“There will be greetings from the imperial relatives starting at sajeongsi.”
There was still about an hour and a half until sajeongsi. Huian turned his steps toward the inner court.
The moment he arrived at Inyeong Palace he tidied the main hall and prepared to receive guests. When sajeongsi came, word arrived that the Fifth Prince and his wife had already arrived. Seeing no need to keep them waiting, Huian received his guests a little early.
“We greet His Highness the Crown Princess.”
“Mama, may you be in good health.”
After the couple politely offered their felicitations, they sat facing Huian with a low table between them. The Fifth Prince Yi Hyang was the Emperor’s fifth son, eighteen years old this year. Having been invested as a prince and sent out of the palace upon marrying, as was the law, he had already lived outside the palace for three years–and yet his face was so young and his speech so boyish that it was hard to believe he was only two years younger than the Crown Prince.
Wondering how one with a daughter already past her first birthday could be so innocent and brimming with youth–was it his nature?–Huian realized he was wrong the moment the Fourth Prince and his wife entered next. The Fourth Prince, a year older than the Fifth and with twin sons who had turned two this year, was just as boyish. It was not that the two younger brothers were especially young. The Crown Prince was simply excessively grown-up.
No, it was beyond grown-up. If not for his face still being that of a young man in his prime, his doings and speech alone would make him seem someone long past fifty. He overflowed with such composure and authority that facing him, one quite forgot he was four years younger than oneself. And his face was young only compared to his bearing; judged by the face alone, he did not look like a person of that age at all.
They said the qualities of the Son of Heaven were inborn–was even the mature countenance such a thing?
Thinking so, he felt oddly wistful. Even now he was so beautiful from afar; how beautiful must he have been at his youngest, when he still showed the childishness of those younger brothers? He must have been a fairy of heaven and no less, and the fact that he had never once seen that sight was a lingering regret.
While he was thinking only of the Crown Prince before the Crown Prince’s younger brothers, the three as-yet-unmarried princes came together. Then the princesses and their husbands sought out Inyeong Palace with armfuls of gifts. In the dizzy round of receiving guests and exchanging greetings and greetings again, the midday meal hour had crept near before he knew it. Having barely seen his guests off, Huian sat half-collapsed, leaning against the wall. He was not particularly tired in body, but having never met and spoken with so many people in such a short time before, his mind had simply gone blank.
“Son Gwiin of the Rear Palace has been waiting since a while ago… shall I tell her to come again after the midday meal?”
At Geum-a’s careful question, Huian quickly straightened his posture. “No, there is no need. The midday preparations are not even finished, are they? It will be half a sikyeong more before His Highness comes; what hardship is one more greeting in that time? Why turn away one who has waited until now? Go quickly and escort her.”
At his bidding Geum-a ran off toward the waiting room. While waiting, Huian asked the matron,
“Then have I met all the imperial kin?”
“Yes, only Prince Igun, who went to the provinces some days ago, has not yet reached the capital… He said he will pay his respects at the earliest date.”
At the matron’s words Huian only then realized he had not yet met the Second Prince, and murmured briefly, “Ah.”
“I see… I have not met Prince Igun.”
That he had gone to the provinces days ago and not yet arrived meant, in the end, that he had not attended yesterday’s wedding either. He wondered what important business could keep him from the Crown Prince’s wedding, but he did not ask. In relations like these, restraint in all speech was the best policy.
“Mama, Son Gwiin has come.”
In the meantime Geum-a, who had gone to fetch the guest, seemed to have arrived, for a voice was heard from outside.
“Show her in.”
Having spoken, Huian straightened his posture. Since she was, after all, the Crown Prince’s concubine, he could not help feeling quite different from when he received other guests. He was waiting with a slightly nervous heart when, the moment the door opened, his eyes widened of their own accord.
“I-I greet His Highness the Crown Princess.”
No wonder–the one who came through the door was a child barely ten years old. So surprised that he even forgot to receive her greeting, he found himself staring at the matron standing behind the child. The middle-aged matron smiled calmly as if she knew everything without being told, then bowed her head and said,
“This is Son Gwiin Mama.”
