Seeing this scene unfold before his eyes again following yesterday, Sansan lost his wits in an instant. What on earth had he said to cause this situation—it was maddening. He hated, feared, and dreaded this violent situation so much.
And this was in fact what the Emperor had intended, as if by habit. Having spent his lifetime commanding people from the highest position, the Emperor could sense after exchanging just a few words how to control someone.
Some were weak to rewards, some were weak to beatings, and others were weak to principles or affection. He had always mixed these things appropriately as needed to govern others to his taste.
Sansan was weak to beatings. Even creating just a slightly violent atmosphere immediately overwhelmed him into obedience to the other’s will. So if he didn’t listen, the Emperor intended to continue suppressing him this way. Until he behaved to his liking.
This was the Emperor’s arrogance and fatal mistake, but there was no way for the Emperor to know immediately. It was a time when he didn’t even know what he wanted from Sansan, and even if he had known, it would have been the same. He had lived a life where it was natural that everything became his just by wanting it.
Not even knowing what he’d done wrong, Sansan put his elbows on the floor, pressed his hands together, and rubbed them while begging. “Your Majesty, I was wrong. Your Majesty, please forgive me.” But no matter how much he cried and begged, the Emperor didn’t withdraw the command to strike cheeks. The palace servants had to complete all fifty strikes.
Just when the sound of the palace servants striking their own cheeks was almost subsiding, Sanwol finally arrived. Having finished her evening meal and been offering prayers deep in the bedroom, she had to hurry over without even putting down the prayer beads in her hands.
“Long live, long live, long long live. Your Majesty, did you summon me?”
Seeing her older brother kneeling and just crying prostrate, Sanwol immediately knelt before him and paid her respects.
“How is the child in your belly lately?”
“Thanks to Your Majesty’s constant concern, the child seems to know Your Majesty’s heart and grows healthier day by day. Your grace is boundless, Your Majesty.”
“Good. Then there should be no problem serving the bed. Tonight, you must teach that one beside your older brother.”
“I humbly report, but what do you mean I should teach…”
“Why one must devote one’s utmost sincerity when serving the Emperor, and how doing so constitutes utmost sincerity—I’m saying this because your older brother is so deficient he doesn’t seem to understand at all. So you must help. You’re blood siblings, aren’t you?”
“…I-I beg you to give me time and this lowly concubine will take responsibility for teaching him. So today, in another place—”
“Concubine Yoon, have you lost your mind? How dare you interfere with the Emperor’s bedding?”
Sanwol immediately knelt the other knee she’d been keeping raised and pressed her head to the floor. It was a position that strained the child in her belly, but there was nothing she could do.
“Those words are absolutely undeserved. This lowly concubine absolutely did not mean it that way. It’s just that this lowly concubine’s older brother learns more slowly than others, so I worried Your Majesty might be angered… Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor didn’t forgive easily. This too was part of the process of taming Sansan. Though it wasn’t a calculated action on his part.
As he intended, Sansan, who had been glancing at his younger sister with her swollen belly continuing to prostrate on the floor, finally came crawling while crying. Crawling over, he grabbed the Emperor’s black leather boots and begged.
“Your Majesty, I was wrong. Your Majesty.”
His face dripping thick tears was flushed from fever. The eyelashes wet with tears in strands sparkled especially when viewed from above.
The Emperor sat on one knee before that Sansan. A shadow huge as Mount Tai covered the trembling Sansan.
“What did you do wrong?”
Sansan didn’t know his mistake. But he had to somehow admit his crime and receive forgiveness, so he parroted exactly what the Emperor had just said to his younger sister.
“I-I didn’t devote my utmost sincerity. I should devote my utmost sincerity, but I couldn’t… I really was wrong. Please forgive me. I’m worried the-the child will be hurt.”
Sansan rubbed his swollen cheek against the Emperor’s black leather boots. He rubbed hard without even knowing his skin was raw. Seeing his cheeks grow redder, the Emperor frowned and lifted Sansan’s face with his fingertips.
“Wouldn’t I feel hurt if you keep pestering me when I’ll naturally let you leave the palace when the time comes?”
“…I just thought if I had a date, I would feel at ease, at ease.”
In any case, every time he opened his mouth, he invariably made him feel hurt. The Emperor’s feelings thoroughly soured as he curled his lips. Would it be something to feel at ease about?
About to get angry once more, the Emperor only let out a long sigh when the face touching his fingertips felt quite hot.
