novelraw Chapter 172 : Please Lend Your Strength (2)
Chapter 172 : Please Lend Your Strength (2)
Chapter 172: Please Lend Your Strength (2)
After his private audience with Boyeon Shinni, Sewoon returned straight to his quarters and collapsed onto the bed.
The journey with Hayoung, the treatment of Juyudo, and then the meeting with Boyeon Shinni.
He had continued through harsh circumstances without a moment of rest.
He finally thought he might be able to sleep a little now, but that was not meant to be.
It felt as though he had only just closed his eyes for a brief moment.
“Sir Tang. Did you cough?”
Someone was suddenly waking him from outside.
The sunlight coming through the gap in the window was bothering Sewoon’s eyes.
‘……How long did I sleep?’
He stretched, awakening his stiff body.
Slowly rising, he tried to guess the identity of his visitor.
But it wasn’t easy to infer.
The voice was unfamiliar, and the title attached after his surname felt strange.
When Sewoon opened the door and stepped outside—
“You are…?”
“Oh, you did cough. Is your body feeling better, Sir Tang?”
It was Go Cheophyeong, a subordinate of Oh Gonggong.
Only last night he had shown hostility toward Sewoon, but now his attitude had completely changed.
He held the extremely high position of one of the only two Cheophyeong officials in the Eastern Depot, yet he was bowing respectfully before Sewoon.
Sewoon tilted his head, and Go Cheophyeong spoke with a faint smile, as if asking a favor.
“His Highness is looking for you. Please prepare as quickly as possible and come with me.”
“……!”
The Crown Prince Juyudo was looking for him.
It seemed Juyudo, who had entered a deep sleep during the pseudo Body Reformation, had finally awakened.
A peculiar gleam rose in Sewoon’s eyes.
Alright then—after the Emei Sect, it was time to extract benefits from the Imperial Palace as well.
“Very well.”
The moment Sewoon finished preparing and arrived at the detached palace with Go Cheophyeong—
“Ohh! You’re here!”
Someone ran toward him barefoot to greet him with delight.
The surprising figure was none other than the Director of the Eastern Depot, Oh Gonggong.
The eunuch’s naturally high-pitched voice grew even higher when he saw Sewoon.
Unlike the previous night when Sewoon had barged in, Oh Gonggong greeted him with formal courtesy.
“Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Tang Sewoon greets the Director.”
“What Director! Just call me Oh Gonggong.”
“Eh? How could I….”
“Hoho, look at me losing my senses. I was so delighted that I forgot my own manners.”
Oh Gonggong appeared even more transformed than Go Cheophyeong.
The gaze he directed toward Sewoon overflowed with gratitude and affection.
It was only natural.
The illness that had tormented his master for over a year had been perfectly cured overnight.
“Now that I look closely, Clan Head Tang is as noble-spirited as he is capable!”
“That is not so.”
“To reach the Manifestation Realm at such a young age… Even within the whole Eastern Depot and the Royal Guards, there is no one like that.”
“It was merely good fortune.”
“Hah, if you were not responsible for your clan, I would gladly hand over the position of Director of the Eastern Depot to you on the spot.”
“……What?”
Sewoon had been responding calmly to what he thought were empty compliments, but that last remark shocked him.
Handing over control of the Eastern Depot?
It was the highest praise Oh Gonggong could give.
But Sewoon found it bewildering.
‘……He wants me to become a eunuch? Absolutely not.’
To enter the Eastern Depot, one ultimately needed to become a eunuch.
It was absurd—but the other party was the master of one of the Imperial Palace’s two great power blocs.
Sewoon maintained his expression and continued the conversation.
Yet Oh Gonggong showed no sign of stopping his attempt to recruit the talented Sewoon.
“……But His Highness was looking for me.”
“Ahh! There goes my mind again. Yes, yes! His Highness is indeed looking for you! Come, let us go!”
“Yes.”
Only then could he finally head toward Juyudo.
It seemed additional Imperial Palace personnel had been deployed; the interior of the detached palace was now even more heavily guarded.
Beyond the door, he could feel Juyudo's qi.
‘He is certainly recovered.’
So that others would not notice, he quietly activated the Color Perception Eye; checking inside Juyudo’s body revealed that all the impure qi had completely vanished.
Though only pseudo in form, the Body Reformation had fully taken effect.
“Your Highness, I have brought the Clan Head you were seeking.”
“Enter.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The door opened, and they both stepped inside.
Tang Sewoon immediately knelt and performed the proper bow.
“Tang Sewoon of the Sichuan Tang Clan greets the Crown Prince.”
“…….”
But something felt strange.
No answer came, no matter how long he waited.
Just as Sewoon felt puzzled—
Footsteps echoed.
Swoosh.
Suddenly, Juyudo squatted right in front of Sewoon’s nose and stared at him intently.
It was a posture completely unfitting for palace etiquette.
Even Sewoon was taken aback, when Juyudo spoke quietly.
“As expected, you are as I heard. Truly young.”
“……!”
“Formalities are unnecessary. Rise.”
“Y-Your Highness.”
Juyudo reached out and lifted Sewoon up by hand.
Oh Gonggong was utterly flustered.
In all his years of service, he had never seen the prince behave this way.
Soon after, Sewoon and Juyudo sat facing each other.
“Your age?”
