Struggle Chapter 87

A baduk board is visible in his field of vision. Both men have a chaotic playing style. It meant their thoughts were elsewhere. To be certain, Taerok had never once shown such an appearance recently. It showed just how uncharacteristic of him he had been lately.

However, thanks to seeing this distracted mess, Taerok’s deliberation came to an end. He placed a white stone down. It was a bold move. Some would call it a blunder, and some would call it a masterstroke. He wouldn’t know until the game was over, but it seemed certain that this was the decisive move that would determine the game.

Taerok lifted his head.

“Your Majesty.”

I will do what must be done. What needs to be done for me, the thing that can most clearly and simply reach what I truly desire.

‘I will leave without leaving anything behind and forget everything, so do as you wish and live happily to a ripe old age with Her Majesty the Queen.’

If you had said instead, “I am sick and tired of you, so I will leave first,” it wouldn’t have struck Taerok’s heart quite as deeply. However, the sight of Nanyoung looking as though he were about to cry yet ultimately holding back his tears to make his request felt to Taerok like a dagger-like threat more than anything else… and because that childish-sounding remark simply refused to fade away.

“I dare to offer a word as your uncle.”

Resting his fists on both knees and straightening his waist made Taerok’s exceptional physique stand out even more. He looked like a sharp, giant stone mountain behind the palace. Even though the king possessed delicate facial features similar to Nanyoung’s, and was healthier and more talented in martial arts, he looked somewhat dwarfed before his uncle.

Was it because of that, or perhaps because his uncle had always been an intimidating presence to begin with? At this moment, the king felt as though he had simply become a young nephew.

“…Speak.”

Taerok pretended to adjust the lapel of his robes while toying with something inside.

“There are those plotting treason.”

His tone was calm and dry.

That was why the king was shocked rather belatedly.

“Who they are, I know.”

“How could Uncle know their names…!”

In an instant, the king’s expression changed. Even upon seeing the king’s eyes swimming with a sense of betrayal, Taerok calmly drank his warmed tea.

Clenching his fists, the king caught his breath for a long moment before muttering.

“…We are in a period of national mourning. We cannot blow things out of proportion.”

“Yes, we are in a period of mourning. However, Your Majesty is the reigning monarch, not my older brother.”

“Uncle…!”

“You must pull yourself together, Your Majesty. The throne you occupy stands above personal emotions. This incident will be the moment that sets the crown prince’s succession straight.”

Taerok said strictly.

“Now is not the time for mourning, nor for holding someone’s wedding.”

If his nephew were to bring up the state funeral here, Taerok intended to upend everything. After all, this wasn’t the only way to claim Lee Nanyoung, who was his other nephew and the only one who mattered to him.

He straightened his waist and looked down at the baduk board. In truth, the cruelest battles seemed to take place as silently and calmly as a game of baduk.

“I will become Your Majesty’s sword. And Your Majesty… will have to use me.”

“…”

“For Your Majesty’s family and my family.”

Taerok suddenly grew curious about Nanyoung’s playing style.

∞ ∞ ∞

Those who had seen Taerok drunk could be counted on one hand, and even among those who had, the number of times did not exceed three fingers. The moment he returned to his palace, he stripped off his outer robes and threw all the windows open. The autumn wind rushed in through his unbuttoned front lapels.

“Ha… why is it so hot?”

Even so, Taerok panted, complaining of the heat.

It was as if he had consumed some kind of aphrodisiac. Holding a wide wine cup in one hand and a brush in the other, Taerok dashed off a letter in a single stroke. As he drew the final stroke and briskly lifted the brush, a drop of ink splashed right into the wine cup, clouding the clear liquid.

“…”

Staring blankly at the ripples of black ink drawn like overlapping bands, Taerok didn’t mind and drank the whole thing down.

He tossed the brush aside. Because it was left resting precariously on the inkstone, it looked as though a slight nudge would cause it to roll right down.

Taerok collapsed flat onto his back. The armrest crooked under his rough movements.

‘Now that I think about it… that’s right. Uncle becoming king was precisely the path that meant the end for us.’

Better yet, as if to say—

‘I, too, shall finally hold the marriage ceremony I’ve been putting off and putting off.’

