“You were said to be sleeping—did you wake at the sound of me coming?”
Unlike Yeongchae’s report, Sansan was awake. He stood barefoot, wearing white sleeping garments. He appeared to have been pacing around the bedchamber before stopping.
“Are you out of your mind from just waking up? Come here. I’ll hold you, come.”
The Emperor reached out his hand toward Sansan. In the past, Sansan would have reluctantly approached and been embraced without complaint. But somehow his expression was strange. His complexion seemed extremely flustered and troubled.
“San-ah?”
“Y-Your Majesty. Wouldn’t it be alright to sleep in another residence today?”
It was a voice full of anxiety. The Emperor keenly noticed something was wrong. His chest sank coldly.
“…Why?”
It had been five days since he’d seen him. The word “today” didn’t quite fit the current situation. The fact that he couldn’t properly make eye contact and kept looking up and down was also suspicious. Above all,
“Because Gang-i, Gang-i is very sick. Don’t you know, Your Majesty? He’s Your Majesty’s son, and also my ne-nephew. He’s a pitiful child who lost his mother as soon as he was born, so I can’t bear to leave him alone.”
From the start, the white pillow Sansan had been holding in his arms was bothersome. A strange look entered the Emperor’s eyes.
“Where is Gang-i?”
At the question that returned in a cold tone, Sansan adjusted the pillow he was holding.
“…Ah, you said not to bring him into the bedchamber, but this lowly one was wrong. I’ll take him outside. Please overlook it just this once. Won’t you?”
“……”
“Please. It’s, it’s my wish. I want to be with Gang-i today. If you’ll just withdraw for today, tomorrow I’ll surely serve Your Majesty with all my heart. I-I’ll suck harder with my mouth too, shake my hips well, and relax properly so I can take your j-jade stem deeper. I’ll do everything to please Your Majesty. So just this once, it’s truly my wish.”
Sansan pleaded and even got on his knees. Even while doing so, he didn’t know to put down the pillow he held in his arms. Seeing that sight, the Emperor was left speechless.
His Bi had lost his mind.
He’d thought it strange that it was oddly quiet. Though he’d worried so much about this happening, he never thought it would actually turn out like this.
“…Han-ho.”
In a terribly low voice, the Emperor called for Head Eunuch Han. Head Eunuch Han, who had been standing outside the bedchamber observing the situation, quickly approached behind the Emperor.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Take that away immediately.”
The Emperor’s finger pointed at the pillow Sansan was holding. After that was chaos.
At Head Eunuch Han’s look, when the court ladies approached to take the pillow, Sansan screamed and fled onto the bed. As he desperately struggled, the court ladies couldn’t approach further and looked to the Emperor for guidance, so the Emperor dismissed the court ladies and sent his imperial guard.
It was the same guard who had caught Sansan when he’d fled from the first bedroom chamber before. He leisurely subdued Sansan’s frantic movements and, without causing Sansan any harm, skillfully snatched only the pillow and presented it to the Emperor.
“Give it back. Give it back!”
“You’ve truly lost your mind! Aren’t you ashamed as a mother looking at Won in your belly? Get your senses back right now!”
The Emperor handed the pillow to Yeongchae. Yeongchae hesitated while looking at Sansan whose eyes were gleaming wildly, then left the bedchamber in quick steps after receiving the Emperor’s glare. She was going somewhere to throw away the pillow.
“Your Majesty, give it back! Please give it back! You can’t send him to Suchanggung Palace. Gang-i is my nephew. I have to look after him. I promised Wol-i. It’s a truly important promise. Please, please give it back! Give it back I say! Aaaaaaah—!”
Whether he’d truly lost his mind, Sansan rushed at the Emperor, grabbed him and shook him. The imperial guard standing behind, seeing him scream before the imperial face and even dare to lay hands on the imperial body, kicked Sansan’s shoulder with his foot before the Emperor could stop him.
Sansan tumbled with a scream. The Emperor immediately turned back and slapped the imperial guard’s cheek. Along with the violently turned cheek, the imperial guard staggered backward.
“You dare use force on a Bi carrying my child?”
“This subject has committed a crime worthy of death. Please kill me, Your Majesty!”
The imperial guard knelt and prostrated himself right there on the bedchamber floor. He repeatedly bashed his head bang, bang, bang until blood came. The Emperor didn’t stop him and approached Sansan.
“Your Majesty, please return Gang-i. Suchanggung Palace is too far. Please don’t take Gang-i from me. Won’t you?”
Sansan, who had barely composed himself in the meantime, crawled toward the Emperor and clung to his leg, begging. The Emperor couldn’t hold back and let out a great sigh.
