Unmasking Souls

The Limits of Certain Things

One person didn't join guarding Prince Min Ho and his princess consort visiting the recovered Jin. Sung Kyung. Her wounds were bad. She had changed but Go Eun saw blood stains on her body and told her to rest. Sung Kyung had insisted to go with her but the princess sternly insisted so she obeyed.

When the royal couple was safe in their chamber, Jo Yeong knocked on Sung Kyung's bedroom.

"I'm Jo Yeong. May I come in?"

"......Ne."

He opened the door and stepped into the room.

The room was moderate but still comfortable. Sung Kyung was sitting on the spread mattress, stiff and pale.

"I bring this. A special salve from my family. It will make bleeding wounds heal faster".

It was evident that she was in no mood for small talks. She looked like someone who just woke up from a nightmare and was still haunted by it.

"I don't mean to be indecent. But let me help you tend to your wounds," he requested.

"I'm fine. Thank you," she said dryly.

"Be sensible. I still see bloodstains on your clothes."

"I wish to be alone."

"How can you guard your princess if you're wounded?"

"I'll manage."

"How? No other maids were taken to serve us here. You can call one of the palace maids, but there will be a lot to explain to make the sword cuts understandable."

She was silent, observing the empty desk in front of her.

"Unless you want me to call the palace physician, and the news that we were attacked would spread faster than ever"

She relented and began to undress.

She was trained to be a female guard, endured training with men in the Kim family and had wounds before, so being tended by a man was not foreign for her, all was fair in survival.

It was only that.......she was deeply shaken and was unsure she could hold longer from breaking down. It wouln't be a dignified scene if she broke down in front of Jo Yeong, the Grand Prince's head guard.

She undressed without a sound until she was topless, covering her front with her blouse, sitting with her back to him.

He took a basin of water from the corner of the room, and sat behind her.

Her thin back had several sword wounds. There were big and small scratches, some were rather deep, and they were still bleeding though a few hours had already passed. It didn't bleed so much to make her faint, but enough to hurt very much.

"Hold on" he warned, starting to clean her wounds one by one with a cloth dipped in the water.

She gripped the desk in front of her, biting her own lips to prevent herself from screaming.

Though it hurt, she welcomed the pain.

I deserve this........

He then finished cleaning the wounds on her back, the water had become red with blood, and he started to apply the herbal salve on the wounds.

She gasped in more pain and gripped the desk harder.

He tried to be careful, but it was inevitable. It must have hurt a lot.

Her back was thin. Like her complete figure, she's more scrawny than slim.

He wondered whether she ever really enjoyed a meal. But they were the same, she and him. They ate not to be sick. They ate to have the energy to protect. They ate not for the pleasure of it.