Struggle Chapter 8

‘You are now nineteen years of age. Would it not set an example to take a spouse?’

‘There is no need for me to set an example. Is it not enough that I simply live quietly and show my loyalty to Your Majesty when it is needed?’

‘Do not disparage yourself so.’

Even as he spoke so gravely, the King betrayed a sense of guilt toward Taerok.

He knew well that Taerok was a man of exceptional talent in many ways. Had he been born a child of a noble family rather than as the King’s brother, it would have been far easier for him to make a name for himself with those abilities.

‘There is much a royal kinsman can do.’

‘But the old men would not want me to step forward.’

‘Let us speak of your spouse today.’

Fruit punch was brought out for Taerok as well. Taerok merely looked at the clear, pink-tinted fruit water and did not touch it.

‘If I say I do not wish to marry, is that also disloyalty? Because it would go against Your Majesty’s sincere heart?’

‘I know not about disloyalty, but it would be unfilial. As your elder brother, I would like to hear the reason why you dislike it.’

Taerok’s profile, as he averted his gaze, was completely different from the King’s gentle features. They looked so dissimilar that they might as well have been of different blood. In the end, Taerok drank hot tea instead of the fruit punch. He disliked the King’s tenderness and frailty, yet as his older brother, his feelings were complicated in many ways.

‘The meritorious families are already threat enough. There is no need to give them more power.’

‘Is it that you dislike Park Changcheon’s family because they are a meritorious family? Then are there not other women?’

‘The other women are the same.’

Taerok gave a short, scornful laugh. He truly wished to ask, whose country is this? But his brother would give a picture-perfect answer. He would produce an answer that no one could find fault with. Taerok hated the right answers. Who decided they were the right answers, anyway? Was it the right answer if it pleased the King? Was it the right answer if it was for the people? Was it the right answer if it suited the tastes of the meritorious subjects?

‘It is about Your Highness, my nephew.’

And so Taerok changed the subject.

‘He has no talent whatsoever for swordsmanship. His body is weak and his skin bruises easily.’

‘I am not asking you to raise him as a warrior, only to teach him enough to protect himself.’

Taerok rubbed his brow bone and then let out bluntly.

‘Your Highness is a nephew who can protect himself. He is clever. And the sword is not the only weapon.’

At that answer, the King’s eyes lit up.

‘As the rumors say, it seems you truly do hold Nanyoung quite dear.’

Your Majesty, as a father, isn’t your lack of expectation for your son a bit much?

He almost protested, but stopped himself. Doing so might seem to prove that the rumor, blown up for amusement, was true.

It was a conversation that, in many ways, only left him with displeasure and needless frustration. After the private audience ended, Taerok walked aimlessly wherever his feet took him. And so, without realizing it, he ended up at the place where Nanyoung was having his reading lesson. If the weather today had been even slightly hotter or less hot, Nanyoung would not have been here. He would have been in a warmer or cooler place.

There was no dignity in the sight of Nanyoung leaning out the window and calling, Uncle. Though they might ask him to maintain dignity, they would not force it. That was the level of expectation placed on the Crown Prince’s younger brother.

“What are you doing there?”

Taerok replied in a subdued voice.

Overjoyed that Taerok had looked at him, Nanyoung turned his head sharply.

“Teacher! May I go and greet my uncle for a moment? I wish to practice the filial piety I have learned!”

Nanyoung’s request left no room for refusal. A clever young master. Giheum frowned as he smiled.

“Go ahead.”

What could he do when the child said he wished to practice what he had learned? Giheum, like the old fox he was, generously gave his permission, and Nanyoung immediately rushed out.

Taerok waited in place. Nanyoung was running toward him, flailing. They say children laugh when they run, so he could not tell if Nanyoung was laughing because he was running or laughing because he saw him. His face was like a full moon. Taerok stood watching with his hands behind his back, and when Nanyoung nearly tripped on the slightly sunken ground, he strode forward and caught him.

