An Unexpected Guest from the Imperial Court

“You look thoroughly exquisite, Young Master, even with your hair completely disheveled like that.”

“…You should lick your lips before telling such a blatant lie.”

“Why on earth would I need to do that? I’m not saying it merely because I’m your loyal servant. Even if I look at you with absolute objectivity, our Young Master is undeniably the finest in the entire realm.”

“What, are you running low on allowance or something?”

He was being uniquely, excessively affectionate today. Giving him a playful, narrow-eyed glare, I watched a giggling Yeo-ui smoothly retreat toward the inner chambers. A brief moment later, he emerged balancing a fine wooden comb alongside a matching topknot cap, taking up a firm position right behind my back to begin meticulously sectioning my strands.

Yielding quietly to his attentive touch, it wasn’t long before Yeo-ui secured the elegant topknot cap seamlessly onto my head. Guiding my form back toward the washbasin, he carefully prepared a fresh bowl of warm water. Rinsing my face with absolute speed, I took up a position within the reception hall once more, feeling infinitely more refreshed and pristine than before.

“How exactly does your body feel now, Young Master?”

“The muscle aches are definitely lingering, but I calculate that this baseline is perfectly manageable.”

In absolute reality, it wasn’t manageable in the slightest. The exact second I executed even the most microscopic movement, a sharp throb aggressively pulsed through my frame.

However, if I foolishly chose to reveal the absolute truth, it was a hundred percent certain that I would be permanently confined to my bed for the next week. Furthermore, they would undoubtedly insist on aggressively kneading and massaging every single inch of my body to loosen the stiffness.

Evading that specific outcome was my absolute top priority.

Adopting a perfectly neutral, unbothered expression, I locked eyes with Yeo-ui. Analyzing my face with intense scrutiny for a long moment, the boy finally offered a firm nod of understanding.

“In that case, I shall immediately instruct the staff to prepare a decoction specifically formulated to alleviate muscle tension.”

“Perfect.”

Though the herbal medicine was notoriously bitter, its physical efficacy in unraveling knots was absolute. Quietly indulging in the satisfaction that I had successfully bypassed the threat of a massage, a sudden realization pricked at my senses: Yeo-ui was staring at me with a uniquely heavy, intense gaze.

“Why exactly are you looking at me with that specific expression?”

“Oh, it’s nothing, Young Master. I was merely thinking that you look uniquely magnificent today.”

“That isn’t exactly a recent development.”

Setting aside every other variable, the physical canvas of Geum Seo-yul’s face was nothing short of absolutely spectacular. Yes, it was dazzling enough to ensure that the stranger we encountered yesterday at the tavern would fall victim to absolute, instantaneous infatuation at a single glance.

The memory of that man briefly lingered in my mind before rapidly evaporating. Noticing that my teacup had gone completely dry, I brushed myself off, rose fully from my seat, and extended my arms to execute a massive, satisfying stretch.

“Young Master?”

“Let’s step outside to catch a breath of fresh air.”

“Are you planning to embark on another outing?!”

Desiring a breath of fresh air didn’t automatically equate to launching a full-scale excursion outside the banking estate.

Shaking my head in a firm negative, I stared fixedly at Yeo-ui, thoroughly dissecting the panicked expression that had just flashed across his features. Catching my sharp gaze, Yeo-ui’s eyes darted around erratically as he began to stammer out a frantic string of words.

“W-Well… you literally just returned from an outing yesterday, Young Master. I merely calculated that you were aggressively trying to march right back out the main gates.”

If I hadn’t explicitly captured that split-second flash of absolute panic on his face, I would have simply allowed his excuse to slide by unnoticed. I immediately went for the throat.

“What exactly is it?”

“Pardon?”

“You are undeniably concealing a specific secret from my knowledge right now.”

“Whatever do you mean by concealing a secret, Young Master? I would never!”

As I aggressively pressed the interrogation, Yeo-ui trailing off his sentence while frantically averting his gaze was the ultimate proof. Observing his guilty posture, I registered an absolute certainty: a specific event had unfolded that I was strictly forbidden from discovering.

Maintaining my pressure on Yeo-ui, I subtly swept my eyes across the perimeter of the reception hall. The exact split-second my gaze chanced upon the remaining servants, they frantically bowed their heads to the floor in absolute terror.

Receiving a second firm confirmation of my hypothesis, I locked my eyes back onto Yeo-ui. The boy let out a thoroughly distressed, agonized whine.

