2. Trapped Snake

“Princess… Princess, please stop crying…”

Beside the sobbing Cheong-Ah, the maidservant hesitated, not knowing what to do, grabbing and releasing the hem of her clothes.

But Cheong-Ah’s tears did not stop.

“Just leave me alone. I want to be alone.”

“Oh, Your Highness, please…”

“I said go out.”

At Cheong-Ah’s firm words, the maidservants who had been by her side finally withdrew from the mourning place.

“Ah, Princess…”

As the maidservants left, tears flowed down Cheong-Ah’s cheeks again.

Early this morning, Emperor Bowang passed away.

Having been lying in illness for a long time, Emperor Bowang took his last breath this morning, leaving a final request to Cheong-Ah.

“Ask General Jang Wi for help…”

That was all Emperor Bowang could say.

And soon after, he closed his eyes, becoming a cold corpse.

Now, Cheong-Ah has lost both her father and mother.

Her Empress mother passed away when Cheong-Ah was fourteen, and now she has lost her father as well.

Cheong-Ah is only twenty years old.

The successor to the throne has not been decided yet, and now the throne is vacant.

“If you leave me alone, what am I supposed to do…”

Is this what it feels like to be left alone in the world?

Since Emperor Bowang lay in sickness, Cheong-Ah had anticipated that such a day would come, but still, she couldn’t stop the sadness.

“Prin Princess…”

Cheong-Ah, who knelt before Emperor Bowang’s memorial tablet, sobbed.

* * *

The tragedy did not end with Emperor Bowang’s death.

“What’s all this noise? Who’s causing a disturbance?”

Cheong-Ah, who hadn’t taken off her mourning attire yet, glared at the maids with a pale face.

The maids were in tears.

“Princess, Princess Yulhee Princess, Empress Consort Yeongbin Princess, and Concubine Hyesuk Princess—all have been ordered to leave the palace.”

“Without my permission! The Emperor’s mourning isn’t even over yet!”

They were all Emperor Bowang’s concubines.

Although they were concubines, to Cheong-Ah, they were like aunts.

They all treated Cheong-Ah kindly, and she, in turn, liked them.

But to force Emperor Bowang’s concubines to leave while his mourning wasn’t over—it was unacceptable.

“Who dares…”

“It was General Ha and Minister Kwon…”

“Those scoundrels…”

General Ha and Minister Kwon were greedy individuals.

The reason Cheong-Ah had not consummated her marriage until now was because of them.

In fact, when Emperor Bowang’s health began to deteriorate, he had planned to consummate their marriage first.

It was to protect royal authority in case of unforeseen circumstances.

However, General Ha and Minister Kwon were the ones who rejected all the candidates for Cheong-Ah’s consummation.

General Ha, wielding military power, could summon thousands of soldiers to the palace with just a word.

Minister Kwon, having handled affairs of the court for a long time, practically controlled the courtiers; it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that all the substitute leaders in the court were Minister Kwon’s followers.

Minister Kwon had planted his people in the court over a decade. He had attempted to bring his son as a consort, but last year, his son fell ill with syphilis and died, leading to the plan’s failure. However, with Minister Kwon’s son gone, General Ha stepped forward this time, volunteering to become a consort.

General Ha was already in his mid-thirties. Moreover, he had over twenty concubines, including the chief royal concubine, but he still offered to become a consort. However, with the courtiers watching his every move and Minister Kwon supporting him, it was only a matter of time before General Ha became a consort.

Fortunately, the issue of Cheong-Ah’s marriage was postponed due to Emperor Bowang’s illness. Otherwise, Cheong-Ah would have already welcomed him as a consort. It was a terrible situation.

However, they had started expelling the only concubines in the palace who sided with Cheong-Ah.

“They must have made up their minds to drive me out of the palace, isolate me…”

General Ha’s goal was clear: to become the Emperor.

“I hope General Jang comes quickly…”

General Jang was the only ally Cheong-Ah could trust in the current situation. Although not a member of the royal family, General Jang held a military position.

