Looking for the Runaway Heavenly Maiden - Chapter 107

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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108

With a deafening roar that left my ears ringing, the building collapsed.
The School had been part of the Barrier that protected this land.
Now that neither Evil Spirits nor Evil Deities existed any longer, the Barrier no longer needed to persist.
And so, the Barrier that had protected this land for over fifteen hundred years crumbled away.
Jiho stared at the sight in a daze.
It hadn’t been that long. Yet the day I first came to this School felt impossibly distant.
If only I had simply left then.
Even if it meant defying the Patriarch’s command, if only I had left.
Would I have been spared this farewell?
My dry eyes soon grew hot again. Tears welled up, blurring my vision, before spilling down my cheeks in steady streams.
I bit my lips hard, trying to suppress any audible sobs.
But Cheonhaerang noticed. Perhaps everyone did. They simply chose not to speak of it.
Cheonhaerang gently gripped my shoulders and drew me into his embrace. That was when it happened.
A butterfly came flying from somewhere. It was a familiar form.
A butterfly with luminous wings. It alighted softly upon my head. In that instant—

Don’t cry, Jiho.

“Sister…?”

I lifted my head. The butterfly then departed from my hair and slowly rose into the air, fluttering its wings.

Send me off with a smile. We’ll meet again someday.

That familiar voice resonated in my ears. I watched the butterfly receding into the distance and cried out.

“Sister!”

The butterfly’s wings never ceased their motion. It vanished into the azure sky.
I gazed upward at the sky for a long time, unable to find any trace of the butterfly.
As I continued to look up, I spoke quietly. My voice was faint, scattered like wind.

“…Goodbye, Sister.”

I laughed, desperately hoping this parting would not be eternal.

* * *

Cheonhaerang carefully wiped away the tears that stained my eyes red. I lay upon his bed.
I could not return to the house where Yerim and I had lived together. I had told him I could not go back.
So I came to his home instead, and it fell to the Jade Emperor to gather my belongings from there.
Even after arriving at his house, I broke down in tears once more. Even now, it would be more accurate to say I had collapsed from exhaustion rather than truly calmed myself.
Yet perhaps it was better to weep openly like this and purge the sorrow.
My sister, who had lost her dear friend, had not wept.
My sister told him to comfort me and then leave. After that, our destination was already decided.
Cheonhaerang slowly bent down. He placed a gentle kiss upon my exposed forehead and left the room.
Yeonhwa was waiting for him.
Cheonhaerang spoke to Hand Ogeong, who stood beside Yeonhwa.

“Then I entrust Jiho to your care.”
“Of course. Don’t worry.”

Cheonhaerang gazed at the closed door, then turned his head away.
With a sharp sound that struck his ears, his vision shifted in an instant.
The Heavenly Palace surrounded by golden roofs and white jade—Baekokgyeong—unfolded before his eyes.
It hadn’t seemed long since he’d left, yet it felt strangely unfamiliar to him.
As if awaiting his and Yeonhwa’s return, the palace attendants stood in formation.
The Taeggam, who served the Patriarch most closely, approached them.
The Taeggam bowed his head and spoke.

“We celebrate the auspicious return of the Prince and Princess to the palace.”
“We celebrate.”

The palace attendants standing in formation also bowed their heads.
Cheonhaerang pondered the Taeggam’s words.
From the moment I remained in Cheongyeokgyeong, I was no longer the Prince but a Princess.
In Baekokgyeong, the Prince had been erased as if never existing from the start. Yet the Taeggam was revealing this.
What could this mean?
Now that Gihyeongrang was dead, was this my father’s intention to reveal me as the Prince and solidify the succession?
Cheonhaerang glanced subtly at Yeonhwa’s expression. There was little change in her face.
Yeonhwa asked.

“Your Majesty, where is he?”
“The Heavenly Emperor and the Princess are waiting for you.”
“Then lead the way, Taeggam.”
“Yes, Princess.”

Yeonhwa and Cheonhaerang followed behind Taeggam as he led the way.
The great hall was silent as a tomb. All the palace attendants seemed to have come out to greet them—not a single courtier or warrior remained inside the hall.
They passed through a long corridor and arrived before a room. As Taeggam was about to announce their arrival at the firmly closed door, Cheonhaerang spoke.

“I’ll enter alone.”

The words that left my lips felt strangely unfamiliar. Taeggam hesitated, then reported to the Patriarch.

“Your Majesty, the Prince has spoken.”
“Let him enter.”

A weighty voice fell. I suddenly recalled my private audience with the Patriarch before I ran away.
When night had descended upon Baekokgyeong. This was the first time I had seen my father since then.
Gripped by an inexplicable tension, I steadied my breath and stepped through the open door.
The Patriarch, who had been standing by the window gazing at something distant, turned as I entered.
Before our eyes could meet, I bowed first in greeting.

“I trust you have been well, Your Majesty.”

It was an extraordinarily formal greeting for a child to offer a parent.
At this greeting, devoid of any warmth, Cheonhwigyeom’s mouth turned bitter. Yet he could say nothing.
It was all because of his own foolishness.

“Yes, have you been well?”
“Thanks to Your Majesty’s boundless grace.”
“I’m asking as your father, not as Your Majesty, Cheonhaerang.”
“….”

Cheonhaerang lifted his head. At last, he faced the Patriarch.
Father. The moment that name confronted him, something twisted within his chest.
If the Patriarch had not sent Jiho down to the Human Realm to retrieve me in the first place.
And if Yerim had not followed as Jiho’s guardian.
Yerim would never have made such a choice. Jiho and I would not have had to let Yerim go.
It was not only Jiho who suffered loss.
The image of the blade piercing through Yerim’s back was something he would never forget in his lifetime. Thus, it was only natural that words he could not fully suppress came pouring out.

“Do you think they fared well, Father? You already knew everything, so why ask such a question? Surely you won’t claim this is all my fault?”

Watching the Patriarch listen to him in silence, Cheonhaerang laughed coldly.

“Of course not. This is all because of you, Father. Because of your meager love!”

The anguish Cheonhaerang had endured long ago spread across his entire body once more. The day he drank the poison Gihyeongrang gave him. The agony of that day when he collapsed, coughing blood.

“You killed me, and you killed Yerim. You killed us both.”
“…”
“No, fundamentally, you killed Haedosol.”

Haedosol. At that name from Cheonhaerang’s lips, Cheonhwigyeom’s eyes trembled violently. Cheonhwigyeom opened his quivering lips.

“How… how do you know that name…?”
“That woman told me. That daring to carry the child of the Heavenly Emperor in a mere human body, she would not live long. That the Heavenly Emperor would not have known. Father, truly you did not know?”

Cheonhwigyeom could say nothing. In that silence, Cheonhaerang understood the answer.

“No, that cannot be. You could not have known nothing, Father. You were simply a coward. You had no courage to bring that woman here, nor the courage to abandon your position and live with her!”

Words he had suppressed for so long burst forth all at once. Watching his father’s face contort, Cheonhaerang felt a strange relief wash over him. Even if he were condemned as unfilial now, he did not care.

“As I have said before. That position you cling to so desperately, Father—I have no desire for it whatsoever. So you will grant me the marriage I desire, will you not?”
“…”
“Then I shall take my leave, Your Majesty.”

Having spat out those final words, Cheonhaerang turned without hesitation and left the room. Not long after he departed came something that entered—Cheonhwigyeom’s firstborn and a regret that had festered for ages.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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