If You Claim the Fallen Heiress - Chapter 98

They couldn’t see Mu-yeong under the dark tree. Perhaps they wouldn’t have seen him even without the tree’s shade. Subtle emotions began to ripple in Mu-yeong’s eyes that had darkened and sunk.

As if feeding into it, Kim Seon couldn’t take his gaze off Yuseol’s face. It was the appearance of someone feeling happiness from being enchanted by beauty. While smiling gently, he subtly narrowed the distance with her.

“What a coincidence this is. I was just going to Cheonghweru to get some fresh air.”

She looked at the ground with her sseugaechima draped over her arm.

“I am deeply honored to meet Your Majesty.”

Mu-yeong’s pupils became cloudy, and Kim Seon’s expression was colored with satisfaction.

“I’m also satisfied that you like it. But what is that in your hand?”

She lightly showed the golden silk she was holding in her hand and answered.

“It’s yakgwa. The young lady prepared it for me.”

“Yakgwa. It’s a snack I don’t know when I last ate.”

She nodded and only looked out at the scenery. Though difficult and uncomfortable emotions were clearly visible, her eyes were as stable as if she were truly a woman called Sahwa.

She was probably enduring impatience to appear that way. But what was the reason for jumping into this trap while bearing such trouble?

He didn’t know if blood relatives were such important beings. Because he didn’t know, she seemed both reckless and foolish to him.

However, he was curious about what could be gained from such a life.

If time passed like this, he would be able to know. It was something that could be done by waiting.

Darkness began to settle over the sunset. Kim Seon and she showed no signs of hurrying on their way.

It was rather Mu-yeong who became impatient. He no longer tried to know the reason why that happened.

She casually asked Kim Seon.

“Does Your Majesty dislike snacks?”

“I don’t particularly like them, but I do eat them sometimes.”

While making small talk, they slowly passed by Mu-yeong. Kim Seon suddenly looked at Yuseol. Dark emotions were contained in the gaze that was briefly visible. Something other than the passion to figure out her identity no matter what. Dangerous things like vague longing, impulse, and anxiety.

“It would be lonely to get fresh air alone, so would you like to have them together at the Cheonghweru pavilion?”

An awkward breeze cut between the two. Yuseol pushed her hair fluttering in the breeze behind her ear and glanced up at Kim Seon.

Time flowed endlessly. As if having decided something, she lightly clenched her fist. Her face, which met Kim Seon’s eyes, wore a gentle smile. It was a moment when her face receiving the sunset shone particularly brightly.

“Yes. I am deeply honored, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, I look forward to it.”

The man and woman began to move away. Their backs dyed in sunset light matched very well.

Mu-yeong was calm, but his translucent pupils were darker than they had ever been. Even after they were completely out of sight, they maintained the same color.

Those eyes fell to the open book.

For some reason, he had been endlessly wandering the same page.

***

Yuseol was on her way into the pavilion at Cheonghweru. Kim Seon recommended a railing spot that was wide and flat like a chair.

When she sat there, Kim Seon took a seat alongside her.

Time continued as they silently appreciated the scenery. Golden waves were brilliant over the tranquil palace. Nostalgic dazzlement surged toward Yuseol’s eyes. A feeling as if she had gone back through time to the past shimmered.

A bitter smile appeared on Yuseol’s lips. Everything had been easy today. She had safely finished conversations with notable women, and there hadn’t been any particular suspicion. She had also coincidentally encountered Kim Seon, whom it had been difficult to see even once. Until she came to spend time with him like this.

Before that incident happened, these had all been difficult things. She had always waited for him, but he was too busy and frighteningly cold.

In a situation where her request to take walks together became childish whining, Yuseol had learned how to let time pass. And she had become accustomed to it. It was perhaps natural that she felt anxious and impatient in the suddenly encountered unfamiliar situation.

Yuseol put strength into her trembling hands and unwrapped the cloth packaging the yakgwa, placing it on the railing. A eunuch approached and tasted the yakgwa first.

Time began to flow peacefully. Kim Seon, who had been sitting quietly and waiting, picked up a yakgwa.

He had been weak since childhood, so he had stayed away from greasy foods. Ridiculously, after all of Yuseol’s time studying the foods he avoided, he easily bit into the yakgwa.

“The taste is good. I’ll have them bring this to the refreshment table often from now on.”

A gentle smile formed on his face. Yuseol didn’t believe that smile was sincere. Somehow it seemed like there was another purpose besides leisurely spending time like this. Something like revealing the identity of the woman called Sahwa, or an even more certain purpose.

Just as he had his goal, Yuseol also had her own goal. She had just heard that her sister was imprisoned in a mountain cave prison. She wanted to think of a good way to bring her back before she fell into more danger.

While she was pondering, she felt his gaze. When she met his eyes, he didn’t hide his gaze where attraction was nakedly revealed.

She looked beyond the pavilion, avoiding his gaze. An expensive forget-me-not fragrance carried on the breeze. It was a costly fragrance that only this man could use in this country. When she was young, she used to follow this scent to find him. The yakgwa she bit into was bitter.

Looking at Yuseol’s hair fluttering in the wind, he asked quietly.

“Does that man still not know your face?”

Yuseol hesitated at first, not understanding the meaning of his words. Then a conversation she had forgotten dimly circled around her ears.

“Your Majesty, the Hongui tribe, who consider the eyes a secret place, have a custom of showing their entire face only to the husband who spent the first night with them. That’s why Sahwa also had no choice but to avoid the gathering yesterday after seeing Your Majesty.”

“Are you saying the trading company’s customs are more important than the king’s command?”

“The fate of a Hongui tribe woman who shows her face to a man other than her husband is suicide, Your Majesty.”

Kim Seon examined Yuseol’s reaction with lively eyes.