SH | Chapter 3.6

“What’s so good about these useless man nipples, anyway?”

Muttering to himself, Donggu brought his palm to a nipple. The cold nipple reddened a little as it touched his warm hand.

The soft, prominent thing moved this way and that at Donggu’s touch. It felt as though the areola itself was tingling. Before he knew it, the areola and nipple had swelled up over his flat chest.

His lips had gone dry. Donggu’s red tongue darted out and wet them. Donggu had learned the pleasure of being taken by a man. Delight had been carved into every part of his body. He had grown used to the thrusting of a shaft entering through his back passage. So different from how miserable he had once thought it.

“…Hah!”

Donggu, lost to himself, pinched and tugged at his nipples from side to side. His back passage itched. His belly felt empty, as if something had been scooped out. Donggu rubbed his hips back and forth against the floor.

At the sight of Donggu’s body, heated and twitching helplessly, Middle Gil swallowed dryly.

He sat with no presence at all, as though he were just one more rafter in the ceiling beam, and watched Donggu from above. The heat of his rising body temperature made his mouth dry. He licked his parched lips. Watching Donggu, flushed and alone in his lust, brought the recent past back vividly to mind.

The night Yoongong had toyed and bargained with unconscious Donggu. For the price of wavering for a moment at that temptation, Middle Gil had ended up fighting the old guards of Park Sihak in the annex courtyard.

There were six guards protecting the annex on all sides. They all gathered in one place at the sound of a voice, faintly disturbing the silent night.

Middle Gil ended his not-quite-conversation with Yoongong and left the room. The moment he set foot in the courtyard, a sword blade flew at him. He dodged reflexively. After that, it was a battle to keep his life.

When the moon moved east and hung over the mountain peak, the fight was decided. All six guards lay defeated, each with wounds in different places.

Middle Gil shook the blood from his sword. Letting out a long breath, he sheathed it.

“That’s the end of that.”

He was about to vault the wall and leave without a second thought. But as he turned toward the wall, Middle Gil hesitated.

Yoongong, who had been teasing Donggu while Donggu lay unconscious, came to mind. Donggu, suffering under Yoongong’s rough fucking, came to mind. Under Yoongong’s sticky caresses, Donggu felt pleasure through the pain. That stricken face flashed before him.

“Damn it.”

Middle Gil could not cross the wall. The low wall topped with roof tiles looked infinitely high. He bit his lip.

Councilor Park Sihak had confirmed the intruder in the annex who had been caught by the guards. He was one of the new guards hired not long ago.

“You…”

He had been someone the councilor had taken note of because his skill surpassed not only the other new guards but also the existing ones. That was why he was ordered to guard Yungso’s quarters, where she was preparing to enter the palace for the third selection.

“So you had such fine skills, and yet you came in with some other purpose!”

Park’s mind raced. Who was behind it, what purpose had been served by disguising himself as a guard, was he here to seize Yoongong’s weakness, what would he demand after learning that weakness, was he trying to stop Yungso’s entry into the palace, and who would oppose Yungso’s palace entry?

“Father, I have something to say.”

Yoongong’s calm voice cut off Park’s train of thought.

“That one simply ran here after hearing the startled cry that my wife and I let out. He has no other intent.”

“What? A startled cry?”

“Yes. So there is no need to worry.”

Park felt a sudden surge of irritation at his son’s relaxed expression.

“Do you have no sense at all? There are six guards protecting the annex where your married couple stays. How could one man hear a cry that those six failed to hear, when he is guarding Yungso’s quarters at such a distance? And not that one!”

He felt suffocated, like his chest might explode. His one and only daughter had been frail from birth. She had been sick all her life and died. He had done everything he could, searching out the best medicine, the finest physicians, even temples rumored to have brought back those given a date to die.

But Heaven had still taken that young, pitiful child away in the end. The woman with a tender heart could not accept her daughter’s death. Even after seeing the corpse, she denied it, insisting the girl was only asleep.

For days on end, she clung to the daughter’s corpse and almost made it impossible to hold the funeral. Only after much coaxing had they managed to bury the daughter. But the lady kept insisting to others that their daughter, Yungso, was still recovering at a temple.

And so they could not tell the neighbors or the authorities that their daughter had died.

Sending off his daughter that way had already felt like the sky was collapsing, and now even his one remaining son was not turning out as he wished.

He had only thought the boy was postponing marriage because he was worried about his ailing younger sister. But after the daughter died, Park became worried about heirs. Unlike the daughter, the son was healthy, clever, and had won the state examination with flying colors. On top of that, he had shown remarkable talent in martial arts.

