Chapter 8. Silver Moon Halo (4)
The man's name was Jin Seopjun.
He was Seongha's half-brother, only one year apart in age.
He had a large, powerful build and the fierce impression of a wild beast. From his stiff hair to his strongly defined facial features, he looked nothing like Seongha.
If the two stood side by side, no one would have guessed they were brothers.
Seopjun swaggered toward Seongha.
It was obvious he was looking for an excuse to start trouble.
"Brother, I heard you went missing not long ago while carrying out official duties."
Seopjun's large eyes swept Seongha up and down.
"Surely you didn't simply go off somewhere to get some fresh air, did you? If that was the case, you could've at least left a message beforehand."
Seongha remained silent.
"Here I was thinking something unfortunate might have happened to you."
Seopjun placed particular emphasis on the word unfortunate.
He sounded almost disappointed that nothing truly terrible had happened.
"I also heard that even after returning, you haven't gone to greet Mother."
His lips twisted into a mocking smile.
"Surely you haven't still failed to forget your lowborn birth mother and continue treating Mother as nothing more than your stepmother?"
Seopjun deliberately spoke loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear.
He clearly wanted to remind them that Seongha was an illegitimate child and nothing more than an outsider within the Jin family.
He seemed to be the sort of man who enjoyed carefully poking at another person's deepest wounds and crushing their pride.
Seongha gave Seopjun an icy look.
Anger stirred within him, but he forcibly suppressed it.
Seopjun snorted.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Did I expose something so shameful that you've lost the ability to speak?"
Before long, the children of noble families had gathered around Seopjun and Seongha, whispering among themselves.
Cheongyeon was among them as well, watching Seongha with worried eyes.
Seongha seemed completely uninterested in what those people thought of him.
However, as the highest-ranking priest of Beopsindang, there was one thing he could not tolerate.
Allowing the Sip-ojeol fundraising event to be ruined.
Seongha finally spoke.
"No matter how much trouble you cause after coming to this government office, the order between the eldest and second son will not change."
Seongha stood there as though every trace of coldness in the world had gathered around him.
"Does exposing that inferiority buried deep inside you make you feel a little better?"
His voice remained calm, but every word carried thorns.
A faint smile even rested on his face.
"I have no desire to keep standing with you in this mud any longer."
His eyes remained cold.
"Stop staining the Jin family's name and leave."
Seongha brushed aside Seopjun's provocation effortlessly.
At the same time, he behaved as though he were looking down at Seopjun from far above.
Seopjun's expression twisted when Seongha refused to be pushed around.
"Buhuk. Come out."
Seopjun's eyes sharpened.
"It seems Brother has forgotten what happened when he was young."
At Seopjun's command, a man leaped down from the roof of a nearby building.
His movements were swift and light, almost like a shadow.
He was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man with his lips pressed into a straight line.
Yet something about him felt disturbingly inhuman.
It was almost as though a terrible metallic smell came from his body.
A large wound covered Buhuk's left arm.
It was an unusually deep and hideous scar, unlike anything one would commonly see.
Buhuk stared at Seongha unpleasantly.
His eyes were tiny, no larger than buttonholes beneath his wrinkled eyelids.
Yet his gaze was as persistent as that of an evil spirit, leaving no opening to escape.
Seopjun approached Seongha.
He leaned close to his ear and spoke in a low voice.
"Do you know something?"
His lips curved.
"The truth is, Brother, you're a coward."
Seongha's expression froze.
"You're always afraid someone will kill you, aren't you?"
Seopjun whispered the final words almost gleefully.
"Just like your birth mother, who was murdered somewhere far away where no one would ever know."
A shadow immediately fell across Seongha's face.
It was like a pale halo forming around the moon.
Cheongyeon stared at him anxiously.
It was the first time she had ever seen the usually flawless and composed Seongha shaken like this.
As though trying to understand what was happening, Cheongyeon quickly looked around.
Then she discovered the source.
Her expression immediately became grave.
From Buhuk's hand, a pitch-black space spread outward as though he had cast a snare.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Seongha's face turned pale.
His eyes became unfocused.
He seemed unable even to breathe properly.
It was a technique that disturbed the mind.
Perhaps because they both possessed the attribute of darkness, Buhuk's technique seemed visible only to Cheongyeon.
Inside that strange space, even Beopsindang appeared twisted and frightening.
The people who had been murmuring around the temple grounds disappeared from sight.
Instead, a cold white wall stood in the center.
This was the landscape hidden inside Seongha's heart.
