Previously
King Roderick avoids visiting Hailey to give her space but sends Jade to gift her a new bracelet while teasingly criticizing her current one. Lee-jae, who is used to rejection from her past life, accepts the gift but keeps her prayer beads on her other wrist for protection.
Who Are You? (Part 6)
Lee-jae was on her way back after returning the precious royal genealogy book to the librarian.
Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks when she spotted Roderick nearby.
The King was sparring with the Knight Commander, and though it was a close match, the commander seemed to hold a slight edge.
Lee-jae smiled faintly at the sight.
Both had such fine physiques that had Roderick not been the former King’s son, he likely would have become a knight or a general like Jade.
They moved as fluidly as water, resembling elegant beasts.
As the Queen watched for a moment, Deborah gently offered an explanation.
Looking into his eyes, however, Lee-jae saw something else.
With every clash, she saw dark energies scattering away from Roderick.
Realization dawned on Lee-jae, and she nodded.
‘Yes, doing things like this is far better for him. Hunting won’t do him any good right now.’
Lee-jae watched a bit longer, then turned away.
After only a few steps, however, she stumbled and had to turn back around because someone grabbed her wrist and pulled.
It was Roderick.
‘Wasn’t he just over there a moment ago?’
In the distance, Jade, left behind mid-spar, looked rather perplexed. He stood frozen in the same stance, as though time itself had stopped.
"…"
Lee-jae used a somewhat formal tone, unable to gauge the King’s feelings after not seeing him for a while.
Roderick frowned at the sudden distance in her voice, looking slightly annoyed.
"…"
She had kept her distance out of awkwardness, assuming the King had been avoiding her lately. Yet Roderick seemed even more displeased by that.
Sensing his mood, Lee-jae nodded silently.
Even so, Roderick lingered beside her.
It seemed like he had something to say, so she waited. But when he remained silent after a long while, she decided to take her leave first.
Whether Roderick knew certain things or not, he certainly knew how to grate on someone’s nerves.
The air grew exceedingly quiet.
Roderick spoke first. “I was only talking to myself, of course. Not to you.”
"…"
Even on second thought, Lee-jae felt the barb had been meant for her. It sounded passive-aggressive, laced with an underlying meaning.
Roderick brushed off her puzzled look, sheathed his sword, and said bluntly,
Continuing seemed far more beneficial for his life, but Roderick shook his head.
At those words, Lee-jae chuckled.
She had never had any friends, let alone childhood ones, but the two of them appeared to share a very solid bond.
Lee-jae looked at the King’s face once more.
She kept watching him because a person’s fortunes could shift frequently.
The King certainly bore no visibly auspicious marks on his features, yet having a good person beside him could compensate for ill fortune.
The saying that having three good friends equals a successful life held true in astrology and physiognomy alike.
His condition had improved; he ought to stay close to Jade.
Watching Lee-jae’s smiling face in silence, he walked a little further before asking,
‘Why is he being confrontational again?’
Feeling slightly awkward and peeved, she decided to answer in kind.
In truth, she felt confident now that so long as he was in his right mind, he wouldn’t get genuinely furious no matter what she said.
Roderick replied as if he had been waiting for the question. “I thought you would feel uncomfortable if I came back.”
Lee-jae laughed at that and shook her head.
Roderick thought the point was meaningless, but he wasn’t deeply disappointed. In fact, he felt refreshed.
…That was actually because Lee-jae had just swatted away a spirit rushing up behind him.
As she rubbed her right wrist because her arm was burning, Roderick asked, “Do you not like the bracelet?”
He seemed displeased that she wore her original bracelet on one wrist and the one he gave her on the other, as if wearing his solely out of courtesy.
Roderick didn’t elaborate, but Lee-jae understood a beat late and answered.
She thought he might take offense, but he merely smiled.
Roderick took Lee-jae’s wrist, inspected the crudely carved bracelet, raised a brow, and released her hand. “Your taste is certainly unique.”
