Chapter 39: The Variable of Curiosity

Ultimately, Court Lady Cho was dragged out past the sliding doors, leaving behind a thick, suffocatingly cold silence that quietly settled over the inner chamber.

Anok, who had been holding his entire body perfectly rigid to maintain his footing, let out a deep, heavy sigh as his head dropped forward. Now that Court Lady Cho had been forcefully cleared from his sight, his internal system felt marginally lighter—yet it was far too premature to let down his guard entirely.

The imposing figure silently occupying the edge of his field of vision was another complex ordeal altogether.

“What do you intend to do now?”

Yeo Jae-won’s clinical inquiry carried a vast network of underlying implications.

In truth, executing a permanent disposal of Court Lady Cho was an intensely delicate administrative problem. Although her current station bound her to the Myeong estate as Anok’s subordinate, she was, by all accounts, an official handpicked and dispatched by the Empress Dowager from the Gyoyeong Palace. Standard protocol dictated that one could not simply cast away a person bearing the direct seal of the Empress.

To permanently eject Court Lady Cho beyond the perimeter of the Myeong estate, the entire sordid affair would have to be dragged into the absolute light of day. While keeping her locked within the estate under strict surveillance was a viable alternative, Anok firmly believed that a dormant viper should never be left inside one’s walls.

“I intend to formally present the unvarnished facts of this transgression to the Empress, and then permanently dismiss her from service.”

However, Anok knew this baseline response would not suffice as the definitive answer Yeo Jae-won was calculating for.

As if to signify that the impending discussion regarding Damyeon Palace required absolute secrecy, Anok subtly gestured for the remaining attendants to vacate the room. With the doors sliding shut, the two men were left entirely alone inside the heavy quiet of the inner chamber.

Standing perfectly erect, his arms securely crossed as he tilted his jaw to look down at Anok, Yeo Jae-won maintained his signature, unbothered expression.

A sudden, sharp memory from his past life flashed through Anok’s mind. In that timeline, Yeo Jae-won had coldly declared that he would be the solitary architect to decide everything Anok saw, heard, spoke, and executed. To have that exact same man stand before him now, casually asking what Anok intended to do, felt inexplicably jarring.

He hesitated, debating whether it was safe to voice his true calculations. Having spent a lifetime suppressing his own voice, navigating this second life was forcing him to experience far too many firsts. Even a simple act of articulating his intent required a massive surge of internal courage.

“Furthermore…… I do not intend to disclose the reality that Damyeon Palace is the true mastermind anchoring this plot.”

“And what is your tactical reasoning for that choice?”

Predictably, the counter-inquiry cut through the air with razor-sharp precision. Anok instinctively bit down on the inner flesh of his lower lip—a nervous habit he couldn’t quite suppress.

“……?”

That defense mechanism was cut short as a firm, steady pressure caught his jaw, forcing his head slightly upward. It was Yeo Jae-won. Anok hadn’t even processed the physical metric of when the Prince had closed the distance between them, let alone when he had uncrossed his arms—arms that usually project a high-handed arrogance like a grandmaster who had already secured the high ground on a Go board.

Unlike Anok, whose lips parted slightly in pure astonishment, Yeo Jae-won merely stared down at him with a heavy, calculating gaze as he calmly articulated his thoughts.

“You are an Omega, Grand Consort, but it is an unfortunate reality that your husband harbors an intense aversion to Omegas. Noble Consort Sa deployed that specific chemical formulation precisely because she was fully cognizant of that data. Her intent was entirely malicious—and yet, you choose to actively conceal the Consort’s treasonous conduct?”

With every syllable that left the Prince’s lips, an invisible web of tension seemed to weave itself into the atmosphere, forcing Anok to deliberately cast his eyes down, staring intensely at the floorboards to evade that crushing gaze.

The fact that Yeo Jae-won despised Omegas remained an immutable law of nature. Yet, hearing that cold reality verified out loud by the Prince’s own resonant baritone caused a sharp, familiar pang to bloom deep within Anok’s chest.

But I must remain completely unbothered. It wasn’t new data; it was an reality he had long since compartmentalized. If this lifecycle differed from his past life by any metric, it was merely that he had managed to secure a passing flicker of curiosity from Yeo Jae-won. But curiosity was a volatile asset—one that would inevitably evaporate over time.

“Even if we choose to drag this into the light, the master of Damyeon Palace will remain securely protected by the Sa clan.”

The solitary reason Noble Consort Sa’s endless stream of systemic corruption and crimes went entirely unpunished was because she possessed the absolute validation of the Emperor.

Currently, the Emperor viewed Yeo Jae-won as an immense political threat. Having returned to the capital after executing the traditional three-year mourning period for the late Crown Prince, the Prince was rapidly consolidating the absolute allegiance of the orthodox ministers, causing the Emperor to sweat with anxiety over the concentration of power. If the Emperor were forced to balance his favorite consort against the bride of the Prince, it was painfully obvious which side of the scale would hit the floor.

“So, rather than exposing her now, you intend to hold this validation over her head as a permanent leverage?”

Releasing his firm grip on Anok’s distinct jawline, Yeo Jae-won inquired, having seamlessly deduced the underlying calculation. Anok offered a slow nod, quietly adding his reasoning.

“The Noble Consort will instantly internalize the reality that despite holding the physical evidence and a direct witness, we deliberately chose to shield her identity from the imperial court. ……While she currently commands enough influence to bring down flying birds and cannot be easily dismantled by a variable of this metric, who is to say what the political landscape will look like in the future?”

