Struggle Chapter 55

“I, too, like the connection between my father and Min Gwiong, though I am now temporarily estranged from Young master, shall wait for the day when we may come and go as before.”

Nanyoung read the third letter several times. In the meantime, inside the brass bowl, not a single spark remained, only dust from the ash.

“Pay a visit to my uncle’s residence…?”

He felt that the core of what Sim Suhwan was trying to say lay here.

What is he hiding. What does he intend to make me see.

In Nanyoung’s mind rose the scene he had witnessed under the red moon of that distant foreign land, the image of Taerok entangled with another woman. Was he intending to make him see such a scene again?

“…It doesn’t matter.”

In a voice tinged with stubborn pride, Nanyoung murmured.

“Whoever that person mixes his body with, whoever he meets, it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care.”

Just then, Sim Eung made his presence known outside. Nanyoung hastily set fire to the letter. He threw it into the brass bowl and commanded, “Enter.” He deliberately lowered his voice so that the pounding in his chest could not be felt.

Sim Eung entered and examined the wound on Nanyoung’s hand. The cloth soaked in medicinal liquid was drenched in blood, and although the shard had been small, the torn wound on the palm where it had been embedded was spread open gruesomely.

“I truly do not know if this can be left as it is, Young master. I must call a physician.”

Nanyoung also looked at his own palm and frowned. He had not known when it was covered in blood, but it was indeed unsightly.

“…Alright. I will see a physician.”

More than anything, having the wound persist and requiring the continued help of others was troublesome.

At Nanyoung’s words, Sim Eung only wrapped the palm firmly this time and then rose from his seat.

“I shall bring a physician at once, so Young master, you must not go hiding somewhere, is that understood?”

“When have I ever done such a thing…”

At those words, Sim Eung put on an expression of utter incredulity.

“Do you truly not remember how many times you have flitted away somewhere when it was time to drink your herbal decoction, and so you ask this? You are teasing this humble servant, are you not?”

“I did that?”

Sim Eung nodded fervently, as if his head might fall off.

“And so once, you were hiding behind the servants’ quarters, and Grand Prince Baegan himself carried you back, did he not.”

“…I did that?”

“And not only that, you hid in the library too…”

“Ah, alright. Stop. Stop it. I’ll say I remember.”

His face bright red, Nanyoung waved his hands frantically.

It was not that he remembered exactly. But he certainly remembered his uncle’s embrace. However, it was confusing whether the memory of being held in that embrace was from when he was young, as Sim Eung said, or from the very recent past.

He did not want to remember the recent events if possible. Yet he wanted to recall those small incidents Sim Eung mentioned. Those were memories, and the recent events were not memories. That distinction was so very clear. The person had not changed…

Sim Eung left the room to fetch the physician, and Nanyoung looked back at what had once been letters, now completely burned. He stirred the pile of ash with his hand. Even the bits that had still retained the shape of paper crumbled at the gesture. The sensation of the ash, so very white and soft, was felt at his fingertips.

“…I should go and see.”

Nanyoung murmured.

Although Sim Suhwan had used his uncle to threaten him, the letters did not carry that lecherous, insidious intent. There was desperation, but it was a different feeling from the desperation he had shown when they met in person. Was there proof? There was none. It was purely a feeling. Yet he had no choice but to trust it.

What Sim Suhwan had wanted to show him. What aspect of his uncle he had tried to reveal.

So this is… not because I want to see my uncle, but merely going to confirm what he is hiding. It is not to meet Lee Taerok.

Having repeated this to himself several times, Nanyoung lifted only his gaze sharply. He sprang from his seat and set out.

“Sir Sim has gone out, Young master.”

“I know. It is not Sir Sim I am looking for. Among the guard corps, is there not one called Kangmu?”

“Yes. Why do you seek him?”

Nanyoung tilted his head and kindly asked the servant to find and call him, not in a commanding tone. Though it was an attitude that Lee Taerok would have disapproved of had he seen it, Nanyoung maintained this manner.

