Chapter 61: The Last Choice

Looking around his surroundings, Anok realized one thing: sharp objects were nowhere to be found.

“……”

Anok quickened his pace. He had not anticipated that finding a single pointed object within such a spacious and magnificent room would prove this difficult.

He soon headed toward the dressing table—a place he rarely frequented, except when readying himself in the morning. Though various ornaments were neatly arranged, filling every drawer of the dressing table in lavish display, not a single hairpin with a sharp, tapered point was to be seen.

“Your Highness, it is Eunuch Im. His Highness the Prince of Myeong has returned with Physician Do and is waiting outside.”

Focus returned to Anok’s hazy, unfocused eyes. He walked over slowly and opened the door, meeting the worry-laden face of Eunuch Im, whose expression belied his steady tone.

“Having just risen from bed, my appearance is hardly presentable. I wish to tidy myself briefly before receiving His Highness. Would you call Han-wol for me?”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

Considering the first person Anok had seen upon opening his eyes was Yeo Jae-won, tidying his appearance hardly carried much meaning. Still, Eunuch Im was not bold enough to gainsay his master. He simply nodded, summoned Han-wol, and stepped outside to explain the delay to those waiting.

“Your Highness……”

Han-wol approached Anok, her eyebrows drooping into a worried slant.

“How is your body feeling?”

Her face was full of unspoken questions. The decorative sword unmounted from the wall, her master retching in distress—it would have been stranger had she not found it odd.

Anok gave a quiet nod and walked toward the dressing table first. Duty-bound, Han-wol set about preparing to fix his hair as he sat down.

“Just redo my hair simply.”

At Anok’s straightforward request, Han-wol’s busy hands grew somewhat lighter. She combed down his hair. As she prepared to tie it simply, Anok opened one of the vanity drawers and pulled out a jade hairpin of moderate length, gesturing for her to insert it instead.

Since it was rare for Anok to personally select an ornament and request it, Han-wol accepted it with a pleased smile.

Her meticulous, swift hands finished the task in no time. Only after Anok draped a simple, snow-white outer robe over his shoulders were Yeo Jae-won and Physician Do admitted inside.

For someone who had claimed he wished to tidy himself before meeting, his face remained distinctly pale with illness. Though Yeo Jae-won felt inwardly puzzled, he assumed their prior conversation had stirred Anok enough, choosing to keep his words to a minimum.

Meanwhile, Physician Do carefully checked Anok’s pulse.

“It is a relief that your fever broke so quickly. Aside from a slight depletion of vital energy, there are no major abnormalities. I shall prepare a restorative decoction. You must ensure you take it alongside your meals.”

As expected of a physician, a lengthy series of nagging reminders followed, though Eunuch Im, Han-wol, and Court Lady Yu were the only ones paying close attention.

Yeo Jae-won was observing Anok intently. He had made it known that Anok was not the only one who had traveled back in time. In truth, the facts Yeo Jae-won possessed were limited, so that revelation was the extent of what he could convey. It was all he knew regarding how this state of affairs had come to be.

Yet how much did Anok—who claimed to remember everything—actually know? How many hidden truths lay between them that made him so desperate to flee?

“……Please excuse yourselves for a moment. I have something to discuss with His Highness.”

It was Anok’s refined voice that snapped Yeo Jae-won back to reality. He withdrew the gaze that had been fixed absentmindedly on Anok.

Eunuch Im, Court Lady Yu, and Han-wol all concealed their doubts and quietly withdrew. Physician Do followed behind Eunuch Im, and only after the heavy sound of the closing door echoed did Anok rise from where he sat at the edge of the bed.

“If it is a conversation you seek, I believe we exchanged enough words earlier.”

“I have heard more than enough of Your Highness’s intentions.”

His words implied that earlier was not a conversation, but merely him listening to Yeo Jae-won’s unilateral demands. Acknowledging that he had indeed forced his own will upon him, Yeo Jae-won gave a single nod.

