Sa Ha-hyeon stared blankly up at Wei Wuyuan with his jaw still gripped in his hand. Until now, Ha-hyeon had never believed the rumors circulating about Wei Wuyuan — that he was a cruel figure with neither blood nor tears.
The man had only lived some twenty-odd years at most — was he not still a young man with the down barely gone from his cheeks? How could a beautiful man who could pout and be playful like a child possibly be the monster that made people tremble in fear?
Perhaps people had simply let themselves be cowed by the grand shell of the word “Emperor,” and scared themselves into fearing him. That was what Sa Ha-hyeon had thought.
And yet — in this moment, for the first time, Ha-hyeon understood the fear people felt. Wei Wuyuan’s eyes gleamed with a light so fierce it seemed he could sever Ha-hyeon’s neck at any second. Ha-hyeon drew his neck in without even realizing he had done it.
But Wei Wuyuan didn’t stop there.
“It is I, and only I, who dragged you out of that pit of hell and kept you alive — and it is I who could end you this very instant. So do not let yourself be confused about that.”
The fear he felt at this unlike-his-usual-self Wei Wuyuan lasted only a moment before hurt came flooding in behind it.
Sa Ha-hyeon had done nothing more than crouch in a corner of the training ground searching for pebbles to decorate Wei Wuyuan’s snowman. Could that even be called a wrongdoing? He had been dragged away by the Grand Empress Dowager without so much as getting to put up a proper fight. He had been bound like a criminal in front of people, and on top of that, nearly subjected to something deeply humiliating. It was Baek Seojin who had found him in time and saved him from having his leg broken. And hadn’t that man even carried Ha-hyeon — who was by no means light — all the way here in his arms? What on earth was wrong with wanting to express gratitude to a Baek Seojin like that?
And you — what were you doing while I was going through all of that! Right, of course. You were busy rolling around wrapped up in your concubines’ skirts.
“You could have kept a firmer grip on that lifeline of mine.”
“……What did you say?”
“My leg nearly broke. You saw it yourself, Your Majesty — you know what happened. It was my instructor who saved me. Even an animal repays a debt of kindness — and you are telling me I cannot so much as pay my respects to the one who saved my life? How is that a delusion?”
“Still lost in delusion, I see.”
Ha-hyeon pressed a hand to his chest in frustration. There was no getting through to him.
“A delusion, you say. Your Majesty is…… Haah, never mind. I will return to Byeoksong Palace. This is not where I belong.”
“I told you clearly — you are to stay here until you can move about properly.”
“……I can move about. It’s only a bit of skin on my leg that was mangled, is it not. I have no wish to be a burden to Your Majesty when you are busy. I will go back to Byeoksong Palace and lie still as the dead — so please, Your Majesty, go and return to whatever it is you were doing.”
“Why would you say something like that?”
“If others learn that I am here, then next time it might not end with just a broken leg. Until now I have been fortunate that someone was there to save me before things went too far — but there is no guarantee that will hold going forward. My only option is to be more careful myself.”
In truth, there was something more Ha-hyeon wanted to add. You knew what was being done to me — and you stood by and let it happen.
“Are you resenting me.”
Wei Wuyuan’s brow twisted into something ugly. His expression was like someone confronted with something deeply repulsive. Sa Ha-hyeon lowered his eyes. He didn’t want to look at that face.
“Resent you? How could I harbor such feelings. I am simply trying to return to the place that suits me — where someone like me belongs. So please, Your Majesty — leave it at that and go do what you must.”
“What I must do?”
“Yes. The night is long.”
Go. Just go. Go and have sex or whatever. Have as many princes and princesses as you like — fill the whole world with Daehyeon if that’s what you want!
“Yeong-ui — I cannot make any sense at all of what you are saying.”
Wei Wuyuan’s low voice trembled faintly with fury. But Ha-hyeon, already diminished by the fear and hurt and suffocating frustration of his situation, failed to notice.
“Even if I were to serve you every night — I am a body that cannot even give you an heir. So instead of keeping me here, useless as I am, go and attend to what matters.”
Ha-hyeon finally spat out the cutting words he didn’t mean. Wei Wuyuan’s expression changed. The face that had been freezing over in an instant developed a strange crack across it. The emotion there was more complicated than simple anger. It looked almost like deep grief.
Wei Wuyuan seized Ha-hyeon by the shoulder. The force of it felt as though the bones would crumble.
“Ugh……!”
