GMLS Ch 63

As soon as we entered the room and dismissed the servants, Muryun abruptly questioned who had helped me change my clothes. I flinched, wondering if he had seen me with Wi Junghyuk. Muryun’s eyes narrowed.

“Was it one of the maids lined up earlier? No. You might have received help from all of them.”

“Pardon?”

“Your clothes, I mean.”

“No, no. I changed by myself.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes. How could I lie to Your Majesty?”

“I see.”

Muryun’s stiff expression softened like a spring day. I, on the other hand, was bewildered. To think that I would have stood before the maids in my undergarments…… wait.

“Your Majesty, what on earth were you thinking.”

No answer came back. Muryun changed the subject, saying, “Mm. More importantly.”

“Did you want to win that badly?”

A very peculiar gaze swept over me from top to bottom. Speechless. Denying it in this state would only be a cowardly excuse. Muryun scrutinized me from every angle. I wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

“Seeing you go to such lengths makes me curious. Let’s hear what your wish is.”

“Was it not Your Majesty who won? Please tell me your wish. I will grant whatever it may be, as long as it is within my power.”

“Are you confident you won’t regret it?”

Muryun smiled slyly. It was deeply unsettling to see him act this way when he usually wasn’t like this. I couldn’t answer and just fidgeted. Then, a brilliant idea came to me that would allow me to escape this situation and also resolve something that had been bothering me.

“Your Majesty, may I go and come back before that?”

“Where to.”

“I’ll go to my quarters in the Cheongungwan to change my clothes and come back.”

“You’re going to the Cheongungwan dressed like that?”

“…Then please permit me to leave the palace.”

“And I ask you. Dressed like that?”

I quickly compared the two. A maid dashing through the palace like a swift bird, and a maid leaping over the roofs outside the palace walls. I disliked both options. But those were the only two choices. How very difficult. After much agonizing, I spoke with a grim determination.

“I will go to the Cheongungwan after all.”

Today, I shall test my limits. I will fly, not like a swift bird, but so fast that no one would even notice something had passed. Muryun let out a sound of disbelief, a ‘ha’.

“Then I’ll state my wish first. Just grant that and you may go.”

I nodded my head. There was no reason to object when the winner was exercising his right as a winner.

“In this very spot, take off all the clothes you are wearing.”

……I wanted to object.

“Furthermore, you are forbidden from wearing anything on your body until the sun rises tomorrow.”

“…Your Majesty, have I done something wrong to Your Majesty?”

To think there was something worse than a maid running through the palace. I let out a groan. The Captain of the Guard, strutting through the palace naked. At that moment, being a maid seemed a hundred times better.

Muryun smiled languidly. Amidst his smiling face, only his serious eyes stared intently at me. He was serious. Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

In the end, unable to withstand the silent pressure, I slowly began to untie my waist sash. My fingertips tingled. I fumbled several times in the process. The burning gaze fixed on me made me even more nervous. With each layer of clothing I peeled off and let fall to the ground, the smile on Muryun’s lips gradually faded.

By the time I was in my undergarments, just as I had been in the room at Jaryeon Palace, a gaze that was not just serious but fierce, landed on my bare skin. I tried my best to act nonchalant. If I let my guard down for even a moment, I felt like I would shrink my shoulders and retreat.

“I’m sure I said everything.”

All that was left was a single layer of undergarments. But I couldn’t very well ignore the august imperial command.

No. It would be more ridiculous to resist here. Weren’t we both men? There was nothing physically different. Soothing myself with such thoughts, I swiftly took off my undergarments and stood straight, facing forward.

Muryun’s gaze grew even more intense. It was sticky, and seemed to exude a sweet scent. At some point, I had been holding my breath. I endured and bore it. Though it was humiliating, I didn’t entirely dislike it. It was a new kind of shock.

While my mind was in a state of chaos, Muryun slowly closed the distance between us. He was different from Wi Junghyuk. Unlike him, who had come in with a sudden rush, Muryun was slow, slow as if to show me he was approaching.

He, who had taken his time to approach, reached out his hand. Shoulder? Chin? Cheek? Places he could touch quickly flashed through my mind, but none were the right answer. His hand went to the nape of my neck and untied the loosely tied hair ribbon. My ash-colored hair flowed down with a ripple.

I realized how I had been found out. How could I be so foolish. I groaned and blamed myself. I had completely forgotten about my hair. At the same time, a question arose. Why did the Imperial Guards pretend not to see and not catch me right away?

“About what I said, to take it all off.”

Muryun began to speak, toying with my hair.

“Actually, it was a joke.”

At those words, I finally let out a sigh of relief.

“But seeing your naked body, I realize. I was serious.”

