Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 78

As her heart led -78

#78.

The Queen Consort’s palace maids, on edge, were determined to scrub Lee Jae raw.

It was as if the King would behead them if the Queen Consort so much as sniffled.

However, feeling she’d been washed enough, Lee Jae pushed the maids away and dashed out of the large bath.

She had something she needed to check quickly before the King arrived.

Returning to her room after three days, Lee Jae felt a pang seeing that the barrier was completely ruined.

With a troubled expression, she stroked the cracked box.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

Tears threatened to spill from guilt.

But just then…

The box’s spirit, who had been hiding, crawled out with a very sulky face.

“Uh? Uh?”

“Oh my gosh, you’re safe!”

Lee Jae, surprised and delighted, tried to hug the spirit.

However, the spirit twisted away, avoiding the touch. Her attitude was sharp.

-Lee Jae is hateful.

“……I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

But the spirit showed no sign of forgiving her easily.

With puffed-out cheeks, the spirit shouted.

-Liar! You said you’d come right away!

-Because you lied, Lee Jae’s nose will grow long!

“There were circumstances… No, I’m just sorry.”

-But if you really do that, can I get a nose too?

Lee Jae thought the spirit was cute, but she held back her laughter, feeling too guilty.

However, she soon became puzzled. Clearly, the barrier had disappeared.

Yet, the spirit’s condition seemed perfectly fine.

She asked hesitantly.

“But, how are you okay?”

-Hmph. I won’t tell you. I’m only going to lie to Lee Jae from now on.

The spirit kept turning away, refusing to answer.

Lee Jae, feeling guilty, coaxed the spirit.

“Don’t do that. You’re cutest right now. Please tell me honestly.”

“Huh? Please forgive me just once. I’ll infuse your home with more energy.”

The spirit seemed tempted by those words.

As she gently flattered her like coaxing a child, the spirit eventually opened her mouth, unable to resist.

-That ugly thing protected me.

“Huh?”

-That thing suddenly went ‘Ugh!’ just like Lee Jae did.

The spirit pointed to the Underworld General [a type of protective statue], who was still attached with glue.

Lee Jae’s expression turned serious.

It didn’t make sense according to her understanding. Once a torn talisman [a paper inscribed with protective symbols] is reattached, it has no effect. The statue should be the same.

“How could that be?”

Tilting her head, Lee Jae then opened the box.

Although the barrier had disappeared, she wondered if she was safe because there were talismans inside the box.

However, the inside was empty.

“Uh? Why aren’t there any?”

If the talismans had worked, there should have been at least some burnt remains.

Lee Jae looked down at the spirit with a puzzled face.

The spirit, in the meantime, seemed to have completely resolved her anger and was now clinging to her leg.

Just as Lee Jae was about to ask something,

The King opened her door without any prior notice.

Lee Jae gave an awkward smile, but Roderick simply stared at her.

Then, glancing at the box, he strode over.

Roderick sat on the bed and tossed something down.

It was a bundle of talismans torn from the box and their room.

“Looking for these?”

“Y-Your Majesty.”

Lee Jae’s face turned pale, but Roderick remained calm.

He gestured for her to come and sit next to him.

“Tell me. I can believe anything.”

But Lee Jae bit her lip with a somewhat frightened expression.

Among the bundles of talismans that the King had thrown down, there was also a different piece of paper.

It was her six bucket list items.

The moment she saw the words she had written herself, such as visiting His Majesty’s bedroom, exorcising the vengeful spirits in the castle, and the boy ghost, she realized that she could not escape this situation.

That she could no longer lie.

Lee Jae slowly knelt before the King.

Seeing that, Roderick was so dumbfounded that he let out a hollow laugh.

He felt nauseous. He said with a very unpleasant expression.

“I told you to speak, not to kneel.”

“………”

“Get up. There is no one in Cayenne who you are allowed to kneel to.”

But Lee Jae only kept her head down.

She thought that she had been deceiving the King of this country by lying all along. Lies only continued to beget more lies.

She was not Duncan, and the royal marriage was wrong from the start.

The reason why the King was initially attracted to her was also not a natural feeling.

It was only because she made his mind comfortable.

Lee Jae knew that better than anyone else, but she couldn’t draw a line.

She was so lonely, and she liked the King who was good to her.

Meanwhile, when Lee Jae showed no sign of moving, Roderick sighed and stood her up himself.

But his wife stubbornly knelt again.

“What sin have you committed to death that you always apologize first?” Roderick, with a troubled expression, swept back his hair and said.

“Your name is Lee Jae?”

Lee Jae flinched and raised her head.

Her eyes were filled with bewilderment.

“H-How does Your Majesty know that……”

“Why are you so surprised? Isn’t that what you wrote on the statue, asking me to find out?”

Of course, it would be a lie to say that she didn’t have such a wish.

But she never thought that the King would really realize it.

She didn’t realize it herself, but Lee Jae had been dropping too many hints so far. Besides, the King was incredibly interested in her and was a very intelligent person. He had been suspecting for a long time that she might not be Hailey.

Roderick chuckled as he looked at the flustered Lee Jae.

“Madam, do you feel like coming to sit next to me now?”

“………”

“If that position is comfortable for you, I respect that, but it breaks my heart to see you like that, so why don’t you come up and sit down?”

Eventually, Lee Jae hesitated but came and sat on the bed.

But this fox was so scared that she sat about three hand spans away from him.

Roderick immediately went behind her and hugged her small body.

