Consort Suk stood ashen-faced, staring at Taehwajeon turned into a hellscape where Brocade Guard, the Eastern Depot, and eunuchs had become a tangled mass.

“Protect Consort Suk!”

“Traitors! Seize the traitors!!”

The Imperial Army and the Eastern Depot surged forward to seize Consort Suk, while the Brocade Guard’s soldiers, following their commander’s orders, were busy protecting her.

Consort Suk was jostled and shoved about, barely maintaining her person amid the chaos.

This is not what I wanted.

This is not it.

The Brocade Guard should not have moved hastily; the fighting should have started only after the rebels arrived.

The Brocade-Guard Commander had come, leading his soldiers to stand before the Emperor, but he was a man who could draw a sword before the Emperor.

So there was nothing particularly strange about that.

Any minister of a great state could step before the Emperor and plead his grievance.

But why...?

Consort Suk looked up at the Emperor standing at the highest point of Taehwajeon.

He watched the fighting below without a single change of expression, as if he had foreseen this exact scene.

Normally he would have hesitated, finding some reason to delay his decision...

He had turned away from her pleas to seize and execute that animal who killed his own child, blaming it on relations with the martial world and lingering on for far longer than was right.

That man—

All because the Emperor called this situation a rebellion.

He called her and her brother traitors.

He resolved to abandon our Cheol clan, which had been a pillar of his strength for so long...!

He decided to cast us aside...!

Red veins stood out in Consort Suk’s eyes as she glared at the Emperor.

She clenched her fists so tight that her razor-sharp nails cut into her palms.

“I will not forgive this....”

She had been his woman all her life, and he had never given his heart to her even once.

He had not shed a single tear for the child she had carried in her belly for ten months, the child she had given birth to with such pain.

She would never forgive him.

TAT—

Consort Suk turned and left Taehwajeon at once.

“Co-Consort Suk!! It’s dangerous! Ma’am!!”

Brocade Guard soldiers who had been ordered to stay at her side hurriedly followed after her.

****

TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP. TAP-TAP. TAP-TAP-TAP.

The sound of something being ground echoed faintly down the corridor of the Palace of Heavenly Purity where Consort Suk’s attendants lodged.

Thanks to Eunuch Ju’s consideration, Chor Yeon had received medical texts normally seen only in the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) imperial medical offices and had been able to continue her medical research.

When she had first studied palace medicine driven only by the thought of killing the crown prince, she had not known—perhaps because the Emperor’s life was a responsibility here—that the medical books kept in the palace contained wondrous techniques that surpassed commonly known medicine.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Chor Yeon paused the work she was doing on medicinal mixtures and looked toward the door when someone knocked.

“Is the court physician inside?”

Chor Yeon put down what she was doing and opened the door herself.

The visitor was one of Consort Suk’s attendants who had helped Chor Yeon continuously ever since she returned to the palace.

“What is it?”

“Court physician, something terrible has happened...!”

“...Terrible...?”

****

HUH— HAA— HUH—

They say there’s commotion at Taehwajeon. I heard the eunuchs started a rebellion...

It looks serious. Eunuch Ju asked me to deliver this letter to you right away, court physician. He said you must come at once.

At a glance he looked wounded. It might be because of what happened at Taehwajeon. He implored me to fetch you immediately...! Please go!

The unfolded letter contained only a short line: To the Central Harmony Hall.

The Central Harmony Hall stood behind Taehwajeon.

Ordinarily the Emperor would sit there before his duties to rest, read petitions, and so forth—the place where he stayed.

What on earth... is happening?

Why would the eunuchs suddenly stage a rebellion?

Just this morning Eunuch Ju’s demeanor had been no different from usual.

Had something occurred in the meantime?

THUD....

“!”

The ground trembled and an unidentifiable great noise rolled across the palace toward Taehwajeon.

Chor Yeon, momentarily losing her balance, froze and stared toward Taehwajeon with a trembling gaze.

A dozen or so crows rose over the roof of Taehwajeon.

—Master—!

TAT-THUD—

Chor Yeon’s steps toward the Central Harmony Hall quickened.

The attendant’s words that Seop Mugwang might be injured would not leave her ears.

Please, don’t be too late... Please....

THUMP— BOOM....

The tremors and rumbling continued intermittently.

