Chapter 2

At that moment, Queen Taeryeong bowed a little forward and said, her eyes slanted upward, “No, she is not young. I hear she has just come of age, so she is old enough to get married, Prince Bipaan.”

With a little sigh, Bipaan asked his father, “Your Majesty, do you have a reason to get me only young girls for my wife?”

“Well, ‘young’ might be her defect, but you don’t have any reason to reject them because they’re young, right?” said the emperor.

Bipaan was silent because the emperor was right. Though they were young, it was favorable for him to have young royal concubines because they were daughters of those in important positions in the government and gave him connections to expanded his power on his path to take the throne.

The woman Crown Prince Bipaan had early on as his first crowned princess was the daughter of Taegongsin, the strongest vassal of the Mok Kingdom. And the woman, now confirmed as his new crowned princess, was the only daughter of the Hwa Kingdom, the neighboring country that had been expanding power steadily. The only concern he had about her as the crowned princess was that she might have been raised as a spoilt child, doted on by her elder brother and younger brothers. He had no intention to accept it even if she wanted to act like a baby. If she tried to, she would only have a hard time.

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“I think I was narrow-minded. I would like to accept your decision gladly, Your Majesty.”

“Got it. You can leave now.”

“Yes.”

Bowing deeply to him, Bipaan stepped back and headed for his residence.

Several months passed after he discussed the matter with the emperor. He was reading a book in his residence in the East Palace.

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“Your Majesty, crowned prince!” said the eunuch.

“What’s the matter?”

“The First Princess of the Hwa Kingdom has just arrived.”

When the eunuch conveyed the message, he closed the book. For the first time in several months, he thought about this woman from the Hwa Kingdom. She was a woman who came alone all the way down here to become his wife.

“Who greeted her?”

In fact, he had no intention to greet her in person from the beginning.

“I hear that the other crowned prince taking a stroll in the royal garden greeted her.”

“Ruhae?”

Bipaan’s eyebrows suddenly wiggled. Prince Ruhae was his antithesis. Ruhae had a completely different personality. He had no interest in the throne even though he rose to the position of crowned prince after defeating numerous crowned prince and prince candidates. He was a generous man who always smiled at even the commoners warmly. Although Bipaan didn’t like his actions, Ruhae was still the only favorite of Bipaan. Bipaan thought that as the third in line to the throne without any greed for the throne, Ruhae would be quite helpful to him.

“I feel relieved to know Ruhae greeted her.”

Bipaan opened the book again. His interest in the woman who would be his next crown princess disappeared instantly.

The sedan chair carrying Princess Woorum entered the main gate of the outer palace. A group of royal guards stood in front of the gate. In the center of them was Prince Ruhae and a royal attendant. Ruhae watched the sedan chair slow down as it came into the palace with a gentle smile on his lips.

‘The princess of the Hwa Kingdom is inside that sedan chair. As I hear, the Hwa Kingdom has only one royal princess. It looks like the king of Hwa Kingdom must have made a very difficult decision.’

The general who escorted the princess to the Mok Kingdom introduced himself to Ruhae. After greeting him, Ruhae approached the sedan chair. The sedan chair bearers opened its door gently.

“Thanks a lot for coming as far as this…”

When the door was opened, Ruhae smelled a young woman’s soft cosmetics mixed with her tears inside the sedan chair. Inside the chair was a small woman dressed in red silk clothes, with a white see-through linen covering her whole body. Her eyes were still filled with tears and her clothes were already soaked with tears.

At that moment, Ruhae was looking at her blankly, at a loss for words. This young woman soaked with tears already captivated his heart.

Escorted by Ruhae, Woorum arrived at the backyard of the outer palace. He showed her around the backyard to comfort her for a moment. Full of spring flowers, the backyard was so beautiful that Woorum briefly forgot her sorrow and smiled brightly. A couple of small birds flew around the yard, circled around Woorum and flew high into the sky. Woorum burst into innocent laughter like a child when she saw the birds. Standing at a distance from her, Ruhae watched walk around. When Woorum sat under a big tree in the backyard, he approached her, sat down beside her and asked, “May I have your name?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself first to you,” she said, blushing. “My name is Woorum Mokhwa, the First Princess of King Chung of the Hwa Kingdom.”

“Woorum?”

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“Yes, that’s right. My name consists of the character ‘woo’ meaning ‘rain,’ and ‘rum’ meaning ‘cold.’ So, it means cold rain.”

“Oh, is it because your name means cold rain that you shed so many tears?”

She blushed all the more at Ruhae’s joke. Did she recall her silly figure who kept shedding tears while she was coming a long journey here? She slightly hid her face with her sleeves.

“By the way, may I have your name, Prince?”

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At her question, he was suddenly embarrassed and looked around.

Fortunately, there was only he and Woorum here. When she mentioned ‘Prince,’ she clearly referred to him. So, if someone with an evil intention had overheard this, both of them would have run into big trouble. That was the sorry state of the imperial family of the Mok Kingdom.

Ruhae hastily corrected her misunderstanding.

“I’m not a prince. I’m just one of the imperial family members.”

When he shook his hands, Woorum realized her mistake and hid her face again with her sleeves. She looked as if she were a child.

With a gentle smile he opened his mouth, “They call me Uljin Yu. Yu means ‘only,’ ‘Ul’ means a bird and ‘Jin’ means ‘save.’ Interesting, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I see. Then, does your name mean ‘saving a bird’?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It means ‘saving a bird. It’s a funny name.”

“Well, I think your name has great significance in that it means saving somebody. It’s far from funny. By the way, I hear they don’t analyze the meaning of one’s surname. Is that true?”

As if she was curious about it, Woorum asked. She asked many questions.

Standing with a blank face for a minute, he gave her a gentle smile. Likely, she thought that when he told her about his name Uljin Yu, she thought that his last name was Yu and his given name was Uljin. In fact, he told her that he was a member of the imperial family of the Mok Kingdom, but didn’t mention the surname of the royal family ‘Danmok,’ which caused her to misunderstand again.

He was about to correct her but stopped because he wanted to pull a prank. When he just kept smiling, Woorum tilted her head to one side and said, “Oh, my god, it’s my mistake…”

“I won’t tell anybody about this, so don’t worry.”

“Oh, thanks.”

He looked at her with a gentle smile, reassuring her that she didn’t have to worry. He heard she came of age, but she looked much younger. How could such a young lady be the Crown Princess?

Crown Princess.

At that moment, he felt a sting in his heart, a sharp pain.

His face suddenly hardened.

“What the heck is this? Why?”

He put his hand on his heart. A moment ago, he felt a sharp pain in that spot.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a worried look.

When he suddenly had a gloomy expression, after smiling and chatting pleasantly with her until a moment ago, Woorum became worried about him. He looked at her with a blank face. Her eyes were wobbling. She couldn’t avoid his eyes.

Both of them felt awkward when their eyes met for a moment, but when he turned his eyes away, she could also feel relaxed.

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“Let me escort you to your room. Please follow me,” said he with a rigid voice.

He stood up first and walked away. Though she tried to stand up and follow him, she found her legs wobbly. When he couldn’t hear her footsteps behind, he turned back.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Uljin Yu, my legs are…” she said feebly in a trembling voice.

“Were you injured?”

As she was sitting quietly while she was talking with him, so there was no possibility that she was injured. So, he quickly came to her, surprised at her trembling voice.

“I’m alright, but I can’t stand up because I can’t give strength to my legs.”

“I’m relieved to hear that you were not wounded. Please excuse me for a minute.

Even before she finished her stumbling words, he lifted her up in his arms.

“Good heavens!”