Three years ago, on Emperor Bowang’s orders, Cheong-Ah had sent an envoy to a neighboring country to seek help, but there was still no news. Considering it took a month for the messenger to reach the neighboring country and another month to return with General Jang, they had to wait at least two months, during which anything could happen.

“Princess, what should we do now? If everyone leaves, who will be by Princess’s side?”

Hearing the maids crying, Cheong-Ah sat down again. She wanted to meet the concubines, but there was nothing she could do.

She was just a princess, and her hands and feet were already tied. A glimmer of hope clung to her, thinking, ‘It’s okay. When General Jang returns, I can bring them back. I just have to wait until then.’

* * *

The more significant event occurred four days after the concubines left.

“Princess…! Princess…!”

The scene in front of her was disheartening as Cheong-Ah looked at the maids sobbing on the floor.

‘How did things come to this….’

Cheong-Ah bit her lip tightly.

Otherwise, it felt like tears would well up.

But if she showed tears now, it would break the maids’ hearts.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll call for you shortly, so don’t go too far.”

“Princess… How can we leave Princess alone…”

“I’ll call you soon.”

The maids stood up, stealing tears.

General Ha, who had taken control of the court, had given an unbelievable order after seizing the palace.

He ordered all the maids and officials who had served in the palace until now to leave.

Without leaving a single person who had served in the palace for decades or just a few years, General Ha replaced them all with new servants.

In short, he filled the palace with General Ha’s people.

“Princess…”

Cheong-Ah stood swaying between the doors, watching the maids leave.

The courtyard was emptying out of the maids.

And coming in were maids with fierce expressions.

They were General Ha’s people, the ones watching over her.

‘I won’t be able to hold out until General Jang Wi comes…’

Just a few days ago, she believed she could hold out until General Jang Wi arrived.

But now, even that hope had crumbled.

It has only been a short fortnight since Emperor Bowang left this world.

However, Cheong-Ah was no fool to the extent of not knowing that the palace had already been taken over by General Ha and Advisor Kwon. By the time General Jang Wi returned, everything would likely be over.

There was still about a month and a half until General Jang Wi’s return, and General Ha seemed ready to seize her at any moment.

Even if General Ha entered the palace forcefully and took her by force, there was no one left to stop him. The soldiers, officials, maids – all of them were General Ha’s people. Would they stand up against General Ha for her?

They were probably not the kind to risk their lives for others.

Tomorrow or the day after. At the latest, within ten days, General Ha would become her master.

Even if the formal ceremony was delayed, he would forcibly violate her, make her his woman, and boldly ascend to the position of her master.

‘Maybe AbaPrincess’s illness was caused by them.’

The cause of Emperor Bowang’s illness was a mysterious ailment that could not be identified. It started without any apparent reason, and despite trying various medicines, the condition only worsened.

There were rumors that General Ha had poisoned the medicine he regularly gave to the Emperor.

If it was a slow-acting poison, it could be possible.

‘Now I’m the only one left….’

Cheong-Ah slumped into her seat.

‘Maybe it’s better to die… before facing more humiliation….’

Cheong-Ah’s eyes flickered.

‘Instead of being forcefully taken by such a person, becoming his wife, living a life of disgrace, maybe it’s better to die now….’

Dying is easy.

‘But if I die, he will easily take over this country. Laughing….’

She didn’t want to see her loved ones dying in front of her corpse. Just imagining it was horrifying.

‘Maybe it’s better if everything is ruined….’

It would be better if everything was ruined, but she had no power to ruin them.

Then it happened.

“Princess.”

At the sound of footsteps, Cheong-Ah raised her head.

A maid with an impolite expression looked down at Cheong-Ah with eyes full of mockery.

Such an arrogant and impolite maid. She wanted to faint right away, but Cheong-Ah realized that she no longer had the strength to do so.

“What’s the matter?”

“The testimony of General Ha.”

“Testimony?”

