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Join the ServerUpon entering the main hall, he found not only the Emperor but also the Empress and the Crown Princess waiting for him.
“Crown Prince, welcome.
We have been waiting for you.”
The Empress greeted the Crown Prince with a smiling face.
She was excessively young to be the Empress, barely old enough to be his daughter.
She had become Empress ten years ago, several years after the late Empress had died of illness.
Even when the late Empress was alive, she had been a concubine who monopolized the Emperor’s favor, and in the end, she bore a son and ascended to the vacant seat of Empress.
“Since morning, I’ve been waiting all day wondering when you’d come to pay your respects.”
Her gentle tone and smiling face made her seem like a mother deeply concerned for the Crown Prince.
But to the Crown Prince, her cunning inner thoughts were laid completely bare.
‘The nerve of that insolent brat, leaving the wedding ceremony early to take some lowly woman.
Tsk tsk.
And on top of that, no morning greetings?
If he weren’t the Crown Prince, I’d have had him punished.’
Few people’s words and actions were as diametrically opposed as hers.
Being in her presence made him sick of her duplicity, so he reduced contact with her as much as possible.
After returning from the battlefield twice, he had used poor health as an excuse to skip his morning greetings, and eventually it became a habit—he stopped visiting both the main hall and the Empress’s residence, Eunhyejeon.
She called him resentful and ill-mannered behind his back, but by then, he had already attained a position where no one could treat him lightly.
Five years ago, there had been the most fierce war in Sinhye Kingdom’s history.
The enemy had pushed into a third of Sinhye’s territory, and the Emperor, who had grown increasingly feeble after taking the new Empress, had neither the energy nor the will to go to the battlefield.
A sense of defeat—that the country would fall—hung thick over the entire nation.
The Emperor and Empress pushed the Crown Prince onto that battlefield.
The Empress hoped he would die there, and the Emperor, feeling threatened by the Crown Prince’s growing power, simply wanted him out of sight.
It was the Crown Prince who led that war, which everyone had expected to lose, to victory.
He charged ahead of any general, swinging his sword, and hundreds and thousands of heads fell by his blade.
The paths he walked ran with rivers of enemy blood.
All the people praised the Crown Prince.
They even told stories of how a black dragon had descended from the heavens on the day he was born, and they talked endlessly about how that dragon had saved Sinhye Kingdom.
In the war he was sent to die in, the Crown Prince returned with victory, the people’s support, and above all, the overwhelming loyalty of his generals.
The soldiers were moved by his courage, by his willingness to sacrifice himself, and they swore to give their lives for him.
Now, none of the ministers dared to oppose the Crown Prince.
Already cold and ruthless, the Crown Prince, after returning from the battlefield, mercilessly cut down those who stood against him.
Even the Emperor could not restrain him.
During the years the Crown Prince had roamed the battlefields, the Emperor had grown more decrepit.
Wrapped in the Empress’s skirts, he ignored even the advice of his loyal subjects and grew increasingly disinterested in state affairs.
Even the civil officials began to turn away from the Emperor and seek out the Crown Prince.
Contrary to the Empress’s wishes, the Crown Prince returned to the palace not in death, but bearing everything.
He was the de facto power of the imperial court, and the ministers followed him in fear.
So no matter how much the Emperor and Empress tried to assert their authority before him, to the Crown Prince they were no different from scarecrows.
In fact, the Emperor wouldn’t even meet the Crown Prince’s eyes.
Since childhood, he had found his son—who seemed to see through his inner thoughts—uncomfortable and difficult, and now he feared when his position would be taken from him.
“Did you rest well through the night?” the Empress asked.
As young as she was, she was ambitious and foolish.
‘Taking a dancer on the very day of the Crown Princess investiture…
If I can use this to prompt the ministers to submit petitions, the Crown Prince’s position might waver a little.’
Hearing her inner thoughts, he almost laughed aloud.
To think his position would be shaken by something so trivial—how stupid.
Not a single minister had stopped him when he took Eun-gyo out.
That was already the answer.
“Thanks to your concern, I had a very good night.”
He answered with a smile, and the Empress’s expression hardened.
The Emperor, grasping the implication behind “a good night,” furrowed his brow, while the Crown Princess, seated across from the Crown Prince, looked as if she had bitten into dirt.
“I’ve never met a woman like her before.
I came several times and still found it lacking—I was so absorbed I didn’t even notice the night passing.”
He did not shy away from crude expressions.
The Crown Princess’s face flushed bright red.
Though none of it was directed at her, she was embarrassed by a few words and thought of the Crown Prince as vulgar in her heart.
If he had spent the night with her, she would surely have been as dull as a block of wood—he almost laughed at the thought.
“How dare you be so insolent!
Sitting the Crown Princess before you and speaking without any decency!”
The Emperor scolded, but the Crown Prince ignored him.
“The Crown Princess must also be relieved that I chose a dancer instead.
Is that not so?”
He turned and asked the Crown Princess.
Caught off guard by the sudden question, the Crown Princess stammered without answering.
“I assumed the Crown Princess wished to avoid sharing my bed.
