Lotus Field World.
Seol Young stood up abruptly, noticing the unusually dark floor on the side where Zaha was sitting.
“It seems like the Governor secretly dumped the alcohol onto the floor using some trick! Please check that out!”
“What is it now?”
Zaha smiled like this was absurd and moved away. Jin Rim went to inspect the ground.
But it wasn’t alcohol and just rainwater. Zaha clicked his tongue.
“Seol Young-rang, I don’t think that’s a good plan. Won’t I get drunk faster if you continue to shout up in excitement like that?”
“…”
“The second jar!”
The Hwarangs opened another jar and poured it into their glasses.
“Fourth!”
“Fifth!”
“Sixth!”
They had already gone till the sixth glass, but Zaha’s face didn’t change, and this made Seol Young frown.
“This can’t be right… Governor, could you have spit out the alcohol while pretending to drink? Give it to me!”
“No!”
“Please!”
He scrambled to take his glass and look into it, but there was nothing inside.
Seol Young felt himself sinking deeper into confusion.
“This is the third jar!”
Gradually, he began to feel high. However, Zaha seemed fine.
“Seol Young-rang, speak less. Can you see how many fingers I am holding up right now?”
He was even teasing the guy.
“This is strange. It’s impossible… Some people can drink alcohol and make its toxicity come out in the form of sweat right away. Could you be using that technique?”
“Say something that makes sense. Does it look like I am sweating now?”
“Or you are hiding something under your clothes…?”
“You already had me inspected before we started. Seeing your mind wander like this, it seems you are almost at your limit.”
The 7th glass, 8thglass, and the 9th…
At some point, they couldn’t remember how many they drank. They were no longer counting.
‘No… this cannot be…’
Seol Young tried to hold back, but he was gradually losing consciousness.
“…”
Baek Eon, Song Ok, and Hyo Wol exchanged anxious looks. Zaha said,
“Are you drunk now? You seem drunk.”
“I will confirm.”
Jin Rim approached and tapped Seol Young on the shoulder, but he didn’t respond.
“Seol Young-rang. Head in and sleep now.”
He shook his shoulders, but Seol Young said nothing and continued to blink, and then he suddenly smiled.
A typical drunken attitude.
“Seol Young-rang lost!”
“Oh my! No!”
Zaha looked happy while the White Tiger Spirit Troops were flustered.
Then everything vanished.
‘What?’
Watching everything unfold, Seol Young felt a strong sense of doubt.
‘Odd, it is really odd. The Governor’s tolerance should be at an average adult male level, but how could he effortlessly drink all that alcohol as if it were water?’
Wait.
It felt like he was onto something, and then the scene in front of his eyes changed.
Seol Young stood in a white space with a silver robe.
“Very well. I concede defeat. Let’s have a talk. What kind of trickery did you use?”
“What do you mean? Seeing that you are afraid of your teacher and your hyungs alone, you don’t care about others, so I made up my mind to properly educate you as a government official, and focused my energy and expelled the effects of alcohol.”
Zaha spoke calmly.
Did he expect Seol Young to believe that?
Seol Young persisted in digging out the truth despite losing against Zaha. And then one day.
He passed the Hwarangs’ Hall, and a note fell from a tree.
When he read it,
‘The truth is in the heavens.’
It seemed to be Jin Rim’s handwriting.
Was he also tracking the truth?
Seol Young ran to the Heavenly Treasury. The one good thing about being the Governor’s aide was direct permission to enter such places.
He grabbed an official and asked what happened on the day of the drinking bet.
“Not that day, but the next day, one of the treasures did a miracle.”
“What treasure?”
“Here, this one.”
Seol Young’s eyes almost popped out when he looked at the object the official took.
A large jade cup adorned with rings on both sides. It was a cup used for drinking alcohol.
“This jade cup is quite a precious treasure and given only when envoys come. But in the morning, while I was on duty, I felt a chill run down my spine, so when I turned around, the jade cup vanished. It was small, so I had to look hard for it, but then the Governor rushed over here excitedly with this cup in hand. Well, the cup that was supposed to be here had apparently moved in front of a painting in the Hwarangs’ Hall. How strange it is that the alcohol cup, which pays respects to the great warriors of the kingdom moved on its own like that. Saying that, the Governor returned it back here.”
In other words, he stole it and used it for the night of the bet…
Seol Young asked, feeling something odd.
“What power does the jade cup have?”
“Ah, you don’t know. This is a treasure dedicated to another region, where there’s a legend that liquor springs from a fountain. I’m not sure what power it has, but if one pours water into the cup, it turns into strong alcohol.”
What is this?
“I see…”
Seol Young clenched his teeth. Now he knew.
How did the Governor manage to drink such strong alcohol as if it were water?
It was because what would be poured into the cup changed into its opposite. The secret of that night lay in the fact that only Seol Young’s cup was switched with the treasure jade cup.
He was caught off guard that night. Seol Young knew Zaha would be up to something. But he didn’t expect it to be like this.
‘The first one had to be alcohol.’
At some point, the ones with alcohol jars were turned into jars holding plain water. The strong scent of alcohol was already around, and Seol Young had no idea when the alcohol turned into water, as he was only interested in catching Zaha’s.
‘Anyway, since he was really drinking alcohol, it’s natural that I couldn’t imagine otherwise. How could I have known that there would be such a treasure?’
One person drank strong alcohol, and the other’s cup was just water. What was more unfair than this?
The more he thought about it, the more absurd it was.
‘Seriously. Did he steal a treasure to win the bet and make a similar jade cup to avoid doubt from me? He planned it so well!’
Seol Young was enraged and threw the door of the Hwarangs’ Hall open.
“Governor!”
Zaha, lounging lazily on a chair, glanced up lazily.
“Why are you this noisy, my aide? Where are you going around with that attitude, not doing what you are asked?”
He spoke like he was bored, but his face looked like he was making fun of him.
“I now know how you tricked me into the bet! You have dug your own grave. I made it clear, right? If you cheat, then you lose!”
“No. That is, if I get caught cheating.”
“…Uh?”
Seol Young’s face turned pale.
Then, he heard something noisy, and there were flashes of light, indicating that the atmosphere was becoming quite hostile.
‘This cannot happen.’
Watching from afar, Seol Young quickly distanced himself from it all.
His consciousness flew through countless lotus petals and eventually returned to the familiar world.
He was concerned with what was happening there, but it was their business anyway…
‘Well, my curiosity got resolved.’
A comfortable smile formed on his lips as he lay upright in the dark and fell asleep.
Episode 233: Epilogue (8)
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