Heart of Ice

Homicide

Jeonghan was murdered in the castle. He was found mutilated in one of the guestrooms, and dead from a sword to his heart.

Seungcheol had blamed Yewon for it, and for many hours, a lot of people seemed to believe that she was somehow responsible for it. It made sense why many would think it was her, especially if there were aware of Seungcheol's affair. Jeonghan not only stole her husband's affection, but he was also in part responsible for the war and for her country's suffering. He was the most anti-Galacian man in the castle, and everyone knew that he wanted to continue the war, that he wanted to sway Seungcheol into agreeing to attack.

She was thus held in the courtroom with the King and the Queen as the murder was investigated. Seungcheol was held in another room.

As Yewon waited for the verdict, she felt shaken and lost. Jeonghan died. He was dead. She had only spoken to him a few hours earlier, but now he was dead. It was difficult to process, difficult to wrap her head around how something like that could suddenly happen, how a life can suddenly just end.

She found herself crying when she thought of it.

It was not that she liked him; she did not. She found herself, however, imagining the pain his death would bring.

The Solenese people who thought him an angel. The patients in the hospital who adored him. Little Dino who looked up to him. Seungcheol who depended on and perhaps loved him. No matter his violent policies, he held and important presence, and it was so hard to think of what it meant that he was now gone.

Even bad people are important to others. Even people who have wronged you have a place in this world that makes their life valuable. Even bad people have a lot of good in them, and now that Jeonghan was dead, Yewon thought a lot about all the good that Jeonghan was.

The picture of his bright smile was etched into her head. He had looked like such an angel, and she could only imagine how much more of an angel he had been to the patients at the hospital, and to Seungcheol.

She recalled the last conversation she had with him: "please don't turn him against me," he had told her. He had also opened up about how important Seungcheol was to him, and it made her feel so guilty. That she had been a source of pain for someone who was now dead overwhelmed her with remorse.

It's strange that her initial dislike for him was suddenly so petty now that he was dead. That's the thing with death; it makes you realize how useless you are. She had disliked him, but now it did not matter because he was gone, and she hated that he was gone. How she wished he were still alive and that she still disliked him.

She had to sit in the court for about two hours until she was finally vindicated; a young Solenese scholar came forth and confessed to the crime himself, and reproduced the sword that he used to kill Jeonghan.

Yewon got to see the culprit right in front of her. A tall, handsome fellow who looked slightly terrified of what awaited him. Mingyu was his name.

"I killed Sir Jeonghan," Mingyu admitted, "because he was a violent man who was trying to implement violent policies and prolong the war with the enemy country." Mingyu had glanced at her when he said that, sending chills down her spine. "I wanted to put an end to it, and so I killed him. I now accept whatever punishment awaits me."

When Mingyu was taken to the dungeons, he glanced at her again. She looked away, feeling so burdened with that murderer's gaze, as if it were somehow implicating her into the murder.

-

Mingyu was to hang the next day, right after Jeonghan's funeral. Yewon had to attend both the funeral and the hanging.