Everyone is talking about the other night's banquet; many nobles perished as a result of the assassins' attack, but the person that gave the order had yet to be revealed. Though, with the reality of the emperor's fleeting life brought so vividly to the empire's attention, nobles and citizens alike couldn't help but ponder over the question of succession and who'd get the throne. Some nobles were adamant on Yoo Joonghyuk taking over the throne. Despite the ruthlessness that he'd flaunted over the years of his service to the empire, he still proved to himself to be a capable fighter and leader as he took charge over the royal guard to keep peace within the empire.
Additionally, though most nobles were still wary of Kim Dokja, the prospect of Yoo Joonghyuk marrying him and acquiring the power of the Underworld Ducal made quite a compelling argument. Just like the crown prince, Duke Hades and Duchess Persephone were fiercely efficient when it came to taking care of the affairs of their dukedom, having no patience at all for small inconveniences and treachery. Along with their empathy for lesser privileged citizens, nobles and citizens of all classes were hopeful to see what the Underworld Ducal would do with influence over the throne.
Though, there were also detractors of the crown prince that would rather the second prince take over the throne.They saw the crown prince as a power-hungry man that wouldn't hesitate to clear anyone from his path if it meant being able to reach his own selfish goals. The second prince's much more gentle and empathetic disposition was much preferred for them, though some clearly only wanted to try to take advantage of him to benefit themselves.
Yoo Joonghyuk's lack of golden eyes only fueled their determination to support the second prince, making them believe that Joonghyuk wasn't a legitimate heir to the throne.
Sangah clenched her fist, not knowing what to do anymore as she placed the newspaper on the table, the contents of which showed the various opinions of citizens and nobles on the potential heirs to the throne. The Saintess placed her hand on her head, feeling a migraine coming on as the result of what had happened the other night and all the events surrounding it. Why hadn't she seen this coming? Her dreams usually never let her down, especially with a development as massive as this…
Being the empire's Saintess, she had been entrusted with the power of the oracle goddess to see flashes of events into the future, expected to diligently use them to ensure the empire's safety. But since she had failed to predict the assassination plot at the royal banquet the other night, nobles had been furious at her and started questioning her abilities. She was confident that the gods and goddesses of the empire's stars wanted this to happen, but why?
But she was merely a vessel through which the gods communicated their will to the empire's citizens, and such a vessel wasn't privileged enough to get the answers they wanted.Across the study from where Sangah sat, the door slammed open to reveal Lee Seolhwa's hunched figure striding through, her body tense with stress. Yoo Sangha was about to greet her, but her voice couldn't leave her throat when she met Lee Seolhwa's grave stare.
"Why did you never say anything about it?" Lady Seolhwa demanded.
"I—what?" Yoo Sangha questioned in return, caught off guard by Lee Seolhwa's sudden entrance and confrontational inquiry.
"Why didn't you tell anyone what would happen at the banquet?"
Sangah's shoulder's tensed in shame and she heaved a sigh, "I know that this may sound like an excuse but....it was simply never revealed to me…"
Seolhwa scowled, "What do you mean? Your dreams have always been reliable up until now. Don't tell me… have the gods ceased communicating with us?" At the end of her statement her tone had become extremely worried.
"I can only hope not," Sangah murmured, clenching her hands. She wouldn't know what to do if her powers had suddenly been revoked, both her plans and the future of the empire relied on their presence.
"Then what about the vision that you told me about...is it still really going to happen?" There was a long period of silence that stretched across the entire room.
"…yes, it will....I mean, we've already seen how the two of them act together, they're approaching that stage very rapidly…"
Seolhwa sighed as she lingered in front of the Saintess, having no idea what to do; for the physician, the closeness the two had fostered for each other out of nowhere had surprised her to no end. Reading the reports about their relationship bore no candle to seeing it with her own eyes. But in the corner of her mind, she was deeply worried for their future, Lady Sangah's words from back then still ringing in her ears.
----
Lee Seolhwa loved Yoo Joonghyuk.
It was a fact that she'd known with all her heart. At first, she had been intrigued by the cold and calculating specimen that seemed to never crack even under her harshest of stares, a feat that most people she'd encountered could not claim. Later, she would be entertained by the needless squabbles that the man would get into with the first-born child of the Underworld ducal. Though she had no idea what they saw in her to spark such a fierce rivalry between each other, her intrigue grew all the same.
It was this interest that led her to getting to know the two men better.Kim Dokja had been rather easy to reach out to and understand, given he had already been eager to talk to her at that point. His affection for her was as simple as it was endearing.
The small flame that lit inside of Dokja when he first laid eyes on her had grown into an uncontrollable inferno, driving his rather bombastic actions to outcompete the crown prince for her heart. Lee Seolhwa, having no idea how exactly to handle his overwhelming adoration for her, couldn't think to do anything more but freely offer him her smiles and words of encouragement to him. In hindsight this probably only enabled him to take his actions further, it was a relief that Kim Dokja had chosen to stop himself while he was ahead so that it wouldn't escalate to anything worse.