“Yes. General Ha stated that he will visit Princess’s quarters tonight. So, before sunset today, you should prepare for a bath and welcome the General.”

“He said he would come here tonight? General Ha? Without my permission?”

She burst into laughter at the absurdity.

“Alright, I understand. Leave.”

“General Ha sent the nightgown that Princess will wear tonight.”

The maid entered the chamber without permission and placed the nightgown she had brought on the bed.

“When the bath is ready, I will come to escort you.”

As the maid left, Cheong-Ah returned to the bed.

‘To think I have to wear something like this…’

The nightgown the maid left behind was something that prostitutes selling their bodies might wear. It was made of red mesh, revealing everything underneath. Cheong-Ah picked it up and threw it away.

Then she looked at the canopy above the bed. The ceiling of this chamber was high, and the bed’s canopy was sturdy.

‘Hang myself…’

What expression would he have when he came in and saw his own body hanging?

‘No, I can’t do such a thing.’

As she imagined it, Cheong-Ah shook her head. Suddenly, something popped into her mind.

‘The snake…’

That snake. The memory that she had tried so hard to erase from her mind. The snake in the underground.

‘The snake, if it is released, will ruin the country.’

A snake that would ruin the country.

‘Yes, at least releasing that snake will ruin the country. This kind of country, a country that General Ha took away…’

A frightening thought crossed Cheong-Ah’s mind.

“In any case, a doomed country… I’d rather ruin it with my own hands. Whether it’s General Ha or Advisor Kwon or anyone else, I’d rather ensure that no one gets to have it.”

Her death wouldn’t solve anything. In fact, she knew that General Ha or Advisor Kwon would probably be pleased if she died.

To those greedy individuals, those who had destroyed everything she had, she would rather ruin the country with her own hands.

‘Release the snake…’

The story about the snake was known only to the royal family. It was an ancient tale, passed down only as an oral tradition among the royalty, so General Ha or Advisor Kwon probably wouldn’t know about it.

Even if they did, they would likely consider it just an old tale from the past. Without seeing the snake with their own eyes, who would believe it?

But she saw it that day. That giant, ominous snake.

* * *

Avoiding the eyes of the watching soldiers and new officials, Cheong-Ah easily slipped out of the chamber. She had frequently escaped the chamber unnoticed by others in the past, and she knew the way to the abandoned palace without being noticed by anyone.

‘The grass has grown a lot…’

It had been eight years since she last came here. Due to the lack of visits for almost eight years, the courtyard of the abandoned palace was filled with overgrown grass. Even when she was young, the tall grass had reached up to her waist, and now it still touched her waist.

Cheong-Ah reached the backyard.

‘It’s still the same…’

Surprisingly, the door was just as it was. The old door, and the hole at the bottom of the door.

‘They haven’t fixed it. Well, probably because it’s frightening…’

The reason for not fixing this old door was probably due to the fear of the snake beneath. If they came close, they might fear the curse of the snake and would avoid fixing the door.

‘Nailed shut…’

Instead of the broken lock, the door was sealed with nails.

‘Destroyer.’

However, this old wooden door could be broken without even removing the nails. Cheong-Ah, holding a large stone nearby, smashed the door with it.

Bang! Bang!

How many times did she hit it? The wood, worn out over decades, broke more easily than she thought.

She continued to strike until there was a hole big enough for her to enter, gasping for breath as she did so.

Then she pushed her body through the hole she had created.

‘It’s dark…’

The damp air felt familiar.

Although eight years had passed, she had thought she had forgotten everything, but as soon as she smelled this damp air, the fear from that time returned.

‘I’m scared…’

Chills ran down her spine, and her hands and feet trembled.

‘It’s okay. If I get caught, that’s it.’

In the end, being caught and eaten by the snake would be the same as dying from humiliation. Rather than living through shame, it might be better to be eaten by the snake, and the snake, having eaten both General Ha and Advisor Kwon, would ruin the country.

‘Just a moment. The fear will pass quickly.’

