It had been just a single act of intercourse and yet the dawn was already breaking. Yunseo inhaled fresh morning air into his freshly woken lungs and looked at Hwi.
He had fallen asleep at some point right up until Yunseo's back. It was his first time seeing Hwi seeking sleep, so Yunseo suppressed his voice and quietly watched him.
At first glance it looked like he was simply closing his eyes. But the regularly rising and falling of Hwi's chest and the fact that he was expressionless made him seem peaceful — he could enjoy the sight of Hwi's sleep during the daytime.
It had been a moment he had never witnessed up close before, and he felt acutely that the sacred sword had become a help to Hwi. He wondered what dreams Hwi might be having, and hoped that he had no dreams at all and was simply sunk in a deep sleep.
He pulled the blanket up and loosely tied his hair behind his head, then quietly opened the door. He held out his hand to signal to the court attendants waiting outside to not follow him and went out alone.
Before long night came and Geumsan was quiet and still under the Emperor's guard. The fireflies had lessened and the stars in the night sky shone clearly one by one, each bright star vivid and beautiful as if alive.
This place had no smell of human habitation and did not feel lively in any way, but this too was nothing but being beside the Emperor — and yet, oddly, it was beautiful. He stared blankly up at the sky and for some reason without any sign of it tears welled up and spilled.
He was barely keeping himself alive and after that it was a voice that came. The belly of that goblin-like man who was unfailingly dependable when it mattered was what he leaned on and let the feeling flow from. A warm hand gripped Yunseo's arm and turned him around.
"Did you do it on purpose?"
Yunseo turned around and struck Hwi's chest once with his fist.
"So that I would be moved to pity you — hng, you did it on purpose! Going out alone to collect yourself, so that I had no choice but to stay here!"
While Yunseo was sobbing and looking up at him and hitting him, Hwi took his clumsy and flustered hand and just held him, letting him do as he liked, preventing only one thing — keeping Yunseo in his arms.
After his fist had been swung several times, Hwi's clothes were wrinkled and soaked with those held-back tears, and Hwi quietly stroked Yunseo's back.
"That's right. I sought your pity — this is mine and you had no choice but to come."
Yunseo pressed his lips shut and shed tears in silence. Hwi had come all this way here without a single excuse, and stubbornly pulled Yunseo into the centre of this snare.
The grip on his clothes grew powerful. He was still stiff and petty, and yet living on, he thought there could be no one he would loathe this way in the future.
No matter that this man was the emperor of this country, why he could not escape from this snare, why he had not been able to choose for himself, why that much connection was not enough, why he had played the role of an ordinary lover for him, why the time resting beside him had been precious — he was awfully vexed by all of it.
But the moment he first encountered the demons pouring out of Hell, the moment he witnessed the sight of Hwi fighting them, Yunseo arrived at the resolve that he could not leave him alone.
He still wants to leave this palace. He wants to discard everything that is proper and belonging and just run away. He still longs for all of those things.
But he could not abandon Hwi, who carries the freedom and dreams built upon the sacrifice of so many people.
Yunseo's lips trembled finely and reached toward Hwi's arm. And Hwi, toward his master alone, bowed his head like a submissive beast.
He understood his choice, setting his feet on the path of the present with so many opportunities and crossroads behind him. Of course he could not entirely accept and make sense of it. Even so — he had resolved to understand all of it up to this point, even if that was all. Whether Hwi had witnessed it too, he did not know.
"That's fine too. Hwi was my chosen companion, and it was my intention to watch over him to the end no matter which road this companion takes."
"Why didn't you really take me away?"
Hwi covered Yunseo's hands with his large hand and stroked them as if soothing him.
"Because it will be good."
When in this chaos had he come to be so sure of it. The Emperor was said to have been heading toward Hell even before his death, so at the very least the possibility for ten years hence existed. Yunseo nodded his head, drifting along beside him, thinking of his own time flowing alongside Hwi's.
"From now on I will guard your side, Your Majesty."
