Chapter 2: You Are Not from This Place

What in the world was going on?

He was walking behind the Crown Prince, but his head was still a complete mess.

If not for the Crown Prince’s ministers following behind him, he would have turned around and run away immediately.

Even if he ran, he’d be caught soon enough since this was within the imperial palace, but Eun-gyo was so out of his mind right now that he wanted to ignore such practical concerns.

It was the day of the Crown Prince’s wedding ceremony.

Despite having just taken a new bride, no matter whether it was the third time or not, this insane Crown Prince had told him to attend to him tonight.

Perhaps attending to him merely meant running errands?

Maybe he was misunderstanding the meaning of the word…

Hah.

There was no way.

If that were the case, the ministers wouldn’t have buzzed about in such dismay, and the Crown Princess’s fair face wouldn’t have twisted as if she were about to cry.

The Empress was shocked, and the Emperor looked exasperated and fed up, yet he neither stopped him nor scolded him.

He had definitely said to attend to him ‘tonight’.

No matter how he thought about it, only one thing came to mind.

This was truly absurd.

What was he supposed to do?

Even if he liked his cross-dressed appearance, how could he choose him right there in front of the Crown Princess!

If he found King Seongrim, would he help him out somehow?

Ah, that didn’t seem very likely either.

The Crown Prince was the second most powerful person in this world, and although King Seongrim bore the title of King and owned his own territory, he had heard he was roughly the Crown Prince’s cousin.

So there was no way King Seongrim could overturn a decision made by the Crown Prince.

Even so, he couldn’t just follow him like this.

Attending to him tonight ultimately meant having s*x with him.

No matter how he was wearing a dancer’s costume, had his hair tied up long, had rouge and makeup carefully applied, no matter how naturally his cross-dressing suited him, he, Ha Eun-gyo, was a man.

Attending to him…

Fortunately, for a man, his frame was slender and he wasn’t particularly tall, so he could deceive them completely in appearance, but there was no way he could fool them once he was naked.

What would happen if he was revealed to be a man?

Wouldn’t his head be lopped off right there for deceiving the imperial court?

Hic.

Thinking that far, he got the hiccups.

He tried to swallow it with his mouth closed, but it seems some sound leaked out.

The Crown Prince stopped walking and turned around.

Fearing their eyes would meet, he quickly lowered his gaze to the floor.

This was more troublesome than he thought.

What was so bad about making eye contact that he couldn’t even properly look at someone’s face?

Remembering the world he lived in, where he could look straight at the president and wave his hand if he met him on the street, he felt a wave of sorrow and injustice.

“Are you afraid?” the Crown Prince asked.

Of course I am.

Wouldn’t you be afraid if you were me?

He was so anxious and about to jump out of his skin because he had no idea what would happen next.

Moreover, he had heard far too many rumors about this Crown Prince.

Every single rumor he’d heard since coming here had been nothing but unsettling and troubled.

So even if he was afraid, he felt he shouldn’t answer yes.

Nor could he answer no.

He bit his lip hard, staring at the ground.

“Hmm.”

The Crown Prince let out a long nasal sound.

He was tensed up, wondering if he would say more, but fortunately, he turned back around and walked on without another word.

Eun-gyo had no choice but to follow again.

Since the ministers followed behind, Eun-gyo, stuck between the Crown Prince and his ministers, had to move along too.

He felt like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse.

Just two months ago, if a handsome guy like that had asked him to spend the night, he’d have said ‘Ooh, thank you very much’ and followed along.

But this wasn’t about s*x or lust—it was a matter of his life, so his feet felt as heavy as if he were dragging tons of weight behind each step.

He didn’t even know where they were going.

Why on earth was this imperial palace so vast?

Exaggerating just a little, it seemed as big as a village.

Even if he ran away, he’d surely get lost and wander around.

He truly felt trapped from all sides.

After passing a pond so large it made his jaw drop, a pavilion connected by a bridge, and several gate-like doors, a huge building appeared.

Its scale was different from the buildings he’d passed along the way.

The Crown Prince, standing in front of the building, called the chief court lady standing behind him.

“Have everyone withdraw fifty paces away.”

“Your Highness…!”

The court lady was flustered.

Fifty paces practically meant withdrawing all the way to the entrance of the Crown Prince’s residence.

“The guards shall withdraw twenty paces.”

“Your Highness!”

The guards also looked troubled.

They seemed to judge that if anything happened, they wouldn’t be able to rush in immediately.

“It’s just the woman who performed the sword dance.

Besides, as you saw earlier, it was quite different from others’ sword dances…”

“Do you think these slender wrists could do anything to me?”

Cutting off their worries as if mocking them, the Crown Prince grabbed Eun-gyo’s arm and held it up.

Slender.

As a man, he had mixed feelings—should he be saddened by that remark, or glad that he was so firmly believed to be a woman.

“Or do you think I could be harmed by a mere woman’s sword?”

The Crown Prince’s voice dropped noticeably.

Even Eun-gyo flinched and stiffened at the icy coldness in his tone.

The guards could say no more; they bowed their heads and withdrew.

