By Zephyria 
Baek Ryeo-il picked up the scroll and rose from his seat without lingering.
“I can just verify that later. Anyway, you’ve worked hard.”
He placed a single silver ingot on the table as a fee for the information and prepared to leave, but Gyo Hong called out to him urgently.
“Wait a moment, Master Baek. I still have business with you.”
“Business?”
“By any chance, is Young Master Peng Do-hwan among the party accompanying you this time?”
“We haven’t even been here a day, and news has already reached you?”
“I am part of the Haoh Gate, after all.”
Gyo Hong smiled.
“I have a message for Young Master Peng. Would you be willing to let me meet him?”
“Sure, why not.”
After a brief moment of consideration, Baek Ryeo-il agreed. Since the Haoh Gate already had the information, the fact that they were staying in Lanzhou wasn’t exactly a secret.
“Could you wait a moment? I will prepare and come out shortly.”
Gyo Hong left. Left alone, Baek Ryeo-il read and re-read the information she had prepared with meticulous care.
While doing so, a woman’s voice drifting up from below caught Baek Ryeo-il’s attention.
“Let’s break up.”
In the front yard of the house of courtesans, clearly visible over the railing, a man and a woman stood facing each other. The woman appeared to be a courtesan working at this establishment.
“W-why so suddenly? Did I do something wrong?”
The man asked in shock. The woman avoided his gaze as if she didn’t want to answer, but under his continued urging, she reluctantly spoke.
“I’m just… bored of you.”
“What?! H-how could you? Just yesterday you said I was the only love of your three lifetimes!”
“…I’m sorry. But what can I do if my feelings have changed? It wouldn’t be right to pretend when I don’t love you anymore. Since it’s come to this, I hope you won’t visit me again.”
Leaving the sobbing man behind, the woman walked back into the house of courtesans. The man gazed longingly at the firmly closed door with a face that looked as if he would burst into tears at any moment.
Baek Ryeo-il clicked his tongue. He could feel exactly how the man was feeling right now.
It must feel like a bolt from the blue. It must be agonizing.
And anger surged within him toward the woman who had heartlessly abandoned the man.
‘Are you just going to take this passively?! Chase her! Go and make her pay for playing with a person’s heart!’
He gnashed his teeth in indignation, as if it were his own affair. He redirected the anger he couldn’t resolve due to his own complicated situation toward a complete stranger.
However, Baek Ryeo-il soon witnessed a peculiar scene.
The man, who had been standing miserably like a rain-soaked dog, happened to cross paths with Gyo Hong, who had just finished her preparations and come out. The man’s head, wearing a dazed expression as if possessed, turned to follow Gyo Hong. Baek Ryeo-il, who didn’t care about looks as long as a person had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, thought it was inevitable that attention would be drawn to Gyo Hong, as she was a stunning beauty.
The problem was that this man had just been brutally dumped by his lover.
‘Are you really noticing another woman right now?’
Seeing the man’s tears vanish instantly, Baek Ryeo-il was flabbergasted.
Furthermore, the man didn’t stop there; he trotted after Gyo Hong and spoke to her.
“Miss, Miss.”
“Yes?”
“Have we met somewhere before? You look familiar…”
“Pardon?”
Gyo Hong’s expression soured. Since he belonged to the same house of courtesans as his ex-lover, he must have seen her coming and going; of course she looked familiar.
“Since this is fate, shall we exchange names? Haha! …Where are you going, Miss? Miss!”
“Shall we go now?”
Gyo Hong, perhaps feeling he wasn’t even worth a response, completely ignored the man and came up to tell Baek Ryeo-il.
“R-right…”
Leaving the devastated man behind, the two of them headed toward the teahouse.
A certain Junior Brother who loved acting familiar had once said, ‘Wounds caused by people must be healed by people,’ but to recover that quickly? How do people break up so easily, forget so easily, and meet again so easily?
While feeling hollow, a strange discomfort followed. Why was he unable to love even like an ordinary person?
His connection with Seong Mu-yeon had lasted only a few months. Yet, he had suffered for three whole years. He didn’t know if he was the abnormal one, or if those who met and parted lightly were the abnormal ones.
Lost in thought as he walked, he soon saw the teahouse where they were supposed to meet the party. Peng Do-hwan and Gang Woong were nowhere to be seen, likely having stepped away, and only Seong Mu-yeon and Owl were huddled together, whispering something without having touched their teacups.
