First Day of Assignment
“I wonder if that brat’s managing all right.”
In a government office thick with confidential whispers, Cheon Su-gong stood by the window and muttered the words while gazing toward the Princess’s Palace.
“It’s only the first day. What trouble could there possibly be?”
Wi-su cocked his head, baffled by the concern. This was a man Cheon Su-gong had personally screened and brought in; the fretting seemed excessive.
“That brat is more than capable of causing a disaster on day one.”
There was a strange certainty in Cheon Su-gong’s tone. Every time he had laid eyes on the boy, the kid had already been tangled up in something outrageous. And now he had shoved that same boy into the Imperial Palace—of course he was worried.
“Then why… did you bring someone like that into the Princess’s Palace at all?”
Having heard the explanation, Wi-su still looked unconvinced.
“Because his ability is exceptional.”
“His ability… you say?”
“Yes. Ability. Have you ever seen a kid talk Wang Jin-gong’s whole pack into a corner with nothing but his mouth?”
“Wang Jin-gong’s pack” meant the eunuchs of the Office of Imperial Attire who had thrown in their lot with the Second Prince—palace eunuchs who served close to the Son of Heaven and were masters of intrigue and silver tongues.
“Is that even possible?”
“It is. I watched it with my own two eyes.”
They had dismissed him as a child, only for the boy’s razor-sharp logic to leave them flailing with no real rebuttal, reduced to empty bluster and tantrums—Wang Jin-gong and his eunuchs alike.
“I ran into him again by chance after that. That time, he spotted a Saryeongmun assassin before I did.”
Assassins who spent their entire lives training to hide their killing intent—and the boy had picked them out as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“And the next time I saw him, he’d taken down three Jinyiwei experts all by himself… Doesn’t that sound completely absurd?”
“……”
Day by day, month by month. They had only met three times, and every single time the peculiar troubleshooter had been battling something vicious and growing stronger by leaps and bounds.
“I see. As you say, his ability is certainly… considerable.”
Separate from the misfortune that seemed to drag him into incident after accident, the boy’s competence itself was hard to deny.
“The problem is his personality.”
Whether the other party was a eunuch dispatched from the Imperial Palace or a man from the Eastern Depot so infamous that crying children fell silent at the mere mention of the name—he still said whatever he felt like saying.
Wi-su, who had witnessed that very behavior at their last meeting, nodded as if he understood perfectly.
“That’s why putting him at Princess Dohwa’s side is… delicate. There’s no telling what kind of mess he’ll cause, or when.”
He did not seem the type to betray anyone without cause, but in this Imperial Palace, where everyone walked on thin ice, the risk of using him long-term looked far too high. So Cheon Su-gong’s plan was simple: use him only to find the poisoner, hand him a fat purse, and get him out of the Princess’s Palace as quickly as possible.
“Still, what could go wrong? The head maid took charge of him. By now he’s probably settling into his quarters and unpacking. You’re worrying far too much, Director.”
Even if problems tended to follow the boy in a chain, surely he wouldn’t start on day one—Wi-su was half-joking as he said it.
“Yes… you’re probably right.”
Cheon Su-gong murmured the words and nodded. Yet he could not shake the unease that kept lifting its head inside his chest.
“As long as he doesn’t catch Princess Dohwa’s eye…”
If he somehow caught her attention and sparked that talent-hungry nature of hers, Cheon Su-gong would be stuck looking at that face every single day inside the palace. That was one disaster he wanted to avoid at all costs. As a brand-new eunuch, the boy should just quietly catch the poisoner and leave. Holding that wish, Cheon Su-gong silently watched the Princess’s Palace beyond the window.
Between drifting cherry blossom petals, a woman of refined bearing asked me who I was.
From her elegant attire to her bearing and every carefully chosen word, she radiated an air utterly different from ordinary people. Her curious eyes studied my face with quiet intensity.
“Ah… I’m the newly assigned eunuch, Muhong.”
