Lady of YeonSung (Lisrene)

Chapter 33

Spring had returned to YeonSung.

The majestic imperial palace and the residences of all the high ranking officials surrounding it... They were all the same.

I lived here for four seasons?

Joohyun was lost in thought as she looked down at the city.

The clear, cool spring wind brushed through her hair. When she had decided to return to this city, she was met with many objections and countless worries.

She still clearly remembered the emperor's threat. If she ever stepped foot inside the Silver Nation, he would destroy Yeha.

She still remembered the Red King's voice as he told her that he'd never see her again after he found his mother.

More importantly, YeonSung was the place where Brother Jewol had lived and the place where she had ultimately lost Brother Seulgi.

However, she needed to come here. She couldn't help but come here.

The past four months had passed by in a haze. She prepared a funeral for Brother Seulgi and became the new Mergan. As the new leader, she needed to decide where the people of Yeha would settle next. Thankfully, all the elders of Yeha had been kind to her.

They considered her to have been as brave as her brother during the war. More importantly, they approved of the fact that she had managed to make peace with the Silver Nation's emperor and bring back a peace treaty.

On top of that, she had brought back with her the mother of the next emperor of the Silver Nation. There was nothing else that could be more of a help to them in the political world.

Once Yeha's peace was secured, Joohyun began searching for her central tree.

Joohyun selected a banyan tree to be the central tree of the new Yeha. Nine parties were posted around the tree, and they would help govern the nation.

They trained new warriors, and the spring had brought new life. The bodies of their ancestors were exhumed and buried near the tree.

Once a child was born in Yeha, they would plant a tree connected to that child, and the child and the tree would grow together. Once they died, they'd be buried underneath their tree. Therefore, they believed that all of the mountains and hills, the skies and the earth, were filled with the breath of their ancestors.

Brother Seulgi was buried next to their father. And now, Joohyun was truly alone.

However, more than the loneliness, the heaviest burden in her heart was the yearning.

She felt fine during the day when she was buried in work. She'd put her all into her tasks, and when she focused solely on her work, the time would crawl by. However, she could barely endure it at night.

Whenever she was about to fall asleep, she recalled her time in YeonSung. Those difficult memories had transformed into yearning as they began to fill her head.

The man who had hugged her from behind. The laughing voice saying that she smelled like peonies. Him looking down at her after suddenly appearing before her. She even remembered the way he had ridden on his horse as he found her at CheongRyu Hall.

The moments when he tasted her lips in the sunlight. The way he stood in the snow when they had reunited. His angry kiss amongst the bamboo trees. She recalled his expression when he had come to her at the inn. She remembered and remembered...

And whenever she remembered these moments, her heart hurt. And whenever her heart hurt, she'd cry. And whenever she cried, she felt as if she were going crazy.