Sweeping the Eaves of Jamryongdang
"Did you finish settling things with the head maid of the inner court?"
"Yes, my lady. From this moment on, I shall serve you formally as the head attendant of the Crown Princess's residence."
She already knew about the assassins, and on top of that, this woman was quick with her work and quicker with her news.
"Thank you for your efforts. I look forward to working with you."
As I nodded in satisfaction, Court Lady Kim ventured a careful question.
"Though, my lady… it is said the assassins died in a most peculiar manner, each and every one of them falling from a great height. Might I ask if Your Ladyship knows the reason?"
"Ah."
I mulled it over for a moment, then brazenly played dumb.
"Hmm, I really couldn't say. I was hiding inside the palanquin until things quieted down."
"I see. Understood, my lady."
Court Lady Kim withdrew without pressing further. A good attitude.
Royal family members were more or less expected to keep shadow guards of bizarre supernatural might, so she probably just assumed it was something of that sort.
I caught her casting a sidelong glance at Ansi, who stood quietly behind me, and could guess her thinking—that the girl with the unusual eye and hair color had been secretly raised by the imperial house as a shadow bodyguard.
That guess is almost exactly right—except the imperial house in question isn't the Pyeong Empire's.
This time, it was my turn to ask a question.
"Have they found out who was behind the assassins?"
"The Royal Investigative Office is examining the scene directly, so the truth should come to light soon."
"The Royal Investigative Office, you say…?"
The moment I probed, Court Lady Kim supplied the explanation at once.
"It is an agency directly under His Majesty that investigates matters involving the royal family. Something akin to the Empire's Royal Guards, my lady."
"I see. If you hear anything, could you let me know as well?"
"Of course, my lady. I shall report to you at once."
I had only asked because it seemed unlikely an institution answering directly to the king would report to me, yet Court Lady Kim answered as though it would be no trouble at all.
So she has her own sources inside the Investigative Office, does she?
For someone chosen on a whim, she was turning out rather well. Why on earth had someone this capable never been promoted?
I wanted to examine her with my Eyes of Heavenly Insight, but I decided against it for fear the shock might make her faint.
"My lady, you must be hungry. Shall we return to the Crown Princess's residence? It is a little early, but I have had the midday meal prepared."
At Court Lady Kim's words, I revised my assessment of her upward.
And I was hungry anyway!
She had guessed that I'd skipped breakfast and would be famished by midday, and prepared an early meal accordingly. Kim Suk-hyang wasn't merely decent—she was a remarkably capable woman.
Unryong Palace, the royal palace of the Kingdom of Un.
The eastern quarter of Unryong Palace was the Crown Prince's domain, the Eastern Palace.
According to Court Lady Kim, the Eastern Palace was a miniature of Unryong Palace itself—identical in layout to the royal palace, only with smaller halls.
At its center stood the Lesser King's Hall, the formal throne hall of the Eastern Palace, and behind it, the Crown Prince's residence, Jamryongdang, and the Crown Princess's residence, Unyeondang, faced one another side by side.
A long covered corridor connected the two residences, and between them lay a garden with a small pond.
In well-tended days, it would have blazed with red and gold autumn foliage, charming and dazzling all at once. Now it was bleak and shabby.
The trees drooped half-withered, weeds ran riot everywhere, and the pond water had gone so foul you could hardly see into it.
The sight tells you everything about where the Crown Prince currently stands.
Unyeondang, the residence I would now be living in, also showed clear signs of neglect—though it had at least been hastily tidied, and was clean.
Still, the meal was absolutely delicious.
Court Lady Kim truly was a capable and wonderful person.
Having finished my meal in high spirits, I asked her in a magnanimous mood, "Why is the garden in such a state?"
"I am told it was left that way for lack of hands, my lady."
"A lack of hands?"
"…They say His Highness the Crown Prince dislikes having people near him, and dismissed all but the bare minimum of staff."
Court Lady Kim answered, floundering delicately around the truth.
She was laboring hard to phrase, without saying it outright, that anyone who served at the Crown Prince's side went mad and died, leaving no one to do the work.
I rested my chin on my hand and gazed out the window for a while before speaking.
"Even so, that's rather extreme."
"There are maids newly assigned to the Crown Princess's residence, so I shall have them tidy it together with the eunuchs of the Eastern Palace."
"Will you have enough people?"
"Not enough, but it can be done."
If their hands were already short and I piled more work on them, resentment would build—and all the more so when they'd only just been assigned here.
I considered for a moment, then waved a hand.
"Don't start right away. The residence itself still has a long way to go before it's fully sorted, doesn't it? The division of duties hasn't even been settled properly yet. If you push everyone into it now, it'll be too much."
Court Lady Kim looked at me with wide, round eyes, then answered slowly.
"…That is true, my lady. But there is no need for Your Ladyship to concern yourself with the affairs of those beneath you."
"Why not? They're my people. If I don't look after them, who will?"
"…"
Court Lady Kim seemed struck speechless. She was staring at me as though at something utterly unfamiliar.
Were the laws of the palace different here in the mortal realm than in Heaven? Surely not.
Could it be that mortals break the rules more often than they keep them—and that's why following the rules looks so remarkable to them?
Mortals might be foolish and clumsy, but surely not to that extent? No, come to think of it… still, surely those who kept the rules outnumbered those who didn't.
Tilting my head, I went on.
"In any case, don't undertake anything big just yet. Start with the division of duties, and once that's done, draw up a roster of the maids assigned to the Crown Princess's residence and bring it to me. Oh—and the Eastern Palace's roster too."
"Y-yes, my lady."
