Chapter 5
Turning her back on her father, Seon returned to her room, where she came face-to-face with Jo Jeonwi.
He was pacing back and forth, holding the brown briefcase he always carried and a tablet in one hand.
Seeing that he looked no different from usual, Seon relaxed slightly and let out a short breath.
As she crossed the room toward the sofa, Seon asked,
“What about what I asked you to do?”
“It wasn’t easy.”
“That is why I asked Jo Jeonwi to do it.”
With a groan, Seon sat down on the sofa. As the soft cushions enveloped her body, she felt the tension in her stiff muscles begin to ease.
At Seon’s gesture, Jo Seok-cheol Jeonwi pushed his glasses up once and sat in the seat opposite her.
Seon always tried to show others only her composed side, but there were people around whom she could relax.
Seok-cheol was one of them. He had been by her side for seven years, ever since Seon turned twenty.
Perhaps unwilling to disappoint Seon’s expectations, Seok-cheol picked up the tablet he had been holding on his lap and handed it to her.
Seon naturally accepted it and turned on the screen.
Several official documents appeared on the brightly lit tablet.
Documents from the Imperial Household Department, the National Police Agency, and more.
He had even obtained documents from government agencies to which Seok-cheol himself did not have access.
“I wasn’t able to obtain photographs from the scene of the accident. I managed to get documents classified as Level 3 Confidential, but anything above that will probably take a little more time.”
The Crown Prince’s accident was a grave incident that could have a devastating impact on the entire country.
He wasn’t merely a member of the Imperial Family.
He was the Crown Prince.
Even Seok-cheol, who had extensive connections and had opened doors for himself in all sorts of places, would not be able to extract highly classified materials that easily.
Seon rapidly scrolled through the tablet with her finger. She quickly took in the words flashing past her eyes while organizing the situation in her mind.
Her eyes moved busily until they suddenly stopped at one point.
Tracing the words with her finger, Seon slowly read them aloud.
“Both drivers died?”
That was clearly what the National Police Agency’s accident investigation report stated.
Both the driver of the Eastern Palace vehicle and the driver of the other vehicle had died instantly at the scene.
Seon clenched her fist tightly and stared at Seok-cheol.
“Yes. Just as you saw.”
Seok-cheol adjusted his glasses once more before continuing.
“They say an autopsy on the other vehicle’s owner is scheduled, but according to what they’ve determined so far, he is believed to have been intoxicated to the point of having his license revoked.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
Seon gave a hollow laugh and narrowed her eyes.
“Even if His Highness didn’t want the roads closed because he wanted to maintain a friendly relationship with the public, it’s not as though the road was completely open, was it?”
He was a member of the Imperial Family.
And not just any member, but the highest-ranking one—the Crown Prince.
He had been traveling for preparations for a national event, not on some private outing. He might not have wanted the entire road shut down, but surely there would have been security and partial traffic control along the route.
How could a drunk driver have gotten into such a place?
“How is it possible that he wasn’t stopped at any point along the way?”
“The details are still under investigation. I think we’ll have to wait and see.”
At Seok-cheol’s stiff response, Seon clicked her tongue.
“No matter how I think about it, something doesn’t sit right.”
She could vaguely understand why the Emperor had mentioned that there were suspicious aspects to the incident and why he had suggested that she participate in the investigation.
There were simply too many strange things about this accident.
The Crown Prince’s vehicle had been caught up in an accident caused by a drunk vehicle that had suddenly appeared.
The crash had been so severe that the dashcam had been badly damaged, and they said there were no witnesses.
Could something like this really happen to the Crown Prince?
Death had always been fragile.
It came equally to everyone, regardless of status or position.
But could a death like this really happen within the Imperial Family?
Let us say fate was cruel enough that such a thing could happen.
But shouldn’t the Imperial Family, at the very least, have been spared something like this happening twice?
Seon’s thoughts touched the deepest wound in her heart.
No matter how much she tried not to connect the two incidents, the memory kept resurfacing.
Perhaps the reason the Emperor had summoned only her and entrusted her with this task was because he had been thinking the same thing.
“The accident involving Grand Prince Uiyeong.”
Seon spoke quietly.
Seok-cheol looked at her, a question in his eyes.
“Isn’t it similar to this accident?”
“I understand what you mean by similar, but… wasn’t that already concluded as an accident?”
At Seok-cheol’s question, Seon pressed her lips together for a moment.
An accident.
An accident.
That was certainly how it had ended.
But there had been something suspicious about it even then.
That suspicion had remained in Seon’s heart for her entire life, shaking the course of it.
If she failed to resolve these questions again this time, this incident would simply be buried as another accident.
As long as there were suspicious circumstances, she could not back down this time.
