Chapter 88

That night, the Emperor did not visit Yeon-oh. Yeon-oh also did not perform the allegory for the man.

Every time Yeon-oh closed and then opened his eyes, the location changed. He was always in the man’s arms.

The first change he noticed was the sound of water nearby. When he closed and opened his drowsy eyes again, the man’s long finger was burrowing into the thoroughly abused opening, scraping out what had pooled inside.

Yeon-oh squirmed slightly, then quickly closed his eyes, exhausted.

He fell asleep feeling a hand touching his wet hair and woke up to a changed scene.

Everything was submerged in darkness.

A deep and profound aroma richly enveloped the surroundings. When he tried to get up, a large, warm hand covered his sleepy eyes.

“Your Majesty?”

His sleep-laden voice murmured indistinctly. Yeon-oh was unsure if he was speaking properly even as he spoke.

“Hmm.”

Yeon-oh was about to speak, but he severely flinched his shoulder at the sensation of the man’s hand, which had burrowed under the thin sleepwear, touching his nipple.

“Hah…!”

“Go back to sleep.”

There was laughter mixed in the whispering voice.

“D-Don’t do that…!”

It was in his sleep. Also, because the man’s voice was gentle, Yeon-oh impulsively let out emotionally charged words he would not have dared to say normally. The firm fingertip playfully grasped the soft and sensitive flesh, caressing it with secret movements.

Yeon-oh bit his lip to suppress the moan that threatened to escape. Perhaps because he had been so fiercely tormented by the Emperor, he could not fully regain his senses. Exhaustion and deep sleep consumed Yeon-oh.

“Just sleep.”

“Ah, eum…”

Uttering a weak sound with his lips, he leaned his head as the large hand guided him. As his face buried itself in the soft embrace, sleep came naturally.

He instantly plunged into the slumber that embraced him.

******

Outside, it was bright morning. When morning came, birdsong rang out incessantly.

However, inside, the world was quiet, as if everything was asleep.

Yeon-oh tried to open his eyes. His eyelids, weighed down by sleep and fatigue, would not lift easily. He wanted to sleep for a bit longer, but he felt like he shouldn’t. The feeling was strange. His eyes were closed, but his mind was strangely clear.

“…”

When his eyes finally opened, the ceiling of a bed of an unfamiliar scale was looking down at Yeon-oh.

‘Where is this…’

The solemn and luxurious bed canopy was intricately and densely filled with dignified patterns. A question arose, and simultaneously, he realized:

The Emperor’s private chamber.

Realizing this, Yeon-oh forgot his fatigue and bolted upright. He involuntarily gasped in surprise. Beautiful curtains surrounded the bed lavishly on all sides. Due to the layered curtains, the outside sunlight did not penetrate.

However, the time was clearly closer to morning than to deep dawn.

“…!”

Yeon-oh, who was looking around the bed with a bewildered expression, saw the handsome face sleeping like a painting next to him and tried to gasp in surprise again, but suppressed the sound.

The Emperor was lying flat and asleep. Perhaps because his cold gaze was hidden, his sleeping face exuded a much more human atmosphere than usual. However, he was still clean and tidy, with no disarray, like a finely carved statue.

‘Why, why am I here….’

Yeon-oh waved his hand over the handsome, peacefully sleeping face. It was not strange for the man to be here; this was his chamber.

The problem was that he was asleep here.

The Emperor did not allow the Empress or consorts into his private chamber. He used his chamber entirely alone. Even when he stayed in the chambers of the Empress or consorts, he often left after only attending to the ritual of the night’s attendance. Even when he spent the night, he would leave early at dawn.

Yeon-oh always wondered if the Emperor even slept. He could not understand why such a man had made him sleep here.

Yeon-oh, who was panicking, belatedly checked his attire. His upper sleepwear was transparent, clearly revealing the outlines of his body.

“Oh dear…”

Seeing the scandalous sleepwear, Yeon-oh quickly pulled the blanket up, then stopped his movement. He slowed his hand as he saw the Emperor sleeping next to him.

Covering the scandalous sleepwear was not the main concern when there was no one watching.

“Should I run away?”

Yeon-oh murmured to himself and reached out his arm to pull back the curtain. Outside the bed, heavy curtains were also drawn over the windows and doors, so he could not see outside.

It seemed the sun had risen.

But he could not tell if it was still deep dawn or already bright morning. Hearing the birdsong, it was certainly morning. He wondered why no one was coming to wake him.

“…”

Seonjae opened the eyes he had kept closed. He had been awake for a while. His consciousness had automatically awakened when the scent that had gently lingered by his side while he slept disappeared.

After he became Emperor, the eunuchs had burned many noble incenses for him, such as dragon musk, sandalwood, and sweet grass. There was even incense specifically to aid sleep, but it had no particular effect on him.

When he heard that Gyo Yeon-oh smelled of ja-an-hong (purple-red) tea, Seonjae had scoffed. It was absurd that a person would emit a fragrance just because he drank a specific medicine.

But the Gyo Yeon-oh he actually encountered had a real fragrance.

