Stolen Ch 2 part 2

The man woke up because he was thirsty.

He opened his eyes due to the burning thirst, his lips parched and dry.

It was still the middle of the night.

His body felt heavy.

‘Was I sick?’

He hurt his hand yesterday.

He got a cut because he had sharpened the sickle’s blade too much.

As he cut off the hind legs of a pig, he ended up cutting his hand as well.

The wound was stitched, and the bleeding had stopped, but the wound must have been too big because he had been in pain all night.

Usually, when this kind of thing happened, his body would feel lighter the next day after suffering and sweating throughout the night.

He still felt heavy now, but once the sun rose, he would feel much lighter.

‘Hm?’

Suddenly, he realized someone was holding his hand.

The man carefully sat up.

The person holding his hand was Yi-ryung.

He stared blankly at Yi-ryung, who was curled up beside him, holding his hand while asleep.

The fire in the brazier was almost out, and the blanket that Yi-ryung usually used to cover herself was on top of him instead.

She had put her blanket on him and fell asleep while curled up.

Beside her, there was a bowl of water and a bunch of wet cloth. The moment he sat up, the wet cloth on him slipped down, revealing what she had done for him all night long.

She had probably stayed by his side and placed a wet cloth on his forehead, wiped his body with another wet cloth, and held his hand all night long while he was sick.

The man couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable at the thought of this woman, who was sensitive to the cold, covering him with her blanket while sleeping curled up the whole night.

‘What if she catches a cold?’

The man covered her curled body with the blanket.

He blankly stared at her face.

She was quite a beautiful woman.

‘It must be hard for her.’

She was the kind of woman who didn’t fit in places like this.

She was too pretty and weak to be eating such crude food in a place like this. To be covered with old and shabby blankets, to live in a shabby house like this.

“She must have been very shocked by what happened. The doctor said that if she doesn’t control her shock, she will get a disease of the heart. Make sure you brew this medicine and feed it to her every day for a month. It’s medicine that helps her manage the shock.”

Seventh Prince Sadok gave the man some medicine as he said this.

“It won’t take long. It will all be over in a month or two. So until then, you must protect her without having anyone find out. She doesn’t know anything. If she cries, let her cry. How much can she possibly cry anyway?”

On the surface, he brought her here under the pretense of making her his wife.

But the man knew that she was not the woman who would truly become his wife.

There was another man who would become this woman’s husband.

She had a real fiancé, and she would soon return to him.

He just had to protect this woman until then.

Seventh Prince Sadok was his savior.

If it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t have been able to survive.

He owed him a favor.

He was repaying the favor by protecting his daughter, but it was a painful task.

He mustn’t give his heart to a woman who would have to go back soon.

She was a woman he shouldn’t give his affection to.

The woman would return, and when that happened, his heart and affection that he had given her would be left here all alone, suffering from a long, painful loneliness.

She was a woman he shouldn’t give his affection to, but he kept finding himself giving it to her.

She was a woman he shouldn’t give his heart to, but he kept finding himself falling for her.

That’s why he brought the rabbits to the woman who spent all day watching him do things. To give her something to do.

He had been living alone for a very long time.

He couldn’t even imagine how long it had been since he’d lived here all alone in this small house.

This woman was the first person he’d ever lived with.

Even though it was fake, it was his first family.

She was a woman who would have to return soon, and their relationship would break down. But for now, she was his family, and he was her husband.

Even if it wasn’t real, right now, he was this woman’s husband, and she was his wife.

A month or two.

The woman would return before the winter was over.

Then he might never forget this winter.

This winter may remain the warmest season of his life.

Thump…

It was still dark in the early morning, but he heard a small noise outside.

The man, who had been looking at Yi-ryung, quietly got up and went outside.

In the yard, a man was standing next to a cart.

The cart was loaded with swords and spears.

“Did you hurt your hand?”

The man standing next to the cart lowered his voice and asked after seeing the cloth wrapped around Dochi’s right hand.

“It’s nothing.”

Dochi glanced at his right hand wrapped in cloth and answered nonchalantly.

If Yi-ryung had been awake, she wouldn’t have believed her ears.

The man who was thought to be mute was not actually mute.

“Your complexion does not look good.”

The man who brought the cart loaded with swords and spears was none other than Ja-in.

Ja-in, who had been banished from Yi-un Palace with both of his hands cut off for failing to fulfill his duty, was now standing in the yard, pulling a cart with both of his hands intact.

“I got some metal poisoning when it entered the wound, so I had a little fever. Is this all for today?”

“Yes.”

Dochi, who had come out to the yard, took the cart from Ja-in and brought it into the slaughterhouse behind the house.

Inside the slaughterhouse, there was hanging meat from pigs and cows that had been slaughtered the day before.

