Futile Love

Chapter 75: Chapter 75

A cold and heavy silence filled the room, but nobody could answer Ohyulje’s question. His face grew darker.

“Where is Ruhae on this happy day? Wasn’t he here earlier?” he asked in a low voice, which destroyed the atmosphere instantly.

Everybody was aware that the Emperor was upset now.

Only Mu, who was playing at a distance where he couldn’t hear the Emperor, enjoyed playing with the weasel. Yomin’s breathing seemed loud in the midst of heavy silence.

“Why isn’t anybody replying to my question? Yomin, what happened? Where is he right now, leaving you alone here?” he asked Princess Yomin sternly.

She lay face down, unable to speak as she got scared.

“Your Majesty! I’m so sorry. Please calm yourself.”

Yomin rambled without knowing what she was saying to the Emperor now. She was choked with tears. Day after day was like a torment to her as she had to live without Ruhae, her husband.

Ohyulje turned his eyes away from the miserable woman Yomin. His anger was only directed at Ruhae.

“How can he dare not to attend my concubine’s birthday party? Tell him to come to the conference room right away!”

After issuing the order to the chief internal minister who was standing on standby outside, Ohyulje quickly rose from his seat. Even the Queen couldn’t dare to stop the Emperor when he got really angry.

After the Emperor left Hwangyonru suddenly, there was only the sound of Yomin’s sobbin. When she stopped sobbing, Concubine Su spoke to the royal family members after getting the Queen’s permission.

“Thanks a lot for coming to celebrate my birthday today. I think we have to end the banquet at this point. I’m already happy, so don’t worry about me and please go back to your places.”

As soon as Su was done speaking, she left the place, led by the Queen. Concubine Yu also left Hwangyonru with a worried expression. The banquet for Concubine Su was wrapped up like this in a heavy atmosphere.

Yomin, the owner of the Nambi Palace, located on the left of the South Palace, sat on a blue stone cushion with her right hand on the desk. She clenched her right hand into a fist until her knuckles turned white. As if she could barely put up with it, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath slowly. She was Yomin, the official wife of Prince Ruhae, the third in succession to the throne. A blue bloodline swelled on her white forehead.

“Bojin!”

At her sudden call, Bojin left her place by the wall came to her and lowered her head. She was Yomin’s most trusted court lady.

Yomin ordered with a gentle voice, with her eyes still closed, “Get me cold water. Water just out of the well. And I want you to take some ice from the freezing box and place it in the water. ”

“Yes, Princess Yomin.”

Bojin bowed her head again and stepped back out of the room.

If she pumped water from the well right now, it would take some time to clear any dust that might have come up from the well, and it would take a good while to take ice from the freezing box and cut it into small pieces to float on the water. During that time, Yomin would be alone.

Yomin still remembered her own lousy behavior last spring. As if it happened yesterday, she vividly remembered Kyosul’s expression, tone, trembling and other things when she acted in a lousy manner. She no longer wanted to show her ugly actions to Bojin. Although Bojin was her most beloved court lady, she didn’t want to show it to her again. She was still closing her eyes.

Rattle, rattle.

The sound of the door sliding rang out. When she closed her eyes, her sense of hearing became sharper, and the sound rang like thunder.

When she realized that she was left alone, she was trembling as she clenched her hands so tightly. If she made any noise, the court ladies outside would rush into her room, but she didn’t want to tell anyone about her bad behavior. She didn’t want to show others how narrow-minded she was.

She narrowed her brows. With her trembling hands placed on the desk, she closed her eyes tight as if she never wanted to wake up again. She opened her thin, tiny lips just a little and breathed out hard. She tried to take a deep breath slowly, but her breathing came rough and fast.

“Ha… Oops. Huppp. ”

When she first stepped into the imperial palace, she never expected to be carried away by emotions like this. She thought she would lead a quiet and cautious life as a faithful woman like she did before she got married. She had been living like that until recently.

As the wife of Prince Ruhae, she had to spend empty and lonely nights every day. She took those nights for granted until recently, but she didn’t feel bad like this.

***

It began on a day at the end of summer when the summer heat disappeared with the sticky moisture.

Yomin’s father Chanyom Chung, a high-ranking official of the Mok Kingdom, came back home around 7PM after finishing the day’s work at the Central Palace, and gave her surprising news.

“Ran, His Highness Emperor wants to see you.” Ran was her name before she got married to Prince Ruhae.

“Father, what did you say? Could you repeat it again?”

Why did her father suddenly mention the Emperor?

As she was born into a non-royal family, she once dreamed of entering the Imperial Palace.

She had visited the palace a couple of times in her childhood, following her father who held a top-ranking position in the Mok Kingdom. Because his father was a top-ranking official, she even imagined that she might be married to the crown prince or a prince someday.

But as she grew up, she forgot such a dream. She just thought that just like any woman in a respectable family she would be married to someone from a good family and would carry on his family lineage, but suddenly, her father mentioned the Emperor.

As she was discerning and careful in everything, she nodded at her father’s reply. According to her father, the Emperor wanted to choose the official wives of princes from the top-ranking officials’ daughters. Except for top official Taegongshin whose daughter had already been selected for a prince as well as Mugongsin and Hyonggongsin whose daughters were too young for princes, the Emperor said he wanted to choose a top-ranking officials’ daughter as the future wife of Prince Ruhae on a certain day of a certain month.

That very day she visited the imperial palace for the first time since he turned ten. When she entered the conference hall of the Central Palace with her father, other high-ranking officials had already arrived and taken their seats. As Taegongshin was there, she stood behind her father, Mungongsin, who was seated in the top tier. Top officials including Mungongsin, Yigongsin, Hogongsin and Yegongsin, were seated with their daughters standing behind them respectively.

These daughters had several years between them and knew each other well as they exchanged visits several times. They felt that this kind of selection process was nominal because they knew who would be selected. They knew the palace officials arranged this kind of meeting to stop any wild rumors about the selection process from spreading. So, none of them were foolish enough to pretty themselves up to gain the Emperor or the prince’ favor or show off to them.

Emperor Ohyulje sat at the head of the table. She hadn’t realized that he was already there because she kept her head lowered. In the order of their fathers’ ranks the girls went out to the emperor one by one to answer his questions.

Finally, it was Yomin’s turn, whose name had been Ran Chung at the time. When the chief internal minister called her name, she went to the stage where the Emperor was seated with her head lowered and stood before him.

“Ran of the Chung family, raise your head.”

Even though he spoke in a soft voice, she was horrified and felt her mouth was getting much dry as she was so tense. Barely holding her breath, she slightly raised her head and looked him in the eye, when the Emperor ordered again.

“Look at me closely, ” h said softly, but she was stricken with fear. As she was ordered to look him in the eye, even the top officials there flinched because even they could not meet his gaze without his approval. Even if he approved, they usually tried to look at his nose, not his eyes. It was natural that they were surprised at the Emperor’s order that she look him in the eye.

Calming herself down, she cautiously raised her head, but she did not see the Emperor.

As she stood right below the Emperor’s chair, she was supposed to see him, but it was the face of a prince who was seated two stages below the Emperor’s chair that she saw. The prince had a meek face with a soft smile.