Surviving the Romance Fantasy

After wiping off all the ghost’s blood and patiently stopping the bleeding, the bleeding also stopped.

At this point, it seemed that the crisis was over. Seeing that the sweat of Hyeondang, which had been constantly pouring out, had stopped to some extent, I felt that it would be okay to be relieved.

My pulse is beating, and I am breathing intermittently. Upon confirming the fact, In Gwi-bi let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall of the crypt.

“Even so, it is also true that it needs to be shown to the legislator as soon as possible. Slowing down can really cost you your life. I can’t completely erase the yogi dwelling in this body with my piloting technique, so I don’t know when I’ll cough up blood again.”

“But… there are ghosts circling outside right now. Because of the fog, I can’t even see what’s going on outside.”

“If it was a disaster of this magnitude, the old man with white lines would have moved.”

I said in a confident tone as I banded up my wounds.

“If you are an elderly person with ringworm, you will be able to clear this fog in no time. If you can take advantage of that time and go up to Taehwajeong, you will be able to ask for help from the soldiers.”

“How long do you think that will take?”

“…”

In Chunryong Love Song, Seolran keeps the dying prince alive under a rock for almost three days.

In other words, in the worst case, you may have to be locked in this crypt for three whole days. It is absurd to take a patient who is not sure when he will die and hold it in here for three days.

But, that’s the story when we rescued people from under rocks.

If the situation seems to have been roughly settled, then we just need to rush out of the crypt. If you are an elderly person with ringworm, you will probably get things done much faster.

“I don’t know the details. No matter how bad the situation is, it won’t go beyond three days.”

“Three days… is too long for the current party…”

“So, once the fog clears up a little and things feel better, I think we might as well get out. We can still cut down a few ghosts.”

In Gwibi looked at my physical condition again, and then decided to talk.

“I too… if I can give my body a little rest, I can wield a sword.”

“I’m still…”

When I tried to answer, In Gwi-bi’s expression was complicated.

As for the reason… it’s sure to be complicated.

A life-threatening situation. It wouldn’t be strange if the one and only aide died soon.

The ghost is spinning outside. At least the one next to me is the descendant of Hwa-yong-seolga, whom I considered my enemy.

It is unknown whether the crown prince is all right, and it is even a situation where rescue may come.

In fact, it wouldn’t be strange if I shivered in fear.

So I cleared my throat and spoke in a low voice.

“In Gwibi-nim. Thinking about too many things makes you more dizzy. In a situation like this, it would be better to think of just one goal that is simple and clear.”

“…what is that?”

“Let’s survive.”

At those words, the Inquisitor opened her eyes for a moment and looked at me as if she had been hit with a hammer.

After staying like that for a long time, he finally smiled as if he had finally found some peace of mind.

No matter how much he hid his authority, he was only a 19-year-old girl inside.

It seemed that this girl’s natural laugh, which did not take care of her dignity as a noblewoman, was a short laugh.

“Right. Indeed, you are right.”

It was even recited in a low voice.

“Survive.”

It was in a stuffy dungeon, but if you persevere a little bit, the situation will be resolved.

As long as there is that certainty, the will to survive will never be extinguished.

gwibi (3)

“When the sun rises in the morning, it will be the starting point.”

After completely blocking the entrance to the crypt, Seol Tae-pyeong talked while examining the state of the Hyeondang.

In Gwi-bi’s whole body ached, she was only sitting against the wall of the crypt. In the eyes of the Inquisitor, Seol Tae-pyeong, who moved his body in his own way even after suffering such a wound, was sincerely amazed.

“The old man Baekseon is not a person who can be late, so he must be at the top of Baeksaksan Mountain by now. However, just because the fog lifts doesn’t mean that the demons will completely disappear… After all, it’s late at night, so I can’t see…”

“So you’re trying to break through to Taehwajeong in the morning when the demons have a hard time using their strength because the yin energy is relatively gone, and the field of view is wide open.”

The fact that the hem of the princess’s palace robe is spread out on the dirt floor gives one a sense of how much cloth she had to carry on her back compared to her body size.

It was a great luxury item, but it was worthy of being called a noble lady to generously tear it up to bind up the wounds of the county party.

“So, rest in this state for the night and preserve your stamina.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any other way, so I can’t help it.”

“You’d better take a deep breath. I will sit down like this and stay vigil.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep in this current situation where there are ghosts outside.”

