An Unexpected Reunion on the Mountain Path
Seogwang, Year 14 — the 4th day of the 5th month.
The victims of the Black Jade Incident had all been guests at the Queen Consort's birthday banquet, which meant most of their tombs lay near Unseong, the capital.
And so the memorial route wound north out of Unseong, tracing a great loop around the capital's outskirts. It never strayed far from the city proper, but the tombs themselves were nestled deep in the mountains, and the journey was expected to take quite some time.
True, all the grave sites sat in the hills around Unseong — but they weren't clustered on a single mountain. Each family's tomb rested in its own ancestral burial ground, scattered far and wide.
Which meant this pilgrimage was, for all intents and purposes... a hiking trip in which we climbed a brand-new mountain every single day.
In other words: brutally exhausting.
Barely two days into the pilgrimage, and I was already regretting my decision to come along.
'My stamina has improved, and it's STILL too much!'
We hadn't even been walking that long, so asking for a rest felt a little embarrassing. I trudged onward, endure-my-trembling-legs and quickening breath, when the Crown Prince, who had been walking ahead of me, happened to meet my eyes.
He stopped at once.
"Let's rest here and have lunch before we go on."
At the Crown Prince's command, the eunuchs and court ladies who had accompanied us sprang into orderly motion and set up a resting spot, while the Royal Guards fanned out to secure the perimeter.
The instant the word "rest" left his mouth, I flopped down unceremoniously on a nearby tree stump. Yes, my skirt would get filthy, but I had no energy left to care about such things.
'I'm so out of breath my throat is burning!'
These were ancestral burial grounds that specific families visited only on holidays — there was no chance anyone had bothered to lay a proper road. At best it was a footpath. There was no way to climb a remote mountain trail like this in a palanquin, so I was scaling it on my own two feet, and honestly... it was murder.
'To be fair, the first day wasn't so bad. We weren't climbing all the way to the summit, after all.'
But that was one day. Climb a different mountain every day, and it genuinely felt like dying.
'The fatigue must be stacking up. That's why I'm tiring out faster.'
Just as I stood there panting and gasping, a cup of cool water was held out before me. I took it and drank, and a little of my senses came back.
"Are you all right, my lady?"
The one who'd brought the water was not Ansi... but the Crown Prince, watching me with concern.
'Ah, right. Ansi isn't here.'
"Yes, I'm fine."
When I nodded my answer, the Crown Prince settled down beside me. I gazed blankly up the distant mountain path.
'Without Ansi fussing over me and making a spectacle of it, it does feel a bit empty.'
Ansi had left right before the pilgrimage departed, to go retrieve Gwangcheol-i.
He'd gone to borrow something from the dokkaebi, and now, well over a week later, that imugi still hadn't come back.
"You would have me, Ansi, leave Princess Cheonmyeong to travel alone? Why can I not simply report that wretched imugi straight to the Celestial Realm and have him dragged back?"
"We don't know yet whether he's causing trouble or gotten himself into it."
"Nine times out of ten, he is causing it!"
"I think so too, but... regardless, go bring him back. We'll figure things out once he's here. You know where in Dokkaebigol he went, yes?"
"He did deign to inform me in detail before departing..."
"Exactly. He told you the location down to the last detail — do you really think he's off causing mischief? Something must have gone wrong. Hurry back soon."
"I cannot! I know not how many days it may take — how can I leave Princess Cheonmyeong alone with nothing but a talisman for protection?!"
"Then I'll keep Seok-ran with me."
"Absurd! How could you entrust your safety to some depraved yokai—"
"You've been sleeping soundly right next to her, haven't you? You slept so deeply the other night you didn't even notice me carrying you to bed."
"...That is..."
"I'll take Seok-ran along as my guard, so don't worry. Just find Gwangcheol-i and drag him home."
"...Ansi swears she shall twist that wretch's neck into a good, tight knot and carry him back by it..."
And so Ansi had departed, gritting her teeth — that was two days ago, on the very day the pilgrimage began.
Since traveling as a court musician was out of the question on this journey, Seok-ran was following us in her fox form, hidden away in the forest.
Guarding someone while staying undetected by a retinue of warriors who were nearly all Gwoeryeoknansin — that was surely no easy task. Yet Seok-ran looked absolutely delighted, busy ogling the sturdy Royal Guards of the Crown Prince.
'Well... better she's enjoying herself than sulking about it.'
I was about to leave her be and wipe my sweat when a soft, fluttering breeze brushed my cheek.
Startled, I turned — and there was the Crown Prince, fanning me with a folded fan.
"Your Highness?"
"...You looked warm, my lady."
The little rascal answered, looking slightly embarrassed.
No, but really — for the Crown Prince of an entire nation to personally fan someone? The Royal Guards and the court ladies could all see him.
I quietly took hold of the tip of the fan and shook my head.
"I'm all right now, Your Highness. I'm not warm anymore."
"Is that so."
The Crown Prince folded the fan as my hand guided it, then drooped, fiddling with its end. Something about the sight looked oddly forlorn, so I asked, puzzled.
