Chapter 8: The First Lie

She slipped her arm behind Haeryeong’s neck to support him.

Iryeon tilted the water bowl over his parted lips.

As she slowly trickled the water in to moisten his mouth, he finally felt as if he could live.

A stinging pain flared as the lukewarm water wetted his parched throat and went down.

Yet, the water in his mouth tasted incredibly sweet.

What elixir could possibly be this sweet?

After spending some time emptying half the bowl, Haeryeong sat up on his own.

Even that simple act was not easy.

For a moment, he failed to hear Iryeon’s words as his dazed mind tried to process what had happened.

Belatedly catching only the end of her sentence, Haeryeong turned his head blankly and blinked slowly.

Was dying a dream, or was being alive the dream?

What time was it now, and where was he?

Giving up on thinking with his dull, sluggish mind, Haeryeong asked Iryeon, who was peering into his face.

“Where… am I…?”

Was this the world of the living, the afterlife, or was he still stuck in a dream?

He truly could not tell, so he had to ask.

The lingering pain in his body felt like a hell of fire, yet the elixir touching his lips felt like paradise.

After a moment, Iryeon replied in a trembling voice.

“You are in your bedchamber, the bedchamber of the Empress’s Palace.”

“The Empress’s Palace…?”

It seemed he was alive, though it was not particularly welcome news.

An absurd laugh escaped him.

How was it that an Empress whom the Emperor did not even acknowledge was still occupying the Empress’s Palace and lying there?

Haeryeong covered his forehead with one hand and let out a hollow laugh.

His head throbbed, something unknown pulsing and generating pain.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

Haeryeong shook his head vigorously.

His hair, tangled and wet with sweat and water, hit his back heavily.

And the throbbing pain in his head intensified.

“Ugh…”

As Haeryeong curled up further, he could sense Iryeon’s restless concern.

“The Imperial Physician will arrive soon, so please endure just a little longer, Your Highness.”

“Since the fever has broken, you will recover quickly.”

“Fever…?”

Haeryeong had almost no memory of what had transpired.

Had he been ill? Did he have a fever?

Even the memories of occasionally regaining consciousness were faint.

He had only thought that wandering through his dreams was exhausting and tiring.

Seeing Haeryeong’s dazed response, Iryeon leaned closer in alarm.

“Do you not remember, Your Highness? Nothing at all?”

Haeryeong fell silent at her question.

Watching the confusion and worry trembling in Iryeon’s pupils, a sudden thought struck him: what would happen if his memory truly had vanished?

He couldn’t undo the state marriage that had already been performed, so what if he pretended to remember nothing and waited to be deposed?

Even if being killed by the Emperor was just a dream, it wouldn’t be much different from the future that was destined to come eventually.

After all, even after marrying Haeryeong, the Emperor had favored the Noble Consort, whom he hadn’t even taken as a concubine at that time.

The rumors of what the Emperor had done to bring Sirak—a mere musician from a brothel—into the palace as his Noble Consort were widespread.

The anecdote of how he had even registered the low-born man as the adopted son of the Vice Minister of War just to bring him into the Imperial Palace was still talked about among the court servants.

And that wasn’t all.

The list of gifts flowing into the Consort’s Palace after Sirak entered the inner court was so massive that rumors of it reached the Empress’s Palace.

Haeryeong himself had let out a sigh upon seeing the Noble Consort wearing a dragon hairpin carved from red coral and a matching pair of red coral rings at a banquet.

Red coral, which was meant to ward off misfortune and bring health, was not only extremely rare but also difficult to carve, making it even more valuable.

The Emperor had never once sent a red accessory or gift to Haeryeong, yet he always bestowed items containing red upon the Consort.

Since he cherished his favorite consort so much, had the Emperor not always wished for Haeryeong to step down from the position of Empress?

Because he had wished for it so much, was that not why he appeared so furiously when he heard the Consort had slipped, thinking this was his chance?

It was something the man was more than capable of doing.

In that case, could he not simply step down quietly before things reached that point?

If he became a useless Empress who couldn’t even maintain his position while pretending to remember nothing, the Emperor might be glad to depose him.

If that happened, could he at least avoid a wretched death?

Perhaps because he was thinking so much at once, his head throbbed even more.

But was a headache the issue right now?

Was there not something more important?

Since they said he had been severely feverish and ill, it was the perfect time to use the illness as an excuse.

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

He hesitated for a moment at the sight of Iryeon’s worried face before him, but Haeryeong bit his tongue and steeled his heart.

