The Vermilion Princess stepped outside the palace and began to walk.
She wandered down unfamiliar paths, explored places she had never thought to visit, and took in sights she had no reason to notice before. Her steps were aimless, and her movements were hollow.
As she strolled through the back alleys of the imperial capital, she climbed a small mountain, wandered through the slums, and drifted from one desolate place to another.
When soldiers began searching the imperial capital for her, she fled. Since she could not return to the city, she wandered the foothills of the White Immortal Mountain aimlessly.
Given her training in martial arts, even with only a ceremonial sword at her side, she faced little in the way of threats.
She encountered wild animals a few times, but they were easy to fend off. She even managed to receive a few herbs and vegetables from an old woman living in a shabby house with failing eyesight.
Though she managed to endure for a few days, the Vermilion Princess who had lived her entire life within the palace could not continue such a lifestyle for long.
In the end, after wandering aimlessly and achieving nothing, the place she finally arrived at was… the mansion of the Vice General of Hwalseong District. A place she had visited only once before.
***
“I lived thinking that I was walking the right path.”
Although I had gone through the trouble of preparing tea, the Vermilion Princess never once reached for her cup.
The faint steam that rose through the chilly early winter air was slowly dissipating.
“But when I realized how immature and naive my sense of justice truly was, everything began to feel meaningless.”
That was the truth.
Perhaps the Vermilion Princess had simply wanted to show someone her fragile, vulnerable self.
As the mistress of the Vermilion Bird Palace, as the cherished daughter of the Jeongseon clan.
As someone destined to always serve as an example for others, she could never reveal her inner human emotions to anyone.
“Things weren’t like this before… At times, I may have felt I was falling behind, but I never once doubted that my path was the right one. Not even as a child.”
The Vermilion Bird with its wings folded gracefully.
It was the Vermilion Princess often praised with such lofty words who now spoke with a subdued voice and head lowered.
She would have remembered.
The life of a beloved daughter of the Jeongseon clan, one who devoted herself to studying harder than anyone else.
Those childhood days when she cuddled up in the arms of her uncle, former Vice General In Chang Seok, and proudly recited the poems, paintings, and calligraphy she had learned that day.
But cruelly, time passed, and times changed.
The girl who had once smiled innocently while sketching the plum blossoms in the courtyard now had a golden hairpin on the back of her head. The child who eagerly followed in the footsteps of adults now had a trail of court ladies and maids following behind her.
Her mind brimmed with happy memories of her childhood.
Yet, the political landscape of Cheongdo Palace unfolding before her eyes grew more complicated by the day.
And the future ahead offered nothing but unease.
– The past is always nostalgic, the present always chaotic, and the future always terrifying.
Those words left behind by the White Immortal before departing weighed heavily on her heart.
“Are you lost?”
“I’m not even sure if I’m on the path at all.”
“Is that so….”
I thought of saying something then, but after reflecting on the life of the Vermilion Princess, I found myself falling silent again.
The person who killed her spiritual pillar, her uncle In Chang Seok, was none other than Seol Lee Moon of the Hwayongseol clan.
Wasn’t it her memories with the former Vice General In Chang Seok that had been the driving force of her life?
And yet, the current Vice General occupying the position was none other than the son of the very man who had killed her uncle.
He was neither as reliable nor as experienced as her uncle had been.
Perhaps she had already forgiven me in her heart. Even so, given my position as someone who was practically the enemy of her uncle, In Chang Seok, it was impossible for me to speak of life in front of her.
Both the Vermilion Princess and I understood this all too well.
So I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“From my position, to comment on Your Highness’s struggles would be grave disrespect. Therefore… all I can offer is to give you the time you need to think.”
I rose from my seat.
The entire imperial palace was in turmoil with searching for the Vermilion Princess. As the commander in charge of the search, I held the authority to direct it.
As a military officer, my duty here was to persuade the Vermilion Princess to return to Cheongdo Palace.
However, I decided to pretend I hadn’t seen her.
“As someone from the Huayongseol clan, my presence here would only deepen Your Highness’s wounds. So I will take my leave. When you’ve had enough time to collect your thoughts, please return to Cheongdo Palace.”
I could only hope she finds her way and continue on her journey through life.
To wish her well in this way was the most sincere encouragement I could offer.
Even though failing to bring her back immediately put me in a most dangerous position, I resolved to act as though I hadn’t found her.
With this decision in my heart, I quietly prepared to leave.
“…It’s all right.”
But the Vermilion Princess stopped me.
I froze and turned around. The Vermilion Princess was still sitting against the wall with her knees pressed tightly against her chest and her head lowered.
