Chapter 5

"Oh, that is insane!" Heonui laughed, blushing and not understanding how she could experience so many emotions in the company of this handsome young gentleman.

Wang Tae looked at her intently. His eyes glittered happily, a straw stuck in his teeth. He waved his arms and laughed. He did not wear a mustache, and it opened his magnificent lips so beautifully that one could be endlessly amazed when his full, pleasantly plump lips stretched into a charming smile. Today, Heonui saw him in a completely different mood — he was sweet, friendly, and courteous. Only his clothes remained gloomy and repulsive, as in the previous evening — he did not have any gippons, kalhotys, mantles, in which all the nobility dressed up — only a posh cottе with lacing on his chest — gray and giving him the appearance of a peasant rather than a Prince. Next to Heonui, who was so magnificently dressed, he stood strange and pretentious, and her very attire seemed to give even more flair of some sort of ugliness to his clothes. She did not like this, and she tried only to look at his beautiful face, the beauty of which Wang Tae, as she felt, was fully aware, and he was pleased with her admiration.

They talked about so many things! Walking with young Li-en through the possessions, Wang Tae related to her absolutely everything that he had in his soul, which was still so young and full of dreams and hopes.

He received an excellent education, and foreign languages were easy for him. He could recite the greatest texts by heart without hesitation, and just as easily, as if by magic, he could, having met the peasants walking to the pasture to get the cows, he could speak to them in folk dialects, simple, replete with words that were divinely high, as people were afraid of the wrath of the Lord, and that was somewhat lowly-abusive, from which the shepherds laughed so much for the vagaries of the master.

Indeed, when someone got to know Wang Tae better, he had more than enough kindness and respect. Long bypassed by secular people, he did not hesitate to get close to the poor, knew all the hard work of the common people, and often disappeared not in the palace lands, but in the people's huts — on someone's stove, then at the fields. There were those who thought of him as blessed, and those who were frankly afraid of him, but many easily loved him so as an honest man, albeit very strange.

 "In what? Love is true only when the first glance seems to shoot you in the heart with an arrow of Cupid, and no longer leaves room for doubt. Only this kind of love I know and recognize, and what else they invent there, I have never been interested in," Wang Tae answered with a serious expression on his face. "It doesn't take me a century to find my love. One moment is enough for me. I feel sorry for the others who waste such precious time in search of a bride!"

Heonui laughed again. It seemed to her both completely true and incredibly strange speeches of the young Prince. He seemed to come to life with his words, like the hero of her dreams. And this both fascinated and frightened her because only Zhōngguó xiǎoshuō[1] filled her entire imagination, and the characters left the pages only in her dreams. And now, how amazed she was to see such a soul-striking man now in front of her!

"Listen, Heonui, shall you? I understand your embarrassment, indeed. But I myself am embarrassed — I just don not dare to show it. I was rude to you yesterday under the moon, and she is my witness and will be angry at myself for millions of full moons. And I beg you to forgive me — my heart is embittered, but it is not your fault, and I ask you to forgive my manners. What a shame! But although I was offended that, like a stray dog, I was expelled from the palace for the period of celebrations, I nevertheless considered my fate in you. And — oh, I beg you, do not refuse me. I can make amends with my caress. I am not the same as you met me in the dark."

"What are you then?" Heonui raised an eyebrow, and he answered with a smile that melted her heart.

"I am Wang Tae the poet, I am Wang Tae the artist!

I am the one who sings of romance in the night!

I am the one who lives not shedding blood, and

I am the one who holds the keys to your heart!" he muttered solemnly, circling the young lady, who kept blushing.

"Ah, Wang Tae, you are like a different person, truly, Your Royal Highness!" Heonui clapped her hands. "If you really are as sweet as in the light of the sun, then I will be your wife with joy. But if you are the same as I recognized you in the twilight of this garden, then it will take you an eternity to open my heart!"

"I promise you, I am charm itself!" Wang Tae laughed, but suddenly sadness was read in his eyes.

"What is wrong with you?" young Li-en got worried. "You turned pale in a second! I was just joking with you!"

"Oh, no. It is not you. A gloomy thought swept through me, darkening me. But everything is fine again!" he replied, smiling.

"What is the idea? About what?" insisted Heonui, taking his hand gently.

"I must tell you. You are right. But I am afraid of losing you when I finally found you! I dream that you will agree to become my wife."

He pulled his hand out of Heonui's white hands and nervously darted back and forth along the path, choosing his words. The young lady waited with bated breath, and this expectation became unpleasant for her because, in the unknown, she always saw only terrible things.

"Heonui," he began timidly, choosing his words, "you saw me in the night in such an agitated state and heard from my brother that I was ill. This is both true and false. Oh, how difficult it is to explain!"

He took Heonui's hand again and looked into her eyes.

"I do not understand..." she drawled worriedly.

"I really am ill, but for the world — not before heaven! No one sees what I see, and no one hears what my ears hear."

"Ah, Wang Tae, that is enough. You are scaring me!" exclaimed the lady.

"No, please hear me. Perhaps you will not agree to be my wife afterwards, but I will be earnest with you."

"What is the secret you keep in your heart?"

"I hear voices. I see shadows. Oh, do not look at me like that, pretty Heonui! What horror I read in your eyes! But it is true — everything as my brother said! I see people dead, gone forever — but only for the rest of the people I say so. Before my eyes, they appear as if I were the only one they have to rely on to prove that they are not a myth. I hear their groans, their whispers, their prayers, to which the world and heaven are indifferent. Only I alone suffer with them. I have no rest. I tried to run away, but even at the ends of the earth, in distant lands, they find me. But I cannot help them. It doesn't give them or me peace."

"Wang Tae, I cannot listen! What horrors! What speeches!" She grew cold and, not knowing what to do, swayed on the spot.

"Will I be cursed for you, too?" he threw up his hands in despair. "I know you do not believe me, but it is true! And if it drives you away from me and I won't be a husband, well, so be it. But I fell in love with you from the first moment, and you cannot take my love away by force!"

Heonui threw herself on The Prince with an embrace.

"I believe you, Your Royal Highness!" she cried out, and he saw tears in her eyes. "And even though the whole world is our witness now, I love you too, and I am your future wife. I will love you so much that my declarations of love will drown out all the speeches of the dead, my laughter will be louder than all the groans, and my hugs will be stronger than all those who pull you down. I will heal you with my love, and only my voice will sound around you!"

"Sweet Heonui!" Wang Tae muttered, and his lips pressed hard against the young lady's scarlet lips.

"Shhh…" the leaves of the garden trees rustled. "Shhh..."

[1] Chinese novels (translated from Chinese)