The swords and spears Ja-in had brought were loaded into an empty cart. Then, slaughtered pork and beef meat were placed on top of it. The cart looked like it was loaded only with meat.

“How much time is left?”

Dochi looked at Ja-in after he finished loading the cart with meat.

“I think you’ll have to deliver this about ten more times.”

“Ten times…”

It had been a month since the weapons were carried into the city in carts that were loaded with meat.

Once a day, more than thirty times.

Quite a few weapons had already entered the city walls.

And now only ten days were left.

With this amount of weapons, there would be enough to arm over a thousand people.

The current imperial law prohibited private armies.

Even royalty and nobles alike could only afford to have a private force of about twenty people to guard their homes and protect themselves.

Since private arms and weapons were prohibited, it was natural that they could not be carried within the city walls.

Only licensed swords could be carried on one’s person, and if anyone who was not a noble’s bodyguard or a government official was caught carrying a weapon, they would be arrested immediately.

The most important thing the Emperor did to protect his power was to ban private armies of royal family members and nobles and to prohibit personal possession of weapons.

If they didn’t have weapons, they couldn’t rebel.

The Emperor held the power of war in his hands.

Within the capital city alone, there were over a thousand personal soldiers commanded by the Emperor.

As long as the ban on carrying weapons and utilizing private soldiers was not lifted, large numbers of soldiers could not enter the city walls.

And the city was surrounded by huge gates in the east, west, south, and north, so large groups of soldiers could not enter from the outside.

Sometimes, when the generals of the eight armies guarding the borders entered the city, their soldiers would wait outside the city walls, and the generals would only enter with roughly ten soldiers.

Thanks to this, the Emperor had been able to maintain his power for twenty years, despite his wicked deeds.

The current emperor ascended the throne by killing more than ten of his brothers and even his uncles.

He was also a man who did not hesitate to kill his empress and his own children during his ascension to the throne.

He was superstitious, and it seemed to be inevitable for those who had shed much blood.

He wanted to cover up his actions by having a shaman come into the palace to read his fortunes, and he wanted to hear that the heavens would not punish him.

As superstitions ran rampant, scholars who spoke the truth were often exiled, and the Empress, concubines, and even the Emperor’s children occasionally became casualties.

“How is the young lady?”

Ja-in cautiously asked about Yi-ryung’s wellbeing.

“She’s doing well.”

“She’s someone who tends to cry a lot…”

“When does His Highness the Crown Prince plan on coming to get her?”

“The details of the operation will be decided soon. Once everything is completed and things are somewhat settled, he will come to pick her up.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to tell her the truth now?”

“The young lady is weak-hearted. She is timid, but she also worries a lot. If she finds out that the Seventh Prince is preparing something dangerous, she will not be able to sit still and wait until it’s over. If she finds out what the Seventh Prince is planning, she would never have left his side, even if she were to die in the process. That is why we had no choice but to separate her in this way.”

“It’s just that you made her believe she was raped.”

“If not for that reason, how else could we justify expelling the young lady from Yi-un Palace? And what would we tell the Emperor?”

Ja-in looked up at the sky that was gradually becoming brighter with the breaking of dawn.

“It’s getting brighter, so I will be taking my leave. I leave this in your hands once again.”

Ja-in bowed to Dochi, turned around, and pulled the empty cart.

As Ja-in left through the fence, he stopped the cart and looked back as if something had occurred to him.

The small thatched cottage was still shrouded in blue darkness.

Ja-in’s face darkened as he looked at the door where Yi-ryung was sleeping inside.

Ja-in had not yet seen Yi-ryung.

He didn’t know how she was living or how she was doing.

She was the young lady he had served for many years.

He knew that she was sent here, but he hadn’t seen her yet.

Seventh Prince Sadok said that he trusted that man named Dochi, but Ja-in did not know what kind of man he was.

He just trusted him because His Highness said that he was a trustworthy man.

He wanted to see Yi-ryung with his own eyes and check if she was doing well, but His Highness would not allow it.

‘Please endure it for a little longer, my lady.’

Ja-in was the one who had pretended to rape Yi-ryung that night.

Of course, it was all under the orders of the Seventh Prince.

He was the one who tore Yi-ryung’s clothing and struck her in the stomach, causing her to faint.

He had to do it.

Yi-ryung had to believe that she had been raped, and the servants in the household had to believe it as well.

More than half of the servants currently working at Yi-un Palace were planted by the Emperor.

There was no way to know who the spies were.

That’s why they had to deceive everyone.

The only people who knew the truth were Ja-in, Yi-ryung’s servant girl Eunah, and the Seventh Prince Sadok.

This also meant that they could not trust anyone.

Since he was supposed to be able to move freely, he had to make it look like he was banished with his hands cut off for failing to fulfill his duty.

