Chapter 19: The Fire Chamber

She walked down the stairs ahead of me, and I almost forgot how to use my legs.

That travel cloak was off now, folded over one arm. Underneath she was wearing a fitted blue sword-training outfit, the kind the capital academy gives its top disciples. Tight at the waist. Tight at the hips. Very, very tight everywhere below that.

Every step down the stairs, it moved. Round. Perfect. Bouncing just a little.

God.

As good as Yeon-hee’s. But tighter. Like the fabric was one deep breath away from giving up.

I had to grab the railing so my hand wouldn’t do something stupid.

And the system?

Nothing. Not a ping. Not a flicker. Totally silent.

Apparently my dick and my system have very different taste in women.

Tae-man was waiting at the bottom of the steps with Gi-chul. Both of them saw her and stopped breathing at the same time.

"Bro," Tae-man whispered when I passed him. "BRO. How do you keep DOING this?"

Gi-chul just stared at her and whispered, "Someone needs to stop him."

I didn’t look back. I just raised one hand.

"Skill issue, boys."

I showed her the academy. The training yards. The library. The mess hall, where the rice was so bad it should be illegal. The sword racks. The scroll pavilion.

She asked a lot of questions. Smart ones. And every single time I answered, she’d look at me sideways with this tiny smile, like she was holding a different question back.

Finally, on the walkway behind the scroll pavilion, she asked it.

"So. The headmistress."

I almost tripped.

"What about her?"

"Her lip paint is very specific." Seo-ah tilted her head. "Imported. Plum. My mother wears the same one to court." She tapped the corner of her own mouth. "You still have a little. Right there."

I scrubbed my mouth with my sleeve.

She laughed. Then she stopped laughing and looked at me with those big serious eyes.

"Is that normal here? In Hangju? Students and... the headmistress?"

"No."

"Then why you?"

I didn’t have an answer. I couldn’t exactly say there’s a voice in my head that makes milfs lose their minds.

"I’m charming," I tried.

She looked at me. Up. Down. Slowly.

"Mm," she said. "You’re something."

Then she walked off ahead of me, and I swear she put a little extra into it.

Behind the scroll pavilion there was a small round stone building with no windows. Just a heavy iron door covered in carved characters, and a big bronze plate set into the wall beside it with a circle of formation runes.

Seo-ah stopped in front of it. Her eyes lit up.

"Is this a fire chamber?"

"A what?"

"A fire-qi meditation chamber! We have three of them at the main academy. They heat up from the inside to force your qi to circulate faster." She stepped closer to the bronze plate. "I didn’t know a branch academy had one."

"I don’t think we’re supposed to—"

She touched the formation.

Just one finger. Just curious.

The runes lit up. Red. One after another, all the way around the circle.

The iron door swung open on its own.

"Oh," she said. "It’s keyed to—"

And then a blast of air sucked us both forward.

I grabbed for the door frame. Missed. We stumbled through, she landed on top of me on a stone floor, and the iron door slammed shut behind us with a sound like a temple bell.

Clunk.

The runes on the inside of the door glowed red. Then they started counting down. One character going dark at a time.

Seo-ah scrambled up and pushed on the door. Then pulled. Then kicked it.

Nothing.

"It’s sealed," she said. "Formation lock. It opens when the session’s over."

"How long is a session?"

She looked at the glowing characters. Counted them.

"...One hour."

One hour.

In a stone room the size of a closet.

With her.

The chamber was round. Maybe two arm-spans across. A low stone bench curving around the wall. A small brass vent in the floor. Dim red light from the runes.

And from the vent, very slowly, a warm breath of air came up.

Then another. Warmer.

"It’s starting," she said.

Ten minutes in, it was hot.

Twenty minutes in, it was really hot.

We were sitting on the curved stone bench, knees almost touching, because there was literally nowhere else to put them. Sweat was running down my back. My robe was sticking to me. I’d already pulled it open at the chest. I didn’t even care.

Seo-ah was trying to be dignified about it. Back straight. Hands on her knees. Breathing slow, the way they teach you.

It wasn’t working.

Her face was flushed pink. Her hair was sticking to her neck. A drop of sweat was rolling slowly down her throat, down over her collarbone, disappearing into the collar of that tight blue outfit.

I watched it the whole way down.

She caught me watching.

She didn’t say anything. She just reached up and unfastened the top two clasps of her collar. Then the third.

"It’s hot," she said. Very matter-of-fact.

"Yeah."

"Don’t stare."

