GMLS Ch 54

In front of me, a pile of documents I had yet to finish reading was stacked high. I was utterly sick of it. Muryun must have been looking at things like this every day since he ascended the throne. The thought made my heart ache.

I recalled him lying on my lap with his eyes closed. His magnificent presence was the same, yet how could he have looked so fragile? Like the wings of a dragonfly, about to crumble.

I placed the back of my hand over my eyes and pressed my lips into a firm line.

Even though I tried not to, I couldn’t help but think about my own usefulness. A guard is one who protects. But the one who was the emperor’s Captain of the Guard was not properly protecting any part of him.

So what should I do now?

Yeo Yullyeong’s words, that I needed to become someone who could protect a castle or two with a single word to be able to save Muryun, pierced me to the bone. My promise to become such a person was sincere. I truly believed I could.

But now, I couldn’t see the path. It wasn’t a feeling of vastness. It was darkness. The path just one step ahead was buried in pitch-black darkness. My feet, stopped before it, could not move forward. Even if I were to push through this darkness and advance, what awaited me at the end was a cliff.

As I was steeped in gloom, someone who had concealed their presence landed and sat outside the window. I opened my closed eyes coolly. A night visitor?

My office was on the fourth floor of Cheongungwan. To come to a place teeming with first-rate guards. He was an arrogant and insolent fellow.

For a moment, I wondered if it was that crazy bastard, Tanakhan, but I soon shook my head. There were traces of swordsmanship training, but his skill level wasn’t that high. At best, he was at the level of a first-rate warrior. Then who was it? Was it really a night visitor?

I placed one hand on the hilt of my sword and stood by the window. As if waiting, the latticed window opened, and someone flew inside.

“Your Majesty?”

I quickly sheathed the half-drawn sword. With a leaf stuck in his hair and dressed in plain clothes for a clandestine outing, he smiled brightly and said.

“Let’s go.”

“Pardon?”

“If we don’t hurry, Monghyul will come.”

At those words, I quickly changed my clothes. Once I was dressed in the usual plain clothes, Muryun grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

“Your Majestyyyyy!” From a distance, Monghyul’s desperate cry could be heard faintly. Both Muryun and I pretended not to hear. When I asked where we were going, he answered as if I was asking something obvious.

“The night market.”

“…With so much work to do, is it alright to go?”

“They said tonight is the last night.”

“What are you dawdling for? Let’s go quickly.”

Following behind me as I took the lead, Muryun laughed out loud.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

Was it because of the whirlwind of work? It felt like it had been a very long time since I had gone out in disguise. I hadn’t even known the night market was open.

“Ah.”

As we exited the dark alley, the whole street was filled with bright lanterns. It was unmistakably a festival.

“It’s the night market.”

Ah, I see.

Only after hearing that did I notice the other differences. There were no colorful fabrics or boisterous crowds. But the unique atmosphere was the same. They were trying to fill the void of the Suryeon Festival, which had been briefly canceled due to the national mourning, in this way.

The people were cautious. The stalls were mostly food-oriented rather than games. Children still ran and played, but they were often reprimanded by the adults. Still, there was laughter. There was warmth too.

“Is this your first time at a night market?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Hmm. I see.”

Muryun suddenly seemed to be in a good mood.

He took my hand and led me. We squeezed through the crowd and began to walk down the long street where the night market was formed. In the capital city where darkness had fallen, only this street shone brightly. It was as if a giant golden dragon had descended to the earth.

Muryun bought me some yakgwa when he saw it as we passed. He didn’t forget yeot and danggwa either. But when he was buying the danggwa, the merchant looked back and forth between Muryun and me and then grinned.

“You two are lovers, aren’t you? Right?”

I couldn’t just marvel at the merchant’s sharp eye. Unlike me, who was appalled and blushing, Muryun smiled contentedly and answered coolly.

“That’s right.”

Then he gave me a look of expectation.

“Ye… yes, we are.”

My voice was barely a whisper. But Muryun must have heard it clearly. And just as I thought. He smiled with satisfaction. And I saw it. The copper coin being passed into the merchant’s hand changing into a silver one.

“Thank you, my lords!”

Have a beautiful love! It was as if I could hear the unspoken words.

My face was burning, so I quickened my pace. Muryun held the danggwa he had received to my lips. Perhaps because it was freshly made, there was sugar crystallized on the end. I stuck my tongue out first.

Lick.

I licked it gently and then bit the end with my lips.

Slurp.

Saliva had pooled, so I sucked it in first, but the sound was louder than I expected. Will he think it’s crude and be put off? I glanced over and saw his face had hardened. I quickly bit off a piece from the end. A sweet taste filled my mouth.

I’ll hold it and eat it myself now. I reached out my hand to ask for it, but Muryun moved the danggwa back, avoiding my hand.

“Eat it like this. Won’t your hands get sticky?”

Then what about your hand? I only asked with my eyes.

