Before I End Up as Rabbit Stew - Chapter 25

Yimae couldn’t grasp the Black Dragon’s intentions. Wouldn’t it be better for the Black Dragon if his friends came? She nodded without adding or subtracting.

“It would be nice to meet them.”

The Black Dragon paused, lost in thought, then turned away again. Yimae, who thought he would say something, felt all her energy drain away.

“Anyway, don’t move from the training hall.”

His steps stopped in front of the training hall. Yimae pretended not to see his chin gesture, as if telling her to go inside.

“But I have to water the field every day?”

“I’ll assign the head of the Secret Guard.”

Ugh. Yimae twisted her lips as much as possible.

“He’ll beat me up if you’re not around, Black Dragon.”

“Surely you won’t just stand there and get beaten.”

The Black Dragon smiled faintly and turned away heartlessly.

“So, you won’t be coming while the guests are here?”

He didn’t answer. But this wasn’t a question she particularly expected an answer to, so Yimae simply went into the training hall.

Come to think of it, she remembered. When the White Tiger and Vermilion Bird visited the Moon Palace, they had definitely mentioned opening the Black Dragon Palace.

“What was it?”

Yimae struggled to recall the vague memory. But all that came to mind was the White Tiger’s sly face as he called her “mouse-eye bean,” and the Vermilion Bird’s face, so upright that he neither caused any harm nor provided any benefit.

“Ah, get out of the way.”

Yimae fought with the White Tiger’s face in her head. She kept thinking intently. Surely it had something to do with the Black Dragon Palace…

‘It’s a shame, I was hoping the Black Dragon would open his palace and invite us this year.’

Finally, an unknown Chang’e’s voice echoed in her head. Yimae grabbed the window frame and jumped up.

“That’s right.”

Each of the Four Symbols’ palaces had outstanding characteristics. They were in charge of directions or units of the celestial realm, but more than that, they each oversaw one of the distinct four seasons. There was an old custom of holding grand banquets and opening their palaces during their respective seasons, and the Four Symbols enjoyed it very much. It was a pastime for the celestial gods who didn’t need to cling desperately to life.

“Wait a minute.”

A thought flashed through Yimae’s mind, and she quickly raised her head. The Four Symbols’ banquets were not ordinary banquets. Of course, they were held on a grand scale, using the entire palace as a banquet hall, and their splendor and magnificence rivaled even the Celestial Emperor’s palace, but they also had a deeper meaning.

Young gods of the celestial realm gathered at the banquets. They exchanged glances and secretly held hands to form couples. When the owner of the palace, one of the Four Symbols, was unmarried, high-ranking gods who had their eye on the Symbol would deliberately send their daughters.

“The White Tiger’s official wife was met that way too.”

How did she know that? Yimae didn’t really want to know. The only one of the Four Symbols without an official wife was the Black Dragon. When her thoughts reached that point, Yimae was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t say anything more.

When was it that he said he was investigating her mother’s death and growing magic herbs, and now he’s going to hold a banquet to find a bride?

Yimae went to the window and threw it wide open. The cold wind caught her clothes and blew in. But it didn’t ventilate Yimae’s mind, and she remained gloomy.

“What are you going to do?”

She muttered to herself. If he held a banquet, it was obvious that the zealous Chang’e of the Moon Palace would visit, thinking it was a windfall. There was no way the Chang’e would miss such an interesting event. Yimae already felt a chill down her spine at the thought of them recognizing her.

“Close the window.”

Suddenly, the head of the Secret Guard’s face popped up at the window. Yimae was so surprised that she fell backward.

“You scared me!”

“It’s cold.”

The head of the Secret Guard tried to close both sides of the window. Yimae quickly wedged her hand between the doors to stop him.

“Does the head know? Why are you suddenly opening the palace?”

Why did she call him “head” when he wasn’t even a member of the Secret Guard? She was an unnecessarily friendly woman. The head of the Secret Guard ignored her and continued to close the window.

“My hand’s going to get cut off! It’s going to get cut off!”

Yimae made a fuss, her hand caught between the doors. The head of the Secret Guard sighed loudly, as if to be heard, and released the window.

“Put your hand in.”

“Tell me why you’re opening the palace! Tell me!”

“You’re not going to put it in? Suit yourself.”

“Aish!”

The head of the Secret Guard didn’t give her a second chance. He pulled the window shut with a stern face. Yimae took a step back, seeing an expression that suggested he wouldn’t bat an eye even if her hand was really cut off. The window slammed shut.

