Surrounded by high walls, it contained a few buildings.

She had heard that long ago, it had been called the Cold Palace.

Consorts who incurred the emperor’s displeasure were sent here as punishment, forced to live alone for years.

‘Surely he isn’t here all by himself…’

Even if he had been brought here as a hostage, the man could not have been living entirely alone.

There would be people to attend to him, but who would sincerely care for a hostage from another country?

‘Where could it be…?’

She could see buildings that appeared to be living quarters, but she had no way of knowing which one was his.

‘Is it this one?’

Everywhere else was covered in fallen leaves and overgrown with weeds. Only one building had been kept clear of both. Thinking this must be where he lived, Woo-hee cautiously climbed the steps.

The steps were old and partly broken, and scattered cobwebs hung beneath the eaves.

‘It’s so run-down…’

Reaching the top, Woo-hee carefully placed the pouch of rice cakes she had been holding outside the door.

She hoped the man would find them by tomorrow morning.

After tomorrow, they might begin to spoil.

Hoping he would discover them before then, Woo-hee turned to leave.

“Ah…”

She froze in place, startled.

The man was standing at the foot of the steps she had just climbed.

She hadn’t heard any footsteps, yet there he was, standing at the bottom of the stairs and looking up at her. When had he arrived?

He began to climb.

Woo-hee’s fingertips trembled as he got closer, taking one step at a time.

For some reason, he frightened her.

His gaze, his voice, the very air about him — all of it unnerved her.

She could not understand why. He had saved her life, after all, and she had come to thank him. Yet she could not shake her fear.

‘It’s all right. I only came to bring him rice cakes… There’s no reason to tremble…’

Taking a deep breath, Woo-hee went down one step.

For every step she descended, the man climbed another.

When she had come down about three steps, he stopped directly in front of her.

“Um, well… I…”

All she had to say was, “I only stopped by to bring you some rice cakes as thanks.” But the words would not come, and her lips moved soundlessly.

“Do you not know you could lose your head for entering this place without permission?”

The mention of losing her head sent a jolt of fear through Woo-hee.

She had not known that.

No one had told her.

Had she known she could be beheaded, she would never have entered these grounds that day, no matter what the other maiden attendants said.

“Leave at once, before someone sees you.”

The man brushed past her, saying those words, and continued up the steps.

As soon as he had gone, Woo-hee hurried down the steps.

Fearing that someone might see her, or that she might lose her nerve, she ran down the steps. Just before leaving, she glanced back.

She saw the man bend down and pick up the pouch of rice cakes she had left behind.

‘That’s enough.’

This would have to be enough.

She had done her best to repay his kindness.

Here in the imperial palace, this was all she could do as a mere maids of honor from Hobuk.

Rustle.

The man picked up the pouch that had been left outside his door, gently pressing it between his fingers as he did so.

Whatever was inside felt soft.

It must have been left by the girl who had just run down the stairs.

His expression changed slightly as he opened the pouch and looked inside.

He lifted it to his nose.

Then he took out a rice cake and bit off a small corner.

He chewed in silence, then took another bite.

The taste was familiar.

No, it was a taste he had longed for.

The taste of the homeland he had left behind.

“Has it been three years or four?”

He could barely remember how long he had been away.

Three years, perhaps four. In truth, five years had already passed.

He had been brought here as a hostage at seventeen. Now, aged twenty-two, he still had no idea when he would be allowed to go home.

He knew he might never return.

For generations, Wol and Yeon had been fighting over their shared border, each seeking to seize the other’s land.

Sometimes Wol prevailed. Sometimes Yeon did.

But under his father’s rule, Wol had suffered defeat after defeat, surrendering its borderlands and losing more than a dozen fortresses.

With the country devastated by years of failed harvests and war, his father sought peace to save his people. To guarantee this humiliating agreement, he sent his eldest legitimate son to Yeon as a hostage.

Only his two younger brothers, born to concubines, remained in Wol.

If he never returned, one of them would inherit the throne.

He did not care.

Who wore the crown meant nothing to him.

He only wanted to go home.

He wanted to return to the land where he had been born and raised. His own country.

He could no longer bear the humiliation of living in enemy territory.

He dreamed of going home every day.

It was that hope alone that kept him going.

Yet tasting the food of his homeland again after years away left him feeling bewildered.

That girl was undoubtedly from Yeon.

How had she obtained these rice cakes?

And why had she left them for him?

Was this her way of repaying him for saving her life? If so, she had given him far too much.

After all, he had only pulled her out of a pond. Yet she had repaid him with something from home that he could never have obtained no matter what he did.

“Does this mean I’m in her debt now…?”

The girl might have meant to repay her debt, but instead, he felt indebted to her.

“How am I to repay her…?”

But he could not leave.

No soldiers guarded the inner gate, and no shackles bound his ankles. Still, he could not step beyond the Separate Residence.

He dared not give them the slightest excuse.

He was a hostage, yet even the smallest act that displeased them could become grounds for an accusation—and his execution.

He knew they wanted him dead. He was Wol’s heir.

But executing him without cause would reignite the war. Rather than break the peace and fight another costly campaign, they were waiting for a pretext to take his head, sever Wol’s line of succession, and seize the country without spilling their own blood.

He could not give them that chance.

“Tonight, I’ll dream of Wol…”

With the rice cake in his hand, a faint smile touched his lips.

It was the first time he had smiled since coming to Yeon.