episode_0142

*** ***

“Ugh.”

After Yu-kyung disappeared, Hyeok-ki-rin lay down on the bed with a sigh.

‘But it was fun.’

As we exchanged stories with each other, we didn’t even notice the passage of time. When I came to my senses, it was already past midnight, and Hyuk Gi-rin and Yu-kyung parted ways with regret.

They say they’ll be coming every night from now on, so there’ll be plenty of time to catch up.

When I heard that the training period for Gungcheongjeon was being intentionally lengthened, I felt sorry for Ho Cheon-an, but I wanted to be this greedy.

‘Brother, you are doing well…’

Hyeok Kirin thought about his conversation with Yu Kyeong. The forces that supported Hyeok Gi-rin lost much of their power in central politics, and Yu-gyeong, who had established a stable succession structure from early on, was steadily ruling the center.

Although it was difficult at times because we delved so persistently into men’s issues, it was overall an enjoyable conversation.

‘Is Yuchan already fourteen…’

My nephew, whom I have never seen, is now 14 years old. Hyuk Kirin felt a new emotion.

lover. romantic relationship. marriage. delivery. parenting. It was a list of words that were difficult to pursue in Hyeok Kirin’s current situation.

The Murim people were not particularly strict about marriage. Because their physical age remained young for a long time, there was no need to strictly consider their age, and those who devoted themselves to martial arts and did not start a family were not at fault.

Even if you get married after turning 40, you might think that’s just the case.

However, if he had lived a normal life as a member of the royal family, he would have gotten married and started a family a long time ago.

‘home…’

Hyeok Kirin loved children. So, I did have in my mind the thought of wanting to get married and have children of my own.

Hyuk Kirin smiled bitterly.

‘Brother too.’

The environment surrounding Hyuk Kirin was very special, and Hyuk Kirin was still at a loss as to how to solve all the problems. Will you live as a princess or as a martial artist? It was a complicated problem for Hyuk Kirin.

But it’s a marriage.

Hyeok Kirin covered himself with the blanket and erased these and other worries from his mind. Without worrying about the situation, I created an ideal family in my head.

Set up a virtual person whose face you don’t know, your husband whose name you don’t know…

As for children…well, about three would be nice. If I’m being greedy, I’d like to have at least five, but three would be appropriate.

The eldest child runs around the house energetically, the second child is a spoiled child who does not want to leave his mother’s side yet, and the third child is still a baby. Hyeok Kirin smiled warmly as he imagined that scene.

Yes, it’s just an imagination, so how can I do anything? Hyeok Kirin’s imagination began to branch out. His nephew Yoo Chan, whom he had not yet seen, was playing with Hyeok Gi-rin’s eldest child, and Priest Yeo Il-ye was by his side trying to become closer to the spoiled eldest child.

The imaginary husband…so he’s having a drink with Yu-kyung and Zen Master Cheongheo.

A truly idyllic and peaceful scenery. It was an ideal that Hyuk Kirin always had in a corner of his heart.

Suddenly I heard the sound of a baby crying. Hyeok Kirin looked at her second child, who was holding her leg, with troubled eyes and called her husband. The husband was beaten by Master Cheongheo and Yugyeong and hurriedly ran to where the third child was lying.

Hyeok Gi-rin smiles as she watches her husband with a troubled expression on his face along with Priest Yeo Il-ye from afar.

The husband, who was trying to soothe the crying child, panicked and picked up a nearby child’s toy. Bell. The rattle of the bell catches the child’s attention and the crying subsides. As soon as the husband sighs in relief, the child cries again and hurriedly shakes the bell again.

My husband, who caught on, smiled and waved the bell. The child’s crying stopped for a moment at the sound of the rattle, and my husband continued to shake the bell.

Suddenly the bell disappeared.

Jingling jingling.

The bell between my fingers disappeared as soon as my fingers wiggled for a moment, and popped out of my sleeve again with a tinkling sound. The bell that disappeared from my grasp again suddenly jumped out of my mouth or fell as I pretended to open my ear.

Crackling.

The child was delighted with her husband’s dazzling movements, and the husband grinned and threw a bell in the air. My husband caught the bell by clapping both hands together!

Jingling jingling!

I could hear the sound of a bell inside my palm… but when my husband opened his palm in an exaggerated motion, I couldn’t see any bells!

puck! puck!

