“Smooth and hairless, not a single strand……”
That’s why the pink folds stood out even more prominently. Though the Emperor had embraced young men who prided themselves on being quite handsome, it was the first time for a man with such pretty lower parts. For the Emperor, who wouldn’t reach for someone multiple times if their face was beautiful but their genitals weren’t pretty, Sansan was nothing short of satisfactory.
“Hmm, Han-ho—.”
“Please command, Your Majesty.”
Head Eunuch Han, who had been wearing a bandage around his forehead, immediately bowed deeply in response. Though not a small amount of blood had soaked into that bandage, his expression was consistently gentle and obedient.
“Are there born eunuchs among you palace eunuchs as well?”
“Though it is presumptuous to report, there are occasionally, Your Majesty.”
“Then are they also beautiful like women?”
“That is not the case.”
Head Eunuch Han answered while bowing even more deeply. The Emperor listened quietly and nodded his head slightly.
“Indeed.”
That made sense. If born eunuchs were all so beautifully figured, the Emperor who had been born and raised in the palace his whole life couldn’t have lived without ever thinking of embracing a palace eunuch.
Palace eunuchs were generally just men whose thing didn’t work. They simply didn’t grow beards, but he’d never seen them have skin as beautiful as peach blossoms or have a bearing like women.
It’s just that one who was born pretty. The Emperor agreed with his own thoughts alone.
Head Eunuch Han, who lived with his ears always open to news inside and outside the capital to maintain his position, knew from hearing that very occasionally there were eunuchs in common households with figures like women who were sold to pleasure houses.
He also knew from hearing even stranger stories, but since he hadn’t confirmed them directly, he didn’t carelessly run his mouth to the Emperor.
Moreover, even by Head Eunuch Han’s thinking, Sansan wasn’t pretty because he was a eunuch, but just pretty. Head Eunuch Han too had never seen such looks in his life.
The Emperor, who seemed about to review memorials again, soon put down the memorial again and muttered.
“The Yoon family is audacious, though……”
Though it wasn’t just yesterday or today that concubine families pushed blood siblings into the Emperor’s embrace, he’d never once embraced a younger brother or older brother. Probably couldn’t be found even searching through all of Ha’s history. There was nothing good about keeping close those so blinded by greed. However,
How could one who refuses something like Sansan be called a man?
“……Looking at it, his circumstances are pitiful too, so if I keep him and find him a good marriage match at an appropriate time, it would be good for that child as well.”
Could the position of chief head eunuch be occupied without being quick-witted? Head Eunuch Han opened his mouth as if he’d been waiting.
“Your Majesty, shall I tell the Gyeongsabang to prepare Yoon Sansan of the Yoon family tonight?”
He immediately provided the answer the Emperor desired.
“Hmm……”
“Though it is presumptuous to report, if Your Majesty visits one who has just entered the palace and is unfamiliar and lonely, he too will consider it the glory of his life.”
“That may be so, but looking at him he seems inadequate—does he even know how to attend the bedchamber?”
“With Concubine Yoon there, what is there to worry about? She must have already taught him, Your Majesty.”
“……He hasn’t already shared a bed with someone, has he?”
The Emperor actually wasn’t one who obsessed over virgin bodies. Especially in the case of male concubines, he’d often shared beds with married ones. However, Head Eunuch Han, who had somehow sensed the Emperor would come out like this, brought his body closer to him and reported what Jusa Yoon had separately conveyed earlier.
“Your Majesty. Jusa Yoon reported in advance that he is a virgin who has never even masturbated.”
“……Oh my.”
Though clicking his tongue as if pitying, delight couldn’t be hidden from the Emperor’s face. Head Eunuch Han asked again in a small voice audible only to the Emperor.
“Shall I have him wait at Geoncheonggung Palace tonight?”
Geoncheonggung Palace had a combined structure of audience hall and bedchamber in one, and the Emperor spent most nights sleeping at Geoncheonggung Palace. In the two-story east and west warm chambers located inside Geoncheonggung Palace, a total of twenty-seven bedchambers were prepared, and he changed where he slept each day without regularity.
Only the very few close attendants who always attended him knew where he slept. This was also why concubines attending the bedchamber were wrapped in bedding and carried over. Even when attending the bedchamber, concubines didn’t know which room they’d entered. However,
“Since he’s ignorant in such matters, I don’t want to startle one who’s already inadequate.”
Of course, rather than such a reason, he didn’t feel like having a child who was a rare virgin brought over completely naked, but the Emperor said that. He was behaving as if he’d forgotten the fact that all the concubines he’d brought in until now had been virgins.
