FIB Ch 8 part 3

PR by neji

She felt dizzy, and her eyes wouldn’t open.

Despite her efforts, her body wouldn’t move as it fell down to the bottom of a pit. She tried to escape, but she couldn’t lift a finger.

‘I need to go to Father.’

She barely managed to open her eyes. She saw a familiar ceiling.

She bit down on her lip and raised her hand. However, before she could completely hold it up, she felt someone grab it.

“Who?”

Her eyes blinked, but her vision was impaired by the fever. The only thing she could see was a blurry figure. She shook her head and tried to regain her senses, but she felt a cool touch wash over her forehead as if it were trying to soothe her.

She didn’t know who it was, but it felt very comforting.

“M…Mother.”

There was no one she could rely on in this place. And YongUn was in an even more dangerous situation than her. The touch was full of sincerity, but there was no one who would treat her like this here. Therefore, her thoughts turned to her mother.

“I don’t know… where it all… went wrong.”

The hand moved from her face to her hand. This hand and the shadow in front of her eyes may all be an illusion, but she wanted to speak her feelings to it, even if it wasn’t real. 

“Please… don’t take Father away.”

MoonWon didn’t know her mother to be an evil woman. To her, she was a benevolent mother. And her father had lost all reason due to his thirst for power, but before that, he had been a father who taught her everything she knew.

“I’m still lacking in so many ways.”

The strange hand moved to her forehead. It wasn’t as cold as before, but she didn’t want it to go away.

“I’ll endure it all.”

However, she never heard the shadow reply.

It didn’t matter. She was only venting her feelings to an illusion. MoonWon began to lose consciousness once again.

Her grasp on the hand went limp.

Exhausted, MoonWon fell asleep once more. Seeing this, Heon’s eyes narrowed. He picked up the towel that had fallen onto the bed and plunged it into the cold water. The basin was full of ice water, and his hand stung from the cold, but his eyes never flinched. 

He kept his hand in the water until it turned red. Then he took the towel out and squeezed out the excess water. He put the towel back on MoonWon’s feverish forehead.

“Haa.”

When his cold hand touched her cheek, MoonWon let out a heated breath.

Heon didn’t want to think about how he had endured the three nights MoonWon had been unconscious. 

The night was silent save for the strained breaths coming from MoonWon. 

Heon quietly stayed by her side and watched over her.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again, her body felt lighter than before. With exhausted eyes, she looked out the window and saw that it was still nighttime. She was awake, but she still found it hard to lift a finger.

“Ah!”

When she moved her eyes to the opposite side of the room, her face stiffened.

Heon was sitting, hidden by the dark. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel that his eyes were on her.

“…How is my father?”

“The first thing you do is ask about your father? Don’t you want to unravel this misunderstanding instead?”

His gruff voice sounded very heavy. Even in this twisted situation, MoonWon was still deep within his heart.

And the only lover she would have was him.

“I never committed adultery.”

She hadn’t done anything for people to wag their fingers at her as they called her a dirty woman.

“I’ve never sent the Crown Prince any letters like that.”

If Heon would only believe her, she’d say this a hundred thousand times. If she could show him her sincerity just once, she’d even rip her heart out of her body and show it to him.

“It was in your handwriting.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“Your servant told me what happened herself.”

“I still don’t know why Yeori did something like that. I must not have been a very good mistress.”

MoonWon spoke to Heon as if she were about to disappear at any moment. However, because she was so weak, she couldn’t see Heon’s condition either. Her mouth went dry.

“I haven’t done anything wrong, so I can still endure it. However, my father has already fallen once. He won’t be able to endure it again.”

“……”

“Please help.”

Whenever she asked him for help, Heon’s eyes went dark. She had never asked him for help in order to save herself. 

Even when the letters to JaeHoon had appeared. Even when her body had frozen from the icy rain. Even when she had lost consciousness from the fever. MoonWon never spoke about untangling the misunderstandings surrounding her. Instead, she asked for help on behalf of her father.

If he thought about it, they had gotten married because she wanted to save her family.

Was her family the only thing that she cared about? If she thought of him even a little bit, the first thing she would have done was defend her innocence.

“Handing confidential documents to a foreign nation is considered treason.”

“My father would never do something like that.”

“He associated himself with the duke as soon as he was reinstated. I stuck someone to him so that he’d be careful, but he never listened to my warnings.”

Heon would never know how terrifying his calm voice sounded. She was filled with fear as he took her to the edge of a cliff and explained her situation.

“I am thinking about believing you.”

A faint light returned to her eyes when she heard this. However, the following words made it disappear once again.

