Warning: This chapter contains some graphic depictions of violence.
Cheol met the Chowon Ni Clan’s Lady Ok-jeong the same day that Min-jun arrived at the Academy. The woman had gone to stay with her relatives in Hanseong, as close to the Palace as possible. The Ni family home was a sprawling estate with large oak trees in the front, their branches now barren save for a few yellow leaves. When Cheol stepped out of the palanquin, Lady Ok-jeong already stood outside of the manor. Stunning, she was, though not as beautiful as Min-jun. Perhaps that was an unfair standard to set.
When their eyes met, Lady Ok-jeong’s face lit up. She could barely contain her smile as she bowed to him.
“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Majesty,” Lady Ok-jeong said. She eyed the two guards beside him.
Of course, the presence of the guards was superfluous. He did not need their protection, not when the earth itself was willing to defend him. However, he needed to keep up appearances. Cheol wasn’t cruel either. He knew that should they be seen walking alone, rumors would spread. If this match didn’t work out, his reputation would stay intact, and Lady Ok-jeong’s would be in tatters. There was no need for Lady Ok-jeong to be ruined by her family’s ambitions.
“The pleasure is mine, my Lady,” Cheol said. He gestured to his companions. “These are my guards. They are both trustworthy. As King, I cannot allow myself to move about without people to guard me.” He nodded to the servants near the palanquin. They brought forth a wooden box: A gift for Lady Ok-jeong. When she opened it, her eyes widened.
“It is beautiful, Your Majesty!” she said, as she ran her fingers down the fabric of the hanbok.
“I hear this type is very fashionable these days.”
Lady Ok-jeong smiled again, letting her servants take the gift away. “Your Majesty is wise. I will wear it at our next meeting if it pleases you.” There was no real discussion to be had there. “Shall we explore the city together? There is always something happening in Hanseong.”
“Let us not wait any longer, then.” He’d like to get this over with and return to his work. Min-jun would also be waiting for him, now that they’d agreed to make their lessons a daily occurrence. Cheol watched as the sky slowly began to shift into the warm tones of sunset. The sun would be setting soon.
Ok-jeong spoke easily as if the two of them had known each other already. Cheol did not mind, as he often found the formality of the Palace rather overbearing. It didn’t take long for Cheol to realize that Ok-jeong was nearly as good of a conversationalist as he was.
“I hear Your Majesty is fond of botany,” Ok-jeong said, as they passed a shop of fragrant autumn flowers. Chrysanthemums with their hundreds of bright orange petals, crimson celosias, purple aster and dianthus, and a patch of sweet alyssum. There were more inside the shop, growing in spades. The roof of the building, instead of being built from stone and tile, was made of glass. A greenhouse.
“Shall we go inside?” Ok-jeong asked.
Cheol nodded. Even he was curious to see what sorts of flora they managed to grow here, without the aid of any special gifts or instruments.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“What a beautiful melody,” said Lady Ok-jeong. The woman’s head jerked in their direction, surprise clear on her features. She stood abruptly, brushing her dirty hands on her skirt. Then she folded her hands in front of her and bowed. It was the scar on her face, a sunken strip of pale scar tissue running from her eyebrow and down to her jaw, that stirred Cheol’s memory. A scar that could only be made by a whip.
“Court Lady Goo,” Cheol spoke her name, too astonished to stop himself. The woman met his shocked gaze with one of her own.
“Yeong-a?”
Yeong-a. No one had spoken his birth name since his mother passed. Memories returned, unabated and unwanted, they seized him like a dozen hands, pulling him back to that moment.
. . . Graphic Depiction of Violence Starts Here . . .
He was four, maybe five, the first time his father whipped a servant in front of him. They had dragged her outside and had her kneeling on the floor. His father had never cared if the servant was young or old, man or woman. Anyone who crossed him deserved to be punished, otherwise, they would only grow rebellious and difficult to manage. Wise words he’d tried to pass onto his son. Perhaps he’d succeeded.
The servant’s crime was unforgivable: Cheol’s mother had taken him out of the Inner Palace and the servant had aided her. Cheol’s father had never been able to raise a hand against his mother, but he had other ways of terrorizing her. This was his father’s favorite, Cheol would soon find out.
They’d waited out in the cold for the two of them to return. Waited in the beautiful, snow-covered courtyard of their villa. It had looked like a wintry playground just that morning. Cheol and his mother had entered with their faces red from the wind and their hands sticky from the honey cakes they’d bought. Giggles escaped him as his mother lifted him into her arms. ‘Raindrop’, she’d called him, because he brought life to everything.
When the steps of the villa came into view, Cheol’s mother placed him down in the snow, watching the scene with growing wariness.
“What has happened?” she asked, walking toward them. “Why have you all gathered here?”
There were more people than usual, Cheol supposed. He recognized his father immediately. The servants always said Cheol looked like his father. Same violet eyes, same smile, same ‘royal’ aura. They told him he’d be handsome one day, because he looked like his father. It wouldn’t take long for Cheol to recognize their likeness as a constant reminder of their blood ties.
His father replied. He always spoke in a way that made one want to agree with him. “This servant has put my Queen and child in danger due to her negligence. I am punishing her for breaking our laws.”
His father had made his way over to them. When he peered down at Cheol, he smiled as if he were amused and ruffled his son’s hair. Abruptly, his mother hid Cheol behind her.
“We agreed not to show him such things.”
“Darling,” his father said, taking her hands. “Cheol is not a normal child. He should know the way of things.”
Cheol watched his parents, wondering if another argument was imminent. His parents argued a lot, but not any more than anyone else’s parents, and after a while, things always calmed down.
