A Small Brag and a Big Crash
Ansi came tumbling in over the window and announced,
"Allow me to help you change, Your Highness!"
"It's all right, I can dress myself now. You can just put these away for me."
Even as I said it, I couldn't help lifting my chin a little. Being able to change one's own clothes felt like a rather grown-up thing to do.
In Heaven, I could barely keep my own body upright, and the layers upon layers of robes were so complicated I never even attempted them. But here the clothes were simple and my body was sturdy enough that dressing myself was well within reach.
Something like full ceremonial dress was still beyond me, but then, even grown adults can't manage those ritual garments alone.
Isn't this how one becomes an adult—little by little, just like this?
Once I had changed out of my sleeping robes and looked in the mirror, the knot I'd tied today seemed neater than usual. I itched to show it off.
Look, look! I can tie my sash properly now, and my coat strings too! I tied them so prettily, didn't I?
……Though if I bragged like that to Ansi, she'd just ask why Her Highness insists on doing such things herself. And it might look a tiny bit undignified, fussing this much over a mere coat string.
Then who should I brag to?
Should I show the Crown Prince?
After all, he's already seen me covered in rice grains, and heard me wailing my head off—so really, what's left to hide?
The Crown Prince would celebrate even something this small like it truly mattered.
Besides, he's my husband! Married couples ought to be able to share even the littlest joys.
……Even if ours is a marriage in name only.
All right, I've decided—I'm going to brag to that little whelp of a Crown Prince!
My mood lifted, I skipped out of Unyeondang with a bouncy little step.
The sky was clear, and the day was pleasantly mild—the kind of weather that made you want to move. When I impulsively broke into a run, Ansi, trailing behind me, squawked in horror.
"You'll fall down if you keep that up, Your Highness!"
"I'm fine!"
I cut across the garden toward the back gate of Jamryongdang. My sword lesson was to be held at the training grounds in Gyebang, after all.
I was passing the back gate of Jamryongdang and heading for Gyebang's main entrance when, suddenly, a door burst open behind me.
"Your Highness!"
Ansi reached me in a heartbeat, scooped me up, and kicked something away. The crumpled something let out a shriek.
"Aaagh!"
"Huh?"
Looking down from my perch, dangling well above Ansi's head, I saw a young boy rolling on the ground clutching his stomach.
Oh. So—he was about to come bursting out of the back gate and bump right into me, and that's why Ansi scooped me up and kicked him away?
Wait. She kicked him?
"Ansi! What do you think you're doing, kicking a child!"
I scolded her in alarm, and she retorted with a huff.
"Had I left matters alone, Your Highness would have been knocked clean off her feet. This Ansi simply did what needed doing, if you please."
"I mean your response was excessive! Put me down already."
The moment my feet touched the ground, I hurried over to the boy, still curled up and groaning.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Ngh…… ugh."
The boy lifted his head with a whimper. A boy about my age, by the look of him.
Thick eyebrows, sharp and striking eyes—the kind of face that would probably grow up handsome and hear about it constantly.
He looked me up and down, scowling, and spat out,
"Who're you supposed to be? You look like a limp weed."
Did this brat just—?
Something hot surged up in me, and I fired right back.
"You look like a big-beaked bird."
"What's that supposed to mean, a bird?"
"Someone with a face like yours."
"What are you even saying? Where do I have a beak?"
"Not that kind of beak, obviously. Wow, you really are an idiot."
"Who're you calling an idiot!"
He sprang up in a rage—then doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Ow, ow, ow…… that hurts!"
"……Yeah, definitely an idiot."
To Ansi's credit, she hadn't been entirely thoughtless—she had clearly held back her strength. If she'd truly meant it, he'd be dead, or at least in no state to complain about pain.
I sighed and asked,
"Let me see. Are you hurt badly?"
"Not terribly. Just a bruise, I think."
The grumbling boy abruptly yanked his shirt up over his head and tossed it aside.
"Whoa, that's a nasty color. Hey, wait—Ansi did that to you? You don't look like much, but you've got one heck of a kick."
"……!"
I whipped my head away in a panic.
He's just a child, so it shouldn't matter, but—that, um—having him do that so suddenly was a little awkward to watch.
"Why are you suddenly taking your clothes off!"
"You said you wanted to see the bruise?"
The boy blinked at my question, then I heard him snicker.
"Why're you turning away? We're both guys here. What's there to be shy about?"
Ah—I see it now. He'd mistaken me for a boy, since I was dressed in everyday robes.
He really IS an idiot!
"Who's a gu—!"
"What on earth is all this, Yeong-joon?"
Just as I opened my mouth to protest being called a boy, a man appeared, looking flustered, and cut in.
"Master!"
Delighted, the boy went bounding off toward the man at full sprint, shirtless and all, utterly forgetting he'd ever taken it off.
But hold on a moment. His name was Yeong-joon?
Could that idiot actually be Sa Yeong-joon?
Even though the Crown Prince had no siblings, he'd always looked after me strangely, like a doting older brother—so once I'd asked him whether he'd ever had experience caring for a younger child.
He'd told me then that he had a milk-brother two years his junior.
"He was a kind and clever boy. He followed me around everywhere."
Lady Jeong, the Crown Prince's wet nurse, had originally been a slave of the Palace Domestic Affairs Office. Having lost her firstborn to a stillbirth, she was left with an abundance of milk and no child to feed.