“In exchange, you should give up on your father.”

The Emperor had ordered for a thorough investigation to uncover all the truths regarding this case. Having already been branded a traitor, YongUn would ultimately be given a death sentence. However, because she was a part of his family, the same could be ordered of MoonWon.

Either way, the only one he cared about was MoonWon.

As long as he could protect her, he didn’t care about anything else.

“Do you know how cruel your words are, Husband?”

She took his hand and married him in order to protect her family. Although they had their disagreements, they promised to stay together and walk the same path.

But now, Heon was telling her that he’d believe her if she abandoned her father.

“No matter what anyone says, nothing will change. In this situation, aren’t I a husband that has been betrayed by his wife?”

MoonWon felt that she now knew why her father had collapsed so pitifully. As her mind began to race and draw hundreds of speculations, fear began to bubble up and tighten around her throat. 

“If loving someone would make me go insane like this, it would have been better to never start…”

MoonWon’s black eyes welled up with tears. Seeing this, Heon responded in a cold voice.

“Don’t cry.”

“……”

“Endure it. If you are truly innocent, endure it.”

The tears began to trickle down her cheeks, but MoonWon did not make a sound.

Heon hadn’t planned on upsetting her, but the poison that had taken root deep within his heart had come out in the form of venomous words.

“Nothing will change even if you act like this. So act as you did before.”

“Do you think that will be possible for me?”

YongUn’s life was in danger, and Heon no longer trusted her.

How could she return to the past now that there wasn’t anyone in her world?!

“I will not let you take a step outside.”

Every step inside this place felt like she was walking in the flaming pits of hell. But it would all be solved with the soothing balm of time.

Heon had not given up on MoonWon yet.

“Rest.”

Heon exited the room without looking back. MoonWon let out a helpless sigh.

There must be another way. She just didn’t know it yet. But there was definitely another solution to all this.

“Ugh.”

There wasn’t. There wasn’t a way to save her father or to break free from the false accusations.

She was powerless.

At the realization that her reality would not get any better, MoonWon collapsed to the ground.

* * *

“The Chief Commander has arrived.”

The eunuch opened the door and Heon walked in. The Emperor was wearing his nightgown as he comfortably sat at the seat of honor. Heon bowed.

After straightening up, he looked at the Emperor with a frustrated expression.

“Were you the one who started it?”

The uproar over JaeHoon’s insistence on having MoonWon as his Crown Princess and the news of YongUn turning over documents to a foreign nation had grown silent.

A proposal was brought up in the royal court that advised the Emperor to abdicate now that he was advanced in age and had the Crown Prince as his heir.

Enraged, the Emperor put the noblemen who brought up the proposal on probation, but instead of following his orders, they began to conspire against him.

This conspiracy was very unexpected. And Heon was the one who suppressed this conspiracy that had begun in secret.

“This servant does not know what you mean, Your Majesty.”

“More importantly, how is it that you are in contact with the nation of Ju?”

“Do you have evidence that I did such a thing?”

In front of the Emperor, Heon remained calm and cool. He managed to find traces of Heon from those that had been captured, but as Heon stated, there was no proof. And there wasn’t anyone he could interrogate over Heon’s meetings with the nation of Ju either.

“The longer the tail, the easier it is to catch.”

“Do you think my tail will be caught first? Or will His Highness the Crown Prince abdicate his position first?”

“How dare you?!”

“Or will you snatch my wife away first?”

“……”

“While you may turn a blind eye, do you think I will simply sit and watch as my Father-in-law and wife are put to death?”

“Enough!”

The words that flowed out of Heon’s mouth seemed to be reading the Emperor’s mind.

The Emperor knew that Heon’s household had turned upside-down because of JaeHoon and YongUn. He had even heard that YongUn’s daughter had been confined to the inner residence after allegations of committing adultery with the Crown Prince.

“Do you trust your wife? It’s possible that the child has made the same choice as your mother did.”

Heon closed his eyes at the provocation.

If the man who wanted MoonWon wasn’t JaeHoon, if the man in front of him right now wasn’t the Emperor who had snatched his mother away, Heon wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to use trickery and deceit.

“Just as my wife is not the Consort, I am not my father.”

The Emperor’s eyes trembled at Heon’s words.

The side he couldn’t see in his own son was always present in Heon. The reactions he could not see in JaeHoon were coming from Heon.

Why did his own son not have it? Why did the son of a man who had collapsed because of him have it instead? If JaeHoon had Heon’s talents and skills, the Emperor knew that he would not have taken the bamboo grove as hostage to keep Heon close.

