Stolen Ch 3

When Dochi returned home after loading his carrier with firewood that would be used throughout winter, Yi-ryung was drying grass on the wooden bench in the yard.

Yi-ryung diligently picked large quantities of grass from the place Dochi had shown her and laid them out on a flat surface to dry. When she saw that Dochi had returned, she got up and approached him. Then she helped him take off the carrier from his back.

Yi-ryung was constantly worried about Dochi’s wound and began to interfere in everything he did.

“How on earth did you swing that axe with a hand like that? What if you ruptured the wound?”

From the moment he had set out to go to the mountain to cut some firewood with an axe on his back, Yi-ryung had been worried.

The wound on his hand had been so deep that it had to be stitched up with silk thread.

He was holding an axe with that hand. She really thought he had lost his mind and tried to stop him, but he pretended not to hear her and went up to the mountain to chop wood.

The man was stubborn, but Yi-ryung was also stubborn in her own way.

“Come here. I need to take a look at the wound.”

The man bought some medicine while he was in the city yesterday.

It was because Yi-ryung would keep nagging at him to buy some medicine until his ears throbbed.

Yi-ryung, who had forced the man to sit on the bench, grabbed his hand and untied the cloth that was wrapped around it.

After completely unwrapping the cloth, her brows furrowed.

The man’s wound was red and swollen.

The silk thread stitches were still visible, and the wound showed no sign of healing.

“What are you going to do if you end up ruining your hand?”

Yi-ryung grew angry.

Why didn’t this man know how to take care of himself?

It was cold outside, so why did he wear thin clothing? Why did he push the brazier towards her and sleep far away? And why did he treat his body and his hands like this? Why didn’t he take care of himself?

His body did not belong to him alone.

She was this man’s wife.

Therefore, this man’s body was also Yi-ryung’s body.

Yi-ryung felt that she had every right to nag this man.

Although she was kicked out of her home by her father’s order and had no choice but to become this man’s wife, a wife was a wife.

Like it or not, she had to keep living with this man. But what would happen to her if this man got hurt?

“Your body is no longer just your own. If something bad happens to you, how would I be able to live by myself?”

Yi-ryung lowered her head and spoke up in a very small voice.

As the words left her lips, her face began to burn.

It had already been two weeks since she’d started living with this man.

Two weeks had passed, but it felt like the time had passed quickly.

Now there were only a few leaves hanging on the branches of the persimmon trees in the yard.

When she had first come to this house, there were quite a few leaves hanging on the tree. But now, all of them had fallen, and only a few remained.

And it was probably going to snow soon.

And winter would truly begin.

Two weeks was a short time if it felt short, but it could also be a long time if it felt long.

She’d been living in this house with this man for two weeks now.

After spending almost the entire day with the mute man, she no longer felt awkward or scared of him.

No, this guy had never been scary from the start.

Although she couldn’t say that she’d never been scared of him, from the moment she came here, the man had begun working to put Yi-ryung’s heart at ease.

Yi-ryung knew that he wasn’t faking it.

Although this man couldn’t speak, Yi-ryung could read his true feelings through each and every one of his actions.

At first, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to survive outside of her father’s house.

She used to wonder if her father had sent her out here to die. Why had he sent her to this man of all people? She couldn’t understand it at all, so she resented her father. But now, she knew that he had provided her with the best refuge possible.

She didn’t know how her father knew this man, but he probably knew all along.

He had sent her to this man because he knew that, at the very least, he wouldn’t treat her badly, and he wouldn’t make her cry.

Of course, she knew that this life wouldn’t be her best life.

Her best life would be to marry the Crown Prince and become the crown princess as planned. But this was the better path as her second-best life right after encountering the unavoidable incident of her rape.

Now, she planned to forget about the places she couldn’t return to.

It was quite difficult for Yi-ryung to let them go.

Throughout the day, she occasionally thought about her life at Yi-an Palace. She thought about Eunah and Ja-in.

She thought of her father and of the Crown Prince she had met a few years ago.

It was true that she did miss those times. A time she could no longer return to.

But now, she decided not to miss it anymore.

