Even after the deposed consort refused, Nun Wolam continued persuading her.
“Your Grace. I must know how your health is before I can sleep at ease.”
“Nun. I...”
The deposed consort’s lips moved, but when her eyes t mine, she let out a small sigh.
“Very well. If doing so will set your mind at ease, then let it be done.”
After giving permission, the woman gestured for to approach. It was the gesture of soone accustod to being served.
I gave a slight bow and carefully went over, placing my hand on the deposed consort’s body.
“Excuse for a mont, Your Grace.”
When I rolled up the sleeve of her long monastic robe, a skeletal wrist was revealed. Her emaciated body felt lifeless, like a withered old tree.
The deposed consort’s pulse was even worse.
Her weakened pulse was so faint it seed the flow might break off at any mont.
No wonder I didn’t even know she was in the hermitage.
When my expression darkened, the deposed consort smiled faintly.
“There is no hope, is there? I know my own body best. I want to spend the ti I have left in peace, without making futile efforts.”
“Your Grace...”
Nun Wolam rubbed at the corner of her eyes with a troubled expression. Watching the two of them, I awkwardly scratched my cheek.
“Er, no. You can get better.”
At my answer, the deposed consort’s eyes went round.
“Pardon?”
“Benefactor, is there a way?”
Nun Wolam’s eyes also ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ lit up as she clutched my sleeve.
“This is an illness that ca from Your Grace cutting off grain. If you replenish the stomach and eat als with at, you’ll improve quickly. It should take about three or four months.”
“Must it be at?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Your strength has declined too much. It would be best to start with clear at broth and gradually increase the amount you eat.”
At my prescription, Nun Wolam’s face darkened again.
“I understand what you an, Benefactor. But Buddhism does not permit taking life. And in deep mountains like these, there is no way to obtain at either.”
“Yes. That would be true for you nuns.”
I smiled and looked at Nun Wolam.
“But that isn’t true for and my brother, is it? We will prepare the al outside.”
Only then did Nun Wolam smile, as if she understood what I ant.
“Please do, Benefactor. Her Grace’s recovery cos first.”
“No, Nun. How could soone who has taken refuge in Buddhism eat at? I cannot...”
“The Buddha forbade killing. He never forbade eating at, Your Grace. Even he accepted milk porridge as an offering and restored his body with it. Far off in Tibet, even monks eat at. Do not trouble yourself over small matters. Focus on recovering your health, Your Grace.”
“Nun...”
“You must recover quickly so you may return to the palace.”
“Will the day ever co when I return to Jinling? Even after His Majesty cast out himself?”
The deposed consort stared into the air with detached eyes.
“My beloved His Majesty took my child from and slaughtered my family, exterminating the So Clan. And you say he will call back?”
Her face, which had been whispering as though singing, twisted like a vengeful ghost. The deposed consort clutched her chest and wailed, her every movent filled with bitter injustice.
“Your Grace. You must calm your heart. Breathe in deeply with .”
Nun Wolam patted the deposed consort’s back and soothed her. The nun seed used to the sight of the deposed consort shedding bloody tears from bloodshot eyes.
...This isn’t an illness from not eating. It’s rage sickness.
It was not hard to imagine what the deposed consort had gone through when she was driven from the palace.
The sight sat in my throat like a fishbone.
I turned my gaze away and pretended not to see until her crying stopped.
*****
I brewed a dicinal decoction with atractylodes, licorice, ginger, and magnolia bark.
Since the dicine would enter an empty stomach, its effect could not be too strong. The thickness could not be too watery or too dense either.
After I spent an hour on edge, controlling the fire, Nun Wolam, who had been hovering nearby anxiously, took the fan from .
“I will do it, Benefactor. How much longer must it brew?”
“Brew it for fifteen more minutes, then let it cool a little before she drinks it. It shouldn’t be too concentrated.”
“Understood. Leave this to and go.”
She ant I should go catch so at.
I obediently left the hermitage and wandered around the middle slope of the mountain.
I sensed no presence from any large animals, only small rabbits scattered here and there.
A deer would have been nice. Too bad. More importantly, how do you skin a rabbit?
Catching rabbits by throwing pebbles was easy enough, but when it ca ti to actually handle them, I felt reluctant.
I had only touched raw chicken a few tis in my life, let alone butchered anything, so I was at a loss over where to begin and what to do.
I was still glaring at the rabbit in my hand, thinking for a long while, when I sensed a familiar presence approaching.
“I was wondering where that sll of at was coming from. So it was your handiwork, sister?”
“Ahaha, Brother. What is with that outfit?”
When my eyes t Yeon Ryang’s, I burst out laughing and wiped away tears.
The sight of him wandering around in a monastic robe that did not fit him at all made him look exactly like a thug wearing soone else’s clothes.
“What do you think, sister? Dressed like this, even an unorthodox bastard like gives off a bit of Buddhist fragrance, doesn’t he?”
“You look like a fake monk. Or a thug who caused trouble and hid in a temple.”
“My. A failure, then.”
Yeon Ryang shrugged and pretended to be sad.
“Where’s Cane?”
“Asleep. It passed out in the courtyard.”
“Can you walk around a little? Does your body feel heavy?”
“Thanks to you opening all my qi and blood with thick needles, I feel light.”
“That’s good news. Training is forbidden until you’re completely healed. If you overdo it again, I’ll pierce your crown point with a throwing knife, so know that.”
“...Sohae. Isn’t that the sa as saying you’ll kill ?”
He smacked his lips and strode closer, asking, “You caught a lot of rabbits. Going to clean them?”
