Chapter 83

Bipaan was on his way to the East Palace after finishing the day’s work at the Central Palace, but he found Kyosul’s nanny pacing up and down there alone and felt strange. So, he stopped her and asked sharply, “I thought you were supposed to be with the Crown Princess serving her. How come you are wandering alone here with a haggard look?”

She flinched and suddenly got nervous at his question.

Licking her dry lips, she said in a trembling voice, “Well, I just went out on her errands, Your Majesty.”

“Then, where the heck is the Crown Princess?”

“Crown Princess Kyosul is in her residence now….”

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“Oh, that sounds good,” he said nonchalantly.

She momentarily felt relieved because his emotionless voice suggested that he wasn’t interested in Kyosul.

At that moment, however, he said, “I want to her today.”

“Really?”

“Escort me there.”

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Surprised by his sudden order, she raised her head and looked straight at him.

He was looking down at her with an emotionless face. He looked like a statue.

When she couldn’t move because she freaked out at his order, he started to walk for Kyosul’s residence.

“Are you going to follow me?”

“Your Majesty!”

When he moved one step, she realized the graveness of the situation and grabbed his trouser legs, lying face down.

“Please forgive me for having lied to you!”

“What’s the matter with you?” he asked casually, with no change in his tone or expression.

Shivering with alarm and fear, she told him the truth, after all.

“In fact, Crown Princess Kyosul…”

In her mind, she felt Kyosul might have had a big accident. If that was true, it was obvious that she badly needed his help.

As she was so nervous and worried, she barely confided, “Crown Princess Kyosul has not yet come back from an outing….It looks like she had an accident somewhere in the palace.”

“What the heck did you say?”

He looked at her with glaring eyes and asked, “Are you sure what you said is true?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. How can I lie to you?”

“When did she leave the palace?”

“She left around noon, saying she wanted to take a walk. She said she would come back by 7 PM at the latest, but she didn’t come back yet…..”

“Right now it’s already past 9 PM, isn’t it?”

And then he shouted at the eunuch standing behind him, “Call the Imperial Army right now!”

***

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The sun set early in the mountains. Ruhae and Kyosul were left alone in the dark mountains. The looked at the woods around them vaguely. What’s more worrisome for them was not darkness.

“Heeeet!”

She sneezed, hunching her shoulders. He instinctively wrapped his hands around her shoulders. Her thin shoulders trembled quickly.

As the sunlight was gone, they began to feel cold in the wooded mountains.

“Even though it is late summer, the temperature in the mountains is dropping quickly. Do you feel cold?”

“Just a little bit.”

He repeated stroked her forearms quickly. She was dressed lightly that day, putting on clothes without sleeves or a coat. It was a good fit for her during the day, but as the temperature dropped during the night, she felt cold.

“I’m afraid you might catch a cold again.”

She groaned helplessly.

In fact, she caught a cold recently after she got soaked in the rain. But she didn’t want to hear him saying she was physically weak. Straightening her shoulders on purpose, she raised her head and said, “I’m alright. So, let’s think about how to get back to the palace, will you?”

“Can you put on this for now?”

He took off his coat and put it on her shoulders. As her body was already cold, she felt the warmth of his coat on her shoulders. At that moment, she trembled unconsciously.

He burst into laughter, watching her and thinking her actions were so cute.

“Don’t you think we can find a door if we keep walking along the wall?”

“The problem is you and I came out of the castle gate secretly. Can we honorably go back through the gate when we didn’t come out through it first?”

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“Yeah, that’s true.”

“I just don’t know why the side door we used was closed and wouldn’t open.”

He tried very hard to push it open, but it wouldn’t open no matter how much he tried. In the end, he kicked at it, but all his efforts failed.

“Het! Cheet!” she began to sneeze again. She pulled the sleeves of his coat to her mouth. Turning to her with a worried look, he looked up at the sky.

The dark sky was hidden behind a big dark tree before them. He also began to tremble because of the cold. It looked like they were stricken with cold, not darkness.

“As it is so dark, we can’t walk down the wall now. We have to get out of the cold first.”

“How?”

“To the best of my memory there was a shack not far from here.”

He took her hand. They felt a chill because of the cold in the mountains, but when they joined hands, they felt each other’s warmth.

The only thing they could rely on in the darkness was each other’s hands. Holding hands tightly, they walked slowly.

They didn’t know how long they walked, elbowing their way out of the dark woods. And finally there appeared something like a round object between the shades of trees.

“It looks like there is a dilapidated shack out there.”

He vigorously walked toward it. When they went near it, they saw a shack on the verge of collapsing. The door was hung on a slant, and one wall of the shack was collapsed with the shingle roof tilted slightly.

“After the Mok Kingdom prohibited palace people from coming to this mountain, it looks like this shack was deserted. That means this shack had been neglected for more than ten years.”

“I’m glad to see it here such as it is. I think we can keep out of the cold inside, right?”

She cheerfully singled out the positive aspects of the dilapidated shack. He looked at her with a satisfied look.

“You’re right. We should be grateful.”

When he lifted the slanted door, she went in. They smelled the musty odor from the old rotten wood inside. After they went inside the door, he twisted the door and shut it tightly. Though they were out of the cold, it was quite dark inside. They groped in the dark and went inside the room.

The air was cool, but their breathing was warm.

They heard the noise of grass bugs in the dark, which made their heart beat fast.

When they were sitting side by side tensely, she again sneezed, “Hooootch!”

She suddenly blushed with sneezing.

“Are you still cold?” he asked gravely. Her heart sank at his baritone voice.

“Yes, just a little bit,” she answered shyly.

Hunching her shoulders, she lowered her head. She felt his hands on her shoulders. When she showed surprised, his hands stopped moving. And then he warmly hugged her and pulled her to his chest.

“Haaaa…..”

Though it was not clear who let out a sigh, it dispersed into the air slowly.

“If we get close to each other physically, we can stay warm.”He bashfully made poor excuses after closing the gap between them.

They hugged each other tightly in the dark with their hearts beating fast.

Bang!

At that moment the door burst open with a bang. Stunned at the bang, they raised their heads quickly. A dark shade in the dark stood before the door.

“Crown Princess!”

It was a dreadful and sharp voice.

Ruhae and Kyosul stiffened at that voice and looked at Bipaan who stormed into the room.

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He was staring at them with glaring eyes in the dark.

***

There was a great fuss in the palace for a long time. Lots of court ladies and Imperial Army soldiers were moving around in groups here and there in the dark, holding lamps. They tried to search for Kyosul in every nook and corner of the palace carefully.

There were lamp lights everywhere in the palace, with the court people whispering about Kyosul’s whereabouts in subdued voices. Bipaan was behind all this great fuss, which made them sleep fitfully.

“Haven’t you heard anything about Kyosul’s whereabouts?”

“No, not yet, Your Majesty,” said the eunuch, lowering his head.

Though Bipaan’s voice was calm, he asked the same question three times.

“Your Majesty, they searched far and wide at the central gate, east and south gates of the Central Palace, but nobody there confirmed the Crown Princess went out the gate,” one of the soldiers said, quickly coming running to him.

As he expected some good news, he was disappointed. When he gestured toward him, the soldier went out.

He looked at the crowds holding the lights moving around in the dark, who were on the lookout for Kyosul everywhere in the palace. Carefully looking at the lamp lights spreading from Central Palace, he clenched his fists.