episode_0167

committed. Hyeok Kirin thought like that and closed his eyes tightly.

However, I also felt a cool feeling in a corner of my heart. Hyeok Kirin was feeling guilty about the current situation, pretending not to know this feeling and happily enjoying sightseeing in Luoyang with the black cat.

“Well, my senior is a good person.”

The black cat seemed to have not yet grasped what Hyukkirin meant, and answered lightly as he lifted the teacup to his mouth. His attitude seems to be that he never thought that Hyuk Kirin would like Ho Cheon An. Seeing the black cat like that, Hyeok Kirin felt a strong sense of guilt.

Hyeok Kirin mustered up the courage to open his mouth.

“Ha, as a woman…I had the warrior Ho in my heart…”

Seeing the black cat’s eyes widen, Hyeok Kirin avoided the black cat’s gaze.

There was silence in the tea room just for two people.

Hyuk Kirin has always thought of black cats as people like cats.

Sometimes it shows a strange side, it stubbornly digs when it gets curious, and sometimes it shows a foolish or innocent side, but it blends in with its arrogant and beautiful appearance, making it a cat in and of itself.

The black cat was quietly looking at me. The appearance of the black cat, with its always pleasant smile and carefree and languid appearance gone, was threatening.

Cats are small beasts after all. Hyeok Kirin swallowed his saliva as the black cat looked at his every move with transparent eyes, excluding emotions, as if he had found his prey.

“Is it because you received enlightenment?”

“That’s not it…”

Hyeok Kirin thought of Hocheonan. Although Yu-kyung realized that she had feelings for Ho Cheon-an, she couldn’t say for sure that she fell in love with him at some point.

“Just…okay. Now you know how complicated my situation is. There is a family problem with the imperial lineage, and she is a woman who cross-dresses and is a martial artist.”

Hyeok Kirin felt his thoughts become more concrete as he was worried about something he had never expressed in words.

“Even I have hopes that maybe Master Ho will accept me. No matter how complicated my family situation is and what problems there are, Master Ho will just nod and be with me…”

“I see.”

The black cat let out a long, very long sigh.

My relationship with Hyuk Kirin was not short. And the density was also unusual.

Since the escort request began in Sichuan Province, we have seen each other almost every day and spent most of our time together. On the way to Jeomchangpa, we talked all day long in the carriage, and at Jeomchangpa, we stayed together almost all day, and today’s road on this ecliptic was no different.

Although he never directly told Hyuk Kirin that he liked Ho Cheon-an, he never hid those feelings.

But now that he said he had special feelings for Ho Cheon-an, of course he couldn’t help but be shocked.

To Black Cat, Hyeok Kirin was a very special person.

Taeeumgi was not an energy that only affected men. Black cats scattering Taeeumgi was a phenomenon, and everyone was affected equally.

It just had a dramatic effect on men.

Just as men are fascinated by the Taeeumgi, women also often show hostility to the Taeeumgi. Of course, it didn’t have as dramatic an effect as it did for men, so there were many cases where I was able to maintain a reasonable relationship with women, but there was no one I could really treat intimately without feeling distant.

‘friend…’

Hyeok Kirin could be said to be Black Cat’s first same-sex friend. A state of imperial energy and transcendence that exudes positive energy. A person who can overcome the Taeeumgi and see the black cat itself due to two factors.

Above all, the black cat felt a sense of kinship with Hyeok Kirin. Heukmyo, who suffers from having a Taeeumgi, felt a strange kinship with Hyeok Kirin, who had a story about living in the martial arts world as a crossdressing woman.

This was also the reason why Black Cat, who had no one close to him, was able to feel close to Hyeok Kirin.

But why would such a person say that he likes Ho Cheon-an?

The black cat bit his lip, feeling an indescribable emotion. Emotions that I had experienced for the first time welled up in my heart.

“Why am I saying that now? Even if you like senior Ho, weren’t you going to break up to resolve the imperial family’s affairs as soon as the palace is closed? Is that a lie too?”

“No! I’m really going to pretend that I’m closing down and go back to my original status and take care of various things. In the process, we will have to break up with Sojeo the Black Cat and Warrior Ho…”

“If so, it was an okay story to tell on the last day of our breakup, right?”

“I thought so at first. But it wasn’t easy. Pretending not to know, laughing and talking with the black cat Sojeo, and then doing it on the last day…”

Hyukkirin laughed bitterly.

“I think there is a saying for no reason that it is better to sell first.”

A person without tact. The black cat thought so, but then shook his head. It’s not that there are no tricks. The person that Black Cat had ever seen, Hyeok Kirin, was a person who valued his conscience and Black Cat’s feelings more than his own benefit and comfort.

So, I must have awkwardly confessed my feelings in such an ambiguous place.

Thinking of Hyuk Kirin’s feelings like that, Black Cat’s feelings became even more complicated.

If I had been able to express my anger calmly, would I have been able to sort out my current emotions?

‘What should I do…?’

The black cat was truly confused. For the black cat who had lived a lonely life all her life and had barely begun to open her heart a few months ago, the current situation was something she had never even imagined.

Black Cat was just confused and Hyuk Kirin was just feeling guilty.

Hyukgirin looked at the floor, and the black cat had no choice but to look at Hyukgirin in bewilderment.

“Excuse me. It seems like some unmanned person is looking for you two.”

In that situation, Ho Cheon-an came.

*** ***

Ho Tian-an frowned.

It was not that I could not understand the attitude of Admiral Song Chang-sik of the Geumuiwi. There has always been a case for disqualifying unqualified candidates from each test, and based on his experience, he judged that there was almost no chance of Hocheonan’s unit passing this test. To him, each test was just something that could happen.

