GMLS Ch 2

When the memory of being trapped in the mother-of-pearl box resurfaced in a dream, causing me to wake with a start at dawn, a large hand would stroke my back. It should have been tiring and bothersome, yet the man showed no sign of it. He would simply wipe my sweat-soaked forehead and massage my deathly pale hands.

It’s all right now. Didn’t I get you out? Look. This is my chamber, and you are on a silk mattress, he would say.

There was power in the man’s voice. Born noble, even his voice was precious. His low, gentle tone drew me out from where I had been cowering in the mother-of-pearl box. As if bewitched, I pattered out from there and soon found myself before the man.

“Hic. Sob. Sob.”

I finally burst into tears.

“Yes. You’ve done well.”

The man held me as if he understood everything. His embrace, with its sharp, clean scent, enveloped me completely. That was the first time I knew that another person’s body heat could be so warm.

My strength had not yet fully returned, so following the man was a strain, but I didn’t let it show. I didn’t want to let go of the warmth I could feel in the palm of my hand.

Still, there were times when I inevitably had to be separated from his arms. At those times, the man would ask me not to leave the room and assign two people to serve me. Though they were called servants, being originally of low birth myself, I didn’t say much and just accepted the sweets they gave me or played with a colored string ball.

When I waited like that, the man, looking every bit like he had rushed, would return with the evening twilight on his back.

I would naturally run and throw myself into his open arms. His jade-like face, which was stern when he worked, would bloom like a flower towards me. When that already beautiful person smiled so, I had no choice but to stare, captivated.

“Your Highness, it is time you returned to the palace. You have delayed here too long. It has already been ten days since the mission ordered by His Majesty the Emperor was completed.”

A subordinate reported with a bow. Even hearing those words, I had no particular thoughts. The sweet candy the man placed in my mouth was so delicious that I was simply happy.

“It is an imperial order. He said he will dispatch the army this time and has commanded you to subjugate the southern barbarians.”

The man didn’t even spare him a glance. It was only then that I slowly started to get a sense of the situation. Over the man’s arm, I saw the one who had bowed. Biting his lip until it bled, he said.

“Your Highness, that child is not him.”

“…What did you just say.”

A chilling aura emanated from the man as he spoke. I flinched and my shoulders trembled, and that presence scattered in an instant. He patted my bottom.

“He thinks his master is a fool. Do you truly believe I am confused?”

The subordinate fell silent. Weighed down by the tense atmosphere, I remained quiet. Just then, the man placed a yakgwa in my mouth, and I mumbled on it. I chewed it several times without swallowing.

On that day, I had a premonition.

A boy born as lowly as I am is more accustomed to assuming the worst than the best. So I had been thinking it. That these dream-like days would one day end like a dream.

But when that day actually came, I couldn’t accept it easily. It was because I believed the man would at least say something to me. I shouldn’t cry. I must be composed. I will absolutely not trouble him. The promises I made to myself were in vain.

When I woke up in the morning, the spot beside me was empty. There was only a chill, as if he had already left the bed at dawn. He did not return even when the breakfast table was served. Eating alone was lonely. Facing a five-course breakfast, I clicked my tongue at my own wickedness for thinking such a self-indulgent thought.

After the table was cleared, a man I had never seen before came to see me. He was a man with the appearance of one who would declare, “I am a civil official.”

A blue hairpin was stuck in his hair, which was tied up in a half-bun, and a thin, white hero’s scarf was wrapped around his forehead. At best, he looked to be in his mid-thirties, but his eyes were deeper than those of the old scholar at the village school. His attire was not flamboyant, but it was the finest of the fine. Three men in black with their faces covered followed behind him.

Opening a folding fan, he looked down at me. I tensed up and clenched my fists without realizing it.

“How old are you.”

“…Fifteen.”

“Did you not grow because you could not eat? I thought you were ten at most, so you’ve eaten more than I thought. Then, what is your name?”

“I am called Yihwa.”

“A fine name. You may keep using that. However, the only things you can take with you are your age and your name.”

My heart sank. As ignorant as I was, I was old enough to understand the man’s words. The moment I understood, I wanted to deny it.

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t move an inch despite the command-like words. As I remained rooted to the spot with my eyes wide, the man flicked his folding fan.

One of the men in black standing behind him came forward and picked me up. My resistance was futile. My struggles were as meaningless as a kite caught in a typhoon.

Carried in his arms with my body limp, I took in the scenery of the room over the shoulder of the man in black. It was the space where I had spent all my time with the man. The place where I had spent ten days that felt like an eternity. I tried to memorize everything—the scratch on the table, the pattern on the vase, even a single butterfly on the folding screen.

