The Price of Breaching the Contract - Chapter 99

The invitation from the royal palace was more concise than expected. Inside the gold-rimmed envelope, only two short sentences were written in refined handwriting.

[Yulania Tinrialin is requested to visit the royal palace within this week. I hope we can spend some private time together as father and daughter after a long time.

-Adisha Tinrialin]

There were no ornamental phrases or ceremonial embellishments.

It was direct, yet contained a subtle nuance. Yulania calmly placed the paper on the desk. Santia, who had been standing silently, studied her expression for a moment before cautiously speaking.

“I will go with you.”

His words were firm, but also filled with concern. He was well aware of her relationship with the king. He knew better than anyone that Yulania always became less talkative and lost her smile when she stood before him.

However, Yulania shook her head.

“I’ll go alone.”

“Yulania.”

“It’s something I have to face. Alone, without anyone’s shadow.”

Santia said no more. Instead, he held her hand tightly. And he didn’t let go until she got into the carriage.

When the carriage arrived in front of the royal palace, the soldiers standing above the golden crest recognized her and opened the gate. Yulania quietly inhaled, then turned to look at Santia.

He simply brushed her hair back once and quietly said,

“I’ll be waiting.”

Yulania nodded slightly at those words. And slowly, she moved towards the castle gate.

The king’s reception room, decorated in dark colors, was slightly eerie and quiet. The dark navy curtains blocked the outside light, and only faint candlelight was arranged along the walls. When she was young, this room felt so large and unfamiliar, but now it felt like a giant cave pressing down on her heart.

After a while, the door opened and the king entered. He silently scanned her once, then took a seat across the table. The silence in the room, with only the two of them and no attendants or guards, felt heavier than ever.

“I heard you had a daughter.”

It was his first words.

Yulania reflexively lowered her gaze. Decades of ingrained habits were ingrained in her body. She managed to speak, but her voice was strangely weak.

“Yes, Father. Her name is Shuria.”

The king nodded slightly. As always, his face was as hard and expressionless as a sculpture.

“I received the tapestry well.”

“I’m glad.”

“It’s like you. Organized, balanced diligently woven.”

He continued indifferently as he poured tea.

Yulania still didn’t look up. It was difficult to judge whether his words were praise, mockery, or just a soliloquy. But she was used to it. He always touched people’s hearts in such ambiguous ways.

Feeling her hand trembling as she held the tea, she cautiously opened her mouth.

“Shuria is a very healthy and bright child. Some people say she looks like me others say she’s the spitting image of Santia.”

The king showed no particular reaction even after hearing those words. He simply quietly brought the teacup to his lips. Time passed like that several times, and the conversation did not continue.

Yulania felt like she had to say something. But that something just wouldn’t come out. She couldn’t ask if he was doing well, and she couldn’t demand why he had called her. He was her father and the king. And for Yulania, that boundary had never been blurred.

The king put down his teacup.

“I heard you looked into the medicine.”

The moment those words came out of her father’s mouth, Yulania froze, forgetting to breathe. It was as if she had heard the sound of a box, hidden deep inside, suddenly opening, and her mind went blank. She had never imagined that the story would come out of her father’s mouth, so she couldn’t say or react anything.

“…”

She knew she had to say something, but her lips wouldn’t part. Rather, her chest grew coldly, and she felt as if her strength was draining away.

The king put down his teacup, clasped his hands together, and continued in a very calm tone.

“I was trying to protect you, fearing that there might be a bad influence because of the connection with the devil but strangely, something went wrong.”

I was trying to protect you.

Yulania frowned slightly at those words. The thought that what she had just heard might be an excuse or perhaps the truth flashed through her mind at the same time. But more than anything, it was that last word that ached like it was strangling her heart.

Something went wrong.

It wasn’t something that could be simply summed up like that. The terrible pain and confusion of that time could never be covered up by the single phrase ‘something strange’. However, Yulania, as if out of habit, couldn’t raise her head and asked with difficulty.

“You protected me?”

The king nodded. His expression was still indifferent, and his eyes had no emotional texture. He always opened his mouth with an emotional shield. Neither hurt, regret, nor even affection could be easily read within it.

“Yes. I’m glad you’re safe and sound.”

Yulania felt something surging inside her chest as if it was about to explode. As if she couldn’t bear it any longer, she spoke quietly but clearly.

“There was.”

“What?”

She clenched her fist tightly. Her fingertips trembled, and the fingers that had been holding the teacup slowly cooled.

“There was something wrong, Father.”

For the first time, she looked directly at him and continued.

“I lost my first child.”

There was no response. It was so terrible to look at her father’s face, which didn’t even flinch, let alone respond. It was as if he didn’t feel the weight of what she had said at all, and the sorrow that rose to her throat swirled in her mouth like bitter water.

After a while, the king opened his mouth.

“Maybe you were safe thanks to the medicine, weren’t you?”

Those words were uttered slowly, very carefully but they pierced Yulania’s heart like a sharp dagger. The indifferent logic that she was alive, so that was enough, made the loss she was still holding onto so light.

Yulania couldn’t answer. She couldn’t speak. Perhaps she didn’t want to talk to him anymore now. The things she had suppressed and endured for so long did not come out easily. She felt like she would collapse if she said one more word, and she didn’t want to show herself collapsing in front of this man.

The king, who had been quietly watching her, soon clicked his tongue briefly.

“My thinking was shallow. Tsk.”

Yulania was once again plunged into confusion at those words. Should she accept this as an apology? Her mind was intricately intertwined. It was neither a clear apology nor a complete evasion.

It was an ambiguous and intermediate word, but it may have been the biggest expression that could come from the king.

Yulania put her hands on her knees, calmly took a breath, and thought. When she was young, whether she made a mistake, got hurt, or cried, her father had never once said he was sorry in any situation.

So maybe this word was his own way of apologizing.

“You’re of royal blood, so how could I not see you?”

The king added, picking up his teacup again.

“Bring the child next time.”

Yulania quietly looked into his eyes. She no longer lowered her head. One corner of her heart was still cold, but at the same time, it felt strangely light. He still only spoke in his own way and only tried to understand his daughter in his own way but her heart told her that she had to accept it calmly at this moment.

“Yes, Father.”

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