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Join the ServerSeokhwan had long worried that the Emperor was softer than he appeared.
The way he was being pushed around by the Empress lately was one thing, but the matter of the Noble Consort was the same.
He had threatened to torture the Consort immediately, yet he had not actually laid a hand on him.
Instead, Yun Hyeon-pyeong was the one suffering.
However, lately, the Emperor seemed to have lost interest even in that.
The Emperor, who initially visited every day to provoke the prisoner, had not set foot near the Jeonokseo in days.
Whenever he saw the Emperor alone, Seok-hwan could tell how dejected he had become.
The Emperor, who used to eat quite heartily, was eating less and less, and had not slept properly in days.
Part of it was being busy with various matters, but more so, it seemed he simply could not find sleep.
Tossing and turning in bed, the Emperor would let out sighs alone, unable to share his heart with anyone.
Whenever the Emperor was like that, Seok-hwan wondered what it would be like if he possessed a more affectionate personality.
He felt it would have been better if someone like Han Su-yong or the Ju brothers had been by the Emperor’s side.
They would have cracked jokes or shared a drink with him.
He regretted now that his own stifling personality prevented him from offering any such comfort.
Twelve years had passed since he began observing the Emperor.
Seeing the man who always stood naturally at the front now lying bedridden like that made his heart even more heavy.
And he worried about what to do moving forward.
The Emperor had commanded him to protect the Empress, so he would follow that, but he wondered if he could truly show the same loyalty to the Empress as he did to the Emperor.
Seok-hwan thought it might soon be time for him to return to his hometown.
“Go and fetch the Noble Consort.”
“Right… now?”
“Did you think I meant for you to bring him after preparing breakfast tomorrow?”
Seok-hwan looked at the Empress, who was whispering with Su-yong about summoning the Consort.
Holding his deathly pale face high, he looked like someone who had been raised nobly, regardless of who saw him.
Even though he was not a warrior, the way he moved with nearly silent footsteps showed how much training and education he had received.
His soft yet clear and elegant way of speaking was the same.
The Empress possessed an innate nobility that was hard to find even in the Emperor.
So it was not incomprehensible that the Emperor or Su-yong held him in high regard.
But would that nobility put food on the table?
This very disaster had occurred because of his stifling personality.
Had he tried to understand the Emperor even a little, things would not have come to this.
Seok-hwan disapproved of the Empress’s character.
In Seok-hwan’s eyes, the Empress and Emperor were like oil and water.
It would be a blessing if white and black met to become gray, but since one was oil and the other water, they did not mix but only drifted apart.
Seok-hwan, silently judging the Empress, could not help but let out a bitter laugh internally.
Since when had he lived his life harboring such thoughts?
Thinking was a luxury.
It was because he had lived as a soldier for so long, but he also had a personality that disliked worrying about things that were not his business.
Realizing suddenly that he was racking his brain over useless matters, Seok-hwan stopped thinking altogether.
His concern was for the Emperor’s safety; the relationship between the Emperor and Empress was not his concern.
The Empress, having sent Su-yong to the Consort, looked down at the eunuch while standing up from his chair.
Eunuch Jo was trembling, bowing his head as if gauging his own future.
“Bind this man and imprison him.”
Only then did Seok-hwan realize the Empress was speaking to him.
When the man left the inner chamber quietly after leaving only those words, a sigh escaped the lips of Seok-hwan, who had been standing as straight as a pillar.
Seok-hwan summoned the Black Shadow members waiting near the palace to have the eunuch dragged away, then headed for the Empress’s bedroom.
Smoke hung thick from the corridor.
It seemed the physician had lit medicinal incense.
Amidst the smoke, slightly thinner than fog, the Empress stood motionless near the bed, looking down at the Emperor.
Seok-hwan tensed his body as he watched the Empress.
He was worried that he might harm the Emperor.
Watching silently with bated breath, he saw the Empress reach out a trembling hand.
After placing a finger beneath the Emperor’s nose, he leaned down and pressed his ear to the Emperor’s chest.
His attitude was cautious, as if touching a fragile flower petal.
His own face softened involuntarily.
He felt he could understand a little of why the Emperor’s heart was weak for that person.
Seok-hwan had stayed by the Emperor’s side for a long time and knew his loneliness.
Therefore, he vaguely understood the Emperor’s heart.
That side of the person must have drawn the Emperor’s feelings.
How could it be easy to worry so much for an opponent who had been so angry?
Unless one was lacking in some way, it would not be an easy feat.
