Chapter ~ 07
Having raised the question, Soa casually looked up at the sky.
In the distance, a hawk was circling overhead.
If General Maeng asked how his tiger tally had ended up in a place like this—
【The mice brought it to me one after another in exchange for a handful of rice.】
It was all thanks to her diligent and reliable new companions.
The result was clear.
[Investigate General Maeng.]
When Seo Heon’s written order came down, Chief Steward Noh bowed his head.
“General Maeng, please come this way for a moment.”
“Your Highness, this is clearly someone trying to frame me……”
“Of course. His Highness is not accusing General Maeng of anything. It is merely a simple procedure.”
Chief Steward Noh soothed him as he led him outside the warehouse.
At that very moment, General Maeng’s eyes met Soa’s.
The corners of Soa’s eyes curved subtly and gracefully.
‘That woman knew about it and deliberately set all this up!’
General Maeng abruptly stopped walking and raised his hand.
“How dare some woman who came from outside forget her place. You’re nothing but a jaein dragged here as some nobody……”
Just as his palm, as large as a cauldron lid, was about to strike her cheek—
Crack!
General Maeng’s arm twisted violently.
“Guhk!”
General Maeng opened his mouth and desperately mouthed soundlessly.
Everyone held their breath.
Above General Maeng’s silent scream, a dark shadow fell.
A chilling pair of eyes looked down at General Maeng from beneath the mask.
【Chief Steward Noh. Withdraw General Maeng’s privileges and imprison him.】
His voice was filled with killing intent.
Seo Heon was gripping General Maeng’s arm and twisting it.
“Your Highness, evidence of coal and charcoal being diverted has been discovered at General Maeng’s residence.”
The evidence was straightforward.
[Track down everyone connected to General Maeng and those around him, and punish them severely.]
When Seo Heon’s written order was issued, the Inspector-General received the command and withdrew.
“The matter has been resolved with remarkable speed.”
Chief Steward Noh said as he watched the Inspector-General leave.
But Seo Heon merely ran a hand over the surface of his mask.
The Maeng family had been a powerful clan that had held high-ranking government positions for many years, dating back to the reign of the previous king.
General Maeng himself had accumulated considerable achievements since his youth.
That was why Seo Heon had been waiting for an opportunity to strike him with sufficient justification.
‘I never expected it to be resolved like this.’
It was a good thing.
However—
‘……If it weren’t for this curse.’
Seo Heon’s jaw muscles tensed.
If only he had a voice.
If only he could properly fulfill his role as the ruler of the Muk King’s residence……
There would have been no reason to sit idly by and allow General Maeng’s arrogance to go this far.
Seo Heon tightly gripped his own throat, no matter how hard he tried, unable to produce even a sound.
The veins bulged across his throat as he squeezed it until he could hardly breathe.
‘Damn it.’
He wanted nothing more than to tear away the curse lodged in his throat.
If only there were someone who could hear his voice.
“Y-Your Highness!”
Chief Steward Noh cried out in alarm when he saw Seo Heon choking himself and rushed over.
After the curse, Seo Heon would sometimes punish himself when he was unable to produce a voice.
‘He never used to do this before he was cursed…….’
Chief Steward Noh recalled Seo Heon’s childhood.
A kind child who used to smile brightly.
Intelligent and capable, he had even been favored by the previous king.
If it were not for the curse, the other nobles would never have dared to disregard him so openly.
After the previous king’s death,
Seo Heon had reduced the amount of sleep he got and devoted himself to state affairs day and night in an effort to overcome his curse.
As though he intended to defeat the curse through sheer force of will.
‘There has never been a ruler, anywhere in history, who could not speak…….’
Chief Steward Noh thought it was remarkable that Seo Heon had managed to govern the Muk King’s residence to this extent despite being cursed.
Was it not because of Seo Heon’s presence that the monsters of Yogok could not easily invade Ryeo?
But Seo Heon himself was surely not satisfied.
“For now, please have some tea.”
Chief Steward Noh calmed him down and served him tea.
Seo Heon exhaled deeply and leaned back.
Come to think of it……
[What about Jaein Jin?]
“She seemed quite shaken, so I had the physician treat her and sent her back to her room to rest. Of course, I also had a maid bring her plenty of coal.”
Chief Steward Noh answered.
But the uneasiness did not disappear.
He could not forget General Maeng’s attitude toward Jaein Jin.
“How dare some woman who came from outside forget her place. You’re nothing but a jaein dragged here as some nobody……”
Even so, she was his subordinate, his jaein.
How dare General Maeng raise a hand against her so casually?
Perhaps there was some fault of Seo He’s own that had allowed General Maeng to become so arrogant.
Seo Heon pressed his temple beneath the mask.
Perhaps wanting to encourage his deeply troubled master, Chief Steward Noh raised his thumb.
“You were very impressive when you stopped General Maeng for Jaein Jin, Your Highness.”
At the excessive praise, Seo Heon irritably propped his head up with one hand.
It had merely been a matter of principle.
There had been no other meaning behind it.
‘I am becoming entangled with the jaein against my will.’
