Clink!

“Ahhh… ! ”

Grasping her stomach, Kyosul bowed sharply. She dropped the cup she had been holding. It shattered to pieces as it was hit the corner of the table.

“Kyosul!”

Stunned, Ruhae jumped over the desk. They had been sharing refreshments with the book open on the table. It had been a long time since he frequently visited the Dongbi Palace after he had been appointed her prenatal education teacher.

When he jumped over the desk, his hand fell in the broken china slicing through his palms. Without feeling his own pain, he carefully examined her condition.

“What’s up? What’s wrong with you? ”

“My stomach, my stomach…”

It was common that one had stomach troubles. However, the problem was that she was pregnant. For her now, abdominal pain at the moment was the most sensitive issue, compared with any other pain.

“Lady Yuon!”

He called for the nanny waiting outside. The nanny always stood near the wall in her room, but she left it only when she was with him alone.

“Call the royal doctor right away!”

At his urgent tone, the nanny called for the royal doctor without confirming her condition. It meant the nanny trusted him.

The doctor arrived quickly, “Long live the Crown Princess! I’m honored …”

The royal doctor came immediately and tried to offer his due greetings, but Ruhae stopped him and asked him to give her first aid.

“Forget the greetings, just take a look at her condition right away!”

Meanwhile, Kyosul complained of occasional abdominal pain. She felt pain in her joints now. All Ruhae could do was to hold her hand as she grasped his hand in pain. Ruahe had her lie down on the cushion, and the doctor began to check her pulse first. There was no trouble in the doctor’s face when he put his two fingers on her thin, trembling wrists.

After he was done checking her pulse carefully, the doctor checked some other part of her upper body after seeking understanding from her and the nanny.

“Have you had this kind of pain before?”

“Yes, but not as severe as now. I started to feel pain recently, little by little…”

“What kind of pain was it? For example, was it like stabbing with a stick, bowels twisting or tearing apart?”

“Yes, it’s like twisting like something burning inside and painful.”

She grasped her stomach and curled up. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. While the pain came and went intermittently, she bit her lip, barely answering the doctor’s questions.

After he remained calm, he asked carefully with a dark expression, “Have you discharged blood?”

When he spit out such an imprudent word, everyone held their breath in the room.

Even Kyosul, whose face turned white while enduring pain, was embarrassed. She looked at the nanny and said in a trembling voice, “No…I haven’t discharged blood…”

The nanny approached her and held her hands.

“Right, she hasn’t discharged blood.”

Only after the nanny answered in a row, her anxiety went away, but she could not be completely relaxed. She still felt twisting pain in her stomach.

As if she went through a typhoon and earthquake, she felt pain in her belly where her dear baby should be growing up peacefully.

She felt more psychological pain than physical when she felt it in her stomach.

Each time she felt her stomach twist, her heart sank.

‘No no… . ‘

She earnestly prayed. Although she didn’t know who she was praying to, but she just kept praying, holding her stomach cautiously.

She curled up her small body. Everybody’s face was wet with tears while looking at her trembling form.

“All the food brought to the Dongbi Palace, as well as drinking water and tea and incense, are managed by the Royal Medical Service. And I check it once again finally, so there should have been no issue…” said the doctor.

While saying that calmly, the doctor stopped and then looked at the tray beside her cushion.

“Was she eating snacks when she complained of pain?”

“Yes,” Ruhae said on behalf of Kyosul.

“Obviously, I confirmed that tea over there, but I’ve never seen that snack.”

As he was suspicious about it, he reached out. On the small table was a pile of small rice cakes about the size of a finger.

“It’s a rice cake she received recently, and it’s her favorite snack these days.”

This time the nanny answered instead.

The atmosphere was strange. Kyosul looked at the doctor, while exhaling a shallow breath.

He asked politely.

“Can I take a look at it for a moment?”

Her eyes trembled. She could read the doctor’s suspicion

There was a problem with the rice cake, but it was an impossible doubt because it was a gift directly offered by Kyoyoung recently.

