SPRFG 22

 

Chapter 22

Ilgentavita Empire’s Koreatown (15)

I read one line of the detailed description written under the picture, felt so embarrassed that I threw it away, and then noticed another sheet of paper underneath.

This time, it contained a guess that the Crown Prince was probably the son Empress Dowager had conceived with another man. The reason given was that the Emperor was surely impotent.

I lifted another sheet.

There was a picture showing the Empress and the Empress Dowager giving the Emperor to each other. The explanation said that the Emperor was a husband who could not satisfy women. This also contained a subtle insult implying that the Crown Prince was not the Emperor’s son.

Every time I turned over another sheet, similar things appeared.

The Imperial Family probably did not consist only of the Emperor, Crown Prince, Empress, and Empress Dowager, yet the main characters were always fixed as these four.

The printed materials mainly focused on questioning the Crown Prince’s legitimacy and sexually mocking the Emperor and Crown Prince.

Hwanhee knew what this was.

It was propaganda.

It was not simply pornography. It was the first weak point those who wanted to damage the authority of a monarch would attack.

Once the people learned that even high-ranking people were no different from commoners, they gained a stepping stone toward taking the next action.

People felt delighted as they crushed and mocked the monarch’s honor.

Then, naturally, they began looking for ways to enjoy that delight for a little longer.

Even before the French Revolution, pornography had spread widely, depicting how foreign envoys and the king’s cousins had played around with the queen.

Her heart pounded as if it would break her ribs.

Her head hurt.

‘Revolution! Revolution. Revolution?’

At that moment, that was the only thing she could think about.

With trembling fingers, she searched through the papers a little more.

The same pictures had been drawn repeatedly on several sheets.

There were even papers that had been roughly crumpled, as if the person had become angry because the drawings did not come out properly.

They were traces of practice.

She was so absorbed in looking at them that she failed to hear the footsteps approaching until they were right beside her.

“Ah, you saw them.”

The man smiled gently without showing even the slightest surprise.

His white skin looked so firm that it seemed as if it could bounce away any words thrown at him.

“Ah……!”

There were so many things she wanted to say, but her one mouth could not say them all at once.

Along with her lips, several words froze in the air.

Did you draw these? You draw well. You have talent.

Are we really going to keep speaking formally to each other?

But are you crazy?

If you get caught doing something like this, you will be beheaded immediately.

A certain instinct brushed the back of her neck.

“Did Aiolia know…… too?”

“As expected. I told you that you were quite something. My eyes were not wrong. You can figure out something like this right away.”

The man who was printing anti-Imperial Family pornography propaganda collected guns.

The scratch marks left on his neck.

His missing younger sister.

And his attitude, as if he had known she would disappear.

The fragments of truth were finding their places, like pieces of a broken porcelain vessel being put back together.

Even when she shouted for it to stop, the guess continued running endlessly, like an innocent child who would not listen and ran away.

‘The reason this man never searched for his sister was because he knew what had happened to her!’

It felt as if her spine were splitting apart with a cracking sound.

Both her cheeks trembled.

Her lips would not close.

The center of her forehead felt numb, as if she had been struck.

Her reason was becoming paralyzed.

Even the little mental strength she had left was disappearing without a trace, like strong liquor poured out and evaporating.

She wanted to grab onto something.

But when she clenched her hand, all she could hold was a fist.

“Adriano, you…….

You pretended to be loyal to the Emperor on the outside while secretly plotting something like this.

There is no one who would put the Imperial Family into erotic paintings just because they wanted to draw naughty pictures.

You are an anti-Imperialist.

And you did not do this alone.

How large is the force behind you?”

“I’ll tell you if I like what I hear you say.

Interesting.

Go on.”

To someone who did not know the circumstances, it might have looked as though Hwanhee was the one who had been caught doing something wrong.

Their attitudes had completely reversed.

Hwanhee trembled, while Adan sat with his legs crossed, completely relaxed.

She felt dizzy.

As if she had a fever from an illness, her mouth stumbled over the words.

“You have more guns than I can count on both hands.

If an ordinary person saw them, they might think you were just a nobleman’s son showing off.

But I know that you also have real ammunition.”

“Ah, I was careful to hide the ammunition.

How did you know?”

“I actually didn’t know……

But I guess you really did have it.”

“Ha.

You were smarter than my younger sister.

I regret that I didn’t realize it sooner.”

It was past midnight.

An older brother wearing only a simple shirt and trousers, and a younger sister wearing pajamas.

From far away, they might have looked quite affectionate.

If one looked from thousands of steps away, from a place where the city itself was only a faint outline.

I wonder if the stars shining in the distant night sky would also be tangled in such complicated and filthy truths if one went closer to them.

“An older brother plotting a conspiracy to destroy the Empire.

His innocent younger sister, who knew absolutely nothing about him, entered his room one day and learned a truth she could not handle.

The younger sister must have suffered and then decided to report her brother.

Because she thought that was the way to truly help him.

And that brother……”

Hwanhee took a breath and carefully chose her words.

There was no need to be cautious.