“Is this why Grandfather entrusted this matter to me?”
Seon murmured.
“What?”
“The accident involving Grand Prince Uiyeong. You know that I was the only survivor, don’t you, Jo Jeonwi?”
“……I do.”
Seon remembered that day with painful clarity.
When she had barely escaped serious injury because her cousin had shielded her with her own body.
When someone had approached Seon as she lay there, her consciousness fading, her entire body covered in blood that she could not tell apart—whether it was hers or her cousin’s.
The persistent gaze checking whether she was alive.
The feet kicking at the window of the overturned car to see whether she was moving.
And the coldheartedness of the man who, despite knowing how serious the situation was, simply left without calling for help.
“It was similar to what happened this time. The driver who was driving the car died. So did Grand Prince Uiyeong and my cousin, Princess Cheongsong.”
Twenty years had passed.
The little girl who had been unable to do anything, shedding silent tears in the arms of her dying cousin, had now grown into one of the members of the Imperial Family who attracted the most attention from the public.
Throughout her life, she had also been followed by praise that she had grown up well despite having suffered such a terrible accident.
Seon could never forget that day, no matter how hard she tried.
All the relatives who had been laughing and talking together inside the car only moments earlier had died.
Her mother, devastated by the news of the accident, had even miscarried the younger sibling she had been carrying.
How could Seon ever forget that day when everyone had been scarred by it?
With her memories still so vivid, how could she not connect it to this accident?
“If a civilian driver who happened to be following us hadn’t reported it, I would have died, too. My cousin, who had been shielding me, died from excessive blood loss inside the ambulance. If that man who had checked whether we were dead or alive had changed his mind and simply called for help…”
“What are you saying? There was a witness?”
Seok-cheol’s voice trembled faintly.
This was a secret known only to a select few within the Imperial Family.
“Then why didn’t he report it? I’m confused. There’s nothing about this in the case records.”
It was only natural that Seok-cheol was confused.
An ordinary person would not simply pass by someone who had been injured and collapsed after such a massive accident.
Any human being would naturally feel compassion.
But the fact that this witness had simply passed by allowed Seon to be certain.
That accident that day had never been an accident.
“I was too young, and my injuries and shock were so severe that I remained unconscious in the hospital for a long time. There weren’t many dashcams back then, either, and there weren’t really any other witnesses.”
It had been an almost perfect location for something intentional.
A quiet road with few CCTV cameras and little passing traffic.
And that was where their accident had happened.
“By the time I had recovered enough to give a statement, the case had already been closed. That’s why it probably isn’t in the records.”
She had been only seven years old.
There was very little a child like Seon could have done.
“Did you tell His Majesty? I heard Grand Prince Uiyeong was the son he cherished most.”
Seon thought of Grand Prince Uiyeong.
The Emperor’s brightest and most clever son.
As his third son, he had no chance of becoming Emperor, but he was the son who had received the greatest amount of love from his parents.
And he had freely given that love to the people around him in return.
Even the lawless Prince Gyeongan, whom no one could control now, would yield to Grand Prince Uiyeong’s words.
He had been such a warmhearted person that, rather than simply leaving his young niece in the care of a driver, he had personally driven her home.
And that had remained a source of guilt for Seon for the rest of her life.
“I told him as soon as I regained consciousness.”
Seon spoke as calmly as she could.
“His Majesty conducted his own careful investigation, but since the case had already been closed, there wasn’t enough evidence. In the end, it was concluded to be an accidental death.”
The emptiness she had felt back then had been indescribable.
She had seen it.
If only she had woken up a little earlier.
If only she had revealed the truth a little sooner.
“I still don’t think that accident was simply an accident. And I have a feeling this accident might be the same.”
“Is there anyone you suspect?”
At Seok-cheol’s question, Seon fell deep into thought.
It would have been easier to choose the people she didn’t suspect.
Wasn’t that what members of the Imperial Family were like?
Someone could be smiling at you today and stab you with a knife tomorrow.
There were only a handful of people within the Imperial Family whom Seon could trust without reservation.
“Back then, with Grand Prince Uiyeong, it was difficult to focus on a single person. It isn’t easy to accept that someone would deliberately target the Emperor’s third son.”
That was why, despite her grandfather believing in her and conducting a separate investigation, the matter had ultimately been buried as an accident.
Because everyone was convinced that there was no group that would deliberately murder Grand Prince Uiyeong, who was merely the Emperor’s third son.
“But His Highness the Crown Prince is different.”
“Are you referring to the abolitionists who oppose the Imperial Family?”
At Seok-cheol’s cautious question, Seon gave a bitter sneer and shook her head.
One man’s face had come to mind.
