CH 72

It was at that moment that Ahjin suddenly noticed a piercing gaze. When she instinctively flinched and raised her head, she met the emperor, who was looking at her, or to be more precise, looking at herself and her master alternatively from the top seat.

When Ahjin, surprised by the intense gaze, touched Hwawoon’s shoulder without realizing it, Hwawoon, who had been sad until then, looked at Ahjin and soon turned his head following Ahjin’s gaze. Hwawoon and the emperor’s eyes met in the air. 

Of course, it was Yihan who was more surprised than anyone else by the sudden encounter. First of all, Yihan was looking at Hwawoon and Ahjin whispering to each other without realizing that he was looking at Hwawoon ‘again.’ 

Yihan kept wondering about a really trivial and useless question about what kind of stories they were talking about so closely, so as soon as his eyes met Hwawoon, he felt as if his shabby and strange thoughts would be conveyed to Hwawoon. Does it make sense for an emperor to care about a conversation shared between a concubine he doesn’t like and his court lady? 

So, Yihan was so flustered that he couldn’t even judge how to deal with it, and he was only blinking and staring at Hwawoon. Likewise, Hwawoon, who was looking at Yihan with a slightly embarrassed face, gently closed his eyes, smiled softly at Yihan, and lowered his head. 

Yihan heard a ringing in his ear. At the moment, all the sounds and scenery around him were erased by the meaningless greeting Hwawoon gave. He couldn’t breathe, engrossed in a sensation that only Hwawoon and himself were there. It was only a smile. And when all the lights in the world were turned off one by one except for Hwawoon,

“Aargh!” 

A scream shook every corner.

***

The banquet hall became literally a mess in an instant. This was because suddenly, a huge hunting hawk flew into Changgyeong Pavilion. A dancer fell down bleeding from her shoulder because of the claws of a hawk flying in as if hunting among the dancing dancers, and from that point on, the banquet hall became a mess.

“Protect His Majesty!” 

Eunuch Oh shouted at the same time as Yihan pulled Jaran, who was next to him, to stand behind him, and several soldiers and guards who were running up the pavilion rushed to surround the emperor and the empress.

The hawk, which had once flown, was not immediately visible again, but the confusion did not subside easily as the frightened dancers and court ladies began to scream and panic. 

“Your Majesty!”

At that time, Hwawoon, the first to stand up from his seat, called the emperor as if screaming. After quickly checking that the guards were blocking the emperor and the empress, he immediately pulled Ahjin, who was blocking him, and sent her behind him. Ahjin, surprised, hurriedly stepped up to the front of Hwawoon again and opened her mouth. 

“Your Highness! Stay behind me!”

“Don’t say anything, and just stay behind me!” 

Ahjin stopped moving, surprised by Hwawoon’s action of blocking her body with his arm, shouting at her in a very determined voice. For some reason, Hwawoon’s voice sounded like a completely different person for a moment. 

Without looking at Ahjin’s reaction, Hwawoon reflexively brought his hand to his waist and looked around. He touched the place where he always put his sword when he was Hawoon, but of course, there was no way that there was a sword. Hwawoon bit his lips lightly and his eyes saw Jeongbin screaming from the other side, not knowing what to do. 

In the meantime, the hawk that had taken a wide turn rushed back to Changgyeong Pavilion and pushed its way through the dancers and the court ladies. A court lady who couldn’t avoid it fell to the floor with a big wound on the back of her neck. 

“Jeongbin! Come here!” 

Hwawoon went to the front of the table in front of him and shouted, reaching out to Jeongbin, Songhyun. Songhyun, who was shaking with Jooah in her arms, shouted as she saw the hand reaching out to her, unable to hold back the face of her most missed person, which overlapped with Hwawoon.

“Orabeoni!”

Songhyun ran and grabbed Hwawoon’s hand without a moment of hesitation. Hwawoon went to the pillar behind him, and after securing Songhyun behind the pillar with Ahjin, he said, 

“Bend down and stick close here. Don’t move away.” 

Leaving behind Songhyun, who nodded in tears, Hwawoon turned his head again and looked at the banquet hall, which was still a disaster. At a glance, the hawk seemed to be very excited right now, so there was a high possibility for it to return and attack again. It was pretty fortunate that there were not several but one. Alas, a hunting hawk the size of a woman’s torso seemed difficult to subdue at once because of its strength and unmatchable speed.