Cheongyeon entered through the wall.
Inside stood Seongha alone, frozen in time.
He had returned to the appearance of a young noble boy.
The child wore the dark silk clothes of the Jin family.
A ragged sack made of rough hemp covered his face.
A bizarre pattern had been drawn in dark red across the old, filthy cloth.
Why was Seongha standing like this?
Who had done such a thing to him?
The young Seongha twisted in pain.
["C-Cough... Someone! There's an assassin in my bedchamber!"]
He desperately cried out.
["Is no one outside?! Can't anyone hear me?!"]
The young Seongha struggled with his entire body.
Eventually, all strength left him.
He murmured weakly.
["Please let me hold a memorial rite for Mother too."]
["I want to go where Mother is..."]
Then his voice became bitter.
["I hate all those people outside."]
["I never wanted the life of a noble in the first place."]
Cheongyeon remembered the Seongha she knew.
The man who had instinctively searched for the sword hidden beside his bed.
The man who had poured away every drop of tea brought by a servant boy.
He had hidden his delicate and sensitive heart behind that white wall, refusing to ever reveal it.
["Priest Jin!"]
Cheongyeon approached the young Seongha.
She reached toward the ragged sack covering his face, trying to remove it.
The wicked energy burned her fingertips as though her flesh were being scorched.
But she refused to stop.
Seongha had once covered her eyes.
This time, she removed what was covering his.
When she pulled away the sack, the young Seongha's disheveled face was revealed.
His face was small and delicate, like a carefully carved sculpture.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Light returned to them.
Cheongyeon's expression softened.
["It's all right now."]
As though trying to calm the child gasping for breath, Cheongyeon pulled Seongha tightly into her arms.
That embrace was like a single ray of sunlight falling upon a frozen snowfield.
The restraints crushing Seongha's heart began to loosen.
The air around them changed.
The dark space created by Buhuk slowly disappeared.
Beopsindang returned to normal.
It was as though nothing had ever happened.
Seongha shook his head, his expression once again composed, as though trying to throw off what had just happened.
Cheongyeon stared at him for a long moment.
She felt cautious and troubled after seeing the landscape hidden inside his heart.
And yet...
She found herself wanting to protect the beautiful young boy who had stood behind that white wall.
At that moment, Cheongyeon's eyes met Seongha's.
Amid the noisy crowd, it felt as though they could see only each other.
As if what had just happened had created an invisible thread connecting the two of them.
Then Seopjun spoke.
"Come to think of it, this must be the woman Brother brought back from the heavens."
As though suddenly changing targets, Seopjun approached Cheongyeon.
"There must surely be some reason for Brother to behave so unusually."
His gaze sharpened.
"Some very important reason."
Ever since becoming a priest of Beopsindang, Seongha had rarely appeared in public.
He had lived almost like a recluse.
For a man like that to bring a woman into Beopsindang, his personal territory...
Naturally, it was enough to catch Seopjun's interest.
"Where are you from? And what kind of woman were you before coming here?"
An impatient light began burning in Seopjun's eyes.
Desire was always writhing inside his heart.
A desire to destroy anything Seongha valued or opened his heart to.
Seopjun looked Cheongyeon over.
"Hmm. Judging by your face, you're fairly pretty..."
A vulgar grin appeared on his lips.
"Surely you didn't bring some girl from a pleasure house and have her pretend to be a heavenly maiden, did you?"
Seopjun mocked her openly.
His words did more than question Cheongyeon's legitimacy as a heavenly maiden.
They also trampled on Beopsindang's authority.
Cheongyeon's face flushed red at words that would naturally humiliate any woman.
But something else angered her even more.
Seopjun was using her to cause trouble for Seongha and the people of Beopsindang.
Cheongyeon clenched her fist and stared directly at Seongha's half-brother.
Ever since descending to the ground, this was the first time she had felt such powerful malice from another person.
At that moment, Seongha stepped in front of Cheongyeon.
His expression became firm.
"Bringing the Heavenly Maiden here was something the Chancellor ordered me to do."
Seongha looked directly at Seopjun.
"It is for the prosperity of Hui-guk."
Seopjun's expression changed.
"Father ordered it?"
"Yes."
Seongha's voice was unwavering.
"It was the Chancellor's command."
Then his eyes became cold.
"So stop crossing the line over matters that do not concern you."
Seongha had deliberately mentioned his father, Jin Sangwon, to silence Seopjun.
He knew that Seopjun became powerless whenever that name was involved.
