Another WIP weekend for you all! Unsure of if I'm going to post this chapter before I finish the next one or if I should wait to double update so let me know what you prefer! As always, this passage is subject to change but is a preview for what's to come :)
Context: After hearing from Yeong-su, Jaeyun's soldier, about what he witnessed in Ilchul, and interjecting when Yeong-su is quick to point the blame of the conflict on Jaeyun---Jongseong finds himself bearing the guilt of all the things going wrong around him, and in Heeseung's attempt to console him, Jongseong takes a moment to think about what he's heard and realized the bitter truth of the attack on Ilchul.
Thanks, Jongseong-ah, Jaeyun mouths.
Jongseong doesn't say anything back at that, returning to his seat with a certain heaviness. He intervened so easily. He shut down those remarks without a single thought, and even evoked something bordering on apologetic from Yeong-su.
Yet he couldn't even do that much with Sunghoon. Couldn't even stop the crisis that remained burning within this palace. Couldn't even get Jaeyun to change his mind as much as he was able to get him to remain quiet as he put Yeong-su in his place.
“That was good, Jongseong-ah,” Heeseung leans in and whispers in his ear when he settles back down, as Jongseong stares at Yeong-su and Jaeyun speaking blankly. “You settled that well—without hurting anyone.”
Jongseong lets out a dry laugh at that, muffled by the suffocating feeling in his chest.
“My mistakes have already cost lives and livelihoods, hyung,” Jongseong retorts softly, his voice teetering on something a little more raw. “It was about time I tried to do something that wouldn't have blood and tears on my hands.”
Heeseung stills at that, taken aback as his hand goes to rest between Jongseong's shoulder blades, palm splayed flat as it radiates a certain comforting warmth that made him feel so uneasy.
“Jongseongie,” Heeseung murmurs, and Jongseong can't help but dig his teeth into his bottom lip at the mention of that name, falling so gently from Heeseung's parted mouth. “This was never something we fathomed when we sent him away that day. You could not have anticipated that he would go to such lengths to fulfill this marriage he wanted—”
“Sunoo told me that the Tennō knows better than to hurt people without reason,” Jongseong mutters, his hands interlocked together as he rests his elbows upon the table as hears everything he didn't want to hear.
The Tsukiakarian soldiers have enough rifle power and skill to kill swiftly before it could even be fathomed.
They have enough soldiers to destroy a former kingdom within hours.
They have the leadership and the desire to make sure that everything burned and Jongseong knew it, with a flag sent as a warning message.
“But as hard as it is to fathom…he has a reason for all of this,” Jongseong whispers, his heart pulsing with an anxiety that runs deep and harsh, letting his breath catch in his throat. “He burned Ilchul deliberately for a reason. This message was brought to us for a reason. He is letting Ilchulian people die, and his general killed those Ilchulian soldiers first for a reason.”
The words seem to click in Heeseung's head almost instantly. From what they saw, from what Riki said, from the obvious disdain towards Ilchul for breaking the marriage treaty and the hatred he held towards Jongseong when he denied him, believing that Jongseong was on the side of Sunoo's parents in ruining his plans and foiling a marriage clearly built on love—
It added up. And suddenly, the weight of Jongseong's decisions that day makes the pressure on his shoulders all the more heavy.
“He wants Sunoo—no matter the cost to get him,” Jongseong breathes out. “Even if his path of revenge means war to get his bride.”