Since he’s deficient, there’s no choice but to teach him slowly.
“Enough. How can we spend the night with you crying like this? Everyone rise.”
“Your grace is as vast as the sea, Your Majesty.”
Concubine Yoon rose first with Songhwa’s support, and Yeongchae tactfully helped Sansan up. From here and there burst successive expressions of thanks for the boundless grace.
“Han-ho. You notify Hondangsa to prepare the bath, and tell the Imperial Kitchen to bring out songryeongju. And bring the deer blood I ordered earlier to the bath as soon as it’s ready. Make sure to confirm he drinks it all.”
Hearing the command, the senior eunuch immediately gestured to a subordinate. Several eunuchs busily left Dongbaejeon. Sansan moved whimpering with Yeongchae to the place where he’d bathed yesterday. The Emperor didn’t take his eyes off that retreating figure until Sansan completely disappeared.
“I’m tired. Is the songryeongju not ready yet?”
“This servant will go quickly to check and return.”
The Emperor scanned the court ladies cleaning the chaotic floor indifferently, then moved to the opposite tea room. As if just remembering, he added toward Sanwol,
“You go to the bedchamber first and wait.”
***
“So you shared the bed with that fellow again?”
“Yes, Mama.”
Noble Concubine Shin, who had been lying sprawled on the Arhat Bed, dismissed Head Court Lady Sanghyeon who had been massaging her legs and slightly raised her upper body.
“You’re saying three people shared the bed together with Concubine Yoon?”
Eunuch Yoon, who had been observing the situation at Yeongnyeong Palace, quickly opened his mouth again.
“Not that, they say she was made to stand beside them the entire time they were sharing the bed, Mama.”
“…Hmm.”
Noble Concubine Shin soon raised the corners of her mouth and let out a pisik, a sneer. After gulping down the cold tea placed on the side table, she continued speaking.
“Concubine Yoon has truly become pitiable. How humiliating.”
Despite the content, it was a tone full of mockery. Since their master’s mood seemed quite good, Eunuch Yoon became excited and began adding every little detail.
“Yes. Each time that older brother fellow couldn’t do properly, His Majesty had Concubine Yoon immediately correct the mistakes, so last night, that fellow’s crying didn’t stop, they say.”
Hearing that, Noble Concubine Shin burst out laughing. “Kareureuk.”
“His Majesty is truly heartless too. How could he stand the Bin who carries his child beside him and receive bedding from her older brother? Rather than sitting here, I should go comfort Concubine Yoon. While I’m at it, I should see that older brother fellow too.”
At Noble Concubine Shin’s appearance unable to hide her pleasure, Sanghyeon spoke up.
“Mama, for now it would be better to be more cautious and observe. Don’t you know His Majesty’s temperament well?”
Noble Concubine Shin fell into thought for a moment after hearing Sanghyeon’s dissuasion.
She held much resentment toward Concubine Yoon. Noble Concubine Shin, who had been selected alongside the deceased Silver Concubine and served the Emperor from his days as Crown Prince, had been as close as sisters with Silver Concubine. Though she herself had given birth to a daughter, Silver Concubine had no children, so as someone who had entered the palace together, she was like a younger sister she couldn’t help but constantly worry about.
Already having a weak constitution, the children she conceived after much difficulty miscarried twice, further harming her body. From then on, her heart grew sick. Even visiting morning and evening to care for her, Silver Concubine’s melancholy showed no improvement. Into the palace of such a fragile person, some young girl had entered.
In fact, there were rather political reasons for the Emperor’s favor toward Concubine Yoon. During a time when he needed to check the established powers, it was simply good fortune that a maiden of outstanding beauty from an insignificant family entered the palace. But to others, it could well appear as favor.
Noble Concubine Shin remembered how Silver Concubine’s affliction had deepened day by day after Sanwol came to reside in Silver Concubine’s Manin Palace. There’s such a thing as affection from long service—even though she could see someone wasting away from heart sickness, the Emperor showed no interest. He never once looked in on Silver Concubine, and though he could have summoned Sanwol to Geoncheonggung Palace, he unabashedly even received bedding at Manin Palace.
Silver Concubine lived neglected, completely distant from the Emperor’s attention, and when her illness deepened to the point of her end being near, she was ordered by imperial command to enter a temple. Because concubines could not die in the imperial palace.
“…That truly heartless temperament, you mean?”
Footnote:
Songryeongju (송령주) – Type of alcoholic beverage
