Struggle Chapter 86

And if the method for that was him becoming king, he had thought he would gladly do so. As long as he could achieve his goal, it didn’t matter how he got there.

“You’re right.”

Saon swallowed dryly. And because he was a friend, because he had been at his side the longest, he gathered his courage and asked.

“But, my lord, why do you suddenly speak of such things…? What in the world are you looking at…?”

He wanted to ask what he was looking at not with his eyes, but with his heart.

Taerok did not answer. It was unclear whether he had even heard. At his fingertips, the orchid leaf finally snapped off with a crisp sound.

“Saon.”

“Yes, my lord. Saon is here.”

Saon knelt and prostrated himself as he answered.

“I shall see your revenge fulfilled.”

The broken leaf grazed Taerok’s palm like a blade.

“But the greater cause is solely mine, and that, at least, must go in the direction I desire.”

Saon raised his head and looked at Taerok. That resolute gaze was clearer than ever, yet tinged with a different hue than usual, and it was fixed on somewhere far away.

The orchid leaf had not been a blade grazing Taerok’s palm; perhaps it was the sword he himself gripped.

∞ ∞ ∞

The king sent a man. A royal decree accompanied him. It expressed regret at the news of the fire and stated that he would bestow geumgang pine so that the quarters could be rebuilt with it.

Taerok made his way to the geumgang pine forest the king had designated. A master builder was already there, selecting trees aged between one hundred and two hundred years. Among those the master builder had chosen, Taerok felt the pine scales, and settled on one whose bark was thick and rough like dragon scales yet had a uniform grain.

“By royal command!”

The master builder shouted. Because the tree had been granted by the king and the pine forest itself belonged to the king, this procedure was necessary. Three strokes of the axe, and with each downward swing, one shout of “By royal command.” Three times in total—akin to the three sips of the wedding cup that sealed the bond between husband and wife.

As he stood with his arms crossed watching the tree fall, Taerok’s eunuch Yu Bongsu quietly observed his master’s profile.

‘I shall do what our young master desires.’

Sim Eung had shed tears in the end, weeping aloud as he declared this.

‘If he says he wishes to flee, I will have him cross rivers and over mountains to leave, and then… and then….’

At this point, Sim Eung had wept even more bitterly.

‘If he says Grand Prince Baegan is good, if he says it’s all right, I will give my life to guard the secret. So you, sir, please do what you must do. I am asking you to ensure that Grand Prince Baegan can simply end as an imugi serpent.’

Scrubbing his face roughly with his sleeve, Sim Eung had added,

‘Is not His Majesty the King our young master’s elder brother? Who will be left grieving in the end, is that not plainly clear….’

When Sim Eung had explained the king by calling him Grand Prince Heonui’s elder brother, it had been a truly clever analysis that struck right at the core. To Taerok, the king, like Grand Prince Heonui, was his nephew, but that held no meaning whatsoever for Taerok. The only one who held meaning for Taerok was Grand Prince Heonui. Beyond being his nephew, above all else that he saw and heard.

Yu Bongsu had served Taerok for a very long time. He could pride himself on knowing Taerok better than anyone. Because Taerok regarded him as his own hands and feet and paid him no more mind than the grass and trees drifting around him.

Thus, Yu Bongsu also knew that Taerok held no attachments whatsoever. Sim Eung must have thought this was simply Lee Taerok’s brutish lust, but in Yu Bongsu’s eyes, it was not. The feelings Lee Taerok harbored for his nephew Lee Nanyoung were not mere lust. How much easier it would be if they were. But because they were not, Taerok could be stopped. Because the sole existence Taerok obsessed over and was attached to was the younger brother of the king, who found it all so troubling.

Was there truly no such thing as coincidence in this world?

“Bongsu.”

Taerok called his eunuch.

“Yes, my lord.”

“His Majesty has bestowed such precious timber; is it not only proper that I offer my gratitude?”

“Do you intend to enter the palace?”

“Yes. It would be good to make preparations. Having received something, I cannot go empty-handed—what shall I bring?”

Taerok tapped his arm with his fingertips. The tapping gesture evoked the sensation of falling water droplets, and that called to Taerok’s mind the sound of rain he had listened to in Nanyoung’s room.

