Seeing Lee Chi, pale and waving his hands, unaware he was being teased, Attendant Song laughed behind his sleeve. Igang, with a deliberately disappointed face, asked the seated Yu Yeong again,
“Then does the Ikhwan demigod trait run in the blood?”
“Ah, no.”
Yu Yeong straightened and answered.
“Just because the mother is a demigod doesn’t mean the child must be. Except Hongnip’s descendants — the royalty — who are demigods without exception, generation after generation.”
“I see.”
Igang responded shortly. Slowly turning over the known facts plus today’s new information in his mind, he suddenly raised his head and said,
“But why didn’t King Geon leave a spare?”
“Correct. He’s thirty-eight this year.”
At Yu Yeong’s answer, Igang said, “Then the youngest prince should also be thirty-eight.”
“They say five eggs are laid at once, so siblings should all be the same age. The five princes including King Geon are all the same age. Only the sixth prince, the youngest Hong Huian, was born when the late king was near forty, so he’s much younger than his brothers, they say.”
“Don’t the Ikhwan lay eggs only once in a lifetime.”
“Most do, but not necessarily. Giving birth in a man’s body isn’t easy, after all. Yu Yeong said calmly—”
“Moreover, why would a king brave danger to lay eggs two, three times over. Just look at that royal family’s records — there’s no record of a king giving birth twice, the way King Yeong, the former king, did.”
“So it was an extremely rare case.”
“Yes. And perhaps because of that, though he laid five eggs the second time, only one of them hatched. That’s the ‘Sixth Prince’ — he did break out of his egg, but he was sickly as a child and still is, they say. His wings are very small compared to his brothers’, and his hair isn’t fully red either.”
Hardly had Yu Yeong finished when Attendant Song dropped his voice and whispered,
“Well, the thing is, there’s a story going around that the late king didn’t bear the eggs with his husband, but conceived them with another partner.”
The palace’s greatest gossips, they said, weren’t the concubines or the court matrons but the eunuchs — apparently they picked up every rumor drifting out of other kingdoms’ palaces too.
“Is that true?”
Igang asked, looking not at Attendant Song but at Yu Yeong. Yu Yeong hesitated, as if unsure whether to speak, then said carefully,
“They say a bonghwang, once mated, stays with that one partner for life. But that the late king set aside his husband and received eggs by another man… there are a few whispering about it in the palace, it seems.”
Igang folded his arms and hummed. Beside him, Lee Chi asked with an anxious face, “But is this ‘Sixth Prince’ truly of the king’s bloodline?”
“Certainly. They say he does have wings, small as they are. Whoever the father was, he’s undeniably the late king’s own child, born of the late king’s body.”
At Yu Yeong’s explanation, Lee Chi merely nodded as if to say he’d known. While the two talked, Igang — who had been quietly thinking something through alone — suddenly burst out laughing.
“Of course.”
At the prince’s abrupt laughter, everyone in the room stared round-eyed. After chuckling a while, Igang lifted his eyes to those watching him and said,
“The hwang likely has no ability to conceive.”
At his words, all three cried “What?” as one.
“Y-your Highness, what do you mean?”
To the appalled Attendant Song, Igang said, still smiling, “Think.”
“Red plumage and wings, and the power of conception — these three are the proof of the half-divine, and the prince already properly lacks two of them. His hair is mixed black and red, and his wings are very small compared to his elder brothers’. Then can the remaining one—”
He left it hanging. Yu Yeong finished it in a low murmur, knitting his brow.
“As I thought…”
“From the start, that fellow was brought in with this intention.”
The prince nodded. It wasn’t that he’d been cursed by the dragon or earned its wrath. The whole absurd curse had been fabricated to bring Hye’s youngest prince, Hong Huian, as the bride.
“Well… you couldn’t pull the same trick three times, after all.”
“No — actually, you shouldn’t even use it twice. If two crown princesses die in succession while pregnant, there’s bound to be gossip in the imperial palace.”
“So Jo made the first move.”
It wasn’t born of coincidence. Say the prince has the dragon’s curse — that sounds plausible enough. Then, under the guise of blocking the curse, bring in a bong — and a half-baked one at that, without even the power of conception — as the crown princess. Either way, the prince won’t be seeing an heir for some time.
“Jo used his head well.”
This much, even Igang had to admit. Whatever else, a Hye royal — the king’s own younger brother at that—
No one could object to the status. And a demigod to shield the crown prince from the terrible dragon’s curse — the people would unconditionally welcome him. Even if he was a man, if he had the power of conception, there was no reason not to take him as crown princess. Even if he didn’t bear a child right away, His Majesty would just quietly watch. Given the status, he couldn’t be hastily cast aside for some ordinary reason.
“What do you intend to do?”
At Yu Yeong’s question, Igang said casually, “What else.”
“We’ll hold the wedding.”
“What? You’ll take one who can’t even conceive as the crown princess?”
To the astonished Lee Chi, Igang smiled back.
“Why wouldn’t I. For my part, he’s a partner with no better conditions.”
After all, if he took another woman as crown princess, she’d clearly be killed the moment she conceived. Even if she safely endured ten months and bore the child, who knew when or why she might lose her life. By then, all responsibility might truly turn on him — that it all happened because the prince lacked virtue.
“Jo won’t miss this chance. He’ll spin it however he likes and report to His Majesty. That the only way to preserve the dynasty is to depose a prince with no children and quickly hand the crown prince’s seat to Prince Ihwang.”
Better, then, if for a while no news of the crown princess’s pregnancy is heard.
“Well, the previous two crown princesses were quick with pregnancy news, at least. If the new crown princess shows no sign of conception, the responsibility will fall squarely on her.”
Yu Yeong nodded as if he understood.
“B-but, Your Highness. You don’t intend to never see an heir…”
“Of course not.”
Igang cut off the impassioned Attendant Song.
“One year, two at most, is enough. By then the treasury recovery policy will have shown results, and I’ll have finished preparing to drive out Jo’s faction.”
First priority was driving out Jo, who was rampaging as if the court were his own parlor. And once he’d dragged down the Empress along with her brother, there’d be no more hesitation.
“I’ll send away the bong who can’t bear children, and bring in a new crown princess.”
“I wonder if Hye will take that quietly…”
Igang said lightly,
“They say he’s sickly anyway. If he leaves his homeland, falls ill in a distant land, and dies before thirty, nothing strange about that, is there.”
Either way, Igang had no intention of making an enemy of the Ikhwan. Small as their territory was, they were still counted among the stronger of the vassal states. Alone they couldn’t stand against Juwon, but if they joined forces with Gwonryong, they’d clearly be a great threat.
“I think it’s better to kill the crown princess disguised as illness than to depose her. Though I do fear Hye’s royal family might question her death…”
“We’ll have to play the loving couple to the end before she dies.”
Igang nodded as if he knew.
“And I’ll have to look like I cherish and love the crown princess to death, more from my side.”
“…Can you do it?”
Attendant Song asked, looking utterly unconvinced.
“What’s so hard about it.”
Become the most devoted husband in the world, that’s all. Igang said it like it was nothing.
“I’ll go in and out of Inyeong Palace several times a day, hold the princess’s hand, listen to her stories, eat with her. At meals I’ll dutifully serve the side dishes. Then when the princess dies, I’ll live half a year like a madman with my hair undone. If anyone still suspects me after such devotion, they’re not human.”
“…And who is it saying the most inhuman things right now.”
Leave a Reply