The Five-Year-Old Baby Princess Rules the Palace - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#58. The Shrine Maiden of Haeyong Kingdom

She had a dream.

An endless vast sea, with a small island floating alone in its center.

Passing through sand and soil, stones and trees, entering a dense forest, there appeared an altar made by flattening a large rock full of holes. And on top of it, dozens of corpses wrapped tightly in white cloth…

Someone was crying. A woman with a red band around her eyes, where blood pooled darkly instead of pupils, was wailing loudly with both hands raised to the sky.

‘Why do you cry so sadly? What are all those corpses placed on the altar?’

Questions that couldn’t become sound were crawling out from the center of her pounding chest.

Then the woman who had been wailing toward the sky suddenly turned her head toward Eunhye.

Ah…!

Then she lifted the divine staff that had been on the altar and thrust it forcefully toward Eunhye!

“Ahhhhh!”

At the scream that suddenly burst out from inside the bedchamber, Lady Park and Lady Han, who had been waiting outside the door with washing water and drinking water, burst through the door as if to break it down.

“Princess!”

“Princess Eunhye!”

On the pink silk bedding, Eunhye was trembling, her small body curled up and soaked in sweat.

“Princess! This servant Lady Park is here. Please open your eyes.”

Lady Park, who had lifted Eunhye into her arms as she kept her eyes tightly shut with small fists clenched, spoke in a voice close to tears.

“Uuuuu, scary. Why is it like that? Why… are they all dead… sob.”

Her body, light as a feather, burrowed into Lady Park’s embrace, trembling delicately.

“Princess, you had a dream. Please try to open your eyes.”

Lady Han wiped away the beads of sweat on Eunhye’s forehead with a cloth and held her small hand tightly.

“Princess, Princess?”

At the two women’s repeated calls, Eunhye finally opened her eyes and looked around the room with tear-filled eyes.

“Princess, are you conscious now?”

Lady Han carefully brought a bowl of water to Eunhye’s parched lips and asked.

Her small lips had turned white from whatever terrible dream she had experienced.

Gulp, gulp.

After drinking a few sips of water from the bowl, Eunhye seemed to regain her senses and looked up at Lady Park who was holding her, pursing her lips.

“In the dream, some woman… had her eyes covered but blood was flowing a lot from some woman…”

Eunhye blinked slowly and looked around again with a frightened face.

Where is Queen Dowager Gwangjo?

Somehow she felt it would be less scary if Queen Dowager Gwangjo were here.

“If you’re scared, you don’t need to speak. You just had a bad dream, so please shake it off quickly.”

Lady Park embraced Eunhye, who was trembling pitifully in her arms, and gently rocked her body.

Princess Eunhye had loved this since she was a baby.

But Eunhye shook her head as if to say no and looked at Lady Han and Lady Park.

“By any chance, have Nanny and Lady Han ever heard of a country called Haeyong Kingdom?”

At Eunhye’s sudden question, her eyes still moist, Lady Park and Lady Han looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Haeyong Kingdom? I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about it.”

Then Eunhye lowered her long eyelashes, still heavy with tears, and spoke sadly.

“I see… Somehow the place I saw in my dream seemed like Haeyong Kingdom. No, now its name has been changed to Miseondo.”

At Eunhye’s mention of Miseondo, Lady Park finally nodded.

“Yes, I know Miseondo well. Isn’t that where Hwangam is sent as tribute?”

Nod, nod.

At the sight of Eunhye nodding her head slightly, Lady Han made a puzzled expression.

“But are you saying that you dreamed about Miseondo, which you have never visited, Princess?”

“Mm… I think so.”

The wailing figure of a woman with bleeding eyes wrapped in white cloth, the divine staff extending straight toward her, and the dozen or so corpses laid out on what seemed to be an altar on a wide rock…

Even recalling it again, that scene was so sad and frightening that Eunhye trembled once more.

“Princess, it was a dream, a dream. So please wash your face and have breakfast, then go for a walk with us servants.”

Lady Park spoke to comfort Eunhye, who was still trembling in her arms.

Then Lady Han clapped her hands softly and smiled at Eunhye.

