Hongdu - The King's Men - Chapter 27

Is this man deliberately trying to seduce me?

It can’t be otherwise. How does he act as if he sees right through my heart?

Kwon Jwa Woo blankly stared at Hong Woo Geon’s broad back.

Should I get on? No, that’s absurd.

Should I get on? I could say I got on while drunk, that I don’t remember.

Should I get on? Even so, how could a woman carelessly get on a man’s back? I shouldn’t.

Get a grip, get a grip.

Kwon Jwa Woo took a deep breath to calm her wavering heart.

One, two, one, two.

Her rapid breathing gradually steadied.

One, two… one, two…

Now her breathing was calm.

One… two… one… two…

Her breathing became so comfortable that her eyelids grew heavy.

One… two…

She took another deep breath to fight off sleep.

One, two, one…

Before she could count to two, Kwon Jwa Woo’s forehead thudded against Hong Woo Geon’s broad back.

And… she didn’t move for a long time.

She had fallen asleep just like that.

“What? Are you sleeping?”

“…”

“Are you really asleep for sure?”

Hong Woo Geon checked again, but there was no response.

“You’re really determined to be a bother today.”

Though grumbling, Hong Woo Geon pulled Kwon Jwa Woo’s arms to wrap around his neck. Then he slowly lifted her onto his back. He was careful not to wake her as he moved.

Thanks to his efforts, Kwon Jwa Woo was able to settle onto Hong Woo Geon’s back without waking.

As if enjoying his broad back, the sleeping Kwon Jwa Woo nuzzled her face against Hong Woo Geon’s back.

That small, squirming gesture strangely made his heart ache.

It was about twenty steps from under the pear tree to Kwon Jwa Woo’s quarters. Though he walked as slowly as possible, they soon reached her door.

After pondering for a moment, Hong Woo Geon turned back the way they came. Slower and more carefully than before… And when he went to Kwon Jwa Woo’s quarters, he deliberately took the long way around.

The quiet moonlight caressed the two walking in the darkness. The gentle spring breeze tickled their cheeks as it passed.

A pear blossom petal blown by the wind settled on Kwon Jwa Woo’s head.

Hong Woo Geon glanced at it, his eyes tender.

His heart, which had been racing like a wild horse, now beat calmly in time with Kwon Jwa Woo’s breaths.

The spring night ripened deeply like that.

Soot from the burning torches blackened the ceiling of the prison.

The sounds of beatings and prisoners’ screams could be heard from unseen places.

The anxiety of never escaping this place flashed through Heo Yoo Jung’s mind. But no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t understand why he was imprisoned here.

It had been about a month since he became a 9th rank official in the Office of the Inspector General.

It was the day of his welcome ceremony that everyone goes through. He visited the office with food and drinks prepared by his family.

As it happened, there was an emergency and only four officials on duty were at the Office of the Inspector General. Other seniors would likely join to eat the welcome ceremony food.

Heo Yoo Jung began carefully setting out the food he had prepared in front of the seniors on duty.

They say sons of rich families rent entire pleasure quarters for their welcome ceremonies, but that was unimaginable for him from a humble family. Even preparing this food was only possible by borrowing emergency funds from his parents back home.

He had done his best within his means.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately.

The seniors on duty ate his modest welcome ceremony food with gusto, without a single complaint. Especially the rice cakes coated in soybean powder that his mother made were nearly gone in no time.

If there was one flaw, it was that he himself couldn’t eat the soybean powder-coated rice cakes due to a particular constitution. That was a shame, if anything.

The seniors who quickly devoured the prepared meal finished the welcome ceremony without any mischievous pranks or special harassment.

With the senior officials and inspectors of the Office behaving this way, those below them likely wouldn’t be much different.

Feeling reassured, Heo Yoo Jung left the Office and returned home.

But now, three hours after finishing the welcome ceremony, he was imprisoned in the State Tribunal’s jail. The charge was being a murder suspect for four Office of the Inspector General officials who ate his welcome ceremony food.

To Heo Yoo Jung, who didn’t know what was going on, the State Tribunal clerk held out the soybean powder-coated rice cakes his mother had made.

“A large amount of lime powder was found in the rice cakes you brought.”

“What did you just say? Lime powder?”

“That’s right. The officials who didn’t notice the lime powder taste hidden by the soybean powder ate it and suffocated.”

“That’s absurd.”

“What is the reason for this absurd act?”

“Reason? What grudge would I have against them to secretly feed them lime powder?”

The clerk stared intently at Heo Yoo Jung.

“Are you truly saying it wasn’t your doing? Then who made these rice cakes?”

