The reins of the fire horse
Topdori's Night
Sons of the Dragon King

Author's Note

“The earth will come.

To turn the stained and decaying Venus for the first time,
“It will fly high!”

In "Chasing Flames," Seol Ja-eun, who has been appointed as the ambassador of the butler department, is depicted as she begins to solve cases in earnest.
Seol Ja-eun searches for what she must bear in order to carry out the king's order to bear what must be bearded.
Ja-eun doesn't yet know what to cut with the white eagle sword she was given, but the king simply tells her, "You will know what to cut the moment you see it."
And, as he said, when the incident actually happened, Jae-eun immediately realized what she had to bear.


The first incident that Seol Ja-eun encounters in Volume 2 is “The Reins of the Fire Horse.”
One night, a fire erupts in a place on Venus, and four bodies, including two children, are found in a house that has been reduced to ashes after burning all night.
As Jae-eun had predicted, something was off, and soon a second fire broke out, and this time six bodies were discovered.
After that incident, rumors begin to circulate that the fire spirit Jigwi will return to purify Venus. But does Jigwi truly exist? Seol Ja-eun and Mok In-gon struggle to uncover the truth.

In the second incident, "The Night of the Top Spinning," a stone wrapped in cloth suddenly flies at Seol Do-eun, who was spinning the top at Heungryunsa Temple to make a wish.
The message written on the cloth was “I am bringing the ambassador.”
When San-ah, who happened to be with him, quickly returns home, Ja-eun is nowhere to be found, and the two of them and Mok In-gon put their heads together to get Seol Ja-eun back.
However, Do-eun, who has complied with the hostage takers' demands several times, finds a strange sense of discomfort in their demands.

The final story, "The Sons of the Dragon King," begins with reports of those who, by order of the king, are leaving for the five small capitals, Osogyeong.
A group of bandits appeared and stole their belongings.
However, Seol Ja-eun notes that their report does not state what was extorted.
Seol Ja-eun, who had decided to visit each of the small shrines, heard the story of her daughter being taken away from her by Mr. Choi of Saryangbu, who she met at the first shrine she arrived at, in a voice full of shame.
Those wearing dragon-shaped masks told the Choi family to choose between giving up all their possessions or their youngest daughter.
Seol Ja-eun and her group are astonished by the bandits' strange behavior.


In this way, Seol Ja-eun faces mysterious incidents, and what helps her solve them is not only her extraordinary brain and cool-headed gaze, but above all, her most important ability is her thoughtful mind.
Seol Ja-eun faces injustice and sometimes makes cold-blooded decisions, but she never loses her thoughtfulness.
Volume 2 contains the story of Seol Ja-eun growing up, sharing her most dangerous secrets with those she trusted, and being betrayed by those she wanted to trust.
Ja-eun, who only cuts down those with malicious intent, gains an unexpected reputation for being ruthless, and Mok In-gon, who always has a smiling face, gets involved in dangerous tasks to help Ja-eun, gradually becoming a dark shadow over Ja-eun.
Jaeun is deeply troubled by the question of whether she can always take the right path to get to the right place, but decides to believe that it is possible and takes steps forward.
“There were days when I started to believe it when I said it” (p. 162).

Although Ja-eun's number of people increased, she was alone when she fell asleep.
I had a recurring dream of standing in front of Jo Won-jeon, holding a sword engraved with an eagle.
These were unusual dreams that even felt tactile.
The knife felt cool and then hot in Jaeun's hand, like a feather and then heavy.
Even after dreams filled with screams, Ja-eun always opened her eyes quietly. _「The Reins of the Fire Horse」, p. 162

