← A Fate Tied by a Single Thread
Chapter 10
Heesa gradually came to understand why the lady showed such sharp hostility toward someone she had met for the first time. Her talk of male courtesan, favorite concubine, vulgarity, and the like was because she had mistaken Heesa for a lowborn harlot.
“I, I, I’m…”
His frightened voice trembled faintly. The words that he was not a male courtesan, that he did not wish to become anything like a favorite concubine, that he was only a prince who had followed General Kang Shin from Seon, rose to the tip of his tongue, but then Heesa’s lips pressed firmly shut.
“It was not meant to frighten you. Only… it seemed better not to tell someone you do not know that you are a man of Seon, or by whom you came to the Empire.” It was because of what the stranger had kindly impressed upon him last night. Just yesterday he had vowed and vowed again that he would tell no one where he came from, for what reason he came, or with whom he came.
Moreover, unlike the head eunuch, who knew Heesa’s identity exactly, the lady was mistaking Heesa for a lowborn harlot. By his own judgment, he could not be sure whether it would be all right to tell the truth. Heesa’s lips, which had been moving, closed tight as a clam again.
That Heesa, bowing his head low in fear of the scolding that would fall, looked to the lady like obstinate stubbornness was only natural. Ha, the lady spat a scornful laugh, as if it were absurd, and her eyes turned cold again.
“…Open the book.”
A command cold as a frosty blade fell. Heesa, quickly wiping his eyes, opened the book, filthy with dirt.
His tear-wet eyes widened hugely. No sooner had he read the first line than he was bewildered, unsure whether he had seen correctly. Forgetting even his fear, Heesa looked up at the lady.
“So you can read, it seems.”
At the lady’s still pitiless expression, Heesa hurriedly bowed his head. Judging by the lady’s manner, what Heesa had read seemed to be correct. The bewildered Heesa stared in confusion at the book, which set out a method of love-making between men that he could neither understand nor had ever thought could exist.
“Read it aloud.”
“…Yes?”
“I said read it aloud.”
“…Yes…?”
It felt as if his head were going blank white. Was this the education the head eunuch had spoken of? Heesa was confused as to why he must read writing about love-making between men.
“Neither deaf nor mute, so why do you keep asking back!”
“B-but…”
“Can you not understand what is said to you!”
The switch in the lady’s hand made a threatening sound again. At the sound, meant to inspire fear, Heesa’s face went white. By now Heesa’s shoulders were trembling finely.
“I, I, why must I read this…”
Heesa’s first trembling question came at an ill-chosen time. The lady, who already thoroughly disliked Heesa, seemed to reach the limit of her patience at what sounded like Heesa’s insolent answering back.
“Impudent thing. Must I truly beat you before you understand!”
“Th-that is not it…”
“Roll up your calves.”
Heesa’s eyes went round with fright. At the warning that she would truly beat him with the thing that had been making threatening sounds to frighten him, his whole body began to tremble beyond control.
“Th-that is, that is, ah!”
The maid, who had been standing silently, forced Heesa to his feet. Completely overpowered by the maid’s strength, Heesa was pushed by the back straight up onto the wooden floor. A sob like strangled breath slipped between Heesa’s lips, instantly soaked in fear.
“Huh, uh…!”
“Roll them up, I said!”
“I-I was wrong, I was wrong… Huh, uh uh… Ah!”
Heesa begged, forgetting even his pride, without knowing what he had done wrong. His fear, which had reached its peak as a murderous atmosphere seemed about to close in at any moment, peaked as he clutched the trouser hem the maid’s strong hands had rolled up.
Tears fell drop by drop from Heesa’s eyes at a kind of fear he had never experienced in his life. Trembling pitiably, Heesa only kept repeating that he was wrong.
“I was wrong, wrong, aah…!”
No sooner had a rush of wind passed behind his white, fleshless calves than, with a sharp crack! and a piercing sound, pain seized him. His calves hurt as if being torn, and Heesa, screaming before he knew it, burst into tears like a small child.
“Ah, huh, aah…!”
“Foolish thing. Do you not know your place, or are you steeped in idle dreams!”
“Huh, huh, uh…”
Heesa shook his head, pouring out tears. That he was neither a male courtesan nor a favorite concubine. That he had never received anyone’s favor. But contradicting that, what stopped Heesa’s mouth was last night’s vow.
“Greed beyond your station invites calamity!”
In the meantime, a few more harsh blows fell. At the first pain he had ever known, his toes curled and his knees bent as if he might collapse at any moment. The words he wanted to say, tangled beyond untangling, crumbled without becoming language. In their place came wronged, sorrowful weeping.