The fragrance Yeon-oh carried varied widely. The first scent he perceived was close to a subtle tea aroma. Over the tea scent, various fresh floral fragrances added vitality. At the end, there was a ticklish and cozy scent. While gently conveying the scent to the person next to him, Yeon-oh himself was unaware of the fragrance coming from his body.

“It smells like spilled flower tea.”

That was what Gyo Yeon-oh himself said about the scent coming from his body. Hearing that, Seonjae recalled that Yeon-oh was unexpectedly outspoken.

Seonjae was the one most affected by the fragrance Yeon-oh carried.

He supposed it couldn’t be helped.

Gyo Yeon-oh was a consort, and the one who most frequently shared a bed with him was the Emperor. No matter how close the eunuchs or court ladies were, there was a limit to how close they could get to the Gwi-bi’s body.

Seonjae wondered every time he shared the bed with Yeon-oh:

‘Which flower tea smells like this?’

After becoming Emperor, he had experienced quite a few noble flower teas from Yeongsan, but none were like Yeon-oh’s bodily scent.

The man turned his body to his side and cast his gaze upon the slender back that was lifting the bed curtain with his fingertips and checking the situation outside.

Every time Yeon-oh moved, the sheer sleepwear reflected light differently. He was trying to peer out past the curtain with his neck craned, but there was no way even a small footstep could be heard from outside.

Seonjae started to push his hand under the sheer sleepwear but stopped. When he touched Yeon-oh, he sometimes felt uneasy, like an old, greedy ruler lusting after a young, fresh consort.

The man reached out his hand and gently tapped Yeon-oh’s elbow, who was eagerly looking out past the curtain.

Tap, tap.

The back, busy looking outside, was startled and stiffened. Yeon-oh slowly turned around.

“Your Majesty…”

Seonjae’s face, looking at the face covered with signs of distress, was peaceful.

“Lie down, Consort Gwi-bi.”

Yeon-oh slowly shook his head at the Emperor’s command.

“This Consort should, uh, should go to her chamber…”

Seonjae let out a small laugh at Yeon-oh’s stammering words. What would change by going to his chamber now?

The man knew, too.

He could easily guess that the entire consort palace would be agitated if they knew Yeon-oh had slept in the Emperor’s chamber. But that was irrelevant to him. The Emperor had no reason to consider that when acting.

“Are you resentful of me, Gwi-bi?”

“I am sorry. Of course not. This Consort is merely trying to go to her chamber….”

“I need to sleep more, so lie down. It is an Imperial command. Shall I lie you down?”

Seonjae spoke and had already reached out his hand and laid Yeon-oh next to him.

“Y-Your Majesty.”

“Even I could not carry a fully grown man from the Cheonghan Hall to the Giryung Palace. Since you had been washed, your hair was wet, so I couldn’t send you in a carriage, and by the time your hair dried, the night was too deep. Should I explain why you needed to be washed?”

“…No, Your Majesty.”

Yeon-oh had thought the Emperor would be completely unaware of his situation. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Yeon-oh, who had been secretly blaming him, swallowed his frustration at the man’s half-excuse.

“Hmm, that might be fun, too. Wouldn’t it be great to have Consort Gwi-bi, who attends so well in the study, organizes the memorials perfectly, and serves tea exactly to my taste, live in the Cheonghan Hall bedroom, and ask him for a Geomungo performance at night? The Imperial Palace would be in an uproar. Memorials would pile up like mountains saying the Emperor is lost and out of his mind over a consort.”

Seonjae spoke as if he were bestowing a great favor. But the man’s mischievous smile clearly showed that he knew he was making a threat.

The Emperor’s words were a clear threat.

“…”

Yeon-oh realized once again that he was naive. The Emperor unaware of his situation? He had been a fool. The man knew the dynamics of power and conflict within the palace and the consort palace better than anyone.

“Wake me in one sijin [two hours]. When the incense burner goes out, it means the time is up.”

Yeon-oh’s face was composed, but a multitude of emotions; amazement, absurdity, bewilderment, anger, annoyance, and betrayal swirled within.

“…”

The man told him to wake him in one sijin, but he did not fall asleep immediately.

“With a consort in the Emperor’s chamber, who would come at dawn? Do you think the people in the palace are as tactless as you are? If you wake up early and leave, I have to get up too, you know.”

The Emperor treated Yeon-oh as tactless and closed his eyes after giving him a look that implied he should keep the previous words in mind about what happens if he acts without sense.

Yeon-oh closed his eyes, breathing carefully. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] He did not want to needlessly displease the Emperor and receive the terrible punishment of being forced to live in the Emperor’s chamber. If memorials piled up like mountains for the Emperor, the consort who was the source of the problem would have her neck cut off long ago.

Because his entire body ached, sleep instantly rushed over him as he closed his eyes. Postponing tomorrow’s disaster until tomorrow, Yeon-oh sank into sleep.

At the moment he sank into sleep.

“Is he really sleeping….”

A low voice mixed with laughter seemed to be heard murmuring. But deep in sleep, it was unclear what words he had heard.