Futile Love

“Really?”

“Yep. The Imperial Palace is a busy place to say the least”

In particular, the royal families of the Mok Kingdom were hostile to each other. Of course, greetings in the morning and evening were due manners, but they avoided each other as much as possible. Accordingly, their miscellaneous work was their best excuse to avoid each other.

“And I am the second busiest man in the imperial palace after the Emperor.”

“But I’m your wife, right?”

“So what?”

“As your official wife, I have to serve you.”

This little crown princess was unexpectedly enthusiastic about her duty. Though she constantly squeezed the lower end of her long skirt while talking, she was full of enthusiasm with a tense look.

She really looks cute.

Bipaan wiggled one of his eyebrows. He just felt unease about what he thought about her a moment ago.

I don’t feel good about her.

He then decided to stop acting silly before her. He already wasted 15 minutes on chatting with her. Her coming to say hello to him in the morning was not on his schedule.

“It looks like you are more dumb than I think,” he said in a chilly manner. And he continued, “Don’t wait for me and live freely as you wish. I already told you this. Did you forget it already?”

“You told me not to stand in your way,” she added, shaking her head, as if she had not forgotten what he on the night of the wedding. “I won’t stand in your way.”

“Be careful. I don’t want to repeat it.”

“… I will try not to disturb you, ” she said, nodding her head. And she continued, “But I will not forget my duty as the crown princess, either.”

“Do as you please.”

“One more question, may I ask you?”

Bipaan silently made eye contact with her. The moment his eyes met hers, it seemed that her pupils trembled briefly.

“Where is the library? ”

“Library?”

“As you told me not to disturb you and not to be around you as the crown princess, I’m just worried about how to spend my days here.”

“So, is that why you’re looking for a library?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what to do, so I wonder if I can spend days at the library just like I did in my home country. ”

He felt that was quite a good idea, but he did not express his feelings.

“In fact, as the central library of the Central Palace has a lot of valuable historical materials and maintains tight security, I think you had better visit the library of the outer palace if you want to stop by for enjoyment sometimes.”

“The library of the outer palace.” She repeated his words as if she were determined to remember it.

“Let me instruct the official in charge to guide you there. Later, your nanny can learn how to get there and guide you. ”

“Oh, do you remember my nanny?”

She was so happy to hear the word ‘nanny’ from his mouth. He could hear the correct tone of her voice for the first time. What he heard until now was the low tone of her voice as she was scared of him. It was as bright and clear as her eyes. She quickly blushed and covered her mouth. He pretended not to have noticed her excited tone.

“Okay, you may leave now.”

He picked up the paper and brush that he had put down when she came.

Bowing to him again politely with a blush, she got up.

It was her first greeting to him as the crown princess. But their conversation was obviously not the type that the newlyweds should have. It smelled of the official rigidity of the junior officials reporting to their senior supervisors.

“Hope you have a peaceful day.”

Kyosul, who hesitated for a while in front of the sliding door of his residence, said goodbye and crossed the threshold to leave the place.

Bang!

The sliding door was closed lightly.

When she left, Bipaan, who naturally held the paper and brush, felt his hand became wobbly. He cast a glance at the doorway.

Her attractive cheeks flushed with a childish look and her innocent round eyes made him feel she was too young to get adjusted to the imperial life.

“She looks younger than I think, but she acts more maturely than I expect. Anyway, isn’t she a princess who has lived in the royal family?”

Little did he realize that he had a smile when he said that.

“He’s too mean to me consistently. How scary he is! I really had a hard time fighting back tears,” Kyosul murmured with a sullen face while leaving his palace. Though she was bold in front of Bipaan, she was full of darkness when she turned back.

She was extremely tense when she stood before him, so she racked her brain to be meek to him on purpose for fear he might find fault with her. Even though she was raised as a spoiled, naughty girl, she was still a princess who grew up in the royal family. Accordingly, she was well versed in sticking to formality.

“I really felt bad last night, so I wanted to do my duty as the crown princess, but… ”

On the wedding night, she was so nervous that she couldn’t swallow a sip of water, but she was shocked by Bipaan’s icy attitude that night. Further saddened by the sorrow of her leaving her motherland, she cried all night. Then, she suddenly toyed with some disrespectful thoughts. She recalled the guy from the imperial family who welcomed her on the day she arrived in the Mok Kingdom. She entertained the disrespectful wish that her husband should have been that guy.

As she felt guilty about it, she went to see Bipaan this morning to offer morning greetings, but Bipaan did not give any sign of accepting her. The royal family of the Mok Kingdom was different from that of her motherland in many ways. She felt even the wind here was bleak.

“I wonder if that was why he said so.”

Kyosul stopped walking suddenly. A group of court ladies who followed her also stopped while walking at a proper distance.

It doesn’t matter to me what you do. Whether you embroider or read books, just live freely as you wish.

The cold voice of Bipaan, which made her heartbroken on the wedding night, came to her mind again. Her eyes were welled up with tears at the mere thought of that.

“What am I supposed to do in this barren place?”

As if she were speaking to her nanny, she grumbled. From the first day she became a princess, she felt everyday was so long.

“I think I have to go to the library. Seriously.”

“Let me escort you to the library of the outer palance,” said the official in charge, who was silently following her. She helplessly headed for the library.

The imperial palace was large. In the center of the large Imperial Palace was the central palace where the emperor’s residence was located. The central palace was large enough to be almost half the Imperial Palace. It was the deepest and most secret palace in the Imperial Palace, home to the empress and concubines. And there were four palaces in all directions of the Imperial Palace, namely the East Palace, the West Palace, the South Palace and the North Palace. Outside them was an outer palace which surrounded the outer edges of the Imperial Palace. The outer palace was home to a cabinet offices where ranking officials who handled national affairs worked, the dwellings of the palace people such as internal officials and court ladies as well as the backyard and a library. Of course, there was a backyard and a library in each palace. Although the central library was more precious and gorgeous, the library of the outer palace was by far the largest.

Though Kyosul said to Bipaan that she would go to the library to pretend to be virtuous, it was not in her element to spend time at the library. The reason she recalled the library was because she thought of her brother Prince Mingung. He loved books, and she used to stay at the library against her will to spend time with Mingung. She enjoyed moving around the palace freely and making trouble for the royal family.

“Well, I can’t do the same thing here.”

If she did something wrong, she might be expelled from the imperial family. Such a possibility was real. She was already well aware of the terrifying stories about the imperial family of the Mok Kingdom.

Ohyulje killed all of his brothers to usurp the throne. Though she became a member of the imperial family, she never saw the Emperor’s face or the Queen’s, but she remembered his cold voice clearly at the wedding. Though she heard his voice only, she felt much more terrified than she had when her father King Chung became enraged.