Chapter 28: A Drop of Divinity

Huiyeon was walking along a dark mountain path.

When she chanced to look down, she saw a pair of tiny hands and feet. They belonged to a child. Relying on the faint, filtering moonlight, those small feet were moving forward with dogged determination. It was a steep, punishing trail for a young child, but though she gasped heavily for air, she refused to give up.

After climbing for what felt like an eternity, the child came to a halt in front of a cavern entrance.

‘The cave!’

Huiyeon realized with a jolt of recognition that this was the very dream that had haunted her sleep back in the Taeseong Kingdom.

As if it were not her first time visiting, the child stepped into the pitch-black cavern with practiced ease. With every step forward, the air pressing against her skin grew heavy, damp, and piercingly cold.

‘Once I wake up, I won’t remember any of this again.’

Even as a bittersweet sigh escaped her thoughts, the tiny feet continued to move deeper. She had initially assumed the cavern would be cloaked in an impenetrable shadow, but curiously, the moss clinging to the stone walls emitted a soft, bioluminescent glow, casting an ethereal light over the path. The deeper the child ventured, the brighter and more radiant the ambient light became.

‘Has someone lit fires further inside?’

As the illumination grew stronger, the child’s steps quickened, leaving Huiyeon intensely curious about who—or what—the girl had come to meet. Yet, just before the path opened into the brilliantly lit sanctuary, the child stopped abruptly, staring at an obstacle ahead.

It was a dense wall of thorny briars.

Sprouting from the depths of the cave, the thorns crawled aggressively over the stone walls and choked the cavern floor. The child stared at them, her small face twisting in displeasure. Picking up a heavy stone from the ground, she began violently smashing the sharp briars. But the vines were incredibly tough and resilient; they didn’t suffer a single scratch.

Still, the child refused to yield, pounding the stone against the thorns for a long time. Huiyeon found herself wondering why the girl was acting so desperately, but she remained a helpless observer, trapped within the child’s perspective.

Finally, her strength entirely spent, the child despaired and dropped the stone. Yet, she looked back at the tangled barrier several times with lingering regret.

Resuming her walk, the child finally emerged at the edge of a deep subterranean spring, fed by the slow drip of stalactites. The brilliant light that filled the cavern was radiating from the water itself. A golden aura, starting from the center of the pool, illuminated the entire cavern.

Submerged waist-deep in the glowing water was a figure.

Huiyeon blinked, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Entwined in the sharp, grasping thorns within the water, the man’s face came into focus—and she realized it was a face she knew intimately.

A wave of profound bewilderment washed over her. No, to say it merely “resembled” him was wrong. It was distinct. It was absolutely him.

A name she felt she had called out a thousand times before erupted from her lips:

<“Yu-on?”>

Why on earth was he here, trapped in such a state?

Leaping effortlessly into the air, Yu-on landed silently upon the roof of the detached palace. He let out a soft, mocking chuckle as he surveyed the warriors concealed around the estate.

There were three guards hidden in total, but only one was maintaining a proper vigil. Even so, that lone guard failed to register his presence, completely blind to an entity who had mastered the art of concealing his aura.

With a smirk, Yu-on dropped from the eaves into the inner courtyard. The guards were positioned entirely to repel external intruders, leaving the interior completely unmonitored. Taking advantage of the oversight, Yu-on stepped casually into the shadow-drenched corridors.

“Are they keeping watch to ensure she cannot escape, rather than protecting her?”

The thought felt like the absolute truth. The naive Princess and her handmaid were undoubtedly oblivious to this fact, and the palace maids provided by Hoye would certainly care less.

Letting out a grim smile, Yu-on walked slowly down the hall. It was his first time setting foot inside this detached palace, but navigating it posed no challenge. He simply had to follow the pull of his own responding energy.

He stopped before a door that felt marginally more luxurious than the rest of the estate. The aura wafting from within tugged fiercely at his senses. In particular, his left hand—the one tainted by the Changgwi’s malice—throbbed painfully, as if demanding he open the door immediately.

Wearing a bitter smile, Yu-on opened the door without a sound and stepped inside.

“The scent of herbs?”

The chamber was thick with the sharp, medicinal fragrance of raw vegetation.

He recalled that during their first encounter, his temporary loss of control had left her wrists rather bruised. But it had been days; those minor marks should have healed completely by now. Had something else transpired after he left?

Because he had deliberately suppressed his awareness regarding this palace to avoid drawing attention, he would have remained ignorant even if an accident had occurred.

Setting his lips in a hard line, Yu-on moved swiftly through the small sitting room and entered the bedchamber. His hand was somewhat rough as he swept aside the hanging silk draperies of the bed, his mind entirely consumed by the urgent need to check if she was harmed.

Contrary to the overwhelming medical scent filling the room, Huiyeon was sleeping peacefully.

‘Is she sedated by the herbs?’

Yu-on examined her with intense, searching eyes. She appeared perfectly fine, save for her hands, which were folded neatly over her stomach. Around the tip of one finger, a thin strip of cotton fabric was neatly bound.