Though, if Kim Dokja had been easy to read but hard to handle, the exact opposite applied to the prince.Lee Seolhwa had extended the same courteous invitations for tea and amicable discussion to Yoo Joonghyuk as she had to Kim Dokja, but she'd be lucky to get even a curt response from the man, much less have him actually come.
On the off chance that he did decide to visit or when they ran into each other by coincidence in the capital, he remained as stone-faced and unreadable as ever, only responding to her gentle inquiries with vague grunts or one-word answers.
Was this really the man that fought so passionately against Kim Dokja for her? Was the prince merely entertaining Kim Dokja's rampaging attacks on him under the pretense of a rivalry for her? Had she been the one to misread the situation, wishfully inserting herself in his life? Disappointment swirled in Lee Seolhwa's gut as she started to accept that perhaps she would never to get understand Yoo Joonghyuk in the way that she'd wanted to.
But rather than being a man whose shell she needed to pry open, Seolhwa had to melt away his cold exterior slowly and gently with the intimate moments that they shared together. Yoo Joonghyuk was a rather tender soul under all his ruthless bravado and bloodstained armor.
When she'd helped him recover after his first failed expedition outside the empire, when Joonghyuk had scaled an entire mountain just to bring her a rare medical ingredient she had ranted to him about just days prior, the first time the he had cooked for her (the first time he cooked for anyone aside from Yoo Mia), when Joonghyuk came to her when Yoo Mia had fallen sick with a fever, with Lee Seolhwa being the only person he'd trusted to that point to take care of his sister.
These were all memories that she cherished dearly, and it was only when she looked back at them that she realized,it wasn't her that had melted Yoo Joonghyuk's shell, but Yoo Joonghyuk who had peeled away the impenetrable layers of her soul and had taken ahold of her heart. She couldn't even be mad at him for doing so, she would gladly surrender it away to him if he ever asked.
Or, at least she would've, until Yoo Sangah had uttered those treacherous words to her.
"Yoo Joonghyuk will ask you to be his lover tonight, you need to reject him."
The elation that rose in Seolhwa's chest was quickly snuffed out when the Saintess finished her sentence, her body going cold with dread. Though the Saintess's firm tone made no room for arguments, Seolhwa frowned at her,hoping that perhaps it was just some sort of misunderstanding.
"What do you mean?"
Sangah, not ignorant to the physician's feelings for the prince, could only give her a pitying stare as compensation as she reiterated her words. Seolhwa stared at her with wide eyes.
"Even if you accept Prince Joonghyuk's proposal tonight, you'll be destined to part with him later on. Yoo Joonghyuk is meant to be with Kim Dokja. I know this is hard for you to hear, but I saw it in my visions… it's irrefutable. Please, Lady Seolhwa, for the sake of the empire… for the sake of Yoo Joonghyuk, please refuse…"
-----
She didn't want to accept the Saintes's words, and until recently she still hadn't fully accepted it. The night she rejected Joonghyuk she had done so in a zombie-like trance, her body and lips moving on their own as if controlled by a puppeteer. Lee Seolhwa had spent her whole life dedicated to the health and wellbeing of others, and as fulfilling as it was, she wanted to just be selfish for once and seize Joonghyuk for herself and hide him away from the treacherous world. She probably would've done so, had it not been for Yoo Sangah's pleading words.
The thought of the both of them giving everything to each other only for them to be destined to be torn away eventually was too painful of a destiny for Seolhwa to impart onto him.
Nevertheless, the words she had used to reject Joonghyuk had haunted her for weeks on end. It was impossibly hard to witness the prince take in the pain she'd caused him and start using it against Kim Dokja, their formerly energetic fights devolving to bitter stares, as Yoo Joonghyuk glared daggers at the other man, disdain radiating off of the prince.
But over the next weeks afterwards, she notices how Yoo Joonghyuk's murderous glares against Kim Dokja slowly turn into inquisitive stares, the curiosity then melting away to something more akin to longing. Seolhwa had long gotten used to having that stare pointed at her, and to see it pointed at someone else made her feel like she had swallowed the bitterest of her own medical concoctions.
But seeing Joonghyuk in love and infatuated, even if it wasn't with her, Seolhwa's bitterness was washed away with gentle wavs of soft melancholy. Her love for Yoo Joonghyuk would always be real, even if he could never be hers.
If Yoo Joonghyuk's true happiness lay in Kim Dokja's mischievous smiles and star laden eyes, then she would gladly recede into the background of his story once more. The moments they shared together hadn't disappeared, and she would always be a part of life to lend a helping hand when he needed it.
Which is why she constantly found herself at Yoo Sangah's residence, asking the Saintess about Joonghyuk's safety and if there was anything she could do. Seolhwa was outraged when she heard about the assassins attacking the royal palace, appalled that the Saintess hadn't predicted it. But before she could question Sangah further on the matter, her words were caught in her throat when she heard Sangah murmur something under her breath.
