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Chapter: 18
“…My Lady, what are you doing here?”
“Th-there were a lot of spiderwebs under the eaves… so I was cleaning them.”
“But why would you be doing something like that, My Lady…?”
The Crown Prince trailed off as he looked me up and down.
At the sight of me with my long skirt hiked all the way up, riding on Ansi’s shoulders like a mischievous child.
“Put me down!”
I hurriedly patted Ansi’s arm.
Ansi gently lowered me to the ground before smoothing out my rumpled skirt.
I cleared my throat and changed the subject.
“More importantly, Your Highness, what are you doing here?”
“This is my room.”
“Oh… right.”
I stared at him blankly with my mouth hanging open.
The Crown Prince covered his mouth and turned his head away.
His shoulders were trembling.
“…Please don’t laugh.”
“My apologies.”
He hurriedly swallowed his laughter and apologized to me.
That only made it more embarrassing….
I even fell asleep while eating in front of him on our wedding night.
At this rate, I really couldn’t complain if he treated me like a child.
I buried my burning face in both hands and let out a sigh.
Then, in a voice still carrying the remnants of laughter, the Crown Prince called out to me.
“My Lady.”
“Yes?”
“I was just about to come see you.”
“Huh?”
When I looked up, the Crown Prince leaned out the window and beckoned me closer.
As I approached, he lowered his voice.
“The blonde court lady standing behind you… she’s your personal maid, isn’t she? Is she someone you can trust?”
“Yes. I trust her more than anyone. Her name is Ansi.”
“Good. I’ve arranged a way for you to escape. Please flee together with that maid.”
“…What?”
Why would I run away?
As I stared at him in confusion, the Crown Prince reached out his hand—
Only to withdraw it just before touching me.
It looked as though he’d unconsciously tried to pat my head before suddenly stopping himself.
“…It is dangerous for you to remain in this palace, My Lady. You must leave tonight.”
His expression was completely serious.
I gazed up at him blankly before asking,
“Is this because of the attack?”
“The attack?”
The boy’s eyes widened.
What?
Chief Court Lady Kim knew, but he didn’t?
It was about his own wife.
Even the Royal Investigation Bureau had already been dispatched.
Looks like no one told him. They’ve really cut off all his connections.
Then naturally, he probably hadn’t heard that I had agreed to treat the Queen either.
But in just half a day, he says he’s already prepared a way for me to escape?
Something felt off.
I rose onto my tiptoes and whispered into his ear.
“Your Highness, what exactly is this escape plan?”
“One of my eunuchs has bribed a soldier who will guide you. Leave through the side gate. Someone outside the palace has also been arranged to escort you to the harbor. Simply follow him…”
The eunuch.
The image I had seen through the Karmic Mirror of a eunuch giving orders to an assassin flashed through my mind.
Of course, there were countless eunuchs in the palace.
But to learn that I’d finished paying my respects and then prepare and dispatch assassins that quickly…
“Is that eunuch the person you trust the most?”
“Yes. Even after I became… like this, he never abandoned me.”
“Is he always by your side?”
“He is. He cannot stay too close because of my constitution, but if I ring the bell rope, he comes immediately.”
“So while staying by Your Highness’s side, he managed to prepare all of this within half a day? He must be quite capable.”
“He’s very resourceful. He also has many connections.”
“Then there’s no way he didn’t hear that I was attacked this morning…. Yet he never told Your Highness on purpose. Was he worried you’d become anxious?”
Pretending to be innocent, I tilted my head as I asked.
The Crown Prince’s complexion changed.
He might still be young and easily deceived by adults, but he was intelligent enough to immediately grasp what I was implying.
His face turned deathly pale.
“My Lady… you were attacked?”
“Ah, yes. It’s fine. I wasn’t hurt.”
“That’s not the issue!”
The boy raised his voice.
He glanced around anxiously before continuing in an agitated tone.
“No matter what, I think it would be best if you left the palace as soon as night falls. Until then, stay at Unyeondang—no, stay at Jamnyongdang. You can use the room next to mine. If you’re beside me, then no one will be able to approach you while I’m watching—”
Interrupting the frightened stream of words pouring from him, I asked,
“Your Highness, could you summon that eunuch right now? I’d like to meet him and ask him a few questions.”
“You’ll be leaving together, so it would be good for you to recognize his face beforehand. I’ll ring the bell rope. Please wait on the wooden veranda.”
“All right.”
I had no intention of escaping, nor was I actually interested in memorizing his face.
Still, I nodded and headed toward the veranda.
After Ansi and I sat there waiting for a short while, a eunuch entered the courtyard of Jamnyongdang.
“Your Highness, you called for… Ah, Her Highness the Crown Princess is here as well.”
The eunuch noticed me and bowed respectfully.
I smiled.
Found you this easily.
It was the very same face I had already seen through the Karmic Mirror.
Right.
Only someone constantly glued to the Crown Prince’s side could immediately know I’d survived, hear about my visit to the Queen, and dispatch assassins so quickly.
He probably had those assassins prepared in case the Crown Prince refused to enter the bridal chamber.
When the Crown Prince obediently entered the bridal chamber, he’d probably relaxed.
But after I came out alive instead of dying, he must have panicked and sent the assassins.
Let’s confirm it.
[Ansi, block the sound with the wind so nothing leaks outside.]
[Yes, Princess.]
When I simply stared at him without even acknowledging his greeting, the eunuch laughed awkwardly.
“Your Highness the Crown Princess, is there perhaps something you’d like to ask me?”
“There is.”
“Please ask anything. I’ll answer whatever I can.”
“No. It’s fine.”
