Chapter ~ 08
“Child, are you all right?”
Soa approached her with concern.
The girl was startled and quickly raised her head.
Seeing that even her lips had turned blue, it seemed she had suffered from severe indigestion.
“Shall I take you to a physician?”
The girl shook her head and backed away.
“Wh-who, who are you?”
“I am His Highness’s jaein. I am not here to do anything bad, so don’t be afraid.”
“Th-the King of Muk……!”
The moment the name of the King of Muk was mentioned, the girl became even paler.
Then, as though she had encountered a monster, she fled as fast as her legs could carry her.
“Wait……!”
She could really get into trouble if she kept running like that!
Soa was worried about the girl and was about to chase after her, but soon stopped.
‘She was afraid of me.’
If she approached her carelessly, things might only get worse.
“Unjo.”
【Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on her!】
They had become close enough to understand each other without needing many words.
Unjo took flight into the sky.
Hyerang was shut inside her room, sobbing quietly.
After her parents died, Hyerang had always been alone.
‘The King of Muk is scary……!’
That eerie mask.
His enormous height and build, like a monster.
The gaze that silently glared down at her.
Every time Hyerang saw him, her knees went weak with fear.
Ever since she had seen him swinging his sword in the barracks, merely hearing his name made her heart sink.
Even the mask of the King of Muk sometimes appeared in her nightmares.
‘The King of Muk must have killed my parents…….’
Thinking of the terrifying King of Muk, Hyerang tucked in her chin like a peach pit.
After her parents died in an unfortunate accident, he had taken over this household.
‘My parents’ enemy……!’
Sob!
‘When I grow up, I will definitely get revenge!’
Hyerang pressed her lips tightly together and roughly wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
The King of Muk had ordered the maids to torment Hyerang.
“Miss, I told you to eat all the cucumbers without leaving any!”
Hyerang absolutely hated cucumbers.
The distinctive smell that filled her mouth when she ate them, and their soft, slippery texture.
“His Highness personally took special care to send this food, so you mustn’t throw it away!”
After being forced to eat the cucumbers, Hyerang eventually could not hold back her nausea and vomited everything she had eaten.
The maids would then become furious.
“What a waste of food!”
“She was raised so pampered that she doesn’t even know what hunger is.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand that food was precious.
She simply couldn’t eat cucumbers.
The maids hated Hyerang for that.
Even in the middle of winter, the room was so cold that her breath could be seen in the air.
Even when her clothes became old and torn, no one repaired them.
They would giggle and chat among themselves, and only when Chief Steward Noh came would they wash her and put clean clothes on her before presenting her to him.
And today, they had even forcibly shoved cucumbers into her mouth.
When Hyerang tried to vomit, they became angry again.
“If it weren’t for His Highness, you’d have already been thrown out onto the streets! You ungrateful little thing……!”
Hyerang ran away from the spot in tears.
Then, as she vomited again, she thought bitterly:
‘The King of Muk left me here just so he could torment me!’
Grief overwhelmed her.
But then—
“Child, are you all right?”
A woman she had never seen before suddenly appeared and asked her.
“I am His Highness’s jaein. I am not here to do anything bad, so don’t be afraid.”
A person of the King of Muk!
He really sent someone else to torment me!
Hyerang immediately ran back to her room.
“Sniff, sniff……”
Hyerang sat by the window with her face buried against her knees and cried.
Her skirt was covered in tears and snot.
‘I want to eat tanghulu like I used to eat with Mother…….’
At that moment, a large hawk landed on the pagoda tree outside the window.
‘What an amazing bird……!’
Hyerang’s eyes widened.
Golden coloring surrounded its black eyes, while magnificent black feathers shaped like water buffalo horns grew beneath them.
Its long black tail feathers gleamed like silk.
“Sniff…… Where did you come from?”
When Hyerang asked, the hawk flew over and landed on the windowsill before placing a single winter jasmine flower in front of her.
It wasn’t even the season for flowers yet.
Where had it gotten one?
“Are you giving this to me?”
Hyerang picked up the bright yellow flower, and her tear-filled eyes sparkled.
The hawk spread its magnificent wings and cried out as though answering yes.
Only then did a shy smile spread across Hyerang’s lips.
“Sniff…… Thank you. Actually, you see……”
【That’s what I heard.】
Unjo sat on the windowsill, sweating profusely as he sighed.
He was exhausted from listening to Hyerang’s complaints for a full two sijin—four hours.
‘She must have had a lot bottled up inside.’
As a reward for his hard work, Soa gave Unjo a large piece of meat.
“So she is the previous king’s daughter……”
Soa searched through the memories of her previous life.
