Chapter 36

Lee Hyang lifted her chin and looked at Hong In-nam.

Seeing the man fail to hide his embarrassment, she let out a scoff.

Whether he was ashamed from being caught in a lie or not, the sight of him rushing here in his younger brother’s place, looking like some pretty kept man, was laughable.

“I understood my intended match was General Hong’s second son. Where is he?”

Lee Hyang asked while looking around rather excessively.

“…My younger brother is t-training in the mountains and didn’t receive the message in time. I couldn’t have the Crown Prince and Princess waiting, so I came first. Please forgive the discourtesy.”

His mouth itched.

Hong In-nam wanted to say that the great Hong Yeom-rang was nothing more than some superstition’s sacrifice, trapped in the mountains unable to come or go.

But he feared his father’s raw fury.

And seeing a Princess who didn’t have the slightest interest in him, he thought what was the use.

So he bit back the words.

He had enough sense for that.

Enough sense to know saying it would only make him and his family look even more ridiculous.

“Training in the mountains? What nobleman’s son passes the military exam and then goes to train in the mountains? This is clearly insulting me.”

Feeling humiliated, Lee Hyang said it without holding back.

She had already looked into Hong Yeom-rang while he was in the capital.

He often got into fights with street ruffians.

He had almost no close friends.

He didn’t go to gambling houses or courtesan houses.

He didn’t attend noble sons’ social gatherings.

There wasn’t a single man among the noble families who hadn’t traded punches with him at least once in youth, so his reputation among them wasn’t good.

From what Lee Hyang had found, he was an odd man.

A strange breed.

Surely he had passed the military exam to impress her.

Or perhaps this was some attempt, as a man, to tame her before marriage.

“If they meant to insult you, General Hong’s eldest son wouldn’t have rushed here in such haste. Isn’t that so?”

“If I had any thought of insulting you, never, Princess. Please ease your anger. It’s my fault as an elder brother for failing to discipline my younger brother. How could I have known the two of you would come all the way here.”

Both Crown Prince Lee Won and Hong In-nam, bowing his head, tried to soothe Lee Hyang.

Coming here had been because of Lee Hyang’s peculiar curiosity.

Hearing Hong Yeom-rang’s reputation among noble sons was poor and that he had not a shred of proper conduct, she had thought, let’s see.

What sort of man was he that everyone unanimously wanted nothing to do with him.

Before even meeting him, Lee Hyang found it unsettling that they were rather alike.

Both were far from the kind of people their families wanted.

Yet both were second-borns carrying their family’s expectations.

And she too was sick of those who whispered behind her back, so aside from Hyoseon, the court lady she had kept since childhood, she didn’t mix with noble offspring.

The girl who became heir only because the Crown Prince fell ill.

Their secret filthy desires were amusing the first couple of times.

But after seeing them over and over, it grew dull.

The desire of men who wanted to marry her and become father of the next king always revealed itself if one spoke long enough.

“A misunderstanding? Since brother thinks so too, I’ll step back for now. But if that man doesn’t come here within three days, I’ll go meet him myself. The distance is very close after all.”

For a moment, the boldly speaking Lee Hyang overlapped slightly with someone in Hong In-nam’s mind.

But he quickly shook the thought away.

How dare he think this noble beautiful Princess resembled Hong Yeom-rang, whom even ghosts wouldn’t bother carrying off.

Hong In-nam’s little heart pounded.

“Just say you want to see the man who may become your husband.”

“I haven’t acknowledged him yet and already husband? What a dreadful thing to say, brother.”

Lee Hyang shivered as if such a romantic word didn’t suit her.

After saying it, the thought suddenly crossed her mind that visiting the village herself wouldn’t be bad, and she could also see how General Hong’s household fared.

Seeing the gleam in her eyes, Lee Won sighed.

Unlike pathetic himself, his younger sister had always been capable and ambitious, and when she had that look, he knew she couldn’t be stopped.

Lee Won brushed a hand through her glossy black hair.

