217 – 41. Kim Ha-neul and Kim Ha-neul
I have to go, I have to meet her.
Sky, sky. My love, my memories, my goddess, my everything.
I have never forgotten you for a moment. I’ve always missed you ever since you were killed by that cursed woman.
That’s why I wanted to meet you. Because you were more important than the title of emperor, more than the people of the Korean Empire, and more than your children.
And finally, I was able to meet you even though the shell was different.
I.
──Seo, teacher! I came to my senses!
──What!? Nonsense. Is this a special job? … ? Nurse, contact His Royal Highness the Crown Prince immediately!
──Um, how can I contact you?
──On the emergency route! The emperor has opened his eyes!
I ended up…… I couldn’t hold your hand.
I couldn’t reach you who called me in front of me.
I couldn’t hug you and whisper that I love you.
That’s it.
That one thing is so frustrating.
──Wait a minute, the pulse…… ?
──Seo, teacher?
──Bring your devices and artifacts right now!
I miss you. Sky.
Even if it’s just a shell, I want to see you.
Sky.
Why are you not here?
Why?
Why?
What about………
Why?
──Well, you…… ?
──Everyone, please get out of the way.
Ah.
Sky…… Ah?
──You, my beloved you.
Sky. Sky. Sky.
Thank goodness. Thank god.
I was able to see you only right before I died.
You………
──Why did you save me?
…………
…… Sky?
──Why do you make me suffer so much? Why did you bring me back to life when I committed a crime?
──Was this your love? Coming back to life from among the corpses of innocent people and even with the body of this child?
──Ah, I admit it. It was good when I first came back to life. But…… It reminds me of my ugly past. What I did to my daughter, the pain I caused her, and even my ending.
Sky.
Well, what does that mean?
──Eunha said. Live your life however you want.
──Even though she knew that I was her mother, it seemed like she truly didn’t care.
──Do you know how much despair that was for me?
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Sky.
Sky.
No.
Sky.
──You, you and I………
──They were the worst parents.
──And you.
Please.
Don’t do it!!!!
──He was the worst husband.
──Now, no more.
──I don’t love you.
──…………………
──………… Nurse, check.
──Pulse…… It’s disconnected.
──Send someone to His Highness the Crown Prince, and…… !?
──Do run away!
*
There is a saying that it is darkest before the sun rises.
If I were to make an analogy, I would say that dark dawn is a time that fits the description perfectly.
But no matter how dark it is, the sun rises.
The dawn had been so long, but now morning was coming.
“How do you feel?”
“How do you feel?”
“…I don’t know how to express this to you two.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s quite…Relieving.”
Hwangseong Castle where morning has come.
Despite the great incident of the emperor falling down covered in blood and using a human sacrifice to revive the dead empress, the imperial palace was peaceful as if nothing had happened.
Not everyone acted. Because only a very few people actually knew the truth of that dawn.
Because the incident took place in the princess’s palace, a remote place from the imperial castle, there were no witnesses.
More than anything, Kim Seong-il and Eunha’s work was done too quickly.
To the point where I have doubts.
“Prince, let me ask you just one question.”
“Say as much as you want.”
“The imperial connections that Orkel was said to have had, Kim Ha-neul’s departure from the academy without much interference, a sudden business trip, and even an appropriate appearance from the dungeon.”
“……………….”
“Are they all the prince’s works?”
“…I’m wearing a cast, so it’s just a shame I can’t jump because I’m startled.”
Kim Seong-il responded by shaking his arm, which was wrapped in a cast after being beaten by the emperor.
Between Eunha, who wasn’t hurt in the first place, and me, whose wounds had all disappeared thanks to the elixir and disposable life insurance, only Kim Seong-il was acting almost like a critically ill patient.
However, he didn’t even try to deny the questioning and just smiled.
“When did you find out?”
“I understand now.”
“……Huh?”
“I’m confident that I know the prince to some degree, but considering the prince’s abilities, I don’t think there’s any way he wouldn’t know about this incident. And considering his personality… He must have been silent on purpose. Actually, there were a lot of hints, but I didn’t think much about it. “I didn’t do it.”
“Why?”
“There’s no way the prince would do something bad anyway.”
That’s right. If Kim Seong-il’s treatment of me was just networking and acting, he wouldn’t have given me ‘disposable life insurance’ in the first place.
