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Chapter 17

"I\'ll be back after a quick visit to the library."

"Pardon?"

This was already the second time this eunuch had asked me to repeat myself.

"What are you asking again for? This is the third time you\'ve asked. Don’t you understand? Are you deaf? Are your ears hurting? I said I\'m going to the library. The library. You don\'t know what a library is? It\'s a place where you read books. You surely know what books are, right? They\'re bound papers with writing on them. Books."

It seemed my statement about wanting to read some books sounded strange to them.

"...Did you say you\'re going to the library?"

One eunuch exclaimed in shock.

"Oh my, our Highness is going to the library... Did the sun rise from the west today...? No, no, this can\'t be. It\'s Your Highness\'s first time going to the library, we should write this down somewhere to commemorate..."

Are they crazy?

I pretended not to hear the eunuch muttering in awe.

Anyway, I left my quarters early in the morning and headed to the palace library. As I entered, the smell of old paper filled the air. The atmosphere itself felt ancient.

Can\'t they ventilate this place a bit? Are there some regulations against it?

I started rummaging through the books with a somewhat unpleasant feeling.

"Are the older ones this way?"

I decided to start by looking for the oldest documents. Records related to Taejo would likely be classified there.

Records about Taejo were scarce because it was such a long time ago. Even when I managed to find a book claiming to be a record, it either had little content or a significant portion was missing.

"This is the palace library, how can they manage it so poorly?"

My goal this time was to find the legend of Taejo\'s founding of the nation.

To be honest, any somewhat educated person wouldn\'t easily believe in legends.

Because common sense exists.

Things like talking birds or ears that can hear from a hundred miles away.

Of course, I had heard that there were parrots in the southern regions that could mimic human speech, and that there were supernatural abilities that allowed people to hear from afar. However, these were quite different from what was described in the Taejo legend. In other words, the Taejo legend had unrealistic elements that made it difficult to truly believe.

At the very least, if the supernatural ability that supposedly made Taejo the founding king had been passed down through generations, it might have been more believable. But the current royal family\'s abilities were insignificant, so the credibility of the Taejo legend had plummeted. Who would believe something invisible, especially a story from hundreds of years ago?

But.

"Ha."

Both the bird that spoke of its own will and the abnormally keen hearing that could pick up sounds that shouldn\'t be heard were things I had experienced myself.

So how could I not believe it?

Moreover, I was the one who had seen Taejo\'s spirit in person.

It would be harder to find someone who didn\'t know the Taejo legend than someone who had never eaten rice. Rice was the most common crop in this country, so finding someone who had never eaten it was almost impossible. Therefore, the fact that it was even harder to find someone who didn\'t know the Taejo legend meant that the entire population knew it.

Naturally, I had also heard the legend from a young age.

But believing it was a different matter from knowing it. I was on the side of not believing in legends.

However, I had already come too far to deny the Taejo legend.

Suddenly, I felt a chill.

"There are so many baseless rumors in the world."

If I were to search for every story passed down through the wind and word of mouth, there would be all sorts of tales.

It sent shivers down my spine to think that such legends might actually be true. Especially in the northern border regions, there were often tales about strange beings. Of course, even in Seopyung, where many people died, such rumors occasionally surfaced.

I could only hope that the monsters in the old tales told to children weren\'t real.

After briefly indulging in such random thoughts, I found a few books and skimmed through the important parts. By then, the sun was already high in the sky.

It was time for lunch.

The best thing about being a prince was definitely the food.

The palace food was truly delicious.

I had lived for 24 years without knowing this fact, so I had been missing out on life.

Even if I had known that the palace food was delicious, it wouldn\'t have made much difference in my life as a street urchin, but that\'s beside the point.

When I returned to Hyunjung Hall, a court lady brought me food a short while later.

There was glistening white rice, greasy meat dishes, fish that I had never seen in the inland region of Seopyung, and several kinds of vegetables. Even in Blood Cloud Fortress, I had eaten well, but since my last memory was that of an old battlefield, it had been quite a while since I had a proper meal as Baek Yeon.

As I was about to start my lunch, I felt an intense gaze.

I knew the source of the gaze.

"Hey."

Today was the promised day.

"Hey, you."

The day I had made a bet with the crow.

"Aren\'t you going to answer?"

I picked up my chopsticks and waved them in the air. But the crow\'s eyes didn\'t seem to be looking at me.

After several attempts, I finally got its attention.

"Today is the day we promised, why are you keeping your beak shut?"

Did it think it was at a disadvantage? That I would win the bet?

Clever little thing. It caught on quickly.

"Look at this? You\'re not going to talk?"

I approached the cage, opened the door, and took the crow out myself. It was a cage that one of the eunuchs had gotten for me.