She was not the young child she used to be. Not six, not twelve. She was a mature twenty-year-old. So, she could endure this level of fear.

Feeling her way along the wall in the darkness, Cheong-Ah remembered and walked to the right.

‘There should be a window around here…’

At that moment, her hand touched something cold.

‘It’s a window. Inside, there might be a snake… but it’s too dark to see anything’

There used to be a backrest, but now there was nothing.

“Hello? Are you there?”

Cheong-Ah cautiously called out to the snake.

Then, from the dark interior, there was a subtle, large, and heavy movement.

‘It’s a snake…’

The snake was still there.

‘I’ll take it out from here.’

This window was made of iron mixed with the snake’s blood, and it was said that the snake couldn’t break through it. There was only one key to open this window in the world.

Cheong-Ah took off the necklace hanging around her neck. The necklace was a gift from Emperor Bowang, originally meant for the future Empress, but now Cheong-Ah possessed it.

“I’ll release you, so do as you please. If you want to eat me, eat me. If you want to eat everyone, eat them all. Ruin the country.”

Feeling in the darkness, Cheong-Ah found the lock and opened it with the key.

Clunk…

With a dull sound, the lock was undone, and Cheong-Ah pushed the grille door with both hands.

Creak…

With a rusty sound, the grille door opened, and Cheong-Ah took a step back. The deed was done. There was no longer a grille to confine the snake.

‘It’s coming out…’

In the somewhat accustomed sight of the darkness, she could see the snake moving. The black and massive snake untangled its twisted body and smoothly slithered out of the grille.

‘It will be over in one go.’

Cheong-Ah closed her eyes tightly. The sound of her breathing became rough as she clenched her hands and took a deep breath.

“Don’t bite, just swallow it in one go…”

She felt the snake approaching right in front of her.

The air was stifling, and each time the snake moved right in front of her, the displaced air touched her skin.

“Ah, please eat me without pain. I might hate it, but still, without pain, in one go, in one bite…”

She felt foolish for making such a request.

“If you escape from here, please ruin the country…”

That was all she wished for.

‘I wish I had told you to go far away…’

Even in this situation, her concern was for the maids and concubines. Because she had told them to stay nearby rather than going far away. She worried that the snake might harm them unnecessarily if it escaped.

‘But it will be okay. The palace will collapse, starting from the royal palace. When chaos erupts in the palace, the snake will probably flee far away.’

She was thinking like that when it happened.

“I knew you’d come back.”

A unfamiliar voice touched Cheong-Ah’s ears. It was a deep and muffled voice.

‘Whose voice is this…?’

Who else could be here?

“Who on earth…”

Curious about who else might be here besides her and the snake, Cheong-Ah gently opened her eyes.

“Ahh!”

The moment she opened her eyes, Cheong-Ah screamed. The snake’s head was right in front of her face.

And the voice was coming from the snake’s mouth.

“I knew you’d come back.”

‘Sna, the snake… talking?!’

It wasn’t a mistake. The snake was talking.

Speaking human words. The snake.

“You’ve grown a lot since you were little.”

Cheong-Ah had nowhere else to retreat now. Sitting with her back against the cold wall, she looked up at the snake.

The snake approached even closer.

As the snake breathed out, its cold breath enveloped Cheong-Ah.

‘S, scary…’

Cheong-Ah tightly closed her eyes, gripping her knees with both hands, but she couldn’t stop trembling.

“Why? Are you scared of me?”

Of course.

How could it not be scary?

“I’ve been imprisoned for a long time. A very long time.”

Every time the snake spoke, the dark underground prison echoed.

“I was determined to devour everything once I got out, but as time passed, that intention faded away.”

‘What? That can’t be…’

Surprised by the snake’s statement that it no longer had the intention to kill people, Cheong-Ah opened her eyes wide.

This was not part of the plan. Cheong-Ah’s plan was to release the snake, let it destroy the country along with General Ha and Minister Kwon, but the snake was saying something entirely unexpected.

