Part 3: The Hell Realm

11. Heungjin (興盡) — When Joy is Spent

"The weather is fine. Would you not like to take a walk together?"

At Yunseo's suggestion, the Queen Dowager rose readily.

Yunseo walked near the pavilion with the Queen Dowager and observed her complexion. The news must have reached her, yet the Queen Dowager wore the same expression as always. Whether she had composed herself well or was barely maintaining her calm could not be presumed to guess.

"I gave orders to the Imperial Medical Bureau to prepare a decoction to strengthen your constitution, as the change of seasons has come."

"The Empress who has been through a great ordeal should come first, should he not? Even if he does not consider it so, the body may have received a shock, so do take special care."

"Yes. This one dislikes medicine, but I intend to eat it diligently with some very sweet confections prepared alongside."

The Queen Dowager gave a faint smile. Yunseo had stolen a glance at her expression softened by that small change, then hesitated before opening his mouth.

"I am sorry for causing you distress."

"It is not the Empress's fault — there is no need to put useless words of apology in your mouth."

The Queen Dowager replied firmly and stopped walking to reach toward a veronica bristling with flower buds. She lightly brushed the flowers with her fingertips and then smelled the scent that lingered on her skin.

"That I could not restrain Prince Inchin's dark heart and let the Empress become entangled in it — that is truly a pity."

Yunseo felt a sense of déjà vu and looked at the Queen Dowager anew. She showed no emotion, but as Hwi's face from the pavilion overlapped with hers, a hinge in his chest creaked open.

"They say you may know the depth of ten fathoms of water, but not one fathom of a person's heart — who could have restrained that heart?"

"Yes. If that child had considered me a mother, he would not have done such a thing — so I too shall not consider him my child."

The Queen Dowager gripped the stem as if she might snap it, then did nothing and let go. A butterfly that had drifted in from somewhere fluttered its beautiful wings and landed on the flower petals.

"In this imperial palace, one must not readily give to even those who give to me, and must certainly take from those who do not give to me. Even if that person is one's own flesh and blood."

"Would that make it…… even a little less painful?"

The Queen Dowager's gaze drifted over like a breeze. She stroked the butterfly's wing with her finger and the butterfly fluttered up.

"It is making a callus. Because one cannot keep on lamenting forever."

Yunseo followed the butterfly as it grazed past the pavilion railing and flew elsewhere, then pressed his lips together. The creaking hinge drew out words that had no business being said. He tried to reel in that thread of a sentence and swallow it back, but it slipped out through the gap between his lips.

"Even so, please seek this one out from time to time. This one is also Your Majesty's child, and surely there are parts that cannot be shared with the Emperor that can be shared with me. Who knows — perhaps even lamenting together might become a kind of melody."

Even while watching his own hesitation and his stumbling way of saying what had to be said, the Queen Dowager's gaze moved back and forth over Yunseo's face. She kept her gaze long and silent, and then let out something — between a wasted breath and a laugh.

"Yes. Having a consort such as you is not so bad."

The Queen Dowager turned and began to walk again. Yunseo felt the sunlight that had grown a little warmer and quickly followed at her heels.

Once the early return to the palace was decided, everything moved swiftly. Dozens of carriages were prepared and the members of the inner court departed first. Yunseo watched the procession that followed and swallowed a sigh.

It had been a summer retreat like a brief sweet dream. That this incident had caused their return to come even sooner than planned was both a disappointment and an unsettled feeling.

"Reluctance is dripping from your eyes. Shall we stay a while longer."

Hwi's fingers brushed over Yunseo's eyelashes and fell away. Yunseo squeezed his eyes shut and opened them at the tickling, then shook his head.

"No. The heat has passed now, so we must return."

The retreat had been taken because traveling between the capital and Geumju in midsummer caused the Yongrin's poison to build up more quickly. Summer had retreated, and the imperial palace was considerably more convenient for handling affairs of state, and there were matters to be sorted out, so it was proper to return.

"How dependable."

"But of course. Whose consort do you think I am?"

"Being this reliable, I cannot treat you as a child any longer."

"Obviously."

At the further puffing up of his chest, Hwi's lips twitched, and then he pressed them to Yunseo's cheek.

Soon a carriage arrived before them. He was just taking hold of Hwi's hand and about to board when a faint vibration rose through the soles of his feet. At the same moment, the eyes of Yunseo and Hwi met and they turned their heads together.

Three signal fires. The opening of the Hell Realm.

Yunseo took hold of Hwi's neck, and Hwi took Yunseo into his arms just like that and leapt. All the Yongrin who had been remaining in Manguwon headed toward Geumju Fortress.

