Dark Harmony (1)
Two days had passed since the assassin appeared in Seoryeong’s quarters.
From the rumors she’d heard, not only had the assassin captured by Jina been thoroughly investigated, but the origins of the maids suspected of colluding with him were suspiciously spotless as well. In the end, they had failed to uncover the true mastermind.
Ultimately, the only changes over those two days were that Seoryeong had moved into a different building in place of her destroyed bedroom… and that red lines had been drawn through a few names on the harem maids’ roster.
“...It’s eerily quiet, isn’t it?”
“In the imperial palace, something on this scale hardly counts as a disturbance.”
The one who had nearly died was herself, yet Seoryeong answered with an indifferent expression, as though she didn’t mind that even the investigation results hadn’t been properly shared with her. Watching her, Jina clicked her tongue lightly in clear disapproval.
“They seem to have cut the tail off cleanly… but at least their blood must have run a little cold, right?”
“Are you satisfied with just that?”
“As if. Hardly.”
Seoryeong smiled slyly, as if she were actually looking forward to what lay ahead.
“It’s going to get fun from here on out, so you can go ahead and anticipate it.”
If her guess was correct, something entertaining would happen before long.
“......”
It seemed she was even beginning to enjoy herself, but for Jina—who had to stay right beside her and watch—it was a statement that made her stomach twist.
“Priestess.”
“Yes?”
“Can I hit you just once?”
Jina asked quite seriously, glancing at the top of Seoryeong’s head while quietly clenching her fist.
“Are you insane? Who are you trying to kill?”
Naturally, from Seoryeong’s point of view, it was simply unfair.
The next day.
“Ow, that hurts…”
A whole day had passed since Jina flicked her forehead, yet Seoryeong still felt the uncomfortable throb of the prominent bump rising between her two horns as she rose from bed.
“Good morning.”
“…Does this look like a good morning to you, Jina?”
“Yes.”
After exchanging greetings with Jina, who had once again been waiting in front of the door since early morning, Seoryeong spoke.
“Priestess.”
“What now.”
Still clutching her head, which felt like it was still rattling, she answered grumpily to Jina’s call.
“Today, His Majesty is visiting the rear palace.”
“Ugh.”
“The maids will be coming shortly to help you prepare.”
“…I don’t want to.”
At Jina’s next words, Seoryeong shook her head, her face turning deathly pale.
I’m going to die with a hole in my stomach from anxiety before the assassin even gets to me.
She had heard through casual conversation with the food-attendant maids—whom she had grown somewhat close to recently—that the emperor would soon visit the harem, but she had never dreamed it would be today.
“Can’t he just take a few other candidate consorts with him instead?”
Even though she knew it was impossible, Seoryeong still asked with a thread of vain hope.
“From what I hear, His Majesty visits this garden—where you eat and sleep—far more often than the harem’s other candidates. Stop struggling pointlessly.”
Unfortunately, the reply was a threat that if she didn’t start moving immediately, he would pick her up himself and dunk her in the water barrel.
“Ugh…”
Against someone who could smash through a building wall like crushing tofu with her bare hands, powerless Seoryeong could do nothing but obediently accept the grooming that followed.
“Wow, Priestess… you really are beautiful.”
“I was scared at first, but now you look like a celestial maiden.”
Thus, against her will, she was adorned. Somehow an extravagant outfit had been prepared with a perfectly placed opening near her hips so her tail could slip through. Once she was wrapped in it—
“Ha… this is my fate…”
Despite the maids’ attempts to dissuade her, Seoryeong dragged the cumbersome skirt over to the pavilion where she usually stayed, perched on the railing, and stared at the sky with dead eyes, as if trying to avoid looking at her own made-up face.
“......”
The one small mercy was that, although Jina was her guard, a foreign warrior could not be allowed near the emperor. The woman who would normally have nagged her endlessly was therefore absent.
“Sigh… I want a smoke…”
If she had her way, she would have pulled out her pipe, packed it with strong herbs, and lit up. But she was about to meet the emperor. Doing something like that now would be truly irreversible. She tried to calm her mind and waited.
“You’re saying something truly unexpected again.”