He simply lacked the internal fortitude to look Yeo Jae-won squarely in the eye while delivering such a calculated political assessment. Keeping his eyelashes cast downward, he only dared to lift his gaze after the final syllable had left his lips, finding the Prince’s face still locked in a completely unreadable mask. A sudden wave of dread washed over him; perhaps he had overstepped his bounds as a provincial bride.

“However, if Your Highness desires to expose her immediately……”

“Execute the strategy exactly as you see fit, Grand Consort.”

“……I have your absolute permission to do so?”

Without adding a single condition or critique, Yeo Jae-won offered an unexpectedly smooth nod of assent. Watching the violet-robed figure begin to step past him, Anok suddenly remembered an unresolved puzzle and called out.

“Pardon me, Your Highness, but you have yet to provide an answer to my initial inquiry.”

“……?”

The broad, powerful shoulders wrapped in deep violet silk swiveled back instantly. Staring at the Prince, Anok reiterated the question with genuine confusion.

“What exactly brought you to the inner pavilion at such an hour?”

This was a variable he desperately needed to solve. In his past life, a personal visit of this metric was an statistical impossibility; there had to be an extraordinary administrative catalyst to explain his presence here.

In a flash, the meticulously sculpted, emotionless mask Yeo Jae-won habitually wore completely shattered. A subtle, genuine smile broke across his features—a look that made the terrifying prince behind the curtain suddenly feel starkly, brilliantly real. Yet, he offered no verbal answer.

As the silence stretched with only that enigmatic smile remaining, Anok pressed further.

“Are you implying you marched all the way to the inner chambers without a solitary reason?”

“There is no imperial decree forbidding me from entering my own bride’s quarters.”

Signaling that the formal political discussion had officially concluded, Yeo Jae-won’s tone shifted into something distinctly lighter, almost playful. But Anok refused to accept such a trivial evasion. Taking a deliberate step forward, he demanded a proper answer.

“Please answer me seriously.”

At that, Yeo Jae-won’s smile slowly receded, his dark eyes rolling with a trace of profound boredom beneath his long lashes before he finally parted his lips.

“I was curious.”

At that profoundly incomplete answer, Anok’s delicate brows furrowed in deep bewilderment.

The Yeo Jae-won standing before him could never possibly comprehend this reality, but across the entire span of their marriage in his past life, Anok had never once heard such words escape the man’s lips.

The prince anchored in his memory was not a creature who harbored a shred of curiosity regarding Anok’s existence. His occasional dispatches of servants to check on his health, or the rare invitations to share a quiet meal, had been executed purely out of an absolute sense of moral and legal obligation.

They were merely the standard, sterile actions expected of individuals bound by the formal structure of an arranged marriage. Every gesture had been nothing more than Yeo Jae-won fulfilling his vow to treat his Grand Consort with the baseline of respect due to his rank. Nothing less, and absolutely nothing more. Yet, the Yeo Jae-won occupying this current lifecycle was a completely foreign entity.

Even after fracturing the timeline and traveling backward through years, the human variables Anok had encountered remained entirely consistent with their past selves.

Seol Ga-mook was still an arrogant, volatile bastard; Seol Ga-hyo still wore a beautiful, sophisticated mask that failed to hide his underlying contempt; and even Court Lady Cho had routine-mapped her exact malice. Why, then, was Yeo Jae-won the solitary anomaly acting in a manner completely antithetical to his past life?

I forced myself to become entirely accustomed to your cold neglect and your averted eyes. I spent a lifetime ensuring I would possess enough armor to never be broken by you again in this second lifecycle. Why are you displaying this version of yourself to me now?

……And why are you forcing me to let down my guard and harbor expectations once more?

This mutated version of Yeo Jae-won did not comfort Anok; instead, it violently dragged his mind down into a vast, miserable quagmire of despair. He had sworn a sacred oath to never let this man anchor inside his heart again—yet, every time he was forced to confront a facet of Yeo Jae-won he had never known existed, a small, treacherous part of him began to yearn.

He began to wish that the Prince would display that smile again; he began to hope that this gentle cadence would continue.

He was actively terrifying himself by taking a fleeting whim of an unpredictable Alpha seriously, already mourning the inevitable heartbreak that would follow when the mask slipped back into place. A lifetime of systematic torment had conditioned his psyche to function exactly this way.

The unextinguished remnants of a buried affection were exactly like a tiny, dormant ember hidden deep within a dry field. The moment a precise current of wind brushes past it, it will inevitably erupt into a raging, monstrous inferno, consuming the entire landscape in a flash.

In the end, that ember would burn him alive. He would writhe in the agonizing pain of his own making, utterly consumed by a lethal regret for ever allowing Yeo Jae-won back into his thoughts, for ultimately granting the man absolute domain over his soul.

Thus, Anok deliberately chose to clamp down on his curiosity. He refused to ask what specific element of his existence had drawn the Prince across the estate. Forcing his features into a flat, tight mask, he offered a quiet, submissive murmur to bring the conversation to a swift close. Compared to the confident authority with which he had demanded an answer just moments ago, his posture had completely wilted.

“……?”

Drowned entirely within the depths of his own suffocating thoughts, Anok suddenly realized the ambient light had shifted. A massive, towering shadow was suddenly cascading directly over his frame as the physical distance between them evaporated.

He could feel Yeo Jae-won’s intense, unyielding gaze meticulously tracing every single lineament of his face. The reflection of his own fragile form was pinned vividly inside the dark irises of the Prince. Suddenly, the absolute weight of the proximity became entirely unbearable, turning a single fraction of a second into a torturous eternity.

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