In addition, in this situation, it was common for panicking people to run around and suffer injuries that they did not need to get, so Hwawoon once again opened his mouth toward the messy banquet hall.

“There’s only one hawk, so don’t panic and calm down! Calmly go under the table, hide yourselves, and we must call the guards below to protect their Majesties!”

Although Hwawoon’s voice did not reach everyone, some of them, who were quite calm, fortunately, heard his voice and led those who were injured or panicking to avoid themselves with tables or pillars. Hwawoon, who was looking at that scene with a calm and cold gaze, saw Sukbi, who was frozen in place not far from him. 

The place where Biyoung stood was so good for a hawk to fly through because there were no pillars back and forth. As soon as he noticed it, Hwawoon shouted, reaching out to Biyoung this time, as he did to Songhyun. 

“Your Highness Sukbi! It’s dangerous there, so come here!” 

But Biyoung couldn’t go to the place where Hwawoon was at once like Songhyun did. Biyoung was scared and afraid. She thought that maybe this was done on purpose by someone who was aiming for her birthday. If by any chance. If that was really true. If someone was determined to ruin her birthday party.

Who else in this palace would do such a thing besides Yeon Hwawoon? 

While Biyoung was hesitating even after seeing the hand that Hwawoon reached out, the hawk flew again from afar with the sound of cutting the wind. There was despair on Hwawoon’s face. This was because the direction in which the hawk flew was exactly the line where Biyoung stood at.

“Your Highness Sukbi!”

Feeling desperate, Hwawoon called Biyoung once again, but Biyoung, who faced a huge bird flying straight toward her in the chaotic situation, was completely frozen and could not think of moving at all. Myeongju, who was next to her, ran away in a hurry and fell on the floor, entangled with a court lady who was running about in confusion.

Hwawoon bit his lip. If left as it is, the hawk’s toenail clearly looked like it would fly straight into Biyoung, and there was nothing in Hwawoon’s hand that could be used as a weapon. Hwawoon’s eyes briefly looked at Yihan, who was far away. Yihan seemed to be trying to run to where Hwawoon was, but Eunuch Oh seemed to block him from going to the dangerous spot.

The moment he made a decision, the whole scene entered Hwawoon’s eyes in slow motion, as if the time of the world were moving slowly. His Majesty is still safe. At that moment, Hwawoon took a step forward without hesitation, feeling such relief. 

*** 

Biyoung was only looking at the bird flying toward her. No, in Biyoung’s eyes, it was not a bird, but a monster the size of a house. She could not scream or breathe. The noise around her was just distant and her ears were deafened as if she were submerged. 

It felt like blood was escaping from her body. The fear of death, which was so intense, quickly rushed up and swallowed Biyoung to the tip of her head. When Biyoung just closed her eyes tightly under the pressure of a hawk that came close to her nose in a blink of an eye. 

“Your Highness Yeonbin!”

There was a tearful voice calling for Yeonbin, not her, and at the same time, someone embraced Biyoung.

*** 

Yihan wanted to come forward numerous times. He took a step several times. From the moment when a hawk suddenly flew in to attack people and someone’s blood was sprayed on the floor of the banquet hall. From the moment he saw Yeon Hwawoon standing in the middle of the mess, Yihan wanted to run right away and block Yeon Hwawoon. 

However, Yihan could not do that. Correction, he did not. It was not just because Eunuch Oh and the guards desperately stopped him. It was not because of the sense of duty or responsibility that the emperor himself is the most important and that his safety must be guaranteed for the nation either.

The reason why Yihan couldn’t run and protect Hwawoon. The reason why he kept holding back the steps, which kept trying to run willingly several times. 

It was because he thought he shouldn’t do that because it was Yeon Hwawoon, not anyone else.

Because he was only Yeon Hwawoon. He was someone who shouldn’t mean anything to Yihan. The emperor of a nation should not take risks because of a concubine, and the emperor should not have feelings beyond the bounds for any concubine. Therefore, Yihan did not step forward even though he saw Hwawoon hiding others behind his back.