Chapter 47
“Take a deep breath. Slowly. Focus on your breathing.”
“Fuuuh…”
With her eyes closed, Illena exhaled deeply as she listened to the calm voice of the elderly man.
From right beside her, she could hear Iago breathing slowly in the same rhythm.
“Fuuuh…”
It was in the small garden of the detached palace where Illena was staying.
She was meditating together with Iago.
“Distracting thoughts will keep coming. Refocus.”
The drowsy, composed voice of the yoga instructor drifted in.
Flinch.
Illena, feeling like she had been caught out, hurriedly tried to focus on her breathing again.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
‘This is getting a bit boring… Is Iago doing well?’
She cautiously opened her eyes and glanced to the side, only to be greeted by his breathtakingly handsome profile.
Sitting cross-legged in his massive frame, his calm and focused appearance was even beautiful.
‘With his mouth shut like that, he really does look like the Black King…’
Usually, his gentle tone and expressions made it easy to forget, but when he turned serious like this, that decadent, primal aura revealed itself.
And yet, deep down, he was more like a rabbit.
Well, she herself looked like a shrine maiden on the outside, but inside she was a depressed patient stuck in someone else’s body.
Ah, speaking of depression—suddenly, words from the doctor back in the clinic resurfaced in her mind.
“Depression shouldn’t be treated by relying only on medication. Regular exercise, proper sleep and meals are most important. …Hmm, things like meditation can also help.”
“Meditation?”
When she heard that word, she had frowned slightly, recalling shady mystics who used to ask, ‘Do you know the Way?’
Sensing her doubts, the doctor had smiled knowingly.
“There are more and more studies showing that meditation helps in treating depression, even changing the brain.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. More importantly, since our last session…”
“Now, let us focus again.”
The old man’s calm voice cut across her wandering thoughts.
‘Ah, I keep spacing out. Focus. Focus.’
Illena shook herself and tried again.
She used to think she had pretty good concentration, but apparently not.
Clearing away stray thoughts wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
‘Ugh… How do you even empty your mind? If I think about emptying my mind, isn’t that itself a thought about emptying my mind?’
While she wrestled with herself, the old man’s composed voice continued by her ear.
“You don’t need to force it. Just naturally let everything go.”
‘Don’t force it?’
Illena’s ears perked at the unfamiliar advice.
“There’s no need to struggle for peace. That peace already lies within us.”
“…”
“All we must do is listen to our hearts. Calmly. Quietly…”
Her breathing gradually settled.
The tension drained from her body, and her mind followed, becoming peaceful.
The steady rise and fall of the old man’s words continued to fill the quiet garden.
Inhale.
Exhale.
“Now. If you are ready, slowly open your eyes again.”
At his calm instruction, Illena slowly lifted her eyelids.
Her heart felt lighter, fresher than before meditation.
“The sun will be rising soon.”
The old man, looking up at the sky, spoke leisurely.
‘Huh?’
Illena quickly raised her head.
It was true.
Along with her calmed heart, the dark clouds that had been crowding the sky seemed to have thinned.
‘Oh?’
She blinked in surprise.
‘This really works?’
She almost heard the doctor’s slightly exasperated voice by her ear:
“I told you so!”
For Illena, who came from the ‘hurry-hurry’ nation, learning patience and waiting quietly was no easy task.
But for the past week, whenever impatience gnawed at her, she forced herself to breathe deeply and meditate.
Finally, when she could no longer endure and picked up a hammer… an unexpected thing happened.
An official document had arrived first from the North.
“They are requesting extradition of the criminal to the North, based on the prisoner-exchange clause in the armistice agreement.”
Utter placed a tray with the sealed Northern document before them.
“They’re admitting that man is a Northern criminal?”
“Yes. They claim he committed armed robbery and murder recently, then fled. The document reads…”
“We have learned that a criminal who committed robbery and murder in the Kingdom of Manoa and fled the scene has sought refuge in the South.
