Yeon cried in her sleep, and she did it quite frequently, much to my surprise. I could barely get a glimpse of her in the midst of my sister-in-law carrying for us both so publicly back in the palace where i had no choice but to take her for recovery. She was still unconscious as soon as I woke up just as my sister-in-law was about to undress me for god knows what reason. Myself and Yeon were put in the same room, which was a complete surprise to me, but before I could even confront the Lady Min, I had a very angry Third Prince in my face immediately as well as his las man standing since he accident took place in his family home. "What on earth happened today? Is what the Mistress Nam said true? Did you really have Yeon on your horse? Was she the one who controlled the horse?" "I brought here onto my horse because the Concubine Chung demanded that she ride a separate horse, even though Yeon has never been on a horse in her entire life! So you ask her husband over there about that why don't you, before i inform Hwi about this!"
His face grew redder and redder with each sentence I uttered, and for the very first time I realised that I was witnessing The Third Prince loosing control of the situation. And I had to do everything possible to restrain myself from bursting out in laughter. Many a time have I witnessed his family trample on people lowlier than me as my father has done to me many a time. And now in front of me, my enemy was acting like a child throwing a tantrum because of problem that he couldn't solve. That alone was beginning to change my entire perspective of him. "I am the one who knows him far better than you ever will! Yeon is his only reason for living after what happened to their father! If you want him for your dirty work, then she needs to be alive and well. But how can she d that when your man's concubine is clearly trying to kill Yeon, and more than once?" "No! That isn't true, Your Highness….!" "So, you are trying to make me choose between my last man standing and the me who abandoned me because of you, Lord Nam?" "Seo Hwi abandoned you because of how your family chose to treat the daughter of Seo Geom, your former military teacher out of pure jealousy alone, and now it looks like that is still the case, Your Highness, so what are you going to do about it? Who exactly is your last man sanding compared to Seo Hwi and what his influence and skill can do for our nation alone? Who is your man compared to Seo Geom and his legacy? And how will your people react when they find out that Seo Yeon has been hurt by the family that her father served and died for?"
"What if...what if i let you become the winner of the debate and you take down...." "Your own brother-in-law that you promoted with your own hands? Forgive me Your Highness, but i am not one of your men to clean up after you, no matter what you offer me or threaten me with. So what on earth do you want from me? You are the one who has debilitated me ever since i entered the palace under my late father. And you hindered me in every way possible since my first day here and humiliated me worse than my father, but now you want my help? Are you in your right senses, Your Highness?" Despite his tyranny, I had learnt a lot from my father; how to always have a contingency plan, how to use people's weaknesses against them, how to manipulate others and how to crush people who stood in my way. And here our was, trying to control me in a situation where he was loosing. This was the very first time that had the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, and I wasn't going to pass it up for anything.
"And what if i cut you off from the Seo's myself?" "And how do yu plan on dong that when i have the blessing of Seo Hwi and your own father to marry the girl? They both gave me their consent over a year ago and for the past 2 months, her brother has been planning his only sister's wedding behind her back. Why else do you think he ran rom here as soon as he could and left Yeon behind in my care...as well as yours since this is your palace? And as a part of her dowry, The Emperor himself has already contributed a little, so i really have no idea what you can do at this point to separate me from The Seo's when we both know that you have bigger problems to worry about, such as your father trying to d everything in his power to depose you if you cannot take down General Choi and fix your latest mistake. And to show my respect for my new brother-in-law, i will be taking a temporary absence of leave for the first time and just focus on my upcoming nuptials and even my honeymoon. So, with your blessings, Your Highness…"
"I will be watching you both very carefully. If you cross the line with that disabled low-born girl, then I will kill her and i will make you do it to her. I will never let you make the same mistake as I did with your lowborn mother."
That comment from my father years ago went through my heart like an arrow, but I still couldn't do anything about it. From the moment he walked out of the room, my mind started racing with the nightmare that I was forced to relive. But that was the difference between myself and my father; he was too proud to admit that he needed me for my survival whereas i was not ashamed to admit, at least ti myself for now, that the woman that he had tried to get rid of was the bane of my survival in this world, not just my heart and my soul. I wouldn't have been able to surpass my father and my brother and got my enemy to the point where he was now begging me to save him and there was no way in hell that he could set me up or kill me without risking loosing his biggest chess piece to date, which was the man that i had grown up with whilst the rest of the world abandoned him. And even without the emotional debt that i owed him, I was not going to let anyone use him in the way that I did, and not just to him, but his sister as well. And now that we were out of the palace, i would never have a need to use any of them again, or anyone in their social circle at all. Yeon was going to be my one and only wife, her brother and i were about to get a lot closer than we had been in years now, and maybe becoming a father would help me come up with ideas to get back into the palace one day and help my children tot carry on my legacy when things got out of control. But right now, i had to wait for Yeon to get better so that we could take our long break together. I finally caught a glimpse of Yeon, the woman who I was supposed to protect, who had new scratches and bruises on her, I absolutely lost my mind. Never had I seen this poor girl in a more pathetic situation for such a long time now, and I wasn't going to put up with it.