I had been staring blankly; I finally managed to open my mouth and answer. My knowledge of this era’s court dress was thin, so I could not pin down her exact rank, but one glance was enough—she was a personage of no ordinary station. It was rare for speech and manner alone to convey that kind of status so clearly, yet the beauty before me managed it without effort.
“A eunuch, with a face that handsome? The maids will be terribly heartbroken.”
A soft smile touched her lips, as if she could already picture their reactions.
In the end I could not contain my curiosity and asked who she was.
“If it isn’t too forward… may I ask who you are?”
Her voice sounded strangely familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before. Only it had been so long ago that the memory was hazy.
“I am the third princess of this nation, known by the title of Princess Dohwa.”
She laid a pale hand over her heart and introduced herself as Princess Dohwa.
“Ah… ah!”
Only then did I understand why the voice had felt so familiar, and I slapped my knee. I had heard it years ago, from the other side of a veil.
I hurriedly bowed my head and body deep before Princess Dohwa.
“What is this awkward half-crouch supposed to be…?”
She tilted her head, sending me a look that clearly asked what on earth I thought I was doing.
“You know—isn’t this the part where I’m supposed to prostrate myself or something?”
I didn’t know imperial etiquette, but Cheon Su-gong had told me that if I saw someone important, I was to slam my forehead into the floor without hesitation.
“This is not an official occasion. You may stand at ease.”
With a faint smile she gestured for me to rise, saying that excessive formality was no formality at all. Well now—she was a good superior. I could see why her people spoke well of her.
“But you said your name is Muhong. Your voice is oddly familiar to my ear. Have we met somewhere before?”
“……No, that can’t be. This is the first time I’ve had the honor of meeting Your Highness.”
I shook my head at once and denied it. Cheon Su-gong had warned me that if I set foot in this forbidden men’s zone and anyone discovered I was a man, I would be in serious trouble. If I were found out and brought shame on Her Highness’s honor, he had threatened to turn me into a real eunuch. It was probably a joke… but better safe than sorry.
“Is that so. For a moment I thought of a certain little boy who once told me to call on him whenever I needed help… What a pity that it isn’t him.”
Thinking back, I had done some troubleshooter advertising like that in Jamsil, long ago. I never imagined she would still remember the cocky boasts of a little brat.
“Muhong.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Please speak.”
“Do you know that this beautifully arranged garden is a place only I and a select few may enter?”
“……”
How could I possibly know that? I had been thrown in without proper training. Come to think of it, Cheon Su-gong had ordered me never to meet the princess alone—and somehow I had managed to run straight into her one-on-one.
“Did you lose your way, by chance?”
“……Yes. I was supposed to go to the eunuchs’ quarters, but I lost the path halfway and wandered until I ended up here.”
That head maid was truly irresponsible. Once we had come this far she should not have just dropped me mid-route assuming I would figure the rest out myself.
“That is quite a distance from here… You must have made a rather long journey.”
Princess Dohwa gave a soft little laugh, as if she found my situation amusing. Then she smoothly folded the white parasol that had been catching the spring sunlight.
“The Imperial Palace, to a first-time visitor, is like a labyrinth. If you wish, I can guide you to your quarters myself.”
She said the spring blossoms had grown a little monotonous anyway, and offered me a kindness far above my station.
“No, no—how could I trouble Your Highness like that… I’m fine, really.”
This Imperial Palace was a closed, hierarchical place cut off from the outside world. In short, it was like the military. Imagine a raw recruit using someone like a division commander as his personal guide to the barracks. The eunuchs already in the quarters would flip out in shock, and the senior eunuchs would immediately haul me in for a joint-cracking lecture on whether I had lost my mind.
“Is that so. You had the audacity to praise my beauty so frankly, and I had thought to reward that honesty by showing you the way… If you have no need of it, so be it.”
Apparently that compliment—which had slipped out of me like a reflexive gasp of admiration—had pleased her. After all, who else would dare throw a line like that straight into a member of the imperial family’s face? Only someone with stars stuck in his head, like me.
“But Your Highness, which direction is the eunuchs’ quarters?”
