As if they had been waiting, the door opened and the two men entered. Igang gestured with his eyes toward Huian, sitting across from him, and said.
“See our guest home.”
“As you command.”
The two bowed politely. Igang rose from his seat before Huian and said.
“These two will escort you to Seonu Palace.” “See you later,” he said with a smile, and left the room.
The distance between the Crown Prince’s palace and Seonu Palace was closer than he had thought.
Had it only felt far yesterday because it was night? He was marveling at the roof of Seonu Palace appearing as soon as they rounded the stone wall, when the man called Ichi, walking ahead, hesitated and turned back to say.
“Last night I committed a great rudeness. I beg your forgiveness.” The civil official beside him quickly added, as if in support.
“Ichi is in charge of His Highness’s guard. His Highness’s safety being his foremost concern, there are times he cannot attend to other matters. And he has only recently entered the palace and is still unskilled in many ways, so please do not be too angry with him.”
It was a matter he hadn’t given a thought to in the first place, but spoken to so earnestly, he had to answer.
“A guardsman ought to think only of His Highness’s safety. I don’t mind, so should the same situation arise again, carry out your duty without hesitation, as you did today.” At Huian’s words, Ichi stopped walking and bowed deeply, crying out his obedience. The civil official beside him bowed deeply as well, then introduced himself in polite tones.
“I am Heo Yuyeong, and I hold the post of junior secretary.” It was impossible for a mere junior secretary to come and go from the Crown Prince’s palace so freely. Huian suspected that as the Crown Prince’s man, Yuyeong must have some other duty, but he pretended not to notice and only nodded silently.
Before long, the figures of Seonu Palace’s people came into view in the distance. Watching the eunuchs and court ladies hurry over upon spotting him, Huian said to the two men.
“My people have come to fetch me, so you two may return now.” Yuyeong and Ichi bowed their heads, saying, “As you say.”
“Then I’ll see you later.”
Thinking he would see them again right after the wedding anyway, Huian said it casually and turned away. He could feel the two men behind him stifling laughter. Wondering why, he soon realized — he had repeated exactly what the Crown Prince had said when they parted.
The wedding ceremony proceeded as scheduled.
With civil and military officials of the fourth rank and above filling the main hall, the Crown Prince appeared first.
Then the bridal palanquin, which had departed Seonu Palace and exited through the rear gate of Jucheon Fortress, re-entered through the main gate. At the head, a drummer beat the drum and a bugler blew the pipe to announce the bride’s entrance, and dancers bearing splendid fans approached to surround the palanquin. Countless matrons and court ladies followed behind. Before and after the palanquin, Hye’s envoys attended as escorts, and ceremonial guards on horseback brought up the rear, protecting the procession.
At the master of ceremonies’ loud cry, Huian descended from the palanquin. With the matrons’ help he alighted, and as the master of ceremonies had repeatedly instructed, he strained his wings and spread them wide. They were small wings, barely two ja in length, but the Juwon ministers, who had no idea how large an Ikhwan half-divine’s wings truly were, could only marvel in astonishment. The common folk, who had gathered at the palace fortress since dawn to see the Crown Princess from a foreign land, craned their necks through the gates and cheered without cease.
Had it been the usual Huian, the people’s admiration and awe pouring over these paltry wings would have shamed and embarrassed him. But not now. Now, he didn’t even have the leisure for such thoughts. Breathing was agony under the layers of clothes, and the heavy head ornaments made it feel his neck might snap at any moment. Leaning on the matrons holding him on either side, he barely managed to walk the imperial path when stone steps leading to the second floor appeared. Four ministers waiting below the steps
bowed in unison. Huian waited for the Hye envoys who had escorted him to return the bow, then slowly walked between them to where the four ministers stood. From here, Juwon’s ministers would attend and escort Huian.
Two before and two behind, with four ministers in attendance, he slowly ascended to the second floor. Climbing a single stone step felt harder than crossing Mount Tai. When he finally stepped onto the last stair, the Crown Prince’s figure came into view at last. The Crown Prince too wore layers of robes and a heavy crown, yet astonishingly showed no sign of strain. Instead, smiling leisurely, he strode coolly over to where Huian stood, and
“You’ve worked hard coming all this way,” he even managed a quiet joke.
Well, no wonder. Bowing to the Crown Prince with the matrons’ help, Huian thought. This was already the man’s third wedding ceremony. At this point he could probably perform it with his eyes closed.
Thinking that, the Crown Prince’s relaxed manner made perfect sense at once. And at the same time, it was all the more remarkable. To think he had gone through this grueling ceremony three times.
After bowing to each other, the two walked side by side toward the dais. On the throne atop the splendidly decorated dais sat the Emperor and Empress, likewise in splendid ceremonial dress. Following the order of proceedings, Huian bowed together with the Crown Prince, then ascended the dais alone and knelt before the Emperor.
“Investiture—!”
At the master of ceremonies’ cry, all the civil and military officials knelt together. The royal secretary, receiving the investiture edict from the protocol official, slowly began to read it aloud.
