TFYOPWRO 07

Chapter 07

Caught between his father rushing toward him and the little princess standing before him, Jihoo’s eyes wavered helplessly.

“Hmph, not a bit like Ji-pyeong, huh?”

With those teasing words, Eunhae finally seemed to gain the upper hand, and Jihoo’s face flushed bright red, even to the ears.

“R-really… you… you are indeed the… princess?”

Jihoo stammered, unsure of what to do, neither standing properly nor bowing.

Eunhae squinted her eyes in a teasing manner, nodding slightly.

“So your name is Jihoo, right? And where did all that bravado go? Are you still curious about who my father is?”

“Gah…! Princess!”

In an instant, Jihoo’s face turned pale, and he collapsed to the ground.

From a distance, Eunhae noticed Kim Gyo-hyeon approaching with a startled expression. She frowned slightly in frustration.

Meeting Queen Kyungbin had already delayed her, and now she had to deal with the son of Ji-pyeong as well. Time was slipping away.

If she met Ji-pyeong here as well, she’d have no choice but to return to her residence. Eunhae looked down at Jihoo still sprawled on the ground and spoke.

“Speak.”

“Yes, Princess.”

This time, Jihoo answered promptly, clearly frightened. A small smile tugged at the corner of Eunhae’s lips.

“I’m very busy now, so I’ll just leave! But no matter that you are your teacher’s son, I will remember your insolence! Understand?”

“Ah…!”

Jihoo, lost for words, felt his eyes shake uncontrollably.

“And as I asked before, that face cloth of yours seems very precious. Do not use it carelessly like before, and keep it well. Understand? Now, I am busy, so that’s all.”

Having said what she needed to, Eunhae glared sharply at Jihoo as he timidly raised his head.

Flinching under her piercing gaze, Jihoo hunched his shoulders and dropped his eyes again.

“Hmph! You’d better consider yourself very lucky today!”

Eunhae snorted and then, seeing Kim Gyo-hyeon approaching, dashed off toward the East Palace.

Tap, tap, tap—the tiny, hurried footsteps of her running across the dry ground caught Jihoo’s attention.

Ah… what on earth have I done?

I should have thought more carefully. Who else in this land could be a girl allowed to run freely inside the palace but the princess herself?

As he watched the crimson skirt fading into the distance, his eyes caught sight of his father’s shoes, dust-covered from the ground.

“Jihoo!”

It seemed Kim Gyo-hyeon had searched for him for a while. His neatly pressed blue robe and shoes were smeared with dirt and dust.

Kim Gyo-hyeon looked alternately at Jihoo, lying there stunned on the ground, and at the little princess running far off, now only a colorful dot in the distance.

“What… what is this bizarre scene? Stand up at once!”

At his father’s low, stern shout, Jihoo slowly got to his feet, pale-faced.

“So that was the princess… what on earth happened?”

Seeing his son bewildered, Kim Gyo-hyeon shook his head, speechless.

“I… I don’t understand either, Father. I don’t know what just happened to me…”

“Tch… I distinctly told you to wait there, so why are you here? And how did you meet the princess?”

While attending briefly to some matters at the Office of Censors, Jihoo had disappeared somewhere. Though only eleven years old, he was usually so mature and composed that his father had left him without a second thought.

A child… indeed a child.

Kim Gyo-hyeon let out a heavy sigh as he looked toward the princess, now only a colorful dot in the distance. Perhaps the princess’s illness had flared up again. Surely, there would have been another commotion in the palace.

Then, Jihoo, eyes brimming with tears, called out to his father in a quivering voice.

“Father… what should I do now?”

Kim Gyo-hyeon, still watching Eunhae running toward the East Palace, quickly turned to his son.

Jihoo, normally so composed and mature, now looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment.

His father sighed heavily, placing both hands gently on Jihoo’s shoulders.

“It’s alright. I don’t know what happened, but let’s go home first and talk about it.”

Jihoo, with a troubled expression, looked up at his father, who was guiding him by the shoulders, and then gazed blankly after Eunhae, who had already disappeared into the distance.

Where could the princess possibly be running off to on her short legs? She really ran fast.

“Remember your insolence! Understand?”

“Hmph! You’d better consider yourself very lucky today!”

Jihoo let out a sigh so deep it felt like the earth had split beneath him.