“I received that cake from…”

“Yes, go ahead and examine it.”

When Kyosul was about to explain in an embarrassed voice, Ruhae cut her off.

Her trembling eyes met his firm gaze.

She shook his head and said, “There can’t be any problem with the rice cake…”

Nodding, Ruhae said, “Fine. If there is nothing wrong, you’ll be alright.”

The doctor examined the rice cake right on the spot. There was nothing suspicious when he touched it here and there. Several medical assistants waiting in the back unpacked and took out some devices for further examination.

.Ruhae asked, “Is there any problem?”

“… I can’t figure it out right now, but can I take some rice cakes for further examination? ”

Lowering his head, the doctor asked Kyosul, and she had no other choice but to nod.

After giving her first aid, the doctor left the room. After quietly watching them, Ruhae followed him quietly and asked, “Where are you going?”

“Oh, Prince Ruhae…”

Turning to him, the doctor bowed. His assistants already left for the Royal Medical Service, but the doctor was wandering the palace alone holding a rice cake he took from Kyosul.

“I think I have to inform the East Palace about this…” he fumbled, hesitatingly.

Ruhae looked own with a heavy heart. And then he came near the doctor.

“Did you find a problem as you expected? What is it that you can’t directly report to the Crown Princess? What is it?” asked Ruhae, pressing on the doctor for an answer.

***

A few days after Kyosul complained of abdominal pain, Kyoyoung came back to the Dongbi Palace. She did not stay long in Kyosul’s room again.

The moment she was about to leave, someone caught her from behind.

“Princess Kyoyoung!”

“… I’m honored to see you, Prince Ruhae!”

She greeted him in a dry voice. She was on speaking terms with him. But her attitude toward him as well as his feelings about her were different now.

Ruahe asked bluntly, “Is it true that you gave the Crown Princess rice cakes?”

“… Pardon?”

When he got to the point right away, she replied, raising her head. He was holding a box containing the rice cakes that she offered to Kyosul last time.

“You made this in person, right?”

“How come you are holding the cake?”

“I’m asking you. Did you make this cake by yourself? Answer me!”

She did not answer. She bit her dry lips and stared at the rice cake in his hand.

“Let me ask you again. Is this the rice cake you made for the Crown Princess or not?”

She tried to raise her trembling hand all of a sudden when someone stopped her quickly.

Ruhae looked up with an embarrassed expression. Kyosul was on the floor, watching them. “…Your Highness.”

“Please come back inside, both of you. ”

Kyosul ignored his question and repeated, “I’m ordering you politely in my capacity as the Crown Princess. Please come back inside.”

Her order was unprecedentedly calm and severe.

“Please bring back the box with the rice cakes you took.”

Ruhai’s hands as well as hers trembled. Both were carrying small boxes.

Taking them back to her room, she first sat on the cushion and looked at them silently.

Ruhae moved one step back. Kyoyoung first sat down across the desk.

Kyosul cast a glance at her quietly. Her closed lips, hardened eyebrows and stern face showed Kyosul was a different woman now. With a sharp look, Kyosul stared at Kyoyoung.

“Let me ask you, Princess Kyoyoung.” There ensued a breathless silence for a moment. Kyosul brought up a topic all of a sudden and asked her directly, “What’s in this, what is it?”

Kyosul was pointing at the box she was holding.

As if trying to avoid her gaze, Kyoyoung hid a small box under her skirt and brought it to Kyosul’s room. It was the same box that she initially brought to Kyosul’s room and took it from the room again.

“… Rice cake. ”

“Is it pure rice cake? Doesn’t it contain any poison? ”

“Oh my…Crown Princess Kyosul!”

Stunned, Kyoyoung shouted. Even Ruhae, who was standing behind, was astonished.

Kyoyoung never expected that Kyosul would ask her directly like this.

It was only Kyosul who remained calm in the room now.

She spit out dangerous words on her own and continued casually, “Although you left me cold-heartedly, I still like you, Princess Kyoyoung.”

“I…” Kyoyoung was trying to respond.