Another unique female character created by Jeong Se-rang, Seol Ja-eun

Seol Ja-eun can be said to be another unique female character created by Jeong Se-rang, following Shim Si-seon from “From the Gaze” and Ahn Eun-young from “The School Nurse Files.”
Although the word detective did not exist in the 7th century, the true ability of Seol Ja-eun, who could be called a Silla detective, is not an outstanding deductive ability to see through the structure of events, but rather the ability to deeply understand the inner self of a person.
The decisive difference between Seol Ja-eun and other detectives we are familiar with is her warm heart.
Besides Seol Ja-eun, this story is full of fascinating characters.
Mok In-gon, a craftsman from the fallen Baekje kingdom who always has a bright smile on his face but can make anything he asks of him; Seol Ho-eun, who has a brilliant mind but a sense of ethics that seems to be broken in one way; Seol Do-eun, who is good at both science and technology and has a perfect sense of balance; San-ah, who is more beautiful and gorgeous than anyone else but has a delicate yet strong heart; and the king, who has a charisma so strong that it makes anyone who sees him tremble in fear.
Watching these strong-willed characters mingle and lead the story through the whirlwind of events is another joy of reading the 'Seol Ja-eun series.'


Geumseong, the splendid capital of the millennial kingdom of Unified Silla,
A mystery drama set in a golden city unlike any other in the world.

Jeong Se-rang, who majored in history education in college, has long expressed a desire to write a novel set in the past.
The author revealed that he first conceived the idea of ​​a mystery novel set in the Unified Silla period and went on a research trip to Gyeongju in 2016.
The first episode of 『Seol Ja-eun Returns to Venus』 and the introduction to the 'Seol Ja-eun Series', "Let's Go to Venus", was published in the mystery novel magazine 『Mysteria』 in 2018, so it took at least 7 years for the first volume of 『Seol Ja-eun Returns to Venus』 to be completed.
After several field trips to Gyeongju in search of traces of Venus, the setting of the work, and years of research, I was finally able to publish the first volume of the series.
The author's imagination was added here, and people who lived in the distant past came to life and move vividly before us.
In her “Author’s Note,” Jeong Se-rang wrote that when she wanted to write a mystery novel set in the past, it was not difficult to set the time period as the Unified Silla period, and that she wanted to look to it as a mirror for an era that contained “the seeds of collapse hidden within abundance” and “was heading towards prosperity only to begin to collapse at some point” (Author’s Note).
As the saying goes, a time of peace yet potential chaos would be the perfect setting for mysterious events to unfold.


The magic of Jeong Se-rang lies in the fact that she never loses her cheerfulness even in mystery novels where murders occur.
Of course, there are tricks that provide intellectual pleasure, but Jeong Se-rang focuses more on the stories between people than anything else.
The story is set in the late 680s, 1300 years in the past, but it is a story about people who are not much different from us living in the present day.
It will be an enjoyable reading experience to observe the events of that era while reflecting on our present, as if we were traveling through time.


The 'Seol Ja-eun Series' is planned to consist of at least three volumes, and following the publication of the second volume, 'Seol Ja-eun, Chasing Flames', the third volume, 'Seol Ja-eun, Riding a Tiger', is scheduled to be published.
The author has expressed his ambitious plans and hopes for the series to have more than ten volumes.
We hope you will join us in watching the birth of a new series that will continue for a long time to come.


“I hope that those who pick up this book will feel a sense of time travel, even if only for a moment.
I wanted to share the unfamiliar pleasure of being transported to another time and place.
“If we could all hum along to the song that everyone knew how to sing but now has no words left, if our song today would not be forgotten even a thousand years from now, I would have nothing more to wish for.” - “The Gaps Where Stories Happened - Until the Birth of the ‘Seol Ja-eun Series’”, from 『Jeong Se-rang Writer’s Note』

Character introduction

Seol Ja-eun
“Did I get a name or was it taken away?”

