TMTISTBH CH 2

Chapter 2

“Huff…!”

Gasping for breath, Inho pushed himself up, his bloodshot eyes scanning his surroundings.

A single cramped room, barely large enough for one to lie down, and coarse, yellowed bedding that brushed against his fingertips. It was a completely different place from the Euihoejae(Annex), where he had met his end.

Could it be that he had survived after drinking the serpent’s poison? He could hardly believe it. The horrifying pain of congealed blood choking his windpipe and the venom melting through his insides still lingered vividly. If Taeyul had saved him, then…

As his thoughts reached that point, Inho let out a resigned sigh. The reason didn’t matter. Whatever the case, it was surely just another one of Taeyul’s ploys to humiliate him.

What is he planning this time? The faint suspicion didn’t stay long in his exhausted mind.

Though molten rage bubbled in his chest, it couldn’t overcome the venomous helplessness seeping into every place he’d been trampled.

Taeyul had been right. The moment Inho learned that Taeseon intended to discard him, and that the people he had tried—no, believed—he had saved at the cost of everything were already gone, all resistance within him had been extinguished. All that remained was to await death.

Inho leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. As he bitterly recalled his regrets rising in the darkness of his mind, the sound of a child’s laughter rang in his ears.

His brow twitched at the sound—far too bright for a place where a criminal like him was confined—when the door suddenly burst open and a little girl entered the room.

“Big Brother! Are you still sleeping?”

Inho turned instinctively and stared in astonishment at the face before him.

“…Seol-ah?”

“What the heck. You’re already awake, but you didn’t even come out. The sun’s already high in the sky. You promised to go with me to pick pine cones in the mountains today. Don’t tell me you forgot?”

She began lightly thumping him with her small fists, which hurt more than expected. Inho, his whole body suddenly slack, let her strike him and stared in disbelief at the face before him.

Still young, with round, chubby cheeks and eyes shining with life, her appearance bore no resemblance to the worn and weary woman he had last seen.

She wore no fine silks or glittering accessories, only ragged clothing, but Inho now knew such things no longer mattered to Seol. He suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.

The small warmth in his arms—was it the final mercy granted by the King of the Afterlife, or a hallucination born of madness?

Inho’s face twisted with sorrow as he murmured a belated apology.

“Seol-ah. I’m sorry. Your brother is so sorry…”

“It’s okay… We can still go now, right?”

Perplexed by his tone, Seol nestled into his arms, and behind her, a middle-aged woman who looked far older than her years peeked into the room.

He looked up blankly, recognizing a face he hadn’t seen in so long he had nearly forgotten it.

“Don’t bother your brother on his rare day off. Come on out now. Inho, you can sleep a little longer.”

“But Big Brother promised me first! And I read in Seonju’s book that if you keep lying around, you’ll turn into a cow. Mom, are you okay with Big Brother turning into a cow?”

“Yeoseol, did you sneak into Lady Seonju’s study again while she was doing her lessons?”

“No… I mean, Lord Hwang called me over…”

“That good-for-nothing Hwang…! But you’re getting punished first. Come here!”

“Waaah! Why am I the only one getting scolded when Big Brother’s going too?”

Seol darted out of the room to escape her mother. Without thinking, Inho stood to follow and was startled by the lightness of his movements. He glanced down in disbelief at his legs.

His legs, once rendered useless by tendon-severing punishment, now moved freely.

Though unnecessary, he placed a hand on the wall and cautiously took one step after another. As he stood there, dazed, watching Seol run circles around the yard while their mother tried to catch her, a wave of unreality washed over him.

The sagging roof, cracked walls, and poorly built fence—this shabby house was the one Inho had lived in before entering the royal palace over twenty years ago.

His mind was clearer than it had ever been, and the vivid breeze brushing his skin made it all feel too real to be a dream.

Seol sat beside him, carefully checking whether any holes had been torn in her sack, and Inho stared at her face as he asked,

“How old are you now?”

“Huh? Why are you talking like that?”

Startled by the sudden shift in his tone, Seol laughed, finding it odd. Inho awkwardly rubbed his wrist.

“…How old are you this year, Seol?”

“You really don’t know that, Big Brother?”

His forced attempt at sounding casual earned only a scolding glare. Inho had no choice but to pretend he knew.

“Of course I know.”

Her eyes, sharp beneath a falsely gentle smile, scanned him.