It was not a place she could return to just because she missed it. And if she kept missing a place she couldn’t return to, in the end, her heart would only suffer.

And above all, it was disrespectful to the man who had accepted her.

Whatever the reason, the man had accepted her.

He accepted her as his wife.

As this man’s wife, she would be doing him a disservice by yearning for a place she could not return to and yearning for people she could no longer meet.

Therefore, Yi-ryung grew determined in her heart.

Now that she’d decided to forget everything and put her longing aside, she decided to only look at this man.

Fortunately, this man was a good person. He was a kind person.

She was glad that he was the perfect person to give her heart to.

But there was one thing that worried her.

In the two weeks she’d lived here, he had never touched her body.

How was it possible unless he was a eunuch?

He was either a eunuch or he was very patient. And she didn’t think he was a eunuch.

But if that was the case, why was he enduring it?

If he wasn’t enduring it, did it mean that he disliked her? This made Yi-ryung afraid.

She had the painful past of being raped.

Her chastity had already been handed over to a man she did not even know.

Maybe this man didn’t like that.

He might not want to touch her because he didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t a virgin.

Or was he just waiting?

Perhaps that one night had caused her to be with child. The terrifying thought chilled Yi-ryung.

If she bore a stranger’s child, what would she do with that child?

She might not be the only one who was worried about this.

The man might also be waiting because he was worried about it.

He might want to wait a month or two to find out if she was having a baby.

Unless this man was an idiot, there was no way he wouldn’t have thought of this.

“We have to live together from now on… I wish you would think about me, the person you live with, just a little bit and take care of yourself when you see how worried I am about you. That would be so nice.”

Yi-ryung was curious to see how this man would perceive the words she was saying now.

She wanted to see his expression, but she didn’t have the courage to. So she just applied the ointment on the wound.

His hands were really big.

Yi-ryung took a deep breath and tried to look nonchalant as she applied the medicine to his wound on his hand, which was bigger than her face.

Even though she had already finished applying the ointment, Yi-ryung kept applying more medicine on top of it.

After half the bottle was empty, she wrapped his hand again with a clean cloth.

She was sad to let go.

It felt good to hold the man’s hand under the pretense of applying the medicine and wrapping the cloth.

She felt reassured whenever she held his hand.

She felt reassured whenever she looked at his back.

Whenever she woke up terrified in the middle of the night to the sound of the wind rattling the door, she’d see the outline of the man sleeping on the other side of the brazier and feel instant relief.

Just as much as she felt reassured whenever she saw this man, she hoped that he also felt good when he saw her.

What did this man think of her?

A burden he had to take on? Or a wife he could live with for the rest of his life? Since he couldn’t speak, she couldn’t hear the answer. And since she couldn’t hear the answer, she didn’t know the man’s thoughts, and it frustrated Yi-ryung.

“Pardon me. I know we were forced together like this, but…”

Yi-ryung gathered her courage.

She never had the courage to do anything until now.

When she had been living in Yi-an Palace, why would she ever come across a situation where she had to muster up courage?

She was loved by her uncle, the Emperor, and she was simply adored by the other adults of the royal family.

Her father loved her, and everyone in Yi-an Palace supported her, so she never felt the need to be brave.

But now, for the first time in Yi-ryung’s life, she had to show tremendous courage.

“We’re a married couple. And since we’re a married couple…”

Why was she so embarrassed to state the obvious?

“So… Now, even if we were to sleep under the same blanket…”

She couldn’t breathe.

Her heart was pounding like it was going to burst, and her ears tickled.

Without realizing it, her grip on the man’s hand grew tighter.

Yi-ryung tightly held the man’s hand as if she would not let go.

Suddenly, the man pulled his hand away from Yi-ryung.

The moment his big hand slipped out of hers, tears welled up in Yi-ryung’s eyes.

Drip.

A teardrop fell to the floor.

She didn’t mean to cry.

But the tears fell.

Suddenly, the man’s hand touched Yi-ryung’s wet eyes.

His rough fingertips caressed her eyes and wiped away her tears.

