Chapter 138: 206. Sneak

By the time they finished their discussion, the teapot had gone empty, the pastries were all eaten—mostly by Jia—and the sun was low in the sky.  It had mostly been Eunae and Kaede, though Rika and even Eui would occasionally chip in with a question or suggestion. Only Jia and Ja Yun remained silent for most of it—each of their own reasons. Jia just couldn’t bring herself to be interested in the political process. It all seemed so pointless. Why go through all the trouble of wining and dining nobles for months just to make one lousy decision? Jia’s attention returned to the conversation as Eunae seemed to be wrapping things up.

“Well, I think we’re in agreement, Kaede. I’ll work on things from my end to set up some of those meetings, but for now, it’s getting quite late. Will you be staying?”

‘Kaede’? It had been ‘Miss Hayakawa’ a few hours ago, but as always, Eunae worked fast. Jia sighed and shook her head.

“We’ve got to get back home. My sisters and Eui’s parents will worry.”

Eunae bowed apologetically.

“I’m sorry our reunion couldn’t be on better terms, but it’s not easy for a princess to arrange social calls—even one as unloved as me.”

Jia frowned, recalling what the Queen had said about Eunae being her favorite—what a complicated family dynamic. She kept her concerns to herself, for now, offering Eunae a conciliatory smile.

“It’s alright. I’m just happy to see you again—and little Haeun, too. It’s nice for Heian to have someone to play with other than Narae for once.”

“Ah! Your little sister, yes? Dae mentioned her in his letter. A talented young girl around the same age as Haeun—I’d love to meet her.”

Jia couldn’t help but notice the little fox girl perk up, her ears swiveling as she listened in from several rooms away—a perceptive little tyke.

“I’m not sure if Jung’s heart could take it. She’s mostly resigned to the fact that this is our lives, but I think she still thinks of her and Narae as separate from it.”

Eunae nodded slowly, before covering her mouth and gasping as if she’d just recalled something important.

“Oh! Speaking of Dae’s report, I had nearly forgotten.”

She turned to Ja Yun and offered a fractional bow.

“You must be Ja Yun. My apologies for not introducing myself sooner—I got caught up in the excitement of meeting old friends.”

Ja Yun’s initial response came out as a strangled squeak as she desperately tried to look anywhere except at the princess. After a bit of prodding from Jia and Rika, she managed a second attempt.

“Y-yes, mistress. My name is Ja Yun—at your service.”

Eunae grimaced openly while Rika and Eui snickered to themselves.

“Please, just Eunae is fine—or if that’s too much you can refer to me by my title, I suppose. Anything but ‘mistress.’ I hate it when people call me that.”

“Yes mi—uh, M-Miss Princess?”

Ja Yun cringed and shook her head. Though her eyes remained closed, Eunae turned her head towards Jia with a questioning expression. Jia could only offer a shrug, relying on their old lip-reading practice to mouth the words ‘She’s just like that.’ Eunae returned her attention to Ja Yun and cleared her throat.

“Well, Ja Yun, I took the liberty of reviewing your records after hearing about you. You’ve got quite a history.”

The grimace on Ja Yun’s face betrayed what she thought of her own history.

“I’ll understand if you don’t want me in your unit. I appreciate Master Hyeong bailing me out, but you’ve already given me more than I deserve. I’m a worthless soldier.”

Eunae huffed and shook her head.

“I was quite impressed, actually. You are utterly wasted as a rank-and-file soldier. Your academic scores are the highest I’ve ever seen from someone other than Hyeong Daesung—and he studied directly under the former Grand Magus. You are meant for greater things than hurling fireballs or acting as a glorified battery for artillery formations.”

Ja Yun shrugged.

“Scores are worthless if I can’t use them. I suck at fighting. Even with mental training I still freeze up and panic. And there’s no way I could handle academia—teaching students would literally kill me from anxiety.”

It was tragic to Jia how Ja Yun seemed to be at her most composed when talking herself down. Eunae, however, was having none of it.