And then, another sharp voice echoed in his ears:

“Do you want to die?”

Ah…! I’m truly finished now.

Not only had he spoken foolishly without realizing she was the princess, he had also grabbed her hand and wiped her face and nose with the face cloth so recklessly. How could he ever atone for this?

Could his family be ruined because of him?

Jihoo glanced down at the face cloth, his mother’s precious keepsake, still in his hand—the very same that had caught the princess’s interest.

Although it was a memento left by his mother, perhaps offering it to the princess could earn her forgiveness?

“That face cloth seems very precious, so do not use it carelessly like before. Keep it well, understand?”

The memory of his earlier rudeness and the princess’s scolding voice made Jihoo close and reopen his eyes tightly. He looked silently at his father, who walked ahead without a word.

“Father…”

Kim Gyo-hyeon simply gazed at him with a deep, steady look. Swallowing hard, Jihoo held up his mother’s keepsake, still tightly in his hand, and spoke.

“It seems… the princess liked this face cloth very much…”

Without asking “why,” his father’s gaze deepened even further.

“Please, my lord, protect Jihoo. I fear I can no longer keep him safe. You must watch over our Jihoo.”

His wife Hee-ran, once a priestess of the Taeshin Kingdom, had relinquished her priestess position out of love for him to bear a son.

Had they incurred the anger of the gods?

After giving birth, his wife’s health deteriorated. When Jihoo was six, she poured the last of her divine energy into creating this face cloth and then passed away.

It was called a guardian talisman, a protective charm. This face cloth was meant to protect Jihoo.

The red threads, intensified with Hee-ran’s blood, mixed with golden thread from her ceremonial robe, bore the four characters for “protect, guard, repel, demon” embroidered symmetrically at each corner. She had infused all her remaining divine energy into it.

She instructed that it be kept with Jihoo after her death.

Perhaps inheriting the priestess’s bloodline, Jihoo had been visited by countless spirits from infancy.

Day and night, he would cry incessantly as a baby, and his mother had tirelessly warded off spirits that came to him, giving her all her strength even after childbirth.

She worried that her past sins as a priestess should not fall upon her son and tried to remove the divine energy placed upon Jihoo.

But heaven did not grant her prayers, and when Jihoo was six, she expended her remaining divine power into the talisman before passing.

And now, Jihoo, holding the face cloth he cherished more than his life, had taken it out again.

What could have happened between the princess and Jihoo?

Kim Gyo-hyeon sighed heavily, seeing his son so dazed. Another thought struck him: perhaps the princess’s ailment, after all, was not simply aftereffects of smallpox but similar divine energy like Jihoo’s…

Lost in their respective worries, the father and son left the palace through the heavy gates, their steps precious and careful.

Meanwhile, Eunhae, running through a shortcut rarely used by palace staff, finally arrived in front of the East Palace library, panting heavily.

Ah… I finally made it.

Meeting Kyungbin and the son of Ji-pyeong had already cost her nearly half an hour.

If Palace Lady Park comes to wake me in about half an hour, she probably still doesn’t know I’m gone.

Sweat beading on her forehead, Eunhae wiped it away with her tiny hand and sniffed.

Earlier, Jihoo had grabbed her nose with the face cloth, and a faint scent lingered.

I want that face cloth.

Though the boy had been insolent enough to touch her nose, the face cloth he held was special.

Its faint fragrance, the refined spiritual energy that seemed to purify the surroundings…

The warmth and comfort she felt when it touched her face kept coming back to her.

Ah, I really want it.

It felt like having that face cloth would make spirits far less frightening.

Eunhae glanced back at the distant place where Jihoo had been, scrunching her nose and pursing her lips.

Her teacher is Jihoo’s father; perhaps she could get that face cloth from him as well. Maybe I can ask him to give it to me.

Looking down at her own right hand, which Jihoo had grabbed so abruptly, Eunhae clenched her fist and made a resolution.

Just wait, Kim Jihoo. I will get that face cloth.

Resolutely, Eunhae grabbed her skirt, still soaked with the slimy, fishy water, with both hands and started running again toward the library.

Once inside, she could figure out how to deal with the insolent Kyungbin and that boy Jihoo.

Ah, and I must also think about the nine lives sent by Mother!

She couldn’t leave that dreadful boy-spirit lingering in her palace any longer.