"Is something worrying you?"
"Tomorrow is Dano... and because of me, you cannot even enjoy the festival. Instead you suffer through all this on my account. It grieves me."
Ah — tomorrow was Dano, wasn't it. I'd almost forgotten.
Dano was my birthday, too. Not the birthday of "Seruhwa" — my true birthday, as Sangra Huiyo.
Not that it meant much, since in the Celestial Realm, where lifespans were measured in millennia, birthdays generally weren't celebrated every year — only in special years, like the year one turned two hundred.
Granted, Mom and Dad always did something for me if I was even awake on the day. Surely they wouldn't manage anything while I was down in the mortal world, though?
'Still, it is a bit of a shame, missing the mortals' Dano festival.'
Dano, the day said to hold the year's most potent yang energy, was also called Suritnal — "the day of worshipping the high god," or so I'd heard.
Perhaps because of that, offerings and sacrifices of every kind rose up from the mortal world, and even the Celestial Realm grew rather lively. We made use of the overflowing yang energy for all sorts of things, too.
Of course, next to the mortal world's grand, sprawling festivities, it was still a quiet, ordinary sort of day.
'Dano as the mortals celebrate it... I was curious, but well — there's always next year.'
I smiled at the deflated Crown Prince.
"There'll be a Dano next year too. Right now, making this pilgrimage with you matters more."
The Black Jade Incident had struck in early summer — the sixth month.
And so the Crown Prince's goal was to visit every single tomb before the same dianthus flowers that had bloomed then could bloom again.
"It is only natural for me... yet I cannot help but feel I've wronged you..."
Just as the Crown Prince was opening his mouth to say more, the Royal Guards standing watch around the clearing stirred.
People — ordinary humans — were making their way up the mountain path.
The guards reflexively moved to block them, then, recognizing who they were, froze in visible flusterment. A military officer came running over at once.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince — the Right State Councilor approaches with his family."
"What?"
The Crown Prince shot to his feet in alarm. Startled as well, I followed after him.
Sure enough, the Right State Councilor stood on the mountain path.
'Oh, right — this is the Councilor's family burial ground. No wonder.'
We had been on our way to the tomb of Lady Sim, the Right State Councilor's wife and Duchess Consort.
He must have been heading to pay his respects to his wife ahead of Dano, same as anyone. His complexion was still weary, but he'd gained back some of the weight he'd lost, and he looked to be in better health than before.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince... what brings you to this place?"
"I came... to pay my full respects to the Duchess Consort."
While the Crown Prince and the Right State Councilor exchanged words, I looked over the family gathered around him.
Directly behind the Councilor stood a man who appeared to be his son, together with his wife — and with them, a pair of twins, a boy and a girl who looked to be around the Crown Prince's age.
The moment I saw them, their names surfaced in my mind.
Yi Jong-ho, eldest son of the Right State Councilor Yi Do-hyeong. Kim Min-seon, Yi Jong-ho's wife. The twins — Yi Yeon-ju and Yi Yeon-jo, children of Yi Jong-ho and Kim Min-seon, grandchildren of Yi Do-hyeong.
Every one of them, written in the Netherworld's death register to die of plague two years from now, on the very same day, at the very same hour.
'It feels strange.'
As though deaths that had been nothing but ink on a register had suddenly taken on flesh and appeared before me.
The twin children clinging to their parents' sides were peeking over at me with curious eyes.
The boy was relatively well-behaved, merely watching — but the girl looked ready to bolt straight toward me at any moment.
Her parents clearly knew it too; while the son was left alone, the mother kept a firm, pressing grip on her daughter's shoulder.
Vivid, youthful faces, all turned toward me... looking at me—
"Mom, that girl's hair is REALLY silver!"
"Nothing like Grandma's. It sparkles."
"Her eyes are blue too! She's so pretty!"
"Sis, that's not just blue — it's called jade."
"Can't I go touch it? I want to ask her for just a few strands of her hair!"
"So curious... I want a closer look too."
The twins were chattering to their parents about me. The girl had the kind of energy that, if she weren't being held back, would already have run up to me and begged.
'I'd gotten so used to it I'd forgotten — I really do have a striking look... silver hair, and these eyes of mine on top of it.'
The children were so marvel-struck they didn't know what to do with themselves, while their parents panicked and scrambled to rein them in.
"Shh! Quiet now! Show respect to Her Highness the Crown Princess!"
"Yeon-ju, stop it! Where do you keep trying to go! Please, hold still! Please!"
Straining to keep their voices down while scolding — they had their work cut out for them.
'I can hear every word, you know.'
Still... this family, so healthy and so close-knit right now, had only two years left — a shorter span than my own ten.
'...And after everything I owe the Right State Councilor, I can't simply stand by while a calamitous god runs rampant in a realm where a great deity dwells. I do have the dignity of Princess Cheonmyeong to maintain, after all.'
I had to stop it. Absolutely.
Just as I was steeling my resolve, screams rang out from the Councilor's son and his wife.
"Yi Yeon-ju!"
"No—!"