On Mu-ae’s hand around her throat was trembling violently.
The image of the woman she once was—smiling, gazing at him with trust—flickered before his eyes. Yet they had already come too far.
Memories of the past and the feelings he had long harbored tossed him about. Deep within his heart something resisted.
In a hoarse voice Go Gyeong-seong barely managed to speak.
“Eight years ago… after my mother and I barely escaped death on the frontier… and finally returned to the capital… the first person we met… was you…”
Her breath was on the verge of breaking, yet she squeezed out the last of her strength to continue.
“You saved us mother and daughter… treated our wounds… At the time… you were only seventeen or eighteen yourself…
Eight years…”
Tears began to fall.
Drip. Drip.
“I foolishly thought… that the destiny that brought me into this world… was you… I believed that was my fate… yet in the end… you were my death… my calamity…”
Tears traced her cheeks and fell from the tip of her chin.
“Whatever grudge you held against my family no longer matters… But you used my heart…
You used me… to set foot in the Chancellor’s household.”
With cold eyes she looked at his face, which had turned pale and rigid. He could not meet her gaze and let his eyes fall.
“On Mu-ae… you and I… are finished now…”
In that instant something exploded inside On Mu-ae’s chest.
Finished?
It meant there was no going back—that they could never return to those days.
The moment those three words left her lips, the strength in the hand that gripped her throat suddenly increased, as though forcing every remaining word back down her throat.
Her vision blurred with tears that poured without cease. A twisted smile hung at the corners of her mouth.
As darkness slowly swallowed her, her head tilted quietly to one side.
The moment strength drained from her body, On Mu-ae’s hand released her throat at once.
She was not dead. She had merely fainted.
He looked down at the woman collapsed weakly in the corner. Her once-lovely face had grown painfully gaunt; dried bloodstains and dust clung to every wound.
Truly a wretched sight.
He closed his eyes tightly, then opened them again.
He had not been able to kill her with his own hands.
Turning to leave the room, On Mu-ae suddenly paused and looked at the basket lying not far away.
After long hesitation he approached, lifted the basket, and slowly opened it.
The moment he confirmed what lay inside, the color drained from his face.
This is…
Yu Geum-yeon had said she had brought food to Go Gyeong-seong.
That she had given her a birthday gift.
His hands trembled. The basket nearly slipped to the floor.
Yu Geum-yeon’s words rose one by one in his mind. That Go Gyeong-seong was in Dongwon.
That she was weeping and making a scene. That she was threatening to take her own life.
I…
He took a step toward Go Gyeong-seong, then stopped.
He had already committed far too much. He had destroyed the Go family, deposed her, and issued the letter of divorce.
She, in turn, had taken his child, and just now he himself had throttled her throat.
What use would calling a physician be now? What difference would bringing food make?
There was no going back. They had already reached a place from which return was impossible.
He could no longer allow himself to be swayed by the fragile emotions that kept shaking his heart.
What must come will come.
Those who are to die will surely die.
On Mu-ae walked out with heavy steps. He did not look back.
The door slammed shut with a heavy bang.
Go Gyeong-seong was submerged in darkness.
Her consciousness drifted in and out. At times she felt the cold stone floor; at times she felt nothing at all.
Her throat burned as though on fire. Her lips were cracked and parched.
She could not tell how much time had passed. It might have been an hour, half a day, or more than a full day.
In the darkness a faint light seeped in and disappeared again and again. Whether it was sunlight or moonlight filtering through the cracks in the window, she could not distinguish.
Even hunger no longer registered. Her entire body simply felt cold and heavy.
Father… Mother…
In her hazy consciousness faces drifted past. Memories of childhood.
Memories of the frontier.
And older still—memories of another world.
When she had first entered the body of an eight-year-old girl, everything had been strange. The capital, the Chancellor’s household, even her parents.
Eight years lived with the memories of a previous life. Neither that wealth of knowledge nor her cleverness had ultimately been able to save her.
In the end she too was nothing more than an ordinary human being.
A human who could starve to death—nothing more.
Her consciousness faded again. When she next awoke, cold dawn air was seeping through the window cracks.
She slowly raised her body. Every inch of her ached.
There was not a shred of strength left.
I do not want to die here…
It was unjust.
The whole world felt pitch-black. It seemed the shadow of death would soon fall.
She closed her eyes and waited for the final moment.
Bang—!
A thunderous sound rang out, and the door opened once more.
“Go Gyeong-seong! I will not let you die in peace!”
Yu Geum-yeon burst in. The guards who followed immediately dragged Go Gyeong-seong out.
Yes—she was dragged out.
Her body was roughly pulled across the ground, and soon Yu Geum-yeon seized her by the hair. Yu Geum-yeon was still dressed in splendid clothes, yet her now-flat abdomen and pale face fully revealed the suffering of the miscarriage she had endured.
As though all sensation had vanished, Go Gyeong-seong twisted her lips. She could not tell whether she was weeping or laughing.
Slap!
Yu Geum-yeon’s hand struck her face hard, yet she felt almost no pain.
“Go Gyeong-seong, you killed my child! You killed the child of Mu-ae and me!
