Chapter 27
It was the next morning.
As Yu Seonwoo walked down the hall toward the dining room, he mulled over what had happened yesterday.
…Right. No matter how he thought about it, it was still ridiculous.
He read the formula in the painting? A blacksmith of all people, someone who just bangs on iron?
If he thought about it rationally, the answer was obvious.
'He must have been bluffing.'
He had probably just gotten lucky and struck the illusion's weakness.
Yesterday, he'd been so flustered that he let that brat steal the spotlight first.
Today would be different.
Having tossed and turned all night without a wink of sleep, he finally went to the secret chatroom of the elders of the Juhwasa he belonged to.
[Mokhyanghoe (墨香會)] He spilled what had happened yesterday.
-Brothers! Please, you have to listen to me!
He hurriedly sent the message, but the responses he got were lukewarm at best.
What's going on at this hour? We all have a golf tee time at dawn tomorrow, so we're already in bed, and so on and so forth.
Whatever it was, they all clearly sounded annoyed, telling him they didn't know what the matter was but to talk about it slowly once morning came.
So Yu Seonwoo dropped the decisive line.
-Well, some blacksmith! He read the formula in a painting, I tell you!
And then.
The chatroom, which had been dragging along as if they were about to leave him on read, suddenly burst into flames all at once despite the late hour.
The first to jump in shock was Hakjeong.
-What! Now that's just nonsense!
-A blacksmith reading the formula in a painting? I've lived a long time, and that's the strangest thing I've ever heard!
After the uproar dragged on for a while, Mukgye, who was usually known for being taciturn, cut through the noise in one stroke.
-That won't do.
-A fellow who calls himself a Juhwasa and then gets cowed by the bragging of some iron-banging blacksmith.
-Tsk. That won't do.
I already heard there's some rootless nobody running wild around here lately, not even from a proper family.
We're not some third-rate village sorcerers, so how could we let some brat trample our dignity?
At the stern rebuke to set him straight, Yu Seonwoo found his shoulders involuntarily shrinking.
That's when Hakjeong spoke up again.
-But Mr. Yu, does that even make sense to begin with? Rather than this― @Master Simun! If it's you, you should know best!
Simun was the orthodox expert in this room, the one with no equal when it came to breaking painting formulas.
At last, he opened his mouth.
-I'll get straight to the point. That's nonsense.
Then Simun calmly explained what a painting formula actually was.
Once the brush had completed the form, the formula grew afterward as the result, sprawling and tangling itself like vines at random.
So reading it through logic was something even among Juhwasa members that belonged in the realm of the impossible.
-Even I can't make out the strands of Master Cheongram's formula, and you think some mere blacksmith could read it? He just got lucky and hit a vital spot, then started boasting.
Yes. That was how it should be.
They were elders of the Juhwa family, after all.
Even Master Simun, who would be second to none when it came to painting formulas, couldn't even make out the branches of Cheongram's formula, could he?
Let alone a mere blacksmith.
There was no way that could be true.
'…Right. It was luck. Just a case of a cow backing up and catching a mouse.'
The unease that had pressed on a corner of his chest all night finally seemed to melt away.
Feeling reassured, Yu Seonwoo cautiously got to the point.
-W-well, of course! But Master Simun, then is there some separate way to counter a painting formula? I was hoping to make a proper showing today.
He swallowed dryly and waited for an answer.
-Naturally, you counter a formula with a formula.
-Against paintings, we in the Juhwasa face them with paintings—that's our way.
*
Creeeak.
The dining room door opened.
Yu Seonwoo walked over at an unhurried pace and sat down in front of the breakfast spread the servants had carefully prepared.
'That's right.'
Yu Seonwoo thought.
After talking with the elders in the chatroom, he finally felt his head clearing.
What that brat had spouted yesterday was, as expected, nonsense.
Clearly, that guy was a pro at inflating his own accomplishments and deceiving others.
But now he'd even learned from his seniors how to oppose a painting formula.
There was nothing left to fear.
Today, he'd finally make a proper showing as a Juhwasa, solve the request, and secure his share.
Just as he lifted his chopsticks in high spirits.
…But, huh?
'What is this?'
Something about the atmosphere felt off.
"Dohyeon! Please, have some of this abalone porridge too! This is the best thing for breakfast, isn't it? Hahaha!"
Yu Seonwoo could only be dumbfounded.
That man named Jin Mu-young had somehow glued himself to the side of the blacksmith, who looked much younger than him, and kept calling him 'brother, brother' over and over.
He'd clearly heard that guy was a notorious hooligan with a filthy temper.
He'd even been kicked out of the Jin family.
Why was that hot-tempered punk suddenly acting like this?
'…No way.'
Had he seen the blacksmith get lucky in yesterday's painting incident, gotten scared, tucked his tail between his legs, and decided to call him brother?
'…Tsk. For someone supposedly from the Jin family. Even if he's been cast out, that's just disgraceful.'
Well, obvious enough.
They must have sneaked a drink together in their room last night.
Birds of a feather flock together, after all.
Yu Seonwoo clicked his tongue and quietly turned his head away.
And then.
"Um, Master……."
It was the sword-bearing woman, Kim Yuha.
Yesterday, when he'd first seen her, she had been quiet and hardly said a word.
“Please try this too. I… peeled it….”
With her cheeks flushed red, she was shyly tucking her hair behind her ear.
