Chapter 7

After raising the question, Soa casually looked up at the sky.

Far away, a falcon was circling overhead.

If General Maeng asked how his Tiger Tally had ended up in a place like this—

【The mice kept bringing things to me in exchange for a handful of rice.】

It was all thanks to her diligent and reliable new companions.

The result was unmistakable.

【Investigate General Maeng.】

When Seoheon issued his written command, Chief Steward No bowed his head.

“General Maeng, please come this way for a moment.”

“Your Highness, this is clearly someone trying to frame me…”

“Of course. His Highness is not accusing you of anything. This is merely a simple procedure.”

Chief Steward No soothed him as he led him outside the warehouse.

At that moment, General Maeng’s eyes met Soa’s.

The corners of Soa’s eyes curved subtly and beautifully.

‘That woman knew about it and deliberately set this up!’

General Maeng suddenly stopped walking and raised his hand.

“You insolent woman from outside! You don’t even know your place. You’re nothing but a Jae-in dragged here as some nobody—!”

Just as his enormous palm, nearly the size of a cauldron lid, was about to strike her cheek—

Crack!

General Maeng’s arm twisted violently.

“Ghk!”

General Maeng opened his mouth and mouthed soundlessly.

As everyone held their breath, a dark shadow fell over General Maeng’s silent scream.

A chilling pair of eyes looked down at him from beneath the mask.

【Chief Steward No. Withdraw General Maeng’s privileges and place him in prison.】

His voice was murderous.

Seoheon was gripping General Maeng’s arm in a twisted hold.

“Your Highness, evidence of General Maeng diverting coal and charcoal has been discovered at his residence.”

The evidence was clear.

【Track down everyone connected to General Maeng and those around him, and punish them severely.】

After Seoheon issued his written order, the Inspector-General accepted the command and withdrew.

“The matter has been resolved remarkably quickly.”

Chief Steward No spoke as he watched the Inspector-General leave.

But Seoheon dryly ran a hand over his mask.

The Maeng family had been a powerful aristocratic clan that had held high-ranking positions since the reign of the previous king.

General Maeng himself had accumulated considerable military achievements since his youth.

That was why Seoheon had been waiting for an opportunity to bring him down.

‘I never expected it to be resolved like this.’

Still, it was a good thing.

However—

‘…If it weren’t for this curse.’

Seoheon’s jaw tightened.

If only he had a voice.

If only he could properly fulfill his role as the lord of the Ink King’s Residence…

Then he would never have needed to stand by and watch General Maeng’s arrogance grow this far.

No matter how hard he tried, Seoheon could not produce a sound.

He tightly gripped his own throat.

The veins bulged across the throat he squeezed until it seemed difficult to breathe.

‘Damn it.’

More than anything, he wanted to tear away the curse lodged in his throat.

If only there were someone who could hear my voice.

“Y-Your Highness!”

Chief Steward No was horrified when he saw Seoheon choking himself and hurried over.

Ever since the curse had appeared, Seoheon would sometimes punish himself whenever he was reminded that he could no longer produce a voice.

‘He was never like this before he was cursed…’

Chief Steward No recalled Seoheon’s childhood.

A gentle child who smiled brightly.

He had been clever and capable, and even the previous king had favored him.

If not for the curse, the other nobles would never have dared to disregard him so openly.

After the previous king’s death,

Seoheon had reduced the amount of sleep he got and devoted himself to governing day and night in an attempt to overcome his curse.

As though he could defeat the curse through sheer force of will.

‘There has never been a ruler in history, East or West, who could not speak…’

Chief Steward No thought it remarkable that Seoheon could manage the Ink King’s Residence to this extent despite being cursed.

Was it not because of Seoheon that the monsters of Yogok could not easily invade Ryeo?

But Seoheon himself was surely not satisfied.

“For now, please have some tea.”

Chief Steward No calmed him and served him tea.

Seoheon exhaled deeply and leaned back.

Come to think of it…

【What about Jae-in Jin?】

“She seemed quite frightened, so I had a physician treat her and sent her back to her room to rest. Of course, I also had her maidservant make sure she had plenty of coal.”

Chief Steward No answered.

But the uneasiness did not disappear.

Seoheon could not forget the way General Maeng had looked down on Jin Soa.

“You insolent woman from outside! You don’t even know your place. You’re nothing but a Jae-in dragged here as some nobody—!”

No matter what, she was a Jae-in under his protection.

How dare General Maeng raise a hand against her?

Perhaps there was some fault of his own that had allowed General Maeng to become so arrogant.

Seoheon pressed his temple beneath the mask.

Perhaps wanting to encourage his deeply troubled master, Chief Steward No gave him a thumbs-up.

“You were very impressive when you stopped General Maeng for Jae-in Jin, Your Highness.”

At the excessive praise, Seoheon leaned his head against his hand, looking displeased.

It had merely been a matter of principle.

There was no other meaning behind it.

‘I’m getting entangled with a Jae-in against my will.’

Seoheon felt that today’s events had been somewhat contrived.