Adan interrupted her as if cutting off her words.

He spoke aloud the possibility that had only been wandering through her mind as a formless guess.

“He made a political decision.”

“That brother killed his younger sister!”

She screamed.

She could taste blood in her throat.

Adan tightly closed his eyes as if he were in pain.

“And even after doing that……

You pretended to care about your sister! You pretended to cherish her!

When I was asleep, what did you say to her at the end?

‘Die well’?

‘I hope you go to a good place’?

‘I’m sorry I killed you twice, but I couldn’t help it for the greater cause’?”

“That’s right.

You also heard enough of an answer to that.”

He undid the first two buttons of his shirt.

When he pulled the shirt aside himself, the scratches on his chest became clearly visible.

Three parallel lines of bruised wounds remained on his neck, showing no sign of healing even after several days.

“Murderer……”

Hwanhee whispered.

Adan did not deny it.

He lowered his eyes and buttoned his clothes again.

He spoke.

“Let’s stop the moral argument here.

Now, let’s talk about something more future-oriented.

You won’t report me.

The Hwanhee I have observed for about the past month doesn’t seem to understand what domination and subordination are, what status is, or what a monarch is.

Rather than becoming a loyal subject of the Empire, you cannot even exist as a part of this place.”

“Should I thank you for your great generosity in not killing me?”

Tears flowed.

Hwanhee could not clearly tell whether she was crying or Aiolia was crying.

Her eyes were burning so badly that she could hardly keep them open, but she forced them upward anyway.

Everything she could see became blurry and mixed together before flowing downward.

There was a salty taste in her mouth.

So this was the taste of the tears of a younger sister who had been killed by the older brother she loved.

And mixed into them were also the tears of the only person who mourned her death.

She hesitated, wondering if holding back her tears would somehow dull the light of that mourning.

But she clenched her teeth tightly.

Her shoulders kept rising and falling.

One hand gently held her chin.

Another hand came closer and slowly wiped her cheek.

A hand that was so warm and firm.

With her vision becoming a little clearer, the owner of that hand met her eyes.

“You don’t need to thank me.”

She sniffed but firmly knocked Adan’s hand away.

Adan withdrew his hand with a regretful expression.

He tilted his head.

His eyes remained fixed on her.

His rotating face was as strange as it was persistent, and as persistent as it was strange.

“Can’t you at least participate as a comrade based on trust?”

“What?”

“Join our constitutional monarchist faction.”

It was an offer made by someone who had already seen through the fact that his opponent could not refuse.

Hwanhee realized once again that he already knew everything.

Among those who could not imagine any political system other than the Empire, she was someone who knew what that other world looked like.

Both of them knew the power of human imagination.

A child who tasted candy once learned that candy was sweet.

The child also learned that they could do anything to taste that candy again.

Imagination, ideology—these were sweeter and more desirable than any candy humans had ever made.

Once someone tasted them, they would naturally reach toward them, like a vine stretching its stem toward sunlight.

If that was the reason and rationality humans were born with, how could it be called a bad thing?

Just as a bird that knows what lies outside its cage will immediately fly through a gap when the bars bend, the same was true of someone who naturally knew a world without an absolute monarch.

Adan smiled leisurely.

As if to help her make her decision, he added one more thing.

“If you agree, I promise that I will do my best to delay the marriage.”

“You can do that?”

Hwanhee wiped her tears with her elbow and raised her eyes.

She asked.

He seemed to think for a moment while looking into the air, then calmly answered.

“When we’re both negotiating a deal, I have to put at least this much on the table.

Anyway, everything that happened recently was an accident.

I never expected Ila to find out what I was doing.

I never expected you to suddenly appear here in Ila’s place.

And I never expected a marriage proposal to come either.

But if you join our side, I can’t simply send you to the north before even giving you any work, can I?

I’ll help you.”

When she gave no answer, he smiled and asked casually, as if testing her.

“You don’t actually want to get married, do you?”

She wanted to stop time.

If this was a matter serious enough to risk her life over, she should have thought about it for at least three days and three nights.

There was a reason Adan was smiling so happily.

It was a pretty good offer.

It was a good opportunity to put her ideals into the minds of many people.

There was also a sense of purpose in working for the progress of the world.

She could avoid marriage too.

The fact that she could lose her life was a fatal disadvantage, but in a place where the average lifespan was only twenty or thirty years, even if you did nothing, you could step on a broken spoon and die of tetanus.

There was no reason to refuse.

She wondered if perhaps she had entered this novel in order to start a revolution.

If she thought about it any further, she felt she might accept.

So Hwanhee shouted as if screaming.

“No!”

His expression did not crack even slightly.

He continued smiling.

“Why?”

“If the greater cause means killing innocent people even before it begins, then it would be better if there were no such greater cause.”

Because once a revolution began, countless people would have to die even without anyone making an effort to kill them.

He was already a man who had killed his younger sister.

Even if he could not actively recruit her, he had been unable to persuade his own sister not to report him.

That meant he was terrible as an agitator too.

Why should she trust a revolution she knew nothing about and join it?