Since it is an international custom for a citizen to be punished under their own nation’s laws, the Kingdom of Lihyu is requested to hand over the criminal, in accordance with the extradition treaty.”
“There’s not a word about the terrorist attack in the South!”
Iago burst out after reading the document, but Utter spoke gloomily.
“Well, since the crime was prevented before the attack occurred, aside from the criminal’s confession, there is no hard evidence.”
Illena, who had been silently listening with folded arms, spoke up.
“About the extradition treaty… doesn’t it allow refusal if the crime is political? Deny extradition on the grounds that the act was not a mere personal crime but politically motivated.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll do that. But, Priestess, how do you know such treaty details so well?”
Utter asked, looking amazed.
‘Well… because Korea was also a divided country.’
Politics and conglomerates had always been intertwined.
That’s why in her heir training, she had studied not just economics, but also politics and history extensively.
It was astonishing that all of that knowledge was proving useful even after she reincarnated.
‘Of all places, to end up in a divided… no, a divided island. Life really is unpredictable.’
Thus, formal letters went back and forth multiple times between North and South.
To summarize the long exchanges:
‘How could a single person possibly acquire a bomb powerful enough to blow up a square?’
‘How are we supposed to know?’
‘What do you mean you don’t know? No way he planned it alone. Smells fishy. Didn’t you send him?’
‘No. We know nothing. He acted alone, out of insanity. We’ll investigate further, so just send him over.’
‘No way.’
‘You’re really going to act like this?’
‘Yes. We have the criminal in custody. What will you do about it?’
‘Tch. Then…’
The last Northern letter read:
“We deeply regret the South’s actions that undermine the armistice agreement concluded for the island’s peace…
(omitted)
Therefore, we shall dispatch an envoy to negotiate the extradition.”
Thus, it was decided that a Northern delegation would be sent to discuss the terrorist’s extradition.
Four days later.
The Great Audience Hall of the Sun Palace.
A reception was convened to welcome the delegation.
“Cunning Northerners… they clearly have no intention of admitting guilt or taking responsibility.”
Utter, forgetting Illena was right there, ground his teeth in frustration.
Or maybe he had simply forgotten she was originally from the North, or decided it didn’t matter anymore.
“Well. The evidence that the North was behind this is sitting alive in the royal underground prison. I wonder what kind of negotiator they dared send.”
Iago spoke lazily.
“The delegation has arrived!”
At that moment, the doors of the Audience Hall opened with a booming announcement.
Every gaze turned toward it, tense and expectant.
Led by heavily armed Southern knights, the Northern delegation entered.
But something was strange.
‘Huh? They said a delegation. Is that all?’
At the front was only a single person.
The figure was cloaked in a mantle that trailed to the ground, their build small and slight.
Compared to the imposing knights of Lihyu marching in double rows behind, the figure looked even smaller.
‘The envoy is just one person?’
The cloaked envoy approached the throne where Iago sat, then bowed deeply.
“I greet the King of the Lihyu Kingdom.”
The voice was high and thin.
‘A woman? Or a child?’
What was going on? Illena narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the cloaked figure.
“…Envoy of Manoa, raise your head.”
At the commanding voice, the envoy straightened from their bow, the cloak trembling slightly.
In that moment, beneath the hood, brown eyes met Illena’s gaze.
“Illena!”
The envoy called brightly, pulling back the hood.
The Northern envoy was a young woman with a cute face, dotted with a few freckles across the bridge of her nose.
But more than anything, what struck first was her innocent, radiant smile.
‘Like a sunflower…’
Even in that brief moment, Illena thought so.
It was a smile like a yellow flower blooming high toward the sun.
But the impression didn’t last.
‘Huh?’
Before Illena could react, the woman suddenly rushed toward her.
Illena’s eyes widened—not from the sudden move, but because the woman’s hood fell back completely, revealing hair that shimmered brightly—
—a vivid sky blue.
