Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 1

#1. A Sharp First Night’s Memory

#1.

Kang Yijae’s life was, in a word, unfortunate.

A life of hardship.

Abandoned by her parents and raised in an orphanage, her misfortune compounded around the age of seven when she developed something akin to a divine gift.

Young Yijae, prone to blurting out things she shouldn’t, was taken in by Old Woman Youngsan, a renowned shaman [spiritual healer] in Chungcheong Province.

She gave the young Yijae chores and fed her.

It goes without saying that Kang Yijae’s life continued to be unlucky.

Still, looking back, there was one stroke of luck.

Because Yijae had no parents, at least none of the people who hit her were her parents.

‘What kind of room is this?’

While Yijae was pondering this, Duke Duncan, having suddenly burst in, began to slap her across the face.

“You ruined our family’s grand plan! How could you be so thoughtless! Jumping into the water the day before the wedding!”

The saying that someone who has been beaten before knows how to take a beating is just a lie that people who have never been beaten say to sound sophisticated.

Anyone who has been beaten knows. Eventually, beating is hard for everyone involved.

Shrinking back and looking around, Yijae’s gaze suddenly fell on her own hand.

‘Is my hand this fair?’

That couldn’t be. Yijae’s hands, accustomed to all sorts of rough work in the mountains and remote villages, were beyond repair by any existing beauty techniques.

With that realization, countless memories suddenly flooded into her mind.

Yijae grabbed the wrist of Duke Duncan, who was holding her hair, and looked at him. Her voice trembled, but her words flowed smoothly.

“Father…”

People don’t often realize it, but the emotions that the dead leave behind in the objects they cherished in life are surprisingly powerful.

How much more potent would that be for the body where their soul had resided until just a few days ago?

The memories were incomplete, but Yijae possessed far more intuition than most.

“You… you dare…! You’ve ruined our family! How could you ruin such an opportunity!”

“Honey! Calm down! You’ll kill her!”

Duke Duncan was a tyrant in the family, and the Duchess couldn’t actively stand up to her husband.

It would be better not to have parents like that.

Yijae, harboring slightly twisted thoughts, looked around the room while her hair was being pulled back and forth. It was Hayley Duncan’s room, the owner of this body.

‘Hayley, are you in there? I’m not a vengeful ghost… I’m leaving. Help me.’

There was no answer. Yijae relentlessly pounded her solar plexus as if knocking, but only more memories surfaced. The most intense memory for a person is, after all, the memory of their death.

Hayley Duncan died by the water. Her shoes were found at the water’s edge, suggesting she jumped in herself.

If this much time had passed, she would have already become a water ghost or disappeared entirely.

In the meantime, the Duke, having shaken off Yijae’s hand, now swung his hand wide.

“Hayley! You idiot! How much effort did I put into this marriage!”

Yijae covered her face with both arms and curled up her body.

She instinctively knew that if she got hit properly, she would have to remain in bed as soon as she woke up.

But before long, she realized that the surroundings were enveloped in a chilling silence. The air in the room was changing rapidly.

It wasn’t just her imagination.

When she slowly lowered her hands, the fine hairs on her arms were standing on end.

A very familiar sensation to Yijae.

A feeling of suffocation and nausea. A feeling of facing something repulsive.

When Yijae carefully raised her head, the Duchess also stiffly turned around, as if forcing a neck that wouldn’t turn.

And the moment she made eye contact with the man standing diagonally in his navy formal attire, the Duchess collapsed to the floor.

“…Y-Your… Majesty.”

Duke Duncan also looked visibly flustered, but he asked with a firm face, even while looking grim.

“…What brings Your Majesty here?”

Then, the man leaning against the wall pushed aside his knights and slowly walked over.

“I’m seeing quite the spectacle.”

“…………”

“Is this how the Duke’s family provides education?”

When the Duke closed his mouth, the smile that had been on the King’s lips completely disappeared. He looked extremely annoyed.

“Can’t you hear me well? Get out.”

The King’s knights dragged the Duke and Duchess out of the room, and Yijae belatedly climbed out of the bed.

Their own child jumped into the water to die, and actually died, but as soon as she woke up, they grabbed her hair.

But Yijae, who was an orphan, couldn’t be sure whether it was helpful to have such parents in this place, or whether it was better not to have them.

In any case, she was now Hayley Duncan, and her fiancé was the man in front of her.

Trying to take her own life before the royal wedding was clearly a huge scandal.

As expected, life is unfortunate and unlucky wherever I go.

Yijae knelt on the rug on the floor and bowed her head. She suppressed the chills running through her body.

However, he seemed to know very well that Yijae was trembling.

“Why are you trembling so much?”

Soon, something hard touched under her chin.

The King was lifting Yijae’s chin with his scabbard [sword sheath].

“I just asked you. Why are you trembling so much?”

Because there are too many vengeful spirits behind you.

There were more vengeful spirits attached to the King’s shoulders and back than the knights he had brought with him.

