***
“What did you learn today?”
The Emperor, who had taken a sip of tea before the meal, put down his teacup and asked. Sansan, who was already chewing noodles with his mouth full, hurriedly swallowed his food.
“…Uh, um…”
“Did you not listen properly?”
“No, no!”
Sansan waved his hands and vehemently denied it. He seemed to be guilty. When the Emperor narrowed his eyes and watched Sansan like that, Sansan suddenly gulped down warm tea as if his throat was parched.
“Today, so… uh, um, I learned how well Your Majesty has treated the people.”
“How well did I treat them?”
“W-well, you reduced their taxes, and collected taxes from the nobles too, a-and also, you made it so the people could directly pet-petition? petition? to the palace…”
Sansan tried his best to speak coherently about what he could remember, counting on his fingers one by one. The Emperor, who had been listening to Sansan’s words with an indifferent expression, lifted his teacup again and opened his mouth.
“So, what did you think after hearing that?”
He asked casually and immediately sipped his tea. However, the fact that he was watching only Sansan’s lips with narrowed eyes was something that couldn’t be hidden even by the teacup.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“…Um, I thought you were gr-great!”
“And?”
“…And? Uh, a-and I also thought I was grateful! Because it’s all Your Majesty’s benevolence. Your grace is boundless. Long live His Majesty the Emperor, long live, l-long, long live…”
In fact, Sansan, who was a noble, didn’t belong to the group that benefited from the Emperor’s policies. Of course, Sansan’s thoughts couldn’t extend to such aspects, but even if that weren’t the case, since Sansan had actually always lived in hunger, it was natural that the lecture’s content didn’t resonate much with him.
Nevertheless, Sansan truly thought that an emperor who cared for the people was wonderful and that he was grateful.
The problem was that that was all. Sansan, who had been shouting long live, fumbled his words and awkwardly lowered his gaze at the Emperor’s increasingly sullen expression.
“You still have far too much to learn.”
The Emperor put down his teacup with a thud and stood up from his seat. Since he was in the middle of eating, Sansan blinked in surprise, and soon a short sigh burst from the Emperor’s mouth.
“You continue eating. Eat a lot and study the theory of yin-yang diligently. If we’re talking about importance, that’s more important.”
“…Yes, th-then please go safely.”
Sansan, who had awkwardly stood up from his seat, soon sat back down in the chair and began eating the rest of his noodles. He ate the noodles full of ribs well with skillful chopstick work. The Emperor, who let out another sigh, glared at Myeong-ok once and immediately left Mianggung Palace.
If he knew what kind of emperor he was, he should naturally have feelings of admiration, but perhaps because he was a simpleton, his reaction seemed very slow. That day, the Emperor substituted venting his anger by finding fault with and getting angry at each official in the morning court session for no reason.
Even after the Emperor left, Sansan ate rib noodles for quite a while longer and only put down his spoon after drinking all the broth. Myeong-ok sighed and repeatedly emphasized to Sansan, impressing upon him that when the Emperor tried to leave without eating, he must hold him back and gauge his mood.
Though he didn’t understand why he had to forcibly hold back someone who had stood up because they didn’t want to eat anymore, since Myeong-ok had stern eyes, Sansan reluctantly nodded.
***
“It is said that the night deity Ya gave birth to the day deity Ju’s child, is that not so?”
“Yes, Grand Tutor.”
“If we look for records about this night deity, we find expressions that with one body, he possessed all the characteristics of both man and woman. Interpreting this now, it seems that our Ha Kingdom’s ancestors originated from Cheonin from the very beginning. Do you understand thus far?”
Sansan hesitated and then nodded his head slightly. After eating lunch, he had to learn about the theory of yin-yang, especially concentrating on Cheonin. It was a story that had been repeated for several days already, and since it was much easier to understand than the political talk in the morning, as he’d promised earlier, Sansan didn’t doze off much.
The day after Sansan entered the palace, the Emperor made the existence of Cheonin public and officially declared that he himself was also a Cheonin. Since he’d even said he would set an example for everyone by taking a Cheonin as empress according to the principles of yin-yang and solidifying his succession, there were currently all kinds of big and small talk coming from here and there.
