Secret of the Two Kings (89 CHAPTERS - ON HOLD)

제 10 부

"I'm sorry, young lord... but please, don't say those words again. It's not true. Perhaps your father didn't mean it. He loves you. Remember that."

"I have learned to accept that bitter truth when he had me banished when I was seven. This is my home."

"But, Young Master. Give it a chance, please," she purred. "Consider this as the King's humble request to you. Knowing that he wrote this letter to you means that you are important to him. Please don't break the King's heart."

The kid bit his lips, pearls of tears shaking from the corners of his puppy eyes. He wrapped his arms around the matron's neck as he bellowed raspy sobs. "I don't wish to break anyone's heart. I don't wish to break the King's heart! Please don't be mad at me." He ran out of breaths, wheezing, and wailing like a lost fawn in the jungle.

Seo patted his back and cooed, "Oh, young lord. I would never be mad at you. I am sorry. Please don't cry."

The magical power and warmth of a mother figure's embrace pacified the disheartened boy. After a few more strokes, Jung Min snorted and rubbed his eyes, redder than the blood moon. Seo clasped her fingers and smiled, her eyes fuzzy with suppressed tears. "Smile for me, will you?" She cupped his red cheeks. "I miss your cheerful face and your squeals every time you wanted to show me something interesting. Do you remember that earthworm you brought to me while I was cooking for your lunch? I screamed, but you said you wanted to count the stripes on its body."

Jung Min chortled. A small portal into his happy world. "You are a special kid, young lord. I have seen your talents, your wit, and your strengths as a child. You are a brave one. But above all, I am the living witness of your good heart. I will always be here for you, and I will never stop believing in you."

She placed her right palm in Jung Min's chest; the defibrillator to his dying heart. The one that has always charged him with positive outlooks in life. A mother's touch—his only one. With a bright smile on her face, Lady Seo asked Jung Min, "Shall we get ready, Young Lord?"

The young boy chewed his teeth and raised his head. A nod and a flashy white beam.

~~•~~

Back in the palace, as the Prime Minister sauntered down the palace grounds, he paused and raised his right arm. An alert sign for everyone (if you were sleepy, might as well do it forever). He looked behind his matron with steel eyes, and Lady Min scurried. She bowed, "Yes, Your Excellency?"

The Prime Minister wiggled his index finger, signaling Lady Min to come closer. The elderly matron leaned her cheek closer to the Prime Minister's face.

"I will go to the prison.," he whispered.

Min's heart hopped once and almost never returned. "My Lord?" She pulled away, eyes goggling before the Prime Minister whose brows were raised and lips pressed. She gasped, realizing she had used a dulllllllll wire inside her skull. "Right away, Your Excellency!" Her head bobbed like an automated cat scooping for money in the air, as she returned beside other court ladies.

Jung Ho went outside the palace and rode his small, crimson palanquin. With just a few servants and two hwarangdos, his destination: the great evergreen forest, a few miles away from the capital. At first, traveling down the woods was revitalizing. The vibrant colors of the towering living skyscrapers spellbound everyone passing through. Resonant orchestra of the chirping birds perked the tired souls of the servants carrying the palanquin. However, as they moved to the deeper portions of the jungle, unknown to most people, its hidden colors were brutally revealed. Century-old trees with bulging roots over-arched the ground, as lichens and dead foliage had enveloped their gray moribund trunks. The tangled, gnarling thorny vines from one oak-brown tree to another blocked the supernal gleam of light coming from the high sun. A miasmatic hood of putrescent organic matters overthrew the once sweet scents of the spring asters and the chilling mints of eucalyptuses. As visitors of the unwelcoming dimension, all they could do was to save their noses and mouths from awful punishments of the tricky nature.