The Harem's Ghostly Commotion (1)
A few days later, a new rumor began circulating inside the rear palace.
One of the mid-level concubine candidates, Ryu Hong, had not only dared to smuggle poison into the harem but had even attempted to poison a senior candidate. In the process, several maids had supposedly been murdered to keep them silent.
“It really is an absurd affair. Seoryeong, wouldn’t you agree?”
The Emperor strolled leisurely through the garden with his hands clasped behind his back. Seoryeong, trailing close beside him, quietly lowered her head at the sound of his voice.
...He’s supposed to be the Emperor. Why does he have so much free time?
It had only been a few days since she had met Ryu Hong, handed the dark bloom she carried to a eunuch, and believed the matter surrounding Hwaryeon’s death was finally settled.
I thought I might actually get some proper rest, yet here he is again today.
The Emperor had appeared without warning that morning. Seoryeong struggled to keep her expression neutral, feeling as though a hole might be bored through her stomach at any moment.
“I heard you personally consumed the leaves of the dark bloom.”
“...Yes. It seems I’ve developed a constitution that doesn’t react to poison.”
“Developed, you say.”
To the Emperor’s murmured remark, she answered vaguely that ever since acquiring this new body, she had also become immune to toxins.
“As for how you learned that poison has no effect on you, I’ll save that question for my own future entertainment.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
After that, the Emperor continued walking through the garden in silence for a long while.
“Seoryeong.”
“Please speak, Your Majesty.”
“I intend to reward you.”
“Pardon?”
At the far edge of the garden section assigned to her, the Emperor stood with his back turned, quietly gazing at the sky as he spoke.
“As you know, smuggling poison into the imperial palace is no trivial crime. Therefore, it is only natural to bestow a reward upon you for uncovering the culprit.”
Seoryeong stared at him in open astonishment, forgetting all etiquette.
“If there is anything you desire, speak. I will grant it within reason.”
Hearing his prompting tone, she pondered the question seriously.
I can’t ask to be sent home, can I?
No matter that it was a reward, telling the truth would certainly bring severe consequences. Fortunately, she still retained enough common sense to avoid that blunder.
“...Would you permit me to send word to my family back home?”
Because she had been sent to the isolated rear palace contrary to the original plan, her contact with her family had been severed. She asked to restore that connection.
“That is no difficult matter. Will that be enough?”
“I was taught that excessive greed is unwise.”
The Emperor turned to look at her with a faintly surprised expression. Seoryeong lifted her sleeves to partially cover her face and bowed her head.
“I will send a messenger soon, so prepare the message you wish to deliver. It must pass through the eunuch’s hands, but I give you my word that it will reach them.”
For some reason the Emperor nodded with a bitter expression at her modest demeanor.
“I will arrange for you to send news to your family at regular intervals in the future. If you require anything else, tell me at any time.”
He had been about to stroke the head of the bowing Seoryeong. His hand reached out slowly, but he withdrew it before she noticed and clasped both hands behind his back once more.
“Your Majesty’s grace is boundless.”
She seemed genuinely delighted at the chance to send even a small message to her family. The Emperor simply watched in silence as the corners of her mouth lifted into a smile visible even with her head lowered.
After their brief garden stroll ended, the Emperor rode back toward the palace in his carriage.
“Your Majesty.”
At the quiet voice calling him, the Emperor looked down at the elegant man in white who was prostrating before him.
“What is it, Baeksa?”
“Though it may be presumptuous, why did you make such a promise?”
The handsome man known as Baeksa seemed to be missing one eye. He narrowed his lifeless eyelid slightly and appealed once more to the lord who was deliberately ignoring his intentions despite understanding them.
“That priestess’s family has already...”
“Enough. Are you suggesting that I am a man who cannot even keep a trivial promise?”
The Emperor’s voice carried clear displeasure.
“For the time being, I intend to proceed as we did in Cheongsin. Therefore, refrain from any rash actions until the shadow agent sent to investigate returns.”
“But... Your Majesty. That priestess and the illness that afflicted the late Empress...”
“...Baeksa.”
At the Emperor’s furious glare, Baeksa finally realized he had touched his lord’s reverse scale. He broke off mid-sentence and bowed his head deeply.
“I have no desire to hear any more.”
“As you command.”
The Emperor turned his gaze away from the silently bowing Baeksa.
...A talisman priestess, is it.