Huian nearly sighed aloud. Barely composing himself, he asked the child who had carefully settled herself before him,
“Gwiin, how old are you this year?”
“I, that is… I am eleven this year!” Thank goodness she was past ten. That relief lasted only a moment before Huian’s face creased of its own accord. If she was eleven this year, at what age had she been taken as a concubine? With what thought had they taken a child not yet ten as a concubine and kept her close?
Unable even to ask, he was only looking at her with a complicated heart when, as if she had read Huian’s innermost thoughts, the matron said in a calm tone,
“Gwiin Mama is of Yonggo birth.”
Those words alone sufficed. The moment he heard the child was of the Yonggo tribe, Huian understood. It was a political marriage.
The Yonggo, who served the blue kirin, were a tribe among the kirin folk especially bitterly hostile with the Gakdan. Whenever a civil uprising had occurred, its ringleader had without exception been of the Yonggo tribe, and so they were treated in many ways worse than the Yeomgu or the Saekmyeong. Few of them held office, and even those mostly remained in idle posts. That they had gone so far as to take a child of Yonggo birth as a concubine clearly meant they sought through marriage to soothe their hearts and maintain peaceful relations.
Then it was a thousandfold relief, and yet…
As he hesitated with one last doubt he could not shake off, the matron, as if she somehow knew even that, bowed her head first and said,
“Mama is still of tender years, so though she has been invested as Gwiin, she has not yet performed the rites of consummation.”
Surprise came ahead of relief. How could she anticipate and answer even what he had not said? He was staring in wonder when the matron too raised her head and looked at Huian. When their eyes met, instead of avoiding his, she smiled faintly, and she looked so utterly at ease.
“Are you the one who attends the Gwiin?” At Huian’s question the matron bent her knees slightly. “Yes. I am called Sang Yeo-ok, a Jaein.”
Jaein–along with Miin and Sukin–was one of the three matron ranks of the imperial palace. Sukin was the rank given to matrons of palace birth, and Miin was the highest rank, given to the most virtuous among the wives of high officials who frequented the palace. And Jaein was the official title of the Yeosagwan rank. The Yeosagwan took the role of vice-administrators of the inner court, and their chief duties were to examine the accounting documents of the Rear Palace and to manage and record the bedchamber days of the Emperor and his consorts. Most were chosen directly by the Empress through recommendation, but he remembered hearing that at times gisaeng of outstanding talent rose even to this position, and with a hopeful heart he asked,
“Then are you of gisaeng origin?”
The woman looked a little surprised, then soon smiled softly and answered, “Yes.”
“How did you know?”
Had the Empress chosen her, she would never be trailing behind the Crown Prince’s concubine playing the nursemaid. She was probably someone the Crown Prince had planted to watch the movements of the inner court. But there was no need to put such things into words. Huian glossed it over with suitable speech.
“Your beauty, and the grace of your bearing even at your age–I merely guessed. The way you move so gently is just like dancing.”
Though they were glossing words, they were not entirely empty. In truth, each time the woman smiled he had thought that in her younger days she must have been a beauty fit to topple cities. The woman, seeming to have heard such words often, did not merely grow shy but said with a rather wistful face,
“They are all tales of a bygone time.”
“What of a bygone time? All of life is a series of bygone times.” Huian said calmly. “They say a man at forty is in his prime for work. You are a woman, but you hold an office that governs this inner court, so do not forget that now too is your prime, and work hard to assist His Highness.”
Having said it, Huian inwardly exclaimed. He ought to have said “assist Her Majesty the Empress,” but his true heart had spoken “His Highness” just as it was. Whether she had noticed or not, the woman only answered with her beautiful smile as ever,
“I shall receive Your Highness’s gracious words, and do just so.”
