Unknown
Strictly speaking, the front grounds of the Pyeonjeon belonged to the outer palace, where a mere Crown Princess had no business wandering. But the rear gate connected directly to the inner palace—the royal family's living quarters—so no one would think twice about me poking around there.
I slipped around to a stretch of wall the rear-gate guards couldn't see and gave the Paljuryeong a gentle shake. From the treasury I drew out one of the shield kites—Wolgung's jar had gifted it to me—and handed it off to Ansi.
"Get this over the wall, stash it somewhere out of sight, and cut the string."
"As you command, Your Highness."
Though her face plainly asked why on earth any of this was necessary, Ansi obeyed without a moment's hesitation.
Well, that's simply what a phoenix is.
It struck me, not for the first time, what an extraordinary stroke of luck it had been for me to hatch Ansi from her egg myself. It had been fortunate for her too, of course—she'd nearly died before ever leaving the shell—but the greater blessing, without question, had fallen to me.
Wings unfurled, Ansi carried the kite over the wall and back, and then I took up the string-wound reel, which looked comically large against my small frame, and approached the rear gate.
The guards spotted me and froze in confusion—until they saw my silver hair, at which point recognition dawned on their faces.
"H-Her Highness the Crown Princess?"
"My kite fell……."
I hugged the oversized reel to my chest and pulled the most woebegone expression I could manage. It was the same 'oh dear, of course, how terrible' look that had worked wonders even on the King himself. The guards melted instantly, grinning like utter fools.
Strange. It seemed to land even better with mortals than with immortals.
"Oh dear, you've lost your kite, Your Highness?"
"Mm-hmm. It dropped somewhere back there, inside……"
I pointed toward the depths of the Pyeonjeon compound and gazed up at the guards with wide, guileless eyes.
"Can I go look for it?"
The two guards exchanged a glance, and one of them nodded. "What manner of kite is it, Your Highness?"
"The kind with lots of pretty colors on the bottom……"
"Ah, a saektong skirt-kite. Which way did it fall, might I ask?"
"Um, that way."
"Allow me to go and search for it."
One of the guards began to turn, clearly intending to hunt for it alone. I shook my head quickly.
"No, I'll find it myself."
"Pardon?"
"You're working right now, aren't you? I was taught that interrupting grown-ups who are working is a bad thing. So I'll look for it quietly, without bothering anyone!"
When I mimicked the lecturing tone of a well-schooled child, the guards beamed as though I were the most adorable thing they'd ever seen.
"How admirable of you, Your Highness. Do look about, then—and if you can't find it, just let us know."
"Mm-hmm! Thank you!"
At my radiant smile, the guards' faces went completely soft. I waved goodbye and passed through the rear gate with Ansi at my side.
The Pyeonjeon, after all, was a place that officials and palace servants crossed constantly, its security far looser than one might expect—and with my status and this excuse, I'd gambled that I could get in. My prediction had proven exactly right.
I circled the compound once, hugging the reel to my chest all the while.
The Left State Councilor's nowhere in sight.
Having watched the eunuchs' lives unfold through my Heaven's Insight, I knew the man's face on sight.
Do I need to go inside the hall itself?
As I stopped to deliberate, a cluster of officials came pouring out of the Pyeonjeon. An idea occurred to me—loiter conspicuously, and they'd find me in no time. They did.
"What's a child doing here—no, wait. Could that possibly be Her Highness the Crown Princess?"
"What? The Crown Princess?"
"You don't say?"
"Where? Where?"
In an instant the entrance was in an uproar.
Exactly as planned. I was hardly an ordinary Crown Princess, after all—my materializing unannounced at the Pyeonjeon was bound to cause a stir.
And right on cue, the commotion at the entrance drew a thunderous rebuke from within.
"What is all this racket, gentlemen!"
"Well, it's—Her Highness the Crown Princess has appeared at the Pyeonjeon……"
"The Crown Princess?"
The incredulous retort echoed out, and then two gray-streaked heads emerged from the hall. One belonged to a gaunt man with an exhausted pallor; the other was short, sharp-eyed, and bristling with irritation.
The short one's face was familiar.
That was the Left State Councilor.
Prince Waneon's maternal grandfather, the Crown Prince's political enemy—the man who tried to kill Seruhwa.
It took no great deduction to identify the other.
"Lord Left Councilor, Lord Right Councilor."
The officials had bowed their heads in a frantic hurry to address them.
So that's the Right State Councilor. He looks absolutely worn to the bone.
That was unmistakably the face of a man ground down by endless late nights and overtime. I'd seen plenty of immortals worn just like that in Jami Palace and the Netherworld Palace both.
So playing court minister in the mortal realm is no easy gig either, apparently.
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I whispered softly to Sangsi, the translucent butterfly resting on my shoulder.
"Go to that short old man over there."
The translucent butterfly took wing at once. A Samshichung was invisible to ordinary mortals, so nothing hindered Sangsi's flight as it darted over and burrowed into the Left State Councilor's mind.
And with that, my objective was accomplished.
Time to go home and get some rest. I'm exhausted.
Watching me stand there in a daze, the Left State Councilor's eyes narrowed to slits.
"What business does Her Highness the Crown Princess have in a place like this?"
"My kite fell, so I came to find it!"
With the picture of childish innocence, I held up the reel tucked in my arms.