“…The Young Lord explicitly delivered a strict command forbidding me from uttering a single word to you, Young Master.”

He was thoroughly mistaken if he calculated that twisting his features into a pitiful, weeping expression would secure my mercy this time. Furthermore, the exact second my eldest brother’s title left his lips, allowing the matter to drop became an absolute impossibility.

If this secret harbored even a shred of positive news, their expressions wouldn’t be turning this spectacularly dark in a bid to keep it hidden.

I immediately spun on my heel, taking decisive strides toward the exit of the reception hall.

“Is that so? In that case, I shall simply march straight to my brother’s quarters and demand the answer myself.”

“Absolutely not, Young Master!”

Realizing that I possessed every intention of executing my threat, a thoroughly panicked Yeo-ui lunged forward to physically obstruct my path.

“Even if you march to the Young Lord’s office this exact second, you will be completely barred from entering! He is currently hosting an exceptionally important guest and cannot be disturbed under any circumstances!”

“…A guest?”

The endless stream of merchants and clients drifting through the main branch of Mangeum Bank was completely normal. However, the demographic of individuals granted direct, private access to the Young Lord himself was strictly limited to the elite.

Sensing my sudden hesitation at the unexpected revelation, Yeo-ui’s tongue rapidly wagged to provide further context.

“In fact, the Lord Director himself is personally attending the meeting alongside the Young Lord this very moment!”

“…Even my father is present?”

For both my brilliant eldest brother and my immensely powerful father to simultaneously receive a single individual meant only one thing.

The visitor wasn’t merely a prominent figure; they were a titan of the realm. While my mind was furiously processing the data, a sudden, terrifying realization sliced through my thoughts like a lightning bolt.

“…….”

There was absolutely no way that the stranger from the tavern yesterday—the one clad in a black bamboo hat—had tracked me down to the estate, right?

Even while my logical mind fiercely rejected the preposterous theory, I couldn’t entirely expunge the lingering anxiety from my chest. Ever since the exact second I crossed the borders back into Hefei, I had been continuously battered by an endless sequence of entirely illogical disasters.

Sensing my deep, absolute silence, a thoroughly anxious Yeo-ui continuously rolled his eyes, desperately trying to calculate my mood.

After an incredibly long pause, I finally broke the silence, my voice dropping to a low whisper.

“Yeo-ui.”

“Yes, Young Master?”

“Do you happen to know the exact identity of the visitor?”

The sudden, absolute lock of his jaw was the ultimate confirmation.

Watching him frantically scan the perimeter while shrinking into his shoulders, I immediately gestured for the remaining servants to completely vacate the reception hall. Once the room was cleared, I pressed on.

“Just who on earth has arrived to warrant this extreme level of absolute censorship?”

“…Please wait a brief moment, Young Master.”

Meticulously checking the exterior, Yeo-ui rapidly darted across the expanse of the hall to firmly secure every single wooden window shut. Finally, ensuring the main doors were locked with absolute precision, he hurried back to my side.

Cupping a hand around his mouth to prevent any sound from escaping, he subtly closed the distance between us.

Mirroring his caution, I lowered my head, tilting my ear directly toward his lips.

“…Highness.”

“What?”

Even at this microscopic distance, his voice had dropped to such a low register that the word failed to register.

Lifting my head to frown at him, a frantically waving Yeo-ui desperately signaled for me to align my ear with his lips once more. This time, I leaned in significantly closer.

“The 18th Prince.”

“…What did you just say?”

“An imperial envoy was personally dispatched from the palace to announce that His Imperial Highness is officially arriving here.”

What on earth was this utterly random, unprompted development?

However, before the confusion could fully consume my thoughts, a massive wave of alarm hit my chest. I possessed absolute certainty that based on the blueprint of the original novel, the 18th Prince was absolutely not scheduled to make an appearance at this point in the timeline.

“…….”

“The Young Lord intended to personally deliver the news to you once the initial preparations were completely settled, which is why I tried my absolute best to maintain silence. Your intuition is truly terrifyingly sharp, Young Master.”

This was absolutely not the time to be marveling at my intuition.

Yes, this completely illogical, distorted progression of the plot was a catastrophic problem.

The 18th Prince—a prominent figure whose official debut was strictly reserved for Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of the original novel—was suddenly materialized at an entirely calculated, premature juncture. The sheer weight of the realization forced my hands to curl into tight fists.