“I should personally go to Yeongnyeong Palace. I can have dinner there.”
Following propriety, it would be correct to summon the concubine to Geoncheonggung Palace, but what was above propriety was the Emperor’s heart. Only when the Emperor desired, he would receive bedchamber attendance at a consort’s sleeping quarters rather than Geoncheonggung Palace. Even so, he was bound to return to Geoncheonggung Palace to sleep.
“I receive your command and will swiftly order preparations at Yeongnyeong Palace, Your Majesty.”
Though it seemed Sansan wouldn’t want to spend his first night with the Emperor at Yeongnyeong Palace where his pregnant younger sister was, if he said such things he might needlessly disturb the Emperor’s mood and have to bash his head on the floor again. Head Eunuch Han just bowed his head and answered obediently thus.
***
“Long live, long live, long long live. That you grace us with your precious visit fills us with boundless honor, Your Majesty.”
As he crossed the threshold of Yeongnyeong Palace to have dinner, the household members of Yeongnyeong Palace who had received advance notice and were waiting outside, led by Concubine Yoon, all knelt at once and offered greetings. The Emperor found at a glance Sansan, who had been catching his eye since earlier.
“Everyone rise.”
Without exception they cried “We are deeply honored” and stood. The Emperor, who had already approached right next to Sansan, suddenly grasped Sansan’s hand and rubbed the back of that hand with his thumb.
“So, did you catch up well with your sister?”
“Yes? Ah……, ye-es, Your Majesty.”
When Sansan, who found such contact awkward, subtly pulled his hand from the imperial hand, Head Eunuch Han immediately stepped forward. The Emperor stopped with a glance what seemed about to be a reprimand.
“Sansan.”
“……Ye-es.”
The Emperor grasped Sansan’s hand again.
“From now on, you must not refuse my touch. Though I know you’re inadequate so I’ll overlook it just this once, next time I’ll impose punishment. Not only on you but on Concubine Yoon as well.”
“……I was wrong. I, I’ll, I’ll remember.”
“Good. You understand words immediately, so you’re cleverer than you look.”
Sansan was uncomfortable and uneasy, but momentarily pleased at being called clever. Then his gaze went to his younger sister standing beside him with her head slightly bowed.
“Oh my, Concubine Yoon’s complexion isn’t good. If you’re very tired, go in and rest.”
Though it seemed like words asking Concubine Yoon’s opinion at a glance, it was an order to leave that anyone living in the palace would easily understand.
“Your grace is boundless. Then this lowly concubine will withdraw and rest. ……Have a comfortable night, Your Majesty.”
In her belly resided an imperial grandson who had just reached four or five months. Sanwol swallowed inwardly the bitter water rising up and cast a pitying glance once at her older brother who still didn’t properly understand this situation, then unavoidably turned her back. Soon, supported by Songhwa, she moved away toward her rear hall.
The Emperor led the hand of Sansan, who stood looking blankly at the direction his younger sister had moved away, toward Dongbaejeon of Yeongnyeong Palace, which had become Sansan’s temporary residence.
Dinner for the Emperor was already prepared on one side of the tea room. Originally, the Emperor never took meals together with anyone. Even when having meals at a consort’s palace, only the Emperor ate. The consort would stand beside him attending to the Emperor and could only eat after he left.
However, Sansan, who knew none of such propriety, widened his eyes round and couldn’t take his gaze from the prepared feast, even displaying the disgraceful behavior of swallowing his saliva. It was the moment when Yeongchae, who had received urgent notice and devoted herself to preparations in a short time and thus hadn’t been able to teach him, was urgently about to whisper to Sansan.
Haha. Suddenly the Emperor laughed aloud.
“You seem quite hungry.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Sansan answered immediately, knowing nothing. Then the Emperor’s laughter grew even louder.
Sansan hadn’t grown up eating very good food. Yoon Yun-gyeom hated even looking at Sansan, and Lee Ja-yoon had no interest beyond pleasing Yoon Yun-gyeom. Since the masters were like that, the slaves they employed also treated the young Sansan and Sanwol carelessly. As the years accumulated, this became solidified as if natural.
Meat that was hard to eat even once a week was heaped variously on the table. The appetite-stimulating smell poked Sansan’s nose. Saliva naturally pooled in his mouth and kept going down gulp gulp. He was in a state where his heart was stolen by the meat dishes to the point he couldn’t even maintain dignity.