As his fingers touched her face, Yi-ryung lifted her head.

The man’s eyes were gazing intently at her.

His beard covered his face, so it was impossible to tell what kind of expression he was making, but his eyes were fixed on her.

Yi-ryung could also see that the man’s eyes were shaking.

This was the first time she’d seen a man’s eyes waver like this when looking at her.

What did it mean?

“If you don’t like me because I’m not a virgin…”

Yi-ryung managed to get the words she didn’t want to say out of her mouth.

She wanted to know for sure.

The man’s heart. She wanted to know for certain if this man’s heart was leaning towards her.

“I will leave here once the winter is over. I have no intention of living as a freeloader. I will repay you for the favor you have shown me during the winter with some gifts…”

The man shook his head.

He was telling her not to leave.

“Am I your wife?”

The man hesitated for a moment.

His hesitation broke her heart.

Why didn’t he nod right away?

That would have been nice. But why didn’t the man nod without hesitation?

If he didn’t have her in his heart, then he shouldn’t have treated her so well.

If he didn’t like her, why had he been so nice to her all this time?

He was bad.

He was a bad man.

Suddenly, the man’s hand slowly stroked Yi-ryung’s cheek.

His palms were rough.

But the warmth of those rough palms was incomparable to anything else.

Even silk would not have been this warm.

The man shook his head.

She couldn’t figure out what it meant.

She couldn’t tell if he was saying she was not his wife or if she shouldn’t leave him.

“I…”

Yi-ryung was about to ask another question.

But the man’s hands moved faster and pulled her towards him.

He grabbed her shoulder with the hand that had been caressing her cheek and pulled her into his arms.

Yi-ryung’s heart pounded as if it were going to burst as she was wrapped tightly in the man’s arms.

His hands slowly ran down her head and back.

Encouraged by his touch, Yi-ryung gently grasped his clothes on his chest.

Then she buried her face into his chest.

The man’s unique smell seeped into her nose.

He smelled like iron.

He smelled like iron because he handled knives and axes all day long.

But she didn’t hate it.

‘His heart is pounding.’

The throbbing feeling on her cheek did not belong to her.

It belonged to him.

Yi-ryung realized that the man’s heart was beating as hard as her own, as if it were about to burst.

It meant that she was not the only one with a racing heart right now.

She didn’t hear his answer, but this was enough for now.

The mere fact that this man’s heart was beating because of her was enough for now.

To desire more would be greedy.

If he needed more time, she could wait as long as he wanted.

Either way, there was nowhere else to go.

She might as well wait until the winter was over.

It didn’t matter if she’d have to wait until spring came, then the summer, and even if winter came again.

His answer could be late.

She was satisfied with the fact that his heart and hers were the same. That was enough.

* * *

“Am I your wife?”

The man clenched his fists as he recalled Yi-ryung’s question.

He was now entering the city, pulling a cart loaded with weapons.

The man was headed for Yi-an Palace.

Because today’s meat was requested by Yi-an Palace.

He had been bringing meat to Yi-an Palace for two weeks now.

If it were any other time, it would have been suspicious to bring slaughtered meat on a cart every day, but now there were circumstances at Yi-an Palace that warranted such a request.

The daughter of the Seventh Prince Sadok, the master of Yi-an Palace, died two weeks ago.

The reason for her death was unknown, but rumors throughout the city claimed that she had been raped by an unknown assailant and, unable to bear the shame, had committed suicide by hanging herself.

Because it was a funeral for a princess, it was to be held for one month according to national law.

During the month that the funeral was held, meat was needed every day to feed the guests who came from all over the country. And under the pretext of bringing in meat, the man entered the city every day and took a cart containing hidden weapons into Yi-an Palace.

The man’s feet stopped in front of the main gate of Yi-an Palace.

There were white paper lanterns hanging on the front gate.

It meant that someone had died.

However, Yi-ryung was alive and well in his own home.

The only ones who knew this were Sadok, Yi-ryung, and her bodyguard and servant.

The man entered the residence and pulled the cart into the backyard.

The overall atmosphere of Yi-an Palace was gloomy.

