Wol quickly dropped flat on the floor the moment she saw the Emperor. Ha-hyeon awkwardly followed her lead and bowed. Who would have thought he’d come this early when the bedding hadn’t even been properly warmed yet. Ha-hyeon moved to usher the Emperor inside. But Wei Wuyuan stood without moving, his expression stone.
“Your Majesty?”
“So it is true — that abandoned concubines and their servants, unable to bear their loneliness, fall for one another and throw the inner palace into disorder. To think I would witness such disorder with my own eyes.”
What disorder?
“…Pardon? Your Majesty, what do you mean by that?”
“Drag this woman outside at once.”
Before the words had even fully left the Emperor’s lips, the imperial guards came storming in and seized Wol roughly by both arms.
“My lady! Songbaek!”
“Wol-ah!”
With a desperate scream, Wol was dragged out like a piece of luggage. She had already been left in a wretched state by Consort Hwa — and now, not even given treatment, she was being hauled away by those rough hands. He couldn’t leave her like that. Ha-hyeon moved to follow after Wol and the Emperor stepped into his path.
“Enough…. Do not try my patience any further.”
“……”
Trying his patience — the thought had never so much as crossed his mind, let alone the act.
“Everyone withdraw. Don’t let so much as a stray dog come near.”
Wol’s voice, which had been crying out nothing but Songbaek in terrified desperation, fell silent. When everything went quiet all around, Wei Wuyuan slowly closed his eyes. He drew a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale, repeating it several times. A moment later, he slowly lifted his eyelids. The savage fury on his face had vanished, as though it had never been there.
Wei Wuyuan, as if nothing had happened at all, seized Ha-hyeon’s wrist with a composed expression.
“Let’s go inside.”
“Your Majesty.”
Before Ha-hyeon could resist, Wei Wuyuan dragged him inside the room with brute force. The door slammed shut behind them, and the sound of it rang out like the closing of a prison cell.
“Ngh!”
Wei Wuyuan threw Ha-hyeon roughly onto the bed. The thick layers of soft bedding kept it from hurting, but Sa Ha-hyeon was shaken by the Emperor’s rough treatment — something he had never seen before. How had that child who couldn’t so much as hurt a fly come to be like this.
Sa Ha-hyeon reflexively tried to sit up. But the ornaments hanging all over him and the layered skirts tangled around his arms and legs made it impossible to move freely. And the wig was so absurdly heavy. Sa Ha-hyeon floundered ungracefully on the bed.
“Stay still.”
Wei Wuyuan’s hand pressed flat against Ha-hyeon’s chest, pinning him down.
“Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this.”
“Tell me. What have you been doing?”
“What are you referring to?”
Wei Wuyuan’s razor-sharp eyes gleamed darkly, as though about to carve Ha-hyeon apart on the spot.
“I am asking what you and that woman were doing together during the month I left you unattended and failed to look in on you.”
“Pardon? What on earth are you saying? What could I possibly have been doing with Wol?”
At Ha-hyeon’s answer, Wei Wuyuan’s lips twisted. He grabbed Ha-hyeon’s chin roughly and turned his face toward him.
“You must have been lonely. The Emperor never came, and the nights were long. So in the name of consoling each other’s miserable lot — did you develop feelings for her?”
“……!”
“Master and servant, shut away in a room where no one could see — touching each other’s bodies, tasting each other, filling the empty space where I was not with the warmth of her skin. Is that what you were doing? Why can’t you answer me?!”
The gleam in Wei Wuyuan’s eyes was already bright with a madness born of conviction. It was so absurd that words failed him. Ha-hyeon could only open and close his lips.
He had vaguely heard that women living together in the palace sometimes turned to each other out of loneliness — but Sa Ha-hyeon had never done anything of the sort with Wol, who was practically a child to him. He had never harbored even the shadow of such feelings from the start.
To Ha-hyeon, Wol was a pitiful subordinate, a younger sibling to be looked after, nothing more. Even just now, all he had been doing was looking at the wound on her face out of worry.
“Your Majesty, no. It is absolutely nothing like that. Please hear me out.”
He couldn’t afford to miss the critical moment. Ha-hyeon urgently pulled Wei Wuyuan into his arms.
“…Absolutely nothing like that?”
“Yes, this is a misunderstanding. How could I have eyes for anyone else when I have Your Majesty — brilliant as the blazing sun? And with a child who is no different to me than my own younger sibling, at that. Please believe me.”
“You are aware that you are younger than that servant woman of yours, and you’re saying this?”
He had not been aware.
“……Age is merely a number.”
