Chapter 112: Seon-Ho

By the time I arrived; she was already long gone. I looked around everywhere in her father's village like a madman for her but they all told me that she was long gone...alone with her brother's weapons and his old militia outfit. I...I arrived hours too late...I should have stopped her if I kew what she was going up against.

I remembered taking her around my various properties that were now in my name so we could choose where we wanted to settle down and what I would do with the rest of them before I left. I remember she was happier than she had been in a long time, and that I was as well. I had to keep my promise to the villagers and I started coming to see them with her and her brother about once a week. I simply could not get over how they treated me this whole time, with never ending comfort, never ending food and the children always followed me around wherever I went whilst Yeon would help the women who wanted to build one big kitchen big enough for the small village so everyone would start having communal meals. I remember how I lived my life before the Seo's and in their absence, and it was filled with nothing but misery, humiliation and isolation. But it was true enough that my happiness lied in their path, so I would follow it willingly...as well a getting my own personal revenge on that damned palace that wrecked all of our lives.

I was also discussing our engagement with Hwi, which I was going to carry out a lot sooner than we had originally discussed. I had shown him the home she chose; it was the smallest but he was already impressed. I told him about my first visit to his father's village without him and he seemed interested in the ideas had to help develop it. I made myself clear that when I married his sister, that her share and interest in the village would become my responsibility also and that I did have a lot of ideas and resources that I could put to use; and with that myself and the Seo's had found 'our country' that we wanted to nurture and raise ourselves. We wanted it to be done with the old laws and traditions that sunk our nation deeper than the rest; we wanted women to be educated, children to have a home, young and old people to be able to develop their skills and be able to provide for themselves and not get any labels and birthrights get in the way. No more social democracy and limitations on what people could and couldn't do, we even thought about throwing of confucian ideals altogether and just sticking to our religion. Even Hui-Jee wanted to teach girls etiquette and probably leave Ihwaru to Hwa-Wol, even Hwi's army fiends found the village the ideal place to settle down.

My actions in the mission which reunited us hadn't gone unnoticed; the fact that I had covered the captain's corruptness certainly gained me some new enemies in court but the King praised me on the other hand. But it did cause a little trouble, and he had to take that into consideration as well, so for now they had to consider what action they would take about it. Little did I know that the people he bullied, humiliated and abused had all signed petitions for his death warrant...and my promotion. I was so taken aback that I didn't know what to say when I heard. Yeon however, couldn't stop laughing at my reaction until she was practically in hysterics. I had never had anyone's support before for anything apart from the Seo's so I...i really didn't know how to react, or what I should do next. But I noticed that Yeon was looking at me as if she knew something I didn't. I asked her a number of times what she was hiding from me, but she teased me all day endlessly until I couldn't take it anymore. And that's when she surprised me by making a deal with me, I had to do something for her if I wanted to know what was going on. In all the years I had nows her she had never asked me for anything before, especially recently when she was fiercely independent and proud of it. I looked closely at her to see if she was joking around but al she did was place her hands around my waist and tried acting cute, which she was a professional at this point. I humoured her into asking what she wanted...and that's when she really surprised me by telling me she wanted us to be engaged as soon as possible.

She could have knocked me over with her small fingers, that's how taken aback I was. If I was stunned before then I do not know how to describe myself now. Im fact, I had a hard time looking at her for some reason. She hugged me from the behind before running away and shouting at me to get ready early in the morning before she went home and rode off without me. I went through the rest of my day in a daze and a huge smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of. I went back to my room only to see she had already laid out more humble clothes for me to wear tomorrow. I had no idea what this brat was up to but I all I could do was trust her.

When she saw me next morning in my new outfit...she looked at me in a way that I had never seen before. And before I knew it she was the one who pulled me into alleyways and was all over me. We were in each other's embrace before I knew it and only parted when we came up for air. I wanted so much more but she ran away again into the market. I was really having a hard time restraining myself ever since I saw her in the military camp and I realised that I really did need to hurry up with the engagement so I could have her all to myself. But no sooner had I stepped foot into the market I heard people calling out my name and a whole crowd rushing towards me. I had no idea what was going on, but before I could ask I had men wanting to shake my hand, women thanking me endlessly and other people trying to buy me meals. It took a while to calm everyone down, but Yeon was the one who told me that these people were from the village we helped repair as well as some of the relatives of the soldiers he helped get home well before the deadline and they were simply grateful to him. I was so completely overwhelmed I almost run away, thankfully Yeon was there for me as she handled the crowd beautiful and we were both invited to dine at all different households, we were spoiled with gifts of gratitude and we even had a crowd that pretty much invited themselves to our engagement ceremony. I was quiet all day as people sang my praises and thanked me endlessly. They even showed me the petition they all signed to sanction my promotion, which was a lot of people. One look at Yeon who was forever smiling at me made me realise that I was probably the only person in the King's court who truly had the support of the people who's lives I had always waned to change for the better, even if they had trampled on me more times than I could count.