Her battered and broken body didn’t so much as twitch, but her faint voice carried clearly.
“…The truth is, I came to see you.”
“Huh?”
“…You don’t need to say anything. Just stay by my side for a moment….”
Then she added,
“There’s something I want to confess to you… something I’ve held in my heart for a long time. I feel I must confess it now….”
When I heard those words, I took a moment to collect my thoughts, but a sudden shiver ran down my spine.
…Surely not.
“……”
The chilling sensation of death’s blade hovering just before me—
How long had it been since I last felt this?
Come to think of it, they often said that a woman’s heart wavers the most when it is wounded and lost.
I couldn’t help but swallow dryly.
“Surely you’ve long known that the Jeongseon clan is far from a clean place.”
“……”
“I too began to feel it instinctively at some point. No matter how much one speaks of righteousness, to survive in this Cheongdo Palace, one must wear hypocrisy like armor.”
The Vermilion Princess spoke as if she were opening an old, deep wound she had carried in her heart for years. It was not easy for her to continue, but she did.
“But I who have lived believing without a shadow of a doubt that I am on the path of righteousness… I resented you. The descendant of Seol Lee Moon, the one who killed my uncle In Chang Seok. I thought of you as my enemy, my sworn enemy… there was even a time when I truly believed that.”
“That was so long ago, Your Highness.”
“Yes. Now I know. General Seol, you are more noble and upright than any martial artist I have ever known.”
As she spoke and raised her head, the Vermilion Princess was crying; tears were streaming down her face.
Her appearance felt so out of place, so at odds with her usual demeanor, that for a moment, I doubted whether this was truly the Vermilion Princess.
The lofty, noble image that usually came to mind when I thought of her was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I saw a woman of her years shedding tears like a young girl.
That’s right.
The Vermilion Princess, who had been wandering around the Imperial Capital, must have never wanted to show such a weak and pitiful side of herself to anyone.
“Vermilion Princess …?”
“If anyone ought to hold resentment, it should be you, not me….”
Was this flood of tears a manifestation of guilt?
Hearing her words, I quickly shook my head.
“No, no, Your Highness. What are you saying? I have not harbored a single ounce of resentment toward you.”
“That… that is what made me doubt the path I walked.”
“Huh?”
The Vermilion Princess hesitantly began to share the story buried deep in her heart.
“It was the vassals of the Jeongseon clan and my father, Chief Councilor In Seon Rok, who caused your father, Seol Lee Moon, to lose his life.”
It was as though she was confessing a sin she had carried for countless years. Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke.
As soon as she heard those words, I couldn’t help but flinch.
“Yes… yes?”
“It was the Jeongseon clan that left you and your sister wandering the streets of the Imperial City. It was us who made you orphans, forced to survive alone in this harsh world. And it was us who made you carry the label of a descendant of a traitor throughout your time working at Cheongdo Palace. ….”
The Vermilion Princess buried her face against her knees and her voice trembled with suppressed emotion.
“It was all… all orchestrated by the Jeongseon clan. Every misfortune in your life, it was my family’s doing….”
“…Vermilion Princess ….”
“I rose to this position of Vermilion Princess by benefiting from their actions. That is the confession I have been unable to speak, the guilt I have carried in my heart all this time….”
Once she began, it was as though a dam had broken, and her torrent of confession spilled forth without end.
“Even so, I have lived my entire life in devotion to the Jeongseon clan, and now I cannot distance myself from them. I have received too much to suddenly feign righteousness and condemn them. To do so would be the height of hypocrisy. And when I think of that… I… I do not know what I should do….”
“……”
“I am not asking you to forgive me… I…am only asking you to resent me…. do not think of me as a generous person who forgave you despite the death of my uncle, In Chang Seok. No, do not think of me that way. Think of… think of me as the treasure that those treacherous bastards cherished, the one who brought misery to your life. Wouldn’t that be more fitting?”
“Vermilion Princess, that’s…”
“You have every right to resent me. Treating me with such care, as if none of this ever happened… that is not how things should be. Even if the world were to forgive me, I cannot bring myself to accept it.”
“….…”
The sudden confession left me momentarily breathless.
The one who killed Seol Lee Moon, head of the Hwayongseol clan, was none other than In Seon Rok, the head of the Jeongseon clan.
This was a fact I had never heard before, even though I was fairly familiar with the contents of Heavenly Dragon Love Story.
Was this a revelation that was only disclosed near the very end of the story? Or perhaps it was never revealed at all within the original story?
I couldn’t distinguish which it was. However, if the Vermilion Princess was willing to state it so directly, there was likely some solid basis for her claim.