Before I even gave the my sister-in-law the chance to speak, I almost ran up to her and I grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall where Yeonnie was, half hoping that it would wake her up. And even though I knew that I was out of bounds, her visibly shocked reaction gave me much more pleasure than I anticipated. "I…cannot breathe…what are you doing…" "What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do. To. My. Damned. Horse?" "I…What are…you talking…about?" "Why did you want Yeon to go on the horse! Why did you keep pushing it? What did you want to happen? Did you want to kill Yeon? Why? What has she ever done to you? Why can't anyone leave the Seo's alone? Why can't you just leave me alone? What was your purpose!" I kept a strong hold on her until I noticed that her face was turning blue and she was gasping a lot louder than before. So I freed her from my grasp, but I drew my sword that had been placed next to my bed and I placed it around that ugly little face of her's that made me retch every time I saw her.
"You…you really want to kill me…for her? That epileptic…" before she had the chance to finish off that insult, I droped my sword and I pulled her so close to me that our noses were almost touching. "You…what are you…" "I swear on everything that I hold dear, if a single hair on that girl's head is out of place, I will personally hold you responsible for it." "I…what do you mean? What will you do?"
I let her go, but there was no way that I could leave her alone with Yeon. I was still a little disorientated and my back hurt like hell, but I was ultimately responsible for her. But my sister-in-law could already see what I was about to do, and she was foolish enough to stand in my way once again. "Are you really going to do this? Are you going to let this little girl come in between us? Does she really mean more to you than I do? After everything that I have done for you?" "Without a doubt." I replied curtly as I tried to gather Yeon in my arms. "What will happen when you marry? You surely will not abandon me, right?" The words came tumbling out of my mouth before I knew it, but I am pretty sure that I said something to the effect that I would rather have Yeon as my wife than her and her son in my life.
But those were just words, so why did it start to affect me so much when I said it? My hands began to shake for the first time as I still had Yeon in my arms, and I'm pretty sure that it had nothing to do with my injuries. It was as I was really…feeling her for the first time in my arms. The clothes I gave her didn't do her justice at all, even though they were the most respectable clothes that I could find. May god and Hwi forgive me, but I couldn't help but to squeeze her inappropriately to see exactly where her waist was, even in this moment. She was petite, and a lot more than I had imagined her to be. Maybe it was because she was so young? Now that I thought about it, Hui-Jee had a nice figure as well, but she was a little older…and she did wear the same colours al the time. She wasn't as creative as Yeon was with her attire, nor was she as colourful or scented like she was.
"Young Master did you call for me?" "I have told you to be inseparable from Yeon. What have you found out? Has she regained her memories yet?" "The young lady hasn't admitted anything to me…but…" "But what!" "She has been disturbed by her dreams lately, so she hasn't been eating or sleeping well." "What dreams?"
Yeon's memories, Hwi's plight, it was all getting to me now more than ever now that Yeon herself was unconscious and wasn't bouncing around these gloomy walls with her childish behaviour and witty remarks that she used to randomly throw at me whilst I worked. I suddenly felt as helpless as I did when I first brought her here in my arms. Yeon, why did you do that? Why did you take the reins from my hands? Were you already suspicious, as I was about this horse ride? Why did you…kiss me in the cheek? Why did you thank me right before this happened? And I could have sworn that I heard her apologies to me as well. Yeonnie…what are you hiding from me? Why else would you distance yourself from the man you have been in love with since we met? Did I do something wrong? And if so, what was it?
I was still injured myself and it looked like I was going to have to take a few days off of work anyways, but that didn't mean that would stop Hwi from coming here as much as possible to check on his sister of he found out. Yeon's servant informed me that the Concubine Chung refused to let the doctor examine Yeon in her home, which is why i had to bring her back to this suffocating place. I had Yeon set up in her own bed before I returned to mine, and for the vert first time, my bedroom didn't look too big or feel lonely anymore.