Wandering Through Vol. 1 Chapter 30 - Second Life 02

The third year of the Joseon Dynasty.

 

Seja realized that his life was coming to an end.

 

When he thought he was going to die, he remembered the face of Mongmae, who was weeping bitterly. He wanted to see that face again at least once before he died.

 

‘I wished I had told her that I would run away with her when I was ready to die.’

 

Then I could have laughed for days.

 

One night, he awoke in the middle of the night and sat up, his body not aching, and looked into the restless eyes of the doctor and several of his attendants, who hadn’t slept in days. Instead of blaming them, he ordered them to be still.

 

“I want to see my brother after all these years. Where is the grand prince?”

 

Seeing that the prince was in good spirits, a eunuch hurried to fetch him. 

 

With only one of his brothers, it was obvious that he would call him. 

 

The great lord, who had been restless at Seja’s illness, hurriedly entered the room. 

 

Despite the doctor’s protests, Seja greeted him.

 

“Brother. Are you all right?”

 

The Great Prince was still a young boy, and he couldn’t hide the mixture of joy and worry on his face. 

 

He looked up to his older brother more than his busy father. He had no intention of overtaking his sick brother for the throne, as the elders chattered.

 

“This is not good at all. I’m afraid the death chauffeur will be here soon.”

His heart dropped as he listened to Seja’s answer. The prince smiled bitterly at his response and asked.

 

“So you are the next King. Myung.”

 

The Great Prince was speechless. T

 

the prince continued, “You have everything from the beginning. The Crown, the throne. Concede nothing to your brothers and nephews. Don’t even let them take anything from you.”

 

As if he didn’t want the plunder of their father to be repeated at the hands of his brother.

 

“…I’m not like my father.”

 

“I know. I mean, it’s just a facade. If I cared about them, I’d stay here.”

 

‘I would have stayed here,’ he said, as if he would go anywhere in the middle of the night with his sick body. 

 

Just as that ominous thought crossed his mind, Seja stood up. The Great Prince panicked and grabbed him.

 

“Brother.”

 

“I’m not going to make it through the night anyway. A day at most, I know my body.”

 

“Then all the more reason for you to be here!”

 

“If I could not choose my place of birth, I should be able to choose my place of death.”

 

“And where do you mean to go to die?”

 

The Great Prince threw on some clothes and followed the dying man out the door. 

 

As the dying man walked out, the eyes of the waiting doctors widened. Seja told them he would speak with the Great Prince outside and then proceeded once more.

 

The deputies stamped their feet and shouted in protest, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

 

Seja stormed through the house, uncharacteristically for a sick man.

 

“If you don’t tell me why you’re doing this, I’m going to call someone, and where do you think you’re going with that body!”

 

“The mountains,” he replied in response to the Great Prince’s urgent question. 

 

After a few more questions, the Great Prince finally heard where the mountain was, and why he was going there.

 

“You’re going now, risking your life to see a woman?”

 

He grabbed the reins of the horse Seja was riding.

 

“If everyone knows you’re missing, they’ll be looking for you.”

 

“That’s why I told you. Hide me for one night, and I’ll return at daybreak.”

 

As much as I wanted to argue with him, I couldn’t look him in the eye and say no. 

 

If she could grant the wishes of the dead, why couldn’t she grant the wishes of the living?

 

“I’ve never said that to anyone but you. Myung.”

 

With that, Myung let go of the reins of the horse. 

 

The Prince smiled faintly, then turned and walked away. In the middle of the night, someone came up to him and wished him luck.

 

“You’re gone after all.”

 

“Who is it?”

 

“He has no name, but others call him the Little Shaman.”

 

“The one the prince brought with him…”

 

“Yes. The same shaman who’s been curing Seja’s strange affliction.”

 

The Great Prince, who wasn’t very superstitious to begin with, frowned. He didn’t even want to exchange words, so he spat out coldly.

 

“What kind of lowly beggar speaks to a prince?”

 

The man who immediately knelt and bowed to the Great Lord said.

 

“I apologize. Great Prince.”

 

“’Be on your way. Before you are struck down for wandering about in the middle of the night.”