“Keuung.”

Ho Cheon-an frowned. In the end, in the original history, unless the player specifically touches them, they each go their own way. As Song Chang-sik expected, maybe he just failed the Geumui Commission exam.

However, Ho Cheon-an could not shake off his worries.

‘It’s too optimistic to think that the dream team will realize that the environment and situation are a little unfavorable and overthrow it.’

As he suffered from such anxiety, Ho Cheon-an suddenly became angry. I wondered what I was doing as I suffered alone from anxiety that no one could understand because I had knowledge of the future.

So, I decided to just put aside the unnecessary worries and change my mind.

Since I have a few days to spare anyway, I’ll think about my unit later and go sightseeing in Luoyang with the white cat and the black cat for now.

It will be up to the future me to worry.

Ho Cheon-an neatly abandoned his worries for the next day and headed to the teahouse where he had promised to join them as soon as work was over in order to enjoy sightseeing in Luoyang, and found Hyuk-ki-rin and Black Cat.

But the atmosphere was strange.

Hyeok Kirin is looking at the floor with a gloomy expression.

“….”

And the black cat looks at Ho Cheon-an and Hyuk Kirin with cool eyes. Ho Cheon-an reflexively swallowed dry saliva. I’ve seen black cats get angry many times, but it was always something close to complaining. This was the first time I’d seen them calm down like this.

“What are you doing? Sit down.”

“Huh? Uh…really? Haha.”

The black cat looked at Ho Cheon-an, who was pouring tea into a teacup.

In any case, if you took your eyes off it for even a moment, it would have been an accident. We ran wild together in Sichuan Province… but when we were giving sugar to the kids, we got so excited that we used our hands and the Zen masters got involved, and as we continued to teach the Zen Masters, we worked hard and even ended up becoming enlightened.

‘Then you lose your senses and cause an accident at the imperial palace?’

The black cat’s gaze suddenly became sharp, and Hao Cheon-an flinched. In fact, Black Cat was quite angry after hearing what Hu Tian-an had done in the imperial court.

Although everything worked out well, there were some parts that were heartbreaking just listening to it.

Nevertheless, the reason why the black cat passed without saying anything was because the target was Hyeok Kirin.

Black Cat looked at Hyeok Kirin struggling to help Yeo Il-ye and thought that he wanted to help. Hyeok Kirin was a person who made even the loner Black Cat, who did not get along with people, feel the same way.

Ho Cheon-an was the only one who could help Hyuk Kirin in the isolated space of the imperial palace, and Ho Cheon-an was probably well aware of that fact, so he had no choice but to go to great lengths.

“Really…”

The black cat relaxed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. A long sigh came out of my mouth.

I was very angry at Ho Cheon-an’s behavior, but I felt like I was with him because he was like Ho Cheon-an.

Since he is such a good person, he said that he would become a colleague and work hard together until he reached Hwagyeong, and that he would teach him the joy of being together.

In a frustrating situation where he couldn’t do anything, the black cat opened the window wide to get some fresh air. Now, a fairly cold wind blew past the black cat, and a noise from outside came in.

The black cat gazed at the scenery outside. It was a manifestation of the urge to escape from the current situation.

Then the black cat’s gaze stopped at a certain place.

“Sleep! Spend money and eat money! If you get it right, it’s double! You can drink it from any glass! Opportunity doesn’t come every day!”

Outside the window, in the driveway of an alley, I caught a glimpse of a person engaging in a wild game and onlookers surrounding the wild person and watching.

“Gambling.”

“Hmm?”

Ho Cheon-an flinched at the black cat’s muttering. Black Cat thought while looking at Hocheonan. I’ve seen a lot of sleight-of-hand tricks, but… have I ever seen the real Ho Cheon-an sitting at a gambling table?

Ho Cheon-an had been practicing gambling for longer than he had been learning martial arts.

“…Maybe that’s why I don’t know.”

I saw a lot of Ho Cheon-an as a warrior. But what about Ho Cheon-an as a gambler? I’ve seen a lot of people use dexterity to deceive people, but can I say that I’ve seen the true nature of a gambler just because I’ve seen that much?

I heard a rumor that when Yeo Il-ye was being chased, there was a big fight going on at Yeongyangru. And even when he robbed Yoo Ji-gyeong of Seongnakru, he only saw the results. I also only heard that the trap set by the imperial family was destroyed at Cheonsangru.

The black cat thought.

You can boast that you know what Hocheonan looks like as an unmanned person, but can you really boast that you know Hocheonan as a gambler?

“Hyeok Kirin Daehyeop. Have you ever seen Senior Ho gamble for real?”

Hyukkirin shook his head. All of Hocheonan’s gambling techniques that Hyeok Kirin saw were merely applications for magic.

“Hmm.”

Have you never seen Hyeok Kirin too?

Black Cat wanted to see the gambler Ho Cheon-an.

Somehow, seeing Ho Cheon-an as a gambler felt like a breakthrough for Black Cat.

With my confused mind, I couldn’t come to a conclusion as to whether it was the intuition unique to someone who handles information or a struggle to get out of the current situation… but it was something that was worthless. Anyway, wouldn’t it be fun to go sightseeing in Luoyang in its current state? It would be a better choice than going back to the guesthouse and staying in silence.

“Let’s go.”

“Uh, hmm…where do you mean?”

Ho Cheon-an instinctively felt a sense of danger and tried to withdraw his foot, but the black cat firmly grabbed the back of the neck.

“Gambling hall.”

The black cat said with a cold smile.

“Let’s show Hocheonan, the god of gambling, his real skills.”