Don, Sun An’s close male servant, shook his head while sobbing in response to my question.

“I don’t know what happened either. A woman I’ve never seen before came with a newborn boy in her arms, claiming the child is our young master’s. She said she was our young master’s lover, but he abandoned her when he was to marry a princess. She tried to accept it for the sake of our young master’s future, but then the child was born, so she came. She’s crying, begging us to take the child, saying it would be better for him to grow up as an illegitimate child in a noble house than for her to raise him.”

“What? That’s nonsense! Sun An has never been involved in such things!”

“Exactly. I’m always with our young master, and as you know, young lord, our young master is quite naive. You’re the playboy, not our young master… I’m sorry. I apologize. This lowly one has spoken out of turn.”

I waved my hand.

“It’s fine. It’s not like people don’t know.”

“I apologize, young lord. This lowly one is too agitated right now.”

I’m agitated too. I am.

What on earth is going on? This never happened before the regression.

“What about the elders of the Sun family? Do they believe this?”

“Of course, the third lady and the third master don’t believe it. But the head of the family and the second master’s couple are blaming our young master outright, scolding him severely for being shameless, frivolous, and even heartless. Our young master is locked in the storehouse now!”

Don kept crying as he spoke. I was dumbfounded and asked again.

“Why would they immediately believe the words of a stranger when it’s just a one-sided claim?”

Don’s lips quivered, then he buried his face in his hands and cried out.

“Because the child that woman brought looks exactly like our young master!”

“Come on, don’t all babies look similar?”

“Do they?”

Truthfully, I had rarely seen babies. But what could I say here?

I grabbed my outer robe and put it on as I headed out.

“Let’s go see.”

We immediately went to Sun An’s family home.

The gatekeeper opened the way right away, and as we entered, the atmosphere inside was clearly different from when I had come before. The bright and bustling atmosphere that had developed as marriage talks progressed had turned dark and heavy.

As Don and I walked, the servants and maids kept glancing at us and whispering.

“It’s over there, young lord.”

I followed Don to the storehouse where Sun An was locked up. But we were blocked by large servants in front of the storehouse.

“Who are you? You cannot enter here.”

Don quickly stepped forward and shouted.

“This is the young master of the Yo family and the Prince’s foreign affairs official! Who are you to block our young lord!”

At Don’s words, the servants flinched and exchanged glances.

While the 13th Prince might be treated lowly among the princes, to ordinary people, a prince was still a prince. Moreover, when Don omitted the number 13, the servants seemed confused.

But before the servants could step aside, intimidated by the name, someone approached and spoke coldly.

“Is it right for an official to intimidate innocent people with an empty title?”

I turned to see the cold-faced young master of this house who had walked away when the marriage talks first came up.

Sun An’s cousin. His name was Sun Hyun, wasn’t it?

As our eyes met, Sun Hyun smiled at the corners of his mouth and spoke with a seemingly polite smile.

“Please refrain from threatening our household servants, Foreign Affairs Official.”

“I heard An was locked up here, so I came.”

Sun Hyun, as far as I knew, had risen to the position of Saejikjik (4th rank official).

He was a person who had passed the great examination, graduated from the Royal Academy, and started directly as a Taejahwa (a term for 4th, 5th, and 6th rank officials).

Perhaps that’s why. Unlike his household servants who were immediately intimidated by the mention of a prince, Sun Hyun’s gaze toward me had a hint of disdain.

But I, before the regression, had walked alongside the 13th Prince as he rose from the bottom to claim the throne, even though I was ultimately poisoned at the end.

No matter how elite and promising Sun Hyun was, he wasn’t that frightening to me.

“I came to see An.”

Sun Hyun raised one corner of his mouth at my words and spoke, pretending to be kind.

“I’m sorry, Foreign Affairs Official. But this is our family matter. It’s a great discourtesy to interfere in another family’s affairs.”

“It’s a family matter, but it’s also a state matter. How can you solve anything by immediately locking someone up when things aren’t even certain yet?”

At my words, Sun Hyun seemed to think for a moment before saying, “Very well.” Then he pointed somewhere and urged.

“Then follow me. I can’t let An out. We can’t let An harm the woman who came with the child.”

“An isn’t that kind of person.”

“I thought so too until now. But today I learned. You really can’t know a person’s true nature. Come this way. I’ll show you the child that woman brought. Then you’ll understand why we immediately confined An.”

Since I needed to see the child anyway, I deliberately spoke loud enough for Don to hear.

“Don. I’ll be right back after seeing the child, so don’t go anywhere and stay here.”

I was saying this in advance in case Sun Hyun’s servants might try to lock Don up somewhere while I wasn’t looking.

But I couldn’t bring Don along either, as I was worried they might move An somewhere else in the meantime.

“Yes. I’ll definitely stay here. If I go somewhere else, it absolutely won’t be of my own will!”

The clever Don immediately understood my words and shouted.

I followed Sun Hyun as we walked.

As we went towards the inner quarters, the number of male servants decreased dramatically, and the number of female servants noticeably increased.