“And what is it you wish to say now?”

“I shall ask you just once more.”

“……?”

“Do you truly have no intention of letting me go?”

Anok’s eyes, which had been cast low toward the floor, slowly lifted to meet Yeo Jae-won’s. Their gazes collided in midair.

Yeo Jae-won, who had been standing with his arms crossed, stepped closer to Anok. Even as the distance closed abruptly, Anok showed no shock, remaining completely unbothered.

“Asking ‘just once more’ is typically what one says after making a firm resolve. As if granting a final chance out of sheer generosity.”

As though his inner thoughts had been laid bare, Anok’s throat twitched slightly, but any further movement ceased right there.

The man born with the innate permission to be overbearing appeared entirely natural wrapped in his arrogance. His answer was every bit as arrogant.

Whatever your resolve may be, everything will proceed according to my will. That answer was more than enough.

Anok raised his hand and pulled out the jade hairpin of moderate length from the hair Han-wol had so painstakingly styled. Streams of dark hair cascaded down, spilling messily over his shoulders, shoulder blades, and across his chest.

The sudden action did not stop there. Anok slammed the jade hairpin down onto the hard wooden backrest of the chair Physician Do had used—the one Eunuch Im had hurriedly set back upright earlier.

The jade hairpin, finely crafted from precious, high-grade jade, struck the paulownia wood with a loud clatter and shattered into pieces.

“Your Highness speaks correctly.”

“Anok!”

Even as Yeo Jae-won’s voice rose sharply, Anok smiled with quiet serenity. Because it had been broken by brute force, the jagged edge of a shattered piece of jade was now pressed directly against Anok’s pale neck.

“It was indeed a final chance. A generosity, if you will.”

“……Put that down and speak.”

“If you will not release me, this is the only path left to me.”

It was bound to end like this in the end. This endless, surging tide of agony could only be brought to a halt in this manner. Should he happen to open his eyes yet again, Anok intended to slice his throat on the spot or throw himself from a height without a second thought.

To escape the man before his eyes—who remembered his past life yet insisted on keeping him near—and to flee the very person who had deceived the self that once loved him with an undivided heart, he was now capable of doing anything.

“Stop this, Anok! Calm down…… and put that down first.”

Yeo Jae-won did not yet know who the mysterious woman from his dream fragments was. Had Anok died once more in this very spot, he possessed zero knowledge on how to turn back time again.

There was a clear limit to soothing Anok with such fragmented information. Even so, Yeo Jae-won frantically tried to think of a way to put a stop to Anok’s sudden, reckless action.

Yet looking into Anok’s eyes, all he saw was boundless despair and resignation. Nothing remained within Anok save for the hollow abyss of someone who no longer wished for anything in this world.

What could have driven him to this point? If Yeo Jae-won could, he wanted nothing more than to seek it out, crush it, and tear it to shreds.

“Consort. Are you threatening me?”

“How could I ever dare to do such a thing?”

Though Yeo Jae-won had deliberately switched to formal address to restore reason and initiate a proper dialogue, Anok merely let out a hollow laugh. In the next instant, the sharp tip of the jade fragment dug lightly into his neck.

Along with a stinging sensation—as though every nerve sensitive to sharpness were being thinly sliced and pierced with thorns—a shallow, mysterious rush of relief coursed through him. Tension surged into Anok’s shoulders, locking them rigid.

Though Yeo Jae-won had uncrossed his arms and lowered his upper body slightly, he had not dared to lay a single fingertip on Anok’s body. He was terrified that touching him carelessly might cause the jagged piece of jade to plunge deep into the thin skin of his neck.

“I do not ask for much. Simply let me go.”

“Then tell me why……!”

In that moment, Yeo Jae-won could no longer contain himself. He could not comprehend why Anok was so desperate to distance himself, why he was so frantically driven to escape his side.

If all those fragments come together and my full memory returns…… will I finally understand when I remember it all?

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