“The one who made these rice cakes was…”

It was his mother.

But for what reason would Heo Yoo Jung’s mother, who focused only on housework in the women’s quarters, plan such a thing? And such a cruel act of killing people, no less. She was someone who couldn’t even kill a single bug that entered the house.

“Do you have any suspicions?”

The clerk pressed Heo Yoo Jung without giving him any room.

“If you’re not the mastermind behind this, then surely the one who planned this must be the one who made these rice cakes. Then if we bring in and interrogate the maker of these rice cakes now, we can find out who’s behind this. Hey, is anyone there?”

Without giving Heo Yoo Jung time to think, the State Tribunal clerk was about to order the arrest of the rice cake maker.

As soon as the clerk called, a State Tribunal judicial officer entered the prison where Heo Yoo Jung was held.

“Arrest all of Heo Yoo Jung’s family members right now. And if there’s anyone with even the slightest connection to this welcome ceremony food, arrest them all as well.”

At the clerk’s frosty order, Heo Yoo Jung squeezed his eyes shut.

It was only a matter of time before his family was ruined.

What kind of place was the State Tribunal?

Wasn’t it a place that could make crimes exist even where there were none?

Whether he wanted to or not, he had committed the crime of causing the deaths of four Office of the Inspector General officials. He couldn’t escape death.

No, not just Heo Yoo Jung alone dying, but his entire family faced annihilation.

What could be done about this?

If only he hadn’t held the welcome ceremony.

He would suffer his seniors’ bullying for life, but at least he could have avoided his family’s destruction…

As he was regretting like that.

Thwack!

Along with the sound of something being pierced, something hot and sticky splattered on Heo Yoo Jung’s face.

When he opened his eyes, the clerk who had been interrogating him until now was collapsing forward, foaming blood at the mouth.

Surprisingly, the one who killed the State Tribunal clerk was the judicial officer he had called in. Or rather, it was an unknown person disguised as a State Tribunal judicial officer.

The man disguised as a judicial officer approached the tied-up Heo Yoo Jung.

“If only you had died with those on duty then…”

Heo Yoo Jung sensed death. But he had no intention of dying quietly like this.

The man disguised as a judicial officer slowly approached Heo Yoo Jung.

Meanwhile, Heo Yoo Jung used all his strength to untie the ropes binding him. Once his body was free, he wrapped the rope around the man’s neck.

“Urghhhh.”

A groan escaped the man’s mouth.

But Heo Yoo Jung didn’t loosen his grip.

If he didn’t kill, he would be killed.

Heo Yoo Jung tightened his grip on the struggling man’s neck even more.

At that moment, the sharp blade in the man’s hand stabbed into Heo Yoo Jung’s thigh.

“Ack!”

Heo Yoo Jung screamed in pain. The strength left his hands pressuring the man.

Freed from Heo Yoo Jung, the man coughed and gasped for breath.

Heo Yoo Jung used that opening to start running out of the State Tribunal prison.

He could hear the man chasing after him from behind. His stabbed thigh burned as if touched by hot coals.

But the will to live. That will made Heo Yoo Jung run.

Heo Yoo Jung ran and ran. He ran until he was out of breath, until his heart felt like it would burst.

*

“Huff, huff!”

Dalbong woke from sleep, grasping at empty air.

He was out of breath.

He had dreamed again, of that day…

Though a dream, it was as vivid as reality.

No matter how much he tried to forget, the unpleasant nightmare wouldn’t easily fade.

No matter how much he pretended to be a commoner, the events of that day remained clear in Dalbong’s mind.

The door burst open and Old Man Park entered.

After looking around, Old Man Park quickly handed a water skin to Dalbong.

“Did you have the dream again, young master?”

It was a completely different, respectful attitude from when he had been beating Dalbong in the marketplace.

Dalbong, with Heo Yoo Jung’s face and expression, nodded.

Dalbong, no, Heo Yoo Jung pulled out a paper from his bedside.

It was the portrait an old woman selling vegetables had given him recently.

The face in the crumpled portrait closely resembled Heo Yoo Jung.

Looking at his own face in the picture, Heo Yoo Jung turned to Old Man Park with anxious eyes.

“Old man.”

“Yes, young master.”

“I need to go to Hanyang.”

“Yes. To Hanyang… What? To Hanyang?”

“There are people I need to meet there.”

“Who might that be?”

“The families of the dead officials. I need to know now… why they had to die.”

Heo Yoo Jung’s eyes turned towards Hanyang.

It was a moment when his eyes, always clouded, cleared for once.