The entire residence was in a state of subdued silence as people mourned the dead girl.

The man walked through the silence as he made his way to the backyard and stopped his cart.

Then he lifted the slaughtered meat with both hands and carried it into the warehouse.

The warehouse was full of weapons, not meat.

They were the weapons that the man had brought here so far.

After he piled them all up, he covered them with the meat and went outside.

As the man moved to leave, pulling his empty cart, he saw people coming out of the residence.

The clothes they wore indicated that they were eunuchs of the Palace.

Did they come to pay their respects to the dead princess?

Or maybe they brought the Emperor’s gifts?

Everyone knew that the Emperor loved the dead princess very much.

He was a tyrant and a ruthless man, but he loved Princess Yi-ryung like his own daughter and gave her all sorts of gifts while she was alive. The man knew this from the rumors.

That was why Princess Yi-ryung and the Crown Prince were betrothed.

Others knew Seventh Prince Sadok as the Emperor’s favored youngest brother.

But few people knew the reality of the hidden truth.

No one knew because if they knew the truth, they would be killed. And even if they knew, no one would speak of it or pretend to know about it.

The same went for the man in question, Seventh Prince Sadok.

Therefore, Princess Yi-ryung probably believed that she was loved as the Emperor’s niece until her death.

It was clear that she would never have dreamed that her father was harboring the intention to rebel against her uncle, the Emperor.

“Am I your wife?”

He had wanted to say ‘yes’ when she asked him that.

No, he really wished she were his wife.

He didn’t wish for anything else.

He wouldn’t be greedy or wish for anything else.

If only she were allowed to be his, he would be willing to abandon his original name and live as a butcher forever.

Dochi was not this man’s name.

He had another name.

This man never used that name, and no one had ever called him by that name. But he had another name that was given to him at birth.

Heewon.

It was the name given to this man at birth.

But even his parents didn’t call him by this name.

The name was only written once in a book.

Heewon.

It was a name that meant ‘joy’.

There had only been a few happy days in his life, but since he met Yi-ryung, every day had been happy.

The man stopped staring at the palace eunuchs and quickly fell to the ground.

Because they had passed by him.

The man was a butcher, and the only time a butcher entered the city was to bring meat, as was the case now.

He was not allowed to enter the city at other times without permission.

Even if he came in, if he met people of high status, he was supposed to kneel down and wait for them to pass.

Just like now.

The palace eunuchs passed in front of the man as he bowed on the floor.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”

“Now that Princess Yi-ryung has died, what will happen to His Highness the Crown Prince…?”

The conversation between the eunuchs reached the man’s ears.

“How long do you think His Highness the Crown Prince will last?”

“The maids of the Crown Prince’s palace said that he would only last a month.”

But the words they exchanged were unusual.

The eunuchs passed by.

As they passed, the man raised his head.

His face darkened as he looked at the eunuchs walking away.

What did this mean?

If the Crown Prince couldn’t last a month, did it mean that someone was trying to kill him or something was wrong with him?

It was probably the latter.

Maybe he was sick or seriously injured.

The Crown Prince was Yi-ryung’s fiancé.

If Sadok’s plan was successful, Yi-ryung would marry the Crown Prince and become the crown princess, or rather, the empress.

But what would happen to Yi-ryung if the Crown Prince was in critical condition?

Did Sadok know about this?

If the Crown Prince was in critical condition and could not survive regardless of the operation, then was there any reason for Yi-ryung to return after the operation was over?

If there was no crown prince, then there would be no reason for Yi-ryung to return.

Wouldn’t it be okay if she just stayed there with him? If Yi-ryung remained dead and he and this woman lived there without anyone knowing?

Greed began to surge inside the man’s chest.

If the Crown Prince dies…

If the Crown Prince ends up dying…

He had never wished for the Crown Prince to die, but now, a wicked desire for him to die was welling up inside.

He wanted it so that he could have Yi-ryung.

Maybe if he hated the Crown Prince…

His heart was already completely taken by Yi-ryung.

His heart was stolen without him knowing. Without leaving anything behind.