Such an irritating thing to hear.

And yet, the sight of Nanyoung speaking such hateful words—Nanyoung, soaked in moisture and drunk on lingering emotion, hazy yet pretty enough to feel unfamiliar despite a lifetime of seeing him—

“So insolent…”

Muttering, he stroked his chest. The breath he exhaled in a rush was hot.

It seemed he really had drunk an aphrodisiac. It was thoughts of Nanyoung. He had thought there was no side dish, but he was drinking wine with Lee Nanyoung, and what he thought was a side dish turned out to be an aphrodisiac.

Taerok panted against his chest. His ribcage violently expanded and contracted. His hand slipped into the waistband of his trousers and gripped what was already beginning to turn erect.

“Hoo…”

He gripped his manhood tightly. He didn’t often practice self-pleasure, but even when he did, he didn’t grasp himself this tightly. He was doing this solely while thinking of Nanyoung, who wasn’t here. The absent Nanyoung, the body of Nanyoung he hadn’t been able to enter—he substituted his own hand while thinking of that.

‘Then the two of us won’t have to go through this anymore, either.’

Incest was an ugly and filthy capital sin no matter how one tried to wrap it up. As Nanyoung had said, there was no need for emotions there either. He himself was the one who had sneered, asking if Nanyoung wanted to do love, and he was the one who had pessimistically chewed over whether their relationship could ever become a romantic one, or if they were the kind of star-crossed lovers who couldn’t live without each other. Nanyoung had simply done the same thing. So why was he this angry? Or was he hurt?

In truth… it was simple.

As Taerok returned from Nanyoung’s palace, he realized that this treason was impossible. It wasn’t due to a lack of power or planning. It was because Lee Taerok, realizing what he truly wanted to possess, had even discovered the direction toward it.

With the realization came a sense of relief. At the same time, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. One had to stage an impossible endeavor just to touch the impossible for even a brief moment. It was as if it was not you, but me, who committed incest under the pretext of treasonous ambition. The realization that flashed through his mind when Nanyoung spoke those words was the truth.

In the end, the one who needed a pretext was not Lee Nanyoung, but himself.

“Kuh… ugh…!”

Taerok put force into his neck and reached climax.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. Even though he had reached climax, the heat did not subside and his lower body was still hard, yet Taerok lost all appetite for it. He felt only emptiness and absurdity. He took off his upper garment, wiped his genitals and palm with it, and threw it away.

cottura… damn it.”

He pressed the back of his hand firmly against his forehead.

His mood simply refused to improve.

To think that a nephew who probably wouldn’t even know how to harm someone else would torment him to this extent. His eldest nephew was trying to snatch Lee Nanyoung away from him. What did it matter if he was twenty-three or twenty-four? He wouldn’t find a marriage match anyway, and even if he did, there was no way the marriage would ever take place.

Taerok looked back at the letter he had written. He had met the king, and now all he had to do was send that name list and preparations would be complete. He would be able to possess everything he desired, but at the same time, he would be giving up everything…

∞ ∞ ∞

Because Taerok had not caught the servant who had secretly smuggled Nanyoung in during their last meeting, Kangmu had continued his secret relationship with the female servant in Taerok’s palace. Thanks to this, Nanyoung was able to hear about his uncle’s movements through Kangmu.

“Really?”

Nanyoung asked again. It was already his third time asking. Even so, Kangmu answered repeatedly like the military officer he was.

“Yes. I am told the party members are extremely busy. It appears as though they are leaving for a hunt, but considering how busy they are, their travelling baggage is sparse and the atmosphere is quite ferocious, I hear.”

Nanyoung’s fingertips slowly tapped against the paulownia wood desk. Beside his hand lay the letter Taerok had sent. Kangmu had brought it. When he came in looking unusually pale and asked what was the matter, he said that his uncle’s close aide named Kim Saon had handed it to him directly. That meant Taerok had known of Kangmu’s existence all along and had simply been waiting for the right time.

Just what kind of time was that…?

Nanyoung wrapped his arms around his stomach. His upper abdomen ached fiercely. It felt as though it were aching and being squeezed, a pain as if he had swallowed a bundle of needles scratching all the way up to his chest.

“…I understand. You may leave.”