“You, you’re the snake that ruins the country. You’re going to ruin the country. I hate you. I resent you.”

“I used to be like that.”

“Even now!”

Suddenly enraged, Cheong-Ah shouted, “Even now, you should be angry! you should ruin the country!”

“Why do I have to do that?”

“B, because…! Because you are a snake that ruins the country! Because you was deceived and trapped here!”

“Staying here doesn’t seem bad.”

“N, no way!”

She never expected such a situation. A snake that had adapted to prison life and lost its desire for revenge.

Then what about herself?

‘N, no way… It can’t be, it can’t be…’

Suddenly overwhelmed with sorrow, Cheong-Ah burst into tears. She was tired of crying, but the tears kept flowing.

‘I should have just hanged myself….’

She regretted coming down here.

She regretted releasing the useless snake.

If she had known it was just a snake like this, she wouldn’t have released it.

“Are you crying?”

Why did the voice sound so affectionate when talking about ruining the country? No, why was she even concerned about the tone of a snake that couldn’t ruin the country?

Did anyone ask her to worry about such things when she screamed, “you will ruin this country” with a fierce voice that was clearly not enough?

“How are you?”

“Everything is so foolish. I wish everything would just be ruined, but since it doesn’t, it’s frustrating.”

“Is that your wish?”

“What?”

The snake’s two eyes stared at Cheong-Ah.

“Is that your wish? For everything to be ruined?”

“Yes. It’s my wish. I want everything to be completely ruined.”

“You wish for this country to be ruined?”

“I want everything to be ruined, and I wish the royal palace and everything to turn into ashes.”

“Do you sincerely wish for your ancestors’ established royal palace to turn to ashes and your ancestors’ country to be ruined? Do you truly desire that?”

Is it sincere?

It is.

Very sincere.

“It’s sincere.”

“Even if it’s irreversible, do you want it?”

Why are there so many questions?

If it’s a snake of calamity, just trample everything underfoot and be done with it.

“In that case, I’ll ruin your country as you wish.”

Cheong-Ah’s eyes widened at the snake’s words.

“But in return, there’s no going back. Do you understand?”

“There’s no reason to go back.”

Indeed, if everything were to be ruined, that would be for the best.

If she doesn’t have the strength to protect herself, letting the snake handle this country, after being ruined, would be the best option.

Even if General Ha returns to rebuild the country after its ruin, the country that now belongs to General Ha and Minister Kwon will no longer hold any value for Cheong-Ah.

For her, this country is no longer her father’s country or her ancestors’ country; it is a country of rebels.

“I will grant your wish, but you must also pay the appropriate price.”

It has come.

However, Cheong-Ah has already decided.

“You can eat me. Go ahead.”

“I don’t indulge in human flesh.”

“Then what…”

“Your ancestors made a promise to me a long time ago. They promised to give me a human daughter as a bride. Although that promise has long vanished, you need to make the promise again.”

“I-if you say a bride…”

“What I need is a mate for copulation.”

Copulation?! Copulation with a snake…!

Cheong-Ah was momentarily terrified.

“How, how can a copulation happen with a snake… It’s a snake…”

Yes, how can one copulate with a snake?

It’s an act that, as a human, one cannot do.

“You must copulate with me and bear my offspring. That is what I desire.”

“What if I refuse?”

“You have no right to refuse.”

The snake approached even closer.

Now, Cheong-Ah had nowhere else to retreat.

“Now that you’ve appeared before me again, you are now mine.”

“You sh-shouldn’t have come back here… you should have listened to the adults, little one.”

At the snake’s ominous voice calling her ‘little one,’ Cheong-Ah trembled, and at that moment, the snake’s tail wrapped around her.

“Aaaah!”

As the snake coiled around her, Cheong-Ah, terrified, screamed and eventually lost consciousness.

Even as she struggled to free herself from the snake, her consciousness was sinking into darkness.

‘Not just mating….’

T/N Copulation = mating