Unknown
Matching my short strides, Ansi toddled along behind me. From the rear came the faint murmurs of the palace maids whispering among themselves.
"I've never seen that blonde maid before?"
"Well, she was probably assigned by lot."
Yun assumed she was a native-born servant from Pyeong, while Pyeong assumed she was a maid assigned separately by Yun.
Amid this peaceful misunderstanding, Ansi's existence slipped by unremarked.
*Well, it'd be stranger to make a fuss over a single young maid anyway.*
Seol Deunghwa was confined under strict guard, virtually imprisoned.
Told that she would have to go in alone, she left Ansi waiting at the entrance.
[When I go in, seal the area with wind so that no sound from inside leaks out.]
[Yes, Your Highness. I shall block it thoroughly — worry not!]
With that, any fear of the guards outside eavesdropping on whatever was said within vanished.
When I entered the room, the silver-haired woman who had been sitting blankly before the table snapped her head up.
"Ruhwa!"
She cried out my name like a wail and rushed toward me. Before I could even take a seat across from her, she pulled me into her arms.
"Good heavens, Ruhwa, my precious child, you're alive — you survived! My darling daughter, ah, all the gods of heaven and earth, I thank you…!"
The woman, who had been rambling as she held me tight, finally broke into sobs.
A desperate wailing clung to my ears. The arms wrapped around me trembled uncontrollably.
This was… a bit of a problem.
*I can't comfort her the way I soothe Ansi. What do I do?*
In this situation, I couldn't bring myself to blurt out, I'm not your daughter, and your real daughter is already dead.
*I'll wait for her to calm down first.*
In the end, I awkwardly returned Seol Deunghwa's embrace.
Her hand stroking the back of my head over and over was so tender that it made me feel strange.
My chest ached, sharp and deep.
Only after her tears had thoroughly soaked my shoulder did Seol Deunghwa lift her head and examine my face from every angle.
"What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?"
In the way she looked at me, I saw my mother.
The face of the mother who had watched over me from my bedside, keeping vigil every time I died and came back to life, every time I lay ill.
She looked just like her.
My mouth would not open easily.
Still, I had to say it. I couldn't deceive someone like this.
I steadied my voice and spoke.
"Seol Deunghwa."
"…Ruhwa?"
"What I'm about to tell you will come as a shock. Don't be startled, and hear me out to the end."
"Yes? My precious flower of a daughter, what could…?"
"Seol Deunghwa. I am not your daughter Seruhwa."
I said it while staring straight into her eyes.
It was only then that Seol Deunghwa seemed to realize my eyes were different from Ruhwa's, and her expression changed.
"My child, your eyes…."
"I'm telling you, I am not Ruhwa."
Swallowing the sigh that rose unbidden with a deep breath, I continued calmly.
"I am Sangra Huiyo — by my divine title, Princess Cheonmyeong."
"…"
"Sole daughter of the Jade Emperor and King Yama, princess of Heaven and the Underworld — and the one who made a bargain with your daughter Seruhwa, whom I met in the land of the dead, and received this body in exchange."
Seol Deunghwa stared at me, mouth agape. I slipped free of her arms and stepped back a pace.
"You understand that I'm not lying, don't you? You are of the Seol clan."
"…"
Seol Deunghwa remained silent, her face drained white.
But that very attitude — neither brushing it off as a joke nor denying it — was itself an answer.
Every member of the Seol clan could, by nature, distinguish a lie.
They couldn't detect a falsehood spoken by someone who believed it to be true, but a lie told with intent to deceive — that they caught without fail.
Since I wasn't truly one of the Seol clan, I didn't know the exact mechanics.
But according to Ruhwa's memories, the standard by which the Seol clan distinguished lies was *scent*.
Apparently, a lie carried a smell somehow different from the truth.
*That's the ability every member of the Seol clan is born with. And a few are said to be born with something even stronger.*
Among the Seol clan, it was said, rare individuals were occasionally born who could not only detect lies but discern the very scent of fortune and misfortune.
*Discerning fortune from misfortune means accepting luck and dodging calamity. No wonder the Empire coveted such an ability.*
The powerful gifted one they had been searching for seemed, in the end, never to have been found by the Empire.
But human bloodlines that wielded such special powers across generations were, nine times out of ten, descendants born between humans and gods.
Humans who had inherited the blood of a god were called divine-blooded.
*Given the abilities to see through lies and discern fortune from misfortune… I have a guess as to whose divine blood the Seol clan carries.*
Both were powers belonging to Gamunjang, the goddess of fate.
*Gamunjang herself is living blissfully with her husband up in the Heavenly Realm, so they're probably not her direct descendants.*
Long ago, I'd heard, one of Gamunjang's sisters lamented that she would never become the goddess of fate, abandoned her divinity, descended to the lower realm, and built a life with a mortal.
*Which one was it again? Copper-jang? Or Silver-jang? Ah — seeing as the whole Seol clan has silver hair, it must have been Silver-jang.*
Which meant the Seol clan were the descendants of Silver-jang, the eldest sister of the fate goddess Gamunjang — and divine-blooded.
