GMLS Ch 29

“How many generations of emperors was it. He was an emperor from so long ago that I don’t remember well, but anyway, a certain emperor built a shrine here and carved a piece of blue jadeite, calling it The Sky Monument. Of course, that doesn’t mean the story of The Sky Monument is fake. The real one is submerged at the bottom of the Jumun River.”

“The Jumun River?”

“Ah, come to think of it, I believe it’s called the Wigeum (衛錦) River now.”

Yeo Yullyeong, saying this, was more serious than ever. Looking at the content alone, it was undoubtedly nonsense, but I couldn’t laugh it off casually.

“The Wigeum River, you mean the one in the southeastern Wigeum region? The one with the saying that if two cross, one returns, but if one crosses, two return.”

“Yes. That’s the river.”

I hesitated slightly before asking.

“How do you know the real The Sky Monument is there.”

“I think I’ve told you often. I hold all the affairs of the world in the palm of my hand.”

Now, I couldn’t just dismiss those words either. In the end, The 5th Prince, whom he had backed, had become emperor and returned to the palace. By now, he must have worn the imperial crown.

“There is something I wish to ask.”

Yeo Yullyeong turned his body. He looked down at me for a moment, then beckoned with his finger. As I stepped up the stairs as summoned, he said, ‘What is it.’

“It’s about the poison from the south that the 3rd Prince created. How long did you say the longest survivor lasted.”

“Three months.”

Yeo Yullyeong added in an unconcerned tone.

“He was a first-rate warrior. Even if you last longer than him, you will not see the first snow of this year.”

So you’d best get a good look at it here. His tone was casual, but the content was not.

“……Did you know?”

“I suspected it when I heard you were hit by an arrow. I became certain just now from your question. Did you stick a hairpin into the wound or something?”

He was truly a ghost. I nodded my head heavily.

“No need to make that face. Are you the one dying, or am I? You didn’t intend to hide it anyway, so wasn’t that why you asked me such a question?”

He was right. I had given up on deceiving Yeo Yullyeong from the start. Still, I hadn’t expected this kind of reaction. I would have felt better if he had clicked his tongue and scolded me instead. Though he appeared calm, he was angrier now than ever before.

“The antidote, is there really none.”

“There is none.”

For Yeo Yullyeong to say it like that meant there truly was none. It also meant that the prospect of finding one in the future was remote.

It was understandable that he was angry. After all the effort of feeding, clothing, and raising me, my fate was to die before he could even make use of me. I was too ashamed to look at him, and my head drooped.

Yeo Yullyeong walked around the monument and stood on the opposite side. In front was a cliff. The low iron fence surrounding the monument was more for decoration. A chill ran down my spine, and I stood close beside it.

When one climbed to the peak of Mount Cheontae, the sheer mountain face beyond was like a cliff. And such cliffs continued on both sides. Seen from above, it was a view that could look like a coastline of white waves and sandy beaches. Considering the height, it also resembled a massive fortress wall.

In any case, thanks to that, one could look down clearly upon the frozen lands of the north from here.

“I told you to become someone who could save a castle or two with your words, but you couldn’t wait and took an arrow with your own body.”

“I couldn’t help it. The Shangshuling knows that better than anyone.”

“You should have at least used Heukwol as a shield.”

“There are things one can say in this world, and things one must never say. What the Shangshuling just said is, without a doubt, the latter.”

“I’m saying it because I’m angry and upset.”

“Even so, it is the same.”

“Even when my only son is destined to die before the year is out?”

Down below the mountain, hydrangeas and water lilies had already bloomed. Soon, the trumpet creepers would bloom as well. In contrast, a biting, cold wind whipped around this place. My heart was like this place. Though he probably didn’t show it, Yeo Yullyeong’s must be as well.

“Far more than you think, I cherished you.”

“I know.”

“No. You do not know.”

The hand behind his back gripped the folding fan so tightly it seemed it would shatter.

“You do not know.”

There was something I wanted to say, but I was unable to. Instead, other words surged up my throat. Didn’t you say you had something to receive from me. Didn’t you raise me for a purpose. But then why do you have such an expression.

A white silence descended between him and me.

The words I wanted to say still lingered in my heart. While it wasn’t the right time to say them, I also felt that perhaps this was the very moment I ought to say them.

“Allow me to ask one more thing.”

“What is it.”

“There is something I have always found strange but never dared to voice.”

“It doesn’t matter. There is no one but you and I around here anyway. No imperial guards, no Milyeong troops, no Ammukdan.”

I knew. Nothing was caught in my senses. Even so, my lips wouldn’t part. Because the words I was about to say were that frightening.

“Were the deaths of the emperor and the crown prince truly a coincidence?”

Yeo Yullyeong did not say, ‘Why would you ask me that?’ Instead, he turned his head from gazing at the northern lands and looked at me.

