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Chapter 9
An Ominous Feeling (2)
Ana Rosa opened her mouth, thinking that if she were the Emperor, she would have the Crown Prince’s head chopped off first.
“As you said, this person is the Empress of Mun, and it would not be proper for me to concern myself with the customs of Ausian officials. What happens in that country is for that country to deal with. I am well aware that Your Highness possesses a broad and generous temperament and therefore has a tendency not to be overly bound by etiquette. However, this person cannot behave in such a manner.”
The Crown Prince openly ground his teeth.
Damn woman. Just wait until I ascend the throne. You…
Barely restraining his anger, the Crown Prince glanced at the back of Ana Rosa’s neck. The pale, slender line visible between the overlapping collars stirred something lustful within him.
This woman was the Empress, yet she was still a virgin.
She had married at twelve, so her body must have remained pure, and having been raised as the Empress of Mun, surely no one had dared lay a hand upon her.
The Crown Prince did not believe most of what his father told him, but he thoroughly believed that his father had never touched the second Empress. His father’s tastes were famous, after all. And besides, the way his father treated this woman…
The very thought made bile rise in his throat.
The Crown Prince had already decided that once he ascended the throne, he would take this woman for himself.
He had to.
She was a vessel containing the essence of his father. If she was his father’s cherished possession, then surely it was only proper that the eldest son inherit her.
Ana Rosa could read that gaze as well.
“Madam Han.”
At Ana Rosa’s words, Blanca immediately spoke.
“Your Majesty cannot speak regarding the customs of foreign subjects. Furthermore, you are prohibited from meeting foreign envoys separately. If I may cite the relevant article of Mun law…”
“Enough.”
There was no such provision in Mun law. The Crown Prince knew that too.
But these yellow- and red-haired women would surely twist some other clause into something plausible and turn his own behavior against him.
Whenever the Crown Prince looked at the Empress and her closest attendant, Han Bu-ryeon, he was reminded of an old saying:
A woman’s education should be limited.
The saying went that an educated woman did not know obedience, behaved insolently, and inevitably crushed the spirit of a true man.
It was, in the Crown Prince’s opinion, a saying without a single word of falsehood.
The Crown Prince stood without even touching the cup of tea a palace maid had brought him.
Watching him rise, the Empress did not bother to stand.
Surely he had not come all the way to this secluded part of the palace merely to spout such trivialities.
Ana Rosa watched the Crown Prince’s back as he left, still holding her teacup.
With that temperament of his, he would surely throw out one last thing he wanted to say before leaving…
Sure enough, just before he completely exited the guest hall, the Crown Prince turned back toward her.
“But why are those people from that country looking for physicians? Does that country have no physicians of its own?”
Menios must have made himself conspicuous indeed.
Or perhaps the Crown Prince had assigned someone to keep an eye on Menios.
“A physician? Who is looking for one?”
When Ana Rosa pretended not to know, the Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed.
Ana Rosa met his gaze directly, as though she were genuinely curious about who was searching for a physician.
The Crown Prince answered.
“I was merely concerned that perhaps Your Majesty was feeling unwell.”
“This person is perfectly healthy.”
“As you should be. You must remain healthy for a very long time so that you may enjoy all the glory that has been prepared for your future.”
She could almost hear the unspoken words behind his voice.
That way, once I ascend the throne, I can thoroughly have you.
Ana Rosa looked at the Crown Prince’s face and gave a bitter smile.
“Of course. This person is young and healthy, with no problems whatsoever. Though who knows once I pass forty. I might develop boils. Perhaps I could suddenly suffer a nosebleed and collapse.”
The Crown Prince’s eyes widened.
Last year, he had collapsed after suffering a nosebleed. Worried that it might damage his position as Crown Prince, he had ordered everyone inside and outside the Eastern Palace to keep silent about it.
That was why most people knew nothing of the incident.
But Ana Rosa knew.
And the boils.
The Crown Prince had developed boils on his body, and they caused him considerable pain. It was because of them that he always went to a detached palace with hot springs whenever winter arrived.
Knowing about the Crown Prince’s health, even the Emperor did not reproach him for traveling so far every winter and causing hardship to the people. He merely told him to take care of himself and return safely.
For an Emperor who hated imposing unnecessary burdens upon his subjects, it was the one extravagance he alone was willing to overlook.
Flames seemed to shoot from the Crown Prince’s eyes.
He appeared to believe that his father had told his young wife every last detail about him.
Ana Rosa had no intention of correcting that misunderstanding.
She could, if she wanted to.
But even if she corrected him, the Crown Prince would probably continue wanting to believe that his father was deliberately doing malicious things to him.
The Emperor was not doing anything malicious to the Crown Prince.
If anything, he was using the logic of Confucianism to shield his eldest son—a man who dared either refuse to obey him or pretend to obey while committing insolent acts behind his back.
