The Yangtze Crossing
“Like father, like son.” “Your Highness the Prince~!” On the road to Gangha, I had arrived in Hanyang and was now desperately calling out for the missing second prince. It wasn’t loyalty that drove me—far from it. I simply saw a chance to turn a tidy profit. Help find the prince, and something valuable was bound to fall into my lap, wasn’t it?
—Swish.
“Tsk tsk, Yeonhwa. What a pointless endeavor.” Ryun, clearly displeased, kept needling me from the side.
“What’s your problem?”
“The prince isn’t some stray cat. Do you really think he’ll appear just because you wander the city calling his name?”
“You never know.”
“I do know. He absolutely will not appear.”
“Why are you so certain?”
“That’s… ahem! In the first place, you accepted a commission to escort me, yet here you are wasting time on something else. Isn’t that rather unprofessional?”
“That’s why I’m searching at night. And why did you follow me instead of resting at the inn?” Ever since that incident, he’d been sticking close to me.
—Halt.
“Well… how could I let a woman wander alone at night?”
“That’s the most pointless worry of all.” A peak-level cultivator like me could slice ordinary people apart like tofu. If anything, the ones who should be worried were any fools who tried to lay hands on me. And though Ryun kept insisting it was pointless, it wasn’t entirely so.
—Step, step.
“The Doctrine of the Mean states that perfect sincerity is like a god. With such heartfelt devotion, surely His Highness the Prince will soon return?”
A man appeared from around the corner, accompanied by soldiers. He was one of the local magistrates of this city—roughly equivalent to a modern district mayor, though in this feudal society his authority was vastly greater. For some reason, he seemed quite pleased that I was searching for the prince.
—Bow.
“Ah, we meet again. Hello?”
“You are always so diligent, young lady. Even when others rest, you pour your heart into the search.”
“Hehe, it’s nothing.”
Ryun’s presence made me come out at night, yet the magistrate assumed I had been searching day and night.
“Your voice is clear as jade and your bearing impeccable. What does outward appearance matter? You are nothing like those who only pretend at sincerity.”
Hmm. It was all praise, yet it rested on the assumption that my face was hideous. Was it because I wore the myeon-sa?
“More importantly, I have a question.”
“Oh? What is it?”
—Flutter.
“Honestly, doesn’t this portrait make the search harder rather than easier?” I picked up one of the wanted posters the authorities had distributed. The artist had clearly poured great effort into it, but that was the problem. It was like using a heavily filtered Instagram photo to find a missing person in the modern world. Even if the prince walked right past me, I wouldn’t recognize him.
—Shake, shake.
“How insolent. How could we carelessly distribute the likeness of someone who might become the next supreme ruler?”
“The next supreme ruler?” Did that mean he could become the next emperor? But wasn’t he only the second prince?
“Isn’t the crown prince the first prince? I thought the missing one was the second.”
—Halt.
At my words, everyone present froze for a moment. Then Ryun spoke.
“Yeonhwa… have you truly been living in the mountains all this time?”
“What’s wrong?”
“The… the first prince passed away from illness…”
“Huh? Really?” Living with that reclusive former eunuch had left my information hopelessly outdated. Eop Hu-hu, that useless bastard!
—Whisper, whisper.
“It is as the young man says. That is why it remains uncertain whether the second or third prince will become crown prince.”
“If it’s between the second and third… wouldn’t the second naturally succeed?”
“By normal succession, yes, but the situation is different. The second prince is the son of the late empress, while the third prince is the son of the current empress.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I hear the struggle within the imperial palace is quite fierce.”
Wait—new stepmother? Power struggles? That sounded familiar.
—Perk.
“Does the second prince have any distinguishing features?”
“Well… for one, he carries himself with great dignity.”
I glanced at Ryun.
“And he is quite handsome.”
‘Huh?’ I looked at Ryun again.
“Furthermore, his words and conduct never stray from propriety.”
‘Could it be?’ I kept staring at Ryun.
“Lastly, he is said to handle spicy food exceptionally well.”
“Tch.” I turned my head away from Ryun. ‘I got my hopes up for nothing.’
After all, there was no way the missing prince would conveniently appear right in front of me.
—Shrug.
“In any case, even if you do find His Highness, you must be cautious. There are rumors—though baseless—that the palanquin explosion was suspicious.”
