GMLS Ch 55

“A gift?”

I flinched. As expected, his intuition is uncanny.

“No, it isn’t.”

“Hmm. It isn’t? I didn’t know you liked such a flashy donggot. You don’t even wear them much in the first place.”

“I… I was planning to start wearing one now.”

“Start now? What brought on this change of heart?”

Muryun was particularly persistent today.

“Hm? Why is that?”

When I couldn’t answer despite his urging, he chuckled and took my hand again. Then he asked if there was anywhere else I wanted to go.

Saved. As if I’d been waiting for it, I said, ‘I’d like to buy a collection of folktales!’ Muryun laughed heartily.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

Many of my ‘firsts’ were related to Heukwol.

He was the one who first introduced me to folktale collections. Back when I was sprawled out, exhausted from a formidable amount of lessons and mountains of books, Heukwol appeared stealthily and tapped my shoulder. When I turned around, it was usually to find sweets or yakgwa, but that day, it was a collection of folktales.

I acquired a taste for them then and enjoyed reading them whenever I had the time. Recently, I hadn’t had the leisure, having been swept up by one incident after another, but once the envoy returns, I should have some free time. I needed a folktale collection to read then. Particularly one about a romance between two men.

Perhaps because I’d blushed so much about it, this level of thought was fine now.

I touched the back of my hand to my uninjured cheek and then took it away, scanning the list of books. In any case, with Muryun next to me, I had no intention of buying anything right now. I’ll just see what’s available and come back to buy it later.

And so, I casually wandered around the shop, my sharp eyes scanning the titles, memorizing the ones that seemed worthwhile. After achieving my initial objective, I settled at the central display stand where the best-selling books were gathered.

I picked up a book that showed signs of being handled by many people. And then, I suddenly thought.

Is it okay for me to be doing this? When I’m on borrowed time?

The death that had been so vivid at first was now quite hazy. Was it because there was no pain? The more time passed, the less real it felt. Yeo Yullyeong had said it would be difficult for me to see the first snow. But feeling as I did now, it seemed I could see not only this year’s first snow but next year’s as well.

“Are you looking for something?”

Muryun’s words snapped me back to reality.

“Ah. No, I’m just looking around.”

“The Words of Protecting Jin.”

He read the name of the folktale collection in my hand.

“I’ve read it before. I heard it was famous back then, and it seems to be selling well now, too. I suppose a love story that transcends the gap in social status works everywhere.”

“Is that so?”

Muryun showed interest. While I was at it, I told him the plot.

“I wasn’t sure when I saw the title, but I remembered after reading the first few pages. It’s a love story between a princess and a warrior. The warrior hides his family, and the princess hides her status, and they meet in an abandoned lotus pond and fall in love. Then, a political marriage is decided, so the princess says goodbye, and that’s how their bond ends.”

“Hmm.”

“Then, on her way to the provincial lord she is to marry, the two meet again as she selects the royal guards who will escort her.”

Muryun picked up a folktale collection from the display below.

“Are you going to buy it?”

“Yes. Hearing you talk about it has made me curious about the rest of the story.”

“Give it to me, please. I’ll buy it.”

For once, Muryun obediently handed over the book. I paid the owner and received the book, and then a cover identical to it caught my eye. It was an obvious thing, but I voiced the realization I hadn’t made until just now.

“They’re the same book.”

A matching pair of items that he and I owned. It might have been nothing, but it felt like something quite special.

“Really. What am I to do with you?”

When I handed Muryun the folktale collection, he let out a laugh that sounded like a sigh.

“How can I live without being anxious when you’re this cute?”

After saying that, Muryun muttered as if to himself. Right, some bastard has already set his eyes on him. The one who was already there is troublesome enough. That damn bastard. I wouldn’t be satisfied even if I ground him up and drank him.

This time, I didn’t think, Did I mishear?

“What is there to be anxious about? I am Your Maj… Muryun’s, anyway.”

Muryun stopped dead in his tracks.

“Say that again.”

I faltered at his voice, filled with a longing I’d never heard before, but it wasn’t difficult. I just had to state the truth as it was.

“I am Muryun’s.”

The night sky we had seen together from the North Palace was still above our heads. Muryun’s fingers intertwined with mine. The strength with which he squeezed, as if he would never let go again, brought more willingness than pain.

“I am also……”

“Your Majesty.”

A military commander of the secret guard appeared beside Muryun, who had been about to say something, and prostrated himself. Muryun’s brow immediately furrowed. For him to show up like that meant something urgent had happened at the palace.

“Please go on ahead. I’ll stop by the Shangshuling’s residence for a moment before I leave.”

The surrounding area looked familiar. The residence was right next door. While I’m there, I should give him the folding fan I bought earlier, and I have to give Heukwol his whetstone, too. I said this, intending to take my time going back, but Muryun, for whatever reason, shook his head.

“Just stay there for the night and come back tomorrow. I’ll send someone to Cheongungwan.”

“Is that alright?”