*Since their power flows from divine strength, Seol Deunghwa will know at once that what I said is true.*
Though knowing something is true doesn't necessarily make it easy to accept.
I'd expected her to ask something, anything, but Seol Deunghwa stayed silent.
Unable to wait any longer, I began the story myself.
"I met Ruhwa on the banks of the Samdocheon. There, that child…."
As my words went on, Seol Deunghwa's face grew paler and paler.
"…So she changed her name to Sohwa. She's in my palace in the Heavenly Realm now, training as a celestial attendant. I'm sure she's doing well."
"…"
"I know you want to see her… but mortals cannot ascend to the Heavenly Realm under ordinary circumstances, and immortals, gods, and celestial beings must not carelessly descend to the lower realm. That is the law of all the gods of heaven and earth."
"…"
"But! If Sohwa grows up well and becomes a fine fairy, she will be entrusted with duties that let her descend to the mortal world. Then you'll be able to meet her."
"…"
"…I promise I'll make sure you see her before you die. Even without a special mission, I'll send her on some errand or another and find a way to bring her down to you…."
"…"
"…So please, don't cry."
I murmured, at a loss.
Seol Deunghwa was quietly shedding tears, her face bone-white.
She didn't wail or sob. She simply froze, as if her soul had left her, while the tears fell and fell, drop after drop.
I hate it when anyone cries because of me.
I've already seen far too much of that.
*Though right now… it isn't because of me.*
It was Ruhwa she was crying for.
And yet this, too, was every bit as hard to watch.
The face of a mother grieving herself to death upon learning her daughter was gone.
Because I knew my own mother would wear that same face on the day my coin finally landed tails-up, I couldn't bear to look.
"Don't cry — Sohwa is doing well up in the heavens. It's not as if you'll never see her again, all right?"
Seol Deunghwa didn't react at all, as though her ears had stopped working. The tears kept falling down that deathly pale face.
If anything, I wished she would wail and scream instead.
The life of Seruhwa that I had witnessed in the upturned mirror of fate flashed through my mind — and within it, the figure of Seol Deunghwa.
To that woman, who had lost her family and her homeland, been dragged before the very emperor who was her enemy, and locked away — the daughter who resembled her had been everything in the world.
*…Is this woman about to follow her daughter into death?*
A vivid, unshakable instinct sent a jolt of fear through me.
So I spoke hastily.
"I will avenge her!"
Seol Deunghwa looked up at me with bloodshot eyes.
I drew a long breath and went on.
"To the ones who drove Ruhwa to her death, I will take vengeance in her name — as 'Ruhwa' myself."
So live. Don't die until you've seen all of it.
I swallowed the rest and left it unsaid.
"…!"
At the word *vengeance*, a flicker of life returned, however briefly, to Seol Deunghwa — who had seemed ready to hang herself and follow her daughter at any moment.
Relieved, I continued.
"Those who tore flesh from Ruhwa's body, of course — and I will find and punish whoever ordered her assassination as well. Is there anything else you desire? I'll grant whatever you ask. Tell me."
Seol Deunghwa slowly closed her eyes and opened them again. Her eyelids quivered. Then a deep voice, like a groan, slipped out in a whisper.
"…Kill him."
"Hm?"
"The Emperor. Kill him."
"The Emperor? You mean the Emperor of Pyeong?"
"Yes. Not content with slaughtering my parents, my brothers and sisters, my friends, my neighbors — not content with burning my homeland to the ground… he violated me, and he drove my own daughter to her death."
It felt as though a green-blue flame was blazing to life in Seol Deunghwa's eyes. Smiling through her tears, she spoke.
"If you truly can do anything, then kill the Emperor."
To kill the Emperor of Pyeong.
I fell silent for a moment.
The Emperor of the greatest empire in the lower realm.
A man who would be surrounded, deep within his ninefold palace, by every warding formation, his imperial guard, and escorts of monstrous supernatural might.
Could such a man be killed?
My deliberation was brief.
Who exactly do you think I am?
More than a dozen methods sprang to mind in an instant.
All I had to do was choose the one that was least conspicuous, least disruptive — and still a fitting revenge.
I answered readily, with a smile.
"Very well. I'll kill him. The Emperor."
"…I beg your pardon? Are you serious?"
"You're the one who asked me to."
"B-but…."
Seol Deunghwa stammered, as if she could hardly believe it.
I took a seat and went on.
"I am Princess Cheonmyeong. Princess of the heavens and princess of the underworld."
"…"
"If I so wished, I could call down a bolt of lightning from the sky and burn the Emperor to ash, or rewrite the ledger of the dead so that he draws his last breath tomorrow morning."
"…"
"But that wouldn't be satisfying, would it? You'd want your revenge done in a more human way."
"A more… human way?"
"An assassination, perhaps, or a rebellion. Which would you prefer? If you want to kill him with your own hands, I can help with that too."
"…"
Seol Deunghwa only fluttered her lips in confusion for a long while. Then, slowly, she opened her mouth.
"The method doesn't matter. Only… I want him to die knowing it — knowing that it is for the things he has done. That it is the vengeance of Ruhwa, of me, of the Seol clan."
A wish I could understand completely.
And I already had a feel for which method to use.