Crying Like a Nine-Year-Old in Front of Him
'What is wrong with me, in front of the little brat! He's a real human kid who's eleven years old, and you're a god who's two hundred and nine! Why now, of all times!'
But as I forced down the things bursting out of me, they turned into a choked sob instead.
"Ugh……"
Why now? Why, after I'd been perfectly fine all this time?
The moment I started sniffling, the Crown Prince panicked and flailed about.
"My lady! I apologize, it was my fault. I will never let you feel slighted again. So please, don't cry."
"I'm not crying!"
Even to my own ears, my voice was so fierce in its denial that it trembled with tears.
I could feel Ansi's horrified gaze land on me.
No. I can't let her see me like this.
I was Ansi's master. A superior mustn't waver or fall apart in front of her subordinate.
A great god, an adult, Princess Cheonmyeong must not behave like this.
Worse, Ansi knew that I could keel over and die at any moment, so seeing me struggle would only frighten her more.
'I refuse to let her see me cry!'
On pure reflex, I covered my face and dragged the Crown Prince into the room.
Only after shutting the door and escaping Ansi's line of sight did I relax—and only then did the tears come pouring out, and with them, a realization.
'Ah.'
That's why I suddenly welled up like a child in front of the Crown Prince.
Because he's…… actually a child.
And he isn't my subordinate.
He doesn't even know I'm Princess Cheonmyeong.
Everyone around me until now had been either an adult or one of my subordinates.
In Heaven, there were Mother and Father, the gods and the fairies.
For the past few days, the mortal palace maids.
And Ansi, always at my side, was the divine beast under my command.
I was the only daughter of the great Jade Emperor and King Yama—the Princess Cheonmyeong, who must at all times uphold her dignity and grace. The exalted princess whom all of Heaven and the Netherworld alike bowed to in reverence.
The frail, precious body forever one foot in the grave, whom everyone worried over and fussed about without pause.
A single tear from me could throw the entire palace into upheaval; one little complaint from me would send the whole world scrambling.
So I had always carried myself with composure and calm. As befitted a great god. As befitted a princess of the celestial realm.
But the Crown Prince—this little brat standing before me right now—knew nothing about me.
In front of this boy, I wasn't Princess Cheonmyeong.
I wasn't a terminally ill patient gripped with anxiety over when I might die, either.
'Even if I whined about being sick, he wouldn't worry that I might actually die. He'd treat it the way a perfectly ordinary, healthy person's brief illness deserves to be treated.'
He wouldn't agonize or weep over my smallest complaint.
He'd take it for granted that it was nothing, that I'd be better soon.
It was okay to act like a child in front of him.
Because he wasn't an adult either. Because we were both children.
It was okay to whine and fuss.
He was neither my subordinate nor my superior.
Just like Mother and Father—we were husband and wife, equals.
He was the boy who'd taken a slap on the cheek in my stead, claiming it was a husband's duty and right to protect me.
……Even if ours was, technically, a fake marriage. But still.
'So that's why I suddenly turned into…… this, in front of him.'
Clutching the hem of the Crown Prince's robe where I'd pulled him along, I let the tears fall one by one.
Even as I hiccupped and sniffled, somehow it felt relieving. Comforting.
The Crown Prince turned pale as death at the sight of me crying.
He knelt down to meet my eyes, then hurriedly rummaged through his robe and pulled out a handkerchief.
"Why do you weep so? Have I truly made you so wretched?"
"You never, hic, you never came, not even once! I've been sick for days, sniff, days!"
"Forgive me, my lady. I had urgent business elsewhere. And since I'd passed through… unclean places, I felt it would be improper to appear before you……"
With his fine brows drawn down in misery, the Crown Prince gently dabbed my tears away with the handkerchief. Then, as if to soothe me out of crying, he softly patted my shoulder.
At that tender touch, I gave up trying to hold it in altogether and bawled my heart out.
"Waah…… what does that even matter, sniff, if you're dirty, you just wash up and come, that's aaaall……"
"I didn't think it through. I never dreamed you'd take it this hard…… It wounds me to see you cry so bitterly. From now on, whenever you're ill, I will stay by your side. So stop, just like that."
"I didn't say stay by my side fooorever, waaah…… if you'd come even once, sniff, I wouldn't be this upset……"
"It isn't that I never came. I did—while you were asleep……"
"Then you should have woken me up! Sniff, what's the point, waaah, of coming when I don't even know about it……"
"I'm sorry, my lady. It won't happen again, so please don't cry. Your eyes will swell up."
The little brat floundered, doing his utmost to console me. I hung onto him and fussed like a genuine nine-year-old, letting it all out.
"Waaah, we haven't done archery together, or practiced controlling darkness, huuueh, we haven't even eaten together, and…… sniff, weren't you sad about any of that?"