“The ground here is uneven. Who is the court official on duty in this area?”

The eunuch Sim Eung, who had hurriedly chased after Nanyoung, glared backwards at someone behind him. After taking note of the one who avoided his gaze, he turned his head back, bowed with his hands clasped, and said, I beg your pardon.

Even Sim Eung, who had likely seen the two of them together more than anyone else since he attended Nanyoung most closely, found it difficult to grasp what feelings Taerok held for his master. Sometimes he acted true to his cold-blooded nature, and sometimes he was warm like a true uncle. Of course, that warmth was by Taerok’s standards. This time too, it was hard to tell whether he was angry because Nanyoung had almost fallen, or angry at the lack of proper maintenance.

“Uncle, today we had fruit punch. Have you had any, by any chance?”

“I haven’t eaten it. I don’t like fruit punch.”

“Really…?”

The child was surprised even by the utterly natural fact that someone else could dislike something he liked. Taerok released the arm he had grabbed and took a step back.

“Do not drink too much fruit punch. Did you not have an upset stomach not long ago?”

“Did you… hear about that?”

“I guessed, but it seems it was true.”

“Uncle…!”

Nanyoung cried out, his face crumpling. His uncle was so mischievous that he teased him very easily like this. And every time, his resolve to handle the teasing with composure today, too, was put to shame, and he always fell for it.

“Moreover, you should not come outside sweating like this. Wipe yourself off and straighten your clothes when you walk about. You’ll catch a cold.”

“…”

Who catches a cold in this hot weather? He wanted to retort like his brother did, but Nanyoung could not. Hadn’t he himself been the one who often ran a fever and lay sick? The royal physician was busier because of him than anyone else, to the point of getting heat rash on the soles of his feet.

“They say even a dog doesn’t catch a summer cold.”

“…Then am I worse than a dog?”

“You are not a dog, so you would catch a cold. It is because Your Highness is more complex and delicate than a puppy.”

Taerok tossed out a roughly fabricated consolation. If one listened closely, it was a remark that would make one tilt their head and wonder, is this an insult or a compliment? But fortunately, Nanyoung took it at face value with pure innocence. His expression brightening again, Nanyoung tilted his head. He encroached upon the distance Taerok had put between them, and the two were suddenly close again.

“By any chance… have you, Uncle, ever caught a summer cold, or a fever of the late heat?”

There was no need to ponder. Taerok shook his head.

“I have not. I have never been ill except for when I had smallpox as a child.”

Nanyoung’s face went pale with shock. If what his uncle said was true, it was because he was complex and delicate that he caught colds. Then, was his uncle, who did not, a dog?

Reading that confusion, Taerok raised only one corner of his mouth and added.

“It seems I must be a son of a bitch, after all.”

“…N-no.”

If Giheum had been there, his face would have hardened instantly. He might have even asked, Then does that mean the King, your brother, is a dog’s brother?

At those words, Nanyoung wrapped his arms around both of Taerok’s legs and shook his head.

“You are not a dog… that thing. Absolutely not!”

“Why not? What does Your Highness know of me?”

Taerok asked back without malice.

“That’s… are you not my uncle? If I am complex and delicate, then you must be so as well, Uncle.”

“Just as there are brothers who do not resemble each other, there are also uncles and nephews who do not resemble each other.”

“We, we do not resemble each other, but….”

“Enough splitting hairs. I already know well Your Highness’s persistence, so let us say you are right. Go back inside. Is this not your reading time?”

It was hot. Taerok pushed away the shoulder of a child whose body temperature was higher than an adult’s. Regret dripped palpably from Nanyoung’s expression. You’re not even sweating a single drop, yet you lie and say it’s hot. His eyes were saying that.

“If you are late, won’t the Grand Preceptor rap you on the knuckles?”

“Teacher does not scold me.”

No one rapped him on the knuckles the way they did his brother. If he did even a little, they encouraged him excessively. In truth, he could do more than that, but their reaction made him flinch and hide back again.

“Is that so…”