"Are you sleepy?"

"No."

"Sleep is stuck all over your face."

Hwi laughed faintly and stroked Yunseo's cheeks. Yunseo opened his eyes wide and shook his head to shake off the drowsiness trying to pull him down. But he passively accepted Hwi's hand stroking him and looked at him.

The sight of Hwi in this strange attire was something he was seeing for the first time, and white somehow suited him very well. If Hwi had lived the life of a divine being, probably many believers would have followed and been moved.

"My attire seems to please you."

"It suits you well."

"That is truly a worry."

"What is it?"

"I feel as if I'll go back to the divine realm."

He was not a divine being and could he go to the divine realm — he found that truly absurd and Yunseo burst out laughing.

The first time he had received the ceremonial robes he had found them light and cool of texture so he liked them — but putting on layer after layer they had grown quite heavy. Shaking the small sleeves to look, through the window the sunlight drenching in had the golden thread glinting.

"The robes are truly sacred."

"That's so. I feel a strange sense of incongruity."

Hwi looked at Yunseo's robes as if unwrapping them. At that gaze his belly seemed to hollow out — he quickly turned around and Hwi came close and pulled Yunseo into his arms.

"There's a little time left — shall we defile the sacred together?"

"Please don't say such things."

"Why. Would the divine send down a thunderbolt?"

"He wouldn't go that far."

"If there's a conscience then he can't."

With a coolly detached air Yunseo carefully looked at Hwi from the side. Hwi lightly kissed Yunseo's forehead and pulled back.

"Your Majesty is, ……are you a Yongsin?"

"Mm?"

"……a Yongsin?"

"Do you dislike it?"

He had wanted to say it as a matter of form only to bring it out but Hwi had put the complete word in his mouth. Yunseo for no reason looked around the empty surroundings and tilted his head.

"Well. Rather than that it's laughable that I need to bow for him."

"Because a thief has been enshrined as a god, the country has come to this end……"

Ugh, the laugh burst out completely and Yunseo hastily stuffed his mouth. This was surely an improper response — he quickly checked if anyone was listening, and Hwi's eyes were narrowed and watching him lightly.

"That you are not a sincere believer makes me glad."

With a truly pleased expression Hwi tapped Yunseo's hands, tok tok. Yunseo covered his mouth with his hand lowered and quieted his voice.

"In truth when I was young I also read books about it and never once thought about it like that."

"You were quite a sharp child."

It was an enjoyable conversation but he was a little worried whether someone might be listening. In any case it was a day of offerings — all the more so. However, even if heard, he believed that to the Yongsin who strove hard to save the country, he would not readily pass judgment.

"Indeed, sometime I should hold a banquet from the inner palace to celebrate your and my own coming-of-age together."

"My birthday?"

The birthday had passed a good while ago and it felt somewhat abrupt. Yunseo's reaction — Hwi replied calmly.

"I mean I want to show off well to you. My coming-of-age too is included in this, that is my intention."

"Was there originally a banquet for the coming-of-age?"

"In the light of modesty I had intended to skip it, but a banquet centered on your birthday would be good."

He didn't particularly want to hold a belated birthday. Besides, it would be a flight of fancy — and originally his birthday was also the coming-of-age day, and Taehu's banquet had just not long ago happened, and he did not want to waste time and money senselessly holding it.

"I'm fine."

"If it's a burden you can go and hold it modestly."

"No. Let what's past be left as it is."

"Right. In the next year properly celebrating your birthday is settled then."

That a banquet for him would be held in the imperial palace every year — that too was somehow tedious. But the day after the future would be thought of in the future, and Yunseo shot out the budding curiosity from his mouth.

"By the way when is Your Majesty's coming-of-age?"

"The day right after you were born."

"……Pardon?"

"It seems to be fate, doesn't it."

Hwi brought his lips briefly to Yunseo's flushed cheek. Yunseo tilting his head thought about the gap between his own birthday and Hwi's coming-of-age and then came to his senses at the sound of a door opening.

It was time to go through.

The two headed toward the shrine together. The court attendants who encountered them on the way paid their respects in full solemnity. That vigilance conveyed and Yunseo's whole body felt languid — Hwi who turned his head back had a glow of affection that spread and a smile bloomed on his face.

When he was very young, he had imagined the divine beings protecting the sky would be in imposing appearances. The heroes that emerged in novels, and the grand and mighty warriors too.

