ANOP Ch 1

A palanquin traveling along a secluded path was attacked by assassins. When the commotion ended, only one person remained alive: Hyegang, who had been inside.

She hadn’t seen what happened outside. She knew nothing of who appeared or how the fight unfolded. She couldn’t even determine if they were bandits or assassins. She could only imagine the gruesome scene from the sounds of clashing steel and the thud of her bearers and escorts falling.

One fact was certain.

She was the only target left.

Hyegang drew a dagger from her robes and unsheathed it. The well-honed blade gleamed sharply. It wasn’t the ornate silver dagger of a court lady. This was the weapon of a trained warrior. A dagger that bore the strong imprint of Jaeyoon.

Her hand trembled as she took a shaky breath. The tip of the dagger quivered along with it. With her other hand, she protectively covered her lower abdomen, concealed beneath her skirt. A life she had to protect breathed within.

The palanquin’s cover opened abruptly, offering no respite. Long legs clad in black appeared, blocking the entrance. Even from the waist down, it was clear the figure was tall and slender. Despite the disciplined attire, the man leisurely bent his knees and revealed his face. Above the mask covering his nose and mouth, his eyes were visible, sharp and slanted like a serpent’s. Though chillingly devoid of emotion, his intense gaze pierced through her.

Just as a startled Hyegang lunged with the dagger, the man thrust his upper body into the palanquin, his large hand easily deflecting her attack. He then pulled down his mask, revealing lips curled in a cynical sneer. Hyegang gaped, unable to believe her eyes.

“How could you devise such a treacherous scheme while carrying my child?”

It was a face she knew too well, a face etched into her heart.

“Your Highness.”

Jaeyoon sighed softly as he addressed her, releasing her dagger-wielding hand. Under his strangely intense gaze, Hyegang quickly covered her lower abdomen. This attempt to hide her secret only emphasized the truth—that she carried Jaeyoon’s child.

“I thought carrying a child would prevent such foolish notions.”

Jaeyoon frowned with displeasure, tilting his head as if fatigued by her thwarted plan.

He then drew her lower lip between his own, sucking on it as if starved. He engulfed her small lips with his larger ones in an almost predatory manner. Hyegang’s neck prickled, and she recoiled. The masculine scent that wafted from him, the somewhat rough pull of his lips, chased away her earlier fear.

Keeping a small space between their lips, he whispered low,

“This child was conceived through my disloyalty. Instead of staging such a paltry charade, Your Highness,”

“…….”

“You should have commanded me to kill them all.”

A cruel smile flickered across Jaeyoon’s face. Then, the smile vanished, replaced by an emotionless mask. His eyes were vacant. They told her he would kill anyone who troubled her, if she so desired.

“Command me to take this life. If you do not give the order, I will take the heads of even more.”

His raspy voice shook Hyegang to her core. She couldn’t utter a word. Jaeyoon’s expression was frighteningly calm. It was as if he had already broken free of his chains. Her commands seemed meaningless.

She had fled this far to save her child. To conceal the child’s paternity, she, a deposed royal, had to live as if dead. She had raced towards a secluded life deep in the mountains, yet she had returned to his grasp, caught once again in his trap.

In this place where she had come to lose everything, she was terrified that confronting Jaeyoon would make her yearn for a new life.

A powerful tidal wave surged. Hyegang’s heart, and the soul of Sumin breathing within her, were swept away together.

“Shaman, about that lake you told me about last time. The one they call Goblin Lake.”

Sumin clutched her phone tightly as she carefully picked her way along a path. In her other hand, she held a flashlight, illuminating the ground in front of her feet. Walking alone on a dark, unpaved dirt road at night sent shivers down her spine.

—Why are you suddenly asking about that lake?

The voice of a middle-aged woman, emanating from the phone’s speaker, filled her ear. It was a tone that exuded a penetrating charisma.

“Because, you know, the legend says if you fall in, a goblin drags you to another world. Right?”

For a while now, Sumin had been passing nothing but trees. The shaman was silent for a moment. Sumin understood the meaning of that silence. It was undoubtedly the shaman focusing, trying to discern where she was.

—That’s true, but where are you right now?

“Just taking a walk in the park.”

It was an awkward lie. A vast lake now filled Sumin’s view. Under the night sky, the black surface of the water shimmered, reflecting the full moon and stars like a Milky Way.

She had finally found the lake she’d been searching for.

