Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“…Let’s go now.”

“Brother, we just got here. What are you talking about?”

“We’ve seen her face, so we can leave now, can’t we?”

“No! We have to follow her in secret!”

“Follow her to do what? She says she’s going to a temple. What are we supposed to do there? If our identities are exposed, it will only make things awkward for us.”

“That’s true… You’re far too conspicuous to hide your identity, Brother. Even in the short while we loitered here, all sorts of people kept turning their eyes toward you.”

“Yes, so let’s go.”

Ryu Jin shook his head with a playful, cheeky look.

Ryu Hyeok frowned in displeasure at the sight, but Ryu Jin showed no sign of backing down and kept grinning.

“If we follow carefully, she won’t notice. Look, even now, she hasn’t glanced our way.”

“Haa…”

Ryu Hyeok was deeply dissatisfied at being dragged into such petty nonsense. But he also felt that some of the fault was his own, for never having cut off Ryu Jin’s eccentric antics outright and indulging them instead.

And above all, now that he had actually seen his betrothed’s face, curiosity had stirred in him to watch her a little longer. That a mere glimpse of her face had already given rise to a strange fondness suggested that they were indeed fated to become husband and wife.

The woman didn’t seem to have much talent for sensing others’ presence; unaware that they were tailing her, she walked quietly on.

Her footsteps were so soft and subdued that he felt he might doze off following behind her.

It was hard to move with so little presence, and in many ways she was a woman difficult to describe. The hair at the back of her head, swaying with each step, somehow looked adorable.

‘She has a blue-toned butterfly ornament in her hair. Does she like butterflies?’

As he walked along, guessing at his betrothed’s tastes, they arrived at the temple before he knew it.

The scent of incense, peculiar to temples and soothing to the heart, reached them. Ryu Hyeok did not visit temples often, so the atmosphere felt quite unfamiliar.

What would his betrothed do now? Hiding behind a large stone Buddha statue and watching, he saw her go inside the temple.

The doors of the main hall stood wide open, so he could see everything the woman did without going near.

An elderly monk exchanged greetings with the woman, palms pressed together, and naturally set a cushion down before her.

Then the woman began to bow. Once, twice, a dozen or so times… She continued bowing without pause.

She seemed to be doing the hundred and eight prostrations. The woman carried on with neat, unfaltering movements, showing no sign of strain.

Ryu Hyeok and Ryu Jin watched her as if entranced. Then someone spoke to them from behind.

“May I ask what brings you here?”

Startled, they turned around to find the old monk who had brought the woman her cushion standing there. When had he come over?

When the two princes stood stiffly upright without a word, the monk was the first to break the silence.

“Would you like to go in and pay your respects to the Buddha?”

Just as Ryu Hyeok was about to decline, Ryu Jin beat him to the answer.

“Yes!”

“Then please do.”

Ryu Hyeok glared at Ryu Jin. He was an utterly incomprehensible creature; what on earth was he after with all this?

Before they knew it, the two followed the monk into the main hall.

The monk set two cushions side by side behind the woman. It seemed to mean that they should offer their greetings there.

Since they had entered the hall, Ryu Hyeok emptied his mind and slowly made three bows, and Ryu Jin followed his lead.

The face of the Buddha statue in the hall felt strangely uncomfortable.

He couldn’t tell exactly why. But soon his gaze shifted naturally below the statue, to a woman sweating profusely as she bowed without rest.

Perhaps his discomfort was because of her.

In the middle of a hall that should have been quiet, that woman was excessively earnest.

Catching her breath, pressing her forehead to the floor, rising again, she repeated the motions endlessly, moving like someone who had forgotten time itself.

‘She doesn’t seem to know that two men have come in behind her. Or does she know, and has decided not to care?’

All her concentration seemed directed solely at her prostrations, and everything else appeared to be nothing but trivial noise.

Ryu Hyeok watched in silence. He quietly gazed at the back of the woman as she calmly repeated her bows.

As if trying to read something in that tenacious movement.

More than the Buddha, more than the incense smoke, his gaze lingered on that woman for a while.

Only after a long time did the woman seem to finally finish her bows. She sat demurely on her knees upon the cushion, keeping her head bowed.

Looking closely, her shoulders seemed to tremble faintly. After bowing without rest like that, it would have been stranger if her body had felt no strain.

After a moment, a low, faint murmur seeped into the hall. It was hard to tell whether it was a prayer or a monologue.

At that moment, his ears pricked up for no particular reason.

Ryu Hyeok and Ryu Jin exchanged glances and, as if by instinct, held their breath. Careful not to let their presence be sensed, the two quietly eavesdropped on her prayer.

“Please do not let me marry into the imperial family…”

The moment she made out that very small murmur, Ryu Hyeok’s eyes widened.

Prince Hye was the finest groom in the Nakbyeon Empire. With a little exaggeration, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to call him the finest groom in the world.

No one would deny it. There were women everywhere who would stake their very lives to marry him. What was this remark?

Ryu Hyeok and Ryu Jin doubted their ears.

“Please… please don’t let me marry into the imperial family… Let me live instead as the wife of an ordinary household…”

Now she even went so far as to say she would rather live as an ordinary housewife than marry him. It could only be called utterly absurd.