And now, Ja-in’s job was to get weapons from blacksmiths and give them to a man named Dochi who lived here.

The weapons brought into the city through Dochi would then be distributed to those who followed Sadok and those who shared Sadok’s views.

And Sadok’s objective was to rise up all at once and overthrow the Emperor, establishing a new mandate of heaven.

The odds of success were only 50/50.

If it failed, everyone involved would die.

The reason Sadok sent Yi-ryung here was not simply because Sadok was in danger.

It was to save at least one person in case the operation failed.

If she stayed here, she could live without knowing how the world worked.

Even if the uprising failed and Sadok and his followers died, Yi-ryung could live here without even knowing that something like that had happened.

Therefore, Sadok had laid out the groundwork in advance.

Ja-in looked up at the sky.

The sky was dyed in dark blue as dawn broke.

It was still dark.

But he just hoped that the darkness would lift soon and that Yi-ryung wouldn’t cry until that happened.

He just hoped that the man named Dochi would take good care of Yi-ryung.

* * *

Dochi sat in front of the brazier on which the pot of herbal medicine was placed and fanned the fire.

As he was brewing the medicine, the door opened slightly, making a noise.

It was Yi-ryung as she peeked her face through the gap in the door.

The weather outside was chilly, so the tip of her nose quickly turned bright red.

I wanted to tell her to close the door and stay inside because it was cold, but he had to be mute.

There were several reasons why he had to appear mute.

One of them was that it helped him avoid answering various questions.

“You were sick all night.”

Yi-ryung stuck her face through the crack in the dour and pouted.

He knew what she was trying to say.

She was scolding him for waking up so early to do something like this when he had been sick all night.

Because she was a woman with a weak heart, she could only scold him like this.

She was the kind of woman who could never live alone in this harsh world.

Dochi could understand why Sadok was so worried about her.

“I shouldn’t even be saying this. But if, by any chance, something happens to me, and I die, you will be responsible for that child until the very end.”

Sadok had said this to him.

If, by any chance…

Even Dochi knew how dangerous this endeavor was.

He also knew that this ‘by any chance’ had a 50% chance of happening.

If that happened, and Sadok died, and if the Crown Prince died as well, Yi-ryung would have to live here with him forever.

And if that happened, Yi-ryung would really become his wife.

If this failed, Yi-ryung would become his wife and have to live here with him.

“I think you should be the one who drinks that medicine.”

Yi-ryung opened the door and came out.

She crouched down on the wooden platform with the blanket wrapped tightly around her body and looked at him as he boiled the medicine in the yard.

Dochi gazed at Yi-ryung, who was staring at the brewing medicine, and gestured to her.

He was telling her to go back into the room because it was cold, but Yi-ryung pretended not to notice.

The tip of her nose turned red, and she began to sniffle.

The coldest time of day was from dawn to morning.

What was she doing sitting out here in the cold? It was as if she were on a mission to catch a cold.

Dochi gestured to her again.

Yi-ryung shook her head.

She was quite stubborn.

“I won’t go inside unless you come in with me.”

Dochi looked at the pot of herbal medicine.

It just had to simmer over low heat until the herbs grew soft.

There was no need to sit here and watch it.

Dochi had no choice but to put down the fan and stand up.

Only when he got up onto the wooden platform did she go back inside.

The fire in the brazier inside the room was a little more lively than when he had left a little while ago.

Yi-ryung had put some of the firewood in the corner into the brazier and stirred it.

“I kept the fire going.”

Yi-ryung said proudly.

It seemed that she was immensely proud of herself for keeping the fire in the brazier alive.

“And come here for a bit.”

Yi-ryung gestured to Dochi.

“They say that sharing a fire with someone makes it extra warm.”

Yi-ryung brought the man closer to the brazier and gently touched his sleeve when he sat down next to her.

“Why don’t your clothes have any cotton inside?”

This was the thing that had been bothering her throughout the night.

Yesterday, while taking off his clothes, Yi-ryung noticed for the first time that there was not a single bit of cotton in the man’s clothes.

The man had continued to wear unlined clothes.

“It’s cold.”

The man remained silent.

“What are you doing with all the money you’re getting from selling meat? You should buy some quilted clothes.”

Yi-ryung took something out of her bundle and handed it to him.

It was one of the items she had brought with her when she left Yi-an Palace.

She placed a hairpin made of gold and silver into the man’s hand.

“Buy some cotton-padded clothes with this. Then stop by the doctor’s to have your wounds examined and buy some medicine.”

As she spoke, Yi-ryung’s ears turned bright red.

Her bright red ears as she handed him her hair pin looked so beautiful to him.

She was so pretty that he found himself thinking, ‘How great would it be if this woman were really my wife?’

He had a brief, terrible thought that he wished Sadok’s plan would fail and that this woman would stay by his side forever.