"Of course I was. If anything, I was sadder than you, my lady. Far more than you could possibly imagine……"
The Crown Prince let the words trail off and drew a deep sigh, then whispered as he gently patted my back where I clung to him.
"Which is why you must get up and out of that bed soon. If you keep crying like this, you'll have to stay abed even longer."
"……!"
Right. Crying took a shocking amount of stamina.
I'd only just recovered from my fever. If I bawled like this, I might end up flat on my back all over again.
Great for the soul, terrible for the body!
'Stop it. Just like that. Stop.'
I clamped both hands over my mouth and swallowed the sobs down, gulp by gulp.
"Hkk. Hkk."
"Oh dear."
The strange sounds I made trying to strangle my own crying left the Crown Prince at a loss.
After fidgeting helplessly for a moment, the boy finally lifted me clean off the ground, laid me down on the wide golden bed, and wrapped me up in the covers as if swaddling me.
Then he held his own handkerchief to my nose and said, kindly……
"There now. Go on and blow."
"……"
My mind snapped wide awake at that.
'This is getting a bit too babyish, don't you think?'
Comfort was one thing, but blowing my nose on the Crown Prince's handkerchief was going a step too far.
As my half-departed reason came flooding back, I felt my face heat up scarlet.
The tears stopped dead, at least.
I squirmed my buried hands free of the covers and pushed the handkerchief away.
"I—I—I'm fine now."
My voice was positively stammering.
What is this, I'm mortified……. I acted like a child in front of him again.
'I get why I fall apart in front of the Crown Prince now…… but that's that, and embarrassment is embarrassment.'
When I covered my burning face with both hands for a moment, the Crown Prince asked anxiously.
"My lady—you aren't crying again, are you?"
"N-no, I'm not. I've stopped."
I jerked my head up to answer, and the Crown Prince broke into a soft smile.
"Thank goodness."
'Ah. His smile…… it was always beautiful, but something's changed.'
A smile as lovely and refined as a plum blossom blooming at the tip of an ink stroke spreading across silk.
Smoother, as if painted by a more practiced hand. Deeper somehow. A touch more grown.
I stared blankly at the boy's mouth, then blurted out,
"Did something happen?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You seem…… different, somehow."
I spread my fingers and stretched them as far apart as they would go. A little longer than one hand-span.
"I think you've grown, Your Highness. About this much?"
"You mean my height?"
"Not your height. Something else, hmm……"
There was something my intuition had picked up on, but I couldn't put it into words.
As I hemmed and hawed, the Crown Prince made a curious expression.
"You have good instincts, my lady."
"So something really did grow?"
"Yes. Though I'm not sure 'grown' is the precise word for it……"
The Crown Prince extended his arm to the side. From his fingertips, darkness tangled and unfurled like smoke, stretching outward until it became a single sword.
"I have gained a measure of mastery over wielding the darkness."
A blade seemingly wrought out of shadow itself.
'Is he…… using the Eodukseoni's darkness to forge a weapon, right now?'
My eyes went round at the sight, entirely beyond my control.
"You made a sword out of your darkness?"
"Yes."
"And you can create and dissolve it at will?"
"That's right. It wasn't easy at first, but I've practiced quite a bit these past few days, so I can manage it now."
"Whoa. That's amazing!"
At my exclamation, the Crown Prince gave an awkward reply.
"My swordsmanship is still too poor to use it properly."
"You can learn swordsmanship from now on! It's really incredible, Your Highness!"
When I clapped my hands and cheered, the Crown Prince's cheeks flushed faintly. The boy drew the sword back into his own shadow and lowered his eyes, almost shyly.
"It's hardly that remarkable. It isn't impressive at all…… if anything, it's simply sinister."
"Only a little while ago you couldn't even control the darkness properly, and now you can make weapons out of it. It truly is an amazing, wonderful power."
When I'd first offered to help him, I'd never imagined the little brat would gain command of the darkness this quickly. Truly, nothing could be more rewarding.
"Seeing you do this already, Your Highness—you clearly have a talent for it. No, not just a talent. You must be a genius! Who knows, Your Highness—someday you might become the founder of Amryeongsul, the Art of Dark Shadows, as an actual established mystic art!"
I showered him with praise, utterly delighted, until the Crown Prince turned red to the nape of his neck and bowed his head.
"You honor me too much. To begin with, 'Amryeongsul' is just a name someone slapped on it."
"But you're the first person ever to master the Eodukseoni's darkness! So if you refine it into a proper mystic art, then that—whatever you create—will be the real Amryeongsul from now on. Obviously."
"Ah."
The boy's face took on the look of someone struck by a realization, and he looked down at his own shadow.