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Chapter : 25
The Swarming Insects (5)
The Grim Reaper, bound with limbs splayed, screamed like someone in unbearable agony.
“Gah! Please don’t! There’s no law for this! Ugh! Stop it! Stop!”
Shaking his head, he struggled not to drink, and in the process, his entire body, starting from his head, was soaked with alcohol.
Because of this, three bottles were poured down, though most of it spilled.
Yet, enough alcohol remained, and Yeonho simply watched without flinching.
Meanwhile, Joyoung, watching the Reaper thrash in desperate agony, recalled a horrific memory.
‘Mother…’
Fifteen years ago, when her mother received a gift box from Hajinsan, Joyoung had seen the same unpleasant poisonous aura emanating from the cart that the Reaper brought—an aura she had never seen again.
Hajinsan, having traveled to various countries for business, returned a few months later and handed her mother a small, luxurious box adorned with gold.
“Is this really for me?”
Joyoung’s mother, who regarded Hajinsan as a son but was not recognized as such, was thrilled by the gift.
“I heard you haven’t been sleeping well recently. You seem weaker than before, so I brought some rare medicinal herbs from the Coral Kingdom.”
“Thank you. You must have had many grievances with me, yet you care so thoughtfully. I appreciate it. After such a long journey, is there anything you wish to eat? I want to prepare it myself.”
“No. Just take the medicine and rest. There are plenty of hands in the house; you don’t need to do it yourself.”
While they spoke, ten-year-old Joyoung’s attention was fixed on the box in her mother’s hands.
A black whirlpool seemed to coil atop it, and a murky red orb, resembling a bloodshot eye, seemed to glare at her.
“Mother, I think what’s inside is spoiled.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
The two turned to look at her simultaneously.
“It must be old and spoiled. There’s black dust on it.”
To young Joyoung, it merely looked like filthy dust covering the box.
Hajinsan’s expression stiffened, and seeing this, her mother scolded Joyoung.
“What are you saying? This is a gift your brother prepared just for me! Don’t speak such nonsense without knowing anything!”
Her mother clutched her arm tightly and shouted, but her eyes betrayed worry and sadness despite the angry voice.
“She must be upset because she didn’t receive a gift herself.”
After covering up for Hajinsan, her mother prepared the medicine herself and gave Joyoung a warning.
“Joyoung, you seem to have a special ability. But you must never let your brother or sister find out. Understand? You must follow your mother’s words.”
Her mother recognized her supernatural abilities but hid them, accepting Hajinsan’s gift despite knowing it contained poison.
That night, Joyoung wept bitterly, holding her mother as she died in agony, with no one entering the room.
The aura of poison from the Coral Kingdom’s herbs was identical to that emanating from the alcohol of the Nonam Kingdom.
Though Joyoung had rarely seen poison, she had felt it in wild mushrooms and poisonous plants.
Poisons all look different, but none matched the intensely unforgettable aura she had seen that day.
The Reaper knew very well that the alcohol was poisoned. That was why its limbs twisted violently, refusing to drink in anticipation of its painful death.
Her mother, much weaker and more timid than the Reaper, must have been terrified and in agony.
Lost in these painful thoughts, Joyoung’s chest tightened, and the lanterns hanging all around her seemed to whirl chaotically before her eyes.
“Your Highness the Princess!”
“Your Highness!”
Bukyeong and the maidservants called out, panicked, but Joyoung’s body collapsed weakly.
She fell to the ground, yet felt no pain—rather, a sensation of floating.
Despite the dizziness and confusion, she forced her eyes open to see what had happened.
It was no trick of the mind.
‘The Lord…’
Through her blurred vision, she saw the monarch’s face looking down at her.
Joyoung’s body was limp in Yeonho’s arms.
Even in the unclear view, she noticed his worried expression staring at her.
Strangely, her previously tight chest felt at ease.
Resting her weight in his arms felt natural.
Since arriving at Bisanseong, she had never felt more comfortable.
His lips parted slightly.
“You may relax now. It’s all over.”
Drawn by his soft whisper, Joyoung closed her eyes and fell asleep.
The incident at the princess’s banquet was witnessed by too many, and rumors spread quickly.
Yeonho allowed the rumors to distort and exaggerate.
The wise and resolute princess had stopped the Nonam tribe’s evil plot despite her weak condition.
Thanks to her foresight and decisiveness, everyone in the banquet hall survived, though the princess collapsed and became critically ill.
The monarch was utterly devoted to such a princess.
Most of it was true, though slightly exaggerated.
The important point was that everyone believed the princess’s marriage was delayed due to her recuperation from the banquet ordeal.
“I believed you were fine. I thought you were faking illness to skip the banquet. Faking it would’ve been better. I won’t trust your word that you’re fine again.”
Hearing the news that Joyoung had awoken, Yeonho feigned scolding her.
Joyoung responded with a bittersweet, melancholic smile.
“Didn’t Bukyeong tell you? I didn’t faint because I was sick—I was hungry. I couldn’t eat while pretending to be unwell…”
“Exactly. Then why did you come out in that state?”
“….”
Having returned once because she couldn’t escape due to Jimil, Joyoung couldn’t say that she had gone out to avoid putting him in trouble.
“You were in a fragile state and witnessed something harsh. Isn’t it a blessing it ended here?”
“Ah, what about the Reaper?”
“Alive.”
“Ah? So the poison wasn’t real?”
Joyoung’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Of course not. He admitted the poison was terrifying. We deliberated whether to decapitate him or return the ‘gift.’”
Clearly, the gift was never genuine.
Joyoung felt guilty for seemingly crossing an irretrievable line with the Nonam tribe and Bisanseong.
“Ah… I overstepped, and things became too serious, didn’t I? If it were the monarch, he would’ve handled it wisely, returning the gift without angering the Reaper while maintaining peace with the Nonam tribe.”
Yeonho tilted his head, amused, and replied:
“How competent do you think I am?”
“Excuse me?”
“I had no skill to persuade those who intended poison to turn back. Without your intervention, they might have tricked me into drinking it. Thanks to your wit, everyone survived. That you even thought to pour the alcohol into the rain gutter—I couldn’t have imagined it.”
Blushing, Joyoung lowered her gaze, not from shyness, but embarrassment.
She had acted only to prevent the monarch from drinking the dangerous liquor. She thought no one else could stop it.
When the Reaper calmly accepted the coiled poisoned cup and even sneered, she panicked and dropped the bottle. She hadn’t anticipated the alcohol flowing into the pond—it was pure luck.
“By the way, how did you know for certain that the alcohol was poisoned and that he had taken an antidote?”
At the time of the incident, she hadn’t considered he would ask that.
Only now, worried about the aftermath, she improvised an answer, drawing on her experiences at Hagajang.
“Honestly, I wasn’t completely sure either. But being cautious never hurts.”
Fortunately, Yeonho understood.
He assumed her grim expression came from the hardships imposed by the royal life.
The marks of abuse on her body suggested she must have felt the threat of poisoning.
Yeonho felt compassion and, sensing a kindred situation, gently embraced her weary shoulders.