More than anything, I want Kim Seong-il…… I think of him as a friend like Lucas, Abel, or Saint.
But was the answer surprising?
Kim Seong-il, who was smiling as usual, seemed a little stiff.
“It looks like you were already in the Korean Empire on a business trip.”
“…Do you know what I want to say now?”
“I don’t know.”
“At that time when there was a commotion about Eunha’s assassination. I think it’s really fortunate that he didn’t kick you out when you came looking for me.”
“……………….”
“Thanks to that, I was able to have a friend… Perhaps for the first time as an emperor in history.”
Tap.
Kim Seong-il got up from his seat half-heartedly and stood in front of the open window for a moment, looking out.
From this top floor, you can see both the Imperial Castle and Seoul clearly.
“Father…Your Majesty is in a dangerous state.”
“…I won’t be arrested as the murderer of the royal family, right?”
“It’s too much of a joke. You just caught a stranger who was trying to harm the next emperor. The experience of being strangled by your father… Was quite novel.”
“……The prince.”
“I’m fine. Your Majesty… Was a great emperor. With his foresight to see the future, he strengthened the imperial authority and raised the Korean Empire to the position of a powerful nation. That’s an objective assessment.”
But.
“He was never a good father. Eunha, what do you think?”
“…Your Majesty built the princess’s palace and a dungeon for me.”
“Yes, but how often has His Majesty visited you?”
“……………….”
“He was that kind of person. He was only a good husband to His Majesty’s mother… But he was not a good parent to his children.”
Everything the Emperor did for the galaxy can actually be read differently.
He built a palace and a dungeon for the princess, but he rarely actually visited her daughter.
I didn’t do anything more for her than that.
It was just something to accommodate Kim Ha-neul, who couldn’t give up on her ‘daughter’.
As a good ‘husband’, he supported his wife’s wishes, but in the end, it was not a parent’s love for her daughter.
If the emperor loved Eunha as her daughter.
There would have been no reason for Eunha to treat Kim Ha-neul so coldly after killing her half of her own will.
Kim Seong-il said that.
“Eunha, I think I have done enough to demonstrate the love of blood and flesh. I challenged His Majesty head-on and won, and I treated the loser mercifully.”
“…If it were His Majesty.”
“They must have stripped me of my right to succeed to the throne and kicked me out a long time ago. They must have sent me into appropriate exile and then had someone bury me. They would have faked an illness or an accident.”
That wasn’t just a guess.
It must have been a confidence gained from watching the emperor as a son and as the next emperor.
Therefore, Kim Seong-il’s actions could be said to be merciful.
He only brought the emperor’s power to a certain extent, and saved the emperor himself even though he was imprisoned.
“So, I am.”
Knock knock.
“……Who?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness the Crown Prince. This is urgent news.”
“Namgoong Min, will you forgive my rudeness?”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Compared to you, any work in the imperial family is bound to take a back seat. Come in, I’m spending time with my close friend, so let’s just finish it off.”
“Yes!”
The man who came in after politely opening the door bowed to Eunha and me sitting on chairs and then bowed to Kim Seong-il.
Is it because they told me to finish it simply?
The man’s words ended with one word.
“His Majesty passed away just recently.”
“…Okay. Let’s go out.”
“Yes! Long live the Imperial Family of the Korean Empire!”
Squeak.
At Kim Seong-il’s order to congratulate the guests, the man goes out of the room and closes the door.
Even with that shocking word, Eunha and Kim Seong-il did not move a single inch.
“He’s definitely dead.”
“He passed away.”
“……………….”
There was only silence in the room.
A daughter abandoned by her father, and a son who was almost killed by his father.
The two children were indifferent to their father’s death. It didn’t seem like acting.
Rather than being indifferent…… As if I had already prepared my mind sufficiently.
Did you think the atmosphere was too heavy?
Eunha opened her mouth first.
“By the way, I’m sorry, Min.”
“Yes? What…”
“I mean Kim Woo-sung. He must have had good hands and feet.”
“…No. If you think about it, it’s natural.”
Kim Woo-sung, who fought in the dungeon together, decided to drop out of his academy.
It was because of his mother.
“I was lucky.”
“In some ways… You could say it was bad.”
As Kim Woo-sung said, his mother was alive. She was the only survivor among the piles of corpses.
But.
She became a vegetable.
“I just saw her a little while ago. She apologized and even hit her head, saying she was dropping out to take care of her mother.”
