🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 12
Sitting on the Safflower Blossom (2)
The Ha clan, which managed the Upper Hall, was keenly sensitive to political currents. Because of that, Jo-yeong had picked up bits and pieces of information from within Jo Yeong-do’s household.
Still, until just a moment ago, even though she knew of the political connections between the Crown Prince and the Princess, the Empress and the Prince, and Kang Yeon-ho, she had thought they were matters unrelated to herself and hadn’t clearly grasped how those relationships fit together.
Then, at Yeon-ho’s words just now, she realized it.
Lord Kang Yeon-ho intended to marry the Princess to gain the power of the Yeo family of Consort Hwa.
This marriage, then, was nothing more than a transaction for power.
It was a far more concrete and deliberate scheme than a simple desire to marry a princess and form ties with the imperial family.
Perhaps because she wasn’t the real princess, or perhaps because she wanted to believe that the Princess was more unfortunate than herself, Jo-yeong found the ruler—who accepted such a marriage as a matter of course—cold and heartless.
“Anyway, this is only a supposition. If—if within three months, despite my status, Your Lordship decides you wish to cast me aside… then please open the city gate for me.”
In truth, Jo-yeong wanted to secure a promise from Yeon-ho in advance, in preparation for the day her impersonation was discovered.
Her request was simple: do not charge her with any crime, do not send her back home, do not hand her over to Ji Man-il—just let her go.
She couldn’t say that outright, so she spoke in roundabout terms, but the ruler’s expression darkened.
Yeon-ho daring to furrow his brow before the Princess wasn’t because he disliked her words; it was because he was pondering whether his understanding was correct.
“You are asking me to turn a blind eye and pretend not to know when the Princess escapes?”
“Yes.”
“Would it not be better to seek out Jeong Jae-in and ask to be sent to him?”
“What I want is to be let go. Nothing more.”
Jo-yeong answered firmly.
Though she hadn’t intended it, because of that, she looked like a true princess for the first time that day.
And Yeon-ho relaxed his frown.
To overlook a princess’s escape?
That was no minor crime.
But Yeon-ho had no need to refuse the Princess’s difficult request.
“Yes. I will do so. I will let you go.”
After all, there was no chance that he would cast the Princess aside.
After finishing his meal with the Princess and returning, Yeon-ho summoned the chief maid, Bu-gyeong.
“How does the Princess seem to you?”
“There are no signs of illness, but her energy is depleted and her body is weak. Would it be well to offer her a restorative tonic?”
Before becoming chief maid, Bu-gyeong had served as a physician in Yeon-ho’s army. After she married and bore a child, she became a maid through Yeon-ho’s consideration.
“Choose a good medicine as you see fit.”
“Well… I don’t know if it is proper to say this lightly, but…”
Bu-gyeong was not someone who failed to distinguish between what should and should not be said. When she hesitated so carefully, there was always a reason.
“There is nothing you cannot say to me. You’ve already begun—go on.”
“On Her Highness the Princess’s body… there are scars.”
“Scars? Likely injuries from childhood.”
“It is not just one or two places… and they do not seem to be ordinary injuries.”
“If not ordinary injuries, then… could it be…?”
Bu-gyeong lowered her head apologetically as she spoke.
“Yes. I struggled for a long time over whether I should report scars that ought not to exist on the body of such a noble person, or whether I should pretend not to see them. Still, since Your Lordship is to become her husband, I thought it best to inform you in advance. Please do not be startled.”
“Thank you for telling me. For now, I will pretend not to know.”
“The scars are faint, so the other maids do not seem to have noticed. I, too, will keep silent.”
“Very well.”
Bu-gyeong withdrew after reporting only on the Princess.
That there were signs of abuse on the Princess’s body was something difficult to believe even after seeing it firsthand.
Yet Yeon-ho believed Bu-gyeong’s report.
A medical woman who had tended the wounded on the battlefield would not mistake scars, and Bu-gyeong—discreet and cautious—would never speak so decisively without certainty.
And unlike Bu-gyeong, Yeon-ho was not all that shocked.
It was possible.
The imperial household was a place where far more sordid and revolting things happened than ordinary people imagined.
