Follow Your Heart

Kang Lee-Jae’s life could be described in one sentence.

 

A life of misfortune.

 

She was abandoned by her parents and raised in an orphanage, and, to make matters worse, around the age of seven, she began showing signs of possessing spiritual senses. It was a condition akin to shamanistic abilities.

 

It was Granny Yeongsan, a famous shaman in Chungnam, who took a young girl, who used to say things she shouldn’t have said, in. She kept Lee-Jae fed, mostly by making her run errands.

 

As expected, Lee-Jae’s life didn’t improve much from then on.

 

Still, in hindsight, there was one small stroke of luck amidst all the bad luck.

 

Since she had no parents, at least none of the people who hit her were her parents.

 

‘What kind of room is this?’

 

While Lee-Jae was wondering about it, Duke Duncan, who came in before she knew it, began to slap her.

 

“You ruined our family name! How can you be so thoughtless! Diving into the water the day before the wedding!?”

 

The notion that a person who has been beaten will become well-behaved was a lie spouted by those who have never been beaten.

 

Those who have been beaten will know better after all. In the end, it’s hard for anyone to endure a beating.

 

As Lee-Jae crouched and looked around, her gaze suddenly fell to her own hands.

 

‘Are my hands really this smooth?’

 

That couldn’t be. Lee-Jae’s hands, which had taken on all the rough work in the mountain valleys and rural villages, were already beyond the reach of any existing beauty technology.

 

With this realization, countless memories suddenly poured into her mind.

 

Lee-Jae grabbed the wrist of Duke Duncan, who was holding her hair, and looked at him. Her voice was trembling, but her words came out with ease.

 

“Father…”

 

There’s a little-known fact: the emotions left behind by a dead person in the items they cherished are far stronger than people realize. How much more powerful would those emotions be in the body that housed their soul just days before?

 

Although her memories were fragmented, Lee-Jae possessed spiritual senses that were several times greater than that of others.

 

“You… How dare you…! Because of you, our family is done! Do you know how hard-won that opportunity was?!”

 

“Honey! Calm down! She’s going to die!”

 

Duke Duncan was a tyrant within the family, and the Duchess was unable to actively stand before such a husband.

 

“…”

 

It’s better to have no parents than ones like this.

 

With this slightly twisted thought, Lee-Jae’s head was yanked by the hair, shaking her violently as she scanned the room. It was Hailey Duncan’s room, the previous owner of this body.

 

‘Hailey, are you here? I’m not an angry spirit… I’ll leave your body. Please help me.’

 

There was no answer. Lee-Jae tapped the pit of her stomach continuously, as if knocking, but all that surfaced were more of Hailey Duncan’s memories. The most vivid memory a person holds was, after all, of the moment of their death.

 

Hailey Duncan died in the water. Her shoes were left at the water’s edge. Which means she jumped in herself.

By now,  she was either gone or became a water spirit.

In the meantime, the Duke, who shook off Lee-Jae’s hand, waved his hand wildly this time.

“Hailey, you stupid thing! How much work did I put into this marriage?!”

Lee-Jae wrapped her arms around her face and curled up into a ball to be in a defensive position.

She instinctively knew that if she took that blow head-on, she’d have to crawl right back into bed as soon as she woke up.

But not long after, she realized that an eerie silence had settled around her. The atmosphere in the room had shifted in an instant.

It wasn’t just her imagination. When she slowly lowered her hand, the fine hairs on her arms, which had been smooth moments earlier, were now standing up on end.

A sensation that was all too familiar to Lee-Jae.

The feeling of suffocation, the nausea rising in her throat. The sensation of confronting something absolutely revolting.

When Lee-Jae cautiously lifted her head, the Duchess, too, turned stiffly as if forcing her neck to move against her will.

The moment her gaze met the man standing at an angle in dark blue traditional attire, the Duchess collapsed to the floor in a heap.

“……Your, Your Majesty.”

Duke Duncan also looked perplexed, but he asked quite calmly, with his face hardened.

“……What brings Your Majesty so late at night?”

The man who had been leaning against the wall pushed past his knights and slowly walked forward.

“I’m looking at a rare sight to witness.”

“…”

“Is this how the Duncan household disciplines its children? Hmm?”

When the Duke remained silent, the man let out a mocking chuckle.

“Leave. I have something to discuss privately with my fiancée.”

As the Duke continued to glare, the faint smile on the King’s lips vanished completely, replaced by a look of deep annoyance.

“Didn’t you hear me? Get out.”

The King’s knights dragged the Duke and Duchess out of the room, and only then did Lee-Jae, belatedly, step out of the bed.

The parents had watched their daughter throw herself into the water in a suicide attempt, and the moment she woke up, they had yanked her by the hair.

But Lee-Jae, being an orphan, couldn’t quite tell whether having parents like that around was helpful or if it would be better to be without them.

At any rate, she was now Hailey Duncan, and the man in front of her was her fiancé. It was a scandalous event—attempting to take her own life just before their royal marriage.

Truly, no matter where she went, her life seemed cursed and unfortunate.

Lee-Jae knelt on the rug and bowed her head. She suppressed the chills that were running through her body.

However, it seemed that he had already noticed her trembling.

“Why are you shaking so much?”

