Special Story 2.4

The only people who had seen Kang Lee-Jae’s bizarre masterpiece in advance were Deborah and Jade.

And their opinions had been divided.

“I think His Majesty will be… startled.”

“Still, he’ll like it. It’s heartfelt, after all.”

“He’ll laugh, for sure. And yes—he’ll love it too.”

When the King arrived at the garden, he remained silent for a long while.

At the far end of the garden stood a strikingly aggressive pair of statues.

They were enlarged versions of Lee-Jae’s early, painstaking works.

Roderick rubbed his face with both hands and let out deep, heavy sighs.

And just as Lee-Jae had expected, it happened.

Clutching his forehead, the King began to laugh.

At first it sounded almost like a groan—like he was in pain.

“…Darling. What is this monstrosity?”

“I carved it using the sculpting tools you bought me at the workshop last time.”

‘You gave them to me with such care… I couldn’t possibly ignore that. When you give, something should come back in return—that’s just the way of the world. So like you said before, I gave my art everything I had.’

“There were some parts I couldn’t manage with just the tools, so I ended up using a hammer too.”

Lee-Jae smiled sweetly as she said this.

Roderick, who had been shaking with laughter, now simply covered his face altogether.

“Let me breathe a little first. I’m seriously dying here—then we’ll talk.”

Lee-Jae nodded, but Roderick continued to suffer from laughter for a while.

It finally hit him—what exactly he’d unleashed in the Glastine territory.

‘What the hell did I buy her…?’

It took him quite some time to calm down enough to actually look at the statues.

They were slightly taller than Lee-Jae, and while their faces resembled the ones already in her workshop, these felt—strangely—funnier. Warmer, somehow.

‘Was it because he was getting used to them? Or because the sculptor’s mind had finally found peace? Or maybe… because his own way of looking at her had changed?’

Roderick turned to her and quietly shared his thoughts.

“They’ve got… character.”

“Right? I knew you’d say that.”

“Yeah. But don’t you think you, my little bean, poured too much of your heart into these ones?”

He chuckled softly. ‘You didn’t have to go this hard. Honestly, your sense of scale is all over the place.’

But Lee-Jae, who didn’t think this was all that big compared to her usual work, just grinned.

“Doesn’t it look cuter because it’s big?”

“…I guess. It’s definitely funnier that way.”

“Then it’s a success. Half of it was just to make Your Majesty laugh.”

“…Really?”

She nodded, and Roderick—who had laughed himself into a daze—finally realized something.

‘So this is why she’s been sneaking in and out of the garden like a fox hiding a treasure.’

“You’re telling me that now?”

“Your Majesty, no one wants to show off their masterpiece before it’s done.”

“Other people must’ve seen it, though. There’s no way you dragged this heavy thing out here by yourself…”

Even as he spoke, another realization struck him.

He turned abruptly to glare at the trusted friend standing behind him.

‘Of course. And you didn’t think to say anything, huh?’

Truthfully, it had been bothering him that his wife and another man had been sneaking around together.

He lifted his foot slightly in warning, and Jade, avoiding his gaze, quickly looked away.

Lee-Jae laughed and tugged gently at Roderick’s sleeve.

“Jade helped me carry it. I kind of bullied him into it.”

She felt a bit guilty—making him do so much in exchange for a single charm and a spell.

But Roderick simply nodded in approval.

“You did a fine job.”

“You should’ve hit him a few times too,” he added casually.

“The commander’s never lost a sword fight in his life.”

Jade, listening nearby, looked slightly offended.

That used to be true—before the Royal bloodline awakened.

These days, he lost to the King every single time they sparred.

And even before, he had rarely won against Roderick in hand-to-hand combat.

The bystanders watching this interaction… couldn’t help but find it oddly amusing.

The statues were endlessly terrifying, yet her husband—well, he was still her husband—clearly seemed to like them.

His blue eyes carefully studying the sculptures were warm, and the way his hands gently caressed them, as if touching a person, was tender.

The King spoke with great amusement.

“Lee-Jae, then does that mean I can’t have this? I’d like to put it in front of my room.”

“It’s yours, Roderick. I originally planned to place it there, but you sleep in my room anyway.”

The King nodded as if agreeing, but Lee-Jae added with a sly tone,

“If we ever end up sleeping in separate rooms, I’ll move it for you then.”

“We have Jade, don’t we? He’ll help again.”

“Ah, don’t joke like that—it’s scary.”

