Chapter 5: . woman, salida (3)

Everyone present had to momentarily doubt their ears.

“…We’re screwed.”

Not only had she dared to point a finger at the emperor of a nation, but she had also used vulgar language so crude it was only fit for the market streets.

“……”

The head of the envoy from Cheongsin was already clutching his abdomen, his expression vacant, as he stumbled.

“……”

And as for the Shamaness… with a deathly pale expression, she quietly grabbed her outstretched finger, encased in a white glove, with her other hand, pulled it down, and then knelt.

“Please, kill me…!”

Thump…! She hit the floor with the horns growing from her head, pleading in a trembling voice.

She didn’t actually want to die, but she knew that if she didn’t do this, it wouldn’t just end with her own life.

“Your Majesty…! Behead them at once…!”

“They have dared to insult Your Majesty!”

“If you but give the command, your servant will personally seize the king of those ungrateful wretches!”

Adding to that, the ministers, their faces flushed red, began shouting one after another.

“……”

The emperor lightly surveyed the chaos that had instantly erupted below him.

“—Enough.”

With a faint smile, he quelled the commotion in the hall with a mere wave of his hand.

“Haha.”

And so, in the scene where silence had once again descended… the emperor burst into laughter, recalling what the Shamaness had uttered moments before.

“That is enough. Raise your head.”

The emperor stopped looking down imperiously, his hands resting on the two armrests of his throne.

Instead, he leaned against one armrest, settling into a reclining posture, and propped his chin on his hand.

“Did I not tell you to raise your head?”

He commanded Seoryeong, who was still trembling and burying her head in the ground, with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

“Yo-Your Imperial grace…!”

“Enough. That is unnecessary, so quietly raise your head and look at me.”

Only then did he meet the eyes of Seoryeong, who was clattering her teeth and raising her head with a frightened expression.

“Good. There are a few things I wish to ask you.”

“Please, just speak…!”

As such, he gazed intently into Seoryeong’s golden eyes, which looked up at him with an expression as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

“Since when have your eyes been like that?”

With a serious expression, he asked when her body had changed… as if he knew she hadn’t always been that way.

“…Since I became a Shamaness five years ago.”

“Then, those horns as well, I presume.”

“That is correct.”

Next, the emperor’s voice, turning his gaze to Seoryeong’s sleeves, asked again.

“You. What is your name?”

“…Seoryeong. My name is Seoseoryeong.”

Her name, Seoseoryeong, used the character for ‘auspicious’ (瑞) twice, and the character for ‘bell’ (鈴) once.

Along with the family name granted to her when she, a commoner who originally had no proper surname, became a Shamaness, Seoryeong bowed her head once more.

“Seoryeong. So it is Seoryeong.”

Perhaps he liked Seoryeong’s name. The emperor murmured Seoryeong’s name several times as if savoring it, then.

“Seoryeong. Do you know what predicament you are in right now?”

With a mischievous smile, he asked how much Seoryeong knew about her current situation.

“…I heard that I am to be a tribute offered to Your Majesty, and will become the Shamaness of Ran.”

It was truly a boilerplate answer.

“Wrong.”

Seoryeong’s answer was so exactly what he had expected that the emperor even seemed to feel displeasure, narrowing his brows.

“This nation, Ran… has no need for a being like a Shamaness.”

At the emperor’s words that a Shamaness was utterly unnecessary, Seoryeong quietly bowed her head, covering her face with her sleeve as if to hide her trembling eyes.

“You do not ask why. Why you are here, then.”

“…How could a mere Shamaness dare to question Your Imperial Majesty’s great will?”

Even if she was curious, she dared not be. For the emperor’s will was absolute.

With a single word from the emperor, the fate of her homeland could be sealed. Therefore, all Seoryeong could do was obey.

“For someone who says that, you spoke quite freely just now.”

“Th-that was…! I apologize…!”

Seoryeong, moments ago… who had spoken carelessly before the emperor, not knowing her place, quickly covered her mouth with her sleeve as if chastising herself, and apologized again, her face flushed red.

“Enough. I am not so narrow-minded as to punish you for something already past.”

“Your Imperial grace is boundless…!”

“I also told you not to do that.”

At the emperor’s continuing voice, she had to quietly gauge his mood, feeling as though a hole might open above her and she might collapse at any moment.