Yimae leaned against the window frame as she sat down. Suddenly, she felt endlessly depressed.

“Why am I so irritable?”

She asked herself, but couldn’t find a clear answer.

But the next day, when breakfast was brought into the Dovecote Pavilion, Yimae was able to completely forget the annoyance she had felt about the palace opening and the banquet.

There was neobiani and rice cakes as a base, along with eomandu soup with fish dumplings floating in it, and four kinds of jeon, vegetables and meat coated in egg batter and gently grilled. Yimae piled the jeon on top of the white rice like a mountain and ate. She wondered if the evening meal would be so lavish that the table legs would break.

“Inviting guests isn’t such a strange thing after all.”

Yimae laughed heartily as she skewered several rice cakes on a single chopstick. When she glanced at the pavilion door, the Black Dragon wasn’t there. She felt a brief pang of emptiness at the absence of someone who was always there. He must be busy with the palace opening.

“That could be.”

Yimae soon laughed again as she skewered her sixth rice cake.

From that day on, the Black Dragon Palace became very busy. The palace, which had always been as quiet as a temple, as if only the Black Dragon and Yimae lived there, was noisy day and night. The kitchen was using not only the one in the main hall but also the one attached to the small pavilion, so the smell of cooking filled the air everywhere, and it was bustling.

The next day, all sorts of banquet supplies were brought in through a gate that the head of the Secret Guard had summoned to the main hall courtyard. There were tables so large that they could be mistaken for beds, pale pink lanterns, and hundreds of white jade trays for serving food. The Secret Guards appropriately arranged the tables in front of the main hall and hung the lanterns densely along the eaves.

The Dovecote Pavilion, the most remote part of the Dragon Jewel Palace, was peaceful. Yimae watered the saplings appropriately and received banquet food for breakfast and dinner.

The faces of the Secret Guards who delivered the meals grew more haggard and aged day by day. It was the first time in years that they had done such labor.

Yimae was repeatedly disappointed by the Black Dragon, who never showed his face, and then her heart was soothed when she received the meal.

“I’m bored.”

How long had it been since she had felt this emotion? A listless, mushy feeling that made her feel like she would have to live like this until the end of her life. Yimae lay sprawled on a weeping willow branch, shaking her outstretched arm meaninglessly.

She was bored and listless. Now that she had planted the saplings, there wasn’t much to do in the field, and the soil was so good that there were no weeds or pests.

“I see why you were lying here.”

Yimae rolled around on the branch. The weeping willow branch was thick and wide, and she would fall asleep as soon as she lay down. Below was a board covering the pit. She had thought about completing the pit in this gap since the Black Dragon had stopped visiting, but even that wasn’t easy because of the head of the Secret Guard, who appeared unexpectedly.

The Secret Guards scurrying around in the distance looked as small as ants.

Now, a decorative cloth embroidered with thin gold thread hung from the ceiling of the banquet hall. The cloth was the same pale pink color as the lanterns, so the entire banquet hall looked like a cherry blossom grove at first glance. Yimae grumbled that they should just call it a matchmaking banquet, seeing the faint, blushing pale pink color like a spring maiden’s cheeks.

“Should I do something too?”

Killing time idly didn’t suit her temperament. Yimae jumped off the tree. But her landing wasn’t stable. Yimae, who barely managed to regain her balance, keenly felt the need for strength training.

“The training hall is that way.”

Where does this person suddenly appear from? Yimae pouted as the head of the Secret Guard followed her.

“I’m not going to the training hall.”

“Go to the training hall.”

“The opening hasn’t even happened yet, why are you doing this?”

Come to think of it, that’s right. The opening hasn’t happened yet, and the guests haven’t arrived yet, so why isn’t the Black Dragon coming? Yimae tried to deny the fact that she was upset that she couldn’t see him. It was a heart that was worse than a rotten quince to have.

“Is this far enough?”

Yimae, who had been walking along the muddy road for a long time, stopped at a certain point. It was very far from both the Dragon Jewel Palace and the training hall.

She picked up any branch she could find nearby and planted it like a stake. The head of the Secret Guard, who had been silently following Yimae, whether it was surveillance or protection, raised his eyebrows.

“Open the door for me.”

Yimae said cheerfully to him. The head of the Secret Guard didn’t answer, but his face was full of displeasure.

“Open the door for me, quickly.”

“What door are you talking about?”

“Why, the door to Bipamung, hurry.”

Seeing Yimae demanding as if it were natural, the head of the Secret Guard twitched his hand again.

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