Chương 3: Chapter 3
"I do not even wish to hear of it!" shaking her head negatively, Queen Li-en muttered at her daughter's entreaties to return to Wang Han's palace for a visit. "You made such a fuss with your nuisance that His Grace does not even want to know your name. Oh, shame on our family!"
"Mother! Enough for you, well, truly!" Heonui continued to insist in a plaintive voice. "Why do you want to end my life by making me Wang Han's wife? He is not a match for me. He is not dear to my soul! Oh, why do you, my parents, who are most important to my heart, want to treat me so cruelly?"
"And that's why you rush to his domain for a visit just to see his half-witted brother? Oh, and rumours will spread after yesterday's party about our family! How could you!"
"Mother! I want to go to apologize, for I offended the Prince with my speech yesterday, and I am ashamed. I can neither sleep peacefully from this nor take the crumb in my mouth. It cannot go on like this!" Here, Heonui's eyes wetted, and she hung her head so low that her mother, afraid of suggestions, covered her face with her hands. "But I won't lie to you that I do not want to see his brother," the young lady finally said, and the Queen let out a heart-rending cry of despair.
Heonui lowered her head and wept. Pulling herself together, Queen An Ha softened, seeing the transparent tears treacherously flowing down her daughter's rosy cheeks.
"Wang Tae is no match for Wang Han, my daughter. How much disgrace His Majesty suffered from the antics of his blood brother! The whole kingdom abhors his folly. But it is true. You were blinded by its beauty in a second. He is like a Greek god, they say. No one can pass by without falling in love with him. He is your best and only possible match; do not destroy such high prospects for the good future of your family, my darling. You are our only daughter, and there will be no one to take care of us in old age, let alone in the current shameful situation..." The Queen shed tears and fell silent, nervously fanning herself with an openwork light green Spanish abanico. After a moment of silence, gathering her thoughts and catching her breath, she nevertheless added a weighty, as she saw it, argument in favor of the Prince. "But just think, Wang Han is in no way inferior to his brother in person — he is just as fine, I would say, more even, with his mind and courage! He is the most enviable groom, and it is with him that you will only be happy."
"Ah, this courage of his is nothing to me!" wretched Heonui threw up her hands. "I despise that word! From your wars come only death, hunger and devastation! Only kings are happy with wars, for the people are far from them, and they cannot see their troubles from the height of their golden thrones!"
The King entered the chambers, knocking and receiving an unspoken greeting.
"What a storm you have caused, my Heonui," the father said in an unexpectedly calm tone. In fact, he always preferred to be on the side of his beloved daughter, but now, in the face of Wang Han, he also considered The Prince the most brilliant lot. The Prince's military and court services aroused such reverence in Lee Song's soul, which an elderly man who had fought and defended his Homeland more than once himself could recognize with dignity. Therefore, the heartfelt reversal of the pendulum of his precious daughter in the opposite direction could not help but draw a few deep, dissatisfied lines on the forehead of the count. He did not know and did not understand the life of Prince Wang Tae — only one thing was reported to him that the young heir led a strange and little understood life, reveling in wine, idle reading and music, wandering among the peasant people to paint their portraits, and he was locked in the palace for hours with his painting this way. And in the opinion of the world, such a wedding would be a joke, no less. Everyone knew Heonui as the most magnificent young lady who sparkled in society like a diamond. Wang Tae, on the other hand, was forever lost to the world and was absolutely uninteresting; they whispered about him and sometimes gossiped about him, that was about it. "I have received a letter from Wang Han," the King said in a tone alienated and strange. "He's asking for your hand."
"Oh, what a sad fate I have!" Heonui burst into tears, falling on the Queen's neck. She considered the wedding decidedly impossible. In her heart, she kept thinking and imagining many times how the Prince would propose to her, and she refused him all the time. She saw this union as only painful and unfair.
"Her hand? After Heonui left him alone at the palace and stormed out like that? What is it, His Majesty decided to close his eyes to the deed and give the wedding a chance?" An Ha rolled her eyes, bewildered.
"A letter from Wang Han, that is," the King nodded. "Indeed, but not from the one to whom we were wooing."
Heonui drew back from her mother and looked at the count.
She understood everything.
For a moment, there was complete silence in the room. Everyone present was thinking — how could this be? Was this for real? It happened, indeed?
Heonui looked at her parents — first at the Queen, then back at her father. Her green eyes awaited the verdict.
The Queen looked at them both in horror.
King Li-en coughed, straightened his beard and tailcoat, and, unable to bear more than two pairs of female eyes, drawled:
"After all, what difference does it make which way to become a Princess…"
"Lee Song!!!"
"Papa!!!"
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