Seopjun said nothing.
Seongha slowly let out a long breath.
Seopjun possessed animal-like instincts.
He had most likely sensed the unusual atmosphere flowing between Seongha and Cheongyeon.
The fact that Cheongyeon had attracted the attention of someone like him made Seongha both uncomfortable and worried.
Seongha turned toward the lower-ranking priests.
"Escort the Heavenly Maiden to Buwangjeon."
"I will follow once things here have been settled."
At Seongha's command, the lower-ranking priests gathered around Cheongyeon.
Just then, another priest hurried over and quietly reported to Seongha.
"Priest Jin, State Preceptor Namwan has entered the grounds of Beopsindang."
Seopjun clicked his tongue.
"We'll leave things here for today."
He shook out his sleeve and turned away.
Then he glanced back at Seongha.
"But now that you've crossed me, you'd better prepare yourself for what comes next."
Seopjun stormed away.
Judging from the way he was huffing angrily, his rage had clearly not disappeared.
Even so, for all his lawless behavior, he apparently had no intention of causing a disturbance in front of royalty.
Cheongyeon watched Buhuk calmly disappear after Seopjun with uneasy eyes.
After seeing him use such an ominous darkness technique, she couldn't help thinking he might become a serious source of trouble in the future.
The conflict with Seopjun had ended for the moment.
However, the Beopsindang fundraising event was far from over.
Cheongyeon realized that making her first public appearance in Cheonhui-guk society as the Heavenly Maiden would not be an easy task.
Meanwhile, the arrival of State Preceptor Namwan, the central figure of today's Buddhist ceremony, was loud and extravagant from the very beginning.
"Move aside!"
Namwan's attendants struck Beopsindang officials lightly with the sides of their swords as they passed.
It was obvious that the man they served possessed an enormous sense of authority.
The crowd split apart like the receding tide.
Everyone grew tense and held their breath.
However, State Preceptor Namwan did not head directly toward Buwangjeon.
Instead, he approached the group containing Cheongyeon and Seongha.
It seemed he had some special reason for coming to them.
A member of Beopsindang stepped forward to introduce her.
"This is Beopsindang's Heavenly Maiden."
"Priest Jin brought her here after visiting Cheonhui-guk while carrying out official duties."
Cheongyeon remembered what Manwoo had taught her and offered the proper greeting toward State Preceptor Namwan.
"It is an honor to meet Hui-guk's living golden Maitreya Buddha."
Namwan stared at her.
"A heavenly maiden..."
Unlike Cheongyeon's respectful attitude, the way Namwan looked her up and down was arrogant and overbearing.
He was the younger brother of King Nampyeong, the current ruler of Hui-guk.
He had entered religious life at a young age and eventually taken the position of State Preceptor.
Yet contrary to what one might imagine when hearing the title of a great monk, he was a thin middle-aged man with deeply sunken eyes.
Over his monk's robes, he wore a brilliantly shining golden silk shoulder sash.
Around his neck hung prayer beads made from pearls.
His appearance was overwhelmingly extravagant.
Cheongyeon could sense no authority born from spiritual power.
No holiness either.
She sighed inwardly.
Compared to Monk Wongwang, the man who had preceded him as State Preceptor of Hui-guk, Namwan seemed painfully lacking in character.
Namwan turned toward Seongha.
"It seems Priest Jin is preparing something rather interesting."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"I would be pleased if there were some way for me to help as well."
Seongha politely lowered his head.
"This is merely something Beopsindang must rightfully handle."
"There is no need for the State Preceptor to concern himself."
Though outwardly respectful, Seongha deliberately avoided giving Namwan the answer he wanted.
Namwan's gaze darkened.
"Surely you haven't forgotten that more than half of Beopsindang's funding comes from our religious order."
His voice carried a sinister edge.
"As the highest-ranking priest, you would do well to understand the situation and behave accordingly."
Namwan spoke as though even the highest-ranking priest of Beopsindang were nothing more than his puppet.
Then he added,
"And surely you know very well that I, Namwan, show absolutely no mercy when it comes to heresy."
It was a clear warning to Seongha.
He was telling him not to use the Heavenly Maiden who had descended from the heavens to build a new faction of power.
At the word heresy, Cheongyeon's expression darkened.
Were people like this the ruling class of Hui-guk that Senior Brother had spoken about?
The people who had persecuted Jeongilhoe and driven them to their deaths?
For an instant, the golden robes covering Namwan's body seemed to Cheongyeon's eyes as though they had been dyed red with blood.