“Ha! What a delightful thing to say. Very well then. Explain yourself. Just now — what was the reason you were stroking each other with such tenderness?”
Sa Ha-hyeon hesitated for a moment. Should he tell the truth, or follow Wol’s advice and let it go quietly? In this imperial palace where they had no allies, it might be wiser not to stir up needless trouble.
Still. I’m furious.
In the end, Ha-hyeon’s sense of injustice won out and he resolved to speak the truth. If he fumbled a lie here and was caught, Wol’s life would clearly be in even greater danger. And beyond that, he needed one strong decisive move to get Wol back.
“The precious meat Your Majesty bestowed upon us was too great a quantity for just us to eat. Worried that it might spoil and go to waste before we could finish it, I sent Wol to share some with the palace servants who had helped us from time to time…. She came back half-dead.”
Even saying it aloud made the anger surge back up. If they had stolen the meat because they were tempted by it, he might have at least tried to understand — but they had thrown it to the dirt so it couldn’t even be eaten. He could not forgive that.
“Continue.”
“She was stripped of the meat before she could give any of it away, had her clothes torn to rags, and was beaten until her face was bruised. Nail marks are left all over the face of a girl who hasn’t even been married yet. And yet rather than being upset about what was done to her, she was sobbing over the meat being thrown to the ground and ruined, saying she couldn’t eat it…. As her mistress, how could I not be heartsick?”
Ha-hyeon held on to Wei Wuyuan’s sleeve and continued.
“Your Majesty, where has Wol been taken? She needs treatment immediately. What if she is left with scars? Please…. In this vast imperial palace, the only one this humble consort has to lean on is Wol, that girl alone.”
Wei Wuyuan stared at Ha-hyeon’s face as though weighing whether it was truth or lie, then opened his mouth.
“Sangseon! Are you out there!”
The closed door burst open and an elderly man with silver-white hair came rushing in, pressing his forehead to the floor.
“Yes, Your Majesty. Did you call for me?”
“Send for a physician at once and have the Yeong-ui’s maidservant treated. Use nothing but the finest medicines — do not spare the cost.”
“Your command will be obeyed.”
“And. Sangseon — I am told that the Yeong-ui Songbaek’s maidservant was subjected to something outrageous near Jinmi Hall. Not only that, but the meat We bestowed was apparently thrown to the dirt. To think that something this disgraceful could occur here in this imperial palace where We reside. Investigate thoroughly — find out who dared to insult Our gift, and who led the act. Uncover the full truth. If there is even a shred of falsehood in the report, their heads will roll.”
Wei Wuyuan’s eyes gleamed with cold light. At that icy command, Sangseon broke into a cold sweat and withdrew.
Ha-hyeon steadied himself against the urge to sink to the floor and pressed a hand to his chest in relief. At least we’re alive for now. Wol too — she’ll receive treatment rather than punishment.
“I am exhausted.”
Wei Wuyuan, seeming to have calmed at last, lay slowly down on the bed. He gave a short tilt of his chin. Following the unspoken instruction, Ha-hyeon hesitantly lay down carefully beside the Emperor.
“I spent too much energy today. Console me. Like last time.”
The Emperor drew Ha-hyeon’s hand and guided it down to his center. Sa Ha-hyeon had no grounds to refuse, and in the current situation, there was no way he could afford to get on the Emperor’s bad side.
Damn it. The first time was the hard part — the second time can’t be worse than that.
Beneath the covers, a discreet and steady rhythm began. In the room, only the occasional rustle of fabric and the low, heavy sound of the Emperor’s breathing filled the air. Ha-hyeon simply did what was expected of him in silence, wishing only for this time to pass quickly.
How much time went by. Wei Wuyuan let out a long, slow exhale.
“Huu…….”
Just as Ha-hyeon wiped his damp hand and tried to quietly slip down off the bed — Wei Wuyuan pulled him back and laid him out flat. Then he climbed on top of him, sitting astride, blocking any escape.
“Your Majesty?”
Through the strands of sweat-damp hair, Wei Wuyuan’s gaze glittered like a predator’s. He leaned down, brought his lips to Ha-hyeon’s ear, and murmured low.
“And yet, Yeong-ui — thinking about it, it would not be right for only me to take pleasure, would it. I wish to give you that same pleasure.”
“……Pardon?!”
Ha-hyeon’s entire train of thought stopped dead. What is this man saying right now?
“Even though I am the Emperor, should things not be fair, at least in bed?”
Ha-hyeon’s face went white with horror.
“No, Your Majesty. I am actually very fond of things being unfair.”
“Shh.”