“Don’t be ridiculous! As if those are the only things mages are good for. The colleges only think about the advancement of arcane study, and the military thinks every problem is a nail and forges their soldiers into an endless tide of hammers. Rest assured Ja Yun—you have a place and I will find it. For now, please continue as you have been.”

Ja Yun bowed so low she almost smacked her forehead on the table.

“Yes, Mistre—uh, I mean...Princess Seong.”

“Tsk, I’m not fond of being referred to by my family name, either.”

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Before Ja Yun could fumble another response, Jia stepped in to save her.

“Actually, I was wondering about that—doesn’t Hyeong Aecha call you ‘Mistress’? Who is she, anyway? She’s been standing stock still outside the estate the entire time, just waiting.”

Eunae’s face went slightly pale as she threw a glance in the general direction of the maid.

“No, did she? Ancestors, damn it. I thought I’d dismissed her...”

Rika frowned uneasily at Eunae.

“Eun-eun, you didn’t...”

Eunae’s eyes widened for a moment before she habitually closed them again and shook her head in vehement protest.

“No! Ancestors, no, I stayed true to my oath throughout the years, and almost nobody who I used my gaze on before then is still...present. Aecha is...a long story, I’m afraid. And not mine to tell. Suffice it to say that she’s very loyal to me, but despite my best efforts she refused to accept herself as anything more than a servant.”

Eui raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Is she related to Dae?”

“No—well, not by blood. Again—it’s a long story. Legally, she is his sister, but neither of them recognize that relationship. That’s probably more than I should say—ask Dae about it when next you meet him. Or Aecha herself, if she’s willing.”

Jia frowned, but decided to respect that it wasn’t something Eunae felt comfortable talking about and left it at that. After exchanging farewells and promises to meet again for tea, Jia’s group left the palace at last to return home. The entire way back, Jia couldn’t help but feel as though she was being watched—but no matter how she searched, she couldn’t sense anything out of place.

 

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Princess Seong Haeun was a peerless genius. She knew that, because she was reminded of it every day by almost every person she met. So much that she got tired of it. So much that she started to wonder if it was even true. Why would they need to keep telling her if it was true? Did they think she was going to forget? Haeun had never forgotten anything in her entire life—even from back when she was just a baby. That wasn’t normal, she knew, but did it mean she was a peerless genius? That seemed more doubtful each time she was reminded of it.

So Haeun knew she was smart for her age, but from a very early age had learned to take the praise heaped upon her by the adults with a healthy grain of salt. That was why she liked her big sister—not Misun, she was mean—Eunae. Sure, Eun-eun would nag her about ‘decorum’ sometimes—most of the time—but she didn’t just mindlessly praise everything Haeun did, either. Also, everyone left Eun-eun alone, which meant that if Haeun was with her, they left Haeun alone too—that was nice. It had especially been a great way to avoid lessons, until Dae came along.

At least Brother Dae’s lessons were fun—especially the ones where she got to run and run and run. Chasing Eun-eun around while covered in that black goop was hilarious. Like her sister, Dae didn’t mindlessly praise her, nor did he insist that she had to do magic a certain way—though he still taught her the ‘right’ way. In fact, Dae seemed interested in learning about her own way of doing magic, and Haeun had been happy to show him.

So in all of Haeun’s life, she only had two adults—one of which was never around anymore—who understood her. She loved her sister, but she still got lonely sometimes, and she didn’t have anyone else to play with or talk to. That was why the short time she had spent playing with Chiyo and Heian was such a precious memory to her. Not only were they the only friends she’d ever had, but even Eun-eun’s friends had all been super nice.

Takeda Rika was Chiyo’s older sister and the one who had given Eun-eun such a fun nickname. Her sister was always telling her not to use it, but Haeun could tell that she secretly liked it. Yan Yue had been a little bit cold, and An Eui was scary, but both of them had been nice too. Her favorite, though, was Lee Jia. Not only was Lee Jia Heian’s mom—though apparently so was An Eui? Haeun wasn’t sure how that worked—but she was the first person in Haeun’s life who had ever praised her for doing magic her own way.