Reaching the fortress walls, Hwi set Yunseo down. Yunseo, his brow furrowed, stared at Yongrim Peak spread out across the wide plain beyond.

"Your Majesty, I have heard that three signal fires rising is ordinarily about twice a year. But in this era it has become somewhat more frequent. Even so…… is it not excessively frequent?"

It was not even fully into autumn yet, and this was already the third time three signal fires had risen. There were days remaining until the year's end, so it could not be optimistically assumed that this would be the last.

"That is so. It is the accepted theory that the frequency of the Gate's opening is proportional to the sacred power of the Dragon Heir."

"Did the Gate's opening become more frequent after you underwent Gakchim?"

"At first it was not this frequent. The number increased as time passed. And so I sometimes wonder…… whether the absence of a Dragon Heir would be auspicious or inauspicious for the Realm."

Yunseo turned to Hwi with wavering eyes, and Hwi pressed his lips to Yunseo's forehead before leaping down at once. The Yongrin who followed him out onto the plain fell into formation. With far more people than when two signal fires had been lit standing guard before Yongrim Peak, the sight was truly imposing.

Hwi had stepped forward, so he should feel at ease — yet his heart beat all the more anxiously. It seemed it would be difficult to ever become composed about this matter. Yunseo fretted at his fingertips and watched the scene: the base of Yongrim Peak opening, and darkness flooding in like reeds swaying in the wind.

Hwi pressed his hand to the ground and set up a battle formation; some of the Yongrin swept around to attack the flanks at a distance from Hwi. When the main monsters in the center could not withstand the splitting force and collapsed over each other in ruins, the remaining Yongrin charged in and launched a fierce assault.

Hwi rose to his feet at ease and drew his sword lightly, moving without discrimination in all four directions, covering the blind spots of the Yongrin. And yet on his own he handled close to the work of ten Yongrin, and from the tip of his sword alone countless monsters fell one after another.

The bottomless terror he had felt before was no longer there. Because he had grown accustomed to it, perhaps.

No. Yunseo bit down on his fingertip and thought of the nightmares he had had a couple of times. Whether they could even be called nightmares was uncertain, but……

The guardian star stirred within his belly. All manner of thoughts swirled chaotically through his head. Yunseo shook his head to clear the thoughts and focused on Hwi's movements.

After more than an hour, the chaos showed signs of subsiding. The Yongrin who had fought a battle without a single rotation, to the very end without losing their tension, finished off the remaining stragglers. After the Hell Realm closed and complete silence descended, several of them advanced all the way to the sealed cave entrance to check once more that there were no remnants.

When all was done and the Yongrin returned, they looked utterly spent. Among them, Hwi appeared unchanged, as though he had not taken a single blow, but the moment Hwi climbed up the fortress wall, Yunseo took him into his arms and breathed the guardian star into him.

"I am back."

Hwi whispered warmly. That now-unremarkable greeting landed in his chest and sent out ripples. Somehow his stomach churned and it felt as though he might laugh, and yet he also wanted to cry.

"Welcome back."

Yunseo received the greeting in return and chose to smile. Hwi kissed Yunseo's imperfectly lifted corner of his mouth.

"You seem to have energy to spare."

At the voice from behind, Yunseo, who had been bent over the record book with his nose practically touching it, turned his head.

"You are awake?"

"And here you were complaining to me that it was tiring."

Hwi lifted Yunseo up. Then he sat down in the armchair Yunseo had been sitting in just moments before, and set Yunseo on his lap. A warm hand caressed Yunseo's belly and moved downward. At the soft stroking touch along his member, Yunseo flinched and grabbed Hwi's wrist.

"It is sore."

"Shall I lick it?"

"It is sore because you keep licking it!"

At the sharp retort, Hwi's lips drew a pleased line. He relinquished Yunseo's member without protest and then pinched at his upturned eye corners.

"You were crying out that it felt good when I licked you, and now you change your manner like this."

"……Playing around is something you do in bed."

"Hm. Still so innocent."

Hwi murmured teasingly and kissed him. The tongue that pushed through between his parted lips tickled the flesh inside his cheek. What was being toyed with was his mouth, yet his hole — now well-acquainted — clenched and contracted. Yunseo pressed his legs firmly together and pushed Hwi's shoulders away.

Catching his breath with a flushed face and looking at Hwi, Hwi furrowed his brow and bit down on Yunseo's lip before releasing it.

"If you do not want to play, you should not make that face."

"……What do you mean, what face."

"Ignorance is a sin, but I shall forgive you. You cannot concentrate when you have something on your mind, so let us finish this first. What were you looking at?"

Hwi generously changed the subject. Yunseo quickly tidied the things spread across the round table.

"Your Majesty. There is something I have been pondering since before, after hearing your story. Would you first look at this book?"