I was getting nervous, wondering if he might take me all the way to the women’s quarters, but fortunately, Sun Hyun didn’t go that far. He opened the door of a small building attached just before entering the inner quarters.

Then I saw a woman sitting leaning against a bed in a small room. Beside the woman, a matron of this household was holding a baby.

“You’ve come, young master.”

As we entered, both the matron and the woman who had been lying down rose and greeted us. Sun Hyun gestured for them to stay comfortable and instructed the matron.

“Bring the child and show him to the Foreign Affairs Official.”

The matron, while glancing at me, immediately came over with the baby and held it out to me.

I looked at the baby, breathing heavily. Don’t all baby faces look the same! What do you mean it looks alike?

“!”

However, the baby truly did resemble Sun An a lot. It was almost like a miniature Sun An?

As I was so surprised that I couldn’t say anything for a moment, Sun Hyun smiled and asked.

“What do you think?”

“……”

That day passed in a blur.

But one thing was certain: the situation had become very troublesome. I, too, would find it difficult to stay uninvolved in this matter. After all, wasn’t I the one who had connected Sun An with the 9th Princess?

Of course, I had only made it possible for the 9th Princess to see Sun An, but that’s no excuse. If I hadn’t intervened, there’s no way the 9th Princess would have seen Sun An at the palace when he hadn’t even taken the great examination.

‘His Majesty might want to kill me.’

I tossed and turned on my bed all night, unable to sleep properly.

Not just me, but Sun An too might face severe consequences if this goes wrong. From what I could see, Sun An’s family had no intention of protecting him.

The possibility of the Emperor and Empress covering this up and proceeding with the marriage talks… is probably non-existent.

A marriage with a man who already has a child before the wedding ceremony? They will absolutely not marry their precious 9th Princess to Sun An. Not only that, but they might also punish Sun An to save the 9th Princess’s face.

A chill ran down my spine, and I went outside at dawn, pacing the courtyard while listening to the sound of insects.

Before the regression, when Lin Hwa and Sun An’s marriage was proceeding, something happened that ruined the marriage talks too.

But I don’t know what that was. At that time, the marriage talks were clearly handled by the elders, so they didn’t tell me anything about it.

Could this be that incident?

‘No. It can’t be.’

If it were something this serious, Sun An would have told me about it, wouldn’t he?

Moreover, after the marriage talks fell through, Sun An suddenly went to live in a distant place and lost contact from there.

I tried to find him, but the Sun family just told me on his behalf that Sun An didn’t want to see me.

‘It’s strange.’

Both before and after the regression, every time he was about to get married, the marriage talks fell through.

And the sudden loss of contact before the regression is strange too. At the time, I thought he had cut off contact because he felt sorry about the failed marriage talks with Lin Hwa. But even that was too abrupt.

The Sun An I know would have at least explained his reasons before cutting off contact.

Besides, the story that Sun An didn’t want to see me was, after all, something I only heard secondhand. I never heard it directly from him.

‘Sun An was said to have been attacked by an assassin once.’

Sun An was truly a friend who embodied the ‘chastity’ that the 13th Prince emphasized so much.

But now a child that didn’t exist before the regression has suddenly appeared. And he was ambushed in the past too.

And Sun Hyun… As soon as this incident occurred, he immediately confined Sun An and didn’t even let me meet him. He should be trying to resolve this matter well, even for the sake of his own family. It’s as if he’s decided to blame Sun An outright.

It’s strange.

‘Could someone be trying to prevent Sun An from marrying the 9th Princess?’

In the end, that day I went to the palace without having slept a wink. It was obvious that the Emperor would summon me again on my way to the Moon Palace.

And as expected, before I reached the Moon Palace, I met Song Taegam again.

“Official Yo. His Majesty wishes to see you.”

Following Song Taegam, I once again had a private audience with the Emperor, who glared at me with blazing eyes as if ready to unleash the anger he couldn’t fully express before, and asked.

“I have heard a very displeasing story, Foreign Affairs Official.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“They say Sun An has a child.”

“Someone has made such a claim. But we don’t know for sure yet.”

“You saw the child, didn’t you?”

How does the Emperor know that I saw the child?

‘Sun Hyun? Or the head of the Sun family? Sun An’s second uncle?’

Either way, it means someone from the Sun family promptly reported this matter to the Emperor.

Someone who hates him enough to not care even if Sun An might die if this matter becomes serious!

“Yes.”

For now, I answered obediently.

The Emperor asked in a voice filled with suppressed anger.

“What did that child look like?”

“The child did resemble Sun An.”

Whether it was Sun Hyun or someone else from the Sun family who had already spoken, this part couldn’t be hidden. The Emperor might even check the child’s face himself, so if I lied, I might end up taking the blame instead.

As soon as I honestly confessed this, something flew at me again.

‘Is it another royal decree?’

This time, I didn’t avoid it and just took it with my head.

But the pain in my head was unexpectedly intense. Moreover, there was a sound of stone breaking from my head.

I seemed to black out for a moment, and when I blinked my eyes, I saw an inkstone rolling in my line of sight, with blood mixing with the spilled ink.

Damn it. That Emperor finally threw the inkstone.