The following morning. Sa Ha-hyeon sat blankly on the bed like a man who had lost his country. In front of him, a lavish breakfast spread was laid out, packed with the meat dishes he loved — and yet he had no appetite at all.
His mind was still circling the shocking words Wei Wuyuan had left him with last night. When Ha-hyeon had begged to be allowed to resume his martial arts training, insisting he’d be completely recovered in a day, the Emperor had said:
“Did you not hear the Imperial Physician say that your depleted vitality makes conception difficult? Now that I know your body is in such poor shape, how could I continue to make you do things that would wear it down further? Well — who knows. If you recover your strength and actually conceive, I might be so moved that I could grant you your wish…….”
Ha-hyeon shook his head vigorously. How did that make any sense? Get pregnant and I’ll let you train again. To Ha-hyeon, those words were no different from declaring he would never grant his wish for the rest of his life.
Because……
Does pregnancy happen on its own?
……Wait.
No! That’s not it! That’s not even the point!
Sa Ha-hyeon snapped back to his senses and buried his burning face in both hands. What on earth was he thinking? Alone or not aside — men cannot get pregnant in the first place. Perhaps living in women’s clothing for so long had started to scramble his brain.
He sank into his own thoughts, completely unaware that Wol was standing nearby, watching him with a face full of worry.
Now that he thought about it, Wei Wuyuan’s words and actions didn’t add up. If he truly wanted a child, simply embracing and sleeping together every night made no logical sense — he would have needed to actually consummate things. Given that he was the type of person who threatened to behead maidservants just because Ha-hyeon refused to get in the bath, one would expect him to have tried every means available — whether tempting with wealth and power, or simply taking by force — to somehow achieve results.
And yet Wei Wuyuan had done none of that. What was he plotting? He spoke of wanting an heir, but didn’t consummate; didn’t consummate, yet came every single night. Ha-hyeon couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on inside the head of this Emperor, who was considerably younger than him.
“My lady…….”
Wol’s voice finally pulled Ha-hyeon back to reality.
“Mm.”
“Is the food not to your taste? Or is your stomach unsettled?”
“No. I think I’m just not quite awake yet. Wol, have you eaten this morning?”
“You haven’t even picked up your chopsticks, my lady — how could I possibly swallow a bite? Even if you have no appetite, please eat at least a little. If His Majesty finds out, he’ll be beside himself with worry.”
He couldn’t have Wol starving herself because of him. Ha-hyeon forced himself to pick up his spoon and take a bite. And after a few spoonfuls, the food turned out to be so good that he ended up eating every last bit.
After finishing his meal, Ha-hyeon walked to the window, propped his chin in his hand, and looked outside. The courtyard looked quite different from when he had first arrived.
When he had first come here, it had been no different from an abandoned palace — desolate enough to seem haunted. But in the time since, the people the Emperor had sent had been busily coming and going, cutting down dead trees and planting hardy winter trees in their place. The collapsed garden stones had been rebuilt, and after work had been done here and there, the space now carried the quiet atmosphere of a well-kept old estate.
The winter sky was a clear, piercing blue. The pine trees visible along the distant ridge kept their green even beneath their caps of snow. It was truly a landscape so beautiful it felt unreal.
Ha-hyeon suddenly found himself entertaining the fleeting thought that perhaps even the fact that he was a stranger who had fallen into this world was nothing more than a long dream. Perhaps there had never been an original life to return to — and the vivid dreams he occasionally had were simply a reality he was confusing with fiction. Perhaps he was struggling in vain, trying to return to nothing but a dream. Useless thoughts like those.
He needed to see the Instructor — if only to confirm that he wasn’t drowning in delusions. He had barely managed to find a clue, and yet every time it seemed to be within reach, it slipped away, and just when he thought he had finally gotten hold of it, it turned out to be nothing.
“Haah…….”
As Ha-hyeon let out a sigh deep enough to sink the ground, Wol, who had been watching him carefully, cautiously approached.
“My lady.”
“Hm?”
“……Seeing you sigh like that — you must be frustrated about not being able to practice martial arts, after all?”
“Yeah. It was something I’d finally gotten into.”
Ha-hyeon gave a vague, roundabout answer.
“I thought as much.”
Wol nodded, then stepped outside for a moment and came back in. In her hands when she returned were two long, smoothly trimmed pieces of firewood.
“My lady, why don’t we learn some swordsmanship together with these? I’ll be your sparring partner.”
The uses for firewood really are endless.
Ha-hyeon clicked his tongue. Still, it warmed his heart that Wol was trying to cheer him up. Wol pressed her small lips together with a look of grim determination and neatly gathered up her skirts, tying them at her waist so they wouldn’t get in the way. Looking at her properly, the way she gripped the wooden stick was actually quite solid.
