GMLS Ch 11

“How could you have a nightmare.”

The 5th Prince felt uneasy at the sight of the Captain of the Guard, who only groaned without being able to open his eyes. It seemed he was also a little angry.

“Are you still there?”

I’m sure I took you out, so how are you still there.

The 5th Prince was at a loss for words at the thought that suddenly came to him. Once it surfaced, it was like a lotus flower that wouldn’t sink no matter how he pushed it down with his hand. Even his name meant a lotus blooming on a tree…….

The 5th Prince laughed as if he were crying. The twitching fingertips grasped The 5th Prince’s fingers. It was a desperate touch, like that of a child abandoned in a deep pit of poison.

Contrary to the desire to just let go, The 5th Prince couldn’t move an inch. Then, a parched voice whispered like a groan.

“-Do not go.”

It was a pitiful and wretched voice.

“If you must leave, please take me with you, my lord.”

The 5th Prince’s face, shrouded in darkness, slowly crumbled.

The 5th Prince admitted his defeat. I’ve lost. Completely lost. I haven’t even considered myself defeated by His Majesty the Emperor yet, but to you, I’ve completely surrendered.

But the admission of defeat was a step too late. A tear finally trickled down the Captain of the Guard’s white cheek. The 5th Prince stood frozen, staring down at him as if he had forgotten how to breathe.

His light-colored hair was disheveled, damp with sweat. Beneath his closed eyelids were eyes darker than his hair but as luminous as the moon. If one’s eyes were pretty, were their tears pretty too? It felt as if they would solidify into beads if touched with a fingertip.

“I will not go. I will stay here, so do not cry.”

As if he had heard those words, the Captain of the Guard’s complexion became much more peaceful. The 5th Prince’s heart also felt at ease.

It’s already too late. No, perhaps it was already decided the moment you sought me out again as the Captain of the Guard.

The 5th Prince smiled faintly and pressed a kiss to the Captain of the Guard’s fingers, which he held preciously. It was the hand that held a sword. There was no trace of delicacy left in it, but it was still the same hand he had held back then.

“Five years ago, I just unilaterally pushed and bestowed upon you, but in reality, you couldn’t choose anything. So this time, you shall be the one to choose.”

If you accept me, this time, I will be by your side.

“That is, if you have any affection left for me after you know the truth.”

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

It was a particularly tiring day, as I had tossed and turned all dawn due to a nightmare.

Whether he had decided to just bury whatever he had to say, The 5th Prince no longer seemed to mind my presence. The day that was like any other became unlike any other when a court attendant stopped me on my way to my quarters.

The 5th Prince was looking for me.

Perhaps because of the nightmare, my heart stirred strangely. It was a feeling more ominous than expectant. But I couldn’t pretend not to have heard my lord’s summons. I went straight back to The 5th Prince.

The room, enveloped in the evening twilight, was dim. The 5th Prince was waiting for me with only a single small oil lamp lit. He offered me the seat opposite him, and I did not refuse.

Tea was prepared. It was the Shin Yihwa tea that I had personally dried and presented in a bamboo container. After taking a sip of the tea, The 5th Prince opened his mouth.

“In the south, there is a place called the ‘jungle’.”

For a moment, the story I heard from Yeo Yullyeong and the Crown Prince’s coughing up of blood overlapped, and I felt a pang of guilt. Could it be that The 5th Prince also knows about the 3rd Prince’s machinations? I tensed up and focused on his words, but The 5th Prince’s story was completely different.

“It is said that the place is always plagued by sweltering heat and humidity, with all sorts of endemic diseases, and its interior is teeming with venomous insects and beasts, so an ordinary person cannot survive even a full day. If you were to meet someone born and raised in such a place, what do you think that person would be like?”

The gist of it was a Zen-like question.

I was at a loss. I have no talent for this sort of thing. When I couldn’t come up with an answer after a long wait, The 5th Prince spoke.

“He would be like the man before your eyes.”

My heart dropped much harder than before.

“You may not know, but in this Geum Empire, there is a place just like that jungle. A place so toxic that it cannot be compared to the jungles of the south, where even the meekest things rot away just by being near.”

I was not so dull as to not know where he was talking about. I listened to his story in silence.

“There was a king of gudok (蠱毒) who ruled that place. The king could not bear to see his own poison become diluted, so he devoured the lesser poisons beneath him to grow his own size, and among them, he took the outstanding ones as hostages and used them as he pleased to expand his power.”

“…”

“Then, when the time came that the outstanding ones had served their purpose or, on rare occasions, seemed poised to surpass him, he would dispose of them along with their hostages to maintain his power.”

The hand holding the teacup trembled slightly. The ripples on the surface of the tea were just like my heart.

