The Dream Paradise Painting.

No sooner had Gyo-ha set foot in Hefei with high spirits than he found himself bewildered.

He already had his clue.

A young lord from a wealthy family.

On top of that, he had a portrait sketch.

But there was a problem.

“…Hmm.”

It looked more splendid than any city Gyo-ha had seen.

Hefei was the capital of Anhui Province.

Naturally, its scale was tremendous.

Lanzhou and Chengdu were also the capitals of Gansu and Sichuan, but they lay far from the heart of the continent.

They could not compare to Anhui.

Tall buildings and dazzling sights inevitably drew his eyes.

As he looked around, he saw that the clothes of the men walking the streets were all neat and refined.

“They all look like young masters.”

To Gyo-ha, who had grown up on the streets, every one of them looked like a rich young master.

Having never set foot in a high-class pleasure house, or even a low-class one, he had no idea what sort of people frequented the upper floors of an upscale establishment.

The only wealthy household he knew at all was Yu Family Manor in Lanzhou.

‘…Yu Family Manor is said to be fairly famous in Lanzhou, right?’

But Yu So-ha was not the type to enjoy luxury.

Naturally, her clothes were modest compared to heirs of other families.

As for the Taoist priest Jeon Pyeong, that went without saying.

Taoist sects, unlike the Buddhist ones, did not shun wealth, yet they didn’t indulge in extravagance either.

The Sichuan Tang Clan?

They could be called the greatest noble house in Chengdu.

Their garments naturally used the finest fabrics.

However, they preferred black not only for martial attire but for everyday clothing as well.

Unfortunately, Gyo-ha could not tell good cloth from bad by texture alone.

In the end, all he could do was check the faces of every man who passed.

And the deeper he went into Hefei, the more dazzling it became.

High houses and crowds of people pouring out of them.

“I’m doomed.”

Eventually, Gyo-ha also reached the conclusion that he wouldn’t be able to find him like this.

He wandered around for half a day and gained nothing.

He had already gone half a day without eating.

Dragging his feet, he headed for an inn he had marked earlier in the day.

It was not as neat or splendid as the other inns, but it smelled the best.

Times like this were when Gyo-ha’s excellent nose proved useful.

“Dumplings?”

Thinking of that smell, he drew in a breath.

It was evening, and food smells drifted in from all directions.

Among the countless scents, he caught one he knew well.

More precisely, it was a stench.

“…Huh?”

Gyo-ha’s steps stopped.

It was faint, but he was not mistaken. Yet with so many smells mixed together, he couldn’t tell where it came from.

Grrrgle.

Right then his stomach growled.

He looked toward the inn, then let out a sigh.

Then he turned and walked the other way.

Sniff sniff.

Following the scent.

Only after night fell was Gyo-ha able to find the source of the smell.

A small building wedged between two mansions.

From afar, it was hard to notice. At a glance, it looked like a storage shed.

When he went closer and peered inside, he saw a woman lying there.

“Oh?”

Chances were high it was Seol Mae.

Was this truly the work of monsters and spirits?

As he stuck his head in through the window to get a better look, he heard someone behind him.

“Thief!”

A shadow darted toward Gyo-ha.

The aura it gave off was keen.

Gyo-ha had no choice but to pull his body back.

No sooner had he moved than a sword came flying.

Teong!

He struck the blade aside with the edge of his hand.

The attacker had not imagined he would block it bare-handed and his eyes went round.

In contrast, having parried the strike, Gyo-ha’s eyes lit up when he saw the man’s face in the moonlight.

A well-featured man.

“Found you!”

At his shout, the man frowned.

He didn’t look like an ordinary thief, and his martial arts were far too strong for a thief.

The man stepped back and settled into stance again.

Then he spoke toward Gyo-ha.

“Who are you?”

“The woman inside is Seol Mae, right?”

At his question, confusion flickered in the man’s eyes.

As expected, he was right.

“I was sent by a friend of Seol Mae’s.”

“…And how am I supposed to believe that?”

The man gave him a dubious look.

Gyo-ha handed over the paper he carried in his robe. The man swallowed when he saw his own face drawn on it.

Gyo-ha spoke calmly to him.

“Seol Mae’s companions believed me though?”

A friend had asked him, and her companions had helped.

He didn’t need this man’s approval.

The man seemed to realize as much, let out a sigh, and sheathed his sword.

His clothes from when he went to the pleasure house had been captured exactly.

“…I had heard rumors she had a beloved, so it was true.”

It seemed that Ae-wol was not the only one who knew about Yeom Hong.

One side of the misunderstanding was now cleared up.

But the other remained.

He had brought away a woman who was unconscious, and it meant he had known she had a beloved as well.

Under Gyo-ha’s gaze, the man hurriedly spoke.

“Wait. I didn’t do what you are thinking.”

Gyo-ha wrinkled his nose to catch his scent. He didn’t seem to be lying.

But misunderstanding his reaction, the man continued.

“I’m telling the truth. I only brought her here to protect her. It seems she ended up like that because of me…”

The man let his words trail off.

As expected, he was clearly connected to what had happened to Seol Mae.

“Hmm. We don’t know who might come by, so let us go inside first.”

The man carefully checked their surroundings, then spoke.

The two went into the place where Seol Mae slept.

There was no need to go in through the window as Gyo-ha had tried to.

There was a door on the other side.

He hadn’t realized it from the window, but the inside was rather cozy.

Only the exterior resembled a shed.

With Seol Mae lying asleep beside them, the man began to speak.

“I am Heo Won-chang. To start off, I didn’t bring her here out of lust. I don’t know what she thinks, but I see her as a close confidant.”

