It was an auditory hallucination he’d grown so accustomed to by now. The Emperor struck the desk with the hand that had been covering his face with a bang.
“That damned thing, what does it matter if he doesn’t want to.”
He ground his teeth as he spat out the words. His fury was smoldering. He’d let his guard down, thinking that someone so foolish, gentle, and timid would never even dream of such harsh thoughts—but now it was far too late for that. This time, once he brought him back, he intended to make him bear nothing but those babies he’d wished for until the day he died of old age.
It had already been ages since the Emperor had distorted Sansan’s plea not to kill the baby in his belly into words asking to be allowed to have a baby. The Emperor was convinced that as long as there was a baby, Sansan would never think of dying.
“Report in greater detail. Just what kind of person is he?”
After barely suppressing his rage, the Emperor questioned Head Eunuch Han again. Head Eunuch Han hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“From what this subject has heard, he divorced his wife over ten years ago and has lived alone ever since…, but in truth, at night he’s been preoccupied with indulging in male pleasures—”
Crash—with a tremendous sound that split the stillness of the deep night, Head Eunuch Han couldn’t continue his words. The Emperor had roughly stood up, and the heavy chair had tumbled across the floor.
“Lead the way, Jin-ah.”
With a voice that had turned cold in an instant, the Emperor commanded his golden guards.
***
“Huk, heuuk.”
“Haah, how good. Oh, this soft thing! This pretty thing! Where have you been hiding?”
“Please, f-father-in-law. Don’t do this. Th-this is strange. I’m scared.”
Before he knew it, Sansan had been completely stripped by his father-in-law’s hands and laid upon his bed. The old man had also removed all his clothes and pressed his aged body completely against Sansan’s. What father-in-law in the entire world would climb naked into bed with his son-in-law? And yet Sansan was still calling him father-in-law, appealing to his sense of decency.
“Oh my, how lovely. There’s not a part of you that isn’t beautiful. Oh ho, stay still. If you obediently take it all this night, this father-in-law will make you live in luxury. Hm?”
As for the old man, he felt like his lower regions would burst and kill him because of this young thing who kept crying out for his father-in-law and pushing at his shoulders with what little strength he had. At this rate, he might die of a stroke. He tried to control his excitement by regulating his breathing and shaking his head, but it was all useless.
“Slurp, sluuurp, haah, I’m going crazy. Your nipples are pretty, your cock is pretty, and even your pussy is pretty—you’re planning to kill this old man, aren’t you. Huah. Baby, let me cum inside you first. Then I’ll make you feel good too, hm?”
“Ahuk, d-don’t, please, uhueong.”
At the touch of hands spreading his thighs wide apart with a strength unbelievable for an old man, Sansan cried like a baby. Soon the old man’s body pressed close against Sansan, and that rancid flesh-smell came rushing into Sansan’s nose. Sansan instinctively turned his face to the side and cried even louder.
An old man his grandfather’s age, whom he’d met for the first time today, had suddenly stripped off his clothes and groped him everywhere as he pleased, then later sucked at various places with his sticky tongue.
That wasn’t all. He’d pulled Sansan’s resisting hand to make him touch even his shriveled old genitals. Whatever the reason might be, the current acts were so dirty, disgusting, and frightening that Sansan simply wanted to die.
Perhaps that’s why. An indignation he could no longer contain surged up, pushing through his internal organs and rising within him. Something was just touching his anus. With strength he’d never had before, Sansan kicked the old man’s abdomen hard and began running toward the outside, screaming, “Uaaaah!”
While completely naked without a single thread on him, his penis dangling. Of course, he didn’t get far. Perhaps because he was in such a hurry, his feet suddenly got tangled and he fell with a great thud. The furious old man quickly ran right up to him.
“You goddamned brat.”
Equally naked, the old man crouched before Sansan and grabbed him by the hair. Sansan, sprawled on the ground, brought his hands together and desperately begged.
“I-I was wrong, father-in-law. Don’t hit me, ahhh!”
The old man’s large hand struck Sansan’s cheek. It was the moment Sansan sprawled completely on the ground.
“…This thing lower than vermin dares.”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind. The low, heavy bass had an extremely chilling quality to it. Sansan lifted his face, drawn by a force he didn’t understand.
“Kill him.”
The old man didn’t even have time to open his mouth. Something sliced diagonally through the air like lightning. Then the head of the old man who’d been sitting there stupidly flew off with a clang, and filthy blood poured down onto Sansan’s naked body as he lay collapsed on the ground.
