Chapter 35 (1/2)

Bipaan’s eyebrows wiggled at that. He was the master who watched him grow for a long time. Accordingly, Bipaan could not avoid the master’s keen insight, even though he was pretty good at concealing his true intentions.

“It was three years as a whole. After returning from your three-year-trip to a foreign country, you attended a classical reading class for the first time. Of course, you attended it just one day, which was the first and last one for you. Since then, you have devoted yourself to studying again.”

“How come you still remember that?”

“Actually, I slept on it up to now. But today, right now, I suddenly remembered it as you seemed to be the same frame of mind at that time.”

The master looked at him silently. Picking up the book and the brush, the master stood up and closed his remarks fleetingly.

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“Sometimes it’s more important to listen for what you’re hearing in your heart than read classics and handle state affairs. If you have a deep-rooted mind disease, how can you cure the disease of others in this world?”

After the master left his study, Bipaan sat about 15 minutes before the desk =then left suddenly. Leaving the East Palace, he headed for the Dongbi Palace, Kyosul’s residence. He walked with big strides.

“Hey, you!”

While heading for the Dongbi Palace, he called a woman whose face was familiar to him and stopped her.

At his calling, the court lady turned around and hastily greeted, “Long live the Crown Prince! I’m honored to see Your Majesty.”

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“You must be Kyosul’s nanny, right?”

“Yes, this is Lady Yuon, the Crown Princess’s nanny.”

“Yeah, I think I saw you before.”

“I’m so honored as you remember me.”

She was Kyosul’s nanny. She was always seen serving Kyosul at her side, so it was rather strange today that she was walking alone in the Dongbi Palace. As if he felt something strange, Bipaan asked her, “Is the Crown Princess in?”

“No, sir,” she said hesitatingly.

Strange enough, he was a bit concerned.

Before asking her about Kyosul’s whereabouts, he tried to sound her out. “You told me you came here with Kyosul from the Hwa Kingdom, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I’ve been serving her since she was a baby.”

“Let me ask you a question then. Do you know the meaning of the stamp that she is using?”

“Pardon?”

When she deeply bowed to him for her ignorance, he didn’t care, to her surprise.

Then he presented a letter to her. It was one of the numerous letters he received from Kyosul. At the end of the letter was a red seal stamped, along with her signature.

Without examining it for long, the nanny answered as if she was already aware of it.

“Oh, that’s a seal that the Crown Princess has been using since her days in the Hwa Kingdom.”

“Are the letter ‘Woo’ for rain and the letter ‘rum’ for cold, correct?”

“No, Your Majesty.” Bipaan’s eyebrows narrowed at her reply. Did he really wish his educated guess was right? Momentarily, he got confused, but the nanny didn’t notice his troubled heart at the moment, and continued calmly, “As you guessed, ‘Woo’ means ‘rain,’ but the letter ‘rum’ is an archaic word derived from the old vocabulary of Hwa Kingdom, meaning ‘cold.’ As the original word derived from the Mok Kingdom was complicated, she preferred a simplified word with the same meaning.”

Bipaan recited the name unconsciously, “Cold rain….”

Cold rain. The cold rain of the Hwa Kingdom.

The nanny tilted her head. As she couldn’t believe her eyes, she was trying to check out whether she heard wrong, when Bipaan asked urgently, “Where is the Crown Princess now?”

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“Well, she went to the North Palace to send her congratulations to the princess who got pregnant.”

“So, where is she now?

“Probably she is still in the North Palace,” she said in a trembling voice.

She didn’t hide her nervousness, but ignoring her nervous look, he quickly turned around as soon as he heard her reply and headed for the North Palace.

“Your Majesty!” she dared to shout at him.

But he didn’t reproach her disrespectful act and quickened his steps. As he walked so fast, she couldn’t catch up.

“Oh my god! What should I do?”

She just looked at his back nervously, who was disappearing into the distance.