Sumin was born into a shamanic family. And she was born with the ability to transcend time.

Her maternal family, though not presiding over a large shamanic shrine, housed shamans—her grandmothers—who eased the worries and anxieties of the villagers. Occasionally, celebrities, athletes, tycoons, and politicians would seek them out.

One autumn day, Sumin and her mother had climbed N Seoul Tower. Young Sumin, her feet aching, had pouted. To soothe her, her mother bought her a cup of hot cocoa from a vending machine, adding a mystical tale to the treat.

“Not just Grandma, but Great-Grandma and Great-Great-Grandma were shamans too. The women in our family have always been shamans. Fortune tellers who could see the future and the past. But they weren’t ordinary shamans. They were so talented, they say they sometimes traveled back in time when they fell into water.”

“…….”

“And sometimes, they even went back to the very distant past.”

Sumin slowly stopped swinging her legs as she sat on the bench. Her mother’s profile, gazing wistfully into the distance, tugged at her heart. Though young Sumin wasn’t perceptive enough to fully grasp her mother’s feelings, she had good intuition.

“Maybe Mom and Sumin can also go back in time if we fall into water, like Grandma? I know it’s ridiculous… but it would be great if we could go back and fix everything.”

It was an ominous premonition, a feeling that her mother might leave her forever.

“Sumin, can you wait here for a moment? I want to get some coffee from that vending machine.”

Sumin nodded. Her innocent faith that her mother wouldn’t abandon her was stronger than her ominous premonition.

That day, her mother’s retreating figure grew smaller and smaller until she could no longer see her.

Maybe Mom also fell into the water and went on a time travel journey.

In those days when she couldn’t understand the heart of a single mother forced to abandon her young daughter, Sumin clung to such fantasies.

It wasn’t until she became an adult that Sumin accepted the truth she had been avoiding. Her mother was afraid of water. But what she feared even more was the life of raising a child alone.

She had once disbelieved the mystical abilities of the women in her family. If it were true, she herself would have experienced time travel by now, having fallen into public baths and swimming pools.

But for some reason, she found herself wandering around shamanic houses, unable to let go of those abilities. She wondered if other shamans like the women in her family might know something. In that process, she discovered that she was a singamul.

A singamul. Not a shaman possessed by a spirit, but someone with heightened spiritual sensitivity and a high potential to open a gateway to the spirit world. The shaman who had provided some solace to Sumin was Lotus Fairy, the one she was currently talking to on the phone.

Even if the shaman couldn’t pinpoint Hyegang’s innate ability to transcend time, she was knowledgeable about places of spiritual power. Goblin Lake was one of them. Older than even Heaven Lake on Mount Baekdu, legend had it that for a thousand years, it had served as a passageway for fairies, goblins, grim reapers, and spirits to travel between their world and the human world. The legend instantly captivated Sumin.

The shaman’s sigh reached Sumin’s ears.

—Not everyone who falls in there goes to another world. Don’t get any silly ideas.

Sumin’s heart skipped a beat at the shaman’s sharp words, which cut right through her thoughts. The shaman’s uncanny insight was as strong as ever. She had correctly guessed Sumin’s occupation as a librarian and recognized her as a storyteller obsessed with legends and myths.

Especially those related to water.

Water entwined with legends often held mystical powers, and Sumin clung to the sliver of hope that falling into such water might trigger her ability to transcend time. She was ready to jump in.

“It’s okay, I’m a good swimmer.”

Ignoring the “No Diving” sign in front of the lake, Sumin strode forward. It was then that she realized why she had clung to this strange ability to travel through time for so long.

She wanted to go back and change her fate.

Back to when she was eight, before she was separated from her mother.

—Hey! You fool, come back right now!

The shaman’s urgent cry, sensing what was about to happen, reached out to stop Sumin.

Click. Sumin abruptly ended the call and shoved her phone into her cardigan pocket. Just as a sudden chill ran through her in the night air, the sound of car tires reached her from behind.

Sumin quickly turned around. The headlights of a patrolling police car, like the eyes of a wild animal, illuminated the path as it approached.

She couldn’t get caught.

Her legs moved before she could think, and she plunged into the lake.

As she splashed into the cold water, she felt a bright energy illuminating her vision. She opened her eyes underwater. Though everything around her was pitch black, thin, thread-like wisps of light were rising.

The light, like a giant net, swallowed everything around her in an instant.