Chapter: 09
“How dare you! How could you utter His Highness the Prince’s name so carelessly…!”
The senior court lady shouted furiously.
Hae-na was startled, yet she could not take her eyes off the Fourth Prince standing before her.
‘It’s him.’
The boy who had been locked away in the deepest room of Yeon-ga’s basement.
The only one among the children who had escaped and never been recaptured.
The golden eyes she had never been able to see beneath the bluish moonlight felt strange.
But everything else was exactly the same.
So much so that she could not possibly believe he was someone else.
“You… You’re really him, aren’t you?”
Hae-na dared to speak despite the rudeness. She would probably be scolded severely, but she still had to know.
That boy had been terribly ill.
Even if he had successfully escaped, she had thought he might have died.
“Prince Tamnangseong! What kind of rudeness is this!”
At the angry voice of the senior court lady, Seo-wan’s hand pressed down on Hae-na’s head.
“It’s all right. Leave her be, Court Lady Kwon.”
The boy’s clear voice rang out again.
“But, Your Highness…”
“I know her. Tamnangseong, let the girl raise her head.”
When the court lady hesitated, Seo-wan removed his hand from Hae-na’s head.
Hae-na lifted her head as though springing upward.
A familiar face came into view.
He was still gaunt, but he looked much healthier than he had in the basement filled only with blue moonlight.
His pale golden eyes met hers.
The eyes that had always been filled with resentment curved slightly into a smile.
Hae-na stared blankly at his face.
Because there was something even more astonishing and joyful than the fact that he was a prince.
‘He was alive.’
Tears suddenly spilled from Hae-na’s eyes.
Her smooth, chestnut-like face crumpled like a burst dumpling.
Seeing her expression, Hwi-seo let out a small laugh.
It reminded him of the first time he had seen that delighted yet comical face.
Hae-na first met him on the seventh day after he had been imprisoned in Yeon-ga’s basement.
The warriors who had been guarding him had been killed with a single stroke of the sword, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself imprisoned in a cell made of moonstone.
While he could barely keep his eyes open because of the force that clashed violently with the energy within his body, a man wearing clothes embroidered with cloud patterns entered.
Surprise and shock successively crossed the man’s face, before it soon turned cold.
‘Hurry things along.’
He left those words with his subordinates before exiting the basement.
Even with his consciousness hazy, Hwi-seo clearly saw the man’s face.
The head of Yeon-ga, Yeon Gi-mun.
The children who had been disappearing with strange frequency.
The room made of moonstone, and himself trapped inside it.
Hwi-seo quickly understood what Yeon Gi-mun was trying to do.
But there was nothing he could do.
He was a clever member of the royal family, but at the same time, he was only a nine-year-old child.
As a member of the royal family, Hwi-seo was subjected to even more intense experiments.
The room made of moonstone was filled with bluish moonlight all day long, and the excessive amount of food he was given was mixed with finely ground moonstone.
Inside that room, Hwi-seo struggled desperately.
He tried everything he could to draw out his inner energy, and he even deliberately injured himself, hoping that if his body became damaged, they might let him out.
But the people of Yeon-ga did not even blink.
Every attempt Hwi-seo made merely became another element of their experiments.
Exhausted, Hwi-seo stopped eating.
He would rather die like a member of the royal family than continue living only to be useful to those people.
“Hey, you. Eat this. It’ll be bad if you keep starving yourself like this.”
That was when Hae-na knocked on the bars of the room where Hwi-seo was imprisoned.
She was a young girl who looked black and white beneath the bluish moonlight.
With round eyes and rosy cheeks, she was holding out several rice balls to him.
“Go away.”
Hwi-seo opened his eyes weakly and coldly rejected her.
There was no doubt that the food contained moonstone as well.
Startled by his fierce reaction, the girl froze.
Then she cautiously approached him again.
This time, the girl actually entered the cell and held out the rice balls once more.
“Quickly. Eat them before someone else sees. This won’t hurt you even if you eat it.”
Food containing moonstone caused terrible pain even when only a little was eaten.
The children would cry and refuse the food, but because there was nothing else to eat, they had no choice but to force themselves to swallow it.
Hwi-seo was also suffering from terrible hunger.
Food without moonstone in it.
Before he could even determine whether the girl was telling the truth, his hand reached out first.
Hwi-seo grabbed one of the rice balls and took a large bite.
Just as she had said, it did not hurt at all.
The boy devoured the food ravenously, like a starving animal.
“Eat slowly… Here, drink some water too.”