“Then are you saying that you will kill all those who work as the Crown Prince’s hands and feet?”

“The one who revealed their hostility was not me. It was you, Your Majesty. And as for the punishment for their treason, don’t you think they deserve to pay for what they’ve done?”

The fact that YongUn had enjoyed power thanks to his wicked wife and the Consort bothered the Emperor.

And why did JaeHoon have to covet another man’s wife just as he had done? And why did it have to be the wife of the same household where the Emperor had taken Consort Yu?

That was why he believed it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just get rid of them both. If the brat had left the Chief Commander’s heart, it wouldn’t be that difficult to get rid of her.

But he had been wrong.

Heon did not give up on his wife.

“What would you like to do?”

If he was too greedy right now, he would lose JaeHoon’s foundation of power.

“I would like to return things to the way they were before. Please show mercy and give me a chance to do so.”

Heon glanced up at the Emperor with a frustrated expression before lowering himself into a bow.

Now wasn’t the time to oppose the Emperor. Not yet.

“Please save my father-in-law’s life. Then I will do as you say, Your Majesty.”

“……”

“I sincerely ask you for this favor, Your Majesty.”

Was he the only one who felt that this request sounded more like a threat? Heon only fulfilled what his duty required. He had always drawn a line between himself and the royal palace.

‘What a crafty guy.’

Although Heon was bowing right now, the one who had lost was the Emperor.

Heon was using JaeHoon as a hostage and returning him under the guise of this ‘favor’.

“Do you believe that the Crown Prince is the only one involved in this matter?”

Heon continued to bow and remained silent.

What more could be said? Only that JaeHoon had revealed his thinly-veiled intentions and the Consort had perfectly hidden hers.

“Ju YongUn will never be able to step foot in the Palace ever again. And the Crown Prince’s royal marriage will progress as planned.”

If MoonWon had become special to Heon just as he had expected, then it would be better to save her life instead of eliminating it.

“Leave. I would like to rest now.”

With nothing else to say, Heon began to back out of the room as he exited.

The Emperor glanced at him. When he was completely gone, he looked back at the folding screen behind him and opened his mouth.

“From what I can see, you are no match for the Chief Commander. You must be in a superior position in order to get what you want. Power, authority, the nation, and even women. In the end, you must be strong in order to get everything you want!”

As the Emperor spoke, JaeHoon, who was hidden behind the folding screen, clenched his fists.

“It won’t work for you, so just give up.”

Why did it never work for him?!

In the end, JaeHoon’s hurdle was Heon. If he needed to be superior in order to have MoonWon, then there was only one thing he could do.

A dark shadow settled in his eyes.

* * *

 YongUn limped as he came out of the jail cell. He looked up.

‘Know this. Your life has been saved thanks to your talented son-in-law.’

After having been tortured to confess to his crimes, YongUn was let go by royal decree. The royal guard took him out and sneered at him. However, YongUn did not feel relief at having his life saved.

“MoonWon.”

His vision went blurry at the thought of how much his daughter must have suffered because of this. The thought of Heon making a move to get him out of jail made his heart heavy.

“How can I face you?”

Although she was persistent, his daughter was weak when it came to her family. His heart sank as he recalled the heartache his daughter had gone through as she kept her thoughts and struggles to herself.

“Thank goodness you were released from prison.”

YongUn came to a halt when he heard the voice calling out nearby.

With only Court Lady Yeo by her side, Consort Yu gave YongUn a lovely smile. Unlike the beautiful consort, YongUn’s eyes were burning with rage.

She had avoided him and his family when it had fallen, and she only seemed to show up right after he had barely made it out with his life.

“Was it you, Consort?”

“What are you talking about? What are you saying to someone who rushed over here after having heard of your release from prison?”

Despite her feigned ignorance, the Consort’s smile did not go away. There was no other reason for the duke to have thrown him over the edge of a cliff like this.

“My wife was a close friend of yours, Consort.”

“Was she? I remember she would go around and spread such ugly rumors. Wasn’t she a venomous, foolish woman?”

Since only Court Lady Yeo was around, the Consort did not attempt to change the subject or deny it.

Having witnessed the Consort without her shell, YongUn gazed at her with shocked eyes.

He and his wife had been incompetent. Ultimately, the one who had turned his family into shambles and made MoonWon like this was him.

“If you hated our family this much, why did you take my daughter in as your daughter-in-law?”

“Ah, if my son wasn’t so stubborn, I would have been able to block the disgusting union.”

“Ah!”

“But it seems that I was too soft-hearted. Royal Attendant… No, I guess you’re not one anymore. I heard that your daughter deceived her husband, my son, and had an affair with the Crown Prince.”