Immediately after his regression, the Emperor had called together historians and made them find all records that seemed related to Cheonin from the Ha Kingdom’s founding myth onward. Significant content was discovered in various places to a degree that made it strange there had been no discussion until now.
First, the point that the specific genders of the day deity Ju and night deity Ya were not specified in any documents, and records spanning generations about men who became pregnant, as well as records about men with developed breasts. If you looked into it, they were too numerous to count.
Above all, the Emperor knew far too much about this. He was more well-versed in the characteristics of Cheonin than even Imperial Physician Do. He conveyed what he knew to Imperial Physician Do and ordered him to systematize it medically.
Thus, despite the relatively short time, the story about Cheonin was quickly taking hold.
“Cheonin are beings who influence each other. Eum-in need Yang-in, and Yang-in need Eum-in. In a way, you could say it’s a more instinctive harmony of yin-yang than the harmony between men and women. They pair with each other through their scents. That also affects each other’s manifestation. The reason Cheonin were completely wiped out in our Ha Kingdom until now is probably also related to this. Because they didn’t know of the existence and couldn’t meet each other, they couldn’t manifest either.”
Sansan kept nodding and adding responses like “I see, I see.” It wasn’t because he really understood it all, but it was behavior that came from wanting to show the Grand Tutor that he was listening earnestly and wanting to be praised.
“You are clever.”
At the praise that fell just then, Sansan squirmed and was embarrassed. It was a truly transparent face that couldn’t hide his pleasure at all.
“By any chance, don’t you sense some scent from His Majesty?”
“Uh, um. It’s like a tree smell, and sometimes it seems mixed with an earth smell… It’s heavy yet intense. S-sometimes I even feel suffocated.”
“I see. The scent of His Majesty that you just mentioned is something only you, young master, can smell.”
“O-only me?”
Strictly speaking, all Eum-in could smell it, but Yeom Yeong taught as the Emperor had requested in advance.
“Yes. Likewise, only His Majesty can smell your scent, young master. Later, try asking His Majesty what kind of smell you have.”
“Why can only we smell each other?”
“That’s because you two have recognized each other. As I mentioned earlier, it’s the natural harmony of yin-yang. To put it simply, you’re destined to be a pair. Do you understand?”
For Sansan, he couldn’t help but hesitate a bit to just nod and say he understood, because even if he was suddenly called a Cheonin now, he’d lived a long time thinking of himself as a man.
Though Sansan was a eunuch, he thought of himself as a man, and he also had a dream of someday meeting a kind-hearted wife and living peacefully together.
And as for that Emperor, he’d long ago considered him his younger sister’s husband.
“For a Eum-in and Yang-in who have recognized each other to unite is like instinct. Since His Majesty has already said he will pair with you, young master, you should naturally accept this, and after marriage you must devote yourself to producing imperial grandsons. That’s why you’re learning the theory of yin-yang now.”
“…Um, but, Grand Tutor.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Then does His Majesty not have any b-babies right now?”
Sansan asked with wide eyes. From what he’d heard repeatedly since entering the palace, the Emperor was thirty-three this year. In an ordinary household, it would be an age where he could have had ten children, so he was curious.
How could His Majesty have no children until now? No matter how ignorant, even Sansan knew how important children were for continuing the family line. It was because he’d heard harsh words from his father his entire life over that issue.
If it was like that even in ordinary households, how much more so when the master of the nation had no children—Sansan became worried.
“No. His Majesty has over ten princes and princesses, including two princes who will soon reach their coming of age.”
“What? Th-then why is he pairing with me?”
He couldn’t understand the Emperor who wanted to take a new wife to bear children when he already had that many children. At that moment, Yeom Yeong let slip words that might have been a mistake because they were so natural.
“Because His Majesty desires it.”
Hearing words without logic or reason, Sansan’s heart only became more suffocated. Though he had a wife and many children, he didn’t know why the Emperor would go out of his way to pair with him and have a baby.
Sansan briefly thought of his father. Because his one son was useless, he knew how much his father had struggled over the long years trying to have a proper son from another woman.
Each time, Sansan had been called by his mother and beaten, so he felt inexplicably depressed, wondering if the Emperor also considered his children useless.
There probably wasn’t a single child anywhere in the world who wanted to be born as a useless existence… Sansan muttered unconsciously.