But even after all that effort and hard work, the daughter was gone. No matter how healthy a son was, one’s lifespan was fixed by Heaven in advance. How could anyone guarantee the future?

So they had been looking for a suitable match. And then, out of nowhere, he declared that he was a sodomite. He said he could only react to men and could not marry a woman. Park and Lady An had been utterly stunned.

A sodomite.

How could such a thing be tolerated in Joseon? He was a criminal who would have no complaint even if he were beaten to death. Even if they did not kill him and only expelled him from the family, he would have no right to complain of injustice.

But he was their only child. The one precious child they had left.

By now, the son’s future, whether long or short, and the matter of heirs had become less important.

If it became known that the son was a sodomite, Park could lose everything he had built up. He could not lose his child or his power.

In the end, he took his son in. They decided to keep the son’s taste absolutely secret. But what then?

Park had been forced to agonize over that troublesome situation.

Then, after months away from home carrying out His Highness’s secret order, his son returned.

With a ludicrous but plausible solution.

A daughter from a humble family appeared, saying she would take the place of the dead daughter. For a daughter of a country gentry family, she was quite pretty and smart. She also claimed some connection to the dead Yungso. It was absurd, and yet the way she spoke her greetings so calmly left him speechless.

It was nonsense. How could she become the daughter of this household when her own parents were alive and well? Park was firmly against it. But his wife pleaded with him. The girl was the same age as the dead Yungso. She was as lovely as Yungso had been. Even her name shared one character with Yungso’s.

She said, with tears in her eyes, that it felt like a connection sent for the sake of parents grieving over their dead daughter. She smiled through tears, saying it felt like seeing a healthier Yungso.

Park Sihak shut his eyes tightly. It had been his wife’s wish too, and in any case, hadn’t the matter already begun?

Yoongong said he would enter into a hundred-year union with the male servant disguised as that family’s daughter. And the child who appeared claiming to replace Yungso harbored ambition to become crown princess.

Park Sihak was dizzy. He was confused about where to even begin setting things right.

To dare deceive the supreme ruler of the nation. To dare disguise a man, and a lowly slave at that, as a woman and marry him off. How could he possibly handle the countless eyes of this household? How could he deceive the eyes of the family?

Park Sihak felt as though his head might crack open.

But already, by the plan made by his son and the child who had become Yungso, fate had boarded the boat and was rowing with the current.

What could he do? If they stopped now, it was the middle of an endless ocean.

Rather than drifting helplessly, they had to row toward some destination.

If everything went according to plan, a queen would be born from the family. It would be an incomparable honor, and one that would make the family shine for generations.

So Park Sihak carried the tension in his chest and carried out each step of the plan one by one. Somehow, things had been going well.

But then, just when he thought they had set sail with the wind at their backs…

“How can a smart bastard be so naive!”

“Father, please calm down and hear me out until the end.”

Unlike the excited Park, Yoongong’s tone remained perfectly calm.

“Tsk.”

Whether in assent or dismissal, Park turned his head away and clicked his tongue.

“As I was conversing with my wife, a small black thing suddenly fell from the ceiling. It happened so abruptly that I just stood there with my mouth open, but then it trembled and started running all around the room at great speed! Looking closely, that black thing was a rat.”

“What? A rat?”

“Yes, it was a rat that suddenly appeared. My wife and I were truly startled.”

A rat.

Park wondered if he should believe his son’s words.

“…Yes, it is a small creature that can appear from nowhere at any time. Still, if that were truly the case, then the guards in the annex should have heard your startled cries first, shouldn’t they? Not this one.”

“As I’m sure Father knows well, I am not the type to make a huge commotion even when startled. My wife is similar in that regard. The guards protecting the annex are mainly watching the outside, so they were outside the wall. Naturally, it would have been difficult for them to notice.”

“Ha! Then doesn’t that make this one even more suspicious?”

Park’s hand pointed at Middle Gil. At Yoongong’s absurd excuse, Middle Gil’s face, already rotting steadily, rotted even further under Park’s pointing finger.

“I heard that this new guard had left his post to go to the latrine while guarding Yungso’s quarters. Then he felt the air around the annex where my wife and I were staying unstable and rushed over.”

The more he heard, the less it made sense. How could anyone feel the annex’s energy from that far away? Listening to the excuse, Middle Gil was dumbfounded by the nonsense, the white lies.

As his expression continued to darken, Middle Gil steadied himself and drew in a breath. At this point, he might as well turn that nonsense into truth.

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