongha's neck and brought her face close to his.
Her small arms fit around him so neatly that Seongha found it adorable.
He laughed softly and pulled her more tightly into his embrace.
"That is enough."
Much later, whenever they remembered that night, their hearts would ache.
It was the night when warm hands touched their souls...
And the cold north wind began blowing across their world.