That the Empress and the Prince, who bore resentment toward the Crown Prince, might vent their anger by abusing the daughter of Consort Hwa was hardly surprising.
A powerless consort would not have been able to protect her daughter from the Empress, and if the Princess had had to keep silent for her mother’s sake, it was entirely plausible.
To the Princess, the imperial palace must have been hell.
“So that’s why she leaned on Jeong Jae-in.”
The closest person to her, and the only source of comfort.
Yeon-ho had been confident he could win the Princess’s heart.
He believed that once she grew distant from Jeong Jae-in, she would eventually give up and accept him.
But now, that confidence—that he could replace Jeong Jae-in—had vanished.
“Was it a mistake to make such a promise?”
It was when he began to regret giving her three months.
“General, you should come out.”
He heard Ju Yul-bok calling.
There was only one reason the man would seek him out at this hour of the night.
“So things have been quiet lately, I thought…”
On the very day he welcomed the Princess, cavalry of the Nonam tribe had violated the border.
Yeon-ho immediately began preparations to march out.
Step, step—the leisurely sound of feet treading on soft grass.
The silk shoes cradling her feet were plush, and the hem of her skirt, dampened by dew on the grass, felt light.
It felt strange that someone who, until recently, had trudged across gravel in worn straw sandals was now strolling luxuriously through a garden.
To others, it might look like a relaxed morning walk, breathing in the dawn air—but that was not the case.
Jo-yeong had not slept properly since the first day.
Even when exhaustion carried her into early sleep, she would soon wake from restless dreams of being chased.
After that, her heart would be too unsettled to fall asleep again.
It had been only two days since she arrived here, and she had yet to adjust; moreover, impersonating a princess for the first time in her life left her anxious about being exposed.
What was fortunate, at least, was that Kang Yeon-ho, the lord of Bisan Fortress, was away on campaign.
Having to face him was the hardest part of all, given that she was deceiving him about her identity and had gone through a wedding with him.
Of course, she was worried about him being on the battlefield.
“Please come back without being hurt.”
She, too, had long heard of Kang Yeon-ho’s reputation as a good ruler and an excellent general.
She had been disappointed by the cold, calculating side he showed—coldly weighing his own gain in the marriage to the Princess—but perhaps that was unavoidable to maintain his position. In some way, she could even understand it.
That her aversion toward him had turned into something closer to fondness in just two days was because of the maids here.
Bu-gyeong and the other young maids always treated her with bright smiles. It wasn’t only her—they were kind and warm-hearted with everyone.
While serving the unfamiliar and intimidating Princess with utmost care, they also approached her with genuine affection.
It seemed they worried that a princess, leaving behind the one she loved to marry alone in a distant land, might feel lonely.
As if to soothe her heart, they told her many stories about Bisan Fortress—and most of them were anecdotes about Kang Yeon-ho.
How reliable he was to the people of Bisan, how warm he was to those beneath him, how he dispensed rewards and punishments fairly regardless of status.
They told of his past achievements as engagingly as the life story of a great hero.
They even said that many young women who admired him had once sent love letters and gifts.
Hearing that, Jo-yeong wondered if the maids had heard something about the Princess’s beloved.
Didn’t all these stories seem like efforts to turn the Princess’s heart toward Yeon-ho?
But that didn’t seem to be the case.
You could tell just by the atmosphere of the fortress itself. The maids’ words were not lies.
And so Jo-yeong’s heart grew even more troubled and heavy.
“To have to deceive such a good man… even three months feels long. If only I disappeared as soon as possible, he could find the real Princess that much sooner.”
The reason she had risen early and was walking through the rear garden was also to learn the layout of the fortress.
That way, when he left the fortress leading his troops, it would be easier for her to escape.
For now, she didn’t know the terrain at all, and since he was already suspicious of her, it was better to learn the lay of the land than to flee blindly.
The stories the maids told were also helpful, as they taught her about Bisan Fortress.
“Yes. Let’s not rush. It’s only been two days. An opportunity will surely come.”
She had just steeled her resolve and was about to return to her quarters when—
Lost too deeply in thought, she seemed to have wandered without paying attention to where her feet carried her.
“Where… am I?”