In Gwibi was right, but Seol Tae-pyeong shook his head.

“Still, it is right to forcefully close your eyes to preserve your stamina. Don’t worry about you. There is a pilot inscribed at the entrance to obscure the smell.”

“Do you know how to do that?”

“Baekseon Baekseon taught me the basics of pilotage. However, since I don’t have any talent, even this is at a basic level.”

is it.

Saying that in a whisper, In Gwi-bi gently closed her eyes. It was a wall made of grass and mud on a hard dirt floor, but I felt relieved for some reason and seemed to sink into it.

However, there is no way I can fall asleep in this situation. In Gwibi thought she should just stay up all night with her eyes open.

It was about an hour or so later.

“Tell me the story of your life.”

Trying to spend the night in such a clogged crypt feels like an eternity of time.

No matter how life-threatening the situation, time was fair.

When Gwibi In, who couldn’t stand the boredom, talked about it, Tae-pyeong Seol, who was recovering his strength by lying on the opposite wall, gave a small reply.

“I don’t think it’s a story that would be very pleasant to the queen.”

It was a question I asked as a way to pass the time, but the answer came back heavier than expected.

Only then did Gwibi In suddenly feel like she was coming to her senses. The man sitting across from me is a survivor of the pragmatic theory that Ingwibi gnashed her teeth so much. The story of such a man’s life, after all, the story of a pragmatic speaker cannot be left out.

From a certain moment on, he completely stopped caring about the man’s birth. It was an extreme situation, but I couldn’t believe it myself.

“Do you have a story that would make you so uncomfortable?”

“Because I am the illegitimate son of the Hwa-Yong-Sul.”

“You seem to know how to be ashamed of what my family did.”

“It really is.”

He answered as if tossing it, but his voice was heavy. Perhaps this man was aware of the grudge that Ingwibi had against Hwayongseolga.

And he didn’t seem to have any excuses for it. It is unavoidable. This is because no matter how many times you tease your tongue, the fact that you are the one who inherited the blood of the Hwa-Yong Seol-ga doesn’t change.

“It is very reasonable and natural that Consort In has a grudge against the lineage of Hwayongseolga.”

However, since he did not know how to admit it so humbly, Ingwibi became in a state of not knowing how to react.

“You survived the extinction of the Hwa-Yong Seolga. How did you live after that?”

“I wandered the ecliptic like a beggar. However, I was not lonely because I had an older sister who held my young hand and wandered with me.”

After that, only the useless stories of the man’s past flowed out.

I thought it was just to pass the time until morning came, but… the noble lady leaned against the grass wall and listened intently. His story had the power to attract people more than I thought.

“After that, the merchants I met in the Imperial City bought me jewelry…”

A story of a brother and sister who struggled alone at a young age.

“When I was about 80 days old with a fever, my sister accidentally poured cold water on my face…”

Sometimes I even got a laugh out of it.

“I went to save my sister who was almost kidnapped by bandits and cut someone… After that, the memory remains…”

Sometimes I feel sad.

“I was able to become an apprentice warrior after Baekseon brought me to Qingdao Palace, but…”

I listen to it as if it is interesting.

“After that, whenever I trained, my sword skills increased quite a bit…”

Let’s listen to the story while solving curiosity. The night was getting deeper.

A person’s life is a world.

“Compared to the first time I held the sword, I developed a habit of shifting the center of gravity…”

“A scribe named Wang Han of Baekseon Palace is my friend, and he likes to drink so much…”

“I met a pottery craftsman while out of the palace to buy materials to repair Baekseon Palace…”

“I was shot in the back of the head by a moneychanger in a back alley, so I ran after him…”

I feel like a new world is opening up just by hearing about the lives of others that I have not been able to live.

I don’t know if it’s a life that corresponds to the polar opposite of the life of a noble woman who was treated as a courtesan of the people of Jeongseon.

There are many times when a life lived to the fullest feels as if a noble meaning arises in itself.

It’s not like he was endowed with any will or accomplished a great feat.

It’s just that this guy lived my life to the fullest.

And like that, you survived a single world. I ended up thinking like that.

‘Ahh.’

‘Maybe I just heard this story for nothing.’

Lying on her back against the grass wall, the princess gave a monologue.

It may be because the tone of the man Seol Tae-pyeong, who talks about life as if it were nothing, gave rise to a small sense of sympathy.

