Nansil had never been able to accept the reality that Baek Seungjo was an ungrateful, degenerate wretch.

“Have I not raised countless children with my own hands? A person’s innate nature never changes. And by that nature, Young Master Seungjo is absolutely not someone who would repay kindness with betrayal.”

So she still believed that Baek Seungjo had not turned on us, that there must surely be some deeper purpose we were not privy to.

It pained me to throw cold water on that steadfast faith, but a futile hope must be cut at the root before it grows any larger.

“He did not come to save me. He did not even recognize me.”

“Oh, come now. No matter that five years have passed, who could fail to recognize our young lady’s beautiful face?”

Meoru, who had been quietly listening, cut in then.

“Then why does my lady not announce herself first?”

“I don’t want him to see me like this.”

But he had already seen me, so I wanted at least to keep him from knowing I was Seollyeon.

“My name is not Seollyeon, it is Nagyeong. You must never reveal to him who I was. Even if he suspects and asks first, play dumb.”

I gave Meoru and Nansil a firm order to keep silent, and the two of them suddenly froze like stone as they looked at something behind me, then quickly bowed at the waist. A chill crept up the back of my neck, and I turned around.

Baek Seungjo was approaching. He had a single guard with him, a man of formidable, towering build.

He strolled along with his fan swaying at an unhurried pace, every bit the picture of a man of leisure, yet the gaze he fixed in our direction was grave, or so it seemed to me.

When he stopped before us, I lowered my head as well.

“You have arrived.”

Baek Seungjo gave me a slight nod of acknowledgment, then turned a languid gaze to the two women standing behind me.

“Raise your heads.”

He stared intently at Nansil. That gaze seemed to unsettle Nansil just as much as it unsettled me, and she fumbled to speak.

“I, I am here to serve your lordship…”

But she faltered just before giving her name, then quickly covered herself.

“I am Meoru’s mother.”

Nansil had not forgotten my order to keep silent. She must have realized that he might remember the name of the wet nurse who had raised me since childhood. Nansil was a more distinctive name than Meoru. I quietly marveled at her quick thinking.

“Then this child is Meoru?”

Baek Seungjo’s gaze shifted to my maidservant.

“Meoru…”

He murmured the name under his breath, turning it over on his tongue, and the eyes that had been boring into Meoru’s face narrowed.

…Could he actually remember Meoru?

My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst, and then he suddenly snapped his fan shut with a sharp crack against his palm. My heart nearly dropped out of my chest.

I stood there unable to breathe, clutching my trembling hands together, and he finally tossed out a single remark.

“Is there no wild grape wine at the provincial office?”

“…Pardon?”

“Bring wild grape wine with this evening’s meal.”

Baek Seungjo gave this order and then walked into the detached quarters with his guard.

He had simply been thinking about wine.

“Whew… that took ten years off my life.”

We had been fools jumping at our own shadows, and we all exhaled at once.

“Did you call for me?”

He had summoned me, so I went to his room. Baek Seungjo sat reclined against the silk cushion at the head of the room.

“Sit.”

I carefully knelt and sat down, and he tossed something onto the low table.

My incense locket and silver knife, taken from me the night before.

I had let my guard down when he said he wanted me as a chamber courtesan. He might be planning to use those items as leverage to threaten me, rather than hand me over to the authorities.

But why would a powerful minister who could bend the heavens to his will with a mere glance go to the trouble of seizing leverage to threaten someone?

I kept my guard up, unable to read his intentions, and he opened his mouth with an air of mild annoyance.

“Take them.”

Those were the last words I expected. Afraid he might change his mind, I snatched up the items without hesitation. I opened the incense locket just to be sure, and the inside was clean. Even the scrap of paper I had wrapped the poison in was gone.

It was as though Baek Seungjo had personally destroyed the evidence of my crime.

“Never touch poison again. But you should keep the silver knife.”

“…Pardon?”

“Should someone threaten you, you need a weapon to defend yourself.”

“……”

“Though of course, do not point that blade at me.”

