Chapter 56: Fragmented Echoes

The main hall of the inner quarters—Wunyeong-dang—bore a calligraphic wooden plaque written by the hand of Master Yang Mo-yeon, widely revered as the finest poet of the era. The fluid, sweeping brushstrokes of the plaque silently looked down upon the tall man ascending the stone steps.

Dressed in a dark navy leisure robe, his lips were set in a tight, unyielding line. His face was entirely devoid of warmth, looking far past cold and teetering on lethal.

“We pay our respects to His Highness the Prince of Myeong.”

The court attendants guarding the entrance of the inner hall dropped low in unison. The unpatterned, finely woven silk of his navy robes came to a silent halt.

The waiting did not last long. Yeo Jae-won pushed the heavy wooden doors open himself and stepped inside. Chief Eunuch Seok and Court Lady Lee made a frantic motion to follow, but as their master came to an abrupt standstill, they froze in their tracks, not daring to advance further.

“What is the meaning of this?”

On his way toward the bed concealed behind thin silk curtains, Yeo Jae-won caught sight of a decorative sword lying on the periphery of the floor, his brow furrowing instantly. As he pointed directly at it, Eunuch Im’s eyes widened in sheer panic.

How on earth was the ornate sword—which ought to have been hanging securely on the wall—unsheathed, its sharp silver blade gleam exposed as it lay discarded on the wooden floor? Utter dismay painted itself across Eunuch Im’s face.

“Collapse from weeping the moment he returned from Jeongan Palace…… What nonsense is this?”

“Your Highness, pray forgive us, but it is precisely as was reported. The Grand Consort appeared deeply uncomfortable even while inside the carriage, and the moment he entered the inner quarters, he dismissed every servant from his presence. Shortly after, he began shedding tears before falling into severe dry heaves. We offered to summon a physician, but the Grand Consort adamantly refused.”

How rarely had the Prince of Myeong ever entered the inner quarters with such a bone-chilling aura? Chief Eunuch Seok and Court Lady Lee kept their heads bowed low, listening in silent dread as their master’s naturally lethal demeanor flared. They prayed silently that Eunuch Im would simply hold his tongue.

“If his condition was alarming, you should have summoned the physician regardless of his refusal!”

“Forgive me, Your Highness! It is the fault of this foolish servant. Pray grant me death!”

At the razor-sharp reprimand, Eunuch Im finally dropped to his knees, trembling as he begged for mercy.

“And what is that sword doing there?”

“Your Highness…… directly upon my life, I truly do not know how the sword that belonged on the wall came to lie on the floor……”

Realizing the answers were far from satisfactory, Yeo Jae-won offered a brief glance to Chief Eunuch Seok, unwilling to waste another moment listening to excuses. The sharp, loyal servant immediately dragged Eunuch Im out of the room.

Deeming the servant unworthy of further wrath at this moment, the swift removal left Eunuch Im desperate to cry out for forgiveness. Yet, causing any further commotion would surely mean losing his head. Chief Eunuch Seok covered the man’s mouth tightly and dragged him beyond the doors.

Approaching the bed, Physician Do—who had been taking Anok’s pulse inside the thin curtains—hurriedly rose to his feet.

“How is his state?”

At the sharp query regarding the patient, Physician Do clasped his hands together tightly, trying to steady his trembling lips as he reported.

“Aside from a surging fever, there are no immediate fatal signs. I suspect a deep, bottled grief accumulated within his heart has manifested as this physical illness.”

“Bottled grief within his heart?”

Beyond the delicate layer of silk curtains, Anok lay as motionless as a corpse, his eyes closed tightly. Gazing at the still figure, Yeo Jae-won listened to the physician’s continued explanation.

“Pardon my audacity, Your Highness, but the Grand Consort is merely at the threshold of adulthood. As you well know, during one’s youth when vital energy is usually robust, for internal sorrow to erupt into such a violent physical illness means his mind and body have grown severely weakened. Though he may never have voiced it aloud, he must have been suffering immense distress.”

Passing Physician Do, Yeo Jae-won stepped closer to the bed. Yet, he ultimately refrained from pulling back the curtain, choosing instead to quietly absorb the sight of Anok through the thin fabric.

He could not make sense of it. It was not Anok’s illness he failed to understand, but rather himself—he was utterly baffled by his own helpless frustration at seeing the young man suffering.

Yeo Jae-won had intended to remain entirely indifferent to whomever he married. Especially since his spouse was a male Omegian and the illegitimate child of the King of Baekya.

