“I don’t care who your master’s fickle heart beats for this time. But I hope it’s not the Emperor. That would be too fast.”

“Too fast?”

“You need to survive for a long time.”

“!”

Survive for a long time, master. So I can kill you at the end. But if you side with the Emperor, you won’t live long.

Is this what he’s saying? I feel my heart seize up at his words.

I’m struggling hard to live a long life. Yet my disciple is still waiting for the chance to kill me. How on earth can I soften this disciple’s heart even a little?

“And if there’s anywhere you want to decorate in Wolmugung, let me know in advance.”

“Why are you suddenly talking about Wolmugung…”

“There are still a few years until our marriage, but it’s good to allow plenty of time for proper repairs and construction. When you and I marry, things will get noisy outside. Even if we don’t marry publicly and try to keep it quiet, some important ministers and royal family members will know, and those few people will make trouble for us. When that time comes, you probably won’t want to go outside Wolmugung, so decorate it well as if you’re preparing your nest.”

What… Is he saying it’s the prison I’ll enter, so he’ll do it to my taste? Why does it sound like that?

The unexpected incident where the 13th Prince and Lin Hwa almost got married ended with those cryptic words left by the Emperor and the 13th Prince.

Fortunately, relatively uneventful days followed afterwards. I continued giving my disciple meaningless but earnest lessons as before, and my disciple listened to my lectures without much fuss.

Sometimes it was obvious when he was thinking about other things, but what could I do? He probably wasn’t listening to my lessons to study anyway.

Still, when it was too obvious that my disciple wasn’t paying attention to my lessons, I couldn’t help but exact some petty revenge.

“Your Highness. May I give a surprise quiz?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. But as my disciple, you have no choice.”

“…”

Even if I deliberately searched for passages in the corners of the book to use as test questions, my disciple still got them all right. However, no one but a pervert would be happy taking a test, so it must have served as revenge to some extent.

Fortunately, my disciple only frowned slightly at this level of petty revenge and let it pass.

Sun An started exchanging letters with the 9th Princess, and it seems he quite likes her. The evidence was that his form of address changed from “our Princess” to “our brilliant Princess” and then to “my Princess.”

On the other hand, his relationship with Lin Hwa was going perfectly downhill. They were never on good terms to begin with, but it wasn’t to the point of not speaking at all. These days, Lin Hwa won’t even make eye contact with me when she encounters me during her visits to pay respects.

“You’re the elder sister. Try approaching her first.”

“That’s right. Everything has gone as you wanted anyway. Show some grace as the victor.”

Pushed by our parents in this way, I tried speaking to her first exactly three times, but was thoroughly ignored all three times.

After that, no matter what our parents said, I stopped trying to talk to Lin Hwa, to the point where even my ladies-in-waiting and Lin Hwa’s were growing distant.

Just as we were living relatively uneventful days like this, news came that Princess Bomun would be arriving.

‘Princess Bomun… Princess Bomun. What was she like again?’

Before my regression, Princess Bomun also came on Dongcho Day, the first day of the 12th month, which is a Hwaeum holiday.

She was a person from Taewol, where it was customary for royal family members far from the line of succession, regardless of gender, to travel around as envoys to foreign countries.

Especially since Princess Bomun had visited here several times before, no one found it strange when it was announced that she would be coming here to commemorate Dongcho Day.

However, Princess Bomun who visited at this time makes two unexpected proposals. One is to send the Emperor’s youngest sister as a concubine, and the other is to take the 13th Prince as her husband and bring him to Taewol.

The concubine story was unexpected, but not too surprising.

The Emperor’s sister they wanted to send as a concubine seemed like a noble status at first glance, and actually was noble, but in fact she was the daughter of a low-ranking concubine of the former Taewol Emperor, so her position was similar to our 13th Prince.

The Taewol Emperor’s thinking at this time was this: Last time, the Hwaeum Emperor took our side between Unwol and Taewol, and the Unwol Emperor got angry and sent a scroll to insult the Hwaeum Emperor.

The relationship between Hwaeum and Unwol is not good right now. Let’s use this opportunity for Hwaeum and Taewol to join hands!

To this end, the Taewol Emperor decided to send his powerless half-sister, who wasn’t very close to him and was awkward to marry off to a good family, here as a concubine, and to take the 13th Prince, who was in a similar position, as a son-in-law to Taewol.

In our Hwaeum, it’s considered the parents’ job to find and decide on marriage partners, so people were shocked by Princess Bomun’s proposal, but this isn’t the important part…

Anyway, the Emperor and ministers showed positive interest in the princess’s proposal.

However, in the end, only the Emperor took the Taewol princess as a concubine, and the marriage between the 13th Prince and Princess Bomun did not come to pass.

There were several incidents that prevented Princess Bomun’s marriage talks from progressing, but thinking about it now, it seems that both the Empress and the 13th Prince didn’t want the marriage, so they devised various schemes to overturn the talks.

The 13th Prince probably overturned it because he wanted revenge and didn’t want to go to Taewol.

The Empress probably overturned it because she didn’t like the part where Princess Bomun said “I can stay in Hwaeum depending on the situation” when conveying the marriage proposal.

She needs to make her daughter the Empress, so it wouldn’t do if the 13th Prince later returned with Princess Bomun and Taewol backing him.

‘It wasn’t an incident that concerned me much.’

