The Chancellor’s Wife (2)

“Where will you start investigating?”

“Hm? Why are you following me out? You’re Eastern Depot again now. Get back in there and go ask for a good post.”

“Will you really do it alone?”

“Moving quietly is easier alone. You should make friends with the Capture Bureau operatives so I can mobilize them in an emergency. What I need right now is an organization that’ll move like my hands and feet.”

“I see. So that was why you had me reinstated.”

“That’s not why I reinstated you. But now that you’re reinstated, shouldn’t we make full use of it? Be careful. If Gye Yu learns you’re back, who knows what he’ll do. We might have to fight the entire field-agent bureau. He’s the kind of bastard who can pull that sort of trick.”

“Understood. But I’m not worried. The Eastern Depot General Inspector of Imperial Edicts will block him.”

“Hahaha! Right. Let’s remember we have to help each other like this.”

Neung Je-gang sent Cheong Yeon back to Yeon Bo-pyeong and stepped outside the Eastern Depot.

A heavy weight pressed from the pouch he’d received as operating funds.

“Let’s see what’s in here.”

With Yeon Bo-pyeong’s eyes on him, he hadn’t been able to check how much he’d been given on the spot.

“…One hundred thousand nyang? Isn’t that way too little for a contract fee?”

Neung Je-gang muttered.

It wasn’t a small sum.

But after looting assassin organizations and handling millions of nyang, maybe his appetite had grown.

“Hey!”

A voice he’d heard plenty of times before called out.

Neung Je-gang turned.

Princess Jang-ok was there, leaning against a wall—looking exactly the same as when they’d parted as she entered Beijing.

“Didn’t you return to the palace?”

He asked, thinking he could smell alcohol on her.

Heh heh—

At his words, Princess Jang-ok smiled faintly.

“So I… h-ic!”

In an instant, the reek of liquor wafted out so strong it nearly made Neung Je-gang dizzy.

“This—don’t tell me you didn’t go back to the palace and came here after guzzling down drinks somewhere?”

“Hohoho! Why so startled…? So, you see, I—”

Princess Jang-ok pushed off the wall and stepped toward Neung Je-gang.

Stumble—

Then she suddenly swayed, losing her balance.

Neung Je-gang instinctively shot out a hand and caught her before she fell.

Sluump—

Was it because her tension finally broke? Princess Jang-ok went limp, letting her full weight settle onto his arm.

“This is just great. If someone saw us, my head might end up on the ground.”

Neung Je-gang glanced around.

Luckily, no one was nearby.

Well, who would dare loiter in front of the Eastern Depot’s razor-edged gates?

He shook Princess Jang-ok, trying to rouse her.

If she came to her senses, they could each go their separate ways.

But she was completely out cold.

Even when he lightly slapped her cheek and pinched her nose, she didn’t wake.

“I’ve picked up a real headache. Ugh.”

Neung Je-gang looked around one more time, then—with no other choice—hoisted Princess Jang-ok onto his back.

Touching a princess’s body was an enormous crime.

But there was no other way in this situation.

It wasn’t as if he could use inner power to float her down the street and drag her along.

“If I go into the Imperial Palace like this, I’ll get my head chopped off. I’ll have to wait at an inn or a guesthouse until she wakes.”

With Princess Jang-ok on his back, Neung Je-gang headed for the nearest inn.

“I… really… didn’t know. H-ic! I really… didn’t know….”

Muttering against his back, Princess Jang-ok eventually fell silent, as if sinking into deeper sleep.

“Was what I said back then weighing on you?”

Neung Je-gang found, somehow, that he didn’t dislike this troublemaking princess.

If she could be so hard on herself just from hearing those words, her nature couldn’t be bad.

It was only the world around her that kept pushing her toward being someone worse.

He entered the first inn that caught his eye and rented an entire detached annex.

He needed a place to stay anyway if he was going to investigate the Chancellor and the Eastern Depot.

Thud—

“Whew!”

He dropped the princess onto the bed and let out a long breath.

“First day back in Beijing, and I’m stuck babysitting a drunk woman.”

Listening to the drunk princess’s sleep-mumbling, he spent the night slumped over a table.

“Waa… water… some water… ahh…!”

Princess Jang-ok woke up with the nasty experience of a parched throat and a splitting headache.

“Here.”

Someone pressed a bowl of cold water to her lips—so chilling it felt like it would freeze her to the bone.

The shock snapped her fully awake.

‘A man?’

The moment she surfaced, she heard a man’s voice.

That had never happened once in her life.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

“Wh-who are you?”

She slapped the bowl away and sprang up in bed.

Her hand darted to her waist for her sword—but no matter how she groped, there was nothing to grab.

“Y-you! What did you do?”

That was when she saw Neung Je-gang.

She couldn’t understand why he was in front of her, or why they were in the same room.

“You’re awake? Seriously. I thought a princess might be something special, but I guess not.”

“Wh-what are you talking about? What’s supposed to be special?”

She hurriedly looked herself over, trying to see if he’d done something awful.

Luckily—or unluckily—she was still wearing the same wrinkled clothes.

“I mean when you’re drunk, everyone’s the same. Why did you drink like that, anyway?”

“Drink? Ah… right. I drank. That’s right.”

Only then did her memory return.

And only then did she remember why her sword was gone.

She had pawned it to drink—because she was short on money.

The truth was, when she’d slipped away from her escorts and court ladies, she hadn’t brought much with her.

So she’d had to sell the precious jewelry she wore for a pittance.

Of course, whenever some creep tried to take advantage, she’d left him screaming and broken.

Her martial skill wasn’t something to scoff at—unless you were an absolute top-tier master, she wasn’t easy prey.

After meeting Neung Je-gang and Cheong Yeon, she’d stopped worrying about money for a while.

But after they separated in Beijing, when she went to drink, she had no jewelry left— and Beijing’s alcohol was pricier than she’d expected.

In the end, the sword that had protected her all this time had left her hand.

“Anyway—putting that aside, why are you in the same room as me?”

“You really don’t remember? You waited for me after I finished business at the Eastern Depot.”

“I waited for you? Come to think of it… yeah, that did happen. Ah, what the hell did I do?”

She collapsed back onto the bed.

At least it didn’t seem like Neung Je-gang had done anything bad to her.

“Was what you told me that day bothering you that much? Even drunk, all you kept saying was that you didn’t know.”

“Did I? I see. Now I remember everything. Yes. That’s why I tried to drink.”

“You already knew I didn’t know, so don’t let it eat at you. Just make sure it never happens again. If it still bothers you, tell His Majesty to never do such a thing again. If it’s you speaking, I think His Majesty would listen….”

“Do you think so?”

Nod.

Neung Je-gang nodded.

Once she returned to the palace, she’d be kept under guard and wouldn’t be able to leave for quite some time.

Since this was likely their last meeting, sending her back in a better mood wasn’t a bad thing.

“Thank you. I was disappointed in myself, but you’re the one comforting me.”

“By the way—aren’t you hungry?”

As the princess started to lean into the moment, Neung Je-gang quickly changed the subject.

“The day after drinking, your stomach burns and your head aches. The only cure for a burning stomach is food. Let’s go.”

He led her outside.

Food had already been prepared for her to eat once she woke.

They ate in good spirits and parted in good spirits.

Only after he watched her return to the Imperial Palace—and saw the palace erupt into an uproar—did Neung Je-gang finally turn away.

He thought that would be the end of his connection with the princess.