Because of her upright conduct and fine character, she was chosen as wet nurse the moment the Crown Prince was born, and she and her husband were manumitted together.
Two years later, when the Crown Prince was still a toddler, Lady Jeong gave birth to a second child by her husband—Sa Yeong-joon.
Fate was unkind, though: not long after Yeong-joon's birth, Lady Jeong's husband died in an accident.
She and her husband had both been former state slaves, without a single relative to their name, so once he was gone, there was no one at all to care for the infant Yeong-joon.
The Queen, moved by the wet nurse's plight, had the baby brought into the palace so the two could be raised side by side—and thanks to that, Sa Yeong-joon became the Crown Prince's milk-brother before he'd even turned one, growing up with him like a true brother.
Then the Black Pearl incident happened, and the Crown Prince's wet nurse was cast out of the palace along with Yeong-joon, blamed for having raised the Crown Prince improperly.
After the Cloud Dragon Festival, as the East Palace was being reorganized, I heard the King was planning to search out the Crown Prince's wet nurse and summon her back.
"I thought I'd never see them again. But thanks to Her Highness the Queen, I'll get to see my nurse and Yeong-joon once more. I'm truly grateful."
I remembered the Crown Prince saying that with a bright smile.
But kind and clever? Him?
I supposed even an idiot like this could look kind and clever to a soft-hearted thing like the little Crown Prince.
And that man Yeong-joon called "Master"—that would be the swordsmanship guest invited for today, wouldn't it? The two of them were teacher and student?
Ever since the Crown Prince had manifested the Dark Spirit Blade—forging a sword from the power of the Eodukseoni itself—he'd taken a great interest in the sword.
The King knew this as well, and so had brought in a master far beyond any ordinary military officer or examination graduate to serve as a retained guest.
I heard he was a warrior who served as the King's Waryun Sword—one of the escort officers bearing a cloud-blade at the sovereign's side—until he retired five years ago.
To hold the title of Waryun Sword was said to be as good as a guarantee that you were the finest warrior in the land.
Him?
The man fumbling helplessly through the conversation with the chattering Yeong-joon looked barely into his twenties.
He had a smiling face, unruly mop of hair, and a slender frame—no matter how I looked at him, he seemed less a warrior than a bumbling novice Daoist.
No, wait. They say the truly great among warriors often look nothing like their skill.
Besides, as a goddess, there was nothing more pathetic than judging humans by appearances.
It's true I've spent months living like an ordinary human—with the Heavenly Punishment sealed, the Eye of Heaven's Mandate unused, and my divine power dormant. But I'm not actually human, so I shouldn't go letting my eyes decide things the way mortals do.
With that, I squared my shoulders and first sent a thought to Ansi.
"Ansi, let's start with an apology. The boy's bruised, after all."
"……Very well, Your Highness."
Ansi sounded thoroughly reluctant, but she answered meekly enough.
With Ansi in tow, I approached Yeong-joon and the man I took to be the swordsmanship guest.
"Excuse me—might you be the guest come to serve the Crown Prince's Academy?"
The man turned to look at me and answered absently,
"Ah—yes, that is correct, but……"
"I must apologize first. This child is my escort. It seems she shoved him out of the way in a moment of panic, worried he and I might collide, and hurt him in the doing."
Having offered the apology, I gestured to Ansi. She gave a stiff little bow of her head.
She didn't utter a single word of apology, but for a phoenix to do even that much for a human who wasn't her own master—well, that was genuinely her very best effort.
"I'll have a compress and medicinal herbs sent to you. If your student doesn't heal well with those, please come find us at Unyeondang."
"Unyeondang…… the…… what?"
The man murmured at me, dazed, then suddenly jolted upright and bowed deeply at the waist.
"Unyeonhwaso! We greet Her Highness the Crown Princess!"
"Eh?"
Yeong-joon, standing beside his master, went wide-eyed, then mumbled in a bewildered voice,
"Crown Princess……? Er—so that'd be big brother's wife……?"
"You brat!"
The man hastily clapped a hand over Yeong-joon's head and shoved it down, forcing him into a bow.
"What insolence is this before Her Highness the Crown Princess!"
"Hk—Master! My stomach! My stomach hurts, it does! Agh!"
"Give a proper greeting first, and properly!"
"Uaaah! U—U—something-hwaso!"
"Unyeonhwaso!"
"U—Unyeonhwaso!"
"We greet Her Highness the Crown Princess!"
"C—Crown Princess…… but hold on, is she really the Crown Princess? The Crown Princess is big brother's wife, so she'd be a woman, and no matter how I look, she's wearing men's clothes, she is!"
"Yeong-joon, I beg you!"
The man practically pleaded with Yeong-joon as he held him down and made him bow properly.
And what on earth is with that way of talking, anyway?
Watching the pair was comedy pure and simple. This was not at all the atmosphere I'd imagined for my first sword lesson…….
"Your Highness, might this Ansi not be permitted to give that foolish, insolent little human brat one more good, solid kick?"
"Could you really, Ansi?"
"Sob…… Your Highness always takes the humans' side."
Suppressing the urge to clutch the back of my neck, I waved them along.
"Let's head in for now. His Highness the Crown Prince will be waiting."