I will throw you into hell while you still live! I will make you understand to the marrow of your bones what it means to live worse than death!”
Even as she spoke, Yu Geum-yeon suddenly snatched a bowl from a guard’s hand. Go Gyeong-seong’s mouth was forced open before she even knew what the bowl contained.
A dark-red liquid sloshed over the rim. A foul stench rose to her nostrils.
“Ugh…!”
A bloody, bitter decoction poured into her mouth. It burned her throat as it went down, as though scorching her esophagus.
Yu Geum-yeon forced more than half the bowl down her throat before finally flinging her aside.
Thud!
She crawled weakly across the floor, trying to retch up the contents of her stomach, yet her belly had been empty for so long that even that required strength she no longer possessed. She could only lie prostrate, coughing endlessly.
Yu Geum-yeon slowly approached and ground her heel into Go Gyeong-seong’s hand.
“Ugh…!”
Wracked with pain, Go Gyeong-seong slowly lifted her head and met Yu Geum-yeon’s gaze, blazing with rage.
“As Mu-ae said last night, within two days you will be locked in Cheonroe. Since you were once a consort, you will not be confined with the others—how fortunate for you, isn’t it?”
A cruel smile curved her lips.
“On the day every last member of your precious family is beheaded, your fate will be decided as well. Mu-ae will submit you to His Majesty for judgment, and from today your name will be completely erased from the Prince of Yeonggun’s household!”
A triumphant, cold sneer colored Yu Geum-yeon’s pale face.
Once again she came in haste and left in haste. Go Gyeong-seong was left alone once more.
The bitter taste in her mouth was soon drowned by the metallic tang of blood rising from her throat.
That entire day her stomach and intestines twisted and churned; every muscle in her body trembled with pain.
Blood kept rising from deep in her throat and would not stop.
Cough… cough…
Each time she opened her mouth, blood poured out. It felt as though her throat were being torn apart.
As if a red-hot iron were scraping the inside of her neck.
When night fell the agony reached its peak.
She tried to open her mouth and scream.
“Ah…”
No sound emerged. She tried again.
She forced strength into her throat, tried to make her vocal cords vibrate.
Yet only a hoarse breath escaped.
No matter how hard she strained, no sound came. Only blood continued to flow from her throat.
I cannot… speak…
At last she realized she had been made mute by poison.
Despair washed over her. The thing Yu Geum-yeon had forced her to drink.
It had destroyed her vocal cords.
Yu Geum-yeon had arranged it so that for the rest of her life she would never be able to speak a single word to On Mu-ae. On Mu-ae never appeared again.
It was as though he had evaporated from her world.
Just as Yu Geum-yeon had said, two days later the constables came for her, and she was locked in the imperial Cheonroe together with the other condemned prisoners.
Transferred to Cheonroe, Go Gyeong-seong was whipped, beaten with clubs, and had her fingers broken.
She was a mute who could utter no words. Because no one could extract from her any family secrets or evidence of treason, she suffered even greater torment than the other prisoners.
Yet at least in Cheonroe she did not have to starve. Though the food tasted foul, until an imperial decree arrived the jailers could not simply let them die.
Several days passed in this manner.
“Do you know? Those locked in Cheonroe here… after a month and a half, will become fodder for the beasts in the arena at the Gaenyeon Festival…”
At one prisoner’s words the entire prison fell into momentary turmoil. Some wailed, some shouted, some even fainted.
Go Gyeong-seong merely chewed silently on a dried-out dumpling.
She could speak no words, nor did she wish to join their disputes.
About a week later news arrived.
“The Go family will be beheaded in three days.”
Her entire body froze.
“His Highness the Prince of Yeonggun himself will serve as the execution officer.”
Father… Mother…
Everyone in the prison knew that Go Gyeong-seong had once been consort to the Prince of Yeonggun, and they looked at her with strange eyes.
Yet she wore the same indifferent expression, as though none of it had anything to do with her.
“Bringing sewing to night duty, of all things.”
There were several female jailers in Cheonroe.
Late at night, one of them sat at a table mending clothes by candlelight when another jailer beside her asked in disbelief. The woman holding the sewing work smiled.
“When you work in the palace Cheonroe you almost never get the chance to go home and see your parents. My mother is past fifty and can no longer sew, yet there are many torn clothes at home.
I brought them last time I went out briefly. If I mend them little by little during my shifts, I can give them to her the next time I visit.”
“All right, I’ll help a little too.”
Go Gyeong-seong, who had been dozing against a pile of straw, woke at their conversation. Looking at the long silver needles in the two women’s hands, she slowly blinked both eyes.
The silver needles glittered in the candlelight.
I cannot die like this…
The people of the Go family would all die soon; at least one person had to survive to clear the family’s name of injustice.
She must not forget the love and grace she had received these past eight years. That grace had sustained her ability to live in this unfamiliar world; she could not die like this…
On Mu-ae and Yu Geum-yeon were still alive and well, so she had all the more reason to survive.
She had to take revenge—for her family, and for herself.
Staring at the two silver needles shining beneath the candlelight, she quietly clenched both hands, hidden in her sleeves.
Survive, Go Gyeong-seong… You must survive…