“To stay by my side means to go directly against that king of gudok.”

‘Go and serve as The 5th Prince’s companion. Then you will naturally learn what the imperial palace is like, which will be a good study for you, who are still young.’

‘He was a prince who had fewer than five people to bow his head to in this entire country. Such a man was banished after wandering the battlefields like a dog. You must engrave that fact in your mind.’

‘Can you, with your one body, save a castle or two?’

The Emperor’s words and Yeo Yullyeong’s words struck me one after another.

Now, not just my hands but my whole body was trembling as if caught in a downpour. It wasn’t because of the threats I had heard before. Rather, I was afraid to hear the reason why The 5th Prince was bringing up such things. It was even more so because I had a good idea of what it might be.

“I will report to His Majesty myself. Prepare to move as soon as your new post is decided.”

The ominous premonition was exactly right.

“I know that you are the son of the Minister of State Affairs, and that His Majesty cherishes you as much as he cherishes the Minister. But that’s as far as it goes.”

“…”

“When you see him again, tell him that my temperament was so vicious that it was very difficult. To survive long in this box of gudok, you must not fall out of favor with its master.”

My mind went blank. The quick wits that usually served me well were useless. I thought I had been doing well until now, but it was all my own delusion.

“I… am originally of low birth and my learning is short. I am one who has only been polished to put on a plausible imitation under the Minister of State Affairs. I did not understand what Your Highness is trying to say.”

“You speak nonsense. I know your cleverness better than anyone.”

“…Why are you suddenly being like this?”

“Are you not curious as to why I saved you five years ago?”

My mouth snapped shut. To say no would have been the real nonsense. The 5th Prince, who laughed at my silence, began his story.

“It was when I was still young. A time when the clandestine strife was particularly severe. While I was sleeping with my younger sister in our quarters, we were attacked by assassins. Worried for the child’s safety, I had her get inside a mother-of-pearl box that was in the room, and I broke the key off after inserting it.”

A mother-of-pearl box with a broken key. Someone inside it. It was a story I had heard somewhere before.

“It was because the key must not fall into the hands of the wicked. Also, doing so would leave no choice but to break it open crudely, and how sturdy must a mother-of-pearl box presented to a prince be? So I thought that after I killed all the assassins and this place became safe, I could open it then.”

The 5th Prince’s words seemed perfect at first glance. It seemed as if everything would flow according to the course he had set. But I already knew the ending. Because there are no princesses in the current imperial family of the Geum Empire.

“How could I have been so complacent and foolish.”

I felt like I was standing barefoot in a room full of glass shards. No matter how I tried to avoid it, the moment I took a step I would end up bleeding, so I couldn’t move a muscle and just listened to his words.

“They set fire to the quarters. The grand and splendid palace instantly went up in flames and turned into a handful of ashes. I never found out who it was that knocked me unconscious by striking my pressure points as I tried to rush inside, shouting that I had to find my sister.”

“…”

“Seeing as I was perfectly alive, it was probably one of my mother’s vassals. The mastermind behind the attack that burned down the prince’s palace was also never revealed. The incident itself was simply buried as one of the many secret histories of the imperial family.”

“What is the reason for telling me such things now?”

“It is to right a wrong. As you said, it is something I’m saying ‘now of all times,’ so it’s not like it doesn’t feel late already. Do you understand now? I merely bestowed cheap pity upon you for my own peace of mind.”

I kept my mouth shut. I waited for The 5th Prince, who looked at me as if telling me to say anything, his face stained with an unusual excitement and guilt, to calm down.

His agitated breathing subsided. His head gradually bowed lower.

“I see.”

His shoulders flinched.

“Back then, Your Highness must have seen your sister in me. And you found comfort in that.”

The 5th Prince’s arms tensed. His hands, which had gone below the table, must have been clenched tightly.

“If so, then I was a useful person to you.”

The 5th Prince’s head, which had been bowed like a sinner’s, shot up.

“My father told me something when he sold me to a merchant. That a person must be useful to deserve to live. To have been useful to you, of all people, whom I revere. I cannot hide my joy.”

I spoke before he, with a bewildered look, could say something.

“And it is an undeniable fact that Your Highness saved me. Even if everyone in the world does not know, I know.”

“…That was a deception.”

“Does that make what Your Highness did disappear? Does it mean the ten days you cherished me never happened?”

“Those days were all lies!”

“To me, there were no truer days than those.”

“Do you think there can be any truth in a vanished illusion and a collapsed sandcastle?”

“How can it be a vanished illusion, a collapsed sandcastle? When I am the one who remembers it.”

I raised my hand and firmly touched my chest.

“The life that Your Highness saved remembers what you have done.”

How could you compare that to a futile illusion and a sandcastle?