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Chapter: 24
I silently placed the prescription and the gold bars into Choi Jamyeong’s arms, then pointed toward the door.
“You should go now.”
“…Your Highness, Crown Princess, I…”
“That’s enough. I’m going to read, so don’t disturb me. Hurry up and leave.”
When I waved my hand dismissively, Choi Jamyeong looked down at the prescription before speaking with tear-filled eyes.
“Your Highness… I will never, ever forget this kindness.”
“It isn’t my kindness—it’s your good fortune. I already told you to leave. Are you going to ignore me again?”
“N-No, Your Highness.”
The moment I frowned, Choi Jamyeong hurried to her feet and rushed toward the door. She stopped in front of it, turned back, bowed deeply to me, and then quietly left the room.
Now I can finally read.
I opened the book, but the words wouldn’t register.
Choi Jamyeong’s tearful face from moments ago lingered before my eyes. Then So-hwa’s face as she saw me off, the Crown Prince’s blank expression when I suggested we practice together, and Seol Deunghwa’s face when she reacted to my promise of revenge all floated through my mind one after another.
Something’s making my heart race. This feels strange…
It was an unfamiliar feeling, but not an unpleasant one.
What should I call it?
Happiness?
Satisfaction?
Joy?
Was this how it felt to help someone with my own strength for the first time?
It felt as though a tiny, sparkling star was slowly taking shape inside my heart.
…I should check whether the other palace attendants are struggling too. I need to adapt to being the Crown Princess as soon as possible and properly help the Crown Prince too…
Only after making up my mind were I finally able to focus on the text.
After carefully reviewing the palace attendants’ registry, I reached for the law books and royal protocol records that Head Court Lady Kim and the court ladies had piled up for me.
“Your Highness?”
After losing track of time while reading, I heard Ansi’s voice. I’d sent him out on an errand earlier.
“Oh, you’re back?”
When I looked up, Ansi flew in through the window, folded his wings, and stared at me as though he couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
“Your Highness descended to the human world because, with a healthy body, you wished to do everything you had never been able to do before, did you not?”
“That’s right. Why?”
“Then… why are you studying…?”
“Because it’s something I wanted to do.”
“…Pardon? Studying? I thought you meant you wanted to spend your time having fun.”
“I’ve already spent enough time lying around doing nothing. Now I want to try things I’ve never done before.”
“So what you wanted to do in the human world… was study?”
“No. I want to try lots of other things too. There are many things I want to learn.”
“But learning is studying, isn’t it?”
“Hm? I suppose you’re right. Then let’s say I want to study all sorts of different things.”
“If Ansi had to live like Your Highness, my brain would cramp up and I would die on the spot.”
“That’s because you only studied when someone forced you to. If you’re learning because you want to, studying is actually really fun.”
“Whaaaat? Your Highness is always right… always right… but… that’s a little…”
Ansi made a horrified face.
I chuckled before glancing at the clock.
“Ahhh!”
“Your Highness? What is wrong?”
“I’m late!”
Recently, I’d been meeting the Crown Prince every day in the backyard of Jamnyong Hall to help him practice controlling darkness.
The time we’d agreed to meet had long since passed.
Throwing the book aside, I hurried to my feet and ran through the corridor between Unyeondang and Jamnyong Hall.
“Huff… huff…”
By the time I barely reached the backyard, I was breathing hard.
Ansi, whose breathing hadn’t become disturbed in the slightest, looked at me with a grumble.
“Please don’t overexert yourself over a mere human. It worries me.”
“This body isn’t so weak that this much tires me out. More importantly… where did he go?”
Did he get tired of waiting and go back inside?
As I looked around the empty backyard and peeked through the windows, Ansi narrowed his eyes and pointed toward the front gate of Jamnyong Hall.
“I hear human voices over there. More than one or two of them.”
“Hm? What’s going on? Let’s go.”
There shouldn’t have been anyone coming to see the Crown Prince.
At the moment, he had no eunuchs, no guards, and wasn’t even receiving an education befitting the Crown Prince.