Then she gently slid the carefully prepared shrimp onto Dohyeon's side plate.
She even kept sneaking glances at his face. Anyone could see she couldn't hide her feelings.
'Even that woman……?'
A thug sorcerer was bowing and calling some brash brat with nothing but bluff and luck his brother.
Even the female swordswoman, who had been stoic and silent without saying a word, was fawning over him?
Just what on earth, while he was asleep,
……what had happened during that one night?
***
After finishing their meal, the group headed back to the gallery.
Dohyeon was having a strangely uncomfortable morning.
On his right was Jin Mu-young.
He was still glued to him, chanting 'brother, brother' nonstop.
'…Well, this guy was always like this, so whatever.'
The problem was the left side.
“Uh… Yuha-ssi?”
“Y-yes?”
"Could you walk a little farther away? I think you're a bit too close."
"Ah! S-sorry!"
Yuha jumped and took about half a step back.
Then, her face beet red, she hugged her poor sword instead.
Her behavior, oddly different from yesterday, and the suddenly shortened distance between them were both uncomfortably overwhelming.
“Why is even this person…?”
Even while they were eating earlier, the two of them kept talking to him, and he couldn't keep his head straight.
'…Well, I guess they're just happy the sword got fixed properly.'
Dohyeon decided not to think much of it.
After walking for quite a while, they soon arrived at yesterday's gallery.
“This is the gallery you saw yesterday.”
The butler said, stopping in his tracks.
In fact, it had been Dohyeon who asked to come back here.
Last night, while examining the formula inside the sunflower painting, one thing had bothered him.
Dohyeon went back over the formulas in each of the paintings hung in the gallery, one by one.
And then.
'…As expected. So that was it.'
Dohyeon nodded quietly and turned to the butler standing beside him.
"Butler. By any chance, are there more of Master Cheongram's works here?"
"……!"
The butler looked a little surprised. After a moment of thought, he opened his mouth.
"...That's right. I was actually just about to show you today. Please come this way."
The butler led the way and continued his explanation.
"Actually, the deceased former head... had especially liked Master Cheongram's paintings when he was alive. He collected them diligently right up until his passing."
Crossing the gallery, the butler led them to another room with its door tightly shut.
He slowly opened the door.
Creeeak―
And the moment they saw inside.
"...No. This can't be!"
Yu Seonwoo, who had followed behind, cried out in amazement.
Inside the fairly spacious room,
paintings in the same style as the sunflower he'd seen yesterday filled every wall.
"A-all of this is Master Cheongram's…! My word. Is there another collection like this anywhere in the world!"
Yu Seonwoo flitted around among the paintings in a frenzy, making an enormous fuss.
But Dohyeon's gaze had been somewhere else from the very beginning.
'…As expected.'
Dohyeon slightly loosened the suppressor hidden beneath his clothes and gathered spiritual power at his fingertips.
Then he gently brought those fingertips up to his eyes.
Swoosh―.
The moment his vision blurred and then cleared.
Across the paintings filling the room, the grain of bright blue circuit traces rose up all at once.
'…Just as I thought.'
Dohyeon traced those patterns one by one, slowly.
The structure that had sucked the life force out of yesterday's sunflower.
That vicious formula had been engraved in exactly the same way throughout the Master Cheongram paintings in this room.
***
Meanwhile, Yu Seonwoo wandered among the paintings, spilling out exclamations nonstop.
"This is definitely a genuine work depicting one of the Twelve Divine Beasts! And look at that one. Isn't that Master Cheongram's late-period brushwork!”
In front of paintings, it was only natural that he, as a Juhwasa, should be the one to stand out.
He raised his voice to the utmost and started rattling off everything he knew.
But then.
“…….”
Something about the mood felt off.
“…So, what I'm saying is about this piece― Ahem, are you even listening?”
Yu Seonwoo's face stiffened as he looked around.
No one was listening.
Finding that strange, he quietly turned his head.
Every last one of them.
Had glued themselves to either side of that young brat like leeches.
“Dohyeong! What about this painting? What do you think of it, brother?”
"M-Master…. L-let's go t-together…."
They were all clinging only to him and bowing and scraping.
'Ugh…!'
This was a place where he'd been invited as a Juhwasa, after all.
Even while they were looking at the paintings, nobody was paying him any attention.
It was more than just losing face; it felt like his pride was being trampled into the dirt.
'…Just you wait. Soon I'll make you feel it in your bones who the real master is.'
Yu Seonwoo clenched his teeth.
That was when the group gathered in front of a huge painting that filled an entire wall.
The moment he faced the canvas, Yu Seonwoo found himself overwhelmed without even realizing it.
A house-sized tidal wave was surging through the painting.
A massive black swell that looked ready to burst through the canvas and come crashing out at any moment.
It was raging violently as if it would swallow the viewer whole.
“…Hah.”
Just as Yu Seonwoo stepped toward the painting as if completely entranced.
"Wait, don't get too close―"
Dohyeon tried to stop him in a hurry, but he was one step too late.
Swoosh―
Suddenly.
The air in the room became subtly heavy.
'…Huh?'
The moment he sensed that something was wrong.
The black tidal wave in the painting.
Rippled.
Like real seawater.
“…Huh?”
And the next moment.
Kwaaaaa―!
The huge wave in the painting suddenly surged over the frame and spilled out.
.
.
.
When he came to.
He was in the middle of an endless black sea, the ground beneath his feet rolling and heaving.