“Yes.”
At the unexpected news, Igang was letting out a “huh” of a laugh when Ichi, who had taken the clothes, said in an utterly exhausted voice: “Your Highness, shouldn’t you eat first…”
“You haven’t eaten even at this hour?” Yuyeong asked in surprise, and Ichi sighed in an even more exhausted voice: “Eat? You speak of eating. He said we had to arrive today no matter what, so without stopping at an inn even once, we rode ten straight hours.”
At Ichi’s lament, Yuyeong made a “why on earth go that far…?” face, then sighed. “Understood.” “Then I’ll tell Eunuch Song to bring the royal table at once–”
“No need.” Igang cut Yuyeong off. “You don’t need the royal table?” “Right. I’m going to Inyeong Palace.” Ichi and Yuyeong cried out at once: “What?” “Now… you mean right now?” “Your Highness, it will soon be the third watch.”
To his two flustered retainers, Igang said in a deliberately stern voice, “What does that matter?”: “If he’s a devoted husband second to none in this world, he should of course go see his wife the moment he gets home.”
“Ah… yes. A devoted husband should, of course, do just that…” Beside the stammering Yuyeong, Ichi groaned, clutching his belly as if in pain: “Being a devoted husband is truly a hard thing. I couldn’t do it if I died and came back to life.”
“Naturally it’s hard for an old bachelor who’s never married once.” Laughing, Igang took off his trousers and handed them to Ichi. “So you have your meal here with the soldiers.” “A widower who was once a devoted husband will accompany me to Inyeong Palace.” Smiling at Yuyeong after saying that — before Yuyeong could say anything — he said he’d go wash first, and left the study wearing only a vest. Patting the shoulder of Yuyeong, who stood staring blankly at the door the crown prince had gone out, Ichi said in a sympathetic voice: “Hang in there, widower.”
At the crown prince’s sudden procession, the Inyeong Palace servants came running out in a flustered bustle. Without even having heard news of his return to the palace, with the crown prince suddenly appearing at the crown princess’s palace past midnight, everyone was in a confused dither.
Of course, the most surprised seemed to be the crown princess. He had been reading in the study, and at the words “His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived,” he asked the maid several times over: “His Highness has come? At this hour? His Highness, who’s in Yangju?”
Listening outside, Igang held back his laughter, and soon the study door opened and the crown princess came out. Igang soon understood why he was flustered. Given the hour, he was in thin sleepwear, his hair loosely tied instead of dressed in a topknot.
“Your Highness, forgive me. I… look a mess right now.” To Huian, who was stammering in his rare fluster, Igang said with a smile: “At this hour, isn’t that look only natural?”
“It is, but still…” “It doesn’t matter. And it’s not as if it’s the first time I’ve seen you like this.” At Igang’s words, Huian looked around, slightly flustered. Igang just went on in a calm tone: “But are you going to keep me standing out here?”
Only then did Huian murmur, “Ah.” “Please… come inside.”
Once the master’s permission was given, he stepped up onto the main hall’s floor without ceremony. Behind him he heard Huian order the maid to prepare a drinking table. Then, as Huian naturally led him toward the hall, Igang shook his head. “No.” “We’ll go to that room once the table is ready. Let’s go over there.” He pointed to the study at the far end of the main hall. “Is that the room where you were reading until just now?” “It is, but…” “Then let’s go to that room.”
When he said it again, Huian led him to his study, wearing a “but why?” expression.
“I haven’t had a chance to tidy; it’s quite messy.” Huian said, opening the door. But contrary to his words, the study was spotless. Everything was neatly in order; only a few books lay stacked on the writing desk.
“You call this messy? You’d faint if you saw my study.” With a not-quite-joke, Igang entered the study. Heading straight for the writing desk, he settled into the chair Huian must have been sitting in until moments ago. Propping an arm on the writing desk and turning his head, a large window caught his eye. It was the middle of the night, but the moon was very bright, and a few of the guards he had brought were lighting lanterns here and there in the garden, so enjoying the view outside the window was no trouble. The problem lay elsewhere.
“Why is the garden so barren?”
Indeed. The garden seen from the study was not merely empty but downright barren.
In the inner palace, it was customary for palaces to fit out the two side rooms at the far end of the main hall as a tea room and a study, because the garden view from there was the most beautiful. And so, from the very start of laying out a garden, it had become the established practice to plant the master of the house’s favorite flowers and trees in the garden before those side rooms.
But such a barren sight! Igang, who had deliberately sought out this study out of no small curiosity about the crown princess’s tastes — his aesthetic sense — could not help being disappointed.