“Yes. You must have been struggling with all the work anyway. Rest comfortably for just one day and come back.”

They must have been words meant only to show his consideration for me, but something about them snagged at me like a hangnail. Why would he think I’d be more comfortable at Yeo Yullyeong’s residence than in the imperial palace?

Muryun, who could have given me the answer, was already gone. Thinking about it alone, it made perfect sense. Not just Muryun, but anyone would think the same. That the residence where I grew up, even if it wasn’t good, would be more comfortable than a den of scorpions and snakes.

‘But the place where my heart is most at ease is by your side.’

Smiling bitterly, I turned on my heel. The fact that even the time I had left to be by his side was running out stood out in my mind like another hangnail.

The residence was quiet since it was late at night. The yawning gatekeeper, who was walking sluggishly, was startled to see me and quickly opened the gate. I told the warriors on guard to be quiet so as not to wake people and headed for the annex in a corner of the residence.

But as I was crossing the veranda, my vision spun. Something as hot as lava surged up from within me.

“Keuk.”

Splat. Patter.

Thick blood poured out at my feet. My knees buckled and my body collapsed forward. A breeze stirred on the veranda, and a shadow emerged from the darkness to support my body. I could see wide-open eyes between a mask.

“Heuk… wol…”

The mask stirred. The lips beneath it moved urgently, but no words came out. Hiss. Hiss. There was only the empty sound of wind, like air passing through a hollow reed. The horrifically precise medicine didn’t even permit him the sound of a beastly cry.

Heukwol’s eyes distorted. Deep despair clouded his black eyes. Even as my consciousness flickered, I felt sorry for him and reached out my hand. Heukwol grasped my hand tightly.

It’s okay. Everything will be okay. I gave him a faint smile to reassure him. Heukwol’s eyes contorted even more.

“Ca… lm…”

My thoughts were cut off. It was a blackout.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

The sun shone on my eyes, and I woke up. It was noon.

“Don’t get up yet. You only feel fine; you’re not actually fine.”

Beside me was Yeo Yullyeong, reading a book. I wondered why he was reading a book when he wasn’t a civil official, and then I saw it was the folktale collection I had bought yesterday.

Thud.

He closed the book and explained what had happened after I fainted.

My body temperature had dropped in an instant, and my body had stiffened. Heukwol had to perform emergency treatment urgently. Without a tongue, he couldn’t even call out for help. I could well imagine the despair he must have felt then just from the look on his face I saw right before I lost consciousness.

‘I’ve done something terrible to Heukwol.’

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the Ammukdan, who found it strange that my presence had faded, came looking for me, and I was moved to Yeo Yullyeong’s room by them. Yeo Yullyeong, who had been woken up, secretly called a physician from within the family and had him attend to me. This was out of concern that if a commotion arose, word would surely reach Muryun’s ears.

He administered acupuncture to correct my twisted meridians, then fed me a decoction with a spoon. And now it is today.

Yeo Yullyeong tapped his shoulder, tap, tap, with a folding fan. The fan, with dark red plum blossoms blooming on its side, looked familiar. Looking closely, I saw it was the fan I had bought yesterday. In that case, the dark red things that looked like plum blossoms weren’t plum blossoms, but—

“The folktale collection must be yours, and the whetstone is Heukwol’s, right?”

Lost in other thoughts, my reply was late. I belatedly said, “Yes.”

“And the things that arrived this morning are the Ammukdan’s?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Alright. I understand.”

Contrary to his plain words, Yeo Yullyeong let out a long sigh.

“We’ve heard from the south. We might be able to find a way to detoxify your poison.”

Startled, I shot up, only to be hit on the forehead with the folding fan and lie back down.

“The problem is time. It will likely take over half a year just to identify the poison’s components, find the ingredients to detoxify it, research them, and then compound them.”

“I believe in you.”

“No. Don’t believe.”

“You asserted that there was no antidote for me, did you not?”

In the past, when Yeo Yullyeong said there was no way, there truly must have been no way. It must have been a hopeless situation without a single shred of possibility.

He was a rational man. A man who would have glanced at such an inefficient and improbable task and discarded it without a second thought. Such a man clung to an uncertain possibility and eventually found a path.

My gaze kept going to the cheap folding fan clutched tightly in his hand, which was elegant but by no means befitting of his station. It was even stained with blood and should have been thrown away by now. Yet Yeo Yullyeong, holding the fan, was perfectly nonchalant.

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed he planned to carry it with him from now on, and while my heart swelled with emotion, I also realized this was the first time I had ever given him a gift.

“Heukwol told me. That you would never let me die just like that. I didn’t believe it. Your answer was still ‘no,’ not in the shrine, but in the underground prison. Even now, I’m skeptical about the antidote.”

“Didn’t you just say you believed?”

“Yes. What I believe in is not the existence of an antidote, but in you, Father.”

Yeo Yullyeong’s mouth was, for once, shut. He gripped the folding fan until his knuckles turned white. A short silence fell. Yeo Yullyeong let out another long sigh.