There was no one in this palace who could help him.

Though he knew how sincerely these women served the Empress, their limitations were clear.

If the Empress himself could not properly maintain his rank, what great help could he expect from them, who were mere court ladies?

Haeryeong lowered his eyes, which had become clear.

And when he lifted his eyelashes again, the gaze revealed was distinctly clouded.

Haeryeong, his eyes darting around anxiously, shook his head.

Since he didn’t know what would happen yet, he had to be as sparing with his words as possible for now.

When Haeryeong didn’t speak, Iryeon’s face became grief-stricken, whatever she was thinking.

“Your Highness was very ill.”

“Your fever did not break for nearly fifteen days, to the point that His Majesty even paid a visit.”

“Last night, His Majesty held you and immersed you in cold water; do you not even remember that?”

At her words, Haeryeong felt the blood drain from his face.

The Emperor did what…?

Goosebumps broke out on his skin at the thought of having been touched so closely by him.

A sense of revulsion, rather than fear, quietly swept down his entire body.

As Haeryeong shivered, Iryeon’s expression became even more worried.

Come to think of it, in his previous life, had he consummated the marriage after turning twenty?

Haeryeong lowered his eyes and searched his memories.

At the thought of that first night, his body shook even more violently.

And his resolve to become a deposed Empress grew stronger.

The thought that he might have to do that again made his stomach turn.

The sensation of his body being heatedly ravaged came back so vividly that he instinctively curled up.

What should he do?

Haeryeong, who had bitten his lip and curled his body, eventually lifted his face, which was drenched in cold sweat, and looked at Iryeon with a vacant gaze.

His lips trembled, terrified of deceiving someone for the first time in his life.

“His… Majesty? Do you mean my royal father?”

“My father is the King of a vassal state, so I must not call him His Majesty.”

His voice, which had been trembling at first, gradually settled.

As Haeryeong straightened his hunched back and asked, Iryeon’s eyes shook violently.

“Your Highness, the one I called His Majesty… I was speaking of His Imperial Majesty of the Kingdom of Yeoran.”

Haeryeong met Iryeon’s gaze with trembling eyes.

Except for his wide-open eyes, his very breath was held still.

He bit his lip quietly, lacking the confidence to pull off any specific reaction correctly.

Sometimes, a single small action spoke more than ten words.

Haeryeong had learned that lesson until he was sick of it from the Emperor.

Thus, he simply lifted a vacant gaze and scanned the room.

Perhaps dawn was breaking, as a faint, grey light began to filter into the dark bedchamber.

Haeryeong turned his gaze toward the window where the light was beginning to seep in.

He could feel Iryeon’s quiet gaze watching him.

Avoiding Iryeon’s persistent stare, Haeryeong buried his face deep in his palms.

‘Can I do this?’

‘I am already shaking this much; will I really be able to pull this off?’

****

Without having even a moment to close his eyes, Gangcheon slowly closed his aching lids as he attended the morning assembly.

His eyes were drifting shut as he listened to the report from the Minister of Public Works regarding the water control issues of the Dorim Stream that cut through the capital.

“Your Majesty, we must resume construction before it is too late, but as the busy farming season approaches, finding laborers will not be easy.”

“Therefore, how about issuing an official decree to command forced labor?”

Gangcheon replied to him with his eyes still closed.

“If we implement forced labor, who will take responsibility for this year’s farming?”

If he dragged away the people who needed to prepare for farming before the busy season and started construction, it was only natural that a bountiful harvest this year would become a distant hope.

As Gangcheon narrowed his eyes and looked at him, the Minister of Public Works bowed his head and faltered.

“However, Your Majesty, if the water control project for Dorim Stream is delayed, there is a high possibility of flooding just like last year.”

“I do not know what you were doing all winter to be making such a fuss now that things are urgent.”

“Th-that is… because there was heavy snowfall this year, it was difficult to proceed with the construction.”

Gangcheon let out a scoff at his words.

“It has already been two months since the heavy snow stopped; are you saying you were just waiting for the snow to melt all that time?”

It was true that there had been unusually heavy snow after the new year began.

There had been reports of houses collapsing, and the palace had been in an uproar for a while clearing the snow, so Gangcheon knew that well.

Even if construction had been suspended because of the snow, the weather had settled somewhat by the start of the second month, so work should have begun by the first ten days of that month at the latest.

Gangcheon furrowed his brow at the behavior of the Ministry of Public Works, who had delayed the project using the cold as an excuse and were now acting in a panic.