***
It was already the third night of Sansan hovering between life and death. The physicians inwardly believed he probably wouldn’t make it through this night. He had already vomited black, dead blood several times. Sansan already smelled of the dead.
“Keep him alive no matter what.”
The physicians filling the interior of the bedchamber, led by Imperial Physician Do, all knelt on the floor in unison.
“Your Majesty, there is nothing more we can do. Letting him go now would be mercy for Mama instead. Even at this very moment, Mama’s internal organs are rotting away. Please look down with mercy.”
Imperial Physician Do, as representative, struck his head on the floor and remonstrated. The Emperor unleashed cold fury.
“If the Noble Consort dies, you all die too. There’s no need to keep useless things alive. So keep him alive. Save him no matter what.”
“Your Majesty, please do not forgive our incompetence. We beg for our crimes with death. Long live His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, long live, long live for ten thousand years—.”
Imperial Physician Do struck his head on the floor once more and appealed. The other physicians also one by one struck their heads on the floor and begged for death. Only cold silence hung over Mianggung Palace’s bedchamber.
The Emperor was actually feeling it too. That there were no more methods.
Then.
“……Haa.”
A faint breath almost completely severed scattered emptily into the bedchamber’s void. The Emperor returned to the bed and grasped the arm of Sansan, who hung completely limp having lost all strength. At the temperature already cold as if long dead, the Emperor struggled to swallow his grief and rage.
Just tell me, who is it, who gave you what? This detestable!
Even at this point, he harbored the futile hope that if only he knew the identity of the poison Sansan had eaten, he could save Sansan. Though he instinctively felt it was impossible, he couldn’t abandon his faith.
“……I want to see Wol-i.”
“……”
“I want to see Gang-i too.”
“Didn’t I say you must endure?”
“……”
“Why do you,”
“……”
“Repeatedly defy my words?”
At that moment, Sansan vomited blood again with a retch. Again it was black, dead blood. From the eyes of the Emperor watching him, tears dropped.
“……Why are you doing this to me?”
As if afraid of the words that would follow, the Emperor squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in the other’s cold hand.
“Live.”
Please.
The Emperor pleaded quietly.
“Your Majesty, I’m in too much pain, I just want to rest now.”
Still, invariably the same parrot-like words returned.
“……This is my last wish.”
“Your Majesty, Wol-i is giving birth to the baby, Your Majesty’s baby, and dying. You can’t do this. Please……, please. This is my wish.”
“I’ll do everything, everything to please Your Majesty. So just this once, truly this is my wish.”
“Please, pull this out. Okay? Please, nngh, please, Your Majesty, this is my wish.”
Why did he remember how Sansan always begged in a pitiful voice, saying it was his wish?
The Emperor absolutely could not grant it this time, and clenched his teeth until his jaw would shatter.
“I refuse. Stay by my side continuously.”
But despite the imperial command, the moment that must come arrives.
“San-ah.”
“……”
“Sansan-ah.”
On the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the Year of Yeonghwi, Noble Consort Jin of the Yoon family, Sansan, who had been magnificently favored by the Emperor, finally breathed his last.
***
The Emperor, who couldn’t let Sansan go from his arms until Sansan’s corpse had stiffened hard, only after Sansan had completely rigidified laid that corpse neatly in place and returned to Geoncheonggung Palace.
There, he began digging up all the matters he had buried away while watching Sansan’s condition. The Emperor regretted all that past he had turned a blind eye to, thinking it didn’t matter what happened as long as he didn’t provoke Sansan. That was his only immediate regret.
The regret of one above ten thousand people returned as an uncontrollable whirlwind. It swept through the entire imperial palace once, causing complete devastation. Imperial princes and concubines, palace people, even their relatives—all were implicated and dragged before Geoncheonggung Palace. Those with crimes died, and those without crimes also died.
Like that, for seven days from the day Sansan died, the Emperor transformed into a murderer unprecedented in history, wielding his blade mercilessly. Since it was a matter of finding the great traitors who tried to threaten the imperial house’s survival by assassinating imperial grandsons, based on the line the Emperor drew, no one dared step forward to stop him.
