The gate in the fortress wall stood wide open.
There were no guards on it. No barricades, no watchtowers manned with archers, no one checking who came in or out. Just two tall wooden doors, thrown back against the ancient stone, and a wide stone road running through the archway into the heart of the old fortress beyond.
Seo-ah walked through it without slowing down. The others followed.
Inside the walls, it was even more beautiful than outside. The old stone paths had been swept so clean they shone. The traditional buildings that had stood inside Hwaseong for centuries, with their curved tiled roofs and painted wooden beams, had been carefully restored. New gardens filled every open space, rows of vegetables and flowers and young fruit trees. A stream ran along one side of the main path, its water clear enough to see the stones on the bottom.
And everywhere, there were people.