Because from this point on…
I’ll ask your life directly.
“…Hrk…!”
I opened the Heavenly Fate Eyes.
The eunuch instantly turned as white as a sheet.
Cold sweat poured from him like rain.
His legs trembled violently with terror, yet he couldn’t run away.
Nor could he avert his eyes from mine.
“Ugh… ngh…!”
As time passed, foam began forming at the corners of his mouth.
Maybe because he’s committed so many sins. He’s lasting even less than that court lady yesterday.
Just before his eyes rolled back, I closed the Heavenly Fate Eyes.
“Bleegh! Uwaaagh!”
The eunuch collapsed to the floor and vomited violently.
Humans definitely suffered far more from the Heavenly Fate Eyes than immortals.
And the more sins a human had committed, the less they could endure them.
I looked down coldly at the disoriented eunuch.
You really lived a filthy life.
He had deliberately remained beside the Crown Prince under orders from the person paying him.
He whispered into the lonely child’s ears that he alone had stayed when everyone else abandoned him, earning the prince’s complete trust.
Yet he had never done a single thing for the Crown Prince’s benefit.
He blocked communication between the King and the Crown Prince.
He ensured that no one could meet the Crown Prince without going through him.
He spread and exaggerated rumors that the Crown Prince was a deranged monster.
He even added rumors that the Crown Prince ate people.
To a child who isolated himself, never leaving his room or letting others come near because he was afraid of hurting someone.
A child who quietly endured poor meals and watched his residence fall into ruin like a prisoner.
He watched the child desperately trying not to harm anyone, then reported every detail of the Crown Prince’s condition to his patron, calling it “how to handle a monster.”
The reason the Crown Prince discovered that his darkness fed upon human fear…
Was because that eunuch had conducted one experiment after another in an effort to uncover the “monster’s” characteristics.
He even brought people to him himself, then manipulated the Crown Prince into feeling guilty by claiming His Highness had harmed another person again.
He knew the child was kind and always tried to do the right thing.
And he exploited that goodness without mercy.
He drove every other eunuch insane or forced them away, dismissed the wet nurse long ago, embezzled all the Eastern Palace’s funds since no one could stop him… He even stole the child’s food money. He really robbed everything he could.
No wonder the condition of the Eastern Palace had been so appalling.
As for the assassins, my guess had also been correct.
The one who prepared and dispatched them was the person behind this eunuch.
The eunuch’s role was simply to determine whether the Crown Prince entered the bridal chamber and relay that information.
Since the Crown Prince had gone inside, there had been no need to send the assassins that night.
Even so, they had remained on standby until morning just in case.
And because I became Luhwa, that “just in case” actually happened.
Faced with the unexpected situation, the eunuch immediately dispatched the assassins.
But I went straight to pay my respects at the Queen’s palace, ruining the timing.
The assassins had been about to withdraw when the eunuch ordered them to wait until I came out of the Queen’s Palace before attacking.
The rest…
I already knew.
So that’s why he’d been getting scolded until just now.
The bamboo grove attack had been entirely the eunuch’s own decision.
The person behind him had been furious.
The important thing wasn’t simply killing me.
It was killing me and pinning the murder on the Crown Prince.
What was the point of attacking somewhere the Crown Prince wasn’t even present?
I knew that attack had been far too blatant.
Which meant…
The people behind today’s attack and the people who murdered the real Luhwa the night before the wedding were different.
“Do you think it’s so easy to suppress an investigation by the Royal Investigation Bureau?!”
“I have sinned, Left State Councillor…”
Those were the words the eunuch had desperately pleaded with while being scolded.
The mastermind behind this morning’s attack…
Was the Left State Councillor of this kingdom.
If it’s the Left State Councillor, then he’s on Wan-eon-gun’s side.
Maegu—
No, Seokran had explained it before.
Wan-eon-gun was the Crown Prince’s cousin, the grandson of the current Left State Councillor, and the person considered most likely to become the next Crown Prince.
The one who paid and controlled this eunuch was that Left State Councillor, the leader of Wan-eon-gun’s faction.
The man who stood to gain if the Crown Prince were executed for murdering the imperial princess.
I’d have to deal with that faction eventually if I wanted to give the Crown Prince a better future.
So this works out nicely.
Still…
Then who really killed Luhwa?
At first, I’d thought it was someone willing to kill Luhwa in order to save the Crown Prince.
But after reviewing the life of the eunuch who had always remained at the Crown Prince’s side…
There didn’t seem to be anyone fitting that description.
Was it really a conspiracy targeting the King?
It seemed I’d need to summon Seokran and change the direction of the investigation.
“Your Highness, that man has fainted. What shall we do?”
“Mm. Wake him up.”
“As you command.”
Ansi hurried over to the collapsed eunuch.
The moment she saw the vomit, she grimaced.
Apparently unwilling to touch him directly, she lifted him into the air with the wind and shook him violently.
Wouldn’t that just make him vomit more?
“Bleegh…!”
As expected.
The moment the eunuch regained consciousness, he vomited all over again.
His face had turned a sickly gray-black.
He truly looked like he wished he were dead.
Ignoring his misery, Ansi turned back toward me with a bright smile.
“I’ve woken him up!”
“…Mm, good job. Just cover that mess with some sand or something and clean it up.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Ansi used the wind to cover the vomit and dry the eunuch’s soaked clothes.
Before long, he looked mostly presentable again.
Now…
It was time to tell the Crown Prince who this man really was.
The adult he’d trusted and relied on all this time turned out to be someone like this.
It was a cruel truth for a child.
But…
I couldn’t let him remain ignorant forever.