The other officials' expressions softened at once into those of men gazing at a granddaughter or a late-born daughter, their wariness dissolving—but the two councilors' faces did not change. The Left State Councilor said nothing, simply raking me over with sharp eyes, while the Right State Councilor let out a sigh and spoke with weary civility.
"Your Highness, the Pyeonjeon is not a place one comes and goes for such private reasons."
"I'm sorry. I'll leave right away."
Drooping my brows in an apologetic look, I turned and headed toward the spot where Ansi had hidden the kite. Their stares pricked at my back like needles.
Ansi had gone all pouty again. I'd explained what living among humans actually meant, but apparently it still hadn't fully sunk in.
I continued the lecture as I went to retrieve the shield kite.
"It's not that I'm letting it slide. If the Left State Councilor got hurt right now, rumors would fly everywhere—the Crown Prince's curse, this, that. So it's a no."
"Why does Your Highness trouble herself so over the Crown Prince's reputation?"
"I'm the Crown Princess, aren't I? His reputation affects mine, so of course I do."
"Must you live as the Crown Princess at all? Might you not live far more peacefully elsewhere?"
"We've been through all of this already. Why bring it up now?"
"Her Majesty the Sovereign Mother……"
Ansi's voice trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging.
Hm? Had my mother said something to Ansi?
I was about to press her when, before I knew it, we were back at the rear gate. I held the shield kite high for the guards to see.
"Found my kite! Thanks so much!"
"Oh, wonderful! Congratulations! You take care on your way, Your Highness!"
The guards clapped as they saw me off.
Why were they clapping, though?
Once we were clear of the Pyeonjeon, Ansi edged closer and asked, "Shall we retire now, Your Highness? This servant thinks it best you rest."
"Yeah, but a second ago, you were saying something about Mom—"
"Your Highness."
A voice called out from behind me. I turned to find the Right State Councilor—the one from earlier. He looked winded, as though he'd actually run to catch up with me.
Why on earth did he follow me?
I tilted my head at him over the top of the shield kite.
"Lord Right Councilor?"
"……How did you know me?"
"I heard the others calling you earlier."
"I see."
He looked down at me with an odd expression. This man was so haggard I doubted he had the stamina to run anywhere at all—so what had he come here for?
"Is something the matter?"
After studying me in silence for a moment, he said, quite out of the blue, "I once had a daughter, Your Highness. No daughter could have been dearer to me."
Past tense. She was gone now.
"Her home caught fire in the middle of the night."
"Oh."
"It was more than twenty years ago now. But seeing Your Highness just now—it came back to me all at once."
"……Did I bring back a bad memory for you?"
At my question he fell silent for a while, then spoke up abruptly. "They say Your Highness is a remarkably clever soul."
"Huh? Oh—thank you."
"And yet…… I hear that you dine every evening at Jamryongdang with His Highness the Crown Prince. Is that so?"
"It is."
It was nothing I cared to hide—if anything, I rather hoped the rumor would spread and soften how people viewed the Crown Prince, so it didn't surprise me that the Right State Councilor knew of it.
At my answer, he gave a faint, clouded smile, and with his gaze still fixed toward the Pyeonjeon, murmured as though to himself:
"Do not dine at Jamryongdang tonight."
"Huh?"
"I pray you keep well, and live long in peace and safety."
With a shallow bow, the Right State Councilor turned back toward the Pyeonjeon. Ansi asked, puzzled.
"What in the world was that man speaking of, to say such a thing and leave?"
"……He seems like a decent sort. I ought to win him over."
"Yes…?"
What the Right State Councilor had just done was warn me: a fire would break out at Jamryongdang tonight, and it would be the scheme of someone within the Pyeonjeon.
Probably the Left State Councilor's doing. The news that the Queen had truly awakened would have made him impatient—panicked, even.
The Right State Councilor, though, seemed to be of a different mind altogether.
Perhaps the memory of his long-dead daughter had genuinely stirred, and I'd simply looked pitiable to him. Or perhaps he was sabotaging the plot purely to bring the Left State Councilor down.
Right—the palace factions number three, I was told.
The first was the Waneon faction, led by the Left State Councilor—direct heirs to the faction that had once backed Grand Prince Gangon, the present King's elder brother.
That's why they're pushing Prince Waneon for Crown Prince. The ones hostile to the present King—entrenched old-power families, provincial magnates, and elderly royal kinsmen, mostly.
Next came the King's faction, headed by the Minister of War, the Royal Constabulary, and the Hall of Worthies—those who shielded the present King, backed by the provincial Confucian academies and the military officers. Chiefly the newer men raised up directly by the King through the civil examinations—his fiercest loyalists. They said that because these men, who held Woon's military power, had stayed loyal through all the chaos of the past two years, the kingdom never toppled.
And last, the Moderate faction, a loose assemblage of officials drifting aimlessly under the Chief State Councilor.
Whenever the Waneon faction and the King's men bared their claws at each other, the Chief State Councilor stepped in to mediate—and that was how he naturally became their head, supposedly.
And according to Seok-ran's investigation, the Right State Councilor leaned Moderate.
To be precise, he hadn't chosen to side with anyone at all—he'd simply ended up counted among the Moderates by default.
He tried to stop a plot targeting the Crown Prince and me, so he's clearly no enemy of the Crown Prince's. Later, I could use gratitude as the excuse to bring him over to our side…… Wait a moment.