The high and mighty one had spoken with two tongues from one mouth.

“Yes. This is what I wanted to see. Not blurred by the reflection in the bathwater, not obscured by steam, but your body, that you show for me, is what I wanted to see.”

The bathhouse. Recalling that time, something also came to my mind. The club that was in a place it shouldn’t have been. The majestic form of that magnificent dragon.

“……”

I barely managed to keep my gaze from falling towards the space between Muryun’s legs. But as if to mock my efforts, he took my hand and placed it on his front. I could feel the vigor of the dragon that had risen to full attention. My pupils trembled like foxtail grass in a typhoon.

“The words asking to be held. Are they still valid?”

“The time has already passed, so they are invalid.”

“Do you dislike me?”

“To ask such a question when you already know the answer. That’s too much.”

“Too much? What is?”

I pressed my lips into a straight line. Muryun laughed.

“Even your sulking is lovely, what am I to do.”

He untied his waist sash. He also flung off the multiple layers of his clothes and in an instant, became naked like me. Firm thighs. A stomach and waist packed with muscle. A tight chest. Broad shoulders and strong forearms that connected in a graceful line. Everything was revealed.

“Is this fair?”

“Not at all. On the contrary, you are being cowardly.”

Muryun, who chuckled again, wrapped his arm around my waist. Our bare chests touched. It felt completely different from when we embraced with clothes on. In that state, our lips met.

He didn’t just kiss me as he usually did. His hand slithered over my skin like a snake. His busy fingers rubbed my side, and I was startled by the ticklish sensation. My eyes flew open and I reflexively pushed him away. Pushed back, Muryun staggered back a couple of steps and stared at me from that position.

I turned completely pale.

“My, my, my apologies…….”

“How dare you touch my royal person without permission.”

This was the first time he had used the pronoun “I” in our conversations. I didn’t know what to do. Muryun rubbed his chin with his hand. He also let out a big sigh. Each time he did, my shoulders flinched.

“Get on the bed and lie face down.”

His voice was stern. Though hesitant, I obediently did as I was told.

“Close your eyes too.”

I buried my face in the pillow.

With my vision closed off, all my senses focused on my ears. I heard the sound of rummaging through the bedside table. I also heard the sound of the canopy above the bedpost being drawn down with a soft rustle. Having finished some kind of preparation, he finally got on the bed.

“Your Majesty?”

“Yes. It’s me.”

I felt a presence on my back. Lips touched the nape of my neck. After leaving a light peck of a kiss, he said, “It’s Muryun.”

Yes. It’s me. It’s Muryun. The three phrases came together with a sense of timing. The tension naturally left my body. I was strangely reassured, so I just let him do whatever he wanted. And…… I regretted it.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

The official business that began in the afternoon continued until the moon hung bright in the sky, and only ended as dawn was breaking. Lying next to the fainted Yihwa, Muryun looked at him.

On his all-white naked body, only his lips were red. After leaving a light kiss on them, he toyed with Yihwa’s disheveled hair. Light-colored hair. It was a rare color in The Geum Empire, where everyone had pitch-black hair. It was light overall, but if you looked closely, there were some slightly darker parts mixed in, which was fascinating.

Yihwa had said he didn’t know the reason for his hair color either. I find it strange too. I didn’t know when I lived in a small village, but even after looking all over the capital, there is no one like me. Then he said “ah” as if he had just remembered something.

‘Come to think of it, the man who bought me from my father said something like that too. That he had gotten his hands on something rare. He must have been referring to my hair. My eyes are also on the lighter side, but not as noticeable as my hair.’

His tone was extremely calm. That, on the contrary, turned Muryun’s stomach inside out. Recalling that time, he twisted his lips into a smile. It was a smile that, had Monghyul seen it, would have made him wonder, “Who is he planning to mess up now?”

“Yes. It’s special, that’s for sure.”

In a dark place, it looked like a thin cloud veiling the moon in the night sky. Or like the wings of a dragonfly resting on a pitch-black stone. But then, under the bright sunlight, you could see violets, the surface of a sunlit lake, and silver tassels. As they blended together, the sparkling surface shone brilliantly.

The same went for his eyes. Muryun thought they were an indescribably mysterious color.

“There is probably no one else in the world with such a color.”

Muryun whispered in Yihwa’s ear.

“And that one and only you is mine.”

They were words that the deeply asleep Yihwa would not hear, but Muryun smiled with great satisfaction.

Just then, someone from outside was looking for Muryun. It was the Head Eunuch. Muryun told him to be quiet as Yihwa was sleeping, and to prepare the bath with special care instead.

It was a bath that was always filled with warm water. So what needed to be prepared differently from usual? The eunuch, who had already grasped the entire situation, never asked back.