Lady of YeonSung 18 (Reunion in the Spring)

Spring had returned to YeonSung.

The majestic imperial palace and the residences of all the high ranking officials surrounding it… They were all the same.

I lived here for four seasons?

Yujo was lost in thought as she looked down at the city.

The clear, cool spring wind brushed through her hair. When she had decided to return to this city, she was met with many objections and countless worries.

She still clearly remembered the emperor’s threat. If she ever stepped foot inside the Silver Nation, he would destroy Yeha.

She still remembered the Red King’s voice as he told her that he’d never see her again after he found his mother.

More importantly, YeonSung was the place where Brother Jewol had lived and the place where she had ultimately lost Brother Yuha.

However, she needed to come here. She couldn’t help but come here.

The past four months had passed by in a haze. She prepared a funeral for Brother Yuha and became the new Mergan. As the new leader, she needed to decide where the people of Yeha would settle next. Thankfully, all the elders of Yeha had been kind to her.

They considered her to have been as brave as her brother during the war. More importantly, they approved of the fact that she had managed to make peace with the Silver Nation’s emperor and bring back a peace treaty.

On top of that, she had brought back with her the mother of the next emperor of the Silver Nation. There was nothing else that could be more of a help to them in the political world.

Once Yeha’s peace was secured, Yujo began searching for her central tree.

Yujo selected a banyan tree to be the central tree of the new Yeha. Nine parties were posted around the tree, and they would help govern the nation.

They trained new warriors, and the spring had brought new life. The bodies of their ancestors were exhumed and buried near the tree.

Once a child was born in Yeha, they would plant a tree connected to that child, and the child and the tree would grow together. Once they died, they’d be buried underneath their tree. Therefore, they believed that all of the mountains and hills, the skies and the earth, were filled with the breath of their ancestors.

Brother Yuha was buried next to their father. And now, Yujo was truly alone.

However, more than the loneliness, the heaviest burden in her heart was the yearning.

She felt fine during the day when she was buried in work. She’d put her all into her tasks, and when she focused solely on her work, the time would crawl by. However, she could barely endure it at night.

Whenever she was about to fall asleep, she recalled her time in YeonSung. Those difficult memories had transformed into yearning as they began to fill her head.

The man who had hugged her from behind. The laughing voice saying that she smelled like peonies. Him looking down at her after suddenly appearing before her. She even remembered the way he had ridden on his horse as he found her at CheongRyu Hall.

The moments when he tasted her lips in the sunlight. The way he stood in the snow when they had reunited. His angry kiss amongst the bamboo trees. She recalled his expression when he had come to her at the inn. She remembered and remembered…

And whenever she remembered these moments, her heart hurt. And whenever her heart hurt, she’d cry. And whenever she cried, she felt as if she were going crazy.

If there was a medicine that could let her forget someone, she’d give anything he had to get her hands on it. If only she could escape these memories, if only she could run away from these thoughts… That’s all she wanted.

At night, Yujo would get on her horse and race towards Mount Paran. Like the man behind the legend of the morin khuur who couldn’t forget his lover, she wanted to race to his side.

And what would she do once she met him again?

What would he do when he met her again?

She couldn’t abandon her land of Yeha. The burdens she had to bear belonged to her family alone. And how could she ask him to give up his imperial throne? How could she ask him to give up the bright honor and future that was ahead of him? How could she ask him to abandon such power and authority? Would she order him not to take an empress and love only her?

It was impossible. It was a selfish dream.

But still, when night came, Yujo would race towards Mount Paran on her horse.

She’d escape the central tree and race through the vast plains. She wanted to leap over the formidable mountain and be with him.

And what would she do after that? What would she do once she met him?

Every night, she’d stand in the vast plains alone with tears running down her face.

She had lost such an important person.

She missed Brother Yuha, and she even missed that hateful Brother Jewol. She missed Princess Muyeo, and she missed the gossipy ladies of YeonSung. And more than anyone else, she missed her man.

“Oh dear. Why can’t you eat your meals?”

Her cousin CheongJo approached her as she asked.

“You’ve grown too thin.”

She added in a worried tone. She knew. Yujo could barely stomach her food. No matter what food was brought before her, they all smelled strange to her. Just smelling them, no, even hearing the name of the food would cause her to be overcome with nausea.

However, she didn’t know what was happening to her. She merely tried to keep moving so that she could forget the loneliness and yearning.

Then one night…

When early spring had arrived, Guibin Nok Yeo approached Yujo. After arriving at Yeha, she never spoke a word. However, after living here for a while, her expression grew softer.

Nok Yeo was no longer the guibin of the Silver Nation. Like the other common people of Yeha, she’d spend her days underneath the banyan tree with the other elders and children making fabric and embroidering.

That night, Yujo tiredly leaned back against the tree. The guibin secretly approached her. She sat down next to Yujo, who was barely able to keep her eyes open. Then she spoke.

“The child is a girl.”

Yujo’s eyes burst open in shock. This was the first time Nok Yeo had spoken.

“She’s such a strong, beautiful girl. She’s a child of Paran.”

What?

Yujo’s shocked eyes went back and forth between the guibin and her own stomach.

A girl? In my belly?

She finally realized that she hadn’t had her monthly menses yet. On that final day, after embracing Garan for the last time, she had had a feeling that they’d created a child together. She finally remembered that now. She realized that all of this had been early signs of pregnancy.

A child.

Yujo’s hand wrapped around her stomach.

A child!

His and her child!

A new family member.

She couldn’t believe it. She began to tremble as she became overwhelmed with emotion. She recalled her dream from a long time ago when she had embraced Garan for the very first time in the cave. The girl in her dream had been so beautiful. She had seemed so strong and free.