Haeun hadn’t even meant to do it. She just wanted to pet the kitty—it was so cool that Heian was both a cat and a person—and she’d needed to wrap her body with essence to do so. She thought she’d get in trouble again for doing magic wrong, but Lee Jia had been excited about it. Before Haeun knew it, everybody was copying her in order to pet Heian. Haeun never forgot anything, but that memory would remain one of her most precious.

Of course, she had been utterly heartbroken when she had to leave. Though Eun-eun always assured her otherwise, she’d been certain that she would never see Lee Jia, Heian, or Chiyo ever again. Then, all of a sudden she did! Well—Chiyo wasn’t here, but two out of three wasn’t bad, and her sister was there so not all hope was lost. Plus, she’d overheard that there was another girl her age—Lee Jia’s little sister! Haeun was over the moon—she had to meet her.

All of that to say, Princess Seong Haeun had a very good reason to be skulking around outside the palace in the middle of the night. Following Lee Jia and her friends home under the cover of a new magic that she’d learned only a few hours ago. It was a very useful magic, and she was extremely glad that she’d learned it. There was no way she’d have been able to get out on her own, otherwise.

The Dark Sneaky Cat-Fox technique was something she had figured out with the help of none other than her best friend Heian! Once she’d pulled the cat-girl-spirit away from the adults, she’d been excited to finally talk to someone her own age to talk to, but she quickly discovered two things. First, Heian was actually a lot younger than she was—or maybe older? She only looked like a little girl because that’s what her moms thought she should look like—which meant it was what she thought she should look like too. Haeun didn’t really get it at first, but that’s because of the second thing she learned—which was that Heian didn’t like talking much.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Heian liked to talk, she just talked in a different way. It was like Haeun and her magic. And just like Haeun’s magic tutors, Heian’s moms always told her to try to talk the ‘right’ way, instead of the way she was most comfortable with. Haeun could sympathize with her friend's plight, so she’d made an effort to try to talk Heian’s way. And once she did, she learned so much!

Heian’s way of talking was way better than words. It wasn’t even close. Haeun had to be careful at first, since talking that way used her ‘domain,’ but she found that if she was extra gentle she could touch Heian with her magic and create a thread of communication between them. Through that thread Haeun had learned the technique that she now used to sneak inside Lee Jia’s house.

Dark Sneaky Cat-Fox erased her presence entirely. She wasn’t invisible, as far as she knew, just...hard to notice. Big Sis Jia’s domain had already caught her a bunch of times, but it just sort of slid off without alerting her. A perfect success. Good thing, too, because Jia’s was far from the only domain searching for her. A combination of her new technique and her natural stealth had allowed her to get this far, and now it was just a matter of finding her new friend.

Haeun had to be careful—she couldn’t use her domain to search since it would give her position away. Jia’s domain was everywhere now that she was in the house, and she couldn’t risk getting caught. So, she had to search the house the old-fashioned way—one room at a time. Unfortunately, it was a very big house with lots of rooms.

The first bedroom she found was occupied by a couple getting ready for bed. One that looked like a taller, chubbier An Eui, and a portly man that Haeun promptly disregarded as uninteresting. The second she didn’t dare open, and had to creep past it as quietly as possible—Jia’s domain was at its strongest there. The third time was the charm—Haeun found a room occupied by two people she’d never seen before. One was a pretty girl with chestnut hair and a pair of rabbit ears that she thought looked very cute. She was around the same age as Misun—maybe older, but it was hard to tell since she was so gaunt. Sharing a bed with her was a small girl—the same age as Haeun—with short blonde hair and the long, rounded ears of a goat.

Both girls were asleep, but Haeun had come too far to turn back now. She crept into the room, taking it one ultra-quiet step at a time—maintaining her Sneaky technique the whole time. So naturally, she was very surprised when the little girl’s eyes shot open, revealing amber irises and strange horizontal pupils. Haeun and the little girl both froze in shock, staring into each other’s eyes for a long silent moment, neither of them sure what to do.

The tension was broken by a voice from behind Haeun causing her to practically jump out of her skin. How?! She hadn’t sensed anything—Jia’s domain hadn’t even moved! Yet sure enough, it was her voice that scolded Haeun.

“Oh, someone is going to get in so much trouble for this...”