Originally, she was the sixth of eleven siblings, Seol Mi-eun.
When the fifth eldest daughter, Seol Ja-eun, who was one year older than her, died of a sudden illness before going to study abroad in the Tang Dynasty, the third eldest daughter, Seol Ho-eun, became the eldest daughter through a scheme.
It was because they had similar faces and were both smart, so there was no time to think about it for long.
She chose to become Seol Ja-eun because she didn't want to live locked up at home, but the days that followed were not smooth, and she seemed to have nearly died several times.
I hadn't planned on studying abroad for that long, but I ended up being isolated during the Tang-Silla War when diplomatic missions between the two countries were not traveling together.
He barely managed to survive by selling everything he had and taking work from his master and colleagues.
Exhausted by loneliness and hunger, he returned to Silla carrying boxes of books.
On the way back, the guest who got stuck was Baekje man Mok In-gon.
Although his goal is to find his true place on Venus, he repeatedly encounters unpleasant events.

Mok In-gon
“Use me more and use me more.
“So that I can pay for what I eat and drink in this house.”

A craftsman from Baekje who claims to have the skill to build towers, but this has not yet been confirmed.
I met Seol Ja-eun on a ship crossing the great ocean.
Although she is five or six years older than Seol Ja-eun, we decided to become close friends.
When we see something with excellent craftsmanship, we tend to immediately claim that it is from Baekje.
Although Baekje has disappeared, the preference for craftsmen from Baekje still remains, and when in a hurry, Seol Ja-eun also puts forward Mok In-gon in that way.
With an accurate eye and quick hands, there is nothing he cannot create or fix.
In other words, he is better than everyone else, but he admits that Seol Ja-eun is better at seeing through things between people.
He could become a guest of a greater family because he finds Seol Ja-eun's personality amusing, but he is staying.

Seol Ho-eun
“When we received the real sword, you held a wooden sword and said that if you did not use it, Silla would lose.
Well, I'll give you a chance to be used.
What are you going to do now?”

He was born third, but became the eldest when his two older brothers died in battle.
The problem is that Ho-eun is somewhat intelligent, but he is said to be a person with a twisted mind.
It was also Ho-eun's strange choice to disguise Mi-eun as Jae-eun because he felt it was a waste to pay the price already paid.
Even his sisters, Ja-eun and Do-eun, always accept Ho-eun's words and actions with considerable caution.
In this precarious situation, there is a desire to use Jae-eun to somehow survive and continue on.
Rumors of two broken engagements spread and he became an enemy of the women of Seorabeol.
In-gon is displeased with Ja-eun being attached to him.

Seol Do-eun
“If you live the same way every day, you won’t be able to remember anything, even if you look back on a season or a year.
Anyway, this year is full of memorable things.”

The younger sister who knows Ja-eun's circumstances in detail.
We welcome Ja-eun's return.
He is well-versed in industry and academia and is in charge of managing the household.
There can be no object that is carried without Do-eun knowing.
When discussing the work that Jaeun is in charge of, she is a refreshing person who immediately gets to the point without needing to explain at length.
Ja-eun is always worried that she will be entangled or taken advantage of by the self-willed Ho-eun.
Do-eun envies the freedom that Ja-eun has gained with difficulty.

San-a
“I am not as weak as you worry.”

A true-bone woman who was the lover of the deceased Ja-eun.
Jaeun, who did not know the inside story, ended up selling the small Buddhist statue that San-ah had given her during her difficult times.
He still has fond memories and affection for the deceased Ja-eun, and highly values ​​her intelligence, so he asks her to help him resolve issues that need to be handled secretly.
When Ja-eun was in Jang-an, she married Jin O-ryong, the son of Sangdaedeung.
Ja-eun has always felt affection for San-ah, but due to complicated circumstances, she has to keep her distance.

king
“Cut what I tell you to cut.
And cut what you must cut.
“Come here every two weeks and tell me what you have harvested.”

Newspaper King.
However, the descriptions in this story are fictional.
There are records showing that immediately after ascending to the throne, he suppressed rebellions and initiated several changes that could be said to have laid a new foundation for the country.
Following in the footsteps of King Munmu, who achieved unification, with his strength and decisiveness, wasn't he as much an object of fear as admiration? From the moment he first laid eyes on the king, Ja-eun felt a sense of alienation and fear, but contrary to his intentions, he found himself used in a unique way by the king.