Yet, his heart was repeatedly pulled toward him. As if he were regretting an inability to protect him a very long time ago. As if he had known Anok in another time entirely.

Even filtered through the curtain, the pale, gaunt complexion of the sleeping youth pulled uncomfortably at his chest.

“……His life is not in danger, is it?”

“So long as we break the fever, there should be no lasting peril…… However, regardless of one’s constitution, a human body cannot endure severe heat for long.”

“Are you implying he could die?”

As the Prince turned around with a dangerously sharp edge to his voice, his eyes were visibly bloodshot. Physician Do hastily lowered his gaze, carefully selecting his words.

“It has not been long since the medicine was administered, Your Highness.”

Yeo Jae-won did not bother speaking another word to the physician. Instead, he pulled back the silk curtain and stepped right to the edge of the bed. Occupying the seat where the physician had just been sitting, he gestured for everyone to clear the room. The quiet, hurried rustle of the physician and court attendants withdrawing echoed briefly before fading into absolute silence.

The dull, throbbing pain behind his temples began to flare once more. Anok lying pale as death before him, and himself standing guard by his side, consumed by sheer helplessness—a sudden, overwhelming sense of deja vu washed over Yeo Jae-won.

“……Anok.”

His low, quiet murmur failed to awaken the youth.

Instead, as his vision blurred and the pounding headache intensified, a long-buried fragment of memory tore its way into Yeo Jae-won’s mind.

It was a spring day when the soft pink petals of cherry blossoms fell helplessly to the ground.

The grand hall was submerged in a frigid, solemn silence. Standing at measured intervals beside the crimson-lacquered pillars, the court attendants were all draped in formal mourning attire.

It appeared to be a funeral. Surrounded by this bizarre sensation of a scene both familiar and foreign, Yeo Jae-won realized he was merely an unseen observer—nobody within the memory could perceive his presence.

He recognized this instantly: it was another fragment of the vision that had been violently hammering at his skull, demanding to be remembered.

At the head of the long procession of attendants stood a man far taller and broader than the rest. That figure, too, felt simultaneously familiar and distant, yet Yeo Jae-won could not quite discern his identity.

The man wore a plain, unpatterned white mourning robe. As he pushed the heavy double doors open and stepped into the vast, empty inner chamber, he was met with a mortuary tablet, an impossibly small coffin, and another young man kneeling helplessly before it.

−Who…… granted permission for him to be brought here?

The tall man spoke in an icy, unfeeling voice. The youth kneeling before the coffin turned his head back. Standing like an imposing mountain, the tall man blocked the youth’s view without shifting an inch.

Because their faces remained obscured, Yeo Jae-won could not identify either individual. He maintained his silent vigil, watching the scene unfold.

A chief eunuch standing behind the tall man stepped forward and dropped to his knees, offering a desperate apology for the intrusion. Yet neither man told the servant to rise or face punishment.

−My child has passed away, and yet you command me to not even guard his funeral altar? You are truly heartless.

−Is allowing the child to be enshrined here not enough to satisfy you?

A sharp, barbed dialogue cut between the tall man and the kneeling youth.

Judging by the dimensions of the small coffin, the child must have been exceptionally young. Had he even reached his first birthday? Yeo Jae-won somehow instinctively knew that the babe had not.

−……Why did you not cast me aside back then?

The white banners hanging from the high ceiling and heavy pillars fluttered gently, as if weeping in a wind blown from nowhere. Paradoxically, the breeze felt terribly soft.

Though his face remained unseen, the young man’s pale head dropped toward the floor in profound isolation. The question, saturated with lingering resentment, was explicitly directed at the tall man. Yet the man stood rooted like a stone statue, silently enduring the barrage of grief.

Struggling to force his weak body upright, the youth stumbled forward toward the tall man, his voice trembling violently.

−When you were being invested as…… I heard that petitions demanding my banishment poured in endlessly. Had you simply cast me out back then, none of this agony would have come to pass.

The tall man remained utterly unmoving. He stared down at the youth who had approached his chest, as though waiting silently for him to spill every last drop of his pain.

−Had you thrown me away then, I would have never known such unbearable torment. Why did you not strip away my hope back then? Why did you not make me give up on you entirely? Why……!

The youth wept without restraint. Crying like a broken child, his clenched fists struck weakly against the tall man’s chest and shoulders. Though the gestures were born of deep resentment, his strength gave out just before impact, producing barely a sound against the heavy robes.

At that exact moment, Yeo Jae-won was struck with a sudden, undeniable realization.

That young man had loved the tall figure with a deep, consuming devotion for a very long time.

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