GMLS Ch 62

It was the very moment I was about to hold out the donggot cupped in both hands and tell him to open his eyes. Something surged up from within me. It was a familiar sensation.

I turned pale. The last time I had coughed up blood was the night after Yeo Yullyeong’s death. Right after I returned to the estate. Although it was a week’s interval, this time it was a day early. There was no time to wonder, Why. Before I could think, my body moved first.

I rushed at Wi Junghyuk, who was sitting there blankly. I shoved his chest with my left arm, pinning him to a pavilion pillar, and with my other hand, I clamped down on his mouth as he gasped. My eyes were wide, glaring at him. So that even someone as clueless as him could realize something was wrong.

The next moment, the blood I had suppressed in my throat rushed into my mouth. Unlike usual, I bit my lips firmly and swallowed the blood. But coughing up blood is like a cough; it cannot be held back just by trying.

“…!”

Surprise turned into horror. Wi Junghyuk grabbed my wrist. I shook my head resolutely. With my eyes, I urged him to be silent. Fortunately, the wind was blowing against us. If he just kept quiet, I wouldn’t be discovered.

Wi Junghyuk, his eyes contorted, glared back at me. I could feel his will conveying that he would remain silent for now, but he would definitely hear the reason why later.

“Yihwa?”

Muryun, noticing the movement, called my name with a hint of puzzlement. He was still faithfully keeping his eyes closed.

“Your Majesty, would you like to play a game with me.”

Muryun, with his eyes still closed, asked back.

“A game?”

“Yes. It’s a simple game of hide-and-seek. From now, count to one hundred and find me. If you find me within one shicheng, I will grant one of Your Majesty’s wishes.”

At the word “wish,” his expression changed completely.

“If you fail to find me, then you must grant one of my wishes.”

“When should I start counting?”

A small smile formed on my lips at his burning enthusiasm.

“Now. The boundary is this Jaryeon Palace.”

Muryun began to count. I grabbed Wi Junghyuk’s hand and ran. He followed without resistance.

The place we hid was a room deep inside Jaryeon Palace. It didn’t seem to be the quarters of someone important, but rather a temporary storage and resting room for the palace servants.

First, I took off my clothes. I carefully folded the blood-stained top, hid it in a corner where it couldn’t be easily seen, and began to rummage through the room for something to wear.

“I still haven’t heard a word.”

“Telling you to just pretend you don’t know won’t work on you, will it, Your Highness.”

“If you know that, then speak obediently.”

I opened a wooden drawer chest. Inside were neatly folded clothes belonging to the maids. The moment I saw them, a very plausible plan flashed through my mind. Proposing the game had been a stroke of genius. The problem was whether there were any clothes large enough for me to wear…….

“I was poisoned by the 3rd Prince.”

“What?”

“It’s a poison from the South, a deadly one with no antidote.”

The clothes in the top drawers of the chest were small, getting larger towards the bottom. I took out a set of clothes from the very bottom drawer. It looked like it would fit, somehow.

“The Shangshuling was secretly searching for a way to detoxify it. That’s also the reason why Heukwol hasn’t been seen recently. He’s in the South right now.”

I took off my trousers, leaving me in my undergarments. As I tried to figure out how to wear the maid’s attire by recalling it in my mind, Wi Junghyuk came up beside me and seized my wrist. The force of his grip was incomparable to how he had held me at the pavilion.

“Do you know what you are saying right now?”

“Of course I do, they’re my own words coming from my own mouth.”

“You have deceived His Majesty.”

“Then what was I supposed to have done.”

It was impossible to stop my voice from rising.

“I was shot by an arrow while saving His Majesty. It turned out to be a poisoned arrow. There’s no way to cure it, so it seems I will die before the year is out. My apologies. Please, forget this unworthy subordinate. Is that what I should have said, to tear his heart apart?”

“It’s the same either way.”

Wi Junghyuk said gravely.

“When you die, it will be the same thing, you foolish man.”

His low voice was filled with despair. Beneath his thick eyebrows, his pupils trembled minutely like the surface of a rippling lake.

“Those are words I’d rather not hear, especially from you, Your Highness.”

“Are you joking right now?”

“You don’t seem to consider that it might not be a joke. That’s enough, please let go of my hand for now. I need to wipe off the blood and get dressed. The Emperor must have finished counting to one hundred by now and is looking for me.”

I need to clean this up before that. When I conveyed that meaning with my gaze, Wi Junghyuk closed and opened his eyes once, as if suppressing something. Finally, his hand fell away.

Still in my undergarments, I picked up a water bottle that was on a table in the room. Thankfully, I heard a sloshing sound. Now, what should I wet this with. Just as I was thinking that, Wi Junghyuk abruptly held out a square-folded piece of cloth. It was the kind of cotton cloth that lower-ranking warriors often used for staunching blood.

“You’re the Captain of the Imperial Guard, and you carry something like this around?”

“One must carry what is fit for its purpose for its proper use. For staunching blood, medicinal herbs and cotton cloth are the best.”