Before he was a descendant of Hwayongseolga who killed his uncle In Chang-seok, he was just Seol Tae-pyeong.

Just as every moment of the life lived by Consort In was real, every moment of the life lived by the illegitimate son of Hwa-yong-seol was as vivid as if it were raw.

That fact, like a thorn, caught in the heart of the noble lady.

“Come to think of it, you’re pretty good with a sword, but you don’t seem to have any intentions about getting ahead.”

Seol Tae-pyeong was changing the cloth that had been tying Hyeon-dang’s wound with a new one. Then, when he heard the question, he nodded his head.

The reason Gwibi In threw out something more was because the wounds all over her body began to sore. Almost half a day had passed since they hid in the crypt. There was a time when my physical strength reached its limit.

“…do you have a lot of pain? Taking a deep breath is also a way.”

“Answer the question.”

Still, it is positive that the spirit has recovered a lot, and that the strong body is in a state of being able to do it.

Seol Tae-pyeong replied by wrapping a cloth around Hyeon-dang’s body.

“Because I’m from the pragmatics class… is more like an excuse.”

“…”

“I don’t dare say anything in front of the crown prince, but my motto is to work less and earn more.”

“Kahahahahak. You really don’t know.”

In Gwibi laughed and spoke.

Seol Tae-pyeong continued to look at Hyeon-dang’s wounds regardless. That appearance seemed reassuring for no reason, and In Gwi-bi thought to herself that I had finally gone mad.

However, the feeling is not too bad, and in the end, he has the impression that he is indeed a mysterious man.

“Still, it’s a job that’s more affordable than Baek Seon-gung, and if you find a good job, you’ll find some.”

“…That’s something I’ll have to find later…”

Seol Tae-pyeong chose his words for a moment, then continued.

“The ringworm has not long to live.”

“…”

“Until then, I plan to stay in the Palace of the Baekseon.”

There was a moment of silence at those words.

At first, I thought that he was not a man who would be swayed by things like loyalty, but now that he has reached this point, the first thing that comes to mind is that he is the answer.

Confused about what to say, In Gwibi spoke slowly.

“He is like a father to you.”

At the words of In Gwibi, who seemed to be looking at her, Seol Tae-pyeong opened her half-moon eyes and answered clearly.

“Not to that extent.”

“Anyway, he’s a guy with a certain line in the unknown.”

In Gwi-bi sighed, feeling that Kim was getting hooked.

Talking with this guy makes the topic seem serious, but it feels like the wind is quickly draining away.

The flow of the story jumps around and is unpredictable, so it was a refreshing feeling from the position of In Gwi-bi, who is in a position to exchange only obvious rhetoric every time.

“Kahahahaha.”

It’s a laugh that feels frivolous but also elegant on the other hand.

It’s still a long way before dawn comes anyway, and it doesn’t change the fact that in the end I have to stay up all night talking to this wooden man.

In the meantime, it may be because my body is too tired to think that there is a little fresh fun in such a trivial conversation.

So I leaned my head against the grass wall again and talked.

“Since he fell into the cold world as the illegitimate child of the family of Hwayongseol, there must have been many trials in that life. Acting like a beggar, roaming the imperial capital, and being persecuted as an illegitimate son of a rebellious family, you might have thought that it might be better for you to die than to live a worthless life.”

Anyway, what would you do if you asked a low-level apprentice samurai about something like this?

Even though she thinks it is meaningless, she asks In Gwi-bi with her own sincerity.

“What made you live?”

Seol Tae-pyeong, who wrapped the cloth around Hyeon-dang’s arm, stopped for a moment.

I don’t know why, but I feel a strange heaviness in Ingwibi’s question. What kind of answer is she hoping for? It’s a tone that makes you think for a while.

However, isn’t it a question that you don’t have to think deeply about? It’s enough to just answer honestly as it is.

Seol Tae-pyeong, who wrapped a cloth around Hyeondang’s arm in silence for a while… answered quietly.

“It is delicious soup.”

“…”

Hey, I let out a sigh.

What kind of serious conversation were you trying to have with this wooden man? It was when In Gwi-bi gently closed her eyes, thinking that my thoughts were so helpless.

“And the sky I looked up at from that shabby abandoned house.”

“…”

“It was the coolness I felt from the cold water that Sister Ran gave me once in a while, the reward I felt from the day I swung my sword diligently, the pretty daffodils I saw while walking on the roadside, the drunkenness I felt from drinking with my old friend Wang Han, the feeling of being drunk that I picked up on the roadside It was a piece of silver.”

