PRU | Chapter 2.1

As the festival drew near, the etiquette lessons that had been interrupted started up again. No matter how fine a student he was, the long, long ceremonial sequence was torment for Jaehwan.

Count Vanteil was a picky but good Teacher, because he paid attention to even Jaehwan’s smallest gesture and made him refined. Jaehwan had no vulgar streak by nature, but he also had no nobility or elegance in him, so he had to struggle.

Count Vanteil’s sharp tongue worked just as well when he pointed out gossip drifting around the royal castle as it did when he corrected Jaehwan’s manner. His brown mustache moved nonstop, and Jaehwan was quickly worn out.

Jaehwan could not shake the feeling that those actions were like a craftsman’s diamond cutting.

“No, no. You kneel twice and bow, then bend at the waist once in that position. The hands, yes, that’s right. Excellent, Aphene.”

Jaehwan thought that because of these bows, he had probably fulfilled today’s wish for one hundred and eight prostrations. He remembered being asked to do one hundred and eight bows when he went to a temple with his grandmother as a child in Korea, only to give up after thirty.

Of course, even now, since his stamina did not keep up, he had not actually done one hundred and eight bows, but Count Vanteil kept making him bow and demanding perfection. In the end, when he had repeated it about twenty times with his stamina even worse than in Korea, Jaehwan declared surrender, and Count Vanteil looked displeased, but soon accepted it. Jaehwan’s complexion was clearly poor.

When Jaehwan sat at the table, half limp, Count Vanteil had a Maid fetch fresh cool water.

“If you drink some water, you should feel better, Aphene.”

“Thanks.”

After flailing a few times to grab the cup with his hand, he finally got it and brought it to his mouth. Jaehwan felt his whole body go numb from those bows. His hands trembled as if he had the shakes.

He set the cup down and clenched and unclenched his hands a few times, but the tremor that had moved from his thighs to his wrists would not go away. The days when he had gotten an A in sit-ups during high school gym class by sheer stubbornness were all in the past. Now he could not even imagine it.

“Aphene. You have suffered quite a bit.”

Count Vanteil said it with pity. He looked as if someone else had been the one pushing Jaehwan this whole time. That sight was so absurd that Jaehwan found himself snarking back.

“Yeah. Thanks to who, I wonder.”

Count Vanteil laughed heartily. It was an old man’s laugh. At that laugh, Jaehwan stared at Count Vanteil. The hair by his ears had gone a little white. Come to think of it, he looked very old.

Because he was Western, Jaehwan had not been able to guess his age, but looking closely, he had quite a lot of wrinkles. Jaehwan felt sad at the sight. He was probably about the same age as Jaehwan’s parents.

Bulyeogwi. The sound of a bird crying drifted past the window. Bulyeogwi. Bulyeogwi. The mind sometimes slipped in and confused the hearing that some eminent Scholar had praised as a complete sense. Bulyeogwi.

“You must be tired. I think it would be best to stop here for today.”

“Sure.”

Jaehwan also welcomed Count Vanteil’s words, as if some pointless noise were echoing in his head, and gave his permission. Because he was such an expressionless Asian, it was hard for Count Vanteil to tell at a glance, but the atmosphere alone made it clear that Jaehwan was pleased.

Between the defenseless obedience and wariness that Jaehwan sometimes showed, Count Vanteil held him in fairly close regard. Even when he treated him sharply, Count Vanteil was pleased. Jaehwan was exactly the age of Count Vanteil’s grandson.

On top of that, divine power from a goddess. He had never imagined he would confirm it with his own two eyes while he was still alive. The Aphene of the former King had existed, but Count Vanteil had never seen the former King’s Aphene.

“When are the festival and banquet?”

“The festival will be on the first day of next week, and the banquet will be held at the end of next month, Aphene.”

After Count Vanteil left the room, Jaehwan drank tea for a while, then suddenly asked Alestia, who stood guard in the room. At first, it had been hard to even see people’s faces, let alone Alestia, but now Alestia and everyone else were all clinging to him and watching him. It was an oppressive gaze. Evading that gaze as best he could, Jaehwan asked Alestia to bring him a book.

“Come to think of it, what happened to my remaining ‘talent’?”

“Sir will come again today. Because Count Vanteil’s lesson is so strenuous, we arranged a rest period and set up an appointment.”

Jaehwan asked casually and was pleased by the answer that came back. Ah, so he would see him again today. He could not control the oddly fluttering feeling in his heart, but after beginning to make a reasonable compromise with reality, he had been able to regain his composure. Recognizing and accepting reality was not particularly difficult for Jaehwan, so it was possible.

That did not mean he could control the organs that moved through the mind or the autonomic nervous system, so there were limits, but he had at least organized things as far as he could. He only hoped that the favor he showed Alpeneon for no reason would look like the kind of favor that naturally followed a kind person.

“How about taking a walk in the meantime?”

“Okay.”