The crow seemed to have already realized that my grip could be quite merciless, so it didn\'t resist.

"But... you seem to have gotten a bit heavier?"

What do people think is the biggest hardship of being a beggar?

Most would probably guess the right answer.

As a former beggar, I can say it was hunger.

The sorrow of not being able to eat. The sorrow of clutching an empty stomach and starving. The sorrow of trying to fall asleep to forget the hunger, but not being able to because of the empty stomach...

That\'s why, even though I had confined the crow, I made sure it was well-fed.

And look at what happened.

It was certain.

"You\'ve gained weight."

"Caw! Caw!"

The bird protested, flapping its wings.

As if protesting would reduce its already increased weight.

"What are you doing at the dining table?"

Tsk. I clicked my tongue once in disapproval, and the bird quieted down again.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

I was going to win this bet, and that meant I would be seeing this bird for a very long time.

It felt a bit awkward to keep calling it "the bird" or "the crow."

"Hey."

The black eyes of the bird in my grasp looked up at me.

"Don\'t you have a name?"

"Humph! What use is a name! Who dares to give this one a name! Does a spiritual being like myself need a trivial name given by a human!"

So, it didn\'t have one.

"You don\'t have one? Then I\'ll give you one."

What should I call it? I had only received names, never given one to someone else.

It flies in the sky, so... the opposite, Gon?

"Gonzo."

The black head tilted at the sound of its new name.

"I\'ll call you that from now on. You\'re Gonzo, Gon."

I held Gonzo in one hand and gently stroked its head with the other, pressing down slightly.

"There... I gave you a name, so behave. Okay? If you do well, there\'s nothing bad for you. I can be a good roommate. Yeah, I\'m confident. I don\'t even snore."

Instead of resisting, I felt its feathers tremble slightly.

It wasn\'t much of a reaction, so it wasn\'t fun to tease.

"Anyway, let\'s get down to business."

I let go of the bird and started eating. I spoke with each bite of food I swallowed.

"I have supernatural abilities. Well, you probably already knew that I figured it out. I spoke about quitting the bellflower in front of you, didn\'t I?"

I didn\'t say anything about Gonzo freely roaming around Hyunjung Hall. Of course, Gonzo could overhear my conversations with the eunuch.

"But I have supernatural abilities, so... what does that have to do with you? What does my having abilities have to do with you?"

I pointed my chopsticks at Gonzo, and it flinched, raising its head.

"You know you can\'t back out now, right? You agreed to the bet too. From now on, if you talk nonsense, I\'ll slit your throat. Okay?"

I made a throat-slitting gesture with my thumb.

"Given the circumstances."

Why did Gonzo specifically linger around the First Prince? The most obvious difference between the First Prince and others was, of course, his supernatural abilities.

The supernatural ability that was highly likely to be the same kind as Taejo\'s.

"You\'ve been following me because I\'m the only one with this ability, right?"

"H-How did you...?"

Don\'t underestimate human insight, crow.

"Ahem."

I put on a haughty air for no reason.

"I never make bets that I\'m likely to lose."

It\'s foolish to make a bet you\'re bound to lose. Everyone knows that.

"So what does this ability have to do with you? Tell me. I\'m going crazy with the discomfort. I need to know at least what good it does to endure this."

I said I would stop taking the bellflower, but trying to endure the heightened senses all day was driving me crazy. In the end, the best compromise was to gradually reduce the dosage. That\'s why I was still taking the bellflower.

Gonzo reluctantly started talking.

So.

It knew from the beginning that the First Prince had supernatural abilities.

Here, "from the beginning" refers to around the time the First Prince, Yegyeong, was born.

But to properly understand Gonzo\'s explanation, I first needed to know its true nature.

"I am a spiritual being."

"Why don\'t you tell me something I haven\'t heard before? My memory is still pretty good."

First of all, it seemed that Gonzo was indeed what was called a spiritual being.

"I served the first king of this country."

"I\'ve heard enough of your boasting."

"Caw!"

And it was Taejo\'s supernatural ability that made Gonzo a spiritual being.

Here\'s a question.

"Wait. Something\'s strange, isn\'t it?"

"What\'s strange?"

"No, listen. You became a spiritual being or whatever because of that ability. I don\'t know how that works, but..."

"That is correct."

"...Taejo\'s ability has been lost for a long time."

"That is correct."

"It\'s been... how many years already? Uh..."

I spread my fingers and counted.

Ah, whatever.

"Roughly speaking, it\'s been about two hundred years since the royal family stopped inheriting that ability."

I knew this from the books in the palace library. I had read the records this morning, so there was no chance of me being wrong.

But it claimed that an ability, long vanished from the world, was the very thing sustaining its consciousness.

"...That\'s strange, isn\'t it?"

Come to think of it, there was something slightly off about its statements.