Chapter 4
Perhaps because autumn had only just arrived, the flowers in the rear garden of the detached palace were still in full bloom. Taking in each and every one of them with his eyes, Grand Prince Uijeong walked through the garden.
It was quite early in the morning. Walking through the rear garden while everyone else was still asleep was something Grand Prince Uijeong had enjoyed since childhood.
And now, standing before a storm as fierce as the Crown Prince’s death, it was a routine he could not afford to leave out.
Born as Emperor Lee Yoon’s youngest son and raised without ever lacking for anything, Grand Prince Uijeong simply liked walking alone, peacefully and quietly.
A sparrow startled at the Grand Prince’s appearance and flew up onto the roof. Along with the fluttering sound of its wings, something from the past that the Grand Prince had momentarily forgotten came rushing back.
That terrible accident.
That day when he had been forced to say goodbye to his beloved brother and nephew.
The day when he had nearly lost his only daughter as well.
Even now, whenever he recalled that moment, chills ran through his entire body.
“Father?”
His tranquility was broken by a small voice.
A smile appeared at the corners of the Grand Prince’s mouth.
“When did you come up here? I didn’t hear you.”
“After midnight. It was too late, so I came in quietly. But what about you? Why are you out this early in the morning?”
At the appearance of his only daughter, the sole child he had, the lingering images in Grand Prince Uijeong’s mind seemed to melt away.
Seon smiled brightly and stood beside him.
“I had a lot on my mind. I woke up pretty quickly.”
“I see. I’m sure you did.”
A bitter smile appeared on Grand Prince Uijeong’s lips.
He had lost family, too.
It had only been two days since the accident involving his eldest brother, who had been as dependable as a pillar.
He had spent his entire life as a member of the Imperial Family, and although he had grown accustomed to pretending that nothing bothered him, there was nothing he could do about the heart that was quietly rotting away inside.
“Grandfather entrusted me with something.”
As soon as Seon spoke, a flash of dismay crossed Grand Prince Uijeong’s face.
The change was obvious enough for Seon to notice.
“Father. It’s all right. I’m not a child anymore.”
Grand Prince Uijeong did not want to lose Seon.
She was his only daughter.
Just as he had lost his brother, he did not want to lose his daughter as well.
That was why, even though she was twenty-seven now, he still cherished and treasured her as the child who belonged in his arms.
The anxiety that came over him made him feel dangerously unsteady.
“A lot of things are going to change.”
“I suppose they are.”
Seon answered calmly.
Her father’s gaze rested on her for a moment before quickly moving away.
“Don’t add to your mother’s worries.”
“Mother is always worried about everything.”
Seon replied, erasing the smile that had gradually become faint.
No matter how much the Imperial Family had narrowed the distance between themselves and the people, there were obvious limits.
Marriage, for example.
They no longer issued royal marriage-selection edicts and caused a commotion searching for spouses as they had in the past. But they still chose carefully from families that had been vetted to some extent—new aristocratic families whose social standing and status were not lacking, even if they were not members of the Imperial Family themselves.
But Seon’s mother, Grand Princess Consort Yeosan, Madam Song, had been different.
Although she came from the same family as the former Empress, she was not a close relative, and her family was not particularly wealthy.
Moreover, before her marriage, the Grand Princess Consort had been…
“I still can’t believe Mother used to be an actress. I heard that world was just as ruthless as the Imperial Family.”
She had worked in the entertainment industry as an actress.
Apparently, she had even been called a rising star of her generation.
Yet whenever Seon looked at her mother, who so easily had tears welling up in her eyes, it was impossible to imagine that she had once belonged to the entertainment industry.
“You don’t have to be strong-willed to survive.”
Grand Prince Uijeong’s voice softened slightly.
The fact that the two of them had broken Imperial Family tradition and succeeded in having a love marriage was still talked about even thirty years later.
No matter the era, dramatic romances were bound to attract people’s attention.
“Please be considerate of your mother. She isn’t someone who lived a life completely different from ours.”
“I know that, too. But can I really disobey an Imperial command?”
Grand Prince Uijeong let out a long sigh.
His daughter, who looked so frighteningly much like himself, weighed heavily on his mind.
If he had been in his younger days…
He would have said the same thing.
If you were a member of the Imperial Family, you had to obey the Emperor’s command.
The foolish young man who had never known the pain of losing something precious overlapped with the image of Seon.
But there was one decisive difference between Seon and himself.
At twenty-seven, Grand Prince Uijeong had never truly experienced the agony of losing something precious.
At twenty-seven, Seon had felt that pain deeply ever since childhood.
That was why the fact that he could not stop her felt like the greatest regret of his life.