“San-ah, why are you like this?”
“It’s because Gang-i is so sick. Will you let me look after him? Won’t you? I’ll really serve you well tomorrow. Just for today. Won’t you?”
Like a foolish parrot, he only repeated the same sounds. The Emperor held back the urge to berate him and knelt down on one knee in front of Sansan.
“San-ah.”
“Your Majesty, please,”
“Gang-i is dead.”
“……”
“He stopped breathing on the seventeenth, so five days have already passed. You know this, don’t you?”
Sansan, who had been staring at the Emperor with vacant eyes for a moment, shook his head left and right. Once, twice, three times, then frantically.
“No. No! G-Gang-i didn’t die. Your Majesty just saw him too, didn’t you? Your Majesty just sent him outside!”
“Why are you doing this? You’re not alone right now. Please come to your senses.”
The Emperor held the struggling Sansan and spoke soothingly. His heart felt like it would burst too. Though he knew Sansan was unwell, he didn’t know his heart would be this weak too. That he would finally lose his mind.
“You must overcome it. You’re just sad for a moment. It’s nothing. Calm your heart. Hmm? I’ll bestow upon you the rank of Noble Consort. Our Won-i will be born with an incomparably precious status. Since it’s the child you bore, how can it be compared to the Eighth Imperial Prince?”
“……”
“Don’t you know? I favor you greatly. You’re the only one I’ve favored this much. Hmm?”
The Emperor personally wiped Sansan’s face soaked with tears and gently placed his lips on his cheeks and eyelids. Sansan looked at the empty air with eyes that had lost reason and thought.
What is favor?
I don’t know. What use is becoming a Noble Consort, all of that?
In the end, Sansan pushed the Emperor away. He shook his head again.
“Gang-i is alive. You just took him away, didn’t you? Please, please return Gang-i. Return him, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor gritted his teeth. He released Sansan and slowly stood up.
“Bring Imperial Physician Do immediately.”
It was a symptom of the Seven Emotions. It was a temporary mental illness from being unable to accept it. If he called Imperial Physician Do, it would be resolved.
The Emperor planted that suggestion in himself and turned his back on Sansan, who had collapsed in bewilderment, crying out only for the Eighth Imperial Prince. If he stayed like this together, he might not be able to hold back and become greatly angry.
He left Sansan as he was, moved to the side hall, and just waited for Imperial Physician Do to come.
***
“I deeply regret to report, but wouldn’t it be better to just go along with it for the time being?”
Sansan had clung to Imperial Physician Do too, pleading to bring Gang-i back to Mianggung Palace. He promised he would, repeatedly vowing and soothing him before giving him medicine to put Sansan to sleep. Then he was now having a private audience with the Emperor.
“You’re saying to leave him insane?”
“Not to leave him, but to wait at Mama’s pace until Bi Jin Mama can accept it.”
“……”
“Consort Nyeong passed away and in only a hundred days the Eighth Imperial Prince also passed—how could accepting this be easy? Moreover, he’s pregnant. A pregnant birth-giver’s emotions fluctuate more easily than others. Your Majesty, if you truly worry about Bi Jin Mama, now is not the time to press but to soothe. I humbly plead that you trust this subject and return that pillow to Bi Jin Mama.”
“Then will he be able to recover?”
“This subject will do his utmost, Your Majesty. However, I believe there would be even greater improvement if Your Majesty would also make a small effort together.”
“Speak.”
“Since Mama’s mind and body are both weakened, as it stands, there is not no danger of miscarriage. I deeply regret to report, but until Mama overcomes this, please sleep in another hall. Also, wouldn’t it be good to allow Mama’s family relatives to enter the palace so they can console Mama’s grief? It will surely help in finding stability.”
“In the case of Cheonin, wasn’t it you who said that when pregnant, consistently sleeping with their partner helps calm the fetus’s energy?”
“That is so, but didn’t I also say you must refrain when the birth-giver’s aversion is extreme? Your Majesty, please look upon this with compassion.”
Imperial Physician Do bowed deeply and pleaded. The Emperor turned his head to stare toward the bedchamber.
Aversion.
It was a word hard for him to accept. When the Emperor was pouring out this much favor, why would there be aversion, why aversion? But there was no leisure to question this now.
“Alright. Let’s do that. Han-ho. You must immediately send word to Bi Jin’s, no, Noble Consort Jin’s family home so that her birth mother can enter the palace as soon as possible. Also, prepare Noble Consort’s elevation ceremony without any issues. So that the Noble Consort can be happy, more grand and splendid than ever before, you must prepare everything without anything missing. Understand?”
“…I receive your command and will keep it in mind and obey, Your Majesty.”