“Oh, that’s right! Today they’re making cherry preserves and cherry syrup at the Royal Kitchen. Would you like to go watch together?”

At Lady Han’s words, trying to change the mood, Eunhye’s tear-soaked eyes sparkled as she asked back.

“Cherries?”

“Yes, they picked all the cherries yesterday. So today they’re making cherry preserves and cherry syrup, and even brewing cherry wine. Doesn’t it sound very interesting?”

Then Eunhye, sitting up from Lady Park’s embrace, finally smiled a little.

“Yes. It sounds interesting. But… won’t everyone be uncomfortable if I go?”

“That won’t happen. Rather, if Princess Eunhye personally visits and commends their hard work, they will be very grateful.”

Eunhye looked at Lady Park, who spoke confidently, and slowly blinked her black eyes.

“Then… shall we go together?”

“Yes, Princess. I’ll send word that you’ll go to watch as soon as you finish breakfast.”

As Eunhye got down from Lady Park’s embrace and washed her face with Lady Han’s help, the lips of all the palace servants in the room quietly curved into smiles.

Ever since she had declared not long ago that she would wash her face by herself without Lady Park’s help, the young princess’s morning face-washing had become pure happiness for the palace servants.

How adorable she looked when she cupped her small, plump hands in the water, closed her eyes tightly, and wiped her face!

And not only that, when those short, stubby fingers gathered together rubbed her chubby cheeks, everyone would silently gasp at the heart-melting cuteness.

Today too, Lady Han’s lips kept twitching as she wiped away the water droplets flowing down Eunhye’s plump chin with a cloth.

“I’m done!”

With that smile, as she placed both hands on her moistened white cheeks and beamed brightly, the Princess’s Quarters shone more brilliantly than sunlight.

“By His Majesty the King’s command, I am Park Jeong-bin, who will be in charge of Princess Eunhye’s protection from today! From now on, this guard will always accompany you wherever you go, so please have no worries!”

As soon as the breakfast table was cleared, Park Jeong-bin, who had rushed in as if he had been waiting, stood there grinning while patting his newly changed clothes as if showing them off.

“How is it, niece? This is a fresh uniform that just came up from the Office of Ceremonial Attire this morning.”

Eunhye sighed with a grunt that didn’t suit her five-year-old age and looked up at the tall Park Jeong-bin standing before her.

“It suits you well. It’s similar to the uniforms of the Ikwisa who guard Crown Prince.”

“Right? But isn’t this uncle more handsome?”

“Oh my… Yes, you’re handsome. But are you going to keep standing like that? My neck hurts from looking up. Please sit down, Uncle.”

Park Jeong-bin was already grinning from ear to ear at the sight of his young niece, dressed in a beautiful pink hanbok that bloomed like azaleas in the morning sunlight, adorned with pretty ribbons and hair ornaments.

“Ah, really, how can our Princess be so pretty? You’re much more beautiful than your sister, no, than Queen Mother.”

Park Jeong-bin sat in front of Eunhye with a foolish grin and picked up one of the rice cakes from the snack table that hadn’t been cleared yet, popping it into his mouth.

Tsk tsk tsk…! Even if he is Queen Mother’s younger brother and the Princess’s uncle, how can his behavior be so frivolous?

Lady Park frowned deeply and glared at Park Jeong-bin.

“By the way, I heard you had a fierce dream this morning and woke up. You even mentioned Haeyong Kingdom, but how did you, at such a young age, know about Haeyong Kingdom, which became a vassal state of our Taeshin Kingdom hundreds of years ago?”

Park Jeong-bin, who had crunched and swallowed the rice cake in his mouth, asked with a curious expression.

“I know everything! Our Teacher taught me the history of Taeshin Kingdom.”

“Hehehe, I apologize. Yes, please forgive this foolish uncle who thought our brilliant Princess wouldn’t know.”

Park Jeong-bin, who couldn’t help but smile at such an adorable sight, held up both palms and apologized. Then he straightened his posture and asked again with a serious face.

“But… what kind of dream did you have? If you’re still frightened, you can tell me next time.”

