Compared to the ominous exterior, the inside of the house was warm and cozy. Dong-Seol waved her arms in the air, signaling Nao-Zai to catch up. "Come, come!" the sprightly woman said for a hundredth time since they entered. "I've prepared some tea for you."

Nao-Zai guessed the Imperial Palace must have informed the woman in advance, but wasn't all this too...eager? He followed Dong-Seol through a series of corridors flanked with wooden walls and sliding doors. The cubical lanterns nailed in random intervals against the wood cast an eerie orange glow, complimenting the additional glow from the cylindrical ones hanging from the ceiling.

They passed faded portraits of nature landscapes, depicting rivers with cranes swimming and flying off it, ponds with fish covered in golden scales and with flaring tails swimming inside them, and waterfalls falling off sides of mountains. The paint had long faded, robbing entire pictures a part of their brilliance.

Dong-Seol, herself, passed all these paintings without sparing them a glance. This was her house, after all. Nao-Zai studied the long strands of loose, dark hair swinging behind her like a thin curtain. The skirt of her lilac fenhai hugged her legs like it had no intention of letting her widen her steps more than the distance she was already walking with. Behind her veil-like hair, a thick strip of cloth wrapped around her waist before being tied into some sort of bulky ribbon. Being next to her and her colorful assortment of clothes, Nao-Zai felt underdressed with his muted beige fenhai, trousers of the same color, and dark leather boots.

The woman had pronged slippers on, the straps digging against her socks. When she faced Nao-Zai once more, she was beaming like she hadn't just invited a stranger carrying yet another stranger into her home.

"How are you liking the Hanreikisan so far?" Dong-Seol asked, whirling to face Nao-Zai, never breaking her stride. Now, she's walking backwards. "Is it too quiet? Too scary?"

Nao-Zai pondered on that question. Whatever that term she just said must have been the name of this mansion. "It's...fine," he said. "Are you the only person living here?"

Dong-Seol bobbed her head. Her walking backwards meant Nao-Zai having a full view of her face. Her bright, doe-like eyes shone with mild curiosity as she studied him back. Her pouty lips were curved into a gentle smile. Strands of her hair framed the side of her face, with some of the locks stopping only by her chin. It's a hairstyle Nao-Zai hadn't seen in many women, mostly because they always braided their hair in complicated up-do's in the Imperial Palace and there weren't many women in the Yomaura Fortress.

"I inherited this rest house from my parents," Dong-Seol said. "Not really my parents. I was lucky enough to be plucked off the streets and adopted by the Wang family. Little did I know that they're rich and had many properties hidden in the mountains and the forests."

Nao-Zai adjusted his grip on Kai-Se once again. Why did the prince's head keep slipping off his shoulder? "Do you manage all those properties by yourself?" he asked. They have now turned another corner and came across another corridor. This time, it's flanked by paper-paned doors on both sides.

"I have an empire, djang-di. They manage everything I own," Dong-Seol said. "The Wang bloodline is powerful and wealthy enough to be one of the ruling clans. His Imperial Majesty should be glad we didn't decide to go with Pyeongjeon's nonsense."

Nao-Zai frowned. Word did travel fast, especially if it concerned the Imperial Palace. "Is that why you agreed to help us...I mean, me?" he asked.

Dong-Seol chuckled. "Maybe," she said. "I guess I am just glad to have guests after a long time of being alone. The dignitary who's supposed to meet you has retired to his room. I'll call him for you as soon as you finish settling down."

The sound of a door sliding against the wooden floorboards and later slapping against its limit rumbled across the space. "Here we are," Dong-Seol stepped aside to let Nao-Zai duck inside the room. It was smaller than Kai-Se's room in the Butterfly Palace but maybe that's a bit of an unfair comparison. Mats woven from dried blades of grass littered the floor. Low desks littered the corners, some bearing lanterns standing on four legs and others remaining empty. A lump of folded blankets and mattresses formed a pile near the western wall from where Nao-Zai stood. The windows, remaining shuttered, cut off their view of the outside world.