Before he knew it, the court session had ended, and Yuyeong approached swiftly, saying,
“I hear His Highness plans to visit Inyeong Palace.” Igang thrust the bundle of state papers he was holding into Yuyeong’s arms as he said,
“Ichi? What did he say?” Asking as he left the main hall, Yuyeong deliberately made a troubled face, then soon lowered his voice and whispered,
“Ichi has dared with his insolent mouth to slander that His Highness could never in heaven become a devoted husband.”
Igang burst into great laughter. As if he had been listening to the story, Ichi approached leading his guards and bowed politely.
“It seems you have been badmouthing me to Yuyeong.”
“Yes…?” To Ichi, his eyes wide as if flustered, Igang said, “You said I could never be a devoted husband in heaven,” and he cried in a startled voice, “No!”
“I did not go that far. Only…”
“Only?” Beside the hesitating Ichi, Yuyeong promptly informed on him.
“He said he does not know what is so hard about saying one kind word, that you always speak only in jest–he slandered you, saying surely you do not understand a woman’s heart.” At Yuyeong’s words Ichi quickly protested, “It is not only me! The Jungseorang joined in! He sighed saying it was obvious, and later he even subtly praised himself, saying that even when he first met his wife at fifteen he was not like that!”
“Hey, praising myself? I only stated facts.”
“That IS the speech of one praising himself. Honestly, this man is shameless.” Watching the two bicker, Igang laughed as if it were absurd.
“Whatever else, on this point you two had best keep your mouths shut. How dare a lifelong bachelor and a widower try to lecture one who has married three times. A preposterous thing.” At the Crown Prince’s words the bachelor and the widower raised their voices as if wronged.
“Your Highness, though I have never married, I have had more women connected to me than I can count. How can you compare me to a widower?”
“Your Highness, though I did become alone at an early age, when my wife was alive we were rumored through the whole village as a pair of mandarin ducks the like of which the world had never seen. To compare me, nearing thirty, to a bachelor who has not found his other half–it is a great insult to me.”
“Nearing thirty? I am barely twenty-five!”
“Oh? Then you are a whole year younger than me–how dare you glare and point your finger?”
While the bachelor and the widower bickered, they had reached Geonmun before they knew it. Igang, who had until then only watched the two quarrel, turned his head and said, “So.”
“How far do you intend to follow?”
At Igang’s words the two, neither first nor last, bowed low at the waist as they said,
“I am Your Highness’s guard. Wherever Your Highness goes, is it not right that I attend close by your side and protect your person from every danger?”
“I am Your Highness’s strategist and advisor–how could I choose the time and place to attend my lord? I shall accompany you anywhere.”
They both talked well. Igang snorted. In truth they only wanted to watch him play the devoted husband to the Crown Princess.
Passing through Geonmun, Igang said,
“I shall today teach you how a woman’s–no, a man’s–heart is moved, so the bachelor and the widower shall only watch in silence.”
Clearing his throat grandly, he moved his feet with dignity.
When they arrived at Inyeong Palace, the Crown Princess, having already finished the midday meal preparations, was out at the main gate with the palace people to greet him. Igang smiled brightly as if meeting the most welcome person in the world and, seizing Huian’s hand, said,
“Why come all the way out here to greet me?”
Startled for a moment at having his hand suddenly taken, Huian soon answered in his usual calm tone,
“I merely walked five steps more than waiting beneath the main hall. I am rather embarrassed that Your Highness is so pleased.”
In short: why make such a fuss over nothing. For a moment Igang seemed to hear Ichi and Yuyeong’s laughter in his ears. Of course it was imagination. Igang hurried through the main gate still holding the Crown Princess’s hand, laughing as he said, “Even so. Coming out this far is no easy thing. It is a deed worthy of full praise; you are too modest, my consort.”
“…Forgive me.”
The Crown Princess bowed his head as he said it. At that sunken voice Igang belatedly realized his mistake, but it could not be undone. Wrong was wrong, and from now on he must properly imitate the figure of a kind husband and move the Crown Princess’s heart. And he must show the bachelor and the widower as well. The dignity of a man married all of three times.
☕ Enjoying the story? Support me on Ko-fi
Leave a Reply