Chapter 45. Dream of the Jade-Blue Sea (2)
Meanwhile, His Holiness Seongha, the High Priest, entered the administrative office of Beopsindang with a worn-out face.
This was the first national ceremony held during his time as High Priest, so the officials had been suffering through one problem after another.
Unreasonable demands from different government offices, unfamiliar faces everywhere, the endless smell of food...
Exhausted by all of it, Seongha finally relaxed a little when he returned to his own space, where the familiar scent of books and ink filled the air.
“You’re late.”
Seongha froze.
An intruder stood beyond the bamboo curtain that covered the bookshelves, silent as a shadow.
The moment Seongha realized who it was, he nearly jumped in shock and slammed the wooden door shut.
It was an unusually hurried action for the normally calm and composed High Priest.
Leaning casually against a bookshelf beneath the afternoon sunlight was Crown Prince Nam Hyeon.
He was reading one of the documents from the office.
With his tall frame and large hands with long fingers, even the scroll he held seemed small.
Perhaps because of his overwhelming presence, for a moment Seongha thought he could almost see the image of a king wearing a golden dragon robe overlapping with him.
Only after locking the door and carefully checking their surroundings did Seongha bow.
“Your Highness? What brings you here without sending any word?”
“I was checking the administrative abilities of the man who will become my subject.”
Not only had he entered the office without permission, but he had even taken out Seongha’s documents and read them as he pleased.
Seongha felt annoyed with himself for leaving such an opening.
“I believe I already told Your Highness that I have no intention of entering government service.”
Seongha rejected him without hesitation.
Hyeon stared at him with his dark eyes.
“How amusing. You actually thought you could escape my grasp. Do not forget the role that properly belongs to you.”
He put the document back into its case and shamelessly began giving his evaluation.
“It was useful enough. Simplifying the ancestral rites to reduce expenses and manpower was also reasonable...”
“...”
“Creating a cooperative organization to reduce conflict between religions, then using that same organization to establish a system where they monitor one another, was not bad either.”
Seongha stared at him.
“...Then why did Your Highness come to see me?”
When Seongha still refused to lower his guard, Hyeon shook his head and gave a quiet laugh.
“I came personally because I thought you would have something to tell me. Did you not recently return from the royal tomb rite?”
He was the one who had business with Seongha in the first place.
Yet he spoke as if Seongha had begged him to come.
Still, it was not entirely wrong.
Seongha cleared his throat several times before speaking.
He told Hyeon everything.
What Cheongyeon had experienced by the seaside.
The vision of the end of the world that Seongha himself had seen in the Ancient Forest.
And what had happened during the royal tomb rite.
As he explained everything, the terrible images returned to his mind.
His body unconsciously stiffened.
It almost felt as if the faces of evil spirits were floating around him like ghostly flames.
Seongha sighed.
“How can such things be allowed to happen openly? How can the king of an entire nation...”
He remembered the yaksha that had climbed onto the platform during the royal tomb rite and bowed before the king.
He also remembered the grinning laughter of the ghosts slowly crawling over the hill.
Hyeon replied calmly.
“In records from ancient kingdoms thousands of years ago, there are stories of royal families slicing the corpses of defeated enemies into raw meat and eating them to celebrate victory.”
He looked at Seongha.
“Do you truly believe there is anything in this world that a man with absolute power cannot do?”
“...”
“Besides, silencing those who witnessed the evil spirits would not be difficult. Fear alone is enough to make people keep secrets.”
Seongha immediately asked,
“How was the Gate of the Ghost Path opened in the first place? And why do those evil spirits obey His Majesty?”
Questions poured out of him.
His reason could not find an answer.
Hyeon lowered his eyes and brought the teacup to his lips.
“That is difficult to explain with words. You would have to visit hell yourself to truly understand it.”
He took a sip.
“One thing is certain.”
His voice became quieter.
“The more deeply someone understands the afterlife, the more meaningless this life begins to feel. And eventually, they lose the ability to control their own desires.”
Seongha looked out through the lattice window of the office.
Early autumn leaves were turning the grounds of Beopsindang red.
He remembered the conversation he had shared with Hyeon when they first met on the rooftop of an inn in Buwan Port.
[I do not care if blood floods the royal palace or who ends up owning the royal seal. I will simply walk the path I have chosen.]
[But no matter which path you choose, you will not be able to avoid fighting. The darkness surrounding Hui Kingdom is drawing closer with every passing moment.]
Back then, Seongha had not understood what Hyeon meant.
Now he thought he did.
“I have always despised worldly affairs.”
Seongha’s voice trembled faintly.
“I never wanted to involve myself in the affairs of this world.”
He clenched his hands.
“But Your Highness was right. They were chaos and disorder itself.”
Hyeon remained silent.
“I found myself wondering just how many more ghosts exist beyond the gates of hell... and whether there is any way to stop them.”
The Nameless Daoist had shown Seongha the sight of the world ending.
The silver snowfield had been dyed red with foul-smelling blood.
No matter how many corpses of ghosts piled up, the fighting never ended.
That day, Seongha had felt true despair and helplessness as a human being.
“I finally understood that if I want to protect something, I need greater power.”
His gaze became firm.
“Power great enough to change this world.”
Their eyes met.
Hyeon’s heavy gaze settled on him.
As Seongha told him everything he had experienced, he realized that the two of them now shared far more than before.
He had moved one step closer to the truth of the world.
And he understood that if Hyeon was going to accomplish his great cause, Seongha would have to lend him his strength as well.
“What do you intend to do during the Fifteenth Day Festival?”
Darkness was spreading throughout Hui Kingdom.
Yet the royal family and great nobles remained as corrupt and incompetent as ever.
What did the Crown Prince, who had returned to this chaotic kingdom, truly want?
“I recently received a message from General Ban.”
Seunggyeom had taken the Jin family’s memorial tablet from Seongha and traveled to the region where the surviving members of the Ban family lived.
There, he had begun restoring their support among the people while training cavalry soldiers.