Gazing out the window toward the distant sky in the direction of Cheongsin, he clicked his tongue, brimming with distaste.
“The more I learn, the more thoroughly unpleasant they are.”
That evening.
“Hmm... what should I even write?”
“Priestess. What exactly have you been doing since earlier... Ah, you mentioned receiving permission to send a letter.”
“Yes. The moment I arrived, I was whisked straight into the rear palace, so I haven’t been able to contact them properly this whole time.”
Seoryeong sat at the elegant desk prepared in her quarters, expensive brush in hand, tilting her head this way and that.
“My father may not look it, but he worries terribly. Hehe.”
“Yes, I know. Do you realize how many times I’ve heard that story while standing beside you, Priestess?”
“Now that I think about it, I heard Seoyeon will be marrying soon...”
“You mean your younger sister.”
Was the thought of sending news to her family after so long that delightful? Even the tail she usually kept neatly still was now swishing energetically from side to side.
“Yes. Mother is unwell, Father is busy digging medicinal herbs every day, and I’ve practically raised my sister myself since she was little.”
“I have no family of my own, so I wouldn’t know. My apologies.”
“...Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“It’s all right. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever told you before, Priestess.”
They chatted lightly about each other’s pasts.
“A talisman priestess must sever all ties with her former life. When I first heard it, I thought it was truly too harsh, but the high priest promised he would at least deliver news, so that was a relief.”
Seoryeong spoke while hugging to her chest the tail that kept swaying behind her, her hand covered in blue scales.
“What if I asked His Majesty to let my family live here instead...? Would he allow it?”
“Leaving your sister and mother aside, your father would find it difficult, wouldn’t he?”
“Ah, that’s true. Father couldn’t come... No, no. Since I won’t need it anymore anyway, maybe I should just cut it off cleanly...”
“Priestess. Even as a joke, that’s a bit...”
“I’m only teasing. Just teasing.”
Her expression had been utterly serious only moments earlier, so it hadn’t sounded like a joke at all. Jina quietly decided to keep her mouth shut; if she provoked Seoryeong with careless words, the priestess might actually sever her father’s manhood and drag him here as a eunuch.
“Still, His Majesty seems unexpectedly kind, doesn’t he?”
“Does he?”
“He calls me his pet priestess, yet he keeps looking after me like this... so yes?”
At Seoryeong’s irreverent and unguarded mention of the Emperor, Jina quietly sharpened her ears and checked for any presence nearby.
“If that is how you feel, Priestess, then I am glad.”
She recalled the Emperor’s gaze during the audience where she had received permission to enter the rear palace. Those eyes had been so icy that even she had felt chills. Jina chose to let the subject blur.
The one certain thing is that all contact from the shrine has been completely severed.
Originally, in addition to escorting the priestess offered to Ran, she had been scheduled to receive ongoing instructions from the Cheongsin shrine.
What could the high priest possibly be thinking?
Perhaps because she was clumsy at scheming, Jina felt a strange unease about the current situation she could not begin to guess. Still, she made up her mind.
For now, I’ll focus solely on protecting the priestess.
Thanks to this incident, she had learned that even the rear palace was far from completely safe. She would have to remain vigilant against any more assassins or similar threats.
“Ugh, seriously... It’s been so long since I last wrote that I don’t even know where to begin...”
Watching her master struggle adorably to finish the letter she was determined to complete that day, Jina renewed her resolve.
Ah, I want to tug that tail.
She occasionally wondered what kind of reaction she would get if she pulled the softly swaying tail behind her. It was a truly tempting question, yet...
“...Miss Jina. I clearly said the tail is off-limits.”
“Yes. I know.”
“Your eyes don’t look like they know at all, though?”
As expected. Seoryeong was extremely sensitive to any gaze directed at her tail.
“Can’t you let me touch it just once? Really?”
“Absolutely not.”
Was the reality of only being allowed to look at that plump, silky tail so heartbreaking? Jina, whose face was usually expressionless, wore an unusually gloomy look.
“Even if you stare at me like that, I won’t let you touch it, so please give up.”
In the end, Seoryeong hugged the tail tightly to her chest, the white fur at its tip bristling warily as though it might overflow at any moment. Under that oppressive gaze, Jina thought:
It’s been five years. Surely she could let me touch it at least once by now.
She tried to abandon her lingering attachment to Seoryeong’s delightfully chubby tail, yet still clung to the faint hope that someday she might be allowed to stroke it.