“Do you have no favorite flowers or trees?” he asked, unintentionally sounding like a scolding.
“Not particularly.” At the calm answer, only a hollow laugh escaped him.
“Even so, not even one favorite flower?” He muttered like talking to himself and sighed in dismay; then Huian, looking a bit sheepish himself now, said with an awkward smile: “Honestly, I’ve never thought about such things.”
“When they were refurbishing Inyeong Palace, the gardeners asked me, but nothing came to mind. Flowers and trees were always around, but I’d never thought about which I liked more or less… I sent them away saying I’d tell them when something came to mind, but no matter how I thought, nothing did.”
“But when I actually moved in, it wasn’t so bad as it was, so I just left it like this.”
Hearing the whole story, he had to admit it made sense. He had lived as if confined alone in the remotest part of a castle in the forest; however much trees and flowers surrounded him on every side, they could hardly have looked lovely. More precisely, he must not have had the leisure of heart to feel they were lovely.
Thinking that, he felt oddly sorry for him, and sorry too for having scolded him about favorite flowers, so Igang cleared his throat for no reason and turned his gaze back out the window.
“Hearing that, it’s not bad in its own way, as you say,” Igang nodded slowly. But “not bad” was never “good.” And even if it passed now, once autumn went and winter came, even the sparse shrubs would stand bare-branched and look bleak indeed. Seeing such a sight every day, however even-tempered a man, could not help feeling lonely and desolate.
Hadn’t he lived lonely all his life? Thinking of him looking at that view all through the long winter sat ill with him. But pressing him again here to name favorite trees would only look like nagging, so after some thought Igang said:
“Still, this is one of the sunniest spots in the inner palace; it’d be a real shame to leave it idle. If the crown princess truly has nothing he’d like planted, may I plant some of my own favorites? Would that be all right?”
“Of course.” Huian answered at once, as if there were nothing to think over. At that breezy answer, Igang laughed, feeling rather dumbfounded: “What will you do if I plant something strange?”
“I trust Your Highness’s taste.” “Hearing that makes me want to plant something even stranger.” “It doesn’t matter.” He looked like he truly meant it. And: “If anyone criticizes what the garden looks like, I can just tell them it’s a garden Your Highness tended himself.”
At that calm tone, Igang burst out laughing. After laughing a while, he propped his arm on the writing desk again and said: “Still, a garden should be decorated with what the master of the house likes. Why do you think they take such care with the view outside the room where the master spends the most time? So that, looking at beloved things, he can forget the world’s sorrows for a while.”
“Is that so.” “It is.” Igang said, smiling. Huian wore a thinking expression for a moment, then said with a serious face: “Then all the more, I must beg Your Highness to do it for me.”
“Why?” When Igang asked why, Huian said, still serious: “Isn’t it so? If you plant your favorites, won’t you come here often, if only to look at them? While Your Highness eases his sorrows looking at this garden, I can gaze at Your Highness’s face to my heart’s content and forget the world’s sorrows. It would be a greater fortune than seeing any beautiful flowers or trees.”
His eyes widened for a moment at what he was hearing, then Igang laughed out loud. He laughed so hard he nearly fell off his chair. He couldn’t help it. It was an utterly unexpected reason, and he had never imagined that this crown princess of all people — this person so indifferent to everything in the world — would praise his beauty so matter-of-factly in such a calm tone.
“Does the crown princess find this face of mine pleasing?” Igang asked, still smiling. Huian asked back, looking puzzled again: “Does Your Highness not find it pleasing?” “If this lowly wife had been born with such a jade-like face, I would never have left the mirror stand all day long.”
His tone and expression were utterly serious, and Igang couldn’t stop laughing. He’d heard praise of his looks countless times to the point of boredom, but hearing the crown princess say it like this somehow pleased him anew.
“I think it suits Your Highness’s courtesy name very well, too.” At the out-of-the-blue remark, Igang went “Hm?” and raised one eyebrow. Then, after a moment — ah — he nodded. He’d wondered what he meant. Igang leaned back against his chair and smiled. His courtesy name was Uiyeong. The first character, “ui,” meant “excellent” and “to sing praises” — and it also carried the meaning “beautiful.” The crown princess was obviously convinced the character had been used in the sense of “beautiful.”
Well, used that way, it hardly mattered. Just as he was debating whether to tell him that wasn’t the meaning the name had been given in, a maid announced from outside the door:
“Your Highness, the drinking table is ready.”
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