Then he felt her trembling.

He gently stroked her apricot-colored hair and kissed her cheek.

“I guess I still can’t give you trust. I’m sorry.”

“……It’s not like that.”

Roderick kept stroking her hair to reassure her.

“When I’m with you, my mind becomes clear and my heart feels at ease. Why do you think that is?”

Lee Jae lowered her gaze. It was time to tell everything honestly.

“It’s because I’m using my lacking skills to drive away the evil spirits from Your Majesty.”

“No. It’s not that.”

“………”

“It’s because I like you.”

Lee Jae glanced back. The King’s blue eyes were smiling.

“You kept trying to send me to the Forest of Arthur because of that, right?”

“……Yes.”

Roderick nodded.

“I also felt that my mind became clear when I went there.”

“………”

“But I always wanted to go with you. I didn’t want to go alone.”

The places you told me to go were all good, but I wanted to go with you.

I didn’t like the places you said you would go alone, but I didn’t want to leave you alone. I wanted to be with you. Wherever that may be.”

“…………”

“I promised that I wouldn’t do anything that would harm you. Don’t tremble, and trust me a little more.”

“………”

“No matter what you say, I will not turn my back on you.”

Lee Jae suddenly felt ashamed of herself and lowered her head.

As she teared up, Roderick, wanting to make her laugh, said in a playful tone.

“Don’t you abandon me. I want to be terribly entangled with you.”

“……Your Majesty is a good husband.”

“Yeah, if you know that, treat me well.”

Eventually, she chuckled. Roderick asked curiously.

“Are you really a Daimon person?”

Then Lee Jae tilted her head and looked at him with a ‘Huh?’ expression.

“No? I’m Korean.”

When Lee Jae shook her head, Roderick gestured with his chin as if to tell her to spill it quickly.

“I don’t know much else either. I died once, but when I opened my eyes, I was in this body. That was the day Your Majesty came to the Duke’s mansion. Hailey probably died when she jumped into the water.”

“………”

“Well, you can think of me as crazy.”

Roderick chuckled as he looked at his wife, who was still looking at him nervously with an insecure voice.

“So, when people say I’m crazy, did you really think I was crazy?”

“No.”

“Me neither. Hailey, no, Lee Jae. It’s a power that disappeared a long time ago, but such strange things existed on the continent. Cayenne is a country built by breaking those sorceries and under the protection of the Holy Sword.”

However, Lee Jae’s complexion was dark. She had become certain of it from what happened a few days ago.

Someone was constantly throwing arrows at him.

“No. I don’t think it’s gone.”

Lee Jae turned around and hugged him tightly.

Roderick, thinking that his wife was acting spoiled without being drunk, smiled and hugged her back.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yeah.”

“The first day I saw Your Majesty, I was actually scared. I wanted to avoid you.”

“I knew well enough that my first impression wasn’t very good.”

Roderick’s mouth felt very bitter.

After thinking about it for a while, he realized that he had used ‘Will you marry me or die’ in their first meeting.

But Lee Jae shook her head.

“That’s not what I want to say. There were vengeful beings swarming around Your Majesty, talking to Your Majesty. Actually, you’ve heard them sometimes, right?”

Roderick readily nodded.

“Your Majesty was called a tyrant because of that. As you already guessed, I can see and drive away such evil things. It’s really insignificant, though.”

He sighed deeply.

“You fool. Why did you keep such a thing to yourself?”

“If I had told you from the beginning, would you have believed me?”

Roderick couldn’t readily agree either. The reason he came to believe Lee Jae’s words was not because it was common sense, but because trust had been built in her as a person.

“And Your Majesty, originally, you should never talk about these things carelessly. Even if I tell you, people can’t fight an invisible enemy. People can’t resist evil whose origins they don’t know. In that case, it might be better to not know, which might be the way to win.”

“………”

“I hate it when people lose to such things.”

But Roderick, who had been listening quietly, said.

“Then you’re the only one who hurts. You’re the only one who’s lonely.”

“……It’s better for me to be in pain.”

It felt like she had been caught with her ugly heart that once wanted to share this pain with people.

Lee Jae lowered her head, but soon teared up because she was upset.

She didn’t want to tell him about these dangerous things until the end.

She wanted to help as much as she could and protect his daily life.

But if someone was attacking him with a clear intention, the King had to know. Lee Jae, who had to say things she didn’t want to say, sobbed.

“Your Majesty. Someone wants you to die. They want you to be sick, they want you to go wrong. They don’t even know what kind of person you are, but they keep… cursing you.”

She was so upset that she finally burst into tears like a child.

And as his chest slowly became wet, Roderick’s heart ached terribly.

His wife kept collapsing and spilling blood because of him.

Instead of acknowledging that, he had been suspecting her for a long time.

But she was now feeling sad because someone was cursing him and was hurting in his place. She kept hugging him, telling him not to be hurt by his words.

Why do you have such a precious heart?

He forcibly pulled Lee Jae out of his arms and grabbed both of her cheeks.

And looking into Lee Jae’s eyes, he carefully wiped her wet cheeks.

“Was that so? It’s okay.”

“Your Majesty.”

“You said it doesn’t matter what people say. Tell them to curse as much as they want.”

Roderick nodded and smiled.

“As long as you believe in me. Then I can win as much as I want.”

“………”

“So don’t cry. It hurts my heart.”

But at that moment, Lee Jae burst into tears even more.

Embarrassed, Roderick sighed and smiled as he hugged her again.