“Gods of heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, Jade Emperor, Buddha. I beg you, I beg you… Please help me… You know this path is not mine. Ah, damn it, hell…”

The woman was now murmuring her prayer with tears dripping down. She even let curses slip.

A daughter of a powerful house tossing out such words without a care. It was more than enough to make one gasp.

Ryu Jin, nostrils flaring with fascination, spotted his brother’s rotten expression and quickly composed his face.

Ryu Hyeok’s glacial gaze was fixed on the woman’s small head.

They had not so much as exchanged a word, and he knew nothing deep about her, but it was only natural that hearing such a prayer should leave him unsettled.

‘Could she have a secret lover somewhere?’

He would have to investigate this separately, just in case. He could tolerate a history of marriage negotiations passing between families, but if there was a man with whom she had met privately and shared affection, he would certainly annul the match.

Or perhaps she simply felt burdened. Certainly, though she was a daughter of a distinguished house, marrying into the imperial family might well feel overwhelming.

But however burdensome, it was the seat of the wife of the man who would soon be crown prince and then emperor. Unless she were mad, there was no reason to refuse it.

His thoughts trailed on, one after another, without end.

Ryu Hyeok drew a small breath and rose from his seat without hesitation. He bent slightly at the waist toward the Buddha and turned away.

Somehow, Ryu Hyeok’s stride felt fiercer than before.

Ryu Jin, sweating cold beads, trailed along behind him, suppressing his presence as much as he could.

After they had walked for a while, Ryu Jin spoke.

“Brother, let’s ask Father to break off this engagement.”

“…”

“Marrying a woman who is so ungrateful is absurd. Think how many women want to become Princess Consort Hye! She’s a strange woman who thinks she got a seat she won through sheer luck because she herself is so remarkable. I’ve never seen such an arrogant woman.”

“Watch your mouth. We’re outside.”

Breaking off the engagement. It was certainly not an impossible option.

Though it had been in a temple hall, praying openly like that in a public place seemed almost to make light of the imperial family.

If it was a lack of caution, she was too careless; if it was arrogance, she was too ignorant.

“But how funny. You really do have to live long to see everything. A woman who won’t fall for you, Brother.”

At those words, Ryu Hyeok stopped in his tracks. Ryu Jin had not meant to mock or provoke him. He had spoken purely out of astonishment, an admiring remark that slipped out unthinkingly.

The problem was that the casual remark had disturbed Ryu Hyeok’s mood.

Only now did Ryu Jin suddenly recall his mother’s advice to watch his mouth. Why had that advice come to mind in this very situation?

Ryu Hyeok was a man who lacked nothing in any respect. He had never even needed to feel a competitive streak. He was simply too overwhelmingly good at everything.

But he didn’t feel competitive because he had no need to, not because he lacked a competitive streak altogether. That was absolutely not the case.

If someone touched his pride, he would not forgive it. Indeed, Ryu Hyeok tended to show obsessive tendencies over matters that others would consider trivial.

Having spent a long time with Ryu Hyeok and knowing him well, Ryu Jin felt sweat trickle down his spine.

Ryu Hyeok never went easy on someone who had stirred his competitive spirit.

He would crush and grind them down by any means to seize the upper hand. He did not care how ruthless the process might be.

“You’re challenging me to a contest, are you?”

“Haha, Brother, what are you talking about?”

But the important thing was that Ryu Jin was not the type to back down either.

Ryu Jin revered and loved Ryu Hyeok as his elder brother, but that was a separate matter; he had long wanted to knock that lofty nose down at least once.

Wasn’t the most fun thing, after all, to pull down the one at the very top? Ryu Jin had something of the rascal in him, and he loved taking on challenges.

Especially bets. In a bet, he never backed down.

Seeing this, it seemed the two were indeed brothers, even though they were born of different mothers. The gazes of the two men tangled in midair.

“Shall we bet?”

“What bet?”

“Whether you can win that woman’s heart, Brother. I’m betting that you can’t.”

He knew it was an absurd proposal. Where was the woman who wouldn’t fall when Ryu Hyeok faced her in earnest?

Even Ryu Jin, a man, felt his heart race as though he had drunk strong liquor whenever he gazed quietly at Ryu Hyeok’s face.

Humans were a species that pursued and worshipped beauty obsessively. That was why, upon seeing something beautiful, they lost their reason and rushed toward it.

Women were no different. Even if society demanded modesty of women, modesty could not abandon instinct. A woman forced to keep her fidelity did not have a heart made of stone.

Wasn’t there a saying, after all, that a woman’s heart is a reed?

“You always bet on things you’re sure to lose. Even when you know full well you’ll lose.”

“Someday, even just once, I might win. This bet might be that once. So, will you bet? Or will you run away?”

“Run away?”

Ryu Hyeok gave a sneer. Even that look, as though he were belittling his opponent, was strikingly handsome.

“Very well. The period?”

“Three months after the wedding. If you haven’t won her heart within three months, you lose, Brother. Even if you win her heart after three months have passed, it’s too late, so I win.”

“That’s far too generous.”

“I like entertainment full of tension.”