“Yeah. There is a Noble Consort at the hermitage, and she isn’t in good health. I was going to make her so at soup. You said you wanted at too, Brother. I caught a lot on purpose.”
“A Noble Consort? She must have been confined here. Better than the Cold Palace, I suppose, but she won’t live long.”
“Say pretty things, Brother. Do you know how to clean at? I’ve never done it.”
“When would a pampered young lady ever have tried this? Give it here.”
After taking the short knife from , Yeon Ryang sat beside and began cleaning the rabbits. His hands were skilled, as if he had done this more than once or twice.
As he worked in silence, Yeon Ryang asked, “Since when did you know?”
“I knew what you were from the start.”
“How? I thought I hadn’t shown it.”
“Listen to yourself. You went around suspiciously talking about drawing out the spirit pill’s energy or whatever, and you thought you wouldn’t be found out? Who can draw soone else’s internal energy out like pulling noodles unless it’s sinister demonic arts?”
At my scolding, Yeon Ryang smiled awkwardly.
“And your eyes turn red when you draw up internal energy.”
“It’s common for a martial artist’s eyes to take on the color of his internal energy.”
“True. If soone didn’t know better, they’d just think your internal energy was red. But internal energy that turns such a chillingly deep blood color isn’t common.”
“So the eyes were the problem.”
“It wasn’t just the eyes. Everything about you was suspicious, Brother.”
“How did you know about Hao Gate?”
“You sent a signal at the inn. I know that one too. I know soone from Hao Gate.”
“...Phew. Do you also know what I went there to do?”
“You took the antidote, right? You said you had to take it once every three months.”
Yeon Ryang let out a hollow laugh.
“You truly knew everything.”
He moved his lips as if he could not think of anything to say, then asked quietly, “...And you’re still all right with it?”
“What wouldn’t I be all right with? You’re you, Brother.”
“...”
At my answer, the corners of Yeon Ryang’s lips trembled faintly.
He made a strange face, one that looked as if he might be smiling or crying, then pressed his lips together.
“You are the second person to know my identity and still act as if nothing changed.”
“The second? There was soone else besides ?”
“There’s one fake monk at Shaolin. His na is Beopgong. I got into a quarrel while drinking in Luoyang, and when he saw my demonic qi... instead of being shocked, he found it interesting. We fought once, then sat facing each other and drank together. That was how we beca friends.”
...Shaolin? The Shaolin I know?
No, just how much of a fake monk is he if he sits face-to-face with a Demonic Sect mber and drinks? The Martial Alliance has a bright future ahead.
Of course, I was not exactly in a position to talk when I was traveling while pretending to be siblings with a Demonic Sect mber.
“That’s good, then. You gained one friend and one sister, so soone else who acts like it’s nothing will co along too.”
When I answered as if it were no big deal, Yeon Ryang chuckled.
“Will they?”
“They will. If you’re that worried about it, break your dantian and abolish your demonic arts.”
“Sohae. At that point, just tell the Demonic Sect bastard to bite his tongue and die.”
“This is all done, right? I’m taking it back to make soup.”
I picked up the at and bones Yeon Ryang had cleaned, pretending nothing was wrong.
Yeon Ryang smiled and nodded as if telling to go ahead.
The shadow of worry that had fallen over his face seed to have blurred, if only slightly.
*****
The first at soup failed spectacularly.
As it boiled in the pot looking fairly decent, Yeon Ryang humd and tasted the broth, then said,
“Sohae.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t cook.”
His voice was icy as his face turned utterly serious.
“Even a Beggars’ Union beggar wouldn’t eat rice like this.”
“What? Brother. I’ll have you know, I used to be a maid—!”
“You said you were an illegitimate child, and you worked as a maid? Your family has its nasty sides too. Anyway, you were a maid. You cleaned and did laundry, but you’ve never helped a cook, have you?”
How did he know?
I awkwardly smacked my lips.
“I told you to make soup, and you brewed poison instead. I’ll cook, so don’t ever think of touching a kitchen knife again. You wasted good at.”
“Okay.”
It was rare for Yeon Ryang to be this serious, so I answered obediently.
It’s easier and better for if I don’t have to cook anyway.
“No wonder the dicinal decoction tasted awful...”
Muttering to himself, Yeon Ryang emptied the pot and began boiling water again.
He simred the bones thoroughly to make stock, then boiled the at until it softened and fell apart. A rich, savory sll struck my nose.
It slled so good that even Nun Seoljae, passing by, peered in once before leaving.
After finely chopping radish and adding it, then seasoning the soup with salt, Yeon Ryang tasted the broth and set the ladle down in satisfaction.
“Here. Take this to her.”
“Brother. You’re pretty good at this.”
“This brother of yours is good at everything except the things he can’t do.”
What does that even an?
I lightly glared at Yeon Ryang, then placed the at soup on a tray and brought it to the deposed consort’s room.
“Your Grace. May I co in?”
“Co in, Young Lady.”
The deposed consort who welcod looked much brighter than she had in the morning.
“Did you take the dicinal decoction?”
“Yes. My stomach feels much more comfortable. Thank you for taking such care.”
“If your stomach feels all right, please try this too. I made a little at soup.”
“Ah... But...”
“Nun Wolam said recovery cos first too, didn’t she? Please try even one spoonful. It is my sincerity.”
When I gently urged her and set down the at soup, the hesitant deposed consort sat before the table.
She stared at the at soup for a long while with a troubled expression.
At last, with trembling hands, she brought the milky-white broth to her mouth.
I swallowed dryly and stared at the spoon disappearing between the deposed consort’s lips.
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