Jae-in Jin had happened to accompany General Maeng.

And she had also been the one to discover General Maeng’s Tiger Tally.

‘Whether she intended it or not, I might as well make use of him.’

Whether she had done this to win his favor or whether it had truly been a coincidence—

There was no need to dwell on it.

At that moment, Chief Steward No smiled warmly and spoke.

“Your Highness, I imagine Jae-in Jin must have been quite frightened. Shall I send someone to check on her?”

Seoheon thought for a moment before picking up his brush.

【Do not give Jae-in Jin too much.】

From the Soyohyang to the Tiger Tally—

She was still a woman he could not trust.

Clearing those thoughts from his mind, Seoheon brought up a question he had been too busy to ask.

【More importantly, what about Hyerang?】

“She has been doing well while you were away in the Imperial Capital, just as usual.”

Hyerang was the daughter of the previous king who had ruled the Ink King’s Residence.

After the previous king passed away, Seoheon had taken in the young Hyerang, who had been left alone, and cared for her.

After all, Seoheon himself owed the previous king a great debt.

‘The previous king accepted me as if I were his own son, so Hyerang is practically my younger sister.’

Even while busy, Seoheon would often ask about Hyerang and make sure she was doing well.

The problem was that young Hyerang was terribly afraid of him.

‘I would like to go see her, even if it is only to make sure she is doing well.’

But whenever she saw his face, she would become hysterical with fear.

“Your Highness is probably not exactly the sort of appearance a child would like.”

At Chief Steward No’s words, the tips of Seoheon’s fingers trembled around the brush.

Chief Steward No burst out laughing when he saw him.

“Please do not worry. I hear she particularly likes cucumbers, so she has been eating cucumber salad every day.”

Cucumbers…

After hearing Hyerang’s news from Chief Steward No, Seoheon wrote:

【Make sure there are plenty of cucumbers available for Hyerang to eat her fill.】

Cucumbers were precious now that winter had passed.

But for Hyerang, who was living alone—

He would even sell his sword to provide them for her.

【Soa, you almost really got slapped!】

As Soa walked through the garden, an ear-piercing lecture followed her.

“I didn’t get slapped.”

【Even so, did you really have to provoke him like that?!】

“We wouldn’t have been able to bring General Maeng down with that much evidence alone. He had to expose his own emotions for it to become conclusive.”

General Maeng was the head of a powerful aristocratic family.

Evidence as minor as a Tiger Tally alone would not have been enough to bring him down completely.

He could simply have claimed that someone else had framed him.

But by provoking his hot temper, Soa had made his guilt much more certain.

“The other nobles will have a hard time openly defending him now, too.”

Soa smiled brightly, and Unjo shook his head from side to side.

“Still, things are moving much faster than I expected.”

Soa was surprised to see General Maeng dealt with in a single day.

Matters like this could easily drag on for several months.

【From what I heard, he had been preparing to bring General Maeng down since last autumn.】

Not just the coal, but other evidence as well.

“So he waited for half a year…”

Until every circumstance had fallen into his hands?

【Hmph. Even so, the Ink King has plenty of problems. If it were me, I would have broken the neck of a rampaging general like that long ago.】

Soa could not deny Unjo’s words.

After spending several days looking around the Ink King’s Palace, she had realized something.

The curse placed upon Seoheon did not merely prevent him from speaking.

“Has His Highness…?”

“We have not received a reply yet.”

The officials had to spend an enormous amount of time making decisions.

“Wh-What does this character mean?”

“Let me see… Sul (戌)? It’s Sul!”

“It’s Su (戍), Uncle!”

Those who were unfamiliar with written characters were bound to misunderstand them.

And minor misunderstandings could sometimes lead to major mistakes.

The barrier to communication was the greatest curse when it came to running an organization.

If things were already this difficult during ordinary times, then in wartime, when circumstances could change from moment to moment, his curse would be even more devastating.

‘He managed to protect the northern region in my previous life somehow.’

Now she thought she understood.

Why the Ink King, who could cut down a monster with a single sword strike, had been unable to completely eradicate the monsters of Yogok for so long.

Why he had focused solely on defending against them.

‘He was simply fighting desperately to endure.’

She had suspected as much in her previous life.

After all, she had received information brought to her by the animals.

But seeing it with her own eyes, the situation was far more serious than she had imagined.

‘The Ink King’s Residence cannot grow like this.’

The problems had already festered too deeply.

If things continued this way, he would eventually be trampled beneath Seogon’s heel just as he had been in her previous life.

‘I’ll have to change things one by one.’

It was while passing over the Half-Moon Bridge in the western garden of the Ink King’s Palace that—

“Ugh, urgh…! Cough, cough!”

A painful sound of someone vomiting came from somewhere nearby.

【Soa, underneath the bridge!】

Following Unjo’s words, Soa looked beneath the bridge.

There, she saw a little girl who appeared to be around six or seven years old.

Her hair was tied into two little buns.

Her round face still had the plumpness of childhood.

Yet her complexion was deathly pale as she clutched her chest and vomited painfully.