The single piece of information she gave me felt like the seed of an outrageous, almost unbelievable truth, and it sparked an instinctive sense of foreboding in me.
Even so, countless questions swirled in my mind.
How exactly did In Seon Rok kill Seol Lee Moon?
Even if some kind of political scheme was involved, how could that possibly be connected to Seol Lee Moon’s rebellion?
As my head filled with unanswered questions, a fleeting moment of relief passed through me.
Yes, that was it.
When the Vermilion Princess said she had something to confess, I was prepared for the worst. But contrary to my expectations, it turned out to be more of a personal confession.
“So… is that what it was? Phew… I thought…”
“…What?”
“Oh, no… It’s just that when you said you had something urgent to confess, I thought it might be something even more important.”
“N-No….”
At my response, the Vermilion Princess seemed even more flustered.
“I-I am confessing that it was our family that plunged your life into misfortune. Do you not grasp the weight of what I’m saying?”
“Such things don’t matter. Life, after all, is full of ups and downs. If you spend all your time searching for reasons behind every happiness and sorrow, you’ll exhaust yourself.”
“What… what are you saying? It’s not just anyone. We’re talking about the person who killed your father…”
“That is a sad truth, but still.”
To be honest, my feelings about Seol Lee Moon were no more and no less than that of a “man from the past”.
He was a figure I had never once interacted with since coming to this world.
While he might have been my biological father, to me, he was more significant as one of the characters in the Heavenly Dragon Love Story.
For that reason, I felt no need to resent or blame the Vermilion Princess.
In a way, it was only natural.
“The wounds have long since healed. Clinging to old wounds and letting them ruin my connection with you, Vermilion Princess, would be an even greater loss in my life, wouldn’t it?”
“G-General Seol… you…”
“So please, don’t trap yourself in meaningless guilt and deny your own life. Your life, Vermilion Princess, is valuable.”
In the end, I had only one thing to say.
“Vermilion Princess, before you are a member of the Jeongseon clan… you are, first and foremost, In Ha Yeon. And I know well how strong and noble that person is.”
– Not everyone from the Jeongseon clan is of the same caliber. A person’s origins do not fully define who they are, so it is the individual themselves who must be judged.
I had already expressed this exact thing to the Crown Prince.
The Vermilion Princess wasn’t a fool; she would know well enough that I wasn’t someone who spoke with a forked tongue.
After all, didn’t I suffer discrimination all my life just because I was a member of the Huayongseol clan?
How could someone like me judge others based on the name of the family they carried?
The Jeongseon clan was the Jeongseon clan, and In Ha Yeon was In Ha Yeon.
While a family and its members cannot be entirely separated, it is only by seeing a person for who they are that their true essence is revealed.
A person’s background cannot fully define them.
“Vermilion Princess, you know this better than anyone, don’t you?”
If I could stand tall and say such words before the Crown Prince of an entire country, how could I not say the same thing here in front of the Vermilion Princess?
As if she realized this, the Vermilion Princess widened her eyes in surprise.
“Y-You…”
“In a way, I feel very disappointed in the Vermilion Princess. Do you think that until now I have only seen you as the noble daughter of the Jeongseon clan?”
I spoke with confidence.
“Before being the noble daughter of the Jeongseon clan, before being the mistress of the Vermilion Bird Palace, before being the crown princess consort of this country, you are simply In Ha Yeon. And I know very well how much effort that human In Ha Yeon has poured into living her life.”
“……”
“So, hold your head high with pride.”
The Vermilion Princess’s pupils dilated sharply.
Perhaps she had not expected such a reaction from someone whom she had come to confess her sins to. For a moment she sat dazed, and soon tears welled up in her eyes again.
Before long, she buried her face in her hands and began to sob uncontrollably.
It was such a raw, sad cry that it was hard to believe it came from the proud Vermilion Princess.
Come to think of it, In Ha Yeon had always lived as a representative of something.
Whether as the noble daughter of the Jeongseon clan, the mistress of the Vermilion Bird Palace, or the most dignified crown princess consort.
They were all the same person.
At the core of it all, as long as the human being named In Ha Yeon held the center, any path she chose would become the right one.
Cheongdo Palace was a place brimming with distinguished scholars. Yet, among all those countless teachers, there was no one who could recite that one obvious fact to her.
It couldn’t be helped.
There was no one who could see her as just a single person In Ha Yeon.
Realizing that, the girl could do nothing but burst into tears.
A life of suppressing her cries, a grueling existence of constantly holding back her tears. As if all the pent-up grief was being released at once, overwhelming emotions surged from deep inside her.
I sat quietly by her side.
Because that was In Ha Yeon’s request.
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