“…Was there anything else to talk about?”
“If you’re talking about betrayal, I completely forgave you. In fact, I even received help.”
The place where Eunha’s eyes landed was on my thighs. You’re probably thinking of Kim Ha-neul’s single singing that was pierced here.
Because of Kim Woo-sung’s betrayal, Kim Ha-neul was able to quickly come to the Korean Empire, and that was the injury that resulted.
‘Still, whatever.’
It was Kim Woo-sung who saved me just before I died, and without his help, the fight against the emperor would have been much more difficult.
Moreover, the decisive reason for the betrayal was also because of his mother.
So…… I decided to just pass it on. Kim Woo-sung seemed prepared for some kind of punishment, but it was funny to see him make a blank expression when I said I would forgive him.
‘Did you say you would definitely visit me after graduation?’
I am grateful for your feelings, but I am worried that I will still be in this world at that time.
As I was quietly reflecting, Kim Seong-il, who had been standing by the window, returned to his chair and sat down.
Because there is still one story left that hasn’t been told.
“Namgoong Min, there’s one more thing you’d like to ask, right?”
“That’s because he was moved straight from the dungeon to the Imperial Hospital, met Kim Woo-sung, and came right here. I haven’t heard any news.”
“……………….”
“What happened to Kim Ha-neul?”
What I was looking at.
It was not Kim Seong-il who spoke, but Eunha.
In the end, what happened to Kim Ha-neul…… Because it was also about the galaxy.
Eunha probably thought I was going to ask, but just smiled.
“It’s out of my hands, Min.”
“…Yes?”
“Kim Ha-neul was no longer one person. Kim Ha-neul, her mother and empress, and Kim Ha-neul, her ambitious collateral royal family, were all mixed together. I walked around the princess’s palace with her, and in the end, I chose her.”
“……………….”
“Whoever she is, she won’t have any influence on my life anyway.”
“…Is that so?”
For a moment, just for a moment.
I thought I was jealous of Eunha.
For Kim Ha-neul, her mother was the biggest shackle and prison that bound Eunha.
Eunha’s life was, in a sense, Kim Ha-neul’s work, and it was something she could not escape as long as she had the memories of And her killing Kim Ha-neul.
Nevertheless, the galaxy escaped. Faced with her head on, she decided to make her own choice.
That determination.
Because it’s not enough for me.
‘A pseudo-bastard, a fortune teller, a fraud, and me.’
I vividly feel that I am still tied to the past and cannot escape.
When you inadvertently lower your head.
“My Min, I think so.”
“………?”
“People cannot escape from the past.”
“…What are you talking about? A person who has faced the past properly.”
“That’s right. I was stuck in the past, and I faced it. But I wasn’t completely free from the past.”
“……Yes?”
That.
“I still think about the past. The dungeon, Salsim, Kim Ha-neul. I think of everything, remember it, and ruminate on it. But it’s still pain. It’s a pain that will gradually ripen.”
“……….”
“In the end, there must be a past for there to be a present. Min, do you think I have completely escaped the past? No. It’s a rare occurrence, but Min is wrong.”
“……………….”
“I am who I am today because of the past. Because of that pain, I was able to have this feeling now. People cannot escape from the past.”
“Then…….”
“I just accept it little by little. The past was also me.”
“No matter how bloody and painful it is.”
“It’s about facing it and acknowledging it.”
“I was able to be where I am today because of the past.”
“…So, our Min.”
“Even though I am infinitely inferior to our people, I was able to do it.”
“I believe that our people… Can definitely do it.”
“All my choices and my heart.”
“Because I learned it only from what I saw from our people.”
*
A woman walks.
Walking through the streets of Seoul in the early morning.
“……………….”
She is one and two.
She pursued her endless ambition, and went along with it even though she knew it crossed her line.
She loved her daughter, feared her, tried to kill her, and was ultimately denied by her daughter.
She was kicked out of her imperial household.
She can no longer pursue her ambitions. Her dreams were ruined.
She can no longer meet her daughter and be loved. Her life was full of regrets.
And all of that was self-earned.
She, Kim Ha-neul and Kim Ha-neul, just walked down the street.
Trembling with fear that her prince would find her.
Running away for fear that the victim’s family would vent their resentment.
Kim Ha-neul.
I just walked aimlessly.
Someday.
Until I couldn’t even walk.
Continued.