During this time, Sansan’s funeral was postponed indefinitely. The corpse was treated with fragrant oils, placed in a jade coffin, and moved deep into Geoncheonggung Palace. Every morning the Emperor went to the coffin and kissed the shell Sansan had left behind after departing. Sansan no longer cried. Instead, that scent that had driven him mad also no longer emanated.
After Sansan’s scent disappeared, the Emperor had to endure splitting headaches like breathing. Through that actual pain, he could be certain that he and Sansan were connected by something.
“Wait just a little. It’s soon now.”
He fingered the gold ring on his left hand. The pure gold ring set with high-purity emerald was a precious treasure of the imperial house passed down since the founding of the primordial Ha Dynasty.
The Emperor placed another kiss upon Sansan’s ice-cold lips. With that he bid eternal farewell to Sansan’s corpse and advanced to Geoncheonggung Palace’s front courtyard.
Now only the finishing touches remained. Soon he would be able to follow Sansan. Thinking this, the Emperor thought even the pain that had felt like a chisel splitting his head seemed to momentarily fade.
***
**9. The Emperor’s Ring**
In the distant past, a bodiless god appeared from within the sea, split the fierce current left and right, and drew out the empire that had been submerged within.
The god who created life by scattering seeds on the earth made two children with his remaining breath on the last day—these were the day god ‘Ju’ and the night god ‘Ya.’ The god had the gods of time he had borne rule the empire.
When the time came for the god to perish before long, he summoned Ju and Ya and told them never to be close to each other, but Ju secretly disobeyed this.
Ya, who ended up bearing Ju’s child because Ju came to violate him every night, one day suddenly couldn’t endure the suffering and abruptly disappeared.
Ju left the empire to his child and wandered eternity searching for Ya. And when extinction was before his eyes, he finally discovered traces of Ya at the end of the sea. It was the crimson life stone embedded in the center of Ya’s forehead.
Ju placed Ya’s life stone in a pure gold ring and attached his own emerald life stone on top of it. He left this to his descendants born from Ya.
As long as the bloodline originating from Ya continues, divine blessing shall also be eternal.
This was the founding myth related to the ‘Emperor’s Ring’ passed down from the time of the Great Ancestor. It was a precious treasure of the imperial house that emperors passed down to emperors across generations.
“Just once, turn back time with death. When the moment comes for the nation to fall, it will surely be needed—never separate it from your body for even one hour.”
The previous Emperor had also passed this to Emperor Yeonghwi before his death and urged him until his last breath.
That didn’t mean the Emperor fully believed this. It was just that since it was the Emperor’s regalia valued more than the imperial seal for generations, he wore it as a sign of respecting his predecessors.
But.
Why was this myth now constantly circling in his head—what foolish lingering attachment was this?
The Emperor quietly looked down at the ring on his hand. Gazing at the emerald ornament that hadn’t lost its luster even after hundreds of years, he flipped it toward his palm. When he turned the emerald like opening a lid, a small pearl bead sparkling softly revealed itself.
“Why, why don’t you even regret it?”
He recalled Sansan, who on a certain day had wailed while looking at him, unable to bear the anger in his heart any longer. Now he even longed achingly for that wailing appearance.
“……I am regretting.”
He shouldn’t have let anything slide. Doting was also a disease—he hadn’t properly managed the foolish one. He should have made it so Sansan couldn’t think of anything, wouldn’t even dare to do such things.
The Emperor just laughed. Then he immediately dumped the pearl bead into his mouth. While crunching and swallowing it, he laid his upper body on the bed as is.
Nothing was as meaningless as belated regret. The Emperor embraced Sansan’s pillow instead of Sansan as if it were him.
Indeed, soon his breath was choked and sounds became distant all at once. Finally, his vision slowly dyed black.
At the instant it was about to completely blink out in blackness, the not-too-distant past swept through his dim mind like a revolving lantern.
This terrible, pretty thing.
He murmured for the last time.