“Envoy, listen.”

“I shall obey your command.”

And so, as the emperor’s gaze turned not to her, but to the envoy who had accompanied her.

“Go and tell your king. I was extremely satisfied, so tell him to continue as he has done this time.”

“Your Imperial grace is boundless!”

Seoryeong wondered if the audience was finally over. With a faint hope, she quietly stepped back and bowed her head, but.

“And, leave only the Shamaness Seoryeong behind and withdraw.”

Unfortunately, it seemed Seoryeong’s composure was what had truly ended.

“……”

Seoryeong, who had cast a sideways glance, filled with envy, at the envoys who had come with her as they sighed in relief and withdrew.

“Shamaness Seoseoryeong.”

“…Please, command me.”

Suppressing the urge to cry, she looked at the emperor, who had called her name once more.

“You, from now on, will live in my garden.”

At the emperor’s continuing words, she quietly racked her brain, beginning to think.

‘The emperor’s garden? Wait, surely… that’s a joke, right?’

Normally, there was only one place referred to as the emperor’s garden, regardless of East or West, ancient or modern times.

—The Imperial Harem.

The place where those who would become candidates for the emperor’s concubines and bear his children resided. The emperor’s garden must refer to that place.

‘I don’t want to. I really don’t want that.’

Becoming the emperor’s seed-bearer? While it might be one thing for an ordinary woman… for Seoryeong, who was originally a man, it was a truly terrible thing.

However, there was no choice. The emperor himself had spoken. There could be no option other than to bow her head.

“…It is an honor.”

Seoryeong, trying hard to hide her gloomy expression, paid her respects, but.

“It seems there is some misunderstanding.”

“……?”

“Surely, you didn’t think I would make you my consort? I, too, have my preferences.”

“Ministers, you also, do not misunderstand.”

Perhaps the surrounding ministers had also been looking at him with the same assumption as Seoryeong. The emperor, adding this with a slightly flustered expression.

“It seems it would be better to show you directly rather than to speak of it.”

He quietly opened his mouth again, looking at Seoryeong… or, more precisely, at the hem of Seoryeong’s clothes.

“Remove your gloves and your durumagi.”

“……Ugh.”

Only then did she perhaps realize why the emperor had left only her. She didn’t move immediately at the emperor’s command, instead hugging herself as if to cover her body.

“Your Majesty. Forgive my presumption…”

“I commanded you to remove them.”

At the continuing command, Seoryeong… finally, with a resigned expression, slowly began to remove the durumagi that was covering her body.

Rustle…

What was revealed first was Seoryeong’s skin, which was truly incomparably white.

Along with her exposed shoulders, bare due to the lack of sleeves, her clean armpits were revealed as she moved to take off the durumagi.

Between the folds of her clothing that wrapped around her sides, flowing down from her neck, parts of her breasts that couldn’t be contained spilled out.

Furthermore, below her pelvis, between the front and back splits of the fabric, the graceful lines of her long, white legs displayed a captivating form.

It was a strikingly revealing outfit, enough to startle even the ministers of Ran, a nation with a culture far more open than others, having even embraced customs from other continents, not just Cheongsin or Juryeon.

Thump.

However, what drew the attention of those around her more than anything else was not the alluring yet subtly elegant attire, but something that emerged from near her buttocks and hit the floor.

“…A tail?”

Just as someone inadvertently murmured. It was a large, plump, blue-tinged tail, too big for a dog or cat… and it trembled pitifully, its white mane, the same color as her hair, shaking unsteadily as if reflecting Seoryeong’s mood.

Rustle.

Furthermore, as Seoryeong, holding the folded durumagi in her arms, removed her long, pure white cotton gloves that reached her elbows, scales with a bluish tint, just like her tail, had appeared on her hands.

Half-human, half-dragon (半人半龍).

From a distance, it might have looked as if her hands and feet were merely stained blue, but Seoryeong’s appearance, with her tail, hands, and feet fully exposed… truly suited the term half-human, half-dragon.

“My hobby is to raise rare creatures often sighted in foreign lands.”

The emperor, as expected, visually savored Seoryeong’s appearance, which, despite being far beyond human form, evoked thoughts of beauty rather than hideousness.

“You, from now on, will be my pet Shamaness.”

He said, looking at Seoryeong with playful eyes.