Ana Rosa respected the Emperor greatly.
But she could not agree with the way he dealt with the Crown Prince.
Their gazes passed between them as though each could have stabbed the other to death.
As always, the Crown Prince was the first to look away.
The Crown Prince was forever grinding his teeth at the thought that, once he ascended the throne, he would force himself upon Ana Rosa.
Yet as long as he remained Crown Prince, he was such a petty man that he could not even win a staring contest against her while she was the Empress.
“Idiot.”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Ana Rosa muttered the word in Ausian.
She had no idea whether he understood what it meant, but he would certainly have understood the tone.
She did not care.
Blanca was walking through the streets at night.
Within the delegation, people had mocked Mun for being a place without even a single gas lamp.
But in truth, Blanca preferred the nighttime streets of Mun.
There might be no gas lamps, but there were paper lanterns instead.
Round lanterns covered in paper hung from long strings, each casting its own light over the streets.
The light was both dim and bright at once.
It was so beautiful that it seemed almost dreamlike.
Whenever she crossed a bridge lined with hanging lanterns, Blanca found herself looking down at the river without meaning to.
The lanterns reflected upon the water were simply too beautiful.
“Madam Han, this way.”
The palace slave assigned to guide Blanca urged her onward in a quiet voice.
She was apparently fourteen years old this year.
Though she had been sold into the palace as a slave, she was a spirited child.
Whenever Blanca saw her smiling brightly as she spoke of how entering the palace had allowed her parents and younger siblings to avoid starving to death, Blanca could not help but treat her kindly.
So Blanca had taught the girl how to read, write, and do arithmetic.
The child had gradually grown, and by now she was capable of forming rather sensible thoughts of her own.
“What sort of woman is the courtesan named Seoryeo?”
“She’s such a beauty that they say passersby stop breathing when they see her, and even the passing years go blind and stop in their tracks when they behold Seoryeo. They say no woman alive today surpasses her beauty.”
“Then why, despite being counted among the finest in Yeongyeon, is she not called the greatest courtesan in the capital?”
“Seoryeo is beautiful, but she cannot hear. Since she cannot hear, she cannot speak either. She cannot sing or recite poetry.”
A courtesan was supposed to be a haeohwa—a flower that could understand human speech.
Since Seoryeo could not speak, people belittled her, saying she was merely a flower.
Pretty, perhaps, but nothing more.
Yet whenever Seoryeo actually appeared before them, the mouths that had once proclaimed, What good is a courtesan who cannot sing or dance, no matter how beautiful she is? would hang open, unable to close again.
And unable to utter another word.
At that explanation, someone immediately came to Blanca’s mind.
Ana Rosa.
Ana Rosa had been famous as a “pretty princess” since childhood.
Even around the age of twelve, when she married into the Mun imperial family, she had already been an unparalleled beauty.
Now, at nineteen, her beauty was so extraordinary that calling her a woman capable of bringing kingdoms to ruin would hardly have been an exaggeration.
Her golden hair, like delicate sunlight from a winter morning, fell in gentle waves, shining with a lustrous glow.
Her mysterious eyes held the color of an emerald sea, sparkling with intelligence.
Her nose had an elegant, high bridge—not arrogant, but possessing the unmistakable impression of a firm will.
Her lips were neither large nor small, but full and red, with the peculiar ability to make even a bitter smile seem sweet.
Her skin was clear and pale, giving softness to an otherwise strong-looking woman.
Her cheeks, touched with the color of peach blossoms, sometimes even made her appear shy.
Blanca had seen that face every day for seven years, yet she still occasionally found herself marveling at Ana Rosa’s beauty.
Sometimes, people who saw Ana Rosa for the first time—men and women alike—would simply lose the ability to speak. Their mouths would open and close soundlessly as they struggled to find words.
On the day Ana Rosa departed Ausis for Mun, an Ausian poet had seen her from a distance and later written a poem about her.
One phrase in it described her as:
“A creation upon which God had lavished particular care.”
Blanca thought there could be no more accurate description of Ana Rosa.
And yet, because Blanca had spent her life looking at Ana Rosa, she had learned that true unparalleled beauty was not ultimately determined by individual features.
Among women beautiful enough to be called national treasures, the quality of their individual features inevitably became somewhat similar.
If there was still a particular woman whose beauty inspired extraordinary admiration, it was because her aura was different.
Seoryeo must surely be such a woman.
And women like that could easily captivate others.
If they actively wished to enchant someone, it would be even easier.
And even when they did not intend to, people often wanted to be captivated by them of their own accord.
It did not particularly matter whether the person being captivated was of the opposite sex or the same.
I need to be careful.
Blanca bit down gently on the inside of her lip as she waited in an inner room of the pleasure house.
Then the door opened.
Seoryeo appeared.
