Black and White «COMPLETED»

Chapter Forty- The King's Journal

​Chapter Forty- The King's Journal

The Southern Palace, Nam Guk...

Tae Jun entered the southern palace throne room, and the look he shot to a Gisaeng serenely playing a long flute, made her cease immediately and hasten from the room.

He walked over to the throne, performed the full bow in greeting, then sat before his father.

The two sat in stubborn, expressionless silence until, shaking his head, Jang Tae Yong spoke first.

"I did not expect you to perform the full bow. Outside of the hidden books and records, we don't know how the Kings related with the deities."

"Ah, so Appa Mama knows I have remembered."

"The solstice was the predicted day."

"Appa Mama is not even trying to hide the fact anymore?"

His voice was still calm and expressionless, but these two understood each other very well.

Tae Jun was angry, and his father was anxious, maybe even a little apologetic, but completely firm in his decision.

"Ah. There is no use. I'm not proud of lying, or secretly trying to control a part of your lives. However, it is a decision I will take again. I don't imagine myself losing, but if I do and Sang Yoo Jin achieves his goal, he will awaken something that normal men can't handle."

"So, is that why Appa Mama sent me out of the Palace as a child? So I will not be noticed by Sang Yoo Jin?"

"Ye. It is indeed the same enemy that made me send you out. But it wasn't because you were a deity. I only found out you were one of the four deities recently. Precisely on the day Sang Yoo Jin saw you in the Hall of the Kings."

"Then coincidentally, Choi Chun Hwa, Sang Hye Yeon, Kim Da Yeon-. All these people somehow ended up away from the Capital?"

"I wouldn't be in this seat if I couldn't make such lucky coincidences happen."

"Wah! Appa Mama is really scary. So for almost eleven years, Appa Mama has been planning for this momentous day?"

"Yes, I was." His son was indirectly making his actions seem evil.

"And you kept pretending that I-. Ani. You allowed all of us believe we had a chance at a normal life. You even arranged my marria-."

"Tae Jun-ah! This impatient child! Listen to what I'm saying!" He had risen from the throne, not caring for once, if his son was the Black Deity. "I said I only found out you were one of the deities very recently."

Tae Jun bowed his head, coughing to hide a very unexpected laugh. 'Child'? He glanced up at the first and only person he remembered as a father.

"What about the others?" He asked, struggling to hold on to his anger, which was slipping away. This was the problem with human emotions...

"I didn't intrude on their lives, beyond keeping them from Sang Yoo Jin. Except the White Deity, and she was a special case."

"Appa Mama is really skilled at acting from the shadows..."

"Stop twisting a person's intentions! Truthfully, it was hard to accept, and we feared you would all forget and go off to do your duty as deities. I was even worried that I would not remember you."

Silence, then.

"Jeosonghamnida, Appa Mama. I performed the full bow just now, because I have no intention of stepping up as the Black Deity." He bowed his head.

Jang Tae Yong sighed, sitting down.

"Crazy fellow. I knew you would be like this, but I don't think you have a choice. Now that you've remembered everything, you know what sleeps beneath this Kingdom, right?"