“I came of age last year.”
“Hmm, excellent.”
……What did he mean by “excellent”?
Sewoon felt puzzled, but he decided to hold his tongue for now.
For the moment, he chose to focus on observing Juyudo’s true nature.
He decided to confirm whether the tyrant Juyudo from before his regression had truly developed madness due to his illness, or whether he had been an evil person at his core.
“Oh Gonggong, withdraw and prepare a simple wine table.”
“Your Highness, your body and mind have not yet fully recovered. Please restrain yourself.”
“Haha, how could one drink be a problem when sharing a moment with the benefactor who saved my life? Besides, is this not the first day of my rebirth?”
“……Th-there is that, however.”
“Ah, and be sure to tell the Divine Tiger Physician that I sincerely apologize for bringing alcohol into a sacred place of purity.”
“……I shall follow your command. I will have it brought in shortly.”
Once Oh Gonggong left the room, only the two of them were left inside.
Of course, that excluded the hidden guards watching secretly.
Then, Juyudo spoke in a solemn tone.
“You would not understand.”
“……!”
Faced with that grave expression, Sewoon slowly opened his mouth.
“I dare ask what Your Highness means.”
“If there had been no one within the palace who looked only to me and depended on me, I would have abandoned life long ago.”
“Your Highness, how can you speak such words!”
“That is how unbearable the days of extreme suffering were.”
“……!”
Sewoon could understand somewhat.
Although Boyeon Shinni had suppressed the qi, it was not a fundamental cure.
He must have endured a year of excruciating agony, as if his whole body were freezing solid.
“But when I miraculously opened my eyes today, I found myself wondering why I had harbored such weak thoughts.”
“……!”
“It feels as though, along with shedding my old shell, I have cast off my frail heart as well.”
With a bright smile, Juyudo looked straight at Sewoon and continued.
“……Thank you. It is all thanks to you.”
“For Your Highness to thank someone like me, who is nothing more than a lowly commoner… I am overwhelmed, Your Highness.”
“It is all the more remarkable because you are one of my people. If you had wished it, you could have changed the next heir to the throne with your own hands.”
“Your Highness……!”
“Hehe, only jest.”
Even Sewoon was taken aback by Juyudo’s words.
That he could have changed the next emperor if he wished—how could anyone not be surprised?
Yet what Sewoon saw in Juyudo’s eyes held no suspicion toward him.
There was only sincere gratitude.
As Sewoon spread the Color Perception Eye again, he saw another change he had not noticed before.
‘His madness has completely disappeared and turned into dominance instead.’
Through the Body Reformation, he had not only transformed physically but seemed to have grown mentally as well.
His spirit and bearing had become exceptional, reminiscent of the great warriors of the Beast Palace.
Sewoon, whose spirit was even stronger than Juyudo’s, accepted it without trouble, but ordinary people would now instinctively shrink before him.
At that moment, Juyudo continued speaking.
“Now then, since you have granted me a new life, I shall be able to capture and kill the one who committed such an atrocious act against me. I may even ascend the throne. How could I possibly delay the reward I must bestow upon you?”
“That is an exceedingly undeserved statement, Your Highness. A reward—I did not act with such expectations.”
But regardless of how Sewoon tried to dissuade him, Juyudo simply continued speaking.
“Do you know why I sent Oh Gonggong away?”
“Pardon?”
“Hehe, because he would desperately try to stop what I am about to bestow upon you.”
“……?”
Just as Sewoon tilted his head, Juyudo pulled a sheet of paper from his sleeve.
It was filled with densely written phrases, clearly prepared beforehand while hiding it from Oh Gonggong.
Juyudo handed the paper to Sewoon.
“Originally, this should be written with cinnabar upon a tile, but the materials were lacking, so I inscribed it upon paper instead.”
“!!”
When Sewoon read the contents, his eyes widened as if they would burst.
……He was giving this?
An unimaginable reward had appeared before him.
As Sewoon stared in shock at Juyudo—
Crack.
Suddenly, Juyudo bit his own thumb.
“This shall serve in place of the imperial seal.”
“……!!”
Pressing his bleeding thumb firmly onto the paper, he stamped it like an imperial seal.
Juyudo spoke again.
“In praise of the merit of Tang Sewoon, who saved my life, I hereby bestow upon him the Danseo Iron Writ!”
“……!!”
“Even if the Yellow River dries up and Mount Tai is ground into dust, so long as the ancestral line of the imperial clan continues, the Tang Clan shall never be severed!”
The Danseo Iron Writ.
Traditionally written upon an iron tile with cinnabar called danseo, it was one of the greatest rewards a subject could ever receive from the emperor.
And the power granted by the emperor through the Danseo Iron Writ was enormous.
“When I ascend the throne.”
“Your Highness……!”
“No matter what wrongdoing you commit—excluding rebellion—I will absolve you of any and all crimes up to three times.”
“!!”
Indeed, the Danseo Iron Writ was a reward that conferred upon its holder the imperial privilege of absolute pardon.
It was so powerful that even the number of times it could be used was restricted.
Naturally, until now, it had always been limited to one.
But unless Sewoon had misheard—
‘He said he will pardon three wrongdoings……?’
Not once, but three times.
At that moment, Sewoon’s mind overflowed with countless plans—wondering what crimes he might commit and be forgiven for.