“My hand is already sticky, so it’s fine. I can just wash it later.”

Then isn’t it the same either way? I can just wash mine too.

I tilted my head, but as the danggwa was held to my lips again, I quickly opened my mouth. I put the second piece of danggwa fully in my mouth. Since it was pressed from the inside, my cheek bulged out a little. The moist sound of it being soaked in saliva was a bonus.

Muryun let out a groan.

“I’ll die waiting.”

Waiting for what? But for some reason, I had a feeling and didn’t ask.

As I was about to finish the danggwa, Muryun suddenly grabbed my wrist and led me into a secluded alley. The last piece of danggwa I hadn’t managed to eat fell to the ground.

“As you can see, with one of my hands like this, it’s quite inconvenient.”

“Pardon?”

“So, will you do it?”

“Pardon?”

“The kiss.”

Despite my repeated questions, he spoke very plainly, without any irritation. I, on the other hand, was so flustered my face was burning, and I didn’t know what to do. It was incomparable to when I had heard the danggwa seller’s words.

“Hm? Come on.”

He’s pleading. He’s pleading. That Muryun, like a child. The man who was bigger than me was subtly urging me with a look of desire on his face.

I can’t win. The moment I thought that, I found myself cupping his cheeks with both hands. My slightly raised head met his, which was lowered. He was about to grab my hair with his sticky hand but hesitated just before.

“Heut.”

My tongue became fiercer. Muryun’s hand ended up bracing against the wall next to my face. Crack. The wooden wall broke under his grip.

“My, my. Are your lips going to disappear?”

“Are you going to eat him up?”

There was none of the usual lingering atmosphere. From the deeper part of the alley, where even the light didn’t reach well, a group of ruffians slouched out.

“……”

“……”

This, surely not. No, no matter what, surely not.

As I thought, surely not, surely not, I looked at my and Muryun’s attire again. It was plain clothing to avoid being noticed. Without any hint of luxury, we looked like the sons of a well-to-do merchant family.

“It’s okay. We don’t have any prejudice against sodomy. We’re not interested either.”

“But we are interested in this.”

The man who said ‘this’ made a circle with his thumb and forefinger. I silently untied the sword at my waist. Holding the sword in its scabbard, I said to Muryun.

“Please wait a moment.”

“No. There’s no need.”

Muryun tilted his chin. And then, from all around, black shadows rained down. They were the Milyeonggun.

“Wh-what!”

“Shut your filthy mouth.”

A sinister voice, like scraping metal, rumbled low. The ruffians all shut their mouths at once. The Milyeonggun subdued them with a single word. The legs of the once-cocky men were now trembling. If left a little longer, it looked like they would piss themselves.

‘Is that the captain of the Milyeonggun?’

Unlike Heukwol or Wi Junghyuk, he hid among the Milyeonggun and did not reveal himself. If you gathered them all together, you couldn’t tell who was who.

As I craned my neck out of curiosity, Muryun wrapped his arm around my waist. When I turned my head, I saw a Milyeonggun wiping his other hand with a wet cloth. It was the hand that had been holding the danggwa.

“Let’s go now.”

Even as I was led out of the alley by Muryun, my head kept turning back.

It was the first time I had seen him. The first time I had heard his voice. Unlike the Imperial Guard, the Milyeonggun, who protected the emperor from the shadows, revealed almost nothing. They wore masks that barely showed their eyes and were said to live in different guises scattered throughout the imperial palace when off-duty. Some as eunuchs, some as stable hands.

What did the captain of such a secretive Milyeonggun look like in his daily life?

“They will take care of it, so you just focus on me.”

“Yes. Your Majesty.”

“Again, again. I thought I had finally broken that habit. I should go back right now and put an end to those bastards.”

“Mu, Muryun-nim.”

I called him Muryun so easily in my head. It was natural even when I called him that in front of Yeo Yullyeong. Why was it so difficult to say it out loud in front of him? As I spoke in a barely audible voice, he smiled brightly.

After that, we strolled through the night market without any further trouble. I doubted Yeo Yullyeong would accept it, but I bought a folding fan, a portable whetstone for Heukwol, and, thinking it would be a shame to leave them out, I placed a bulk order for the Ammukdan as well. I paid for them after arranging for them to be sent to Shangshuling’s mansion.

After some desirable consumption, we continued walking and I found a donggot that caught my eye. Its length was that of a donggot, but its appearance was closer to a hairpin, and I really liked the small magnolia flower blooming at the end.

“Do you like that?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will buy it for you. Shopkeeper.”

“No, you don’t have to! I must buy it!”

I hurriedly stopped him and quickly paid for it. The reason I liked that donggot was that it reminded me of Muryun wearing it.

The owner, pleased that I wanted to buy it without even asking the price, gave me a silk pouch as a bonus to put the donggot in. The price of the pouch was probably included in what I paid anyway, but I still felt good. My plan was to wait just a little, just long enough for Muryun to forget about this donggot, and then give it to him.