The Shadow That Trembles, and the Fox at the Window
Unknown.
"I told you your testimony alone won't be believed. Is there truly evidence tying you to the Joongga Merchant Guild?"
The warrior had originally been ordered to keep his mouth shut until the end if he failed.
Otherwise, his entire household would be dragged down to ruin—and he himself would be murdered in prison.
But right now, the Crown Prince's black poison frightened him more than death did.
"On the surface no connection will show, but if you search the guild's secret ledgers, you'll find proof that the Left State Councilor stands behind it all!"
"And where is this secret ledger?"
"It's in the guild master's vault—"
Terrified out of his wits, the warrior was spilling everything when his senses abruptly snapped back to him.
Only a handful of people even knew the secret ledger existed.
If he kept blurting things out like this, the Left State Councilor would truly butcher every last one of his kin.
I'm a dead man either way—!
The warrior moved to bite off his own tongue on the spot, but the Crown Prince was a fraction faster.
"Ghk—!"
"Who gave you leave to die?"
The boy sealed the man's mouth with a hand wrapped in coiling darkness.
"Urk! Gkk!"
With the throbbing shadow forced into his mouth, the warrior thrashed in pure terror, forgetting even to bite his tongue.
The Crown Prince pressed him down firmly and waited for the struggling to stop. Before long, the man's eyes rolled back and he fainted.
"...Whew."
Only then did Cheon Gyeol-woo rise with a breath of relief and stare down at his own hand.
He was bound by the golden threads, yes—but still, he was nothing more than an eleven-year-old boy who had never trained in martial arts, and he had overpowered a grown man, a warrior of monstrous strength, by sheer force.
...I slipped past the royal guards at the Queen's Palace that way too.
His body had become a monster's, and with it, his physical abilities had grown abnormally strong.
Once, such a body would have filled him with nothing but loathing and disgust. Now, he found himself thinking it was a blessing.
Because this power would help him protect his wife.
I need to learn swordsmanship properly too. If I can knock someone out cleanly, I won't have to subdue them dangerously like I just did.
Even as his mind reasoned calmly, the boy's hand was trembling uncontrollably.
For the first time in his life, he had threatened a person. Tortured him. Subdued him. Intimidated him.
He had forged a sword and gripped it.
Using the very darkness he had always feared.
All that care, all those years of never letting the darkness harm anyone.
Now he felt as though he had strayed from the straight, upright path he'd always walked and set his foot into a mire.
It was frightening.
Had he made the wrong choice?
...No.
The Crown Prince clenched his fist and willed the trembling still.
I must become strong.
For himself, perhaps he could have kept turning the other cheek—but against those who would even kill his wife, he had no margin left for propriety.
If his wife hadn't sensed the plot in advance and prepared, if he hadn't smothered the flames with darkness, the two of them might have burned to death tonight.
If I hadn't wrung a lead out of them like this, the Left State Councilor would have slipped free again. Just like he slipped free even after sending assassins after my wife.
He would live rightly.
Having taken darkness into himself, he would be more vigilant than anyone—more careful, more diligent, living strictly by the law and the Way.
But when it came to protecting his wife, he would not distinguish between means and methods. For that duty stood before even the law of the land.
Stop shaking. If you have time to tremble, spend it thinking about how to use the lead you've just seized.
The boy bit his lip, steadied his breathing, and stepped out into the rain.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a ceiling that had somehow become familiar.
My chamber in Unyeondang.
I remembered performing the rain ritual, confirming that the rain had fallen, and then collapsing.
When I turned my head, the first thing I saw was Ansi's face, brimming with tears.
"Your Highness!"
"I—"
The moment I opened my mouth, a hoarse voice rasped out. My throat was raw and scratchy.
Noticing my state, Ansi hurriedly held a cup of water to my lips. A few swallows later, I felt a little better.
"How long was I asleep?"
"You've slept nearly a full day and night, Your Highness."
Ansi let out an exaggerated, sulky sigh.
"And didn't I tell you that you were pushing yourself too hard?"
"I thought it would be fine since this body's healthy... and I wasn't even that tired."
"Healthy or not, it is still the body of a small child, Your Highness! Do you have any idea how startled I was when you collapsed? Do you wish to watch this Ansi drop dead of fright with a squawk? You must be careful, and careful again—!"
"Okay, okay. I'll be careful from now on."
Cutting off Ansi's scolding, I sat up—and another figure came into view.
Seol Deunghwa was sitting beside my bed. She spoke with a worried face.
"You must take better care of yourself, my lady."
When the original mother of this body said that to me, the guilt hit like a wave. I apologized at once.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'll take proper care of myself now. I won't overdo it, ever."
Ansi's eyes narrowed to slits.
"You brush off Ansi's words like so much noise, but you listen so well to that human, don't you?"