"Sir Dokja is bound to marry, it's practically ensured with how the two are acting… but before they do… that will happen," Lee Seolhwa stayed healthy silent, her ears straining to hear what Sangah would say next, "His Highness will..." but she interrupted herself before she finished what she was about to say as she looked up in alarm at Lee Seolhwa, momentarily forgetting the other women was still there.
Seolhwa cried at Lady Sangah, "Lady Sangah, please continue!" as she widened her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Will what? Lady Sangah, please answer me!"
Seolhwa ran over to Sangah and desperately grabbed her shoulders, asking again, "Please answer me..." Sangah simply shook her head.
"You don't need to know that" Sangah replied as she gently pried physician's grip form her body
"I need to know, I have a right to; even though I'm not his lover, I'm still his friend."
After giving her a hard look, Sangah finally murmured, "I'm so sorry," and turn to walked out the room, leaving Seolhwa to stand in the middle of the study, helplessly staring after her.With a solemn expression, Sangah approached her personal maid.
"Immediately send 'him' a letter, it's urgent."
-------
On the other side of the capitol, Dokja and the kids were leisurely playing in the garden, sitting on a soft cotton blanket that Dokja had spread out while munching on fluffy warm bread that Persephone had backed fresh just for them. While Gilyeong was ranting about insects, Yoosung was reading a picture book about animals, piping up everyone in a while to disagree with something Gilyeong had said. Just as Kim Dokja was getting ready to calm down the both of them before they got into another petty squabble a maid walked up to them.
"I'm sorry for interrupting, but His Highness is here to see you, Young Master,"
Gilyeong was irritated, mad that the prince kept on getting in the way of the two children spending time with their guardian "That bastard is here again?" he exclaimed, pouting at Dokja.
Dokja lightly reprimanded him, ruffling his hair, "Gilyeong, you can't just say things like that out loud." He said with a smile.
"But I'm just telling the truth, Hyung," he whined out.
Dokja simply grinned at him before turning to face the maid, "Thank you for telling me, please lead the way."
The maid nodded, "Of course sir, this way please". Leaving a word for the children to behave themselves while he was away, Dokja followed her. With Joonghyuk visiting the manor so commonly these days, the servants made sure to clear out one of the home's parlor rooms for the two to sit in.
Joonghyuk was already seated at a table while gazing out the window, the sunlight filtering in casting a soft glow upon his person.
" Your Highness"
Joonghyuk turned to him, nodding his head in greeting. Both of their eyes lingered on each other before another voice called out to them from.
"Both of you looked stupid, right now," they all turned to notice Yoo Mia staring at them with an unimpressed expression.
Dokja gave her a quick blink before bowing, "Greetings to you as well Princess Mia. Our meeting can get a bit boring, so if you'd like the maid can take you to play with both my children in the garden, they're around your age I think!" Dokja told her, but Mia simply held her judgmental stare on him before rolling her eyes at him.
"Of course I don't want to be here, both of you are disgusting around each other," Mia said as she grabbed the maid's hand a walked to go to the garden. Joonghyuk and Dokja just stared at them as the door opened and closed.
Dokja and Joonghyuk exchanged glances before Dokja shrugged his shoulders helplessly, "I'm sure they'll be good friends" and gave him an uneasy smile. "Anyway, what are you doing here again? Did you get the info we talked about the other day?"
Joonghyuk didn't answer him and gestured to the document that was on the table.
"This is..."
"The full criminal history of the counts, marquises and barons that supporting the queen, including the specific crimes they committed, the names of the victims, the dates they occurred at, and other information gotten from the brief investigations over their cases", Joonghyuk finished.
"Take a look at the sections I underlined, a lot of them used the same tactic for their crimes." Dokja did as instructed and saw several mentions of the White Kill throughout the report.
"This medicine… it can only be bought in the black market. Did you have any knowledge on it before now?"
"Of course, whispers about it floated though the castle halls for years on end. Looking into it closer, the suppliers have relations to the nobles under the queen" Joonghyuk stated, "Manipulating someone to make them do what you want, their memories being wiped of their actions afterwords. Most nobles that use it, men and women alike, use it to elicit sex, manipulating people to come into bed with them, then the victims don't remember what happened to their bodies the next day" he continued as he looked out the window.
"…so, how do you plan on exposing them?"
Turning to face him, Joonghyuk declared, "I'm preparing to use the evidence I've gathered on them so far to make sure they go to trial, I'm confident there's enough information that they'll get a long sentencing."
Dokja responded with wary frustration, "No, we need to make sure they're gone for good, they'll become a headache if they get out."
Joonghyuk smirked at him, "I'll make sure it won't come to that," he said, before standing up and approaching
Dokja. "I have a plan so don't worry." he added before patting Dokja on the head.
"What kind of plan is that?"
"You don't need to know, just trust me to come up with the plans for once." Joonghyuk assured, keeping a warm palm on top of Dokja's head, enjoying how soft the other man's hair was.
"And when exactly are you going to carry it out?"
Joonghyuk looked directly into Dokja's eyes, "Tomorrow."
Dokja eyes widened, "Already?" he asked, incredulous.
Joonghyuk merely nodded."May the Seoul Empire's turmoil increase evermore."