“What is it?”
“I am Munhak, Baek Sahyeon, newly appointed as the librarian of the archive at Woonkyunggung this time.”
“Librarian? Ah, so you are the one…”
Sahyeon looked up at Yu Baekhu with as friendly a smile as possible.
Yu Baekhu, whose rough temperament was matched by a thick beard covering his entire jaw from sideburns, naturally looked at Sahyeon’s head first.
“I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but you really do have white hair.”
That much was acceptable.
If he hadn’t suddenly grabbed Sahyeon’s chin roughly and lifted it, it would have been just a normal greeting.
What kind of person, who had even been enfeoffed as a Duke of a country, treats a fifth-rank official like this…
“Seems His Majesty is weakening? Throwing this kind of thing just to his son.”
Yu Baekhu laughed loudly in a voice that sounded like a rough gangster, as he threw Sahyeon’s face away as if discarding it.
“Munhak? Right, Baek Munhak. I was quite rude to you on first meeting.”
Sahyeon touched his tingling chin and smiled as if it was nothing.
“It’s because it’s surprising. Surprising. When His Majesty was still well, if someone like Baek Munhak came in, he’d have had his testicles cut off and thrown into the inner palace.”
Avoiding the hand reaching down as if to grab his “testicles,” Sahyeon instinctively stepped back, bumping into Dan Ijae standing behind him.
Remembering that palace guards said he disliked being touched, he hurried forward again.
The blunt fingers came close enough to almost touch Sahyeon’s crotch and repeatedly pretended to grab tightly.
Feeling trapped, Sahyeon just took a deep breath.
“Hahaha, just joking, just joking.”
And yet, he still poked between his legs and withdrew his hand. What was that about?
“His Majesty really had a unique taste. I don’t want to hold anything without testicles because the feeling isn’t right. When you thrust, you have to grab it tightly. Isn’t that right, little brother?”
A short sigh.
Dan Ijae then bent down and whispered loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear into Sahyeon’s ear — or rather pretended to whisper.
“What does the teacher think? Even to my untrained eyes, your behavior seems improper.”
The ‘teacher’ only gets mentioned at times like this.
I don’t know why the wretched Duke makes things awkward.
“Are you lecturing me on etiquette right now?”
“I don’t know much about etiquette either, so I’m asking. If I may speak on horsemanship, perhaps it would be better to relearn how to hold the reins before grabbing a man’s testicles and riding.”
“Today, I’ll settle this with this bastard. Let go!”
I haven’t even taught him a single character yet, so I can’t let him get punished for fighting with his formidable older brother.
Sahyeon hurriedly blocked Yu Baekhu before the soldiers rushing to break it up and respectfully bowed again.
“I have only recently arrived at the hall and haven’t started classes yet, so I ask Yu Baekhu to kindly understand.”
Yu Baekhu roughly shook off the soldiers clinging to his sleeve and breathed heavily with frustration.
“Has the Great General taught him anything? This ignorant brat! Baek Munhak, make sure to teach that beast properly what etiquette is! If that idiot acts up after your lessons, huh? The teacher must be responsible for the student’s faults!”
As he spoke of responsibility, Yu Baekhu glanced at Sahyeon with unpleasant, gleaming eyes.
From when he mentioned testicles, I knew.
It’s starting again.
Those kinds of people naturally get aroused when they find someone half-way manageable.
Sahyeon sighed deeply inside and bowed his head.
Then, Dan Ijae shoved something into Yu Baekhu’s hand.
Yu Baekhu caught what was thrust at him awkwardly.
Dan Ijae glanced at Sahyeon briefly, then turned sharply and strode away somewhere.
Fearing that Yu Baekhu might slip away again, Sahyeon bowed to him and quickly followed.
Yu Baekhu looked down at what he held in his hand, dumbfounded by the sudden situation.
And then he realized.
He was holding the horse reins.
Behind Sahyeon, who had finally caught up with Dan Ijae, Yu Baekhu’s angry roar rang out fiercely.
***
“So, in the end, did the Duke return without teaching?”
The old archivist at Woonkyunggung, who was repairing the binding of a bamboo scroll book, clicked his tongue and spoke first. Sahyeon sighed deeply, sitting across from him while fiddling with a leather strap.
“The Second Princess even sent someone to drag him off. It’s not like they’re helping everyone in the palace study.”
The archivist smiled bitterly and used his calligraphy knife to deepen the groove along the strokes of faded characters.