"That's because— no, I'm sorry. I genuinely didn't know where the limits of this body were, and from now on I really, really will be careful, so don't worry so much."
"I shall be watching, Your Highness. If you dare overexert yourself again, this Ansi will roll about on the floor wailing at the top of her lungs to stop you!"
"D-don't do that! I swear I won't overdo it!"
After barely coaxing the sulking phoenix back to good humor, I turned to Seol Deunghwa again.
"Did you come to visit me because you heard I was ill?"
"Yes."
"The imperial envoys didn't object?"
"They backed off when I asked whether the Un royal family wanted it known that they'd bar a mother from visiting her own sick daughter for fear she might flee—a fine national scandal that would be."
"Good work. Now that you're a benefactor of the royal house, if you stand firm, they won't be able to oppress you at will anymore. Oh, right—did you speak with the King?"
"With His Majesty the King..."
Seol Deunghwa, who had been about to answer, suddenly shut her mouth and her expression turned resolute.
"Eat first, and then rest a while."
"You said I slept almost a full day? Then I've rested plenty."
"That was not rest, Your Highness. That was a full day of illness. You must rest more."
Being bedridden was utterly sickening. Truly.
I was about to tell her to just get on with it, but then I caught sight of both Ansi's and Seol Deunghwa's faces, etched deep with worry, and hesitated.
...Ah.
It was a shock.
Not wanting to see that look on the faces of the people around me was one of the very reasons I wanted to be healthy—so what was the point if I was still causing it, even with a healthy body?
I set my mind straight and smiled brightly.
"Okay, I'll eat first then. I'm starving!"
I ate my meal and dutifully downed the medicinal decoction Court Lady Kim brought as well.
Having to take medicine even in a human body put me in a slightly gloomy mood. It felt like a lesson, too.
Did I get too carried away, just because I had a healthy body?
A month of eating well had put a lovely bit of flesh back on what had been skin and bones. I'd felt so much sturdier.
But apparently, no matter how healthy a child's body was, it simply lacked stamina.
I really have to be more careful from now on. And exercise more, too.
I should try something besides archery. What kind of exercise would build up my strength?
So that day, after the decoction, I ate dessert as well and went right back to sleep.
Wake up, eat, take my medicine, sleep again.
After repeating the same convalescence I'd grown sick of back in Heaven for two more days, my body finally began to feel lighter.
Still, this body recovers fast when I rest. Definitely built for health, this one.
Through it all, Ansi never left my side, I saw Seol Deunghwa from time to time—but not so much as the tip of the Crown Prince's nose appeared.
I quietly asked Ansi.
"Where's the Crown Prince?"
"I couldn't say, Your Highness. They say something keeps him so busy he's never at Jamryongdang."
"Hm? He's out and about?"
"Ever since Your Highness graciously taught him to control his darkness, he's apparently been scampering all over the place, wild with delight. The height of ingratitude, I say. From now on, don't you dare spare that human another thought!"
I wasn't as angry as Ansi, bouncing with indignation, but honestly, I was a little hurt.
...He must just be busy spending time with his parents, whom he reunited with after so long.
The Crown Prince was still a little kid, after all. Whereas I was a grown woman—and a great god, at that.
It wasn't a terminal illness, just a minor ailment. Sulking because he didn't come visit would make me neither an adult nor a god.
Right, I'm not hurt. Not hurt at all. Because I am a great god!
So I tried to get over it like a mature adult, letting on only the teeniest tiniest bit of hurt.
But two days later—four days after the fire—when I finally heard what the Crown Prince had actually been up to, it turned out to be nothing like my guesses.
On the night the physician finally declared my ailment fully cured, I at last got to hear, in vivid and meticulous detail, everything that had been going on inside the palace.
From whom, you ask?
Certainly not Ansi, hopeless as she is at this sort of thing. Not Seol Deunghwa either, who didn't know the first thing about Un's affairs. Not Court Lady Kim, who couldn't speak carelessly of matters concerning the senior royals.
It came from the fox yokai—well-informed on everything inside the palace walls, and utterly unafraid to chatter about any of it.
Seok-ran slipped in through the window just as I was about to lie down for the night.
"Sneaking in through the window, have you no shame, you fox?"
Ansi seized the white fox by the scruff of her neck and shook her at once.
Quite unlike a thousand-year-old Maegu, Seok-ran went limp and dangled meekly, casting glances my way.
"Kyaeng, I came 'cause I've got something to tell you, Princess!"
"Ansi, put her down."
"If she has words to say, she should come through the door. Truly an ill-mannered fox, Your Highness."
Displeased, Ansi flung the fox away with a flick.
Instead of tumbling across the floor, the hurled yokai twirled midair into a neat somersault and landed lightly on her feet.
"Coming through the door means getting seen, nyaang. I came through the window all sneaky-like because I had my reasons, keng."
"So what do you have to tell me?"
"Keheung, well, you see..."