“…”

Soon, something hard touched under her chin. The King was lifting Lee-Jae’s chin with a sword.

“I just asked you. Why are you shaking so much?”

There are too many demons behind you, Your Majesty.

The King’s shoulders and back were covered with more spirits than the knights he’d brought with him. Lee-Jae had been through all sorts of things in her turbulent life, but she has never heard of or imagined anything like this.

She couldn’t be honest, so she just bit her lips and looked at the man’s eyes.  They were dark and deep blue in color. But this time, when she remained silent, there was a hint of irritation in the King’s voice.

“Don’t tremble, Hailey Duncan. I know you deserve to die, but I’m not here to kill you right now.”

“When you say that, it just makes me…tremble even more.”

What am I even saying?

I’m sorry, Hailey Duncan.

The body you preserved will soon be separated from your neck because of me.

But unexpectedly, the King laughed at the words.

His gaze seemed to mock her, so to Lee-Jae, he seemed to be thinking about how to kill her.

Lifting her chin again with the sheath of his sword, the King said,

“Anyway, don’t tremble. I’ve only come here to talk to you. I realized I’ve never exchanged more than three words with you.”

Feeling that she might really die if she missed this opportunity, Lee-Jae nodded vigorously. She had woken up in a terribly wrong state, but she didn’t want to die pointlessly here.

Seeing her take a deep breath, he seemed to think they could finally have a conversation, and he lowered the tip of the swordsheath.

“Did you hate this marriage so much? Enough to take your own life?”

“…”

“Wasn’t this marriage proposed by your family, the Duncans, in the first place?”

Lee-Jae couldn’t understand it either.

Of course, the man did not seem normal. Lee-Jae could feel it much more clearly than others.

But since Lee-Jae hadn’t done what she was accused of, Lee-Jae had nothing to say in her defense. On the contrary, she felt all the more wronged.

“Hailey Duncan. It seems your father didn’t teach you this, but I hate asking the same question multiple times. Answer me.”

In the end, she gave the best answer she could.

“That’s not… it. It’s not because I hated it.”

But the King’s painted-on smile said: Liar.

He didn’t believe her. He asked mockingly, yet sharply, “Then, was it because you couldn’t forget another man?”

“…”

A man… Ah, Hailey Duncan had another man. Yes, she did.

Lee-Jae, who had spent most of her life in loneliness, felt her sense of injustice double once again and fell silent. The King seemed to interpret her silence differently.

“I don’t care in the slightest about whatever man you have in your heart.”

In fact, he looked not just uninterested but annoyed. Tapping the expensive rug with the tip of his sword sheath, the King said,

“I would love to support your pure love, but I cannot be recorded in history as any more of an ill-fated King. Therefore, you must live longer than you want to, according to my judgment.”

“…”

“And if you still insist on dying…”

He bowed down to her crouched figure and looked into her eyes and said.

“Hailey Duncan, die with the crown on your head.”

The King’s words were symbolic.

Lee-Jae suddenly realized that the surroundings had become quiet. It wasn’t her imagination. Even the pale spirit behind him, with its mouth stretched wide, was sticking its head out, waiting for Lee-Jae’s answer.

Ah, this time she really saw it clearly.

Lee-Jae, whose eyes met the spirit’s directly, inwardly groaned and lowered her head again.

“If you have to refuse, now is your only chance. I’m giving you a choice just for today. As you well know by now, I’m being very lenient with you.”

After much hesitation, Lee-Jae clutched her dress and lifted her head. This situation was confusing and frightening, but she didn’t want to die like this.

“May I ask one thing, if I may be so bold?”

As Lee-Jae, who had been keeping her head down, quietly spoke, the King raised an eyebrow. Surprisingly, his response was straightforward.

“Go ahead, ask.”

“If I refuse, what will happen then?”

He kindly nodded.

“The wedding was postponed because the bride caught a severe cold. If you refuse, you will be said to have caught not a cold, but a fatal illness.”

“…”

“And if you catch a fatal illness… well, you’ll have to die, won’t you?”

He smirked. Lee-Jae felt a greater sense of bewilderment than fear.

“What kind of choice is this…”

This was…so unfair.

Lee-Jae swallowed the end of her sentence, but the King, who was smiling with his eyes closed, seemed to know what she had left unsaid.

He was saying, quite calmly, that he would kill her.

In the end, the King hadn’t come to give her an actual choice but to notify and threaten her.

“If that explanation is sufficient, now it’s your turn to answer, Hailey Duncan.”

“…”

“Are you going to jump into the water again?”

Her mind was in chaos from the events she had experienced one after another since waking up. But the answer to that question was clear. Kang Lee-Jae was not the kind of person to do such a thing. She gave a definitive answer.

“I’m not taking my life. Never. At least not until I’m crowned, as Your Majesty says. I promise you that.”

The King nodded briefly.

“Well, I’ll trust you.”

Logically, it made no sense. Who would believe someone who had jumped into the water just the other day and woke up the next day saying such things?

This time, Lee-Jae’s expression said it all.

You just lied right now, Your Majesty.

She hadn’t intended to show it, but the King seemed to understand. He corrected his statement as if it were nothing.

“Let’s just say I’m overlooking the mistake of my fiancée. I’m being generous here.”

He spoke to his knights guarding the door.

 

“Bring the Duke and Duchess here.”