“So. What did Grandfather entrust to you?”
Grand Prince Uijeong asked, swallowing his anxiety.
He had barely managed to compose his expression as if everything were fine, but he could not hide the corners of his mouth that kept twitching.
Seon glanced at her father before shifting her gaze away as though she had seen nothing.
“He said there were suspicious aspects to Uncle’s accident.”
“What?”
No sooner had Seon finished speaking than Grand Prince Uijeong staggered backward.
His eyes shook wildly with fear, as though he had seen a ghost that had burst out of a grave.
“How… How could that be?”
Seon quietly looked at him as he stared at her, desperately trying to deny reality.
Then she continued speaking.
“I’m scared, too, Father.”
There was a very faint, blurred smile on Seon’s lips.
“I couldn’t help but understand why Grandfather entrusted this to me.”
At that moment, the face of one man flashed through both their minds.
A man who laughed often and loved to joke, someone who had a way of making the people around him happy.
“Seon-ah. I’ll speak to Grandfather.”
Grand Prince Uijeong hurriedly spoke, overcome by an ominous premonition.
Urgency filled his face.
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
“You seem to think the same way I do, Father.”
Seon’s smile twisted.
It was not a beautiful smile, but one that seemed to reflect everything inside her that had been rotting, bending, and twisting for a very long time.
“Maybe I was supposed to die that day, Father.”
“Seon-ah!”
“And yet, the fact that I alone survived and am here now must mean that I was meant to uncover the truth.”
Seon reached out and toyed with a flower petal.
The petal swaying in the breeze tickled her fingertips.
Yes.
The flower she had seen that day, beyond the black heel of the shoe visible through the shattered window of the overturned car…
It must have been this one.
Cosmos.
A symbol of autumn.
“I was a child with so many dreams until I was seven. You remember, don’t you, Father? One day, I wanted to become a nurse. Another day, I wanted to become an astronaut. And then there were days when I said I wanted to become an actress like Mother.”
Seon’s voice remained steady as she continued speaking, as though she were telling someone else’s story.
“But after that day when I was seven, I couldn’t dream anymore. I had to live carrying the lives of two people on my shoulders.”
“You didn’t have to—”
“No. I had no choice. I was the only one who survived.”
Seon had kept her hand on the flower petals, but eventually withdrew her arm.
With the wind gone, her fingertips felt strangely empty.
“After that day, my dream was revenge. Finding the man who killed my Third Uncle and my older cousin, Princess Cheongsong, was my only dream.”
“Seon… Seon-ah.”
“And if that man was really involved in Uncle’s accident as well…”
“No. No!”
Grand Prince Uijeong suddenly shouted.
He quickly looked around, his face anxious, as though afraid someone might hear.
The detached palace was merely a space belonging to the Imperial Household Department.
It was not somewhere Grand Prince Uijeong could feel safe.
He was afraid that someone might be hiding nearby, listening to their conversation.
Afraid that the fragile peace they had barely managed to find might be taken away.
“That was an accident. It was an accident!”
Unlike her father, whose body was trembling with fear, Seon remained calm.
“I’m different, Father. I won’t end up like Third Uncle.”
There was strength in the voice with which she declared it.
She was a daughter who resembled him so much that it was almost frightening, but at times like this, she was nothing like him.
Even in his most hot-blooded youth, Grand Prince Uijeong had known how to be afraid.
He had known how to look at the direction of power and bow his head appropriately.
But Seon did not.
Even when she was afraid, she would not give up the truth.
She had never once allowed the desire she had carried in her heart for so many years to burn out.
And if this was her last chance, she did not want to let it slip away.
The card her grandfather had forcibly placed in her hand might very well become the poison that overturned her entire life.
Even knowing that, Seon had no intention of giving up.
“I won’t pretend not to know what everyone already knows.”
“Seon-ah.”
Grand Prince Uijeong called his daughter desperately, his eyes filled with despair.
“All this time, I endured your Second Uncle because, without evidence, I didn’t want to turn my back on him. After all, he ranked above me and was much older than I was.”
At last, the name he had not wanted to hear came from his daughter’s mouth.
Grand Prince Uijeong’s face went deathly pale.
As Seon silently watched her father tremble, she strengthened the faint smile on her lips.
“But Father. If Second Uncle was behind this again…”
“Lee Seon!”
“I won’t sit back and do nothing.”
Standing before her father, who had shouted her name like a scream, Seon declared it.
Her eyes shone more brightly than ever.
Grand Prince Uijeong could only fall silent, as though all his strength and determination had been drained away before her.
He knew very well.
A person with eyes like those could never be stopped.