“Hyaaaaak—?!”
Seoryeong jumped at the voice that suddenly spoke from behind her with no warning whatsoever. She clutched her startled chest, hurriedly retreated, and dropped to her knees.
“I-I greet Your Imperial Majesty…!”
“Enough. Save such trivial etiquette for occasions when the ministers are present.”
By the time her bristling white tail, which had shot straight up in alarm, finally drooped under the weight of its decorations, the emperor’s voice—sounding somewhat lighter than before—reached her.
“......?”
Seoryeong felt as if she couldn’t quite believe she was truly facing the emperor. Knowing it was rude, she still cautiously lifted her head.
“Your Majesty…?”
“What is it.”
The maids had already withdrawn completely at some point. The emperor stood alone in the garden, perfectly at ease.
He was over six cheok tall, with skin like white jade and features as finely sculpted as a statue. Beneath the dragon robe lay a body honed by training despite the heavy burden of the throne. He looked, at most, to be in his late twenties.
Perhaps he disliked cumbersome things. Dressed in light attire with his long hair tied back casually, the emperor honestly looked more like a carefree wanderer than an emperor—if not for the imperial robe.
“Forgive my rudeness, but… why are you here alone…?”
Seoryeong tried to push the impertinent thoughts from her mind and asked carefully, still unable to fully accept that she and the emperor were the only ones left in the garden.
“I came to embrace you. Would that answer satisfy you?”
With those deep eyes, he took one step closer and lifted her chin with his hand.
“……Hic.”
Unable to process reality, Seoryeong trembled with a deathly pale face and let out a hiccup.
“Haha…!”
When the emperor burst into loud laughter at the sight of her, she finally realized the gesture had been a joke. She let out a huge inward sigh of relief.
“You will understand soon enough, but my garden holds far more ferocious creatures than you imagine.”
The emperor watched her reaction with clear amusement, then turned away, clasping his hands behind his back as he continued.
“Some of them go wild the moment they see too many people at once… so everyone is hiding themselves, reading the room.”
Though it looked as if no one else was present, far more eyes were watching than Seoryeong realized.
“Seoryeong.”
“…You called?”
“It seems you did something quite entertaining this time. The chief eunuch’s complaints made my ears ache.”
This time his voice was serious. Seoryeong, still kneeling beside him, answered.
“I apologize.”
“I am not rebuking you.”
“Then…?”
“Remember that you are, after all, my possession.”
“…Understood.”
It meant that no matter what she did, she must not risk her life without his permission. Understanding this, she quietly bowed her head.
“Also, tell your guard this: every asset in the imperial palace is precious. If you break anything again by using it as bait, I will personally make you pay the cost.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
She hadn’t expected him to know she had used her own body as bait to catch the assassin. Her tail tip trembled as she answered.
“I will gladly allow you to borrow my name. Since you stepped forward, do as you wish. The funeral can come afterward.”
With those words, he indicated the conversation was over. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, the emperor vanished. Seoryeong stared at the place where he had been.
“…Oh.”
Contrary to her expectations, the emperor knew about everything happening in the harem… and had even noticed her plan, yet had smiled playfully instead. Surprised, her golden eyes sparkled with light.
He might actually be a rather decent person.
Secretly raising her opinion of the emperor, she began to smile brightly.
It was completely different from what she had expected. After all, it was only the death of one insignificant maid. She had naturally assumed no one would care.
Yet that single maid’s death—one she thought would be ignored by everyone—was lingering in the mind of the most exalted person in the empire, and proper arrangements were already being made.
If that was the case, all that remained was to reveal the truth behind the maid’s death exactly as the emperor wished, and ensure those who deserved punishment paid the proper price.
“So I can really go all out now?”
She erased every complicated plan she had originally made from her mind. Without even thinking to grab her tail—which was wagging vigorously left and right behind her in accordance with her mood—Seoryeong let out a wicked chuckle.
“Hehehe…”
She sat alone, laughing with dark delight, until Jina and the maids returned.
…It went without saying that the maids, with whom she thought she had closed the distance, were once again whispering among themselves and keeping their distance. Perhaps that, too, was simply her own karma.