YongUn’s face grew pale. Seeing his reaction, Consort Yu raised her nose at him.

It was a relationship that should have ended before it began. These people were like weeds and lived as they liked, being an inconvenience to others. In the end, Consort Yu chose to step on them so that they wouldn’t even dream of coming back.

“MoonWon… My daughter is not like that!”

“I know that. She is a very wise and persistent child. That was why it took me a long time to use a different tactic on her than the one I used on her parents. She is quite a tiring child.”

YongUn swayed from the shock of what he was hearing.

When the fall of his family had become a certainty, YongUn lost all reason.

“If you did not like me or my wife, you could have pointed that hatred towards me and me alone. Why?! How can you do that to a child who has just settled down?”

“I had already chosen a partner that would suit my son. Wasn’t she the one who was cunning enough to take that spot anyway?”

YongUn’s blood cooled and his body shook. His vision went dark and his head throbbed.

Just what had he done to MoonWon?

“You could have stopped the Chief Commander if you did not like my daughter!”

“Heon pushed ahead, so there wasn’t anything I could do. That brat was the one who clung to my son’s feet as she begged for her father’s life. Tsk, tsk. And I heard that she was confined in the inner residence. Actually, I don’t know if she’s actually being confined in the residence or whether she’s the one who is refusing to leave.”

When Heon and MoonWon’s marriage had been determined, YongUn had believed it was all thanks to the grace of Consort Yu. That was why he had asked Heon to help with his reinstatement.

“But in the end, the daughter can’t help but save her own father. Isn’t that right?”

Consort Yu continued to speak as she watched YongUn on the verge of collapse.

Either way, she had no intention of showing YongUn any mercy. He wouldn’t be of any help to her. If she had planned on simply moving past this, she wouldn’t have shown him her true self.

“Now that you have been released from prison, I’m sure that child will leave the bamboo grove very soon.”

“……”

“Take her and disappear. As a father, shouldn’t you consider your daughter’s future? If you do not heed my words, you will definitely lose your life. Think long and hard about what will be best for you.”

After saying her piece, Consort Yu turned around without hesitation. After seeing how she didn’t look back once, YongUn turned his eyes up to the sky.

“What did I do?”

When MoonWon’s marriage to Heon had been decided, YongUn didn’t understand why Yuhwa and SoYoon burst into tears. He believed that the ties that had been broken were being reconnected by the heavens. 

Because his family had given her a boost of support to get her where she was, he believed that Consort Yu would treasure MoonWon as her daughter-in-law and take her under her wing.

“This is all… Everything is…”

His smiling daughter had turned into an adulterous woman.

And in that situation, Heon had used his influence to help YongUn out of prison.

Just how much had MoonWon endured until things had gotten like this?!

“It’s all my fault.”

YongUn finally collapsed to the ground.

“Because of me…”

Tears wouldn’t come out. He had no right to cry.

Everything he had believed to be good ended up becoming lethal poison to his daughter. He didn’t mind if he had to leave in disgrace, but he could not let that happen to his precious only daughter.

“You’re the most righteous person I know, and yet I… cough.”

He felt his insides churn. A bloody lump spilled out of his mouth. After coughing up some more blood, he looked up at the sky.

“Ah!”

His mouth was grotesquely covered in blood as it gaped open. He looked like he was laughing or crying as he slumped to the ground.

“Court Lady Yeo.”

Consort Yu watched YongUn and called for Court Lady Yeo.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Did you prepare everything I told you to?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Please do not worry.”

“I planned for him to just die in prison…”

If things had gone according to plan, she could have eliminated YongUn and MoonWon without leaving behind a trace. However, her perfectly crafted plan had gone awry when Heon had made a deal with the Emperor in order to protect MoonWon.

Heon should have kicked MoonWon out since he never trusted women. However, he had not acted as expected.

‘Even if it will be a bit dangerous to make a move now, I still need to do it.’

Before they did any real harm, she needed to get rid of any obstacles in her way.

“If she hears that her father has been released from prison, that girl will leave the bamboo grove no matter what. And when she does, we’ll kill both of them.”

YongUn had been released, and JaeHoon’s royal marriage was proceeding once again.

JaeHoon vehemently refused to cooperate, but this time, the Emperor put his foot down.

Before the matters regarding YongUn fizzled out completely, she needed to complete it once and for all.

“Make sure to bring their corpses to me so that I may check and see that they are truly dead.”

“I will do as you ask, Your Highness.”

If everything went according to plan, even the heavens would be on her side. A smile stretched across Consort Yu’s face as she returned to her palace.