I was so taken aback that I forgot propriety and looked directly at him.

Why was he covering for this audacious courtesan? He had not even pressed me for the reason I had tried to kill one of his men.

I swallowed the questions that had risen to the tip of my tongue. If I asked, I would only end up revealing my own secrets. If I wanted to keep him from finding out I was Han Seollyeon, I had no choice but to accept this strange silence with gratitude and hold my tongue along with him.

I hid the turmoil inside me and bowed my head.

“I am deeply grateful for your lordship’s boundless generosity.”

When I raised my head, the man’s gaze rested quietly on my face for a long moment. Did he still have something to say? He had not told me to leave, so I sat demurely and endured his unsettling stare, until he abruptly said one word.

“The hairpin.”

“……”

“It’s lovely.”

Baek Seungjo looked at the hairpin in my hair and curled the corner of his mouth upward. I dropped my gaze to hide my eyes, which were sharpening into a scowl.

“Yes, it is a truly precious and lovely hairpin.”

But what good was hiding my eyes? I had failed to conceal my wounded feelings and answered him in a sulky voice.

“Ha…”

He let out a short laugh, seeming both amused and exasperated by my sullen response.

“Why? Do you not like it?”

“It unsettles me that it belongs to someone else.”

“Not a single thing you say is right.”

“…Pardon?”

Had he not said himself that a lover gave it to him? I looked up in puzzlement, and he curved his mouth into a mischievous smile and extended his hand toward me.

“I will take you to the market tomorrow and buy you a new hairpin, so if you are not sulking, come here.”

What on earth was he scheming? The look in his eyes as he watched me was softening with a quiet warmth, and it frightened me. I stayed put, unwilling to go near him, and Baek Seungjo clicked his tongue and tilted his mouth to one side.

“Ah, so you really are sulking after all. I had no idea you had already taken me to heart. What a troublesome situation this is.”

Unbelievable. In an instant, I had become some foolish creature who harbored feelings for her enemy and was jealous of another woman.

I had walked right into my own clever trap.

If I stayed still like this, I would look like a fool who had truly fallen for him and was throwing a tantrum.

In the end, I bit my lip and rose to my feet. I approached him cautiously, wary of him the way a cat bristles and arches its back.

At the very least, I would not touch a traitor. I knelt down on the bare floor beside the table, but the slippery snake of a man would not permit my thin little scheme.

“Sit here.”

He patted the spot beside him with his hand. There was only one reason to seat a courtesan on the silk cushion at the head of the room. He clearly intended to lay me down on it and climb on top of me.

I went pale and started to back away, and then his arm shot out without warning.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Oh!”

That thick arm snatched my waist in an instant. Was it a human arm or a stone pillar? His strength was so extraordinary that I could not resist at all, and I was dragged over and dropped onto the edge of the cushion.

The arm fell away immediately, but I could not relax. The heavy sensation that had wrapped around my waist refused to leave me, clinging to me stubbornly.

Good heavens. The memory of the night before came rushing back in vivid detail, of those hands unlacing my collar, roaming over my entire body, and finally pressing in against my skin.

A cold shiver ran down my spine while my cheeks burned hot enough to sting. My vision swam, and the only thought in my head was that I had to escape.

“My lord.”

I was about to make an excuse about going to bathe and flee, when suddenly a heavy head dropped onto my thigh.

“…My lord?”

I looked down with blank eyes at the man lying with his head on my thigh.

“Do not move until I get up.”

He gave that brief command and closed his eyes. Remarkably, the furrow between his brows smoothed out in an instant and his breathing turned steady.

Surely… he was not actually sleeping?

Unable to believe it, I waved my hand in front of his drowsily closed eyes. Baek Seungjo did not open his eyes, did not so much as flutter a single eyelash.

He had truly fallen into a deep sleep the moment he lay down, practically as though he had lost consciousness. I could not close my mouth, utterly dumbfounded.

He slept from early evening yesterday, and now he wants to sleep again?