“Alright then. Come at me.”
It was better to move his body than to just mope around digging holes in the ground with his mood.
For all her spirited charge, Wol had no technique to speak of. But her footwork was as quick and nimble as a squirrel’s.
Ha-hyeon played along at an easy pace, matching her rhythm. Watching Wol’s eyes light up as she sweated it out, he was reminded of his younger sibling who had left this world before him, and of a ten-year-old Wei Wuyuan with a runny nose. It was a truly peaceful time.
And then, without warning, the thought drifted in — that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to simply forget all the troublesome things like the memoir and the original story, and just live here like this.
Life before the possession had been relentlessly hard. Grueling days of working himself to the bone day and night just to earn enough to eat. Compared to that, even here — for all the talk of confinement — at least he could stay warm and well-fed without lifting a finger. Food was brought to him just for lying down, without a moment’s worry about the next meal.
As long as he didn’t lose his head for crossing that unpredictable Emperor’s mood, settling for this quiet, modest life wouldn’t be so bad.
Cruelly, that brief peace did not last.
“Yeong-ui! The medicine has arrived!”
An urgent call from a maidservant rang out from outside. Ha-hyeon and Wol both startled and hurled the firewood in their hands as far away as possible.
Moments later, an Eunuch entered carrying a dark black bowl of medicinal decoction. The maidservants who followed him in also had trays piled with unidentifiable medicines.
“By imperial decree. We have been ordered to ensure that Yeong-ui finishes every last drop of the medicine before we leave.”
The Eunuch held out the bowl of decoction with a firm expression. Ha-hyeon took it with the air of someone eating mustard through tears. The medicine, a murky black color that brought to mind a muddy swamp, smelled foul before he even tasted it.
The moment he held his nose and took a single sip, a bitterness and foul aftertaste so intense it made his tongue go numb came flooding through. His stomach turned.
“Urgh!”
Just as Ha-hyeon instinctively gagged and tried to spit the medicine back out —
Smack!
Wol’s small palm clamped over Ha-hyeon’s mouth. Ha-hyeon shook his head frantically as if to say get your hand off me right now, but Wol pressed it even tighter. The Eunuch was watching with eagle eyes. If he threw it up here, the report would reach the Emperor.
“My lady, you have to swallow it. Just close your eyes and swallow! Quickly!”
“Mmmmph!!!”
Gulp.
The medicine from hell slid down his esophagus. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. Finally freed, Ha-hyeon stared up at the ceiling with hollow eyes.
I have to do this every day? Morning and evening? ……I’d rather just die.
Pregnancy be damned — it seemed like the Emperor’s health tonics were going to cut his life short before anything else could.
But that night, the very person who had sent the medicine didn’t show his face at all. Not even a word. One night, he might have assumed the Emperor was swamped with state affairs — but one night became two, and two became three.
The Emperor, who had reliably come each night to bother him, was no longer coming, and Ha-hyeon felt strangely hollow. He sprawled on the wide bed, doing his best to appear unbothered.
“Hah, this is nice. No one clinging to me and bothering me, so I’m sleeping like a log.”
He stretched ostentatiously and made light of it, but his gaze kept drifting back to the firmly shut door.
Honestly, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t worried. Could the Emperor have caught a cold from getting drenched while pulling him out of the bath the other night? Or was there some urgent situation at the border, keeping him buried in state affairs day and night?
He was the Emperor, after all — he would have mountains of matters to attend to. And no matter how much he favored someone, he couldn’t keep visiting the same concubine’s quarters every single night. For the prosperity of the imperial family, there would be new concubines being taken in, and visiting their quarters in turn was surely the Emperor’s duty as well.
Ha-hyeon forced that rationalization on himself and tried to settle his heart. But the people around him reacted differently.
Wol and the maidservants grew visibly dimmer with each passing day. Their faces were steeped in worry and anxiety — and yet, afraid their master would be disheartened, they forced the corners of their mouths up and offered comfort along the lines of “His Majesty seems to be too occupied with state affairs to come” — and the sight of them doing so was pitiable.
What was strange was that even while the Emperor was absent, the vile-tasting tonic continued to be delivered every single day without fail.
It was too ambiguous to call being cast aside, but too absent to call continued favor. What on earth was he scheming? Out of sheer frustration, Ha-hyeon considered storming over to the Emperor himself first — but he shook his head.
It’s almost time for the hunt anyway…….
And so a few more days passed, and a deep night arrived. Ha-hyeon was lying comfortably on the wide bed, arms and legs spread out in all directions, fast asleep.
But then — a rustling sound reached Ha-hyeon’s ears. His eyes snapped open in an instant. From beyond the bedroom window, he sensed the presence of someone.