“that..”

Since he was a frivolous man who shouted his spirit and spirit whenever he had a chance, he thought that his intentions would be grandiose in his own way.

When I looked at it openly, I realized how petty that meaning was.

“Those trivial things came together and made me live.”

However, Ingwibi could not bear to laugh at it.

I don’t know why, but a strange seriousness flowed from the man with a cloth wrapped around Hyeondang’s arm. It was not meant as a joke in the first place.

“How is the queen?”

At those words that came in like a surprise, In Gwi-bi was momentarily speechless.

“What made you live?”

I couldn’t bear to think that I would be able to look back on my life in a dusty crypt.

Come to think of it, the neighborhood of Gyusu in Jeongseon’s family was always full of high-ranking men with extraordinary and grand dreams.

All of them gave grandiose reasons for their lives, and they were the ones who lived with their aspirations that the world would drift away.

Since they were such extraordinary people, they must have been able to rise to such a high position.

Having a reason to live is important. Those who lack it will have empty, empty eyes.

In Gwibi was intuitively aware of this. Perhaps Seol Tae-pyeong knew.

──The eyes of Crown Prince Hyeonwon, who was sitting in front of the emperor, were like that.

There is no reason to live a life that has been led and pushed.

That’s why even though he was born as a prince who could command the world, he had empty eyes that seemed to have no regrets in his life.

now realize In Gwibi was afraid of those eyes.

Pushed into the position of the governor of the Jeongseon family, it seemed that if he lived his life only to rise to the top, he would have such eyes before he knew it.

That’s why I had to desperately search for a reason to live. I believed that if I wandered and wandered, I would find it.

Ever since I was young, carrying the mortuary tablet of deputy general In Chang-seok and walking through the funeral procession in the rain… I walked and walked and walked.

Just as the high-ranking men around them shouted out to the world with great aspirations.

He also wanted to take something like a reason to live and shout it out.

It was like some grand and grand goal, and I thought it couldn’t be embraced unless I kept walking and reaching out.

“Unexpectedly, you and I seem to agree.”

With her eyes gently closed, In Gwi-bi relaxed her lying body.

“I just lived.”

I’m living my life alone I’m climbing the cliff of life with empty hands.

As I climbed with that thought in mind, many things stuck to my back before I knew it.

The loyalty of Hyeondang, the maid of honor, the admiration of the maids of the palace, the wrinkled touch of the old mother, the scent of plum blossoms in a vase in the boudoir, the embroidery of gold thread embroidered by hand, the fluttering of wings of a phalaenopsis seen while strolling in the garden. The chatter of ladies-in-waiting beyond the Jangjimun. soft duvet. pretty teacup. morning air. bright moon. cloud. city.

“I just lived, and then the reason to live followed.”

Drunk in the comfort of being able to barely fall asleep, the gwibi spoke in a whispering voice little by little.

“Unfortunately, I must have confused the order…”

*

“In-gwibi-nim.”

Hearing that, his eyes fluttered open.

When he came to his senses, Seol Tae-pyeong had packed all of his belongings. I don’t know how many hours I’ve been asleep.

“The current maid’s condition is not good. I feel like we really have to start now.”

“Hyeondang…!”

Surprised, the queen got up and looked around the hall.

He was breathing heavily, this time as if his fever was rising. With the bleeding, it seemed to be pushed back up to the yogi.

“It is dawning. Now, the view is open, and the fog has lifted quite a bit. It seems that the old man with ringworm used his strength.”

“This is good news.”

Gwibi In barely stood up. I was still able to move quite a bit because I took a break last night.

“However, there are still some demons left. The number has decreased a lot because the yin qi has weakened, but…”

“Still, things are much better. Can you figure out the way to Taehwajeong?”

“yes. If I climb up the soil that collapsed last night, I think I can do anything.”

“Right.”

In Gwi-bi took out her sword and checked the blade. Seeing that the blade was still standing, I put it back into the scabbard.

“My body has recovered quite a bit, and I am worthy of wielding a sword.”

“In Gwibi-nim. No matter how much it is, if you get covered with the ghost’s blood, even the Ingwibi will be in danger. My sword does not splatter the blood of a ghost, but the queen’s sword does not.”

“…is it. Even so, it won’t be easy for you to take care of the Hyeondang by yourself and protect me as well.”