A friend.

Heo Won-chang started his story before Gyo-ha could even ask.

“You may not believe it, but I didn’t much care for pleasure houses. I would sometimes accompany friends there, yet I didn’t enjoy them. Once, feeling stifled, I went alone to Soho, then thought of songs and wine and stopped by. I was bewitched by the beauty of the lake.”

Heo Won-chang gave a bitter laugh and spoke as if in excuse.

“That was the first time I went to a pleasure house alone. And I met her there.”

She only played her instrument and listened to his stories.

After that, whenever he felt stifled, he found himself going back to Soho.

It was not that he wished to become her lover.

He preferred the distance they had now. A relationship where they met from time to time and talked.

The distance from Hefei to Soho was not that far on horseback.

“But now, even that is no longer easy.”

“Why?”

When Gyo-ha asked, Heo Won-chang hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

The Heo family was an illustrious house that had produced several great generals over the generations.

Recently, however, they had lost ground in factional struggles and their power had waned.

At that time, the Namgung Clan had sent in a matchmaker.

They were the prestigious house known in the Murim as one of the Five Great Clans.

The Heo family might have declined, but they still had influence in the military.

In the Murim, people held the Namgung Clan in high regard, yet in officialdom and the military, they were not seen so favorably.

The Namgung Clan wanted the Heo family’s name, and the Heo family wanted the Namgung Clan’s martial power and wealth.

It was a matter that benefited both sides.

Heo Won-chang also viewed marriage with the Namgung Clan positively.

So.

“I didn’t think I would be able to go to Soho anymore, so I gave her a gift.”

A farewell gift.

He had been trying to settle things around him before the marriage.

“I never imagined that gift would lead to this.”

Heo Won-chang let out a deep sigh.

“What was the gift?”

“A landscape painting. I heard she liked them. It was something I had been given before, but it made me think of her, so I brought it to her.”

“Why do you think it is because of that?”

In truth, Gyo-ha was already convinced that was the cause.

From the moment he entered this room, a stench had been hanging thick in the air.

Instead of answering, Heo Won-chang brought something from the corner.

A scroll was rolled up.

When he unfurled it, a finely rendered landscape appeared.

Trees rising high on the mountain, and a river flowing at its foot.

At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary painting.

Gyo-ha read the characters written on the painting.

Dream Paradise Painting.

The artist’s name was not written.

The smell was flowing out from this painting.

“Do you see the woman below there?”

“Yes.”

There was a single woman standing by the riverside. A woman who didn’t quite fit a landscape painting.

As he looked at the woman, Gyo-ha’s brows drew together.

The woman in the painting resembled someone.

“…She was not there before I gave it to her.”

“Ah.”

Only then did he understand why Heo Won-chang blamed himself.

She did not simply resemble her.

Seol Mae had been trapped inside the painting.

As he studied the painting, something caught Gyo-ha’s eye.

“Was this bird here originally as well?”

“Bird? What bird are you talking about?”

Gyo-ha pointed at the mountain.

There, a bird with beating wings was roaming the sky.

And very slowly, it was descending toward the ground.

In the direction where Seol Mae stood.

“Good heavens. That was not there. Seol Mae!”

Heo Won-chang grabbed the painting and shouted.

Yet Seol Mae still had her back turned, blankly watching the flowing river.

Gyo-ha took the painting and tightened his grip.

The paper stretched taut.

Seeing this, Heo Won-chang panicked and stopped him.

“What in the world are you doing!”

“If this is the cause, we just have to tear it.”

“What will you do if she doesn’t come back!”

At his words, Gyo-ha let out an ah and nodded.

He had a point.

But there was no need to worry about that.

Even with Gyo-ha’s strength, it didn’t tear.

This meant that it couldn’t be ripped by physical force.

Meanwhile, the bird was drawing closer bit by bit.

Gyo-ha propped his chin on his hand.

“How did that big sister get inside, I wonder?”

Heo Won-chang had looked at it many times, but nothing had happened.

Besides, it had hung in Heo Won-chang’s room, which meant the servants had seen it too.

Yet no one had fallen asleep like Seol Mae.

‘Since it is ‘Dream Paradise,’ do you have to sleep beside it?’

That couldn’t be it.

In that case, Heo Won-chang would long since have been dragged into the painting.

Gyo-ha watched the descending bird.

Its face resembled a human’s, yet its claws were sharp like a tiger’s.

It was no ordinary bird.

It looks strong.

It would be better if he were the one to go in.

The moment he thought that, the world spun around him.

When he came to, he found himself floating in midair.

Not in the city, but halfway up a mountain.

His body began to fall.

And just as he was about to hit the ground, a woman’s scream rang in his ears.

“Kyaaaa!”

Gyo-ha twisted his body in midair.

In the distance, he could see a woman being chased by the bird.

A bird with a human face.

And the woman was Seol Mae.

He didn’t know how, but he had clearly entered the painting.

The moment he landed, Gyo-ha hurled himself forward.

“I don’t know either. I even called for a Taoist priest famed for his spiritual power, but it was no use. Wait. Are you listening to me?”

Heo Won-chang patted Gyo-ha’s shoulder.

Then Gyo-ha’s body slowly tipped over.

Koong!

His face slammed into the floor.

“What on earth!”

Startled, Heo Won-chang shook him, but he did not move.

With a heart full of dread, Heo Won-chang looked at the painting.

And on the opposite side of the descending bird, he saw something floating.

It was Gyo-ha.

They were moving there, very slowly, unlike in reality.

Seeing that, Heo Won-chang squeezed his eyes shut.

Seol Mae was no longer alone.