Hyukkirin stopped imagining and started struggling, kicking off the blanket. Anyone can see that this is him! What kind of virtual husband is this?

“What’s going on?!”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing! I just tossed and turned for a moment!”

“Okay.”

To hide his obviously red face, Hyeok Kirin covered himself with a blanket and writhed quietly alone.

*** ***

The meal at the imperial palace was delicious.

Overall, the food was bland and bland. In this world of martial arts, strong cooking and sprinkling of spices are considered high-class food, but in order to advance to a higher level of cooking technology, you must go through the process of bringing out the original taste of fresh ingredients.

“Um.”

For the first time in a while, I can feel the softness and richness of the meat. In this world of martial arts, livestock is a means of obtaining food. So, rather than raising pigs to eat delicious pork, it feels like raising pigs because if you feed them food scraps, they will produce pork.

It was a pleasure to my tongue to taste the meat that had been bred to be eaten for the first time in a long time.

Living as a martial artist was not necessarily a good thing, but the senses were naturally activated, and among those activated senses, the sense of taste was also included.

You either eat all kinds of foul-smelling foods with the feeling of eating porridge, or you only eat foods covered in spices to cover up the foul smells. It feels like my tongue, which has been abused for so long, has finally found happiness.

After nodding like that, gulping down my food, drinking tea with a sweet dessert, and leaning back on the soft chair, I was in paradise.

“Ah, should I learn cooking skills?”

The reason I didn’t learn cooking skills was simple. Before arriving at the guesthouse, every day was a struggle for survival, and after arriving at the guesthouse, it was impossible to cook and eat while living as a guesthouse.

But now we can say that the conditions have been met. Since you have a companion, it is more convenient to travel by carriage, and if you travel by carriage, you can carry proper cooking utensils with you.

If you travel by carriage, your mobility increases because you can eat a meal without having to stop by the guest house.

I’ll have to think about it later.

Just as I was gathering my thoughts, the court ladies came in and announced the start of the day.

In other words, history education and etiquette education have begun.

First, there was a story about the audience process. Having an audience with the emperor is one of the government’s official duties. Of course, the interview takes place in an official setting attended by subjects, what order the interview takes, and what attitude and manners the audience should adopt.

Explanations were given on precautions to be followed in that situation and model answers to the emperor’s questions.

“As an example, let me ask you a question. How is the friendship between Okryong Credit Union and Hyuk Kirin Credit Union?”

“…Yes?”

But in the middle, a strange question suddenly appeared. When I asked a question, the middle-aged court lady’s eyebrows twitched.

“This is just an example. You must not answer any questions and remain calm. I’ll ask again. How is the friendship between Okryong Credit Union and Hyuk Kirin Credit Union?”

No, what kind of dog training is this? As for Hyeok Kirin’s friendship, his classmate must have figured it out well and reported it to the emperor. Why are you asking me?

I felt dissatisfied with the way he was reprimanded after asking a fishing question, but I opened my mouth anyway.

“It hasn’t been that long since I became acquainted with Daehyup Hyuk, so I’m not sure, but he is a respected ambassador within the sect. As long as Hyeok Kirin’s nature is not evil, wouldn’t he maintain a friendly relationship with everyone?”

“I see.”

The audience situation was repeated throughout the morning. Even if the court ladies fell into a state of mental and physical weakness due to tension during the audience, there was a strong will to repeatedly master the audience situation engraved on their bodies until they could respond on their own.

“Has there been any Murim people who have become close to Hyeok Kirin Daehyup recently?”

You’re asking a strange question again.

“If I were to be honest, wouldn’t it be my colleagues and I? We were traveling together after what happened in Sichuan Province.”

“What is the gender of your colleague?”

“I’m a woman…?”

“Don’t mince words.”

As I looked at the middle-aged court lady with her eyes flashing dangerously, I felt dissatisfaction welling up inside, but I suppressed it for now. Since today is the first day, it looks like they are trying to get the momentum going.

The morning lesson ended with some normal questions coming out, but then suddenly I was asked some strange questions.

“I would like to have a meal with Hyeok Kirin Daehyeop.”

“Personal life is basic in public hearings.”

“Still, isn’t it okay for us to eat together as a group? This isn’t even a prison, but let’s see some faces.”

“…You mean the face.”

The court lady said as if she was thinking about it.