 

Myung was the embodiment of the phrase ‘honest man and soldier,’ but that was only a facade in the presence of the prince. 

 

In reality, his temper was cold and cruel.

 

To my elder brother, who raised me, I was said to resemble him, but most of the people around me thought that I was more like my father.

 

Seja was actually a bit of an oddity in the family.

 

None of his parents or siblings were like that, and he wondered where it had come from.

 

Jagomi brushed off his sleeve and turned to face him.

 

“Do you wish to be King, my lord?”

 

The words were so blunt that he doubted his ears for a moment.

 

“Didn’t you ever expect that if the Crown Prince died, his place would be yours?”

 

At that moment, he decided that he had to kill the kneeling man, so there was no point in being offended. The man was already as good as dead to him.

 

“Are you asking me now, in front of me, if I ever wished for my brother to die?”

 

He didn’t yell at him or kick him in the face. 

 

The man on the ground raised his head in response to the icy question and dared to make eye contact with the Great Lord.

 

“Yes, my lord. If you say otherwise, I dare to ask, so that I can tell you how to save Seja’s life.”

 

The next day, at dawn, Seja returned.

 

Silently, and only to the Great Lord, he told him that he had seen a woman at a distance, sitting on the floor in the night, lost in thought. 

 

It was the last time he saw him before he died.

 

For the next few days, Seja was as healthy as a man without a single ailment, although he had been told he would die soon.

 

A few days later, when he began to feel ill again, the Great Prince brought him to the King, and he was carried up to a shrine in the mountains.

 

“Recuperate here. Brother. Perhaps your ailment is a serious one.”

 

Adding a wry smile, the Great Prince took Seja’s hand.

 

“I’ve told Father. That I will succeed you, so that you can spend your last days in peace.”

 

“Myungah.”

 

“But if your life is truly in danger, the guards will bring you down the mountain, and that cannot be helped, for even if Father would allow you to recover, he wanted you to spend your last moments with him.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Seja hugged the Great Prince tightly, repeating his thanks as many times as he could.

 

Quite a few eunuchs remained in the mountain shrine. 

 

Seja wanted to refuse, but the Great Prince convinced him that his father would not allow it. 

 

Instead, a compromise was reached, the imperial courtiers would be housed in a village below the mountain shrine.

 

“I’ll take care of my nieces and nephews. Just think about getting well, brother. When your mind is at ease, you’ll know.”

 

With that, he left Seja at the shrine in the mountains.

 

It was not hard to guess what would happen at the shrine after he left. 

 

A young man and a young woman with a mutual interest in each other.

 

The daily reports from the attendants, who stayed all day to serve him, did not surprise the Great Prince. 

 

They cried, they laughed, they stuck together, they fell apart, but it was more important to him that Seja’s body was improving.

 

No longer did he collapse from inexplicable causes, and he was no longer sick.

 

For that, the Great Prince thought, he could put up with the lowly shaman.

 

Soon, word came that they had set up their sanctuary.

 

It was a little late. It was true of him to take so long to overthrow the lowly thing.

 

The Great Prince burned the letter with the news on a candle and threw the ashes into the furnace. 

 

He turned to Jagomi, who was crouching by the fire.

 

“Is it done?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then you may fetch your brother now.”

 

He looked out into the pouring snow and muttered.

 

“I hope it stops snowing tomorrow.”

 

💫

 

Blood dripped on the snow-covered mountain path.

 

Ripped collar and tattered skirt, torn with pus. Her hair was torn loose. The shambling woman stopped.

 

There was nowhere to go. She turned around and saw red footprints in the white snow.

 

The blood from her beating had dripped there. 

 

Or was it the blood between her legs…

 

‘Phew, hmph…’ 

 

Holding onto her knees, she breathed heavily. 

 

Pressing her hand to her knee, which was already cracked and bruised from the many falls she had taken, she could feel the pain even through her frozen body.

 

But she didn’t take her hand off her knee, because if she did, she’d stay down and never get up again.

 

The woman had to move. 

 

Farther. Anywhere. Farther than her new home at the bottom of that mountain.