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Chapter – 30
Flies Away Like a Butterfly
Sometimes, the unconscious would show a different dimension.
The act of believing a delusion as truth, accepting it without reservation.
Isn’t that a frequent occurrence in fantasy-filled web novels?
The cliché events where a swapped soul shares the exact same senses as the body’s original memories.
‘But why.’
The scenery before my eyes… Whose memory is this?
A-mang blinked.
No, A-mang’s physical body did not exist here.
It was merely observed from a third-person perspective.
As if that was the final courtesy granted to A-mang.
‘It was clearly the Imperial Vault.’
After tucking the gold token into her sleeve, she had excitedly entered the Imperial Vault.
There, she had encountered a woman.
‘Consort Hwanyeong.’
A-mang waved her hand through the empty air, but no part of her body appeared.
A-mang did not exist here.
In a panic, A-mang turned her gaze and looked into the lake.
Surprisingly, nothing was reflected!
‘Crazy.’
What? What on earth is this situation?
Suddenly, her perfectly fine body had vanished.
‘Does this make any sense?’
Well, nothing made sense from the moment she possessed a character in a book.
The problem is, she doesn’t understand the intent behind this event!
‘Did I do something wrong?’
Was she too reckless for someone who possessed a character? Roaming around carelessly, poking into everything? Was it wrong to open the Imperial Vault in the first place?
No, but how could she have resisted!
“Young Lady!”
A-mang turned her body hurriedly.
“Young Lady, please come quickly!”
“Do I really have to go? Can’t you take Hui?”
“It was the master’s order!”
Two women were bickering in the distance.
The woman being dragged along looked like a young girl. Her attire was simple yet elegant.
And the person dragging the woman was…
‘Nan?’
It was Nan.
A-mang recognized the woman at a glance.
‘No, it’s Nan, but… something’s off.’
She had become younger. Like she was in her teens!
Does this make any sense? Someone who seemed to be at least in her mid-thirties had suddenly rejuvenated?
‘Well, I’m the most nonsensical one here.’
The setting of a normal 24-year-old becoming ten years old was more peculiar.
Yeah, right.
Only then did A-mang look around.
A forest with dense trees, a lake in the middle, surrounded by spring flowers in full bloom.
“But I… I already have someone I promised myself to!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I do!”
That way of speaking… it was somehow vaguely familiar.
‘That’s my way of speaking?’
A-mang recognized at a glance that the spunky young girl was Consort Hwanyeong. The look of contempt Nan was giving her also felt oddly similar.
“Please come quickly!”
“Ah, I!”
The young Consort Hwanyeong fluttered her body.
‘Follow them.’
A-mang instinctively sensed it.
That something unusual had happened!
As she chased the two, the scenery changed in an instant.
‘Yeonyeong Palace?’
The passage of time felt considerable.
The attire of the young Consort Hwanyeong, who was being dragged by Nan earlier, had become splendid.
Her face still looked youthful, but the accessories adorning her neck and hair were jade-colored.
Consort Hwanyeong held a butterfly-shaped hairpin and grinned.
Nan, who was carefully combing her hair, smiled fondly.
“Do you like it that much?”
“Of course! This is clearly fate.”
“I suppose so. Who would have thought the person you promised marriage to was a prince.”
“He’s now His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Hmm, so that’s how it was.
A-mang quickly turned things over in her head.
‘Could it be… it was a pure love story?’
So, she wasn’t a woman he met after ascending the throne, but one he particularly favored.
Staring at Consort Hwanyeong, who was clutching the jade hairpin as if it were a treasure, A-mang thought.
‘She is cute.’
She could kind of understand why Emperor Mu favored her.
When a person is cute, falling for them can happen in an instant.
That the cruel bastard had a woman he loved, and that woman was A-mang’s birth mother, was enough to make her want to vomit.
“Consort Hwanyeong!”
“Your Majesty!”
A-mang, who had subtly stepped aside, almost collided with Emperor Mu as he came running.
Ah, she wouldn’t have collided anyway since she had no body.
“I missed you.”
“Your servant missed you terribly as well!”
Emperor Mu tightly embraced Consort Hwanyeong.
‘Ugh.’
Even at this touching sight, A-mang frowned. The Emperor Mu before her eyes was quite different from the one she knew.
He seemed… softer, should she say.
“Your Majesty! Have you been to the hunting grounds again?”
“I caught a pheasant for you.”
“No! Your servant cannot eat it.”
Consort Hwanyeong turned sulkily, showing him her back.
“Y-Your Majesty! I apologize, Your Majesty. Her Majesty is still not accustomed to the etiquette…”
“It’s fine.”
This was somewhat surprising.
If it were the usual Emperor Mu, he would have drawn his sword first, but the Emperor carefully grasped Consort Hwanyeong’s shoulder.
“I don’t want blood on Your Majesty’s hands. Must you stain these hands with blood?”
“You.”
“And it wouldn’t be good for our child either!”
“!”
Child?
Consort Hwanyeong’s hands gradually lowered and came to rest on her abdomen.
A smile bloomed on Emperor Mu’s face, along with bewilderment.
“I-Is that true?”