Seo Heon thought the circumstances of today had been somewhat contrived.
Jaein Jin had happened to be accompanying General Maeng.
And she had also been the one who discovered General Maeng’s tiger tally.
‘Whether she did it intentionally or not, I might as well make use of him.’
Whether she had done this to win his favor or whether it had simply been a coincidence—
There was no need to think too deeply about it.
At that moment, Chief Steward Noh spoke with a pleased smile.
“Your Highness, I imagine Jaein Jin must have been quite frightened. Shall I send someone to check on her?”
After thinking for a moment, Seo Heon picked up his brush.
[Do not bestow too much upon Jaein Jin.]
From the Soyohyang to the tiger tally.
She was still a woman he could not trust.
Clearing his thoughts, Seo Heon brought up a question he had been too busy to ask.
[More importantly, what about Hyerang?]
“She has been doing well as usual while you were away in the Imperial City.”
Hyerang was the daughter of the previous king who had ruled the Muk King’s residence.
After the previous king passed away, Seo Heon had taken in the young Hyerang, who had been left all alone, and cared for her.
Seo Heon had also received great kindness from the previous king.
‘The previous king accepted me like his own son, so Hyerang is practically my younger sister.’
Even when he was busy, Seo Heon would make sure to ask about Hyerang’s well-being.
The problem was that young Hyerang was terribly afraid of him.
‘I would like to go see her and at least make sure she’s doing well.’
But whenever she saw his face, she would have a fit.
“Your Highness’s appearance is probably not exactly the sort that children find appealing.”
At Chief Steward Noh’s words, Seo Heon’s fingertips trembled as he held the brush.
Chief Steward Noh burst out laughing when he saw him.
“Don’t worry. I hear she especially likes cucumbers, so she has cucumber salad every day.”
Cucumbers……
After hearing the news about Hyerang from Chief Steward Noh, he wrote:
[Make sure to obtain plenty of cucumbers so that Hyerang can eat her fill.]
Cucumbers were precious now that winter had passed.
But for Hyerang, who was living all alone—
He would even sell his sword to obtain them if necessary.
【Soa, you almost really got slapped!】
As she walked through the garden, an ear-piercing lecture followed her.
“I didn’t get hit.”
【Even so, did you really have to provoke him like that?!】
“With evidence like that alone, they wouldn’t have been able to arrest General Maeng. I needed him to reveal his emotions himself to make things certain.”
General Maeng was the head of a powerful family.
With nothing more than the evidence of the tiger tally, it would have been difficult to bring him down completely.
All he had to do was claim that someone else had planted the evidence and shift the blame.
But by provoking his hot-tempered nature, she had made his guilt much more certain.
“The other nobles will have a hard time openly defending him now, too.”
Soa smiled brightly, and Unjo shook his head from side to side.
“Come to think of it, things are progressing much faster than I expected.”
Soa was surprised to see General Maeng dealt with in a single day.
Matters like this could drag on for months.
【From what I hear, they had been preparing for this since last autumn, waiting for the right opportunity.】
Not just the coal, but other evidence as well.
“So he waited for half a year…….”
Until every circumstance fell into his hands?
【Hmph. Even so, the King of Muk has plenty of problems. If it were me, I would have broken the neck of a rampaging general like that long ago.】
Soa could not deny Unjo’s words.
After looking around the Muk King’s Palace for several days, she had realized something.
The curse placed upon Seo Heon went beyond simply preventing him from speaking.
“Has His Highness replied yet?”
“Not yet.”
The officials had to spend a great deal of time making decisions.
“Wh-what does this character mean?”
“Let me see…… Sul (戌)? It says sul!”
“It’s su (戍), Uncle!”
Those who were unfamiliar with written characters were prone to misunderstandings.
And sometimes, even a minor misunderstanding could lead to a major mistake.
A communication barrier was the greatest curse when it came to running an organization.
If things were already this difficult under normal circumstances, then during wartime, when situations could change from moment to moment, his curse would be even more devastating.
‘He managed to defend the northern frontier somehow in my previous life.’
Now she thought she understood a little better.
The reason the King of Muk, who could cut down a monster with a single sword strike, had been unable to eradicate the monsters of Yogok for so long.
The reason he had focused solely on defending against them.
‘He was simply holding on desperately.’
She had suspected as much in her previous life.
After all, she had received information brought by the beasts.
But seeing it with her own eyes, it was much more serious than she had imagined.
‘The Muk King’s residence cannot grow like this.’
The problems had already festered too deeply.
If things continued this way, she would once again see Seo Gon crush the Muk King’s residence just as he had in her previous life.
‘I need to change things one at a time.’
It was while thinking this as she crossed the Half-Moon Bridge in the western garden of the Muk King’s Palace that—
“Ugh, urgh……! Cough, cough!”
A sound of someone painfully emptying their stomach came from somewhere.
【Soa, beneath the bridge!】
At Unjo’s words, she looked beneath the bridge and saw a little girl who appeared to be around six or seven years old.
Her hair was tied into two round buns.
She had a round face still bearing the softness of baby fat.
Yet with a pale complexion, she clutched her chest and continued to vomit.