A pained moan tore from Ha-hyeon’s lips. The fingers digging into his shoulder were so fierce it felt as though they would push through flesh. It was only then that Ha-hyeon’s head fully snapped back to attention. More frightening than the throbbing pain was the trembling in Wei Wuyuan’s eyes before him.
Did I really say something that awful.
“It seems you’ve heard something.”
Wei Wuyuan growled in a low voice. A brief silence fell — like the stillness before a storm. Before long, Wei Wuyuan ripped the ikseongwan from his head and flung it to the floor. The neatly combed hair came undone and spilled in disarray over his well-defined features.
“Your, Your Majesty……”
Before Ha-hyeon could even retreat in warning, Wei Wuyuan grabbed his arm and shoved him off the bed.
“Get on your knees.”
Wei Wuyuan was so consumed by rage that he wasn’t even registering that Ha-hyeon’s leg was not whole. Wei Wuyuan didn’t stop there — he forced Ha-hyeon down onto his knees.
“Aah!”
A cry burst from Ha-hyeon’s lips. Searing pain shot up from the right leg now crushed against the floor. The white cloth soaked through with blood once more. Regrettably, Wei Wuyuan — half out of his mind — seemed not to see it.
Paying no mind to Ha-hyeon’s moans of agony, Wei Wuyuan began removing his clothing one piece at a time. Having loosened himself to the waist, he grabbed a fistful of Ha-hyeon’s hair and wrenched his head back by force. In Ha-hyeon’s vision, the Emperor’s substantial manhood came into view.
The Emperor gripped Ha-hyeon’s jaw and shook it, roughly grinding his still-soft, heavy flesh against Ha-hyeon’s cheek and lips.
“Ngh! Your Majesty, please don’t do this.”
Ha-hyeon twisted his head away trying to evade, but it was useless. Wei Wuyuan cut coldly.
“Since when does a mere concubine have any right to defy the Emperor’s command?”
Ha-hyeon bit his lip until blood came. He strained with everything he had to turn his head the other way, as if to say he would never open his mouth. The harder he tried, the more merciless the force became in Wei Wuyuan’s hand fisted in his hair. The pain of his scalp threatening to be torn off made Ha-hyeon’s brow crumple without mercy.
“Open your mouth. Please me.”
Wei Wuyuan growled against Ha-hyeon’s ear.
“Mmph……”
“Yeong-ui — did you not say it yourself. That you are a useless body that cannot even bear an heir. Then should you not at least offer me the pleasures of the night to prove your worth.”
But Ha-hyeon kept his mouth clamped shut and held on.
Wei Wuyuan clicked his tongue as if irritated. His gaze moved to Ha-hyeon’s blood-soaked leg.
“Foolish thing.”
He brought his foot down directly onto Ha-hyeon’s injured leg.
“Aaaah!”
At the horrific pain of torn flesh, Ha-hyeon’s mouth fell open on its own. Wei Wuyuan didn’t miss the opening.
“Mmph — ugh!”
As if he had been waiting for it, Wei Wuyuan’s manhood forced its way roughly into Ha-hyeon’s mouth. The sensation of warm, yielding flesh driving deep into the back of his throat. Ha-hyeon gagged with a revulsion that turned his stomach inside out.
He couldn’t breathe. The heat from the pain in his leg surged all the way up to his head. His vision spun, dizziness washing over him, making it a struggle just to stay on his knees. As Ha-hyeon’s body kept threatening to collapse, Wei Wuyuan grabbed his arm with impatient irritation.
“Do it properly!”
He dragged Ha-hyeon like a limp bundle and propped him against the bed. There was nowhere to run. Wei Wuyuan looked down at Ha-hyeon’s glassy, unfocused eyes, and once again forced his mouth open, pushing his desire inside. But his member remained slack and limp. No matter how much he moved inside Ha-hyeon’s mouth, or ground against his cheek, it was no use.
Forcing his hips to move was equally futile. Wei Wuyuan released Ha-hyeon with an irritable jerk. Sa Ha-hyeon collapsed onto the bed with a cough. Ha-hyeon gasped for breath in shallow, ragged pulls. Without his realizing it, his vision had gone blurry. Having had his mouth forced open and gagged against his will, involuntary tears had welled up and were obscuring his sight.
Ha-hyeon raised a trembling hand and roughly wiped at the corners of his eyes. He wiped the wetness from his face — damp all over — and blinked several times to clear the blur from his vision, and looked up.
Wei Wuyuan was already gone.