“Do you often eat with Hyeok-gi-rin Daehyeop?”

“Yes? No, what…what is so strange about wanting to eat together with a companion?”

“Indeed…I see.”

The middle-aged court lady who spoke needlessly and meaningfully nodded.

“I will speak to Hyeok Kirin Daehyeop.”

“….Yes. Please.”

If there was one thing I realized after half a day, it was that the imperial palace was not suited to me physically.

Feeling mentally tired, I went to have lunch with Hyeok Kirin.

Then, Hyeok Kirin’s condition was strange again.

“Hyeok Kirin Daehyeop? Why are you doing that?”

“Ta, not really..? It’s nothing?”

No, it’s not like that. Normally, this would have been a time when we would have exchanged moderate smiles while complaining lightly to each other, but didn’t we just glance at each other with our faces in the rice bowl and close our eyes?

“What happened last night was just a dream…a dream…a delusion…a delusion..”

You keep muttering something.

“Aren’t you being harassed too much by the courtiers in the morning? You don’t look in good condition.”

The courtiers suddenly opened their eyes and looked at me, but I just snorted and ignored their glares. Even the Sichuan people on the street would glare at me harder than that.

“That’s not it…it’s a personal problem.”

“…what. If that’s the case, there’s nothing we can do about it. Wouldn’t it be okay to take it easy a little? I mean, there’s plenty of time.”

“Enough time…yes. That’s right.”

Hyeokkirin “yesterday was just a hemp.” is round. I muttered something like “I feel sorry for Black Cat…”, but still, I no longer made an expression like a cat with its face in the food bowl and aiming for the fish.

“But what does it mean to feel sorry for a black cat?”

“Cough! Cough!”

Hyukgirin, who was putting food into his mouth, spat it out. The courtiers made a fuss, clearing the table and wiping Hyeok Kirin’s front hair.

Only after the courtiers cleaned up Hyuk Kirin was he able to make eye contact with Hyuk Kirin.

“That’s…yeah! Well, did you hear that? It is said that the public hearing training will be quite long! So! So it was! Because Black Cat has been waiting for a long time! There was never any other intention!”

“Ah…I see.”

I’m not sure why Hyeok Kirin’s condition became strange, but to me, seeing that the upright court ladies wiped Hyeok Kirin off at the same speed as Bijo, I had to assume that these courtiers of Gongcheongjeon knew that Hyuk Kirin was a princess.

The training period for public hearings has been increased.

Does princess Hyeok Kirin need etiquette training? I’m not really struggling either.

Nevertheless, the fact that Gongcheongjeon’s training period was extended was probably because Hyeok Kirin needed to stay longer in the imperial palace. Hyeok Kirin said he wanted to enjoy the imperial palace a little more, or that he was having some problems after coming to the imperial palace for the first time in a long time.

Is that why he was making a strange expression to catch my attention?

“Hyeok Kirin Daehyeop.”

“Yes, you say so.”

“What kind of relationship do you think our relationship is?”

Hyeok Kirin’s body became as stiff as a stone statue.

“What do you mean? Wow, what a relationship!”

“I think we have a pretty close relationship with Hyeok Kirin Daehyup. Was it my mistake?”

Hyeok Kirin’s face turned as red as a crimson. Hyeok Kirin, who was trembling with his entire body, with his eyes tightly closed and his mouth closed, his breathing in control, his fists clenched, spoke in a voice as loud as a mosquito.

“Well, I too…Ho Rongin…close…close…”

“Yes. That’s right. I don’t know how to define our relationship, but I think we know each other to a certain extent.”

Hyukkirin took a deep breath. Hyuk Kirin looks at me with eyes full of intense trembling. I squinted my eyes to ease the burden on Hyukkirin.

“Aren’t we in a relationship that can be called friends? haha. I don’t know if it will help, but I can listen to your concerns, so feel free to tell me.”

“….Friend.”

Hyuk Kirin pondered the word ‘friend’ in a strangely cold tone. Ah…I guess you didn’t like the expression “friend.”

“Woohuhu. is it so. You could say we are friends. Now I finally understand what Black Cat was complaining about.”

“Yes?”

Hyuk Kirin got up from his seat.

“I had a good meal. Dinner should be eaten separately.”

Hyuk Kirin left blankly and I sat there with my eyes closed.

All that was left was the gaze of the court ladies glaring coldly at me.