“Of course. The royal physician already came and took my pulse. Ah, Nan told me not to say anything!”
Seeing her mistress laughing without a care, Nan gave a bitter smile.
‘Oh dear, there she goes.’
She had it tough here too.
The atmosphere was almost festive, except for Nan.
The moment A-mang let her attention wander for a bit, the scenery changed again.
‘How long are they going to show me this?’
It was a garden full of blooming forsythia.
Butterflies flew freely.
Consort Hwanyeong, quite pregnant, placed her hands on her waist.
“Your Majesty. It’s dangerous to stand for long!”
“It’s fine.”
“Even so…!”
“The child will want to see the flowers too!”
Watching this scene, A-mang began to speculate.
‘Could it be that because I haven’t read the original work, such an event is unfolding?’
Is it kindly explaining the backstory for a transmigrator unfamiliar with the world’s setting?
As if that would happen.
‘I’m not even that curious.’
She had only inquired about Consort Hwanyeong’s information for the sake of her consultation with Emperor Mu. She wondered if there was any meaning behind him calling Consort Hwanyeong a butterfly.
‘It was just a term of endearment.’
It’s less significant than I thought.
A-mang shrugged and turned her body.
At that moment, a drop of rain fell on her palm.
The suddenly falling raindrops soon grew heavy.
Time had passed again.
‘What’s this?’
From inside Yeonyeong Palace, where rain pooled under the eaves, screams were heard.
Agonizing moans, screams, and wails.
‘Crying?’
She felt her head go cold with dread.
Could it be… A-mang peeked inside Yeonyeong Palace.
“Your Majesty. You must eat something. This could lead to disaster!”
“My baby…!”
So that’s what happened.
It felt strange. The time A-mang was born was definitely after this.
‘She had a miscarriage.’
Whether intentional or not, it was clear someone had intervened.
If a favored concubine gave birth to a son, the consequences were obvious.
‘She would immediately be installed as Crown Prince.’
Moreover, judging by Consort Hwanyeong’s personality, she didn’t seem to care about power at all.
So this happened.
How sad.
The sound of rain grew heavier, eventually drowning out even the cries from Yeonyeong Palace.
“…Your Highness?”
A-mang opened her eyes.
She finally realized where she was standing.
The Imperial Vault.
By A-mang’s side was Geum-jin.
“A-Are you crying?”
“Huh?”
Why are tears falling?
What a strange thing.
‘I’m not sad at all.’
Throughout the entire observation, A-mang had been composed.
Although she occasionally cringed at Emperor Mu and Consort Hwanyeong’s displays of affection, she watched fondly.
The two seemed to truly love each other.
‘But…’
A-mang was crying. And sobbing so hard her eyes were bright red!
The tears flowing down her cheeks were a reflexive reaction of the body.
‘Why is this happening to my body?’
It would have been less frustrating if she had actually felt sad.
What’s with the story of Consort Hwanyeong she just witnessed clearly, and what’s with this now?
It seemed the portrait was definitely cursed.
‘Is this an exorcist?’
To think the genre would shift from fantasy to horror.
Did resentment become infused in that portrait, so the viewer has to resolve the grudge?
What kind of ghostly nonsense is this?
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She said that, but her body was uncontrollable.
The sudden surge of emotion was not A-mang’s.
This impulsive longing for her birth mother, this indescribable, tingling sensation.
‘Why do I have to feel this?’
When A-mang thinks of her parents…
Let’s just stop there.
A-mang tightly pressed her lips together.
“S-Shall I call for someone?”
Right now, Geum-jin was restless.
Of course, seeing A-mang, who was happily laughing just moments ago, suddenly shed tears!
He feared all this might be his fault.
The warning from Master Geum never left his mind.
“Don’t go.”
A-mang grabbed Geum-jin’s hand. She tried her best to calm her mind.
Having Geum-jin by her side made it bearable.
Geum-jin was her peer, and her attendant.
“Stay with me.”
Instantly, Geum-jin’s heart sank.
This feeling was the first since Master Geum had summoned Geum-jin.
Even though there was no fault to be discovered, his pulse raced.
“Yes. Your Highness.”
“…Hey, Geum-jin.”
“Yes!”
“That portrait, can I take it?”
A-mang acted as rationally as possible, excluding emotion.
Geum-jin hesitated for a moment.
Should he follow the princess’s order, or uphold the rules of the Imperial Vault?
Normally, items from the Imperial Vault were not to be taken outside.
“Do you know the woman in that painting?”
“My mother.”
“Ah.”
Geum-jin sighed. Of all things, it had to come to this.
What to do…? He worried, but no other solution came to mind.
“Your Highness. Items from this place cannot be taken outside.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s why… why don’t the two of you come visit often to see it?”
Unable to bear it, Nan hugged A-mang and patted her back.
‘What’s this?’
The wave-like sensations were vivid. She missed someone whose face she didn’t know, achingly so. Her breath hitched painfully. It was agonizing. An unfathomable memory buried deep in her heart surged endlessly.
For a princess who knew nothing, wasn’t the emotion too excessive?
Held in Nan’s embrace, A-mang wept.
It was the first time she had ever cried like this.