“Young Master?”

Sensing the sudden, drastic shift in my physical demeanor, Yeo-ui quietly tried to read my face. However, I possessed absolutely zero mental bandwidth to soothe his anxiety.

Continuously clenching and unclenching my fists to master the tremor in my hands, I stared blankly up at the wooden ceiling.

After a very long moment, I finally forced the words past my lips.

“So, to summarize the situation accurately… the 18th Prince is personally making a journey here, to this exact location. Is that correct?”

“Yes! That is precisely what the imperial message dictated!”

suicide. “…….”

The reality that an imperial envoy had been dispatched meant only one logical thing: the banking estate was being ordered to prepare royal accommodations. And organizing royal accommodations meant that the 18th Prince fully intended to reside right here within the walls of Mangeum Bank for an extended period.

“This is absolutely insane.”

I possessed firsthand knowledge that the financial relationship between Mangeum Bank and the Imperial Court was exceptionally amicable. However, I had never calculated that their bond was profound enough to warrant the Emperor’s most cherished younger brother personally traveling down to lodge with us.

A sharp wave of goosebumps instantly rippled across my skin, dragging a heavy, suffocating anxiety up from the depths of my stomach. Lifting my cup to swallow down a mouthful of tea, the liquid failed to offer even a shred of its usual calming effect. Setting the empty ceramic back down with a sharp click, I locked eyes with Yeo-ui.

“Yeo-ui.”

“Yes, Young Master?”

“I calculate that before we proceed with the lun—no, never mind. First and foremost, I need to return to my chambers to secure some absolute rest.”

I desperately wanted to declare that I was canceling the luncheon entirely, but executing that move would merely trigger an avalanche of intense concern and frantic questions from every corner of the estate. If there was one thing I desperately wished to avoid, it was causing my family unnecessary anxiety.

Hearing my desire to rest, a deeply concerned Yeo-ui immediately stepped forward to offer his physical support. Returning to the inner chambers, I settled my weight heavily onto the edge of the mattress, letting out a succession of ragged sighs as my eyes traced the wooden patterns of the ceiling.

“…….”

Perhaps because the development was so incredibly cataclysmic and sudden, two opposing forces were currently waging a brutal war inside my mind: the logical necessity to thoroughly dissect the situation and formulate a definitive countermeasure, versus the desperate, exhausted desire to simply close my eyes and pretend the entire reality didn’t exist. Gesturing for Yeo-ui to completely vacate the room, I buried my face in my palms, rubbing my tired skin violently.

“Just what on earth is happening?”

I was completely at a loss to decipher the mechanics behind this distortion.

In the original novel, the narrative buffer separating Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 spanned a full year. While that timeline could be construed as reasonably lengthy, an event of this massive political and narrative magnitude should have undeniably been explicitly detailed within the text. After all, there was absolutely zero logical probability that the author would completely gloss over the 18th Prince—a major second male lead of the story—personally visiting the exact city where the main bottom resided.

Yet, no matter how ruthlessly I searched through the archives of my memory, a plot point involving the 18th Prince seeking out Mangeum Bank during this specific period simply did not exist.

First, it was Yeon Ji-oh’s unprompted arrival, and now, the 18th Prince himself.

This string of events was starting to feel like a coordinated, structural terror attack targeting my peaceful life. Rubbing my face vigorously one final time, I decisively threw myself off the bed.

“Remaining passive is absolutely out of the question.”

Although I had meticulously reviewed and memorized the overarching plot of the original novel to ensure the details remained perfectly vivid, during a crisis of this magnitude, the absolute correct answer was to directly inspect my physical notes.

Reaching beneath the wooden frame of the bed, I dragged out a heavily secured iron chest.

Pressing the elevated crest of the ring adorning my finger directly into the intricate locking mechanism of the chest, I gave it a firm twist to the side. Click. The heavy metal latch smoothly disengaged.

Flipping the heavy lid open, I plunged my hand into the depths of the chest, retrieved a thick bundle of papers meticulously detailing the plot points of the original novel, and marched decisively toward the writing desk.

“Let’s take a look…”

Franticly flipping through the sheets to meticulously cross-examine the text, I confirmed with absolute precision that my memory had not failed me.

“…….”

The specific passage my fingers had successfully unraveled was none other than an explicit conversation that transpired between the 18th Prince and Yeon Ji-oh much later in the book.

“Thank the heavens I made it a definitive rule to read the entire novel four times back-to-back right before my transmigration.”