“Your Highness, it is imperial law that the body of the woman who serves Your Highness must be properly cleansed…”

The court lady did not easily back down.

“I will have her thoroughly inspected and prepared to serve Your Highness…”

“Court Lady Han.”

The Crown Prince cut off the court lady’s words again.

Then, he pulled out the sword Eun-gyo had used for the dance, scabbard and all, from his waistband and tossed it to her.

The court lady, who had never handled a sword in her life, nearly dropped it in surprise, but ignoring that, he this time pulled out the hairpin used to fasten his hair and threw it to her as well.

With that, his tied-up hair fell loose, flowing down past his shoulders.

The Crown Prince slipped his hand into Eun-gyo’s hair.

After searching to see if there was anything else and confirming there wasn’t, he withdrew his hand.

“Ah!”

The Crown Prince’s hand groped his chest and moved downward.

Startled, Eun-gyo screamed without meaning to and quickly clamped both hands over his mouth.

Until now, to pretend to be a woman, he had deliberately kept his voice a bit higher.

He was nervous he might have been caught, but fortunately, everyone was so flustered by the Crown Prince’s attitude that no one paid any attention to Eun-gyo.

The Crown Prince patted down his chest, sides, waist, and even down his legs, checking thoroughly, but when nothing came out, he asked the court lady if it was enough now.

“Still, the body must be properly cleansed…”

“All the dancers and musicians who attended the banquet were cleansed immediately upon entering the palace, and in case of any event, they were inspected even in the most hidden places, were they not?” the Crown Prince retorted.

It meant that since they had already bathed and been examined down to the most meticulous details before the banquet, it was no longer necessary.

The court lady bowed her head and withdrew.

“Fifty paces away.”

At the Crown Prince’s command, everyone withdrew backwards to the entrance of the residence.

Now, only the Crown Prince and Eun-gyo stood before the building.

Eun-gyo’s head was spinning.

He hadn’t known there was a custom of body inspection immediately upon entering the palace.

He’d seen King Seongrim slip something covertly to the official in charge while inserting Eun-gyo among the dancers—it must have been a bribe to skip that procedure.

“Finally quiet.

Follow me.”

As the Crown Prince tried to enter the building, the eunuchs standing at the entrance opened the doors.

“Close the doors and withdraw fifty paces away.”

As he stepped inside, he reaffirmed the order, and the eunuchs bowed to show their understanding.

Reluctantly following him inside, he heard the door close with a thud behind him.

Then, the sound of footsteps faded as even the eunuchs moved away.

Inside was even more spacious than he’d expected.

Besides the door he’d entered through, two other round doors were open, and at the farthest end, he could see a neatly arranged bedchamber.

Eun-gyo swallowed a rising sigh.

So that was probably the place where he would meet his end.

Before arriving there, perhaps King Seongrim would miraculously appear and save him.

He couldn’t even exhale a proper sigh, only swallowing it back in his throat.

Mmph.

Somehow, it would work out.

If the lights were all out, nothing would be visible, so maybe he could fool him somehow?

Would it be difficult…?

Ah, he didn’t know.

There would have been nothing strange even if his life had ended two months ago, when he fell into this unfamiliar world.

Since he’d been living miraculously until now, he had no choice but to pray that his luck was good enough for one more miracle.

“Sit.”

The Crown Prince sat in a chair beside a table placed in the space between the doors and pointed to the seat opposite.

As Eun-gyo obediently sat down, he felt a piercing gaze boring into him as if to drill a hole in his face.

Had something gotten on his face?

Or had he noticed upon closer inspection that he was indeed a man and was now suspicious?

The silence only made his impatience grow.

“Interesting.”

The Crown Prince murmured as if to himself.

“Raise your head.”

At this command, he flinched.

King Seongrim’s warning—never meet the Crown Prince’s eyes—circulated in his mind once more.

“I told you to raise your head.”

Still, alone with the Crown Prince, he could not disobey his order.

He had no weapons.

Even if he had one, could he possibly escape from within this imperial palace?

There were guards standing outside, and the Crown Prince before him was a man whose ferociousness, ruthlessness, and power were well known even to Eun-gyo’s dull ears, having been the subject of countless rumors.

After biting his lip hard, he raised his head.

After all, the moment his clothes came off, the fact that he was a man would be revealed.

It was just a matter of now or later—a difference of fifty paces or a hundred.

Meeting those jet-black eyes he’d briefly seen earlier again, his mouth felt completely dry.

Why did he have to be so unreasonably handsome?

It made it burdensome to look at him.

“Don’t look away.”

He must have been subtly trying to lower his gaze without realizing it.

The Crown Prince warned him in an instant, leaving no room for movement.

He didn’t know what he was trying to do, but there was nothing preventing him from looking directly at his face.

He barely felt the sense of danger that said he shouldn’t recklessly gaze upon a member of the imperial family, since he wasn’t even originally from this world.

However, it was still burdensome to maintain eye contact.

The Crown Prince’s jet-black eyes seemed to be dissecting every corner of his being.

“You are not from Sinhye Kingdom.”

At that certain statement, thump, his heart pounded loudly once more.

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