Chapter 85
“……!”
Where am I?
It was a room she had never seen before.
The room was pitch-black, with no noticeable furniture—just a single bed draped in long curtains.
Soso stood frozen in place.
Fear coursed through her entire body, trembling violently at the bizarre situation she was experiencing for the first time.
Yet, she tried desperately to keep her wits about her and take stock of her surroundings.
Soon, she realized one thing.
‘There’s no wind.’
It was a key sign that this was not reality.
“Never trust phantoms.”
As Lord Unwoo had said, if all of this were merely an illusion, there was no reason to be afraid.
At that moment, a bright light flashed from the direction of the bed.
It was a radiant golden light, somehow familiar.
Freed from her fear, Soso began to move toward the bed. She drew back the curtain slightly and stepped inside.
The scene before her was astonishing.
In the palm of a woman sitting by the bed, golden energy swirled wildly.
“A golden… priestess?”
Soso whispered involuntarily and quickly covered her mouth.
But as if she couldn’t hear, the woman did not stir. She was wholly focused on healing.
Perhaps it was because all of this was merely an illusion.
Soso exhaled in relief and observed the situation more closely.
The woman’s face was largely obscured by a veil, and only then did Soso notice a man lying on the bed.
The man’s body was horrific—there was barely a spot untouched by injury.
He groaned in pain, each wound clearly agonizing.
It seemed no wonder if he were to die at any moment. Yet the person seated beside him was none other than the golden priestess.
Where her golden energy touched, the horrific wounds vanished as if by magic, leaving him whole.
Soso watched intently as the priestess continued to heal the man.
She did not shed tears like Soso would, and she controlled the golden energy with precision.
‘She’s skilled.’
Soso had only known how to expand her golden energy.
But the woman could adjust its size and intensity: more concentrated for deep wounds, lighter for shallow ones.
Soso watched every movement closely.
If the day ever came when she needed to use her abilities again, she would attempt it just as the priestess did.
Finally, the woman finished her healing.
The man’s body had recovered remarkably. Even the pallor of his face was replaced with life.
Soso finally looked at the man’s face.
He was handsome, easily comparable to Jegal Haesu or Namgung Jin.
Most striking was his high, straight nose, soaring as if it reached the sky.
“Haah…”
The woman, perhaps slightly fatigued from the healing, wiped her forehead.
“……Ugh.”
The man, who had only groaned until now, twitched his eyelids. Soon, his eyes opened halfway.
Shockingly, his irises were dark red.
He stared at the woman with those piercing eyes, his pale lips forming her name.
“Hang…a.”
Hanga.
The man had clearly called her that.
A chill ran down Soso’s spine. She had recently heard about “Hanga.”
Hanga was Worya Yosen’s younger sister—the one who had eaten the celestial pill and become a divine being.
Could she be the golden priestess?
If so, the man with the dark-red eyes must be…
At that moment, the man and woman’s gaze suddenly shifted to Soso.
Roll.
Their eyes, sharp and fierce, were full of hostility.
“……!”
Soso nearly fell backward in shock. Her hair stood on end.
How did they… notice me?
They stared at her without blinking.
The fear she had barely shaken off surged back. She felt as if her gaze had met something she should never see.
I have to run.
Soso tried to turn back.
But the man lying on the bed shot up like a spring, blocking her path.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
His voice was eerie, like nails scraping over something hard.
Soso felt her ears might split.
“I-I…”
“You came in as you pleased, but you won’t leave so easily.”
As Soso stepped back, the man’s hand shot forward.
He grabbed her veil and tore it off roughly.
“You won’t be able to hide your identity forever.”
Scared, Soso’s knees gave way.
Just as she was about to collapse, she recalled Lord Unwoo’s words:
“Never trust phantoms.”
Right. This is a mere illusion—it cannot harm me.
So she didn’t need to heed the threatening words of this phantom.
If she got tangled with it, she would be trapped further in this strange vision.
Soso took a deep breath.
‘Lord Unwoo, please give me the courage to escape this place.’
She thought of Lord Unwoo, and also her companions waiting for her at Juru.
Remembering those who had shown her kindness lightened her heart.
Soso looked up at the man with determined eyes.
Then, like a doll without emotion, she mustered the courage to push the man down.
He was huge and solid—he should not have budged…
Yet surprisingly, his body shattered on the spot.
Before she could even process her shock, the space warped again.
The man, the golden priestess, and the dark room vanished in an instant.
With a blink, the surroundings went black. She seemed to have returned to the place she first was.
‘Thank goodness.’
Soso wiped the cold sweat from her brow and collapsed to the floor. Her tension melted like snow.
Reaching out, her hand touched something soft.
What could it be?
Looking down, she saw a small, fluffy creature.
“A tiger!”
The young tiger that had briefly disappeared.
“Did you bring me into this space?”
―Kiyaaa!
The tiger roared as if answering and dashed off.
Soso followed it.
In a black space with no discernible directions, following the tiger seemed far more rewarding than staying still.
Her instinct was right.
At some point, lantern-like lights began to illuminate beneath her feet.
The lights soon formed the boundaries of a path.
Beneath the lights, a black pond reflected Soso’s face, rippling gently.
The tiger ran straight to the end of the path.
There stood a pavilion. A strange pavilion on the black lake.
A man sat inside.
He had a commanding presence, with long white hair flowing down to his waist.
By hair alone, he looked elderly, but his face was smooth, unlined—impossible to gauge his age.
The tiger leapt onto the pavilion and prowled near the man’s legs, yowling.
Instinctively, Soso recognized the man.
‘Worya Yosen…’
Above the pavilion, a full moon hung in the sky.
Soso could not tear her eyes away from the moonlit man’s face.
Only then did she register his voice.
“What has Sojeo seen?”
Ah, thank goodness. This time it’s a human voice.
She never wanted to hear the piercing, ear-splitting voice of the man in the bed again.
“Sojeo, answer me.”
The man urged again. Soso slowly opened her mouth.
“I saw a dying man and the woman healing him.”
“…….”
A faint crack appeared on the otherwise expressionless man’s face.
He slightly furrowed his brows, shaking his head as if dissatisfied.
“Could it be… the woman’s hands radiated golden energy?”
Soso nodded.
“Yes.”
She could not bring herself to say, “She has abilities similar to mine.”
There were too many inexplicable details.
One relief, however, was that she could not sense any magical aura from the man.
He fell silent, appearing lost in thought.
His deeply set eyes were tinged with sorrow.
Slowly, as if hiding his sadness, he spoke:
“Sojeo… you resemble Hanga very much.”