The child was wearing a golden crown, and she was a queen.

“A child!”

Yujo cried out and placed her hands over her stomach. Then she looked into the guibin’s eyes. The eyes that looked so much like Garan’s were looking back at her.

In that moment, she realized.

This connection that she had believed to be a curse… It was merely one fragment of the great destiny that lay before them……

The day he had appeared at Yeha, he had been shot by her arrow. When she went to the Silver Nation, she met him. All the events that had occurred as they chased after the Heukra, meeting the guibin, Jewol’s betrayal and Brother Yuha’s death… All of this may have occurred for this child’s sake.

Is this too outrageous? Is this too much of a leap? However, one thing was certain.

Garan was her man. Just as much as she was his woman. The moment he had been struck by her arrow, he would never be able to leave her. And she would never be able to leave him. Just like now.

And what was so important?

The fact that he was going to become the emperor? Was that so important?

It wasn’t more important than her, than their daughter, and their lives.

No title was more important than their burning hearts for each other.

“Thank you, Mother.”

Yujo whispered to the guibin. She brought the guibin’s hand to her lips.

Let’s not forget the important things. She was Yeha’s daughter. A woman of Yeha didn’t easily let go of the man she wanted. No matter what happened, she’d seduce him and make him hers.

Didn’t she have the same thoughts in YeonSung?

If she could, she’d steal his horse and bring him back to Yeha.

She stood up and called for Tuwan.

Although he was a warrior of Yeha, he confessed to her that the Silver Nation’s prince had approached her a few days ago and tried to buy him off as a spy. Yujo knew that the prince was Garan and approved of his communications with him.

She knew his eyes would wander in this direction. He was concerned about Yujo, and she knew that very well.

“Tell the Red King…”

Yujo softly spoke to Tuwan.

“That I am pregnant with his child.”

Tuwan’s brown eyes widened. He repeatedly asked her, ‘Seriously?’ Yujo’s face was gaunt as she answered in the affirmative, but she was glowing.

While his letter raced over to the Silver Nation, Yujo prepared for her journey before heading for the Silver Nation herself. She hesitated and wondered whether she should take the carriage, but Yujo felt a powerful vitality coming from the child in her belly.

This child would be born with the spirits of the heavens and earth, the wind and water, in her hands.

Yujo believed.

When she returned to YeonSung, it was spring. Yellowish green buds began to adorn the tips of branches. The plants that had been frozen within the ground began to rear its heads and show off its bluish green leaves.

The ChiHwaRu where the Nine Family’s Danju had died was still the same. CheongRyu Hall had also been rebuilt. The forest where she had ridden Garan’s horse also remained unchanged.

No, actually, the forest was now filled with spring and light. It was so different from that day when she had raced in the rain. The cliff where she had jumped with his horse, Jukmu, was the same. Yujo stood on the other side of the cliff. The green hue of spring was underneath her feet.

She ordered Tuwan to steal Garan’s horse and bring it to her. If she stole his warhorse, Jukmu, he’d know she was here.

A soft wind brushed past her and made her hood flutter in the breeze. She gathered her hands in front of her and looked down at YeonSung.

Would he come?

Would he really come?

She believed he would, but she was still afraid he wouldn’t.

Yujo gazed at the forest path. The flower blossoms shook on its branches, making her heart flutter even more.

He’ll come, right? I’m the one who chose Brother and Yeha over you. However, he’d understand. And he’d acknowledge her heart as she raced back here. She wanted to believe that was true.

She knew she was too selfish. She knew that. However, she couldn’t live in the Silver Nation. She didn’t want to live here like a stuffed animal and become the emperor’s concubine. In order to walk down the path that belonged to the two of them, he needed to evade the imperial throne.

Would he be able to do it? Is there any man who would give that up?

Neigh. Jukmu approached her and pressed his face against hers. Yujo greeted him happily before staring off beyond the woods.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed like this. Suddenly, she heard the sound of hooves. Finally, she saw some rustling in the leaves. Then the man, her man, the Crown Prince of the Silver Nation and the Red King, Garan, came racing towards her.

His eyes pierced her like an arrow.

“Ah, the cliff.”

Yujo remembered that she was standing on the other side of the cliff and froze. She was in a hurry, but shouldn’t she just go around to the other side?

However, Garan didn’t slow down. Yujo’s lips parted and her face paled when Garan continued at full speed and leaped over the cliff.

“Garan!”

Yujo shouted out angrily. Why was he needlessly putting himself in danger?!

However, he didn’t answer her. He merely got off his horse and hugged her. Then he frantically buried his lips against hers. He licked, bit, and sucked her fragrance. He embraced her so that she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.

“Yujo, Yujo, my Yujo.”

He repeatedly called out her name. Yujo stretched out her arms and tightly wound them around his neck.

She knew it very well. He had missed her. Every single day, every single moment, he had missed her. He had missed her so much until his body had grown thin and his mind had gone blank. He had wanted to be by her side like this. He never wanted to be separated from her again.

“I love you.”

Yujo whispered.

“I love you, my Garan.”

She said it again.

Come with me to my land. Don’t leave me alone ever again.

He wrapped his hand around her head. He pressed his lips against hers once again and opened his eyes. The bewitched king grinned at the female warrior. He plunged into her mouth once again before replying.

“Yes, let’s go together. My queen, my wife. Let’s stay together until we die.”

He loved her deeply. She heard the whispers of his heart.

Spring flowers were in full bloom around them. Jukmu approached the mare that had just jumped over the cliff and sniffed.

Garan arms tightened around her. He knew she’d come back. He knew she’d call his name. He had believed that she’d tell him she loved him.

However, if she ever left again, he really wasn’t going to let her off the hook so easily.