As though she were accustomed to it, the girl gently patted Hwi-seo on the back.
After drinking the water she gave him, Hwi-seo finally came to his senses.
He looked at the girl sharply.
A cloud pattern was embroidered on the small child’s clothes.
“What are you?”
“Ah, my name is Hae-na. I work here in the basement.”
Hae-na’s voice became quieter and quieter as she introduced herself.
Hwi-seo’s gaze grew even colder.
“Then can you get me out of here?”
At his wary question, Hae-na lowered her head.
Then she shook it.
“I’m sorry. I can’t…”
Hwi-seo gave a hollow laugh.
So this was all the cheap pity she could offer.
No, perhaps she had deliberately deceived him and fed him moonstone.
She was a servant of Yeon-ga, after all.
“If you’re finished, leave.”
Hwi-seo turned away coldly.
He sensed her hesitating behind him, and soon heard the door open and close.
“I’ll come again.”
A frail voice tinged with tears reached his ears.
Hwi-seo did not answer.
But Hae-na kept her promise.
At least once every two days, the girl came to visit Hwi-seo.
Each time, she carried something in her small hands.
She truly was an annoying child.
The worse Hwi-seo’s condition became, the more she cried whenever she looked at him.
She cried while bringing him food, apologizing for not being able to bring it every day, and she cried while applying ointment from a crude container, saying that he looked like he was in pain.
Her crying became so irritating that Hwi-seo finally asked in a voice bristling with hostility,
“Then why don’t you bring it every day, just like you said?”
Once again, tears suddenly poured from Hae-na’s eyes.
But what she said next was something Hwi-seo had never expected.
“I-I’m sorry. But the other children are so hungry too…”
“……”
“I’m still just a young maid, so even if I brought all of my own food, it wouldn’t be enough… I’m really sorry.”
Hwi-seo merely blinked.
Even though he had been eating food without moonstone, he had never considered that it might have been Hae-na’s own portion.
On the day she brought ointment, there was also an injury somewhere on Hae-na’s body.
It was a fairly deep wound, as though she had been stabbed by something.
When he asked why she was like that, the girl answered with a bright smile.
“When servants get hurt, they give us ointment. So I deliberately hurt myself a little.”
Hae-na said it as though it were nothing unusual.
She removed all the moonstone from Hwi-seo’s wound and carefully applied the ointment.
Blood seeped through the rough bandage wrapped around Hae-na’s leg.
Hwi-seo thought it was cheap pity.
She had no courage to truly help him, and this was nothing more than cheap hypocrisy offered to make herself feel better.
But Hae-na continued to put on that hypocrisy.
Even while giving him the pity he desperately needed, she apologized every time.
The worse Hwi-seo’s body became, the worse Hae-na’s complexion became as well.
It was only natural.
Even for a commoner, prolonged exposure to moonstone was harmful, and the way Yeon-ga treated her did not seem particularly kind either.
Hae-na really did cry a lot.
She cried when Hwi-seo was in pain, and she cried even when he told her not to come anymore.
Only once did she smile—when she taught him her name.
As those days continued, Hwi-seo realized that he would not be able to endure much longer.
The boy prepared for one final struggle.
He ate whatever he could and somehow managed to sleep.
Then, one day before his plan was to begin, he stopped Hae-na as she was about to leave.
“You pity me, don’t you?”
Holding tightly onto her rough, small hand with his own skin-and-bone-thin fingers, Hwi-seo spoke.
“Then help me. Just this once.”
It was an arrogant yet desperate command.
Even dressed in rags, the boy’s eyes were fierce.
Overwhelmed by his presence, Hae-na shrank her neck.
“Tonight, leave the side gate of the estate open. You can close it after the double hour of the ox has passed. But from the hour of the rat until the hour of the ox, it must remain open no matter what.”
Today was the full moon, a day when many people in Cheonmang Kingdom kept a low profile.
From the hour of the rat to the hour of the ox was when the moon was at its brightest.
There would surely be fewer guards watching.
Even so, he could not say there was no chance whatsoever of being discovered.
Hae-na’s eyes trembled.
If she were caught…
The thought was plainly visible in her transparent eyes.
Hae-na looked at Hwi-seo with fearful eyes.
“Can’t you do it?”
Hwi-seo asked once again.
Hae-na remained silent.
He felt hollow.
Of course. Just as he thought.
Hwi-seo gave a mocking laugh and released Hae-na’s hand.
“I’ll do it.”
A small but distinct voice rang out.