The tear-blurred eyes stared straight and clearly at Hwi. Eyes that no one could gauge, firm and solid — Hwi's eyes looked far off, distant, and looked back down at Yunseo with the faintest movement.
Silence enveloped them. In the stillness without even a blade of grass stirring, Hwi then took Yunseo's hand, pressed firmly against the wrist bones, and brought it solemnly to his lips. Yunseo, in spite of himself, laughed out loud and cried.
8. Adaptation
Sobaeguk, who had dressed in mourning clothes for the audience, suppressed the discomfort squirming beneath the surface with the tightly pressed feeling of something stuck in his chest. Even today his heart was stifled and uncomfortable, and his face was flushed.
The court before the audience had not yet arrived was quiet enough. The men who had always come forward and mingled to exchange pleasantries had gone strangely silent since that incident, keeping their mouths shut and maintaining a coolly detached attitude — the bile was rising up and he was on the verge of dying of frustration.
Of course this was clearly Sobaeguk's own doing. He had to find the men who deserved it and settle the score one by one — but the feeling of being thwarted kept him from moving a step.
In truth the person who most offended him was none other than his own younger sister Soeunseo. Having placed her in the revered seat of Empress Consort and yet she was of no help whatsoever — he had no choice but to explode with resentment.
What good would it do for Geumsan to sway her mind with that plain face and precious sacred sword. And yet he had brought a teacher and had her tutored for such a long time, and now all those years had gone to waste.
How on earth had she managed people of lower station and been caught up in such a lowly scheme? Had she been too pampered from childhood, too much coddled, and too much of a country bumpkin dreaming of some narrow local ambition.
Now there was nothing left to trust but her sacred sword. Yesterday afternoon three signal fires had gone up and Geumsan had personally responded, and this time it was just Yunseo going out — Soeunseo absolutely had to prove herself useful as a sacred sword.
"His Majesty the Emperor arrives!"
At the imposing voice of the grand chamberlain the ministers paid their respects in unison. The Emperor strode forward with swift and rough steps. On the back robe the form of the ascending dragon appeared today even more imposing and commanding, and the hem of the court robe fluttering with his movements felt like a tremendous power.
The Emperor sat upon the throne and looked around at his ministers with a bored expression. Though they were nothing but ordinary eyes, there was always an uncanny power in his voice that made people tense. Sobaeguk tried to gauge the Emperor's mood with a sidelong look but could not read him in the least.
He could not concentrate at all throughout the ceremonial formalities and the passing of reports. That he should be negligent in affairs of state — it was something that should not be and was shameful. That's the way it was……
"Your Majesty. In protecting the sacred and guarding the peace of the nation, and in loving the people, the Empress Consort has committed treason by casting a cursed object laden with vile things into the sacred image and cursing it — this shakes the foundations of the state and must be corrected."
When the moment came he bit back the words as if throwing them down. The men who had appeared were those who had been waiting. The words to correct the foundations were tantamount to words meaning the Empress Consort should be deposed, and Sobaeguk was furious and shut his mouth.
In truth what those people wanted was not the deposition itself. After pressing hard once, if the sacred image were pulled back a step, the imperial power to isolate and control the flower spirit would have to be reduced — that seemed to be their intention. For them it was a chance like no other in the world, one that could not be missed.
"Your Majesty. The criminal's* statement is clear, and the Ministry of Punishments has already compared the handwriting and the seal of the Empress Consort and confirmed them to be identical — this is clear evidence that the mastermind has been revealed without question. How can such a terrible affair be permitted?"
The call to condemn the Empress Consort continued from all sides. Sobaeguk raised his voice the loudest from among the faction he belonged to and trembled with a feeling of betrayal.
But the one who did not abandon his purpose even in such a moment was none other than the Sacred Sword.
The Emperor had shown no reaction whatsoever from the start when matters regularly came before the court, to a degree that seemed indifferent and languid. Despite the forces condemning the Empress Consort and those supporting her clashing endlessly, instead of intervening or resolving it differently from usual he simply listened in silence and at this point was tying things off with an ambiguous word.
* 공사 (供辭): a statement given under interrogation; a confession.