The Eastern Palace registry had been practically empty. There wasn’t even a single instructor from the Crown Prince’s academy.
He bore the title of Crown Prince, but in reality he was treated little differently from a criminal under house arrest.
Naturally, there should have been no visitors.
When I hurried toward the front gate, I found an absurd scene unfolding.
“Oh dear, forgive me, Your Highness.”
“…”
“I had no idea that food lying around on the roadside like this belonged to the Crown Prince. This older brother made an unfortunate mistake.”
A tall boy with an immature face smiled as he looked back at the followers standing behind him.
“I thought it was dog food. Didn’t you all think so?”
“Since it was just sitting there on the dirt, Lord Wan-eon could easily have mistaken it for dog food.”
“Right? You heard that, didn’t you, Your Highness? So you can’t accuse me of doing it on purpose.”
So that’s the one barking like a dog.
That’s Wan-eon-gun.
The petty-looking fellow, whose appearance matched his personality, looked down at the Crown Prince.
Between them lay an overturned meal table.
It seemed to have originally been placed before the front gate, but it looked as though someone had kicked it over.
Bowls had rolled everywhere, while rice, side dishes, and soup were scattered all over the ground.
Wait… this is how they deliver the Crown Prince’s meals? They just leave them on the ground in front of the gate?
So he had to come out himself and carry it inside every day?
And why were the side dishes so pitiful?
The soup didn’t even seem to have any ingredients in it.
His treatment was truly appalling.
It was almost surprising he hadn’t already been stripped of the title of Crown Prince.
They lock him in the Eastern Palace, stop his education, and even feed him like this… If they’re going to treat him this way, they might as well depose him.
In any case, it seemed that this bastard had deliberately kicked over the meal tray just to provoke him.
Even I was getting angry watching it.
Yet the Crown Prince hardly reacted at all.
Perhaps he was enduring it.
Or perhaps he’d simply grown used to it.
When the Crown Prince silently raised his head after looking at the overturned tray, Wan-eon-gun exaggeratedly threw his arms up and stepped back.
“Oh my, how frightening.”
“…”
“Your Highness, you’re not planning to kill your elder brother over one little mistake, are you? Like some inhuman monster?”
“…”
“I do enjoy sleeping, but I have no desire to sleep for two straight years like Her Majesty the Queen.”
“…!”
“Please don’t glare at me like that. It’s terrifying. I’m not thick-skinned enough to commit an act of unfilial cruelty like Your Highness and still walk around with my head held high.”
The Crown Prince looked as though he wanted to protest.
But after hearing those words, he lowered his head instead.
I could see the boy’s clenched fists trembling.
Wan-eon-gun shrugged toward his followers and continued to ramble.
“If it were me, I’d at least have enough shame to hang myself. But Your Highness…”
I’ve seriously had enough of this.
I quietly walked toward the front gate.
Hearing my footsteps, everyone turned to look.
The Crown Prince looked startled.
Wan-eon-gun gave a whistle.
“Little sister-in-law.”
“So you’re the silver-haired child? Aren’t you my younger brother’s wife? You’re even cuter than I’d heard. If you grow up like this, you’ll become exactly my type of beauty.”
At Wan-eon-gun’s snickering words, the previously silent Crown Prince sharply interrupted.
“Brother. She is Her Highness the Crown Princess. Mind your manners.”
“What did I say wrong? Ah, is it because of the title? She’s my younger brother’s wife, so she’s naturally my sister-in-law, isn’t she?”
“Your Highness, please go inside.”
“That’s rather cold, Your Highness. We’ve only just met. Surely you can spare enough time for greetings? We’re family now, aren’t we? Besides, I have something I’d like to tell her.”
“What could you possibly have to say to the Crown Princess?”
“Oh, the State Tribunal suspects my maternal grandfather of being behind those assassins who attacked your wife. Him, of all people—the very picture of honesty.”
“…”
“My grandfather is utterly dumbfounded. Honestly, to make such outrageous accusations based solely on the words of some insignificant eunuch… So, if my dear sister-in-law has misunderstood anything, I thought I’d personally clear things up.”