"You can set His Highness down first," Dong-Seol gestured to the towering pile of blankets. "Make sure he's comfortable and all that."

Nao-Zai nodded, his toes already pushing his boots off his feet. In his socks, he sauntered into the room just as Dong-Seol followed him in, her own slippers left by the door. The sound of a thick mattress unfolding shuffled in the air. Within seconds, Dong-Seol had everything smoothed out without gaining a kink in her skirt. She gave him a quick nod and he set to gently lower Kai-Se into the mattress.

As soon as he had drawn the blanket to Kai-Se's chin, Dong-Seol slipped out of the room, pausing by the side of the door. Nao-Zai blew a breath as he reached out and brushed Kai-Se's hair off his face. In similar clothes as him, they might have just looked like brothers. Or something.

Like all the times Nao-Zai had watched Kai-Se, no change occurred in the prince's expression. His eyes remained closed, his chest still. He wasn't breathing but he had shown no signs of dying, either. His flesh stayed soft and somewhat warm when it had been days since Nao-Zai had found him in the library. At this point, Nao-Zai was reduced to hoping the physician, Yu-Shang, had been right when he said Kai-Se wasn't dead. Just...gone.

With a sigh, Nao-Zai straightened and followed Dong-Seol out of the room. Together, they went on to more corridors until they came across an open space. The darkness of the night that had fallen upon them did nothing to highlight the atrium's explosion of colors. As Nao-Zai and Dong-Seol rounded the sides of this indoor garden, he spotted another man sitting cross-legged in front of a tray with three steaming cups in it.

Dong-Seol stopped by the man and laid a hand on his shoulder as she crouched. "Nao-Zai, meet my husband, Mang-Zhao," she leaned against the man in a loving gesture. "He'll be the one who'll guide you to Cheokjin at dawn tomorrow, along with the other one who's now in his room."

The man, Mang-Zhao, bobbed his head and regarded Nao-Zai. He looked just like any other Minister in the Imperial court, with a thin line of beard lining his mouth and chin before tapering into a graying veil underneath, smooth, tanned skin, and calculating dark eyes which never left Nao-Zai even as he sank down in front of the couple. Instead of the red robes, however, Mang-Zhao wore a simple fenhai with lilac sleeves, a monotonic olive belt, and a pair of khaki trousers.

"Are you familiar with the towns of Dangrao?" the man said as Nao-Zai was just beginning to reach for the last unclaimed cup on the tray. "Hong-dal and I are thinking of skirting around Jianzhi to be able to reach the border faster. We would be skipping the other towns and coming straight to Cheokjin as soon as we can."

Nao-Zai racked his brain on who this Mang-Zhao person was supposed to be. Was he one of the large players in some of the lucrative industries in Xuijae's markets? When he came up with nothing, he sighed and sipped from his tea. Judging by the tangy flavor that hit his tongue, this was a mixture of winkle rose and dried sunggum leaves. It's not the best kind of tea out there but it'd have to do.

"I'll follow your direction so long as you intend on keeping the Crown Prince safe," Nao-Zai answered, toeing the nonexistent line between respectful and wary. "Do you know where we're going?"

To Nao-Zai's confusion, Mang-Zhao shook his head. "My only assignment was to make sure you make it to Cheokjin," he said. "There, someone else would take over and bring you somewhere else. We're not given information beyond our tasks."

Ah, that's good. Apart from Chi-Sae, Nao-Zai, and the Emperor, nobody else knew what they're really planning to go and what they're going to do. "Rest up, for now, djang-di," said Mang-Zhao as he finished his cup in two full gulps. "I expect you to be ready at dawn."

With that, the man stood up, followed by Dong-Seol who gave him a quick wink. Nao-Zai cradled his cup in his hands while he stared past the line of roofs reaching for the dark sky. He was no diviner and this was one of the times he wished he was, just so he could know from the stars what's bound to happen tomorrow, or in the days after.