He conceded, but kept chuckling, seemingly amused.
Glancing at Roderick’s smile, Lee-jae reached out again and struck another spirit clinging to his back.
The spirit cackled, red blood dripping from its eyes, but Lee-jae gave it a stern warning with her glare.
‘Don’t come near him, spirit. Leave him alone.’
And it was then…
While she looked elsewhere, Roderick spoke casually.
The word came so quickly that she shuddered.
Lee-jae felt an edge of tension at how thoroughly he knew every detail.
Even though he knew she couldn’t, he asked anyway. His gaze on Lee-jae was dead serious and unyielding.
Had he pressed further, Lee-jae would have kept talking. But because Roderick asked nothing more, she felt his distrust all the more keenly.
‘What is he thinking now?’
After walking in silence for a time, Roderick suddenly changed course. It was an entirely different direction from the path leading to Lee-jae’s chambers.
She vaguely recalled hearing about it.
If so, the memory belonged not to Lee-jae, but to Hailey.
Lately, Lee-jae had begun confusing her own memories with Hailey’s.
"…"
Roderick looked at Lee-jae with an unreadable expression.
When Lee-jae nodded, he took her wrist and led her somewhere.
At the path where the woods began, Lee-jae’s mouth fell open.
Densely packed trees stretched toward the sky, devoid of any branches low enough to touch.
Yet Lee-jae wasn’t marveling at the scenery, but at the forest’s sheer sacredness.
The energy she had faintly detected throughout the castle grounds, the energy coursing through the King’s body, and the energy she had felt from the mighty western ghost—all of it was surging from this forest.
It was immensely refreshing, bordering on divine.
Lee-jae turned her head to look at Roderick.
The King silently mouthed back, ‘What?’
She wanted to ask if he didn’t feel this reverence, but she kept quiet and shook her head to herself.
And then, all at once, realization struck Lee-jae.
The King was in danger outside this castle.
This castle was both a perilous place and the strongest shield protecting him.
Then what was the real problem?
The moment Lee-jae stepped into the forest, she laughed when she saw that the spirits trailing Roderick had either vanished or were unable to follow.
Roderick and Lee-jae didn’t walk far before finding a suitable spot to sit.
He even took off his coat and spread it on the ground for her.
Having grown up sitting on mountains gathering all sorts of herbs, Lee-jae found the gesture amusing and let out a soft laugh.
Lee-jae doubted any evil could exist here, but she didn’t argue.
Instead, looking plainly at the King watching her, she asked, “Do you not come here often? Don’t you find the air wonderful?”
She could only describe it in such gentle terms.
Yet Roderick confirmed Lee-jae’s words coolly.
‘That way, you can win this battle.’
Lee-jae offered the advice in earnest, but Roderick, sensing something lingering in her expression, looked at her and said,
She harbored no such thoughts; Lee-jae truly had no desire to die.
Yet no matter what she said, she couldn’t erase the image of Hailey Duncan throwing herself into the water from his mind.
Lee-jae sighed with a chuckle, gazed up at the canopy of leaves, and parted her lips.
‘My bracelet is truly suffering right now, and my arm aches so much.’
‘I need to carve another companion for the first figurine.’
Roderick chuckled; the Queen proved far more persistent than he had imagined.
Then, he seemed to ponder something for a moment.
"…"
What he said struck right at the heart of the matter.
Of course, that applied not only to Lee-jae.
‘Your Majesty, truthfully, I desperately wanted to live too.’
‘I did everything I could to make it so, but no matter how much we struggle, we cannot defy fate.’
Yet she could hardly unravel that tangled web of stories and plead her case to him, so she offered a faint smile and looked away.
Roderick kept his blue eyes fixed on Lee-jae’s face, once more stirred by an inexplicable sensation.
A growing pull and mutual distrust.
Indescribable truths and undeniable doubts.
Carrying all of that between them, the two lingered for a long time, enfolded in the sacred air of the forest.