“Guide the guest to a hall. I need to rest.”

“Then why are you out here? Your health isn’t even sound.”

Lee Hyang, whose eyes had been shining, immediately quieted at Lee Won’s words.

Then with shallow concern, she pulled the hand resting atop her head down with both hands and rubbed her cheek against it affectionately.

She had never once been anything but lovable.

Counting the days until he died, while voicing routine concern at the same time.

Lee Won wasn’t hurt.

Not because Lee Hyang was cruel, but because he knew that was simply who she was.

Everyone was counting the day he would die.

How much more must this child, who would gain the most after his death, be doing so.

“Yes. I should go lie down.”

“What are you doing? Help His Highness.”

At Lee Hyang’s cold words, the guards, despite Lee Won’s gesture, obeyed her order and supported him from both sides.

Hong In-nam couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of the Crown Prince, who had been walking perfectly fine alone with hands behind his back until now, being led away to his room.

“Court lady, show the guest where he’ll stay.”

As if she had no more business with Hong In-nam, Lee Hyang gave the order and turned sharply.

A cold gust rose for a moment, and Hong In-nam hunched his shoulders.

Lee Hyang turned only half her head back and said to him,

“Before sleeping, send a letter to General Hong. Tell him to find that second son of his even if he has to shave down the whole mountain where he’s holed up. Before I go there myself.”

“W-what? Y-yes, Princess.”

With that one-sided notice, Lee Hyang strode boldly into the darkness again.

As if Hong In-nam meant nothing at all to her.

Left alone, the court lady urged him onward with a tired face.

In the end, the gifts he had brought for the Princess were only thoroughly shown to Lee Won, then packed back up.

“…She doesn’t seem to like gifts much…”

Nor much interest in me.

Only Hong In-nam’s sigh, after bustling since morning and rushing to the villa, echoed through Hyeonhyeon Palace as if the ground might cave in.

* * *

For Hong Yeom-rang, making Hisa laugh was the easiest thing in the world.

After giving his jeogori to the woman drenched through, he was heading back to the cave wearing only his lower garments.

Hisa was small and thin, so his top reached below her thighs and above her knees.

Maybe she liked the soft fresh clothes she wore instead of wet ones.

She fluttered ahead happily.

His shoulder had improved almost miraculously.

So it really was a medicinal spring.

She had been right.

And above all, he liked that he too now carried the same bitter grassy scent Hisa had.

Then what was that sticky sweet scent that kept clinging to him.

– Mr. Kim, Mr. Kim.

“What.”

Hong Yeom-rang wasn’t even startled anymore.

He slowed his steps.

Hisa, apparently unable to hear it, was already far ahead.

Then she looked back.

The lifted corners of her mouth.

The dimple in her right cheek.

The softly curved eyes.

They caught Hong Yeom-rang’s gaze.

The goblin who always spoke to Hisa was speaking to him directly this time.

– Humans are looking for Mr. Kim. One servant from your house searched the mountains all day and left. Now dozens are looking.

It was probably the goblins who had spun that servant around the mountains like a spinning top.

Who was looking was obvious.

The only one who would search so noisily for him and mobilize that kind of manpower was his father.

Why look for him now.

Until now, he hadn’t even known he was gone.

Something had clearly happened.

“Do as you’ve been doing.”

What that thing was, Hong Yeom-rang wasn’t very curious.

He was sure it was some matter meant to drag him into serving his father’s interests again.

What interested him most now was Hisa ahead of him, in new clothes and in a good mood.

Her slender legs looked like a deer’s.

She walked well too.

Watching her patter along barefoot, suddenly he wanted to touch those feet.

To see whether calluses had formed from walking so much.

He was simply curious.

– It’s the first time this many humans have come. We want to live quietly.

A human or two was fun to toy with.

But so many entering the forest and roaming freely was a first, and the goblins were flustered.

They had thought about telling Hisa.

But after discussing it, they spoke to Hong Yeom-rang first.