Sansan, who had carefully lifted his face, blinked those large eyes of his, unaware that he was drenched in blood, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Ah, ah…”
The old man’s head, eyes still unclosed, was caught in Sansan’s field of vision.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
Once the scream began, it wouldn’t stop. Men who had rushed in surrounded Sansan with their backs to him. It seemed as if they were trying to block Sansan from the gaze of anyone who might be somewhere.
Having witnessed in real time the headless body jumping up and down on its own, Sansan couldn’t hold onto his senses properly. His soul completely fled as he just screamed loud enough to shake the entire house.
“Ahhh! Ahhhhhh!”
Then, the Emperor, who had been the only one facing Sansan, parted the golden guards dressed in black and entered the circle.
“What are you shouting about when you couldn’t even protect your own chastity?”
Sansan, who had been crouching with both hands covering his ears and screaming continuously, trembled more violently the closer the Emperor approached. And finally,
“Well now.”
He even pissed himself. Though he’d just urinated where he sat, soaking even his buttocks completely with his own filth, Sansan only trembled. A black rain cloak fell onto Sansan’s naked body with a plop.
“Ah…”
“Stop screaming and stand up.”
The Emperor, who had bent down and crouched before Sansan, spat out coldly in a tone that clearly revealed his displeasure. It was the same posture as the old man from just before, but the sense of intimidation was worlds apart.
“Wh-who, hic, are you? Hik!”
Sansan asked while curling his body even smaller. His hiccups wouldn’t stop at all, making him look like he might stop breathing at any moment.
“…This blockhead.”
The Emperor clicked his tongue and, as if he couldn’t stand it, gave a thwack of a knuckle rap to that prettily rounded forehead. It hurt quite a bit, so Sansan covered his forehead with both hands and whimpered. It was the moment he was about to ask again through tears who this person was.
“Heuuk, wh-who are, uh, uaht!”
The Emperor, who had wrapped Sansan in the rain cloak, scooped him up. Then he wiped Sansan’s blood-soaked face with his sleeve.
The golden guards who had been standing with their backs turned were all inwardly shocked to see the Emperor pick up the young lord who had screamed and pissed himself as if it were nothing. Sansan felt the same way, wriggling his body this way and that as he pushed the Emperor away.
“Ah, I… I was r-rude, um, please put me down. Yes?”
Meanwhile, the Emperor was immersed in quite complicated emotions as he looked at his Noble Consort whom he’d finally met by going back in time. He’d been certain he’d be angry first when they reunited since the man had dared to die on his own, but now that this moment had actually arrived, he thought all his imaginings had been in vain.
“What did that old man do to you?”
The Sansan he’d met again was two years younger than the appearance he’d known. He’d always had an innocently childlike aspect, but now his youthfulness was even more evident than before. Now he looked younger than even his own sons, making even getting angry feel pointless.
The Emperor gently caressed Sansan’s swollen cheek where the old man had struck him and asked.
“…H-he’s my father-in-law, but, heuup, I don’t know.”
Though he didn’t know who this person was, at that soothing tone, Sansan recalled like a flash the things he’d briefly forgotten. With a voice thick with surging grief, he answered.
“But, truly, who are you?”
Amber eyes brimming with tears pierced into the Emperor’s eyes. The Emperor frowned, feeling a constricting pain in his chest.
“Do you not recognize me at all?”
Sansan only blinked his large eyes. It was a clearer answer than words. Though tears had welled up, his gaze was spotlessly clear. It was a gaze he would never have directed at the Emperor under normal circumstances. Therefore, he could be certain that Sansan remembered nothing at all.
Only then did the Emperor realize why he hadn’t found Sansan right away and had only kept postponing bringing him back.
In case he might remember him. Because he was afraid of that.
When the realization suddenly came, a pfft, a small laugh escaped the Emperor’s mouth. It was truly absurd.
He was relieved that Sansan didn’t remember him, yet he was also disappointed that Sansan didn’t remember him. These were emotions he couldn’t discard even by going back in time. The Emperor hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth again.
“Zhen is the tenth son of the Great Emperor Seonjo, and my name is Lee Heonjo. What is your name?”
“…S-Sansan.”
Footnotes
Seonjo: The temple name of Emperor Seondok, father of Emperor Yeonghwi.
Zhen (짐) – Imperial “I/We”