Thinking that if I remembered them, I could also remember the man who had stood against that background.

“Sob. Sob.”

It was all useless. I sensed that I would now never be able to return.

Held in a stranger’s arms, I knew that this was the embrace I must now hold onto. There was no way to stop the welling tears, and I cried, clutching the masked man’s chest. Startled, he froze stiffly.

If it had been the man, he would have soothed and placated me the moment he heard my cries. Why do you cry? What has made you so sad? Shall I give you sweets, or sikhye? What can I do to make you stop your tears?

Just as the cruel man had done, the masked man patted my bottom with his hand. The masked man next to him glanced this way as if looking at something bizarre, then disappeared into the darkness.

The bond that had appeared so suddenly left without a trace when it departed.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

The young man who took me was named ‘Yeo Yullyeong’.

He lived in a massive estate as large as the village I had lived in, and the number of people working at the estate was greater than the entire population of my village. He said his farmlands and fortune were so vast that there was a separate person to manage them. Such a great man said, from this day forward, you are my son.

“Did he ask you to do so?”

Yeo Yullyeong knew at once who I was referring to.

“No. He simply asked that I arrange for you to be adopted into a home where you would lack for nothing. He seemed to think you were an orphan with no living relatives… but just in case, I will ask. Do you have a place to return to?”

I shook my head. I could not return to the hovel where the father who sold me off lived. If I went back, I would only be sold again.

“Then there is nothing to be a problem. Now, try calling me father.”

“…”

“Why do you look at me like that? I am a person who lacks nothing to take you in.”

I could see that. What I was curious about was his calculation in deliberately adopting me as a son, when he could have just found me a suitable place to stay.

“Even with this hair and these eyes?”

“Your pale color is like the moon in the night sky. When you come of age, the young ladies of decent households will surely suffer from heartache.”

He spouted off such cringeworthy words without batting an eye. When I turned pale and shut my mouth, he misinterpreted it somehow and added, ‘I was only speaking the truth. I do not enjoy empty flattery’.

“Is there something you want from me?”

“They said you were sharp, and his words were not wrong.”

The folding fan swayed. It felt like I was facing a hundred-year-old serpent, not a person.

“There is. But do not concern yourself with it. What I want is something only you can give, but I cannot take it as I please, nor is it something you can give just because you want to.”

Men of high station had a talent for speaking in difficult terms. When I furrowed my brow, unable to understand, he grinned. It was a frivolous smile, unbecoming of a man of high station.

He said, “Oh, my,” and covered his mouth with his fan.

“There is no need to trouble yourself. No need to think too hard. I need a son but have a body that cannot have one, and to me, a fateful connection ordained by heaven has arrived. For now, that is all you need to know.”

My questions did not fade but deepened. Still, I didn’t dwell on it further. Whatever his thoughts were, it wasn’t as if I had any choice.

“You don’t need to be exceptionally skilled. Whether with the sword or the brush, just be good enough to enter the palace. I will take care of the rest.”

“The palace, you say.”

“Yes.”

“Is he also someone who lives in the palace?”

“Yes. He is His Highness the 5th Prince.”

My eyes widened. I knew he was a man of high station, but I had never imagined he was the son of the Emperor. As if my reaction was amusing, the corners of Yeo Yullyeong’s mouth, revealed from under his fan, twitched.

My heart grew cold. We had lived together for ten days. But I knew nothing about him.

“…I want to know about him.”

The open folding fan snapped shut with a clean sound. Yeo Yullyeong, a smile all over his face, said.

“If you can read within a week, I will tell you.”

I devoted myself to studying, even getting nosebleeds. And in four days, I went to find him with a tattered book in hand. After testing my progress, Yeo Yullyeong said.

“His Highness the 5th Prince is nineteen this year.”

He was younger than I thought. In fact, he was only four years older than me. I pictured his image, still vivid in my mind. He had a dignified appearance, like a celestial god.

I was small for my age, and he was a head taller than his peers. So it made sense that he had held and treated me like a young child.

“Surely that’s not all?”

“I have given you a reward equal to your effort. Next is this.”

A masked man appeared from the darkness. It was the one named Heukwol, the man who had carried me back. He held out a short wooden sword towards me.

“I will give you a week this time as well. To the martial arts master—”

I rose from my seat before Yeo Yullyeong had finished speaking. The sound of laughter came from behind me.

“Next up is etiquette, it seems.”