If a nobleman like this was running around among the revolutionaries, then it was obvious that they either lacked capable people, lacked sincerity, or lacked both.

There had been many cases where nobles or elites tried to lead revolutions, but both the Decembrist Revolt and the Gapsin Coup had failed.

Above all, she had no interest in revolution.

She did not want to cause trouble.

She wanted to live as long as possible.

Only then could she return to her original world.

She had decided to do her best to live, but that only concerned her own life.

It was already difficult enough to find out how she had come to this world and how she could return.

What she wanted was simply to live a quiet and peaceful life, without getting married, of course, and then go back to Korea.

Everything else was bothersome.

A revolution?

A revolution was only a revolution if it succeeded.

If it failed, it would simply disappear into history as one ordinary uprising.

There was only one reason she dismissed it by calling it bothersome.

She was afraid.

What if she were caught and tortured?

What if she were executed?

What if she were locked in prison until she died?

There was too much to lose.

Her life, safety, comfort, and everyday life.

Even if she held onto those things with all her strength, they could still slip through her fingers.

She did not want to throw them away first for no reason.

She thought that people who wanted to carry out revolutions should do so as much as they wanted.

Her best-case scenario was to live happily in the wonderful world created by those people.

Adan leaned diagonally against the desk and met her eyes.

The atmosphere suddenly became cold.

It felt as if even time might freeze.

The night wind sobbed as it scattered the branches outside the window.

It tore her thoughts and heart into a thousand pieces.

The papers rolling ominously around her feet seemed to be giggling unpleasantly.

Only the candle burning in concentric circles against the wall remained firmly in its place.

Hwanhee was afraid of this man.

Just as a carnivorous flower decorates its petals in bright colors to catch insects, this murderer sharpened his weapon with manners and kindness.

All she could do was blame her own judgment for having trusted such a person.

For now, she decided she would blame herself after getting a good night’s sleep.

She opened her mouth.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“What?”

“I won’t report you.

So you don’t put my life in danger either.”

“Fine.”

The negotiation was settled right there.

When she tried to leave, the man politely opened the door for her.

She did not even have the strength to look him directly in the eyes anymore.

With her head lowered, Hwanhee left his room.

That day, Hwanhee left the house.

She only took clothes she could wear immediately and jewelry that did not look expensive.

She thought that when a person suddenly came to possess many things that were not originally theirs, there would eventually come a day when they had to return them with interest.

The only heavy thing she needed was the heart inside her chest.

Before leaving, she looked around the room one last time.

The large, soft bed.

The smooth desk that seemed to carry the scent of wood.

The fireplace that always burned warmly.

The window that made her feel as if it had opened itself to her heart.

She did not think she would miss any of those things.

However, she thought she might sometimes miss this quietness and comfort.

She asked herself if she was truly ready to give them up.

More desperately than ever, she needed sleeping pills.

She wished someone would even knock her unconscious and hold her back so she could not leave this place.

But that did not happen.

She walked through the long corridor where the only sound was the noise of her shoe heels striking the marble floor.

She knew it would be cold outside.

Her body, wrapped in as many clothes as possible, was uncomfortable to move.

Should she go back to her room now?

Should she take off her clothes, unpack her things, and simply go to sleep as if nothing had happened?

Even as she wavered, her footsteps continued moving forward little by little.

At last, she came to the entrance.

Only then did she realize that the carriage she had ridden out with Adan had not actually returned carrying only the two of them.

It had carried fate.

She should have realized it sooner.

Fate had been leaning lazily against the doorframe.

When it saw her come out, it followed closely behind her in the form of a shadow.

In the wildly blowing night wind, only the shadow seemed excited, jumping around playfully.

Everything thrown toward the sky falls back to the ground.

She had always known that, but somehow it hurt now.

She had thrown her bag with all her strength, as if it might reach the moon.

Watching it barely clear the wall before falling with a wet thud made her miserable situation feel painfully real.

Outside was the world.

A world with cold but no wall to block it.

A world with darkness but not a single light to illuminate it.

A place where she had to stand firm against several dozen times as much anger, frustration, stubbornness, lies, and sin with only a handful of kindness and hope.

She climbed over the bars.

After jumping down and rolling two or three times, she opened her eyes.

There was herself.

A being that had not existed before.

She admitted that she was neither Heo Hwanhee nor Aiolia.

At the same time, she was both Heo Hwanhee and Aiolia.

She was a monster precariously stitched together like a rag made from pieces of two beings—

one whose body could not die,

and one whose soul could not die.

She needed a new name.

She decided to call herself Ju-Ai.

In this place, it was the word for ‘joy,’ meaning Hwanhee.

It was a name that suited her perfectly.

She was ready to disappear into the scenery of the city.

It was a long night.

The woman who, only moments ago, had been two people and no one at the same time, staggered to her feet.

‘Mom, Dad, I’m doing well, right?’

She muttered inside her heart.

Yes, that’s right, our daughter. Stay strong.

There were four voices answering her.

The shadow collapsed onto the ground with a soft thud.