Chapter 7
Fabric Merchant Bang Pil-du sat with his legs crossed, tapping his back-scratcher against his knee. They said it was a terrible recession, but not a single soul had wandered by all day.
*Sigh, another day of coming up empty.*
Just as he was about to close the shop, he saw a woman stepping over the threshold. He quickly pulled his lips into a smile and clasped his hands together politely.
"Welco—"
The moment he met her eyes, he recognized her instantly.
It was that woman. The one from back then...!
"His Majesty the King is waiting for me!"
Yes, that woman who said she was entering the palace.
Bang Pil-du tried to shut the door and lock it from the inside... but the door swung wide open.
"Hey, mister. Is this how you treat a customer? You definitely just made eye contact with me, didn't you?"
Danbi kept her foot wedged in the door frame and pushed with all her might.
Her grip strength, which stood in stark contrast to her delicate appearance, caused Bang Pil-du’s face to contort instantly. The force with which she pushed through the gap was fierce.
"What on earth did we ever do to you to deserve this!"
"Mister, I told you, I just came to buy some clothes!"
At those words, Bang Pil-du stopped dead in his tracks. He still glared at Danbi with suspicious eyes.
"Is that true?"
Instead of answering, Danbi gave a crooked smile and pulled something from her pocket. It was a pouch stuffed full of money.
His eyes darted back and forth, mesmerized by the heavy weight he could sense through the leather.
Only then did Bang Pil-du bow his head and clasp his hands together in a pleading gesture.
"I shall serve you with the utmost care!"
The inside of the shop was larger than it looked. Various types of clothing and fabrics were displayed everywhere, all as neat as if they were brand new.
Danbi smiled with satisfaction.
Then again, this was the same Bang Pil-du who would strike a customer’s hand with a back-scratcher if they dared to touch the merchandise. Perhaps he was a man with a cleanliness obsession bordering on a disorder.
Well, that was lucky for her.
But something was strange. Every single piece of fabric on display was dull, stripped of its saturation.
White, black, and faded gray.
It felt as if she had stepped into an old black-and-white photograph, and Danbi furrowed her brows.
"Mister, why is the fabric here like this? It’s all achromatic."
At Danbi’s words, Bang Pil-du’s eyes widened. He looked at her as if she were someone who didn't know the sun rose in the east.
"My lady, you say you reside in the palace, yet you ask such a thing?"
"I'm asking because I don't know. Do you not have anything with color?"
She had clearly seen colorful clothes displayed in front of the shop just a short while ago.
When she tilted her head in confusion, Bang Pil-du swallowed a scoff as if he found her ridiculous, then carefully opened the door to a back storage room.
Inside, a single chest, secured with layers of locks, was kept like a precious treasure.
"I do have a small amount of silk smuggled in from a neighboring country. Outside the royal court, color has long since vanished; where else would you find such things?"
Danbi looked dazed as she gazed at the colorful fabrics finally revealed from the opened chest.
"Color has vanished? What do you mean by that?"
She couldn't quite grasp the meaning of his words. The palace had always been full of color.
She had never even considered the possibility that color could drain from the world.
But hearing that, a scene suddenly came to mind.
When she first landed here and wandered the marketplace, the surroundings were entirely faded and achromatic.
The only colors she had seen were the hem of the skirt hanging at the entrance of the fabric shop and the clothes she was wearing herself.
The tattered clothes of the passersby, the crude ornaments rolling on the stalls, and even the straw thatch covering the roofs had lost their original hues, bleached into a pale, ghostly shade.
"Is it because there’s no dye?"
"Oh, heavens. Ever since the drought struck this Dohwaguk, all the color in the world has dried up."
"The color... is drying up?"
"What good is it that the country is named 'Dohwa' (Peach Blossom)? It’s been so long I can barely remember what the pink of a peach blossom looks like."
Bang Pil-du clicked his tongue, then lowered his voice to grumble.
"It’s all because the water at the top is murky. Since His Majesty the King cannot govern properly, the heavens have stripped away all the color. The people are breaking their backs, yet the King only enjoys the remaining colors inside the palace..."
As he continued, he seemed to realize his mistake and shut his mouth, glancing nervously at Danbi.
But Danbi paid him no mind, quietly surveying the achromatic fabrics.
Her mind grew complex, wondering if this strange phenomenon was merely a game setting or if there was another reason behind it.
She looked at Bang Pil-du again and asked.
"Then, let me ask you one more thing."
"...What is it?"
"You recognized my face earlier and tried to block the door, didn't you? Why on earth did you do that?"
"Pardon? Th-that is..."
***
"That’s obvious. It’s because you are a royal concubine, my lady."
"What? Is that a problem?"
The room was filled with colorful fabrics. They were the ones she had struggled to procure from outside, effectively her last resort.
Som organized the fabrics by color and spoke freely.
"They say the person the people hate most these days is His Majesty the King. He only ever squeezes the merchants, so how could they not resent someone from the royal family?"
Bang Pil-du’s reddened face, cursing Hyun, flashed through her mind.
Danbi recalled the achromatic scenery of the marketplace and asked in a low voice.
"Som. Is it true that this country is truly losing its color?"
"Why do you ask as if you don't know? You know everything."
The fact that she "knew everything" meant that to those living in this world, it was as common knowledge as breathing.
"Why is that happening?"
"Why, you ask? It all started when the drought began."
The situation in Dohwaguk, as described by Som, was far more miserable than Danbi had known.
True to the name "Dohwa," it had once been a land where flowers bloomed in abundance throughout the four seasons, overflowing with vibrant hues. But it had been nearly ten years since that glory began to fade.
"The first place the color disappeared was the village furthest from the palace."
"The furthest village?"
"Yes. Once the rain stopped and the drought struck, the colors began to wither and die, starting from the furthest reaches."
It began with the colors of nature.
Where green leaves should have sprouted again after falling, only white, ghostly leaves—the likes of which she had never seen—emerged.
The sky no longer held a blue hue, and even the burning flames lost their red heat, fading away into black.
It was as if someone were forcibly stealing the colors of this world.
And so, outside the palace, it had become an achromatic hell where one could barely find even a single flower.
Unlike the palace, which still enjoyed brilliant colors, the anger of the starving people who had lost their light was naturally directed at the King.
"It’s been months without a single drop of rain, and the more that happens, the more His Majesty hides himself away inside..."
Even her hands, smoothing out the fabric, lacked strength. Only a long sigh scattered through the room.
Soon, Som checked her surroundings and whispered in a lowered voice.
"There are ominous rumors circulating within the palace, too. They say there is an assassin out to harm the King."
"It’s obvious. It must be the work of the assassin who has been targeting His Majesty all this time."
"They seem to be trying to suppress the rumors, but as more palace staff witness the scenes, it has practically become an established fact."
Som let out a long sigh.
"If only this Rain-Praying Ritual goes well, things might improve for everyone."
Danbi suddenly thought of Hyun’s face. That bad man who, from a certain point on, only spat hateful words at her and eventually dumped her without a second thought.
"Whether it's him or that guy, they're trouble wherever they go."
*Clap!*
She clapped her hands together with resolve.
"Forget it! I have enough on my mind with my own problems right now."
Danbi began to unfold the fabrics on the floor one by one.
Worrying about it right now wouldn't make it rain, nor would it bring back the lost colors.
A meaningful smile crossed her face.
"One week. One week, is it..."
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