Roderick pulled Lee-Jae into a tight embrace, but she laughed softly and squirmed out of his arms.

Leaving the others behind, she suddenly started walking somewhere.

She headed to the storage room, which also served as her workshop.

A moment later, she emerged holding a sculpting chisel in her hand.

The King looked at her with great curiosity, and after giving a small smile, she crouched down in front of the wooden statues.

Because it wasn’t over yet.

She had the most important work remaining.

Lee-Jae engraved nicknames onto the statues standing side by side.

At the lower corner of one statue, she carved “Roderick.”

On the other one, she carved her own name.

Roderick bent over and stared at his statue’s inscription with a somewhat awkward expression.

“…Darling.”

“Yes?”

“I never expected you’d go this far… Thank you.”

The King gently rubbed his forehead for a moment.

He was grateful beyond words that she thought of him so deeply, but the feeling was hard to put into a simple “thank you.”

He realized there was still some awkwardness between himself and the statues.

In the end, he covered his eyes and laughed again.

Having finished his meeting early, the King waited in his room for the Queen to arrive.

Then it happened.

The spirit in the chest tried to sneak out of the house, but when it saw the King, it hurriedly hid again.

The King watched quietly, tilted his head, and rose from the bed.

He tapped the old chest lightly with his index finger.

But even after waiting for a long time, there was no reaction.

Finally, the King opened the lid, and the spirit, which had flown off the roof in an instant, was curled up and trembling.

The King frowned deeply.

What on earth had he done to make it so scared?

As the King frowned, the spirit curled up even tighter than before.

He sighed and finally spoke.

“Hey.”

— ………

  “I’m talking to you.”

The spirit rolled its round eyes this way and that, making the cutest face it could.

— Hm? Me?

But the King’s reaction was harsher than expected.

“You’re being awfully short with me.”

— ………

“Fine, whatever you want.”

— ………

“Come out here.”

The King spun the wooden chest around, then strode back to the bed.

Soon after, the spirit crawled up onto the bed, and the King propped his chin on his hand, observing it carefully.

“Can you leave this room?”

The King asked, but the spirit just looked around nervously and didn’t answer right away.

The King sighed deeply.

He wondered who exactly he was talking to right now.

Since gaining his sight, the King had never spoken to any non-human being. Unlike his wife, he had never felt the need.

But this time, the King exercised patience and asked once more.

“Did you not hear me? I don’t like asking the same thing multiple times.”

— …I can leave, but I can’t go far. I have to come back quickly. That’s my home.

The spirit pointed its plump finger at the chest, and the King chuckled softly.

The chest the spirit called its home looked like it was falling apart.

But the King knew, in some ways, it was sturdy—thanks to his wife’s repairs with talismans and the energy she had been infusing into it bit by bit.

Such a tiny thing, yet it exerted its power here and there. The King let out a shallow sigh.

“You know what.”

— Me?

“Yeah, you.”

— ………

“From now on, if anyone tries anything with the Queen, tell me. If she starts scheming weird things like last time, tell me that too.”

— ………

“If something dangerous happens, come to me immediately. No exceptions.”

— ………

“Got it? Oh, and don’t tell the Queen what I just said.”

The King was making an odd request to a spirit no bigger than his forearm.

After finishing, he quietly watched the spirit’s reaction.

Lee-Jae had told him once: that spirit was just a naive, childlike entity.

But she’d forgotten that the spirit had once stolen a talisman from her at their very first meeting, using its cute appearance.

The spirit immediately set a condition in response to the King’s request.

— Then you won’t glare at me anymore?

Roderick, who had been loosening his expression, immediately hardened it.

“So it was you after all.”

The spirit, slightly hurt, curled up again but didn’t give up, cautiously pushing its hips backward as it asked:

— Will you play with me like Lee-Jae does?

“What?”

— Then does that mean we’ll be friends?

The King let out a dry chuckle, stunned.

Could there really be such a thing as this?

Still, he finally nodded shortly.

If his wife’s safety was at stake, he knew there was no such thing as a losing deal for him.

“Sigh… fine, I guess so.”

The spirit, having found someone new to play with, brightened immediately.

Its expression was both innocent and, in a way, cunning.

Though still exasperated, the King was honestly satisfied.

After all, he had easily achieved what he wanted.

A royal castle was, in the end, a place rife with requests and secret conversations.

And right now, the one playing a part in it was the lord of the castle himself—who had secretly planted a watcher, unbeknownst to his wife.