Without hesitation, Yu-on unraveled the cloth to inspect the injury.

“Did she use all these herbs for a mere scratch?”

She had apparently pricked herself deeply with something as sharp as a needle; as the binding cloth came away, a fresh bead of crimson blood began to well up from the puncture.

At the sight, his left hand throbbed with a vicious, burning ache, urging him forward. The opportunity is here. Test it.

Yu-on stared at the wound with conflicted eyes before leaning down, his tongue darting out to lap away the droplet of blood.

A faint but undeniable burst of pure energy surged down his throat, spreading toward his core and radiating to the tips of his limbs. But it was entirely too small an amount to purge the dense malice gripping his left hand.

Ultimately, her wounded finger disappeared past his lips.

As he closed his mouth and sucked gently, a more substantial flow of her life essence washed over his tongue.

“Nngh…”

Huiyeon parted her lips, letting out a soft, breathless moan in her sleep.

Hearing that delicate sound, a dark, consuming impulse flooded his mind. What if he abandoned this finger entirely, parted those lips instead, and drank deeply from her mouth? Or perhaps took more from her body?

Yu-on’s golden eyes raked slowly down her sleeping form. Within his fragmented memories, warped by centuries of corruption, he recalled a moment where he had lapped away the tears tracking down her face. Saliva, blood, or any bodily essence—it was clear that any fluid from her could transfer that pure, anchoring energy to him.

With a sharp flick of his right wrist, the black miasma that had been driven to the surface of his skin broke free, dissolving into the air like harmless smoke.

Yet, Yu-on did not remove her finger from his mouth. He swirled his tongue around it, drawing it in, drinking her essence. It wasn’t enough. The unquenchable thirst burning within his throat only grew more ravenous.

“Yu-on?”

The sudden murmur of his name acted like a bucket of freezing water poured over his head, snapping him instantly back to reality.

‘What on earth am I doing…?’

Startled by his own depravity, Yu-on recoiled into the shadows, killing his presence entirely. He veiled the brilliant glow of his golden eyes beneath his eyelids, monitoring her movements.

Fortunately, it seemed to be nothing more than a dream-induced murmur; Huiyeon did not open her eyes.

Appalled by his lack of restraint, Yu-on dragged a hand harshly down his face. Now that the lingering corruption had been purged from his system, his mind was clearer than it had been in centuries. Only now did his eyes register what he had missed upon entering.

Laid out across the chamber were meticulously cleaned and dried herbs—the source of the fragrance he had noticed. Plants meant for reducing fevers and healing wounds.

Staring at a landscape that looked entirely out of place for a royal princess’s bedchamber, Yu-on bit his lip. Looking at this room filled with dried medicine, a specific figure from his ancient past naturally came to mind.

“A useless thought…”

Gritting his teeth, Yu-on turned away. Though his control had faltered, tonight had solidified one absolute truth: Zhu Huiyeon was indispensable to his survival.

He paused before the door, casting a long, unreadable gaze back toward the sleeping princess. It was an action he himself could scarcely comprehend or justify.

When Huiyeon awoke, she sat dazed in her bed for a long time.

Outside her window, the first pale light of dawn was breaking across the horizon. Though she had awakened far earlier than usual, her mind felt remarkably crisp.

“The man in the dream… it was definitely Yu-on.”

The dream that had left only a vague, fleeting impression back in Taeseong had remained vividly etched in her mind this morning. Yet, she couldn’t be entirely certain if this dream was identical to the ones from her past. In her vision, she had been a mere child, yet the radiant man submerged in the spring possessed the exact same mature countenance Yu-on carried now.

‘Well, either way, it’s nothing but an absurd delusion. A person emitting light like a beacon… it’s impossible.’

They said that when you yearn for someone or hold deep curiosity, they appear in your dreams.

“I suppose I truly am intensely curious about that man.”

For a man she had met only once—an individual whose true identity remained a complete mystery—to constantly occupy her thoughts was baffling. It was almost as if she had fallen in love at first sight.

“In love? How ridiculous…”

He possessed an exceptionally handsome face, certainly. But falling in love purely based on an attractive countenance felt entirely foolish.

Huiyeon vigorously shook her head, attempting to banish Yu-on’s lingering image from her mind. But thoughts are not so easily brushed away by a physical gesture. Resigning herself, she chose to focus her attention elsewhere. Conveniently, she had a task at hand.

“I must check if the herbs have dried properly. Ah!”

As she pressed her palm against the mattress to lift herself out of bed, a sharp wince escaped her lips.

The cotton cloth she had wrapped around her finger had somehow unraveled during the night. She recalled pricking her finger rather deeply while embroidering in a state of exhaustion. The puncture had bled so persistently that she had been forced to bind it tightly, though fortunately, the bleeding had stopped completely.

Yet, the dull, throbbing ache remained.

“Since I am preparing medicines, I should formulate an ointment for wounds as well…”

To accomplish that, the wild herbs she had gathered would not suffice. Resolving to summon Sorang or Arang to inquire if they could secure some beeswax, Huiyeon slid out of bed and began inspecting her drying flora.

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