Chapter 57

Pitiful.

It was an improper expression to use for his official wife and her lover. Nonetheless, It made her feel like Bipaan knew about innermost feelings about Ruhae. Bipaan was aware of the truth long ago, but he didn’t go to the trouble of mentioning it to her up to now.

He now had to face the truth.

“Well, I ….” Kyosul tried to say something.

“Fortunately,” he cut off her words abruptly and changed the topic. “It looks like your secret meeting with Prince Ruhae in the North Palace was not noticed by anybody. I didn’t hear anything about you up to now.”

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“Secret meeting? No way!”

Choked with emotion, she denied it strongly, but he didn’t listen to her.

“You just admitted it with your own lips a minute ago, didn’t you? You said you were with Prince Ruhae. I think you met him eight days ago, which Ruhae couldn’t reveal when asked.”

Despite his harsh interrogation, Bipaan couldn’t find out what Ruhae did eight days ago in the North Palace. As a result, Rule was put in a more difficult situation and finally sent to prison. Kyosul learned about this through her nanny.

Out of impatience, Kyosul confessed to Bipaan as soon as he arrived. She didn’t even give him any background, but her dialogue with Bipaan continued naturally.

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Bipaan was quick-witted enough. As a quick thinker, he was excellent in putting together the puzzle of Ruhae’s whereabouts, based on her confession that she was with him eight days ago.

In other words, Bipaan could quickly infer from her confession why Ruhae couldn’t reveal his whereabouts eight days ago.

“Eight days ago, I bumped into Prince Ruhae at the North Palace and had a brief dialogue with him. He stayed with me briefly…”

Oops. It was Kyosul who turned away first on that day. She left the palace first, leaving alone there. After she parted with him, she didn’t know what he did next.

I can’t protect Ruhae by saying that.

It was a difficult moment for he, but she was convinced that Ruhae didn’t commit treason.

Ruhae was not the type of person who would do harm to others.

It doesn’t matter.

After quickly sorting out her thoughts, Kyosul continued, “Prince Ruhae then quickly left, saying he was snowed under with work.”

“He turned back first?”

“Yes, I clearly saw him going back. I was coming out after I met Princess Heyjin, and I bumped into Prince Ruhae who just arrived at the North Palace. Then, he left the palace. That day he didn’t do anything wicked or plot any treason, nor had he the time to do so.”

Kyosul proved Ruhae’s alibi clearly. As she got tense at the moment, she checked his expression, but she couldn’t notice any change in his calm expression and eyes as before.

“Didn’t you describe your meeting with him as secret meeting?”

Choked with high emotion, she raised her voice, “That’s not a secret meeting!”

“Nonetheless, Prince Ruhae went to the trouble of going as far as the North Palace from his residence South Palace and left after only seeing you without carrying out his official duty, namely giving Princess Heyjin prenatal education, right?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn’t find any words to refute his argument.

In the meantime, he continued to question her.

“Ruhae didn’t reveal about his exact whereabouts eight days ago when he could clearly claim his innocence, and he didn’t mention anything about you. Obviously, he thinks it is more important to hide his meeting with you than proving his innocence. Isn’t it strange that he thinks he has to hide his meeting with you more seriously than his plot to do harm to the princess? Given this fact, isn’t it too obvious that his practical business on that day was to meet you, not the princess?”

Kyosul couldn’t reply at all at his incisive question.

“Even if he were practically charged with treason, he wouldn’t reveal his improper business, namely his secret meeting with you under any circumstances, I think.”

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She felt as if each word of Bipaan’s statement turned into a sharp dagger and stabbed her heart. Out of anger, she felt warm. If it was the winter now, he would have seen steam coming up from her hair.

“It was never an improper meeting”

“Never?”

“Nope, never.”

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The moment she said that, she recalled Ruhae getting too close to her physically on that day. Though he didn’t touch her, she vividly felt she could his physical warmth all around her body. She also recalled many blue flowers and slips that filled the lower drawer of her desk in her room at the Dongbi Palace.

“You are a woman who can’t tell me a lie,” said Bipaan, snorting at her reply.

Unlike Kyosul who was easily upset or susceptible to emotions, Bipaan maintained the same expression as if that was the only expression he could make.

While looking at her with a calm expression as if he inquired after her casually, Bipaan changed the topic. For some reason, he gave her an exit while driving her into a corner a moment ago.

“Even if your testimony was true, you can’t prove his innocence for two reasons.”

“What are the two reasons?”

“First, you said you ran into Prince Ruhae when he just arrived at the North Palace, right? I can infer that he already communicated secretly with court lady Hosana somewhere inside the North Palace outside Princess Heyjin’s residence then turned back after only seeing you in order to prove his alibi.”

“That’s a stretch. If that’s the case, all the palace people could be called suspects who secretly met with Prince Ruhae on the assumption that he was not caught by anybody. Don’t you think so?”

“But the prince was seen with Hosana. Besides, you were singled out as the only non-North Palace person who talked with her. Isn’t it rational to think that there is another informant for Ruhae when he already got caught talking with her?”

He wasn’t wrong in his analysis, but it wasn’t the truth either.

“Secondly,” Bipaan immediately continued without giving her any time to refute. “I can’t take your private testimony before me officially. This is a very serious interrogation underway at the order of the Emperor. The judgment should be made objectively and truthfully in accordance with the evidence and testimonies recorded at the interrogation place.”

As soon as he was done speaking to her, she responded quickly, “I can’t allow you to refuse it.”

Bipaan leaned forward and extended his hand. His long and thin fingers snatched the underside of her jaw, and his icy eyes terrified her.

She couldn’t believe this man who touched her jaw with his warm hand was the very same person with those terrifying eyes.

She couldn’t refuse his hand because she was freaked out by his dreadful eyes. He pulled her jaw close to the tip of his nose and stopped.

She felt heartbroken. She felt his pupils looked dark like dawn. The darkness at dawn looked colder and more lonely than any other time of the day. After that was the warm and bright sun in waiting, but Bipaan…

While she was lost in such thoughts, he spoke with a stern voice as their lips almost touched, “Don’t do anything that stands in my way!”

“Ah!”

At that moment, she seemed to have woken up from her dream. The moment she came forward to defend Ruhae, the moment she revealed his whereabouts and the moment that she revealed that she stayed with him, she should be faced with a totally different situation. She could be entangled in a scandal with Ruhae and shake the imperial palace.

She was scared. She couldn’t beat Bipaan.

She now realized how intrepid an act she was involved in right now. She also realized how arrogant and discourteous she acted before the Crown Prince of the great empire, but she couldn’t stop it.

“Please free Prince Ruhae! Don’t you know that he is not the type of person who can do any harm to the princess?”

In the end, she pleaded with him in a trembling voice. When she realized that she could not persuade Bipaan with all kinds of methods, she found herself overwhelmed with worry about Ruhae.

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“He is going to be freed.” When her face was about to turn bright at that, Bipaan continued, “I mean, when he is found innocent.”

“Your Majesty!”

“By the way, don’t you want to stand before me as my official wife?”

“Pardon?”

No matter how he asked a loaded question, she was easily caught.

He continued casually, “You haven’t called yourself my wife all along.”

“Me?”

Kyosul realized belatedly that even now she didn’t use her official title before Bipaan. She hastily apologized to him by saying, “As I was so embarrassed, I committed discourtesy to you.”

“Discourtesy?”

He then stared into the air. As if he got lost in some thoughts in a situation like this, he rested his chin on his fingers and tapped his cheek with the index finger.