Bright red marks were scored across his thin-skinned flesh. At the sight of Heesa, who only sobbed loudly without a thought of resisting, the lady stopped her switching.
“Do you know where you are now.” Do you know where this place is, and still deny it.
Strangely, over the lady’s words overlapped the words of the kind one from last night. Though it was merely a secluded detached palace, both of them pressed Heesa, asking if he knew where this place was.
“Nakyeong Hall, the cold palace where a woman who has fallen from His Majesty’s favor goes. What lord’s favorite concubine would be shut away in a cold palace, you say—”
Even as he poured out tears at pain like his skin being torn, the mention of an unimaginable person was enough to turn Heesa’s mind blank white.
The Son of Heaven of the Won Empire. The child of heaven who rules all things. The father of all the people who watches over the broad earth.
At the unexpected appearance of the emperor, Heesa’s body trembled even more pitiably. He was frightened by an instinctive fear toward a being so far above him.
His Majesty the Emperor, favorite concubine, cold palace. But the fragmented clues could not connect, because of the harsh scolding that followed.
“Say it with your own mouth at once! Swear that as soon as day breaks you will leave the imperial palace!” Heesa shook his head, sobbing loudly. It was not of his own wanting that he, who had lived in a quiet detached palace, had traveled a thousand li as if sold off, and been shut up in the palace. It was not that he would not leave, but that even if he wanted to leave, he could not.
***
At the hour when dusk creeps slowly down, the head eunuch hurried his busy steps. A guest had come to see him.
Countless were those who wished to meet the head eunuch who attended the Son of Heaven at closest hand. Ordinarily the other palace people and eunuchs would have refused them at their own level, but the guest who sought the head eunuch was none other than Lady Bongbo.
Lady Bongbo, the emperor’s nursemaid, was important enough that the head eunuch, one of the busiest people in the imperial palace, had to stop what he was doing and come running.
Already a quarter of an hour had passed since the lady requested the meeting. Unable to keep her waiting any longer, the head eunuch moved almost at a run, panting for breath.
By the time the head eunuch finally arrived, the lady, her white hair pulled back in a knot without a single stray hair, was gazing at the darkening sky with a weary air.
The maid carrying a red bundle spotted the head eunuch first. As she, who was mute, bowed in greeting, the lady belatedly noticed the head eunuch’s presence.
“Very, haah, very late I am, my lady. I apologize.”
“It is all right. I fear I have called a busy man for no reason.”
The lady murmured in a slightly hoarse voice. The head eunuch was a little puzzled, for when he had ordered Lady Bongbo’s entry into the palace that morning, her voice had been no different from usual.
The lady, whose whole body showed the marks of a lifetime lived strictly and exactingly, gestured with her eyes to the mute maid.
The head eunuch received the heavy key she handed over. The lady watched the key return to its owner and let out a faint sigh.
The head eunuch, who had lived in the imperial palace since a childhood he could not even remember, was skilled at flattery. Tucking the heavy key inside his sleeve, he spoke with an air of complete naturalness.
“I am only grateful, sudden a request as it was.”
“…It is His Majesty’s command.”
For an instant, anger was felt strongly enough to wipe away her weary air, but the lady gathered her feelings again. Realizing that some problem had arisen in the course of the prince’s education, the head eunuch smiled awkwardly.
Though he had seen him only twice, once unconscious and once that morning when he went to bring his meal tray, the prince of Seon gave a truly frail impression.
His gentle face, which looked as if it would shed tears at the slightest touch, seemed too meek to break a single flower, and yet he might unexpectedly have a strong-willed and obstinate character.
Come to think of it, if he had learned without warning that he must couple with a man, even the head eunuch, had he been the prince, would surely have made a scene. Moreover, if the prince had shown the headstrong temper peculiar to highborn persons, it was understandable that the lady looked so weary.
In any case, the emperor and the prince were not truly going to spend their First Night together. It was only a nominal education for the sake of raising him to the rank of Noble Consort, and he briefly regretted that he had not given the prince a hint in advance. Soon after, the head eunuch erased his own thought.
It was enough for the head eunuch to move according to the Son of Heaven’s command. If he recklessly interpreted something His Majesty had not separately instructed, it would be he who would suffer His Majesty’s anger.
“Head Eunuch.”
“Yes, my lady.”
But the head eunuch’s idle thoughts vanished at the lady’s call. Bowing politely, the head eunuch showed that he was listening. The lady, letting out a deep sigh, stated her position firmly.
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