Chapter 18 – Mandarin Ducks

[너를 사랑해,

끝도 없는 기다림이라도 괜찮아

니가 나를 다시 찾을 때면 언제나

너를 향해 웃어 줄 수 있는데

I love you,

I can wait for you endlessly,

when you come back to me again,

I’ll be smiling]

“Lady Kim, you have a letter!”

Jimin looks up as a servant from the Kim family rushes over to her best friend, carrying a long letter in his hand. Anyone would think it was some kind of royal scroll, what with the length of that letter, but no, as soon she saw the seal on the letter, she realized that it was from Heejin. These two are really something else.

“Geez, about time.”

Jiwoo rolls her eyes as she takes the letter from the frail skinny boy. She dismisses her servant and promptly opens the letter, reading its content almost immediately.

“Good news, Heejin says that they are safe and there is no need to worry. They are now waiting for more reinforcements and they will be able to come back soon. I told you, you didn’t have to be so worried.”

Her best friend says in one breath with assuring eyes directed at her. Jimin nods her head in response before speaking up.

“By the way, did Heejin mention anything in particular about Minjeong?”

“Hmmm….wait, let me just skip through these few paragraphs of the great Jeon Heejin begging me not to settle for someone else during her absence.”

Jimin rolls her eyes at hearing that. Her best friend lets out scoffs she continues to skim through the long letter.

“Ah, it says here that Minjeong did send you some letters and she asks why you don’t reply to her letters.”

Jiwoo reads out loud as she turns to look at her with a puzzled expression. Jimin look equally surprised.

“But I didn’t receive any letters.”

“That’s strange. Maybe you should check your mail again, Yu Jimin.”

Her best friend reminds as she continues to read the content of the letter with a wide smile. Jimin nods and makes a mental note to check her mail when she gets home. She then briefly takes a quick glance at the extremely long letter and lets out a small smile.

“She really writes a lot for you.”

“Oh, you think this is long? Heejin says the one Minjeong wrote for you is even longer. It’s almost as if she is writing a novel.”

“Wait, are you serious? Then, how can I possibly miss it?”

“I don’t know, maybe someone hid it or something. I mean, there are a whole lot of possibilities I can think of but it seems Minjeong has been writing you letters since the day she left. So you should have 1, 2, no, wait, at the very least, 5 letters to read.”

Jimin frowns deeply.

Now, who on earth would be so interested in keeping her letters?

∞∞∞

“Again? Are they unsealed?”

“No, my lord. This time, the letters are sealed.”

“Whose seal exactly?”

“Well, judging from the seal, my Lord, we suspect it is from Lord Jeon.”

“You can’t possibly mean the Minister of War.”

“No, the younger lord, my Lord.”

Minister Yu recalls the conversation earlier as he frowns his eyebrows at the stack of letters on the table. This was like déjà vu all over again. First, his wife and the late Queen and now, even his daughter is putting him through this nightmare.

The last time Jimin received some letters, he presumed it to be some random nobleman who was infatuated with her since it was unsealed. He had them thrown out without his daughter’s knowledge, knowing that these are distractions, no, poisonous hindrance that has once destroyed his marriage with his wife.

He will not let the same happen to his daughter.

But this time is different. A sealed letter changes everything.

Deep in thoughts, he paces up and down the room. He takes note of how the letters were obnoxiously long. Never mind that, since when did his daughter became so close with the younger Jeon?

He was so sure he heard rumors that the younger Jeon was hopelessly chasing after the eldest daughter of Minister Kim. But he thinks of how this could be good for him too.

If things do not work out with the very unpredictable Lord Kim, maybe, forming an alliance with the younger Jeon wouldn’t be so bad after all. After all, if the younger Jeon really does end up marrying the daughter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of all people, who for some reason have a strong distaste for him, things will not be too favorable for him.

Minister Yu sits down and lets out a heavy sigh.

Nothing has been working out for him lately. What’s rather worrisome is the fact that Prince Jongin, presumably his knight in this plan of his, has been rather rebellious. He is probably impatient, he thinks. He probably can’t wait to take his revenge but the latest attack on the rebellion was a rash decision. It wasn’t planned, it was an attack the Prince had executed solely based on the reason that it was something that the King deserved for killing his mother.

Technically, the King did not murder his mother, but he did let her be executed for a crime, that the Prince insisted she did not commit. Minister Yu remembered vividly how the King had no hesitation during her execution day and how it made everyone rather curious as to why the King suddenly had a change of heart.

Because everyone knew of the King and his mistress, of how obvious they were despite the Queen’s presence. So how ironic it was that only after the Queen’s absence that his love for his mistress died and the royalty later spent the rest of his life alone, till this very day.

Maybe it was the guilt, or maybe he finally realized the Queen’s importance. Minister Yu did not know.

One thing’s for sure, the King was never made aware of the fact that his mistress bore him a child.

As a matter of fact, ever since the Queen’s death, the King has depended on him heavily, almost as if he was playing the role of the King himself. The King was barely interested in the country’s affairs and spent most of his time moping over his late wife and fussing over the Crown Prince.

It worked in his favor for years but as of late, the Crown Prince is becoming a serious problem.

If he ever wants to maintain his power right now, he will need a King who isn’t as relentless and determined as the Crown Prince. Undeniably, there are things that a royalty shouldn’t take interest in but the Crown Prince pokes his nose too much.

Prince Jongin on the other hand, only has one thing on his mind.

To execute revenge on his father.

Once that is done with, he only wants to sit on the throne and bask in the feeling of being the King. He has absolutely no interest in the country’s affairs which to Minister Yu, means he would make the better King.

But he is unpredictable and when emotional, he doesn’t seem to be very meticulous which meant that things may go haywire one day.