After he was allowed to go to the harem garden by the King’s merciful favor, Jaehwan often went out for walks. It was because he felt like he would grow more depressed if he were trapped in the room. He often aired the room out and such, but there was a huge difference between looking at the green carpet, which was said to ease eye strain, and seeing the actual green of grass.

And Jaehwan’s stamina had become very weak. The result of spending months in a room without moving was the loss of muscles he had barely had to begin with. Even in high school, he had hardly been able to exercise, so he had no muscle, and after coming here, the lump of flesh had become even softer. He had been thin to begin with and unable to eat, enough that his joints showed, but if he touched the flesh on his upper arms, the firmness was gone.

Just as the Black Death that plunged Europe into a deathly sleep had actually been an endemic disease in China’s Yunnan Province, unfamiliar illnesses made it that easy to kill people.

Because there was no immunity. Therefore, the fact that Jaehwan, whose stamina had weakened and whose immunity had also weakened, had not caught Dekaria’s endemic disease was due to heavenly luck, including clean sanitation.

No matter how little Aphene might catch illness, it could not be judged when his body was weak. Alestia, like Alpeneon, was also educated enough to recognize that, and she was devoted to building up Jaehwan’s stamina. So Alestia often suggested walks before Jaehwan even brought it up.

Outside was better than being in the room. His shoes, absurdly, were silk shoes, so he could not even imagine walking through the grass for fear of staining them green. So when he walked on the stone-paved path, Jaehwan found it to be a strange feeling.

The room was full of all sorts of decorations you would not see in Korea, and now even the sharp or heavy things had been removed, but the gold ornaments and jewels stood out. They were not as meticulous as modern craftsmanship, but they had their own charm.

Because of that, whenever he stayed in the room, Jaehwan often mistakenly thought he was dreaming. He had thought more than once that when he woke from a nap, he would be on the bed in his narrow room in Korea. Then, when he came out like this and saw those things vividly alive and moving, he came to realize through the air that this was not a dream forever.

“Oh my. Aphene, look at that.”

A Maid who had been following a little behind let out an exclamation. Beautiful. It was a bird with colorful, elegant feathers. The Maid kept exclaiming how beautiful it was. At the Maid’s exclamations, Jaehwan blankly looked at the bird. The blue bird was perched elegantly on a branch.

Even after the Maid came closer, the bird tilted its round eyes, looking back and forth between Jaehwan and the Maid without any wariness. The Maid urged Jaehwan to come closer to the bird. Jaehwan hesitated, then approached. The bird did not flee and only flapped its wings once.

“Pretty.”

“Yes, Aphene. It seems to be tamed.”

The Maid smiled with a young face. Jaehwan, without thinking, held out his hand. The bird hopped down the branch and landed on Jaehwan’s fingertip. Jaehwan blinked in surprise. As the small bird blinked innocently, it gave a soft cry. Jaehwan smiled.

“Well.”

A sound suddenly came from behind. Startled, Jaehwan turned around, and the bird on his hand flapped away and settled on a branch. Alpeneon was standing there with an awkward face. He had a gold cage in his hand.

“How have you been, Aphene.”

“Oh, Sir Alpeneon.”

Alpeneon strode over and gestured to the bird, but the bird backed away and ran off. Jaehwan saw that and snorted with a laugh. Then Alpeneon frowned his red eyebrows and grumbled at Jaehwan.

“Aphene. Even if it is a tamed bird, a bird is by nature not friendly with humans.”

Jaehwan held out his hand as before at those words. Then the bird, which had been tilting its head, hesitated for a few moments, then hopped over just as before and settled on his fingertip. The Maid laughed with a squeal, and Alpeneon laughed awkwardly. Jaehwan carefully picked up the bird and put it into the cage. Alpeneon sighed as if relieved.

“Even a small creature seems to recognize its owner. In fact, this bird is a gift from me to Aphene.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I managed to get the cage late… I sent the bird first, and since I had a promise to keep, I brought the cage with me, but a servant made a mistake while moving it. I definitely dropped it while moving it from the room, but the window was open.”

“Oh, really… Thank you. I keep getting gifts.”

“Not at all. I only wanted Aphene to be pleased.”

Jaehwan looked at the bird and thanked him again. The Maid naturally took the cage. Alpeneon smiled at Jaehwan and asked if he would like to take a walk with him now, since the promised person would arrive soon, and Jaehwan accepted it inwardly with pleasure. Along with the unnecessary addition that walking alone was boring.

“Take the bird to Aphene’s room. Aphene, that would be better too, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

“But then the serving…”

“I’ll carry it.”

Alpeneon smiled and sent the Maid away. Jaehwan found himself saying yes, yes in confusion, and ended up alone with Alpeneon. The guards followed behind, but only from a distance, so if they spoke softly, the guards could not hear them, and it felt as if they were truly alone.

“Aphene. I really am sorry about before.”

“No, that is now…”

“No, no. I know enough about what my cousin, and our lofty King, did.”