The events of the past had become memories, but the habits formed from those events hadn’t disappeared.
As if his body remembered those months of hardship, Seoho had always fallen asleep before midnight since arriving at the Empire and woke up after at least 8 hours of sound sleep.
And today was no different.
Seoho had been struggling to shake off the sleepiness that had been rushing in since an hour before midnight. Seoho forcibly lifted his heavy eyelids and asked Puti for cold water.
“Puti, sorry, but could you give me one more glass?”
“Seoho-nim, His Majesty seems to be running a bit late, so how about you sleep first?”
There were 30 minutes left until midnight.
“…Won’t he be able to come before 12?”
Puti hesitated for a moment before answering.
“I’m not sure either… He’s someone who keeps his promises well, but just in case.”
Come to think of it, a meeting probably wasn’t something that could just be ended at will. But since he had already decided to wait, he wanted to wait just a little longer.
“Mm, still, I’ll wait until 12.”
“Understood.”
Puti poured another glass of cold water as if he had no choice.
“Thank you. Because of me, Puti can’t leave either.”
Seoho knew that usually when he and Rosetta went to bed, Puti would switch shifts with another attendant. But because Seoho was holding out, Puti’s work was also running late.
Puti smiled faintly and shook his head.
“I’m fine. If you’re too sleepy, how about having a conversation?”
It would certainly be better than sitting there blankly.
“Mm, should we do that? What should I talk about…”
Seoho, who had been thinking about topics of conversation, decided to resolve a question that had come up along with memories from when he couldn’t sleep.
“Puti, I fell asleep right after arriving here.”
“Yes, you did.”
“When I came here that day, did I come empty-handed?”
The moment when he grabbed Rosetta’s hand and crossed over to this place was vivid. But he didn’t remember packing anything at the time.
‘Since I usually don’t let go of my phone, wouldn’t it have come with me?’
Thinking about the series of sudden situations at the time, it was more likely he hadn’t brought it.
“Ah, come to think of it, I haven’t returned your belongings, Seoho-nim.”
Seoho asked with great anticipation.
“There’s something I brought?”
“Yes, there’s one thing. So… it was a small knife.”
“…A knife?”
A knife?
‘Would I have any reason to pack a knife?’
Seoho recalled the knives at home.
‘The knives at home would be things like box cutters or kitchen knives, wouldn’t they?’
There was no way such things would have been next to Seoho during the transfer. When Seoho looked puzzled, Puti raised his hand and said.
“It was a small knife about the size of my palm. It was in a sheath.”
A sheath? Seoho searched his memory.
“About the size of a palm…”
Seoho, who had been frowning and staring intently at Puti’s hand, remembered something.
“Don’t tell me you’re talking about an eunjangdo?”
“It was silver. So it’s called an eunjangdo?”
“You’re saying I brought that?”
Even knowing what the object was, the question didn’t disappear. Why on earth had that thing come here with Seoho?
‘That was definitely in the desk drawer in the study room.’
It might be natural for an object given by a shaman to cause strange occurrences, but still, it felt weird.
“Rather than you bringing it, I found it when I was tidying the bedroom on the day Seoho-nim appeared.”
As expected, it wasn’t something he had packed, but rather the object had followed Seoho.
“Could I see it?”
An object that followed on its own felt somewhat ominous, but he felt he should at least examine it. At Seoho’s question, Puti answered as if it wasn’t difficult.
“Since it’s originally Seoho-nim’s belonging, I’ll bring it to you tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“Is it an important object?”
“I’m not sure either.”
An awkward silence fell at Seoho’s ambiguous answer. Seoho was licking his lips when Puti looked at the clock and said.
“It’s midnight. Seoho-nim.”
“Ah, so it is.”
As Puti said, the clock was pointing to 12. It seemed things were running longer than planned.
It looked like there was one more thing to say to him, but there was nothing to be done.
“Then I should go to slee—”
Seoho, who had been thinking that waiting might actually be a burden, stopped talking and turned his head.
“Seoho-nim?”
“I think he’s coming.”
“Pardon?”
Seoho got up from his seat and took a step toward the door.
“Rosetta has arrived.”
“What do you…”
Before the words could finish, a commotion began to be heard from outside the door. And before long, someone shouted from a close distance.
“Your Majesty!”
Seoho and Puti’s eyes met. Puti, who had been staring at him blankly as if surprised, quickly arranged his expression and bowed his head.
“It seems His Majesty has arrived, just as Seoho-nim said.”
“…So it seems.”
He himself didn’t know how he had noticed, but Rosetta had really arrived.
Seoho pushed the question aside and took another step forward. For now, welcoming Rosetta, whom he was seeing after a long time, was more important.
He couldn’t particularly hear footsteps, but he could sense it. That door would open soon.
‘Three, two, one.’
At the same time, the door quietly opened and Rosetta appeared. Having spotted blue eyes resembling a lake through the gap in the open door, Seoho greeted him lightly.
“Welcome back, Rosetta?”
The eyes that had been indifferent yet somehow anxious softened gently and a warm light appeared. And soon he smiled as if melting.
“I’m back. Seoho.”
The trivial greeting entered through his ears and resonated greatly through his body. It was a warm resonance that made his whole body comfortable.
