Chapter 40
Ten Years Ago
“Tardaga… ah…! Tardaga! My son…!”
The entire capital was engulfed in grief and shock over Crown Prince Tardaga returning from his second campaign as a lifeless corpse.
“Tardaga…!”
“Your Majesty! Please calm yourself! You’ll hurt yourself like this!”
“Let me go! I will go with my son. Tardaga, open your eyes! Mother has come. Mother is here, so why won’t you open your eyes…! Ah…!”
The mournful cries of Empress Wiran seemed to shake not just Cheonhwagung but the heavens and the earth itself.
Each tear she shed drew dark clouds from the west, threatening a downpour.
“Tardaga… ugh….”
“M-Mother….”
At that time, seven-year-old Princess Argana tried to console her crying mother but was helpless. Wiran seemed to forget even her precious, cherished daughter and collapsed entirely.
“Your Majesty!”
“By the gods! What are you doing! Bring the royal physician!”
“Mother! Mother!”
Argana burst into sharp, heart-wrenching sobs and embraced the fallen empress. But Wiran’s maid hurriedly pulled Argana away.
“Let go! Mother! Mother!”
“Princess! Calm down! If even Your Highness collapses, then it will truly be disastrous!”
“I said let me go! Let me go to Mother! Mother!”
“What are you standing there for? Why aren’t you bringing the princess inside?!”
The flustered young maids finally managed to hold Argana. But managing a struggling seven-year-old princess with all her strength was no easy task.
“Your Highness!”
Ignoring the maids’ shouts, Argana ran outside Cheonhwagung, crying desperately. She could not believe her older brother was dead. She feared her mother might die too. The profound loneliness and pain of feeling utterly abandoned pierced and tore at young Argana’s body.
“Ugh… ahh…”
Exhausted from running, Argana collapsed onto the ground, sobbing without knowing where she was.
Her brother… dead.
“Now, what should I bring back as spoils this time?”
“Will you really bring it back, brother? Then, then I… I want the enemy commander’s head!”
“…What would you do with the head?”
“I’ll hang it on the wall! And every time I’m angry, I’ll beat it!”
Tardaga, her kind older brother, had patted her head and laughed, promising to bring the best sword instead, since hanging a head would be too scary.
And now that kind, brave brother could be gone… The thought that that carefree conversation might have been their last was unbearable.
“Brother…”
Looking up at the darkening sky, tears would not stop. She wanted to scream and throw anything she could grab, but she had no strength. If her mother died too, what would happen to her? Fear choked her small throat.
“…Argana?”
Suddenly, a voice made her stop crying and widen her eyes.
Rage, hostility, grief… feelings too intense for a child churned violently in her small chest.
“…Issuder, brother…”
Issuder appeared, pushing through the bushes. The son of Empress Marata II and three years younger than Tardaga, he had just begun to shed his childish demeanor and was now entering boyhood.
“Why are you crying here?”
“….”
Argana’s small mouth opened slightly, then stubbornly closed. Everyone in the palace knew her brother had died. Why ask why she was crying? It seemed absurd and even angered her young heart. She could not even speak of her mother possibly dying—she feared saying it would make it real.
Standing abruptly, Argana wiped her tears and tried to suppress the fear burning in her body. Feverish, her face hot and her head throbbing, she forced herself not to show her grief.
Then Issuder spoke.
“Don’t be too sad.”
Argana blinked in disbelief, staring at him.
“What did you say, brother?”
“Don’t be too sad. Tardaga has passed, but… there’s Ayur, and there’s me too. So…”
“I don’t need that!”
Argana shouted, unable to contain her anger, and shoved Issuder with all her might. Though taken aback by her sudden force, Issuder did not fall. Instead, Argana nearly tumbled and ended up leaning on him.
“He’s not the same at all! My brother is different! Tardaga… how could he…!”
“….”
“You can’t even be compared to someone like Issuder! Absolutely not!”
The young princess trembled and stomped, veins bulging in her smooth forehead and eyes.
“Go away! Just go! I don’t want to see you!”
Perhaps scared of her outburst, or deciding not to engage, Issuder glanced at her once and walked away. That incident was never spoken of again.
The next day, Tardaga’s funeral was held.
Being a boy, the ceremony was modest, but the Khan and Empress Wiran insisted on observing the formalities befitting a crown prince. Even Argana had to wear black in mourning.
Wiran did not leave Cheonhwagung after her son’s funeral. She could barely rise from her bed, passing in and out of sleep and tears.
With her mother bedridden, Argana had little to do but wander absentmindedly around Cheonhwagung. That day was no different.
Sitting outside the audience hall, playing with the sand, she waited for her father to appear.
Then she heard someone approaching. Thinking it might be her father, she pricked up her ears—and overheard words she could hardly believe.
“…If only that much had happened…”
“Yes… I heard he was a Libi General, but apparently very skilled and trusted by the Khan to assist Crown Prince Tardaga…”
“Did you hear he was a distant relative of Empress Marata II?”
“What? If so, perhaps…”
“Watch your words! Empress Marata II’s people are scheming in secret, and if you say such things…”
The voices faded into the distance, but Argana understood everything they implied. Her jaw trembled, and a chill ran through her body.
“…Later, I found out that the Libi General who served my brother closely, Hullen, was actually from Empress Marata II’s maternal family.”
Argana spoke matter-of-factly, shocking Kartak.
“I had no idea…”
“You were too young when you arrived at Darre. You couldn’t have known. After that, everyone kept it quiet.”
Kartak, lost in thought, asked carefully,
“So… Your Majesty…”
“I never asked her. I never heard her speak of it. But my mother couldn’t have been unaware. Still, what could we do? Hullen is already dead.”
Hullen, who had served Tardaga, was punished and died for failing to protect the crown prince. Argana only discovered this when she was around twelve or thirteen.
“So I can never forgive Issuder or Empress Marata. I’ve said before, I think there are other culprits besides Yoshmut.”
“So Yoshmut was just involved incidentally?”
“Yes. I drove him away first to protect Tirsalan. Also, I remember that incident with the rice cake.”
Argana knew better than anyone that Yoshmut alone could not have orchestrated it. If he had, she would have noticed sooner.
“I removed him first because it was easier and to protect Tirsalan. Though I remember that rice cake incident too.”
“….”
“Do you think I could rest easy just because that one guy is gone? Absolutely not.”
Now it was time to find the true culprit—someone who secretly prepared the heinous schemes, evading her watch, and ultimately succeeded.