On their mother’s sleeve was a small embroidered black flower. Its scale-like petals were part of a folk tradition among commoners who prayed for protection from guardian spirits.

“The black color means it’s under the Black Tortoise’s protection—so this must be the year of Haeon.”

Turning his head, Inho spotted two small persimmons set off to one side of the porch and narrowed his eyes.

His mother had only ever brought home such a rare fruit once: during Scholar Bae’s sixtieth birthday celebration, in the final year of Hyeonmu’s reign.

Haeon 23rd year. When he had been sixteen.

Walking a trail strewn with fallen leaves, Inho picked up leftover pinecones beneath towering five-needle pines—ones likely nibbled on by squirrels or chipmunks. Before he knew it, his sack had filled, and as he loosely tied it off, he looked around. As expected, Seol was off in the distance, chasing rabbits.

Her cheerful laughter brought a faint smile to his lips. He picked up the sack she had discarded and straightened it.

That was enough reflection. He had never heard of dreams this vivid. Though hard to believe, it was clear—he had returned to the past. To a time before he became a prince. Before he stepped foot into the palace, a place more dazzling than anything and yet most vile, where one lived with blades behind their tongue and died if they did not kill.

Everything from his past life had happened because he was a prince with a claim to succession. His cursed fate had begun when the temple’s high priest received a divine message that a prince existed outside the palace and issued a nationwide search order. Without knowing why, Inho had been dragged into that fate.

Had he never entered the imperial household, none of it would have happened. He wouldn’t have needed to harm others to survive or lose those dearest to him. He wouldn’t have met such a miserable end in the thorn-choked Euihoejae.

“Big Brother!”

The voice calling him brought Inho to a halt, and he turned to look at his younger sister.

A pitiful child who, despite having no ties to the royal family, had been targeted and used by his enemies solely to hurt him. She had suffered greatly, rendered barren, and was ultimately sold as a concubine to a lecherous noble by Taeseon and Taeyul’s schemes.

“Whoa, when did you collect so many? I barely got any…”

“Are you done playing?”

“Yeah. The rabbit ran away. It was so fast I nearly tripped.”

“You raced a rabbit? Silly. Let’s head back down. Come here, I’ll carry you.”

Opening his arms, Seol ran straight into them. With her arms around his neck and her legs kicking gleefully behind him, Inho held her close as he walked down the mountain path.

“Hey, Big Brother. What if we raised a rabbit at home?”

“Hmm. I doubt Mother would allow it.”

“We can catch one from the mountain, and I’ll feed it grass. Actually, Seonju got a really white jade rabbit for her birthday, and so…”

Listening to her chatter by his ear, Inho made a vow. This time, he would protect her. From everything.

There was only one way.

He would not become a prince.

A shiver of grim exhilaration coursed through his body.

The high priest had received the divine message during the winter of Jinun Year 3, when Taeseong’s guardian deity changed. Since this year was the final year of Haeon, the royal search order would be issued in about three years.

He remembered clearly the day he stepped into that hell. At the time, he had been doing chores in Gwangya Palace. Someone told him that a royal decree had been issued and he was to report to the local office. Thinking little of it, he went to get tested.

All the girls and boys between ages thirteen and nineteen from Gwangya Palace had been gathered. There was much to be done, so all he wanted was to get it over with and return quickly. He was told to drink the water in a tray and then go inside. One by one, they were told to place their hand on a rugged stone slab in the center. When Inho laid his hand upon it, golden light began to flow from the stone’s every groove like liquid.

Only later did he learn it was a seongnyuseok, a divine stone that responded only to princes. At the time, he had merely thought he’d done something wrong and quickly pulled his hand away.

Everything happened swiftly after that. He was taken to the temple, had his qualifications confirmed, and was adopted into the royal family as the Sixteenth Prince, Tae Inho.

He had been at Gwangya Palace then, so once the search began, his identity was revealed almost instantly. But now… he had to escape the imperial capture somehow.

Lost in deep thought, Inho looked up at the sound of a small presence. Carefully stepping inside, Yeoseol whispered while nodding toward the door.

“Big Brother, the young master is here…”

“Who?”

Yeoseol tightly closed her lips and shook her head. She looked timid and withdrawn, so Inho, curious, rose to step outside.

Outside the wall, a boy with a sullen face was kicking at stones. As soon as he saw Inho, he snapped sharply.

“What took you so long?”

Inho’s eyes turned cold the moment he recognized the face he had completely forgotten.