Every path and building looked the same; I could not tell them apart. The right-angled eaves and golden roof tiles were so uniform they might as well have been designed to keep outsiders from ever finding their way.
“Heh. At that rate, do you think you’ll find it before nightfall?”
Princess Dohwa smiled gently at the greenhorn eunuch fumbling before her. She shook her head as if deciding this would not do, told me to follow, and set off in the lead.
“Uh—Your Highness really doesn’t have to—”
“It is fine. I happen to have business in that direction as well.”
With an elegant little wave she summoned me again. Refusing any further would only be rude. In that case, there was nothing for it.
I fell silent and walked behind her. The moment she began to move, the people on the path parted like the Red Sea.
Dang Yeohye, the Poison Claw Mountain Blood.
Wherever she went she was showered with respect and deference—a master of the Transcendental Peak Realm, and the precious second daughter of the Sichuan Tang Family Manor. At the moment, however, she was squatting ungracefully beside a stream where water trickled past, pulling laundry out of a lye soak and thumping it with a wooden paddle.
What am I even doing here right now…
A thick wave of self-doubt sank into her chest. She was certain that when she first stormed out of the Tang Family Manor, she had had a completely different goal. She had meant to confront Dan Mujin about something Paeng Hwayeop had told her—and then, somehow, she had gotten swept up in his schemes and wound up as a palace maid, paddle in hand.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The short, blunt paddle beat a steady rhythm against the laundry. The streamside was full of that rhythmic noise, and through it the maids’ chatter never stopped flowing.
“Hey, did you see that new eunuch earlier?”
Right now their conversation topic was the well-built, handsome eunuch they had spotted on the way here.
“He was pretty good-looking. Body looked solid too.”
“If I’d met him outside, I would’ve ‘accidentally’ dropped a handkerchief just to test my luck.”
“Ahh, fate is so cruel.”
“Why did he have to be a eunuch of all things.”
From her corner, Dang Yeohye listened and let out a short snort of laughter. So that guy was already bewitching innocent maids even inside a place forbidden to men. She had noticed it before, but as time went on her sworn younger brother was growing more and more masculine, drawing women’s eyes without even trying. She half-wanted to stand up right now and shout, Someone already claimed him first—give it up.
But then again, they all thought he was a eunuch, so maybe it didn’t matter. In fact, this might be an unparalleled opportunity. Neither Jo Harang nor Ilhong—who usually kept him in check—was here. Paradoxically, this was also the safest situation of all. And this place was like a remote island; they would have no choice but to rely on each other.
“Heh heh.”
A sly little smile curved Dang Yeohye’s lips. Handled well, this could turn into a real chance.
Thump-thump.
She was cheerfully pounding laundry with those thoughts when the maids around her suddenly pointed somewhere and began to stir.
“Huh? That’s Princess Dohwa…”
“But why is she walking alone with the new eunuch?”
She turned her head—and there was Dan Mujin, strolling side by side in perfect step with Princess Dohwa. The paddle slipped soundlessly from Dang Yeohye’s hand.
“What the hell is that idiot doing…”
A round moon hung high in the deep night.
In a secluded alley of the Imperial Palace, certain people were gathering. The newly arrived eunuch stepped first out of the shadows, and a woman in a maid’s uniform appeared right after him and immediately began grilling him.
“Hey. What was that about.”
“……What was what.”
Dang Yeohye jabbed him repeatedly in the side as if asking whether he was seriously pretending not to know. What was supposed to be a quiet exchange of opinions about finding the poisoner was turning into an interrogation under the night sky.
“Why was a brand-new eunuch walking alone with the princess?”
He had only meant to slip in quietly, unnoticed—and instead Dan Mujin had somehow managed to stamp a huge impression on everyone’s eyes.
“It just… kind of happened…”
He scratched his cheek, short on good excuses. But this kind of grilling was, in truth, the mild part. Far down the alley, a middle-aged man from the Eastern Depot was stomping closer, killing intent rolling off him in waves.
“Dan Mujiiiin!”