“Begin.” That was his father’s Kingly voice, as Cheol had dubbed it. He used it to order people around.
Begin what, though? Cheol took a peek. He recognized the servant as Court Lady Goo, a woman a year or two younger than Cheol’s mother. She always watched over him when his mother could not. They would skip rocks over the pond in the garden, watching the ripples form and get larger and larger, until they flickered out. She could not read to him as his mother could, but she had her own stories to tell, and when he had the chance, he’d listen to her tales of heroes until his eyelids drooped.
Cheol’s eyes lifted to the man standing above her, a whip in his hands, like the kind they used on animals to make them go faster. Now, he was truly confused.
“Mama, what’s going on?” Cheol asked as the man let the whip unfurl like a viper. What was he doing? Court Lady Goo wasn’t an animal.
His mother had taken his father’s arm and begun to plead for Court Lady Goo to be spared. His father stood, motionless, until Cheol’s mother tried to run in the direction of her maid. He pulled her into an embrace, then, one she struggled against.
“Yeong-a, don’t watch!” Perhaps she would’ve told him to run, if not for the guards surrounding their villa. Cheol closed his eyes as she’d asked. He was a good son, after all. The first scream peeled them right open again.
The whip had struck her in the face, and now blood dripped down from her wound in warm, red rivulets that dripped down and melted the white snow. Her shallow breaths, pained, turned into steam in the air. His father had sighed, as if disappointed. “Do hold her down properly. A lady’s face should be left unscarred.”
They did so, and this time the whip came down on her back, tearing the flesh away. She screamed again.
It must hurt. Cheol thought, although he could not have imagined the pain of being beaten in such a manner that the flesh gave way to blood. Should I do something? He was a Prince, after all. His mother always told him that Princes protect their people to their deaths.
“Mama,” he’d spoken, voice shaky, hoping she’d give him guidance. His mother was on her knees in the snow, skirt soaked with snowmelt. Tears streamed down her face much like the blood on Court Lady Good’s cheek. He’d only seen his mother cry in private before, when she thought he wasn’t looking.
The next time the whip came down, he flinched. He wished he could go to his mother because she always made the bad things go away. Even monsters lurking in the shadows were frightened of her. His limbs were frozen in place, though. He could not move an inch if he wanted to. He realized that, for the first time in his life, he was truly scared. Scared that someone could hurt another person so badly.
The light purple fabric of a cloak enveloped him. He knew immediately who it was because his mother had gifted her this cloak just last year.
“Auntie Hye-rin?” He twisted around to look up at her. Lady Hye-rin was one of his father’s other wives, and one of his mother’s only friends. She gazed down at him now with pity in her reddish-brown eyes, her red lips pulled down into a solemn frown. The cloak had hidden the bad things from view, but he heard the screams still. Cheol hugged Lady Hye-rin, who froze in surprise, and then slowly knelt down to hold him gently. He could hear her heartbeat, and the sound calmed him, as it reminded him of his mother’s heartbeat when she cradled him to her.
“Don’t worry, Yeong-a,” she told him, still covering him with that purple cloak as the screams slowly lessened. “This will be over soon.”
. . . Depiction of Violence Ends Here . . .
Cheol sucked in a breath, as the memories faded. He had told his mother that day that whips would not be used when he became King, neither on animals nor humans. His mother had told him to write it down so he wouldn’t forget, grinning all the while, despite what had happened earlier. It became evident later that Cheol’s father had been beating the servants for far longer than Cheol had imagined then. Silly boy. Thinking the world started with you.
“How have you been, Court Lady Goo?” he asked. “It’s a surprise to see you here.”
“Ah, you know,” she replied, scratching the back of her neck. “When you live in one place for so long, it’s hard to leave it. Hanseong has always been my home.”
“I suppose we can both agree on that,” Cheol replied, smiling. He wondered how her other injuries had healed. Were their scars down her back? She’d gotten twenty lashes that day. There had been so much blood sunk into the snow.
Court Lady Goo laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “You’ve inherited your mother’s wit, I can tell. She had the same look in her eyes. I was so happy to hear that you’d returned to your rightful place. You were born to be a King, after all.”
“Yes.”
Court Lady Goo turned to Lady Ok-jeong. Ah, Cheol had forgotten she was here too. “Lady Ok-jeong!” She put her hands on Lady Ok-jeong’s cheeks. “Let me get a good look at you. It’s so good you two found each other again after all these years!”
Again? After all these years?
Cheol glanced at Lady Ok-jeong, trying to recall any past encounters with her. None arose.
We knew each other?
A/N: It’s backstory time. Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Thank you for reading! idk do you guys think I need a warning here?
It was obvious things have happened to Cheol to make him kill without hesitation when it needs to be done. I hope finding this auntie is good for him. It’s funny that he doesn’t remember Lady Ok-jeong, because I don’t want to like her.
Cheol became a proper murderer, unlike the murder muffin. Finding auntie Hye-rin’s not gonna be good for him 😭, but at least auntie Goo is on his side. I’m glad you liked the moment where Cheol didn’t remember Lady Ok-jeong. She was so sure he would smh
I really like the relationship between cheol and his mother… too bad they have such a trash as father/husband
This lady hye-rin is a little sus 🧐
Cheol and his mother had a great relationship for the most part. The father really messed things up for them. And Lady Hye-rin is very sus.
Thank you for commenting, Clozed!
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Thank you for commenting!
Oooh this is exciting. Backstories are great! I’m also really hoping lady Ok jeong can make min jun sweat a little in jealousy. Can’t make it too easy for him right?