How could every single word out of his mouth be so irritating?
Not a single sentence worth listening to.
[Your Highness! That insolent wretch dares look at Princess like that! Let Ansi rip his mouth apart—]
[No! Ansi, hold back just a little longer. He’s only human. Please endure it.]
Emotionally, I completely agreed with Ansi.
But solving problems that way wasn’t an option.
As I calmed the furious Ansi and stepped forward, the Crown Prince moved first, stretched out an arm, and shielded me behind him.
Is this little guy actually trying to protect me? He’s so tiny…
“Oh my.”
“It doesn’t seem appropriate for Brother to concern himself with this matter. Please leave.”
“My, my. Newlyweds, are we? Seeing our young Crown Prince already grown enough to protect his wife fills this elder brother’s heart with pride. Why don’t you show even a fraction of that devotion toward your parents?”
I’d stayed quiet for a moment because I found it admirable that the boy had stepped forward to protect me.
But I really couldn’t listen any longer.
Slipping out from beneath the Crown Prince’s arm, I looked up at Wan-eon-gun.
“So Lord Wan-eon can’t even tell the difference between dog food and a person’s meal, yet somehow you’re able to distinguish whether His Highness cares for his parents or not?”
For a brief moment, Wan-eon-gun was speechless.
Then he let out a scoff.
“…Ha? Such a little brat, flapping her mouth without knowing her place…”
“I wonder which one of us actually doesn’t know their place. A royal who hasn’t even been formally admitted to the palace or granted an official title dares behave so arrogantly before the Crown Prince.”
The only child born to the current King and Queen was Crown Prince Cheon Gyeol-woo.
The King had never taken any concubines.
Yet despite that, Wan-eon-gun was older than the Crown Prince and was even considered a possible successor.
The circumstances behind that were rather complicated.
Seok-ran explained it to me.
Back when the current King had still been a prince, the Crown Prince had not been him but his elder brother, Grand Prince Gang-on.
Unfortunately, Grand Prince Gang-on had been an utter scoundrel.
People had even discussed removing him as Crown Prince.
Yet even while those discussions were taking place, he continued his outrageous behavior.
One day, after climbing over a wall, he assaulted a noblewoman.
That woman happened to be the illegitimate daughter of the Left State Councillor.
Rather than expose the crime, the Left State Councillor sought to make his daughter the Crown Princess, thereby becoming the Crown Prince’s father-in-law.
Though she was born of a concubine, she was still his daughter.
She was also carrying Grand Prince Gang-on’s child, making such a marriage a real possibility.
However, before either the deposition or the marriage arrangements could be finalized, Grand Prince Gang-on went boating, fell into the water, and suddenly died.
As a result, the current King naturally became the new Crown Prince.
The councillor’s daughter never entered the palace.
The child she later gave birth to outside the palace was none other than Wan-eon-gun.
In short, he was the posthumous illegitimate son of Grand Prince Gang-on, the current King’s elder brother.
His name was Cheon Jin-woo (天珍宇), four years older than the Crown Prince, now fifteen.
Since he had been born outside the palace to a prince who had nearly been deposed, he was never formally brought into the palace nor granted a proper royal title.
Nevertheless, he was acknowledged as Grand Prince Gang-on’s only son.
Thanks largely to the influence of the Left State Councillor, he was entered into the royal genealogy under the courtesy title Wan-eon-gun.
I’d heard he wasn’t even allowed into the palace until after the Crown Prince became possessed by the darkness.
Apparently I’d struck a nerve.
Wan-eon-gun’s face instantly turned red, then blue with rage.
“Who says I never received a proper title? I am Wan-eon Daegun—the legitimate eldest son of Grand Prince Gang-on! My name is officially recorded in the royal family register!”
“I’ve heard that ‘Daegun’ is a title reserved for legitimate royal princes. Lord Wan-eon isn’t legitimate, nor are you a prince, so shouldn’t you be called ‘Gun’ instead?”
“You insolent little wench!”
Enraged, Wan-eon-gun raised his hand to strike me.