However, now he wished that this man in front of him had just been an ordinary person. Not the reason he was chasing the freedom he could not catch. If that were so — at least to become the most ordinary person of this country — the extraordinary hardships he would have endured would not have needed to be so great.

But for that reason he could not take an excessively meticulous attitude toward Hwi. He would continue to do so going forward. Yunseo looked up at the sky growing sharper and clearer.

There were many formalities waiting for them at the shrine. Acting as the divine indicated would not be too difficult but honestly it felt tedious and dragged on. Anyway, the duty of passing through here was important, and Hwi — thinking vaguely that this year he would turn out well — Kangbaek who had recently come to his senses the most came to mind and a laugh rose unbidden.

In summer there were drought, flood, wind and all the natural calamities in their season following one after another, and offerings were made to seek the divine's grace and protection. The people wished to receive no harm of any kind and so Yunseo devoted his full sincerity and heart to the offerings.

---

The walking formalities were coming to their end. Yunseo went up the high stairway side by side with Hwi while holding incense. The sunlight was dazzling and the sky was so clear it seemed to know nothing of the affairs of this land.

With all his heart he wished that the Cheonjajibeon* would watch over this country and at the same time he inwardly prayed that the lingering suffering of Hell that had stretched too long would end. But whether the Yongsin would accept this wish he was uncertain. Since Hell had erupted, how many people had wished the same.

"Your Majesty."

"Yes."

"What does Your Majesty pray for?"

"I wish for nothing."

"Will your wish be betrayed?"

Hwi glanced at Yunseo and raised the incense held in his hand upward in a circle. The smoke rising from the incense drifted aslant and a thick fragrance remained.

"We are nothing more than a dog made into a leash to him."

"Made into a leash?"

"A dog made into a leash burns, falls into the sea, is cut by a sword — if the heart aches, it is because we put it there. Just going along a laid-out path; even if someone gets crushed under the wheel below, it is only the order of things. He is not one who watches that order but intervenes."

"……"

"So resentment and grudges are useless."

Sometime before, he too had cried out resentment toward the Yongsin, and that also had no answer to come back — and resentment and grudges only have meaning when there is a counterpart to cause harm. Left with a silent counterpart, merely burning oneself trying to hold a one-sided fight would only be a waste.

Yunseo just like Hwi drew a circle in the incense after drawing it and stuck it in the incense holder. The one that had been dense at first gradually thinned out and rose aslant as smoke. Yunseo gazed at the smoke dispersing and with clear eyes looked up at the sky.

"Even if the divine is not reliable, living is ours."

Hwi looked back at Yunseo. Momentary clouds covering Taeyang cast a shadow for an instant. However the stars ingrained in his eyes did not fade but stayed and the pupils watching Yunseo grew even more vivid.

"Run well, hide well, face it well. And moreover…… it would be even better to find a new path."

At the somewhat weary expression Hwi nodded, tilting his head. He raised his brow slightly and then softly raised the corner of his lips and took Yunseo's hand.

"Right."

Fresh clouds scattered and from within the sun stretched out its hands. The warm fingers wrapping both men's faces gave a gentle light spreading out, and the smiles facing each other bloomed endlessly.

* Upon approaching the prayer enclosure a murmuring sound was heard. A faint expectation felt up to here made Yunseo's mood rise excitedly.

Upon stepping onto the Jangjeon*, the Mugwan and Yongrin who had filled the seats rose and paid their respects. Hwi made a signal and sat on the throne and they likewise all sat at once.

The prayer enclosure was wide and clean. The scenery here seemed like it would be well visible and had already begun to stir with excitement. Reading his heart, Hwi gave a short laugh.

"I'll run out after a little."

"It's the first time for this guest."

"I need to train you not to dare disappoint them."

"Even without doing so won't I do well? They seem to have come to kill or die."

The audience hadn't even started yet but the atmosphere had ripened. The heated energy of spectators divided by sides had reached here already, and the Mugwan let out their foul spirit filling the prayer enclosure with an air of competition.

* 구정: 毬庭. A polo ground / Archery ground.
* 장전: 帳殿. A place decorated temporarily for the Emperor to pass. Cloud silk is struck as a canopy, with a screen as a curtain, the floor raised high, and a seat arranged in the center. National Institute of Korean Language, Standard Korean Language Dictionary.