As Nanyoung sat waiting in the main hall, a man named Kangmu, the eldest among the guard corps, came.

“You called for me.”

Nanyoung observed Kangmu’s face, which bore a horizontal scar, and asked.

“Among my uncle’s guard corps, is there not someone who was your comrade?”

“There was, but he stood out in talent and was selected and transferred to the Royal Guard Command.”

“Is that so…? Then is there no one left whom you know?”

Kangmu hesitated for a moment. After Nanyoung, biting his lips in impatience, pressed him to speak quickly, he answered.

“I know a servant woman.”

“A servant woman?”

At Nanyoung’s gaze, resting his chin on his hand and looking at him, Kangmu wore a troubled expression. Seeing the shyness, sheepishness, and awkwardness at the edge of that expression, Nanyoung finally understood how a guard of his own palace knew a servant woman in another prince’s residence.

“I see. Can you ask that servant woman a favor?”

“…Is it dangerous?”

“No.”

But Nanyoung thought his answer might be somewhat hasty. He rubbed the tip of his chin where his hand had been resting and shook his head.

“Even if it is dangerous, I will handle it myself. If it is truly dangerous, I will do my best to have her transferred here immediately after she grants this favor, so will you do it?”

At Nanyoung’s words, Kangmu fell into brief deliberation.

The deliberation was not long. It was, after all, a Grand Prince’s command. Even if the tone was close to a request, there was bound to be a sense of burden stemming from hierarchy. Kangmu soon nodded.

“Give me your order.”

∞ ∞ ∞

When the day comes that the Commander-in-Chief and your uncle’s father-in-law Min Gwiong visit, give me word, and I shall come, so ask her to open the back gate without a sound.

Such was Nanyoung’s request.

It was not difficult. But the problem was that it was not just any ordinary household, but the residence of the late king’s younger brother and the king’s uncle, and next, that each and every name of those guests carried considerable weight.

Kangmu conveyed the message to the servant woman, and exactly one week after Nanyoung had summoned Kangmu, the servant woman came to the Grand Prince Heonui’s residence.

Nanyoung was dressed entirely in white. The weather was in the full grip of the late summer heat. The robust cicadas were also crying out with as much vigor as the late heat.

Guided by Kangmu, Nanyoung entered through the back gate of the Grand Prince’s residence. Even the sound of the back gate opening was drowned out by the crying of the cicadas.

“Thank you.”

Nanyoung offered his greeting to the servant woman and had Kangmu wait outside.

“…It has been a long time.”

Having congratulated himself in a mutter for his first visit in five years, Nanyoung headed without hesitation toward the main guest quarters. Though his uncle usually called Nanyoung to the small guest quarters, he had never forbidden him from entering the main guest quarters.

‘Young master, wherever you wish to go, you may enter. There is no need to obtain my permission each time. In truth, that would be more bothersome as well.’

Though it was a long time ago, still, he had clearly given that permission, so it should be fine.

Nanyoung quietly approached the main guest quarters.

On the stepping stone of the main guest quarters, there were four pairs of shoes. One was the Commander-in-Chief, one was Min Gwiong, one was his uncle. Then who was the other?

Since Nanyoung had no intention of going inside in the first place, he hid beside the main guest quarters.

Though the weather was this hot, not a single crack of the door was left open. It was only natural that Nanyoung’s body, crouched beneath the lattice railing, leaned toward the room.

It was too far from here to hear clearly. Still crouched, Nanyoung crept along until he reached the cornerstone of a pillar that was pressed right up against the room.

“The power of the merit subjects is excessive. No matter how much they are founding merit subjects, they must know their place. Moreover, how much time has already passed since the founding of the nation? Did they do it alone? If not for the Great King Taejo, it would not have been possible in the first place!”

“Ever since His Majesty the current king was still the Crown Prince, they have swaggered about as if the world were theirs. We can no longer overlook it.”

“Then what are we to do? He was His Majesty’s teacher, his father-in-law, and Her Royal Highness the Queen Dowager’s father, and so on. There is nothing we can do!”