Looking back, Lee Nanyoung had always been closely tied to rain. Wasn’t it a strange coincidence that on a day of endless rain, he had been born, and Taerok had carried someone on his back for the first time, and that someone had been Lee Nanyoung?

Ah… his thoughts had strayed to Lee Nanyoung yet again. Taerok raised his thumb and rubbed his brow. Troublesome. Lately, his thoughts had grown foolish, dulled, and become exceedingly simple. They had been simple before, but that had been closer to conciseness, because the cause and effect, the point he was striving toward, had been clear. Now, however….

“There should be an album of paintings by Dam Yeo-song, one that’s been gaining great renown on the continent, among the things we’ve brought in. Let us take that.”

“Yes, my lord. I shall prepare it.”

“And also….”

As if pushing away Nanyoung, who kept rising in his thoughts, Taerok shut his eyes and frowned.

“…Let us also offer precious deer antler velvet.”

“My lord.”

Yu Bongsu lowered his voice and spoke carefully.

“It is said that His Majesty the King cannot take deer antler velvet. It may invite misunderstanding, so….”

At those words, Taerok glanced sharply at Yu Bongsu. It seemed to have been a sincere piece of advice.

Though he had never said so directly, Taerok had assumed that as his hands and feet, Yu Bongsu would have at least guessed that he was preparing for a coup. This remark confirmed it.

“Bongsu.”

At Taerok’s voice, tinged with amusement, the eunuch well past fifty flinched.

“I don’t do such cowardly things.”

“…I apologize.”

“Still, I shall accept your loyal counsel. I cannot present something harmful to His Majesty, after all.”

There was no need for harmful objects. In any case, he himself would be the most harmful thing to the king.

Would he be so to Nanyoung as well?

A useless question that needed no asking. Had he grown so markedly sentimental because he was aging? Taerok clicked his tongue. Before him, the second ancient pine came crashing down.

∞ ∞ ∞

On the night Taerok entered the palace, a full moon had risen and the wind was rather chilly. Only the crackling of the brazier and the occasional sound of black and white stones being placed on the go board broke the silence.

After a long while, Taerok broke the silence.

“Thanks to Your Majesty’s gracious consideration, it seems a private quarters far finer than the original, before the fire, will be built. I am overwhelmed by the royal benevolence.”

“Please, do not mention it. As your nephew, I have always been ashamed that I had done nothing for my uncle; at last, this time, I have been able to save face.”

“Haha…. You have become the sovereign; there is no need to look after your uncle in private matters.”

If anything, that was something Taerok himself wished to refuse. Because a ruler who was cruel and stern when necessary, yet drew a generous line when it was time to relent—that was the true exemplar. Above all, only when a sovereign was not looked down upon by the dozens and hundreds of crafty civil and military officials, only when he was not swayed by them, would the foundation stand firm. Taerok’s thoughts on this remained unchanged.

“At any rate… I am most delighted that you, uncle, have come to see me first like this.”

The king was still a young man of twenty-three, with a face fair as jade and cheeks rosy. He resembled Nanyoung, yet was far more flushed with color and brimming with healthy vitality. Looking at the king, who despite resembling Nanyoung stirred no emotion in him whatsoever, Taerok responded with an expression that said, Do tell.

Then the king lowered his voice and whispered in distress.

“There is a rumor circulating in society.”

“A rumor, you say.”

Taerok’s fingertips paused briefly before slowly rolling the go stone.

“A baseless rumor that Grand Prince Heonui is a eunuch.”

Whether it was baseless or not, he himself could not be certain, but Taerok could feel the king’s wish to dismiss it as nonsense.

“It is absurd, of course. Though it is late, I think I must order that horoscopic marriage documents be received for Grand Prince Heonui. So… I had been meaning to seek your opinion on the matter, uncle.”

“…Even though he is still in mourning, Your Majesty?”

“The three-year mourning period is the lot of the eldest son.”

“As a member of the royal family, should you not set an even greater example than that?”

“But, uncle. If that is done, Nanyoung will be twenty-three, and then twenty-four…!”

Taerok did not answer. Instead, he merely placed a white stone.