If I hadn’t executed that specific precaution, extracting these microscopic narrative details would have been an absolute impossibility. Quietly scanning the ink marks on the paper, my eyes locked onto the beginning chapters of the manuscript, where I noticed that I had carefully placed small quotation marks around every single mention of Namgung Hwi’s name.

“To think there was actually a time where I harbored a decent amount of romantic expectation for that man.”

It was a profound irony that among the entire cast of characters populating this novel, Namgung Hwi had originally been the absolute recipient of my intense reader adoration. Given that his character profile perfectly mirrored my ultimate ideal type without a single flaw, back when I was translating these details onto paper, my heart would genuinely race with absolute excitement.

“Though living within this reality successfully managed to permanently eradicate every single shred of that affection.”

Experiencing the world firsthand through the eyes of Geum Seo-yul rather than Yeon Ji-oh had revealed the absolute truth: Namgung Hwi was nothing short of a catastrophic, unmitigated piece of garbage.

“Huu.”

Letting out a massive sigh to forcefully wrench myself away from the useless nostalgia, I pinned my finger directly against the specific clause I had been searching for.

“When Yeon Ji-oh explicitly questions the 18th Prince regarding whether he has ever traveled to this region in the past, the Prince explicitly states that aside from a brief childhood visit, this current trip marks his absolute first time stepping foot into Hefei.”

Furthermore, that specific journey in the original text had been engineered solely as a narrative device to facilitate his fateful encounter with Yeon Ji-oh. Yes, the 18th Prince of the novel had originally entered Hefei with the sole objective of seeking out his first love, Geum Seo-yul—only to ultimately fall victim to Yeon Ji-oh’s unique charm, completely surrendering his heart to the main bottom and serving as a critical catalyst to solidify the romantic bond between the two main leads.

The narrative claimed he had traveled to Hefei because he was deeply pine-sick and utterly incapable of erasing Geum Seo-yul from his heart, yet his ultimate change of heart had transpired with absolute, whiplash-inducing speed.

“The man literally flipped his affections faster than a street vendor flipping a hot pancake.”

No, scratch that—flipping a pancake actually demanded significantly more time.

The original text explicitly illustrated that from the exact split-second he crossed paths with Yeon Ji-oh on the day of his arrival, his heart had already begun to unconsciously stray from Geum Seo-yul.

“This is incredibly complicated.”

In absolute truth, whether the 18th Prince’s affections remained static or completely evaporated was of zero relevance to my life. Yes, the ultimate problem that consumed my absolute focus was the undeniable fact that a major event completely absent from the original novel was actively unfolding right before my eyes.

“Something is undeniably warped here.”

Yeon Ji-oh suddenly breaking into our estate to aggressively bring up a commercial transaction that belonged to a much later chapter was bizarre enough, but having the 18th Prince stage a massive arrival right in the buffer period separating Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 was deeply unwelcome.

Furthermore, the absolute most critical discrepancy was…

“According to the original novel, the Prince absolutely never lodged within the walls of this estate.”

Yes, the 18th Prince of the original text had never once stepped foot into Mangeum Bank as a houseguest.

Throughout the years I had spent surviving within this world, I had learned through bone-deep, agonizing experience exactly how terrifyingly absolute the penalties for defying the original novel could be. Yet, from the exact split-second I concluded my travel excursion and returned to Hefei, every single major event that unfolded carried a powerful, undeniable sensation that the narrative trajectory was violently derailing from its original tracks.

Feeling a sharp ache beginning to throb behind my temples, I pressed the palm of my hand firmly against my forehead before systematically gathering the scattered sheets of paper and depositing them back into the iron chest.

“Ultimately, I won’t truly grasp the reality of the situation until I confront it firsthand.”

Yeon Ji-oh, and now the 18th Prince.

Whether the Prince would actually cross paths with Yeon Ji-oh and execute his typical, novel-accurate actions was something I would simply have to observe with my own eyes.

There was a distinct probability that as a direct reward for my successful completion of the main quest, the progression of the original plot line was simply accelerating at a rapid pace. While that reality might cause the story to warp slightly, as long as Mangeum Bank and my own form remained firmly detached from that narrative trajectory, absolutely no harm would come to us.

Letting out a long, deep breath, I pushed the secured iron chest securely back beneath the bed frame. Collapsing onto the mattress, I closed my eyes to claim a brief moment of absolute, undisturbed rest.