‘Come to think of it, there was a rebellion in the Muk King’s residence…….’
There had been a faction that wanted to overthrow Seo Heon and install a new king.
And the person they put forward was the bloodline of the previous king.
Hyerang.
‘Seo Gon benefited greatly from that.’
Seo Gon had planted his people in the Muk King’s residence under the pretext of providing military support when the rebellion broke out.
This greatly weakened Seo He’s faction and had a major influence on Seo Gon’s succession to the imperial throne.
And there was one thing that bothered Soa more than anything else.
‘Is it really true that the King of Muk killed the previous king and torments that child?’
Would someone who wielded a sword capable of cutting down monsters really spend his time tormenting such a small child?
It was hard to believe, but it wasn’t impossible either.
‘You can never know what lies in a person’s heart.’
Just as Seo Gon had smiled as he abandoned her.
There was no guarantee that Seo Heon was any different.
Soa bit her lip.
For some reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about the little girl.
She knew better than anyone what it felt like to be left alone in a house, abandoned.
She also knew that when someone was starved for affection, even cheap kindness could blind them and lead them to make the wrong choice.
Unjo looked at her with his hawk’s sharp eyes.
【Are you thinking of helping her? Well, you were never able to simply pass by someone you felt sorry for.】
“It’s not like that.”
Soa turned her gaze away.
I’m only concerned about that child because she could become the seed of the rebellion in the future.
I just want to prevent that.
Unjo watched her carefully before opening his beak again.
【Oh, and she said she absolutely hates eating cucumbers and wants to eat tanghulu.】
“Tanghulu……”
Somehow, it was a rather adorable answer.
“Miss, it’s time to eat!”
Thud.
The maids set the food down on the table.
Hyerang looked at the dishes before forcing down the nausea rising in her stomach.
Cucumber salad, cucumber-and-egg soup, and pancakes filled with stir-fried cucumber and beef.
There wasn’t a single dish without cucumber.
It was literally an entire cucumber meal.
“His Highness personally prepared this food after returning from the Imperial City, so you know you have to eat all of it without leaving anything behind, right?”
The maids folded their arms and laughed.
Despair filled Hyerang’s eyes as tears the size of chicken eggs rolled down her cheeks.
“Look at her crying again.”
“If you leave any cucumbers behind, His Highness might eat you up just like he did your parents!”
The maids laughed loudly as they frightened her.
Terrified at the mention of the King of Muk, Hyerang reluctantly picked up her chopsticks.
Just then—
“Girls, the jaein is here!”
A maid who had been lounging around in the courtyard came running inside.
“The jaein?”
“The woman His Highness brought from the Imperial City!”
“The woman who sent General Maeng to prison? Why is she here?”
The maids whispered among themselves before rushing outside.
Meanwhile, Hyerang, who had been sniffling, cautiously looked toward where the maids had gone and picked up the plate of cucumber salad.
‘I have to hide it quickly before she comes!’
Hyerang picked the cucumbers out of the cucumber-and-egg soup and threw them into the brazier.
The smell of cucumber spread through the brazier, and the flames died down.
‘What should I do?!’
After thinking for a moment, Hyerang shoved the cucumber salad inside the sleeve of her clothes.
‘I’ll go outside later and throw it into the flower bed……!’
She secretly held her damp sleeve in place and was wondering what to do about the cucumbers inside the remaining pancakes when—
“Why are you here all of a sudden without even sending word……”
The maids opened the door and came back inside.
Hyerang was startled and quickly hid the arm containing the cucumber salad behind her back.
“Since I will be staying here as well, I should pay my respects to the gunju.”
Along with an unfamiliar voice, a woman entered the room.
‘That woman……!’
Skin as soft and white as snow.
Elegant, distinct eyebrows that looked as though they had been drawn with a brush.
Lips like cherries.
There was no way Hyerang could forget such a beautiful and graceful woman.
‘She’s here. The King of Muk’s lackey……!’
Hyerang’s eyes trembled when she saw her.
The lackey had come all the way here.
‘She’s going to watch me and make sure I eat all the cucumbers!’
Hyerang rolled her eyes toward the brazier.
There were still pieces of cucumber that had not completely burned.
Before they could burn away completely, the King of Muk’s lackey approached.
“Hic!”
She was so nervous that a hiccup escaped her mouth.
“Mm!”
Just as she covered her mouth with both hands to hide it—
Plop-plop-plop!
The cucumber salad she had hidden inside her sleeve spilled out like a waterfall.
Hyerang froze completely as she stared at the cucumber salad scattered across the floor.
Her mind went completely blank.
Her heart pounded violently.
“Hic!”