“The crown prince’s death is understandable. The 2nd and 3rd Princes must have had to kill the crown prince somehow before the emperor died.”

“……”

“If the crown prince had been alive when the ailing emperor suddenly died, he would have ascended the throne before the 2nd and 3rd Princes could do anything. Defeating the crown prince, who had the strongest justification and power base, through conventional means was already impossible at that point.”

Yeo Yullyeong was still silent. Instead, he cast a quiet gaze as if telling me to continue.

“For them, the ‘test’ was also a secondary plan. No, it was likely something they wanted to avoid. The uncertain factors are large, they can’t properly utilize what they have, and in any case, they have to compete under similar conditions.”

Yeo Yullyeong nodded his head as if telling me to go on.

“Those two were probably confident that if the position of heir became vacant, they could somehow become emperor through covert political struggles. So they focused on assassinating the crown prince. It’s even possible the two of them cooperated in the process.”

“An alliance of convenience between enemies for a common goal?”

“Yes. If so, it’s understandable how that cautious and formidable crown prince was assassinated.”

The crown prince, who coughed up blood while hunting and was ultimately stabbed to death. I said it as if it were a possibility, but inwardly, I was certain.

“But here, something unexpected happened for those two. By sheer ‘coincidence’, the emperor died less than a quarter of an hour after the crown prince was assassinated.”

An incident that would be considered strange even if it happened in a commoner’s house occurred in the imperial palace. Nevertheless, people dismissed it as a coincidence. A part of it was because he had always been frail, but also because no abnormalities were found in the emperor.

Moreover, the suspicions that flickered in the palace and among the common people after that died down with mysterious speed.

A person who could manipulate information like that and assassinate the emperor without leaving a single trace. As far as I knew, there was only one such person in the entire Geum Empire.

“What did you do to the emperor, Shangshuling.”

Yeo Yullyeong, who had been expressionless the whole time, chuckled.

“Call me father, and I’ll answer you.”

“Father.”

Yeo Yullyeong’s eyes widened. For a rare moment, his inner thoughts were clearly readable. He must have suggested it thinking I would never call him that.

Indeed, I had never called him father no matter what sweet words Yeo Yullyeong used. Yeo Yullyeong probably pondered the reason and came to his own conclusion. A wrong conclusion.

Thinking of simple things in a complicated way was his strength and, at the same time, his only weakness. In this case, it was the latter.

He must have thought I placed some meaning on my biological father, but no. What lingering attachment could I have for a man who sold his own child to a merchant troupe? The reason I refused that title was because of Yeo Yullyeong’s face.

Whatever his actual age, he looked to be around thirty on the outside. In other words, he had an incredibly youthful appearance. Should I say it felt like calling an older brother ‘father’? For purely sentimental reasons, it was awkward to say. That was all. So if that was the price, there was no reason I couldn’t pay it.

Yeo Yullyeong, who read everything in my impassive face, laughed dejectedly.

“I’ve been tricked. I must be past my prime too.”

“Please answer me.”

The strength left the hand that was holding the folding fan.

“You’re about to die, and you’re curious about such things?”

“It is because there is something I must confirm.”

Our eyes met. Yeo Yullyeong might know what it was I was trying to confirm. If so, would he answer? Or would he vaguely avoid the question?

The usual Yeo Yullyeong would have definitely avoided the answer. But the Yeo Yullyeong standing before me, who was on a time limit…….

“The poison you were subjected to,”

He would give me the answer I wanted.

“was made by the poison masters of Mujin, under the 3rd Prince. One of the distinguishing features of the poisons they make is that they don’t show up even on silver.”

“……”

“It’s not impossible to detect, but it cannot be detected without a metal forged from a very specific combination. Then, who do you suppose made the even more amazing hairpin that can detect such a great thing?”

Yeo Yullyeong spoke as if sighing.

“I did. It’s not something I can boast about, but I know the poisons of the south quite well. I was particularly interested in the poisons of Mujin. Among them were poisons that weren’t classified as poisons.”

“Poisons that aren’t classified as poisons… you say.”

“Among foods, there are things that are fine when eaten separately, but become poison when eaten together. Combinations with adverse effects that can cause anything from a stomachache to, in severe cases, death. The poison you were subjected to was probably conceived from the same idea. The poison I made is the same. Its characteristic is that, just as it’s not a poison, there is no antidote.”

A poison with no antidote. Those were truly frightening words.

“My poison shows no reaction until a certain tea is consumed. It simply accumulates in the body. It is completely harmless to the human body. But the moment you drink a specially combined tea, everything that has accumulated up to that point turns into poison at once and damages the organs.”

The ends of the Zen-like words pointed to a single spot. The rambling words soon converged into one, presenting a single answer.