Yet the Empress, even while hating the Emperor, was sincerely worried about him.
The Empress’s profile looked so sad that even the stoic Seok-hwan could feel it.
Is it not true that while many can fake the face seen from the front, few can fake the face seen from the side?
Moreover, the Empress was someone who could not even fake his front-facing expression well.
So he did not think the current expression was a lie.
Seok-hwan watched Haeryeong carefully observing the Emperor as he stepped quietly inside.
He took his place against the wall on the opposite side of the bed.
Since the Emperor had commanded it, he simply had to guard him.
What need was there for further thought?
Haeryeong, startled by the presence of Seok-hwan, lifted his upper body from where it was leaned over the Emperor.
Their eyes met for a moment, but Seok-hwan simply stood there like a stone, showing no other reaction.
In the meantime, the physician who had stepped away returned.
A moment later, the Chief Eunuch also returned and filled the spot beside Seok-hwan.
Haeryeong asked the physician cautiously as he checked the Emperor’s pulse.
“His breath feels very weak; how is His Majesty’s condition?”
“It is still difficult to say anything for certain. We are simply doing our best to look after him.”
Haeryeong bit his lip hard and looked at the Emperor’s face, which lay as if dead.
Normally, the chest should rise and fall when breathing, yet the Emperor showed no such movement.
He had touched the man’s face just a moment ago, but he could not feel the slightest trace of a breath being exhaled.
He only felt a slight hint of warmth.
‘Is he even breathing? Or is the warmth I feel just his remaining body heat?’
Because there was no one in the inner chamber, he felt even more anxious.
‘What if something goes wrong in the meantime?’
Worried, Haeryeong pressed his ear to the Emperor’s chest to listen to his heartbeat.
The sound that had once thundered like a drum was now very slow and faint.
The heart was beating so weakly that one could feel his life was flickering out.
In contrast, Haeryeong’s own heart began to beat even louder.
He was anxious.
He feared that the man’s breath might stop because of him.
Haeryeong stared at the Emperor’s deathly pale face and chewed on his lip.
He felt like thumping the man’s forehead to wake him up.
He hated that the man was triggering his guilt.
Yet, at the same time, he was worried.
What if he really died?
Haeryeong felt his eyes grow hot and let out a small sigh.
‘I did not hate him enough to want him truly dead.’
‘I only hated him because I was aggrieved and could not trust him.’
He had hated him just enough to want to be left alone, just enough to not want to face him often.
But who could have known he would recklessly drink that poisoned tea?
“Your Highness, Su-yong has arrived.”
Seok-hwan, who had been standing still, called out to Haeryeong, having likely received a report from the Black Shadows.
Haeryeong wiped the moisture from his eyes and looked toward the door.
The closed door opened, and the Noble Consort—who hadn’t even been able to don his outer robes properly—was dragged in by the arm by Su-yong.
Sirak scowled upon meeting Haeryeong’s eyes, but then shifted his gaze to the bed.
“……!”
A suffocating sound was swallowed back into the Consort’s mouth.
Sirak collapsed on the spot with a face as if the heavens had fallen.
But the next instant, meeting Haeryeong’s eyes, his desolate face quickly hardened into a firm mask.
Haeryeong sighed as he saw the flicker of expression across the Consort’s face.
It was because he felt he could understand the man’s heart, at least vaguely.
Haeryeong asked him.
“What were you thinking, sending the Chilyeopcho to me?”
However, Sirak did not answer Haeryeong’s question and instead asked back.
“Why is His Majesty in that state?”
When Haeryeong remained silent, Sirak let out a small, hollow laugh and then began to giggle as if he had gone mad.
“I knew my days were numbered and felt it was unfair, so I tried to take the Empress with me as a companion to the afterlife, but I ended up taking down the bull while stumbling backward. Ahahaha!”
Su-yong tried to restrain the man as he burst into high-pitched laughter, but stepped back at Haeryeong’s signal.
Haeryeong waited for Sirak to finish laughing.
After a moment, as if a torrential downpour were subsiding, Sirak’s laughter grew smaller and eventually vanished with a sigh.
He whispered toward Haeryeong as if singing.
“I have avenged my dead mother, so now I have no regrets even if I die. Command that I be killed.”
Haeryeong sighed as he looked at the man, who appeared both drained and relieved.
“What do you mean by avenging your mother? Did His Majesty kill your mother?”
Sirak brought out an old memory with eyes that grew hazy, as if staring into the distance.
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