Chapter 21

Heonui spent the whole next day in deep thought. She did not come out for breakfast, skipped lunch, and did not show up for dinner. Wang Han was on the road all day, and therefore, they reported on the mood of the Princess, already closer to the night, when His Serene Highness arrived.

"Why did not you force her? Cannot you cope with one young lady with the whole crowd that serves you here?" He was indignant at the servants, going up to the Princess's chambers. "Useless people! One can as well die by your side — and you would not dissuade!"

As soon as Wang Han knocked on the bedroom door, Heonui — without her usual widow's attire, without braids — threw herself on his neck in only a shirt, dishevelled and tearful.

"Protect me, Wang Han!" she cried to him, embracing and kissing his hands. "I hear his voice continuously, so much so that my head is spinning! I am crazy, I am indeed crazy! I cannot escape his call!"

Wang Han Wang Han, taken aback, did not know how to answer. For a minute, he stood looking at Heonui in a frenzy. Then he gathered himself and, pressing her to his chest, said:

"Heonui, I beg you, calm down ... You are breaking my heart! I seem to fall into the past with your speeches when my brother spoke exactly the same way as you do now. What a bad destiny! What a terrible fate for me to watch the suffering of loved ones! Why are you both tearing my soul every second? What voices, what ghosts are visible to your eyes, that they see nothing of mine and those around! I cannot look, I cannot hear what you say to me!"

He fell on his knees before Heonui. There were tears in his eyes.

"I must comfort you now. I know that. But my heart cannot take it anymore. I myself go crazy watching you act this way. You are right — you are so dear to my heart. And hearing from you all these speeches kills me. Please calm down, Heonui. Voices do not speak. There is no one in the garden. All this is just to you as a memory from Wang Tae, who fed you with his tales of ghosts and their everyday songs. You yearn, and that is why you want to restore everything about him — up to his madness."

"You do not believe me..." Heonui fell to her knees before him. "But you are right, Wang Han… How angry I am! What have I done to you, Your Royal Highness? I am so sorry! What have I done? Look at you! Poor Wang Han!"

And she again threw herself on his neck — this time not for consolation, but as a comforter.

"Heonui! Heonui!" her voice kept telling her.

Closing her eyes, as if it helped not to hear, she continued to hug Wang Han, who was sobbing helplessly.