***
In the end, that night Seoho couldn’t tell Rosetta about the canary. Because by the time he came to his senses after smiling along with him, he was already on the bed.
And once he lay down on the bed, sleep naturally poured in, and when he closed his eyes once and opened them, sunlight was flooding in through the window.
Seoho, who had been blinking his eyes while staring blankly at the ceiling, broke into a soft smile at the beautiful face that suddenly appeared from above.
“Did you sleep well?”
Rosetta smiled brightly and answered.
“I slept well. What about you?”
“Me too.”
His head felt refreshed and his body felt light. When Seoho got up from the bed, Rosetta rang the bell to summon an attendant.
“What time is it?”
“9 o’clock.”
“I woke up a bit late.”
“Because we went to sleep late. I also just woke up not long ago.”
Looking at those wide-awake eyes, this was clearly a lie. Seoho was about to point that out when Rosetta glanced at Puti entering the room and opened his mouth again.
“Seoho, you have something you want to talk about, right?”
Since he had guessed that he had noticed, Seoho obediently nodded.
“Should we have that conversation while eating breakfast?”
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
He thought he might be lacking a sense of crisis a bit, but having slept soundly and waking up to face Rosetta’s bright face, what had happened when he wasn’t there began to feel like it really was nothing.
Seoho leisurely washed up and finished breakfast without any particular rush. Of course, during the meal he told everything about the previous day without omission.
When Seoho’s story ended, Rosetta put down his water glass and answered.
“It’s certainly suspicious.”
“Right? What could its identity be?”
Rosetta rang the bell once more and answered.
“It didn’t reveal its identity on its own, and even if it had revealed its identity in the first place, it would be hard to believe that person’s words.”
As Rosetta said, even if the other party had obediently said who they were, Seoho wouldn’t have easily believed those words.
“I heard there are many guests at the palace—could it be one of the guests?”
Rosetta twisted up one corner of his mouth.
“It’s not impossible, but I doubt there’s anyone that stupid.”
“Stupid?”
“There shouldn’t be anyone among the nobles who would dare to challenge me.”
Coldly lowered eyes, and the threatening atmosphere flowing from him. It was a completely different appearance from his usual self, but Seoho didn’t point out that aspect of Rosetta.
“Then could it not be someone from the Empire?”
Rosetta, smiling sweetly again, gently patted the back of Seoho’s hand.
“Even so, we can’t completely rule it out, so I’ll investigate.”
“Yes.”
Just when it seemed the conversation was roughly wrapping up, there was a knock on the door and Puti entered the room. And the servants who followed Puti in cleared the table and left the room.
‘As expected, it’s a bit uncomfortable if it’s not Puti.’
The moment the servants entered, he kept his mouth firmly shut and waited for them to leave, when Puti approached Seoho and held out something.
Seoho, who realized what was in Puti’s hand, received the object.
“What’s this?”
When Rosetta looked closely at the object in Seoho’s hand, Puti answered.
“It’s the object called an eunjangdo that Seoho-nim mentioned.”
“Thank you.”
At Seoho’s thanks, Puti smiled broadly and left the room again. When Puti left, Rosetta asked as if he had been waiting.
“An eunjangdo?”
“I found out yesterday while talking with Puti—when I came, this apparently came along with me.”
For something that had followed Seoho here on its own, the eunjangdo held in his hand was nothing but ordinary.
“Come to think of it, I think I heard a story about a small knife.”
“So you knew too, Rosetta?”
Come to think of it, it would be strange if Rosetta didn’t know when Puti knew.
“I heard about it when you couldn’t wake up. So what is it?”
Seoho answered nonchalantly.
“Should I say it’s both for self-defense and an ornament?”
“It’s too small to be for self-defense, isn’t it?”
“Well, I received it as a gift, you see.”
Rosetta held out his hand and asked.
“May I examine it for a moment?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
The eunjangdo that had been small even in Seoho’s hand looked like a toy that even a child couldn’t play with when in Rosetta’s hand.
Rosetta, who had been examining it this way and that with the eunjangdo, removed the sheath and said.
“The blade is too sharp to be an ornament.”
That was true. Rosetta examined the sharp blade this way and that, then asked.
“Why did they give this to you as a gift?”
“After eyes appeared on the wall, I went to see a shaman. That shaman gave it to me.”
Rosetta, who slowly blinked while fluttering his eyelashes, pushed the eunjangdo back into the sheath.
“You said it was a skilled shaman.”
“Pardon?”
Rosetta stared intently at Seoho and said.
“At that time, you once muttered that they were a skilled shaman.”
It seemed he had muttered to himself without realizing it. He put the eunjangdo on the table and asked.
“Will you tell me a story related to that person called a shaman?”
Seoho looked back and forth between Rosetta and the small knife.
“Since it’s not a story completely unrelated to Rosetta.”
Rosetta probably wouldn’t particularly like the story of the knife the shaman had given as a way to avoid him, but since nothing the shaman had said was wrong, this object she had given must certainly be unusual.
‘Not to mention the fact that it followed.’
This small knife held in his hand, whose existence he hadn’t even been aware of, was an object that needed attention in many ways.
