The Young Consort Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 21

***

Despairingly, I scanned the room. I was alone. Although it likely wasn’t her intention, I felt a surge of betrayal. She had promised to stay by my side throughout the night.

Could she be in league with my assailant?

As these thoughts raced through my mind, I began to suffocate. My brain was desperately signaling for oxygen.

I tried to swim forward, flailing my arms, but the water didn’t behave normally; I couldn’t make any progress. And that wasn’t the only oddity.

If the water had leaked out, it would have awakened others, yet the inside was eerily quiet.

This meant the water wasn’t escaping. A consort with the ability to control water must be behind this.

The answer came quickly, and even in my dire situation, I sighed in frustration.

‘Why of all people…!’

Banryu Suwon. I remembered him as a minor character or an extra from the early parts of the story.

But what good does remembering do me now? How is that useful in this situation!

I also had a hunch why Banryu would want to kill me, which only doubled my irritation. Banryu had been jealous enough to kill other consorts but had never dared to lay a hand on them.

Yet, he didn’t hesitate to attempt murder on me. The reason was disgustingly clear. It was because I was weak.

He might not know it, but in this world, the younger one’s supernatural ability, the weaker it is. So, he must have judged that he could easily kill me.

I cursed silently in my mouth as I struggled to move my body, feeling trapped in a rapid current. I attempted to scream, but my voice merely swirled in front of me.

It was a silent and cruel prison. The pressure felt as if someone was choking me. My breath was so constricted that my eyes seemed like they would pop out.

I quickly thought through my situation. I couldn’t die like this.

All consorts do not want to be disliked by the Empress. So, if there’s a chance I could survive and identify him, he wouldn’t show his face. This means he doesn’t know my situation. If I could somehow get out and call for help, I could survive. There were two ways out: the door and the window.

Without wasting time, I swam towards the window. The door was too solid for me to break through and further away. I pushed things behind me as I moved forward. A thud sounded as something fell. It felt like the sound of a human head dropping.

I felt as though I was trapped in a dark sea, rising upwards.

Was what I was pressing down and climbing over a human head or an ornament? Lack of oxygen made my vision spin.

And then, in that moment, a bright white window appeared before me. I used the last of my strength to crash into it, and the window shattered, letting in fresh air.

The breath I took was exhilarating. Before I could even catch my breath, I screamed with all my might.

“Please save me!”

They say humans can exhibit superhuman strength in extreme situations. That was true for me. The loudness of the scream that came from a child’s throat was unbelievable.

Before I could regain my senses, my body fell.

The pain in my arm felt distant. Was my bedroom on the second floor? Only then did that thought occur to me.

I saw someone opening the door of the building and running out before I lost consciousness.

* * *

I was in the water. Naturally, my breath was getting blocked, and I struggled to rise upwards.

But my body felt as heavy as if it was weighted down. As my movements grew more desperate, I inadvertently inhaled. Instead of air, water filled my lungs, and the more I coughed, the more it flooded in.

As I desperately tried to escape, someone grabbed my ankle. The grip tightened.

And then, slowly, very slowly, a cold hand began to drag me down…

“Ah!”

I twisted my body in shock, flailing wildly. Amidst my panic, someone grabbed me firmly.

Hands, hands. Stop it. I hate this. Let go!

“Sanya!”

At that thunderous voice, I froze in surprise. Pale sky-blue eyes looked down at me, filled with worry.

Before I even had the chance to recognize who it was, I first checked if this was reality. Taking a deep breath to confirm I was alive, I could hear my breath. Neither my throat nor my nose hurt.

The surroundings were the same. Instead of the eerie blue light from before, the ordinary scene of the room met my eyes.

Ah. I’m alive. The moment that thought crossed my mind, all strength left my body.

“…Are you alright?”

At that moment, a concerned voice came from above. Reflexively, I looked up and saw those eyes I had seen before.

It was Mirinae. That is, Mirinae before using his powers.

The relief I had felt instantly turned to tension again.

Why is he here?

Fortunately, Mirinae quickly released me and took a blindfold from a court lady to cover his eyes.

Like a child who had lost their mother, I looked around the room again and found my maids, their faces as if they were about to cry.

“My lady…”

Among them, Heesa’s eyes were brimming with tears, as if she was about to cry any moment. It seemed she had already shed a few, given the redness around her eyes.

“There was an assassination attempt.”