"I’m not staring."

"You’re staring."

"It’s a very small room."

She laughed. It came out breathless, because of the heat.

Then she undid the fourth clasp.

The outfit fell open to her stomach. Underneath was a thin white binding wrapped around her chest, the kind sword-girls wear so nothing bounces during forms. It was soaked through. Almost see-through. Clinging to curves that were way bigger than the binding wanted them to be.

God.

I looked at the ceiling. The ceiling was very interesting. Lots of stones.

"You’re doing it again," she said.

"I’m looking at the ceiling!"

"With your whole face red."

"It’s a FIRE CHAMBER."

She laughed again. Then she shifted on the bench, and her knee slid against mine, and neither of us moved it.

Thirty minutes.

The air was so thick I could barely breathe. The braid in my belly was spinning like crazy, all four yins moving faster and faster because of the fire qi. It felt like being cooked from the inside. In a good way. Mostly.

Seo-ah’s eyes were half closed. Her lips were parted. She was breathing in short little puffs.

"Can I ask you something?" she said.

"Sure."

"The physician at your inn. The blonde with the sword. The widow. The headmistress." She counted on her fingers. "Is it true? All of them?"

I stared at her. "How do you even—"

"I was in town for one night before I came here. The inn I stayed at had very chatty laundry women."

Of course. The laundry women. They’re the real Murim Alliance.

I thought about lying.

Then I didn’t.

"...Yeah. Mostly."

She was quiet for a long moment.

Then she turned her head and looked at me. Close. Her face was maybe a hand’s width from mine. I could feel the heat coming off her skin.

"I’ve never even kissed anyone," she said quietly.

Oh.

"The main academy. My father. Sword practice every day since I was six. Ministry dinners." She swallowed. "Every man who ever looked at me was looking at my father’s position. Not me." She paused. "You’re the first one who looked at me like... that."

"Like what?"

"Like you looked at that drop of sweat."

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

There was no system. No ping. No number. No oil being poured on any spark.

Just her. Just me. In a fire chamber.

She leaned in.

Slowly. Like she was scared I’d move away.

I didn’t move away.

Her nose touched mine. Her breath was hot on my lips. Her hand came up, trembling, and rested flat on my bare chest, right over my heart.

It was going crazy. She could feel it.

"Mu-jin," she whispered.

I leaned in the last little bit.

And the door went clunk.

We both jumped so hard we nearly fell off the bench.

The runes had all gone dark. The session was over. The iron door swung open, and cool air came rushing in like a slap.

And standing in the doorway, arms crossed, ponytail high, black sash tight, one eyebrow raised so high it almost touched her hairline—

Instructor Cha.

She looked at Seo-ah. Flushed, sweating, her uniform open to the stomach.

She looked at me. Robe open, red as a boiled crab, sitting very, very close.

She looked at the dead formation runes.

"This chamber," she said, "is keyed to instructors and capital disciples. Only." Her eyes flicked to Seo-ah. "Yun Seo-ah, I presume."

Seo-ah shot up and bowed so fast her hair whipped. "Y-yes, Instructor!"

"Your father’s letter said you were serious and disciplined." Cha’s eyes went back to me. Cold. Very cold. "Go to your dormitory. Now."

Seo-ah grabbed her cloak and fled. At the door, she glanced back at me. Just once.

Her lips were still parted.

Then she was gone.

Cha stepped into the chamber. The door swung closed behind her. Not sealed this time. Just closed.

She stood there in the warm red dark, looking down at me.

"The headmistress," she said quietly, "assigned you to guide the Ministry’s daughter. I heard. Everybody heard." She took one step closer. "And the headmistress also asked you to come back in seven days. Alone. After dark."

"...How do you know that?"

"Because she told me." Cha’s dark red lips curled into a smile that was not nice at all. "She came to my office this afternoon specifically to tell me."

Oh no.

"Our lesson," Cha said, "is in two evenings."

She bent down. Put her hands on my knees. Leaned in close, so close her ponytail swung down and brushed my sweaty chest.

"Don’t be late," she whispered. "I’ve decided I’m not waiting for ’show me.’"

She straightened up and walked out.

I sat alone in the fire chamber for a long time.

Somewhere out there, two of the most dangerous women in Hangju were fighting over me. And a twenty-year-old swordswoman who’d never been kissed had almost kissed me.

And the Black Boar still wanted my legs.

I put my head in my hands.

Then I started laughing.

In my last life, the most exciting thing that ever happened to me was a buffering wheel.