Unmasking Souls

20. Loved Entirely

"Please, Yeoshin-nim, tell me you've forgiven me. Please......please......."

Go Eun didn't understand who she really meant, but thinking to ease her mind, she just answered, "Yes, yes, of course. I forgive you. Now, go get better."

"Gamsahamnida" the woman whispered, as the guards carried her inside the clinic, and Eun Seung helped Joo Hyeon stand up, trying her best to clean her lady's dress.

Go Eun walked inside the clinic and checked on the woman.

Young Ae-ssi said she was just extremely exhausted and starving. She seemed to arrive to Busan on foot, for her feet were full of scratches and blisters. She was also rather pretty too, they discovered it once after they wiped her face with water.

After resting for a week and eating nutritious meals, the woman recovered and was back on her feet. She said she had nothing except the clothes she was wearing, and would Lee Young Ae-ssi please accept her as a helper there. By then the clinic was always crowded with patients, so the head doctor accepted the woman gladly.

Interested by how she saw her for the first time, Go Eun often talked to the woman everytime she visited the clinic.

The woman was always polite, saying she heard of her in Hanyang, the Goddess who shared the food and gave free medical care.

One day, out of the blue, the woman asked her, "Your Highness, how does it feel to have a perfect life?"

They were tending to a sick baby with a bad case of cold, he had been crying and whining for a long time. The woman had successfully made him ate enough porridge, as Go Eun held him. He seemed to be calmer when he was being carried around in someone's arms. His mother had died when she gave birth, so he was raised at the clinic.

Go Eun stopped swaying the baby gently left and right, looking awestruck at the woman.

She frowned.

Well. She was a prince's wife, and he had miraculously stayed loyal and vowed to always be. She had escaped death once, and was living a full life.

Compared to the woman standing in front of her, she was luckier in many ways.

It was rare that someone threw a question so soul digging as that, yet she was not mad.

She was surprised that she needed to think before answering.

"It feels.........like living a beautiful dream" she answered honestly, a soft smile appearing on her lips, "We had a hard time last year. But now everything runs smoothly, like everything bends to our wishes. I am grateful with each day. Still, I don't think my life is perfect.......yet."

She paused to hold the baby's cheek, who was sleeping in her arms, then.

"It's close to perfect. I wish it could be complete soon," she said, with a tone of longing that made the woman beside her confused.

"Princess Kim, the prince is waiting outside for you to walk home together."

"Ah, jjinjja? Ahrasseo. I'll be there soon," she put the baby down on a nearby cot.

It was Jo Yeong, dropping by after accompanying his lord to visit the city judge.

It's been a while since he last visited the clinic. One sweeping glance at the woman standing beside the princess and he immediately unsheathed his sword.

The woman hurriedly knelt on the floor in a burst of tears, while Go Eun screamed,

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"

Jo Yeong said nothing, as the woman knelt trembling near the princess's feet.

"Cover your sword again! Why on earth are you doing this to a defenseless woman?"