“The midday sun leans on the mountains and sets; rivers flow into the sea. All the myriad affairs of the world are ordained to follow their proper course according to fixed principle. Even the steadfast majesty of the Son of Heaven, who now covers all the earth and commands the sky, shall in time pass to his descendants according to that course. Thus our ancestors of old called the Crown Prince the foundation of the state, saying the imperial son is the root and framework of this imperial house. The consort, lifelong partner of the foundation, must be one born to the most exalted station among all women. You, nobly born by the grace of your ancestors and endowed with an intelligent and reverent nature, shall now, by the will of Heaven, honor the ancestral shrines above and strengthen human bonds below, making this nation’s foundation ever firmer. And through the conjugal duty of mutual aid…”
Sitting with Juwon’s civil and military officials arrayed before him, listening to the edict in which the Emperor invested him as Crown Princess, Huian felt strangely moved. His heart surged anew, and at the same time an unaccountable fear crept over him.
When the reading of the investiture edict ended, the royal secretary rolled it up neatly, tied it with a silk cord, and presented it to the Emperor.
The Emperor, receiving the edict, rose from his throne at last. He bestowed the edict upon the kneeling Huian, then placed the silver crown on his head with his own hands, saying,
“Serve the Crown Prince well.”
“I shall uphold the sacred edict and obey your stern will.” When the Emperor returned to his seat, Huian slowly rose. Only then did the ministers rise together.
Huian descended the dais alone, just as he had ascended. He had gone up as Hye’s royal younger brother; he came down as the Crown Princess, and the four ministers greeted him with ceremony. The Crown Prince too bowed formally to Huian, who now wore the crown like himself. As spouses now, the two bowed to each other once more, then bowed again to the Emperor and Empress as their parents. And finally, when they bowed to the ministers filling the main hall, all the civil and military officials cried out loudly, wishing the imperial house prosperity, and bowed in return.
But their cries scarcely reached Huian’s ears. He had been tense throughout the investiture, every muscle strained, and then three deep bows in succession left him feeling as if his whole body were melting. His sweat-soaked clothes felt twice as heavy, and with the silver crown atop the ornate head ornaments, even lifting his head was a struggle. Perhaps from straining his wings open all along, his back had been aching dully for a while now — in short, he was utterly exhausted.
Just as he was thinking that at this rate his back would break, or his neck, or his wings — something was bound to break — fortunately the eunuchs brought a chair. Only then did Huian realize the next order was the congratulatory rite, and he felt greatly relieved. The congratulatory rite was, as the name said, a ceremony in which the officials offered congratulations; all he had to do was sit in this chair and receive their greetings.
“Are you all right?”
As Huian sat with the eunuchs’ help, the Crown Prince, who had been quietly watching him, suddenly asked. Suppressing the urge to retort, ‘Do I look all right?’, Huian stayed silent, and the Crown Prince answered himself.
“You must be. Compared to the grand wedding, this is nothing.”
The grand wedding referred to the Emperor’s wedding ceremony. Even if Juwon’s Emperor had wed as Crown Prince, upon becoming Emperor he had to hold the grand wedding anew. The Empress’s investiture was performed together at this grand wedding; usually the Crown Princess was simply elevated to Empress, but there were occasional cases where the Crown Princess was deposed for past faults and a new Empress installed.
And,
“If you can’t bear even this, how will you manage the grand wedding?” At the Crown Prince’s feigned worried tone, Huian couldn’t help but smile. He nearly asked outright: ‘Do you truly think I’ll ever have occasion to hold a grand wedding?’
Of course, he couldn’t say such a thing. No matter how obvious the future was, he had just come down from the investiture. And the Crown Prince still didn’t know that he was a body incapable of bearing children. There was no reason to stir up trouble. Nor should there be.
Huian straightened his head, which kept drooping under the crown, even more upright, and said.
“If one sets out to do it, what couldn’t be done?”
“It can be done.” At his calm words, the Crown Prince nodded largely. “Well said.”
“Anyway, it’s nearly over now, so hold on just a little longer.” It was as he said. Once this congratulatory rite ended, today’s wedding rites would be more or less complete. Of course, looking at the full wedding procedures, the banquet rite and the consummation rite still remained. But the banquet rite was a feast held after all of today’s rites were finished, hosted by the Emperor and Empress with the court’s inner ministers attending — the Crown Prince and Princess need not be involved. And the consummation rite was the term for the first wedding night — which, mercifully, was scheduled ten days hence.
Unlike in Hye, here the imperial house did not hold the first night on the wedding day, but set a separate date for the consummation rite. When he first heard it, he had thought this a country that dressed up even trivial matters in endless ceremony; now, he was rather grateful. Had the consummation rite been held today as well, tomorrow might have seen his funeral portrait hung.
So it’s over now, at any rate.
Thinking that, he found the strength to hold on a little longer, as the Crown Prince had said. Huian straightened his back and corrected his seated posture. And he calmly looked, one by one, into the faces of the ministers approaching him.
Leave a Reply