Seeing Seong Mu-yeon hiding brazenly beneath the Badger mask, Baek Ryeo-il felt a sharp, tingling pain in his chest once again.
“Oh my, are those two perhaps the attendants of Elder Yak Seon?”
“Yes.”
Baek Ryeo-il got the impression that Gyo Hong was curious about them. Since she already knew Peng Do-hwan was with them, she must have known about the attendants’ existence as well. Saying she had a message for Peng Do-hwan might have been an excuse; they might actually be her target. Compared to their high fame, the attendants of Yak Seon were extremely difficult to meet in person.
The two masked figures also noticed them approaching and rose from their seats to greet them.
“Where is Peng Do-hwan?”
When Baek Ryeo-il asked, Owl answered.
“He also went off to conduct some separate investigations on his own…”
“Then we’ll have to wait until he returns.”
Gyo Hong nodded at Baek Ryeo-il’s words.
Perhaps wondering about the identity of the woman he had suddenly brought along, Owl stared at her as if requesting an explanation.
“She’s a member of the Haoh Gate.”
“Ah.”
“I am Gyo Hong. If it’s not an imposition, may I join you?”
She took an empty seat with a friendly manner.
“I didn’t expect to meet the attendants of Yakseon Daein in a place like this. By any chance, is Yak Seon also in Lanzhou?”
Gyo Hong asked, her eyes gleaming like a true information broker. The attendants looked troubled, as if that gaze were burdensome.
Fortunately, a server approached to ask if they wanted to order tea, allowing the two attendants to escape the pressuring gaze.
“Master, aren’t you ordering?”
She looked back at Baek Ryeo-il, who was still standing without sitting.
“I’m fine without tea.”
“Then sit here.”
As she said this, she patted the seat next to her.
Baek Ryeo-il was about to refuse out of habit, but the stupid Badger mask entered his sight.
What expression is Seong Mu-yeon making right now?
What is he thinking, following me around while pretending not to know the man he abandoned? Is he mocking me?
If light encounters, like the man and woman he saw at the house of courtesans, were the universal sentiment, then Seong Mu-yeon would be the same. At an age full of vigor where one could notice another person immediately after a breakup, three years was a long time.
How could he know how many times he had met and parted with someone in the meantime?
“….”
However, three years had been a long time for him as well.
Impulsively, Baek Ryeo-il sat in the seat next to Gyo Hong.
“How did you two end up coming all the way here? Actually, I’m a bit surprised. I understood that Yak Seon is someone who keeps a strict distance from the martial world, so is it alright for him to be with the Hwasan Sect and the Peng family?”
“Ah, there is a reason for that…”
Perhaps intending to gain even a small clue regarding the disappeared Yak Seon’s whereabouts, Owl began to actively explain the reason they had come to Lanzhou.
As the story grew serious, Gyo Hong’s face turned solemn as she listened intently, and before long, her face flushed with indignation.
“To think Yak Seon suffered such a thing… No matter how arrogant and shameless the Demonic Cult is, they have crossed the line. The martial world will be shaken to its core when they find out!”
Meanwhile, Baek Ryeo-il stared straight ahead with his arms crossed as if lost in thought, but all his nerves were focused on the Badger.
Seong Mu-yeon’s gaze, barely visible through the two eye holes of the mask, was fixed on something. It was exactly on Baek Ryeo-il’s elbow.
The old, worn tea table in the teahouse was too small for four people, and inevitably, their elbows were close enough to almost touch. Thus, every time Gyo Hong moved her body in excitement while talking about Yak Seon, their arms frequently brushed against each other.
Normally, it was rare for a man and woman to sit so closely that their bodies touched. Is there not a saying that men and women should not sit together after the age of seven? Usually, people avoid such things from the start, but Gyo Hong was different. As a courtesan whose profession involved catering to men and selling wine and laughter, she didn’t mind such things; in fact, she seemed to have completely forgotten that Baek Ryeo-il was beside her because she was so focused on her conversation with Owl.
Since the other party was so easygoing, Baek Ryeo-il didn’t think much of it. However, it seemed Seong Mu-yeon thought differently.
The two eyes revealed through the mask holes were strangely fierce. It also seemed as though his two fists, hidden beneath the table, were clenched tight.