Mirinae’s calm words made me flinch. It wasn’t that I was scared. The term just brought back unpleasant memories.

“Such a disgraceful incident has occurred in the palace, so the culprit will definitely be caught.”

His following words were reassuring. With Mirinae speaking like this, at least I wouldn’t be in danger of dying at Banryu’s hands again. It’s a relief to be alive.

As I was thinking this, I felt a warm touch on my hand.

It was Mirinae’s hand. Why? The answer followed slowly. I realized then that I had been trembling.

“You must have been very scared, you did well.”

“…”

“It’s okay now.”

His words were as warm as usual. But I felt like crying at those words.

Knowing that Mirinae might not truly be concerned for me, and that he too could be capable of killing me. Still, I had to swallow a rather bitter and painful lump.

Ah. I was scared enough to even want to lean on that pretense.

* * *

After that, my palace became a bit busier. The security was tightened, and a maid named Yeonsu was dispatched from my quarters. During this process, I heard rumors that Banryu had been executed.

Through this, I also learned about Banryu’s background. The Suwon family possessed a fairly useful supernatural ability but was not one of the seven meritorious families. It seemed they were a branch family that had split off from the Hayeon family, which dealt with ice.

Even so, they were powerful enough to send a child to the royal family, but Yehwa dismissed that by saying she had been in Floral Virtue Palace that day.

Until then, the incident had been regarded as mere jealousy over a young consort, but Yehwa’s words turned it into an assassination attempt on the Empress.

On the day I heard that Banryu had been executed, taking full responsibility, I elegantly lifted my teacup.

Would I mourn the death of the psycho who tried to kill me?

After that, Seoyeon knelt before me, touching her forehead to the ground. It was because she had readily entrusted my sleeping arrangements to the maid named Yeonsu. Even if unintentionally, almost causing the death of the Empress’s consort was a grave crime, and she was supposed to be sent to another palace or exiled.

But I allowed her to stay by my side. It was because I remembered the warm gaze she had fixed on my sleeping face that day.

Before losing consciousness, I had felt pain in my arm, and it was said that my left arm, which had truly fallen, was broken. Mirinae visited for the purpose of healing that arm.

I could vaguely guess that it wasn’t out of kindness. The Empress often had Mirinae treat my injuries, so perhaps this was another such instance.

However, the eyes I had encountered were warmer than I expected, so I pushed that thought to the back of my memory.

When everything seemed to have returned to normal,

“This child will serve you from today.”

Thud. A sweet fell from my hand onto the table at Seoyeon’s words. Heesa, standing next to me, smiled and offered another sweet to my mouth.

Hmm, the taste… No, that’s not it.

…This child?

I quietly observed the child standing next to Seoyeon. Compared to her, the child was quite short, at least two heads shorter. Moreover, the child was dressed in male attire.

I knew that with a maid gone, replenishment was necessary. But a boy?

If he were an adult, I might think of him as a guard, but the child was too young, not even having reached puberty yet.

I wondered if they had intended him to be a companion, but then they would have sent a girl.

Where exactly… this child…

“Is this child to attend to me?”

I tried to hide my trembling voice as I asked Seoyeon. I saw her flinch at my question.

“…If you wish, it could be arranged. However, this child is still inexperienced in serving, and Heesa… would do it better,”

“That’s, that’s fine.”

Seoyeon sounded very flustered in response to my question. I was relieved to know she shared my thoughts.

At my answer, Seoyeon visibly sighed with relief and gently pushed the child’s back to signal him to bow. The child, with fluffy grey hair covering his face, bowed awkwardly to Seoyeon.

He had learned etiquette, but it wasn’t perfect. I studied the child quietly. A thin frame, grey hair falling over his eyes enough to cover them, and below that, pale skin and red lips.

Even with his eyes covered, he seemed handsome. And by most standards, beautiful people are characters.

…An unknown character to me?

In the original story, there were no young children besides Sanya among the main or supporting characters.

“What will this child do then?”

“Whatever you command.”

After receiving the child’s greeting and asking Seoyeon, she calmly answered.

I was momentarily puzzled by her vague response, but then I was shocked by what she quietly added.

“Most of the daytime will be focused on guarding you… but at night, the child will become your shadow.”

Shadow.

I stopped chewing my sweet at that word. The secret soldiers of the palace, and—

‘The Empress’s direct guard.’