"Also—the inner court records. You call it the inner court here in the Kingdom of Un as well, yes? Either way, do you have books recording the regulations and ceremonies of the inner court?"
"…The inner court's regulations are recorded in the royal section of the Kingdom of Un's legal code, and the royal ceremonies are compiled in books called the Royal Rites."
Thankfully, it wasn't so different from Heaven.
Watching Mother and Father work, I had picked up quite a lot through sheer osmosis.
One of those lessons: to govern anything, you must first read the existing records.
Only by knowing the current state of things and how they had been governed until now could you decide what to do going forward.
Even if your goal was to tear the old way down entirely, you couldn't change it properly without knowing what the old way even was.
Mother always said it. Ignorance is no crime, but acting while ignorant is.
Mother taught me to fully grasp the circumstances before making any decision or taking any action.
The greater the deity, the higher the position, the larger the ripple of consequences—so all the more reason for caution.
Which meant that if I truly meant to play the part of Crown Princess, the first thing I had to do was read this royal house's records.
"Then bring me all of them."
"Surely… surely Your Ladyship does not intend to read them?"
"Of course I do. What other use is there for books? Oh—unless I don't have permission to see them?"
"Th-that could never be. It is only that the contents would be dull and difficult reading for Your Ladyship…"
"I'll read them and judge that for myself. Bring them."
"…Yes, my lady of the Crown Princess's residence."
Court Lady Kim stared at me with a dazed face, bowed, and withdrew.
Why is she so shocked? Ah—is it because I don't act like a child?
A strange sense of pride welled up in me. In Heaven, everything I did was treated as baby behavior.
I hope they keep seeing me as an adult from now on, too.
With great effort, I smothered the corners of my mouth as they tried to curl upward, and rose from my seat.
I planned to take a walk and get a closer look at the Eastern Palace—it would give me a chance to put Sohwa's girl to work as well.
Ansi, who had been dozing in a corner, scrambled to my side at once.
"Just go back to sleep. I'm only walking around out front and back."
"I am not sleepy, Your Highness!"
"Not sleepy? You stayed up all night catching that fox monster."
"Such trifling fatigue does not even register as weariness for the likes of me! Ansi is perfectly hale, Your Highness!"
When she got stubborn like this, she never backed down. I gave up, and once we were out in the garden, Ansi trotted faithfully at my heels.
I told you—overprotective.
A sigh escaped me, but I didn't force her away. That would have been harder on Ansi, after all.
Out in the garden, the mess was even worse than it had looked through the window. Every flower and shrub was dead; the only thing thriving was the weeds.
I suppose it's been abandoned ever since the Crown Prince became an Eodukseoni.
I crossed the garden and made my way toward Jamryongdang.
The building itself was fairly respectable, but every last window was shut tight, and with no upkeep whatsoever, it was dreary beyond description.
I looked up at the eaves, thick with cobwebs, my brow furrowed.
This is no abandoned haunted manor.
Glancing around, I happened to spot a battered old broom leaning against a corner of the fence. I went over and picked it up—and Ansi startled violently.
"Your Highness, what are you about to do?"
"Clear away the cobwebs."
"Why would Your Highness do such menial labor? Command this Ansi to do it! One sweep of wind—shwoom!—and it is done at once!"
"I know. I just want to do it myself."
"You must not, Your Highness! You will collapse!"
Ansi cried out, white as a sheet.
It wasn't mere overprotectiveness, to be fair. The old me had once tried to pick a persimmon straight from the tree, held my head up and swung a long pole—and toppled over from dizziness, fainting dead away.
Then I spent three days straight abed. Truly a magnificent constitution, that body of mine.
A wry smile tugged at my lips.
"…That was the persimmon tree days. This body is healthy now. That's exactly why I want to try."
"…"
Ansi's open beak snapped shut. I shrugged and hoisted the broom up high.
Fell hopelessly short of the height, so I bounced up and down on the spot. The tip of the broom brushed, just barely, the lowest strands of hanging web.
"Ah!"
Even as I clicked my tongue in disappointment, laughter bubbled out. What was this, that it could be so much fun?
It felt wonderful to be able to jump, wonderful to feel no dizziness at all.
I want to move this body so much more.
Anything that involved moving my body seemed like it would be fun. Maybe I should learn something—anything?
Ansi, who had been hovering anxiously nearby, sidled up and asked carefully, "Might I assist you, Your Highness?"
"No, I'm going to do it myself."
"Then at least ride upon my back, Your Highness. I shall bear you."
There was no reason to refuse an offer like that. I nodded, and Ansi lifted me lightly and gave me a perch on her shoulders.
The broom, raised higher now, swept the cobwebs away in one clean stroke.
"Wow!"
"Was it a success, Your Highness?"
"Yes! Look, look!"
The painted patterns on the eaves, buried under all those webs, began to reveal their brilliant colors. There was a quiet satisfaction in it, somehow.
"Let's do that side too!"
At my手势—at my excited voice and frantic waving, Ansi shuffled along, grinning ear to ear.
As Princess Cheonmyeong, I ought to uphold royal dignity… but dignity be hanged. It was too much fun to stop.
"Are you well, Your Highness?"
"I'm fine! Perfectly fine!"
My arms and neck ached a little, but there was no dizziness at all. And the clearer the painted patterns became, the more fired up I got.
Just that one corner left, but I can't quite reach it.
I swung the broom about wildly—and then the handle slipped free of my weakening grip.
"Ah."
The broom arced through the air and punched clean through the paper window.
From inside came a clattering crash of something toppling over—and then the window burst open.
It was the Crown Prince.
"…"
"…"
The elegant young prince stared at me, his face gone utterly slack with disbelief.
…I believe my face is turning very, very red right now.