“I understand… Thank you for the advice.”
“Hoho, how could I refuse to show kindness to a good person? Now, if you will excuse me, I have official duties to attend to.”
—Step, step.
After the magistrate left, Ryun smiled awkwardly.
“You look rather disappointed. What were you planning to do if I had been the prince?”
“What else? I’d serve you well and earn some favor.”
“Were you aiming to become crown princess?”
—Startled.
“What kind of nonsense is that?” Even though I had become a woman, my body had once been male. I could endure many things, but the mere thought of being intimate with a man made my skin crawl.
“I was thinking of claiming a reward or receiving a sinecure so I could live without working.”
“Haha, how unexpectedly modest.”
“Modest? Do you have any idea how impressive it is to eat and play without working?”
This was why you could never trust a young master from a good family. Having never worked a day in his life, he spoke so lightly.
—Grin.
“If that is your reason, then stop searching for the prince. I will provide the reward myself.”
----------
After sending Yeonhwa away…
“Crown prince, huh…” Ryun wore a bitter smile as memories of the past surfaced.
“Elder brother…”
After his perfect elder brother died, a hollow space had remained in his heart. That was why he had never married, why he had never clung to the position of crown prince. If he had been born into an ordinary wealthy family, he might have lived his life drifting along like that. But unfortunately, he was the emperor’s son—destined from birth to stand at the center of a storm. Even if he stayed still, officials lined up behind him; even if he refused, he became a leading candidate for the next crown prince. That was why the empress was determined to kill him. It was as though he had been placed upon an unstoppable wheel of fate.
—Shake, shake.
“Haa…”
The recent palanquin explosion had certainly been the empress’s doing. As always, however, there was only circumstantial evidence, never proof. Without his devoted subordinates, he would have died several times over by now.
“It seems I am not yet fated to die.”
Even with those subordinates, this time had been a serious crisis. Because he did not know who the traitor inside was, he had been traveling alone toward Gangha. The one silver lining was that, amid the chaos, he had managed to hire an extraordinary escort.
—Scratch.
‘I never thought someone like her existed outside of stories.’
Her beauty surpassed even the countless stunning women gathered in the imperial palace. Perhaps only the empress in her prime, whom he had seen as a child, could compare. Strangely, he also felt at ease with her, as though she were a close male friend. It was peculiar that someone who embodied every man’s ideal still considered herself merely an ordinary beauty.
—Step, step.
—Peek.
“Hey, Ryun. Why are you taking so long?”
Ryun, lost in thought, had stopped walking. Yeonhwa, who had gone ahead, came back to fetch him. She poked only her head out from the alley. The sight was both adorable and strangely endearing in its innocence.
“…”
The primary reason he kept his distance from beautiful women was the empress, but the root cause lay with his father—specifically, his father’s decision to elevate such a woman to the position of empress simply because she was beautiful. Yet because he could not escape his bloodline, and because fate was unavoidable, he—
—Shake, shake.
‘Get ahold of yourself…’
Just seeing that head poking out made the face of that peerless beauty who had once wiped his sweat flash before his eyes.
—Swish.
“What are you doing?”
Added to that was the sweet peach scent tickling his nose.
‘I am nothing like my father! Nothing at all!’
—Drip, drip.
Sweat beading on his forehead, Ryun shook his head violently. Naturally, Yeonhwa had no idea what was going through his mind.
“Is he sick or something?”
----------
—Creak.
—Rock, rock.
This was the Yangtze River. We had boarded a ferry to cross it. Once we reached the other side, Gangha would be near. If everything went smoothly, we would arrive without incident. But of course, it did not.
—Grip.
—Crack.
“Guh…! You crazy bitch… Do you even know who we are…?”
The river bandits groaned as they crawled across the deck.
“How dare you… touch the Eighteen River Gangs of the Yangtze?”
The so-called Eighteen River Gangs were just eighteen thugs. Their name was ridiculously grandiose for a bunch of common river pirates.
—Press.
“Why? Weren’t you begging me to touch you with these pretty hands?”
“Aaaagh! Save me! No, please save me!!!”
Avoiding them would have been wiser, but somehow I had beaten them half to death. Several were now crippled. If you asked how things had come to this… a bit of explanation was necessary.