It was truly typical of Wi Junghyuk. I said I would use it gratefully and took the cloth from him. I wet it with water and wiped my mouth and the area around my neck.

“There. You missed a spot.”

Wi Junghyuk pointed near my chin. I rubbed the area roughly, but he said that wasn’t it. I scanned the room again. There was no bronze mirror.

“Here.”

Wi Junghyuk strode closer and took the cloth from my hand. With his other hand, he lifted my chin and brought his face very close.

I flinched without realizing it. In my haste to hide the blood, I had thrown off my clothes first, but now, being undressed in front of another man, even if he was a man, a delayed sense of shame washed over me.

On the other hand, Wi Junghyuk seemed completely unfazed. True to his dull nature, he didn’t even notice my embarrassment. He nonchalantly rubbed and wiped the area around my chin. His touch was delicate. I shifted only my eyes to look at him. His serious expression, as if he were polishing his beloved sword, was so very much like him.

“All done.”

He silently stepped back and tucked the cotton cloth into his breast pocket.

“I’ll dispose of this. It seems you have a plan, so I’ll play along for now.”

“You won’t tell His Majesty?”

“For now, yes.”

Wi Junghyuk picked up all my clothes, which lay shed like a snake’s skin, and said.

“We’ll talk again later. Set a date and send a message to the estate.”

“I will do so.”

He left the room.

After changing into the maid’s attire, I untied my hair, which had been put up, and let it down. My hair cascaded down, rippling as it fell to my waist. I retied it loosely at the bottom.

Usually, maids braided their hair tightly or put it up in all sorts of strange styles to make it easier to work, but unfortunately, I had no such dexterity. In any case, it only needed to be a brief deception.

Thinking so, I picked up the water bottle and opened the door. With my eyes cast down and the bottle held in my arms, I took short, hurried steps. The trigger had been coughing up blood, but now that things had turned out this way, a desire grew within me.

‘A wish.’

I didn’t have one before I said the word, but once I uttered it, something I wanted came to mind.

‘I wonder if he’s finished counting to one hundred by now.’

Then all I had to do was hold out for one shicheng.

Just then, I saw a group of maids crossing the veranda. I naturally joined them at the end of the line. The more I walked, the more I could feel the commotion in Jaryeon Palace. It seemed Muryun had given up and even mobilized the Imperial Guards.

Well, I never said he had to find me by his own power alone. Besides, the Imperial Guard are the Emperor’s hands and feet, so I could argue against it later. As an armed Imperial Guard ran past, the maids shrank their shoulders and pressed themselves against the wall.

Like proper palace servants, their faces were expressionless, but they couldn’t hide the fear revealed in their eyes. They stood frozen for a while, showing no intention of moving. With burly Imperial Guards who were clearly searching for someone running this way and that, their hearts must have been pounding like a drum.

With my head bowed low, I pressed my back against the wall. I suppressed my internal energy and presence as much as I could. I never imagined they would stop like this, so my heart sank for a different reason than the maids’, but the Imperial Guard passed right in front of me without recognizing me.

Well. Who would ever imagine it? That the Captain of the Guard, who favors black martial robes, would be standing among the maids.

After the fifth Imperial Guard passed, I relaxed my shoulders. I even started fiddling with the water bottle in my hand and got lost in other thoughts. They were about Yeo Yullyeong. To be precise, about the story he had told me before he died.

The Forbidden History of Wei.

Wimunhyeon, who could read the thoughts of others, who could lift things like wood into the air, and who could manipulate the local weather. And Crown Prince Tanakhan of The Jihan Kingdom, who inherited the same ‘abnormality’ as him.

‘This can only be opened by a direct descendant of The Geum Empire’s imperial family. In other words, at this point in time, only His Majesty the Emperor. It is a sealed document that cannot be rashly conveyed to anyone unless they are a son, or at least the Captain of the Guard.’

There was nothing amusing about those words, yet, Tanakhan had burst into a wide grin upon hearing them.

I reminded myself again that the Forbidden History of Wei and Tanakhan were intertwined stories. What was I thinking when I said that? I couldn’t recall clearly. I only vaguely remembered that it had been a rather arrogant thought.

My fingertips, which had been rubbing the water bottle, stiffened. What he inherited might not have been just the abnormality. If he had inherited Wimunhyeon’s supernatural abilities as well…….

Ssk.

A shadow fell over my body. Someone’s feet came to a stop in front of me. They were black silk shoes made from animal hide. Only then did I realize that my surroundings had become strangely quiet.

“I win.”

Muryun, who was smiling gently at me, suddenly glared at the maids beside me. Fury colored the jade-like face of the Son of Heaven. The recipients of his gaze turned deathly pale.

“Your Majesty?”

I was just as clueless as to what was going on. When I called out to him carefully, he, once again cloaked in a spring breeze, pulled me along. We retraced our steps from the main palace to Jaryeon Palace. However, our final destination was not the office, but Muryun’s personal quarters.