I was just the 13th Prince’s teacher and a foreign envoy after all. Princess Bomun, angered by the 13th Prince’s cold treatment, tried to use me briefly to get his attention, but she quickly gave up when she realized it was useless.

The problem is that unlike before my regression, now there have been marriage talks between me and the 13th Prince… Moreover, those marriage talks are currently on hold, not completely overturned.

‘I hope this doesn’t cause trouble for me?’

There were briefly rumors among the palace people, but since the Emperor and Empress strictly ordered everyone to keep quiet, most consider it to be false rumors.

Even the few royal family members who know the truth probably won’t tell such things to a princess from another country.

‘Still, just in case, I should keep watching until the princess leaves.’

There are two major holidays in winter in Hwaeum, one of which is Dongcho Day and the other is New Year’s Day.

In the imperial palace, they receive greetings from the people on Dongcho Day and from the royal relatives on New Year’s Day, where “people” refers to the heads of prestigious families with high power and their dependents.

Whether one receives an invitation to this Dongcho Day event or not, and how many invitations one receives, essentially determines the power and honor of the nobles.

Our Yo family has never failed to receive an invitation to this Dongcho Day event, and this time was no exception. Up to this point, it was the same as before my regression.

“You say four invitations came?”

But unlike before my regression when we always received three invitations, this time we strangely received four.

“Yes. Her Majesty the Empress sent four this time.”

“It must be because Yohwa had marriage talks with the 13th Prince. Even though it’s on hold, it hasn’t been completely overturned.”

My parents passed over it without much thought, but I became a little anxious when something different from before my regression appeared even before the Dongcho Day event began.

‘It does seem like the Emperor told the Empress to send four because of my relationship with the 13th Prince, as my parents said…’

In any case, if there were four invitations, the additional person would be Lin Hwa. Because of this, Lin Hwa was entering the palace for Dongcho Day for the first time in her life, and perhaps because of that, a smile appeared on her face for the first time in a while after being gloomy recently.

When Lin Hwa’s expression brightened, my parents were so happy that they had everything newly made for her, from a gold bird-shaped hair ornament to a light pink outfit. Well, I suppose they would have had to prepare new clothes even if she wasn’t happy, since she had to enter the palace.

And finally, the day of Dongcho arrived.

My mother checked at least a dozen times whether the carriage our family would ride in was appropriate according to etiquette before getting in, and the carriage carrying our family of four moved slowly to the side gate of the imperial palace.

Even after getting off at the side gate, we received a brief inspection of small items before being guided by a eunuch to Akmujae where the banquet would be held.

“Father. Is the procedure always this strict?”

Lin Hwa, who had set out excited, seemed tired from the repeated inspections and quietly asked Father.

“Officials who come to work every day don’t get inspected every time. Today is a banquet day and many people who don’t usually come and go are gathering, so the inspection is stricter.”

While Father was giving various explanations to Lin Hwa, we finally arrived at Akmujae.

“This is the place, Lord Yo.”

When the eunuch bowed and simply withdrew, Lin Hwa was flustered, but Father calmly walked to where our family would be. Since we’re invited every year, he knows without needing an explanation.

But when Lin Hwa spotted some familiar faces around, she seemed to feel a bit more at ease and showed a calmer appearance.

That wasn’t all. Later, she became not just calm but started looking around intently at some of the higher seats.

‘I guess she wants to see the 9th Princess’s face.’

“Elder brother. Don’t the princesses or princes come here?”

See? I was right. Her curiosity about the 9th Princess seems to have even overcome her anger, as she’s even talking to me.

As much as I’d like to say ‘Go find out yourself’… There’s no need to fight with my sister in front of all these other families.

“Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t.”

“…What about that per… that person?”

“She came the year before last, but not this time.”

Lin Hwa was obviously disappointed, pouting her lips slightly and grumbling quietly before asking again.

“What about elder brother’s disciple?”

“He has never attended Dongcho Day. So this time too—”

Just as I was about to say he wouldn’t come.

“I’ve been looking for you, master.”

A familiar voice came from behind and I let out a small scream. Startled, I turned around to find my disciple standing there, having arrived at some point.

Lin Hwa’s eyes widened to the point of popping out when she saw my disciple. It was the most shocked face I’d seen in the past 10 years. Yes, he’s handsome. He is incredibly handsome.

Mother, too, though it was only the second time seeing him, seemed to find my disciple’s radiant appearance overwhelming and unnecessarily grabbed Father’s arm. But even in her surprise, she managed to bow in sync with me and Father.

“We pay our respects to Your Highness.”

Lin Hwa, on the other hand, asked urgently first.

“Elder brother, who is this person?”

Even though she just saw my disciple call me “master” and me call him “Your Highness” a moment ago. I guess she wants me to introduce her to my disciple.

Since I couldn’t not introduce her in this situation anyway, I answered right away.

“Your Highness. This is my younger sister, Lin Hwa. You’re seeing my sister for the first time, right? Lin Hwa, this is the 13th Prince. Greet him.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Lin Hwa bowed perfectly and gracefully as if she had been waiting for this moment.

“I pay my respects to the 13th Prince. I am Yo Lin Hwa, the younger sister of Yo the foreign envoy. It is an honor to meet Your Highness, the 13th Prince. I have always heard many good things about you from my elder brother. He says you are wise and dignified. I have always respected you and wanted to meet you, and I am so happy to finally be able to see you like this.”

But why is the greeting so long?

“I see.”

And yours is too short!

“Master. Will you be staying here?”