If I’m mistaken, do tell me.”
“Th-that couldn’t be…”
She was not skilled at lying.
Unable to finish her sentence, her lips turned pale.
Having her true thoughts exposed seemed quite unsettling.
She was trembling, terrified that rejecting the Crown Prince might cost her life.
“There’s no need to be so frightened.
Surely you don’t think I would kill the Crown Princess for such a reason?”
He spoke as if joking, but the Crown Princess’s fingertips trembled finely.
She had just heard her own thoughts echoed back to her, so it was only natural she was terrified.
The Crown Prince dismissed her and turned his gaze to the Emperor.
“Just because a wedding has been held does not mean we must share a bed, does it?
If I recall correctly, the late Empress was often alone.
Yet Your Majesty still obtained a precious heir, did you not?”
Pointing out the Emperor’s past—how he had neglected the late Empress and entertained the current Empress—the Emperor’s face flushed red and purple.
“You insolent brat…!”
He shouted and rose, but when the Crown Prince stared back at him, he clutched the back of his neck, staggering as if his blood pressure had spiked.
The Empress, startled, supported the Emperor.
“Calm down, Your Majesty.
Considering the Crown Prince’s age, he’s in the prime of his youth.
What does it matter if he takes one woman or two?
Having many and seeing many descendants would be a blessing for the imperial household.
So please don’t scold him too harshly.”
She tried to persuade the Emperor with the ridiculous excuse of descendants.
‘Being touched by the Crown Prince—absurd.
If by any chance that dancer wench becomes pregnant, I’ll have to find a way to eliminate it from her womb.
And the Crown Princess being slighted—how convenient.
She won’t be bearing any legitimate imperial grandchildren.
Perfect.’
How could she be so consistently two-faced?
If that was a talent, it was a talent indeed.
“I am honored that Her Highness the Empress understands.
In fact, I wanted to seek Your Majesties’ and the Crown Princess’s understanding regarding that child, and having this seat already prepared saves me the trouble of coming twice.”
The three of them fixed their gazes on the Crown Prince, wondering what understanding he sought.
“I intend to keep that child in the palace—more precisely, at the Crown Prince’s residence.
As it turns out, it was King Seongrim who brought that child to the banquet.
Since King Seongrim has offered to be her guardian, would that not suffice to guarantee her status?”
At the mention of King Seongrim, the Emperor’s expression softened slightly.
The Empress’s face, however, contorted.
“That child was brought by King Seongrim?”
“He said he wished to show Your Majesty her sword dance.”
“Hmm.”
He seemed to have quite enjoyed the sword dance.
The corner of the Emperor’s mouth twitched as if about to curve into a smile.
“I will arrange a time soon for her to perform that sword dance for Your Majesty again.”
At that final push, the Emperor nodded, looking pleased.
Though he was his father, his simplicity was so different from his own that the Crown Prince clicked his tongue.
“Did you say you would keep that dancer at the Crown Prince’s residence?”
The Crown Princess, who had barely been able to speak until then, finally managed to start.
Her face was indescribably wrecked.
Having been slighted on her wedding night was bad enough, but now her husband was openly declaring he would hold another woman from now on—she must have been utterly dismayed.
“If so, what becomes of me, your consort?
Have you considered what the ministers will whisper about?”
Overcome with humiliation, her eyes reddened, and soon thick teardrops fell one after another.
Even at her tears, the Crown Prince showed no emotion, regarding her with cold eyes.
“What more do you need beyond the position of Crown Princess?
I cannot understand why the Crown Princess, who finds it abhorrent to even share my bed, would feel shame at my taking another woman.
What do you think?”
Her eyes, which had held the Crown Prince, trembled greatly.
Biting her red-painted lips hard, she could not answer and lowered her head.
Only her sobbing echoed through the hall.
As the atmosphere grew icy, even the attendants standing thirty paces away bowed at the waist, unsure what to do.
“Crown Princess, calm yourself.”
The Empress stepped in to soothe her.
“A man’s heart is like a reed.
Depending on the Crown Princess’s efforts, our Crown Prince’s heart can change as well.”
‘Our Crown Prince,’ she said.
Suppressing the urge to scoff, the Crown Prince waited to see what more she would say.
“The Crown Princess and that dancer are of different stations from birth.
She is but a passing wind—please be magnanimous, Crown Princess.
The Crown Prince will soon come to his senses.”
Watching the Empress, who always took his side in words while scheming otherwise, he could only laugh hollowly.
Even as she spoke, she was dreaming that while the Crown Prince was preoccupied with the dancer, she could sway the ministers to depose the dissolute and vulgar Crown Prince and have her own son installed as the new Crown Prince.
At the Empress’s consolation, the Crown Princess reluctantly nodded.
She was even grateful that someone in this palace understood her feelings.
Thinking how foolish—or naive—the Crown Princess must be to trust the Empress, he could only sigh.
Watching the Empress and Crown Princess, he at least confirmed that this Crown Princess was not the Empress’s person.
Having verified that, he had achieved his purpose for being here.
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