Then Eunhye, who seemed to be thinking deeply about something, looked down for a moment before looking at Park Jeong-bin and speaking.

“By any chance… Uncle, do you know what kind of country Haeyong Kingdom was?”

At those straight, black eyes looking at him, Park Jeong-bin stopped breathing for a moment.

How could they be so deep and profound? Princess Eunhye’s eyes, at only five years old, are already as deep as an abyss, so when she grows up, it will be difficult for anyone to lie in front of her.

“Ahem, Haeyong Kingdom was an island nation at the end of the sea over there. And um… it was a country that had been subordinate to our Taeshin Kingdom since ancient times, and during the reign of King Gwangjo, the 6th king of Taeshin Kingdom, it was completely dominated and renamed Miseondo.”

Park Jeong-bin even nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with his excellent memory.

“I know that too. I heard that they tried to poison King Gwangjo and all the princes, but only Queen Dowager Gwangjo survived and killed all the royal family who ruled Haeyong Kingdom.”

“What? You know even such detailed things, Princess?”

Park Jeong-bin asked, jumping up in surprise.

Eunhye nodded calmly at his reaction, as if wondering why he was making such a fuss, and continued with her next words.

“But what I’m curious about isn’t that… Did Haeyongguk also have Shrine Maidens or Domu?”

At this, Park Jeong-bin nodded with slight wrinkles forming between his brows and opened his mouth.

“Yes, Haeyongguk was originally an island of priests. All the island’s residents had prophetic dreams, and there were many with high divine power and healing abilities that other countries would invite them over.”

“Ah…!”

As soon as Park Jeong-bin finished speaking, Eunhye let out what sounded like either an exclamation or a sigh, her eyes widening like saucers.

“Why… why are you like this, Princess Eunhye?”

Eunhye sat with a dazed expression, her unfocused gaze staring somewhere at the ceiling.

What I saw in my dream was definitely Haeyongguk! The corpses on the altar must have been the royal family of Haeyongguk who were killed by Queen Dowager Gwangjo, and that woman with her eyes bound in white cloth was probably something like a Shrine Maiden of Haeyongguk!

But why did she appear in my dream when over five hundred years have passed?

That strangely shaped long staff!

What was that staff the Shrine Maiden thrust forward as if to stab me?

Eunhye recalled the divine staff that the Shrine Maiden in her dream had pushed toward her while shedding tears of blood.

It had a red jewel embedded in it that looked like a dragon’s eye from the old stories she used to read with her brother.

That woman who seemed to be a Shrine Maiden had placed that divine staff in front of the corpses and was crying out toward the sky…

“…cess? Princess, Princess Eunhye?”

Park Jeong-bin was shocked to his core seeing the young princess who had been asking about Haeyongguk suddenly take on a serious expression and sit with her drooping cheeks supported by both hands.

Is it even allowed for a person to be this cute?

Ah, if only I could hold those white, chubby, stubby little fingers just once!

Park Jeong-bin waved his large hand back and forth in front of Eunhye’s face, who still seemed dazed with her mouth half open.

“Princess Eunhye, can you see this uncle?”

But Eunhye only blinked her eyes and let out a deep sigh.

What should I do? The corpses I saw in my dream seem like royal family members who failed in their attempt to assassinate Queen Dowager Gwangjo and the princes and were killed?

The Haeyongguk Shrine Maiden seemed very, very angry at Queen Dowager Gwangjo, should I tell her about it?

Or not? Since they died hundreds of years ago anyway, does it not matter?

But why hasn’t Queen Dowager Gwangjo been visible since yesterday?

Eunhye recalled the Ghost Servant from Miseondo she had met in the Queen Mother’s Garden two days ago.

Miseondo Magistrate Choi Byeong-gap said he sent up poisonous mushrooms under orders from the Ministry of War, right?

He called it some kind of cloud mushroom… Could it be that Queen Dowager Gwangjo went all the way to Miseondo to pick those mushrooms?

At Eunhye’s seriously contemplative appearance as she tilted her head while supporting her chin with both hands, Park Jeong-bin and Lady Park in the room were each clutching their hearts and groaning.

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