Previously
During the hunting competition preparations, Roderick teases Kang Lee-jae and asks if she wants him to win, leading her to offer a sincere wish for his safety rather than victory.
Listen Well to Your Wife (Part 1)
Lee-jae woke early in the morning and sat up.
In her previous life, meditation had been her daily routine.
Nothing was better suited to clearing her mind and settling her spiritual energy.
Worrying that the people of the castle might find it strange, she had neglected it for a while, but neither the King nor Deborah had said a word.
So, these days, she had grown accustomed to meditating quite often.
How much time had passed?
Lee-jae opened her eyes and spoke to herself once more.
It was the sort of self-justification she reached for whenever things felt uneasy.
She had been born an orphan, cursed with the sight of spirits.
Yet, unable to host a governing spirit, she had lived a life fitting in neither here nor there.
Her first life had been cut short, and she had ended up married to the very first man she met, but it felt deeply unfair to meet her end after coming this far.
And since she had declared that he would win if he was meant to, she wanted to take responsibility for those words.
Having made up her mind, Lee-jae poured clear water into a hollow bowl.
Besides talismans, all shamans have their own instruments.
These are known as mogu.
Some used fans, others five-colored flags, and some used bells.
In Lee-jae’s case, her prayer bracelet and bow served as her mogu.
When a shaman parted with their mogu, they were essentially relinquishing everything.
To be honest, it was somewhat disheartening that no one understood the weight of it.
Having handed her bracelet over to the King, Lee-jae took a deep breath before the clear water. Then, she burned a talisman over it.
Placing her index and middle fingers against her chest, she chanted an incantation.
With no ghosts before her, the spiritual energy flowed gentler and broader than before.
It was a simple spell meant to invigorate the King.
‘Sometimes, people of immense energy are born into royal lineages.’
No matter where he went or what he did, no one would dare harm a man born with such monumental fortune at his back.
Her breath tightened, yet strangely enough, it proved bearable.
‘Grandmother Yunsan… It seems a harsh environment was the very foundation for honing my skills.’
After all, life was not theoretical, but practical.
Lee-jae poured the water out the window, coughing several times.
Then, she lay down on the bed.
Roderick wore a somewhat sullen expression today.
He plucked at his bowstring and asked,
Jade then noticed where the King’s gaze was fixed and stood stunned.
The King, who had been riding ahead of them for a while, was glaring at Lawrence’s back.
There had been no warning signs this time—had his madness flared without cause?
He had never displayed such behavior before.
The King’s past record was so notorious that most people found it terrifying whenever he cracked such jokes.
Watching his complexion carefully, Jade added,
At the mention of the word “relationship,” Roderick raised an eyebrow.
If it had happened before the wedding and remained her private matter, then why had His Majesty looked so thoroughly irritated a moment ago?
Furthermore, just four days before the wedding, the King himself had told Hailey he didn’t care what sort of man she kept in her heart.
Has it truly come to the point where I should feel grateful to that old man?
Roderick, who had been marveling at the thought, was struck by an idea and asked,
Jade was so taken aback this time that he asked him to repeat it.
Yet the King appeared entirely sincere.
It was the sort of remark he could only make because they were friends.
Jade continued,
Naturally, Roderick knew that too.
Even so, something clearly didn’t sit right with him.
In the end, that was the part gnawing at Roderick.
The Queen was ordinarily composed; though she went quiet at times, she had never shown a hint of tears.
For someone like her to lose control of her emotions and tremble so…
She had been on edge the entire hunt, to the point of shedding tears.
‘Are you in trouble now because of me?’
Yet when she wept and offered her apologies… he had wanted to hold and kiss her. In fact, at one point, he nearly had.
Meanwhile, Jade watched Roderick grow more agitated by the day and spoke.
Yet before he realized it, his gaze had settled intently upon the handkerchief tied to the horse’s reins.
To Jade, that action spoke louder than any affirmative answer.
"…"
“At times, I feel as though I hold her heart, yet at other times, it feels as if I have none of it at all.”
"…"
The King frowned, and Jade looked at him.
From Jade’s vantage, obsessing over another person’s feelings was already a bad sign.
After all, the Queen did not appear particularly interested in how the King felt.
In fact, compared to the number of times the King had visited her, the instances where the Queen sought him out first were practically nonexistent.
Were there merely those two occasions when she had asked for tea?
What they failed to realize, however, was that those had been the moments Roderick needed help most.
Roderick weighed Jade’s advice and turned it over in his mind.
The more he dwelled on it, the more bizarre it seemed.
"…"
Jade nodded in agreement with the King’s point.
Yet Roderick snapped as if irritated,
"…"
Naturally, Kang Lee-jae was exceptionally perceptive, but he had no way of knowing the true reason behind it.
And so, even today, this misunderstanding continued to deepen.
Having been scolded for no reason because of that very misunderstanding, Jade looked at Roderick with a conflicted expression.
He could hardly compare himself to a married couple sharing a bed from time to time; they were entirely different matters.
If I had spoken with the Queen as much as the King has, and even shared a bed with her, I am confident I would understand her quite well.
Yet Jade kept his mouth shut. The King was still glaring sourly at Lawrence, his fingers plucking rhythmically at his bowstring.
The King was one of the few opponents capable of matching Jade.
And right now, getting caught in the King’s unreasonable bouts of madness would only lead to trouble.