Chor Yeon grew more anxious.

She could see the Central Harmony Hall in the distance.

But the palace was vast; seeing something did not mean it was close.

Chor Yeon ran, eyes fixed only on the Central Harmony Hall.

She ran for Seop Mugwang, who would be waiting for her there; even as breath tightened, she did not stop.

As she drew closer to the Central Harmony Hall—

“Rebellion! The Brocade Guard has rebelled!”

“They say at Taehwajeon the Brocade Guard are fighting the Imperial Army!!”

Chor Yeon stopped at the passing officials’ shouts.

What...?

A rebellion... started by the Brocade Guard, not by the eunuchs...?

But the attendant said—

Wait....

Chor Yeon thought of the characters on the letter.

Was that... the Master’s handwriting?

The script on the letter had been neat and straight. Seop Mugwang’s hand—like his personality—would be free and unconstrained.

Moreover—

If it were truly urgent he would not have sent an attendant to write a letter. If it had been that dangerous, he would have come himself to fetch me.

Even if his injury made it difficult for him to move, why was the attendant who served him here at this moment?

No matter how much she ran, the Central Harmony Hall was not an easy place to reach.

At that instant the attendant’s face urging her to hurry flashed into Chor Yeon’s mind.

...It’s a trap.

This was Consort Suk trying to lure her out—

KRA-BOOM—!!!

“!!”

At that moment the Central Harmony Hall suddenly exploded with an enormous roar.

Everyone, Chor Yeon included, reflexively covered their heads and dropped to the ground.

KUGUGUGUGU—

The aftershock passed.

Chor Yeon steadied her dizzy head and lifted her gaze—and froze.

The Central Harmony Hall was in flames.

“KYAAA!!”

“What is that...!”

“Water! Bring water!! Hurry...!!”

Panic turned the surroundings into chaos.

Some fled in terror, others scrambled to keep the fire from spreading.

An explosion in the heart of the palace—where the Emperor resided—had instantly overturned the entire palace.

Chor Yeon stood in a daze, staring at the burning Central Harmony Hall among the panic-stricken throng.

“...Master...?”

Her heart hammered.

Her mind knew this was likely a trap to draw her out.

But if there was even the slightest chance Seop Mugwang was inside the Central Harmony Hall—

No. Perhaps the trap targeted not only her but Seop Mugwang as well; if he had received the same letter and gone to the Central Harmony Hall—?

“No, no....”

No!

TAT—!

Overwhelmed by surging dread, Chor Yeon sprinted toward the burning Central Harmony Hall.

Knowing the danger, she could not bear not seeing with her own eyes whether Seop Mugwang was safe.

Please... please...!

Please be alive.

Please not to have been caught in the explosion.

Please this is not a trap—please...!

No, no....

He is a survivor.

He is a man just beginning to live.

He is not someone who should die here, far away in this strange palace because of someone like me.

No one should have his life for the sake of someone like me.

He—my Master—must not die.

Please...!

She felt tears threatening to spill.

One of her shoes had come off and vanished; before she knew it Chor Yeon ran barefoot across the palace grounds.

Debris from the explosion lay everywhere.

Blood quickly soaked between the whiteness of her socks.

But Chor Yeon could not feel the pain.

She stifled tears so her vision would not blur and stood before the flames of the Central Harmony Hall.

HA... HAA... HA....

A black plume of smoke rose as if to fill the sky.

“COUGH, COUGH...!”

The acrid smoke made it hard to open her eyes.

Flames still hungrily consumed the Central Harmony Hall.

Chor Yeon circled the blaze, desperately scanning for any sign of Seop Mugwang.

The bodies of those caught in the blast and debris of the building sometimes snagged at her feet.

But she paid them no heed and kept pacing by the fire.

Then—

“...?”

Her eyes fell on a figure familiar among the soldiers.

A woman stood, laughing hysterically as she stared into the blaze.

She was the mother of the crown prince whom Chor Yeon had killed.

Consort Suk.

At that instant Consort Suk’s laughter ceased and she turned her gaze beyond the flames to where Chor Yeon stood.

“!”

“...!”

Across the burning hall, the two women’s eyes met.

After a brief instant of mutual surprise—

“You bitch!!”

TAT—

Chor Yeon turned on her heel and ran.