Yijae had experienced all sorts of things, but she had never heard of or imagined anything like this.

Unable to say it honestly, she bit her lip and just looked into the man’s eyes. They were deep blue eyes.

But again, when Yijae remained silent, those blue eyes were filled with undisguised annoyance.

“Don’t tremble, Hayley Duncan. It’s true that you’ve committed a deadly sin against me, but I didn’t come here to kill you right now.”

“When you say that… it makes me tremble more.”

What am I babbling about?

I’m sorry, Hayley Duncan.

The body that you at least preserved will soon have its neck separated because of me.

But unexpectedly, the King chuckled at those words.

His eyes seemed to see her as pathetic, but to Yijae, he looked like someone contemplating how to kill her.

The King, lifting her head again with the scabbard, said.

“Anyway, don’t tremble. I’ve only come to talk for now. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever exchanged more than three words with you.”

Feeling that she would really die if she missed this opportunity, Yijae nodded her head vigorously.

She had woken up in a severely wrong state, but she didn’t want to die in vain in this place.

Seeing her take a deep breath, he seemed to feel that he could have a conversation, and dropped the tip of his scabbard down.

“So, did you hate this marriage that much? Enough to take your own life?”

“…………”

“Wasn’t this marriage first proposed by your Duncan family?”

Yijae couldn’t understand either.

Of course, that man seemed abnormal.

Yijae could feel it much more clearly than others.

But since it wasn’t something she had done, she had nothing to say no matter how much she was questioned. She actually felt wronged.

“Hayley Duncan. It seems your father didn’t even teach you this, but I really hate being asked multiple times. Answer me.”

In the end, she said the best answer she could.

“That’s… not it. It’s not because I hate it.”

But the King’s painted smile was saying: Lie.

It meant he didn’t believe her. He asked in a nonchalant but sharp tone.

“Then, couldn’t you forget another man?”

“…………”

I don’t have a man… Ah, Hayley Duncan has another man. Yes, she does.

Yijae, who had lived most of her life lonely, felt even more wronged and closed her mouth again.

The King seemed to understand that silence in another way.

“I don’t care in the slightest what kind of man you have in your heart.”

In fact, it wasn’t just that he didn’t care, but he looked annoyed.

The King tapped the expensive rug with the tip of his scabbard, saying.

“I’d love to support your pure heart, but I can’t be recorded in history as an even more ominous king. So, my judgment is that you need to live longer than you want to.”

“…………”

“But if you really have to die…”

He leaned down and looked into her eyes, saying.

“Hayley Duncan. Die wearing the crown.”

The King’s words were symbolic.

Yijae suddenly felt that the surroundings had become quiet. It wasn’t a mistake.

The pale soul with its mouth torn wide behind him was also sticking its head out, waiting for Yijae’s answer.

Ah, I really saw it properly this time.

Yijae, who made eye contact head-on, said inwardly, “Ugh,” and lowered her head again.

“If you’re going to refuse, it’s only now. Giving you a choice is only for today. As you know, I’m being very lenient with you right now.”

After much hesitation, Yijae gripped her hem tightly and raised her head.

Although she was embarrassed and afraid of this situation, she still didn’t want to die like this.

“May I dare to ask just one thing?”

When Yijae, who had been constantly dropping her head to the floor, quietly opened her mouth, he raised one eyebrow. The answer was surprisingly cool.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“If I refuse, then… what will happen?”

He kindly nodded his head.

“The marriage is postponed because the bride has a severe flu. If you refuse, you’ll have a deadly disease, not just the flu.”

“…………”

“And if you have a deadly disease… well, you’ll have to die.”

He chuckled.

Yijae felt a sense of absurdity greater than fear washing over her.

“Why are the choices so…”

…unfair?

Yijae swallowed the last word, but the King, who was folding his eyes and smiling, seemed to know what she had swallowed.

He was saying very casually that he was going to kill her.

In the end, the King didn’t come to give her a choice, but just to give her notice and threaten her.

“If that’s a sufficient explanation, it’s your turn to answer, Hayley Duncan.”

“…………”

“Are you going to jump into the water again?”

Her mind was in turmoil because of the things she had experienced in a row just one day after waking up.

But the answer to that question was clear.

Kang Yijae was not the kind of person who would put such a thing into practice.

She confirmed.

“I will not take my own life. Never. At least not until I wear the crown, as Your Majesty said. I promise you that much.”

The King nodded briefly.

“Well, I’ll try to believe you.”

However, unlike his words, he didn’t seem to believe her much.

Thinking about it logically, that was the case. Who would believe someone who jumped into the water the day before yesterday and woke up today saying these words?

This time, Yijae’s expression was speaking for her.

You’re lying right now.

She didn’t mean to show it, but it seemed that the King also knew that.

He corrected his words as if it were nothing.

“I’ll just overlook my fiancé’s mistake.”

Then he said to his knights guarding the door.

“Bring the Duke and Duchess.”