Sahyeon rolled up his sleeves and ground ink beside him.
After all, there wasn’t much else to do.
“The Second Princess probably did not know the situation. Perhaps you should meet her before the Eighth Duke tomorrow and talk.”
Thankfully, the archivist was someone who appreciated the considerate attitude of a much younger superior.
Sahyeon tilted the inkstone to add plenty of water and gently continued.
“Will the Duke listen to the Second Princess?”
“He doesn’t listen to anyone, but at least there will be no interference. If you want someone to persuade the Duke, the fastest way is to find the Great General.”
The Great General, Sangyeonggong (上敬公) Beomyeo (帆輿).
A loyal subject who served the fickle king longest, a fierce general of Jamupa.
Though arguably the most respected figure in the palace, the archivist wasn’t mentioning him for that reason.
“He risked his life to save and raise the Duke, so even the Eighth Duke respects the Great General like a parent.”
Sahyeon had heard about this when learning about the royal family of Pasa.
Dan Ijae’s mother was a princess of Hahyeon.
At the time, to check the rising power of Yugang, Hahyeon sent envoys to the great country of Pasa to seek an alliance.
The king of Pasa wanted to take one of Hahyeon’s princesses as his wife as the price of alliance, but Hahyeon’s king could not bear to send his very young daughter to the old king, so he took one of the maids as an adopted daughter and sent her to Pasa.
Anyway, the king had an eldest daughter who would become the heir, and many other children.
It would have been better if the old king had accepted this well, but when he realized that the envoy from Hahyeon was the maid, he became furious and ordered the Great General to lead an army to the border of Hahyeon.
Already pressured by Yugang, when the news of the army from Pasa arrived, Hahyeon’s king was panic-stricken and begged his daughters: “Which one of you will go to Pasa and soothe the old king’s anger?”
The ninth princess of Hahyeon, Jaya (자야), volunteered to sacrifice herself.
The offended king of Pasa did not allow Hahyeon’s envoys to even set foot on his land, so Jaya had to cross the border alone and go to Pasa with the Great General to Yeonju.
Since it looked as if they were taking a hostage, not a princess of a country, the Great General seemed to have felt pity for Jaya from that time.
Fortunately, the king of Pasa accepted Jaya as his wife and seemed to have softened his heart, reestablishing the alliance with Hahyeon.
Shortly after, Jaya became pregnant. Everyone thought things would now go well.
Not knowing that the king still held anger in his heart toward Hahyeon’s king, who had humiliated him.
Right after giving birth, Jaya was suddenly suspected of being a spy for Hahyeon, leaking the secrets of Pasa’s royal family.
She must have known that regardless of truth, the conclusion was already decided.
Under harsh interrogation, if she confessed falsely, she and her newborn would be executed, and Pasa would have a justification to invade Hahyeon.
So Jaya left a will asserting her innocence and…
He hanged himself.
And without knowing the reason, he secretly took the child who would be tormented as the seed of political strife out of the palace.
Thus, Jaya died, and the 8th prince she bore disappeared.
The enraged king of Hayun severed diplomatic relations with Pasa, and Yugang did not miss this opportunity to expand his power.
It was a time when Hayun’s national fortune became precarious like a candle flickering in the wind after the great defeat at the Maechun Battle.
The king of Pasa, as if reaching out a hand of salvation, re-investigated Jaya’s case and revealed that she had been falsely accused by ‘someone’s scheme’ and died.
He arranged for the remains, which had been buried in the fields alongside criminals, to be interred in the royal family’s tomb.
Having done this much, the urgent situation in Hayun should have prompted sending envoys to clear up grudges and plead to restore the alliance.
But neither side sent anyone first — the king of Pasa out of pride, and the king of Hayun out of anger.
It was around this time that the general dared to approach the king of Pasa and confess his sin.
Before Jaya died, she had sent someone to entrust the child to the general.
At that time, revealing this could have endangered the precious royal bloodline, so the child was hidden and raised in a remote countryside.
If he had been an ordinary king, no matter the good intentions, he would not have tolerated the general deceiving him.
But perhaps because of his long-standing trust in a loyal subject, or the joy and guilt that his youngest son, who had almost died before even opening his eyes due to the farce the king himself had caused, had safely returned, or because the child brought by the general resembled the mother, the late king, whom the king so dearly wished to follow — the king highly praised the general’s merit and gave the child the name Ijae (理材), meaning a talented person, with the hope that he would become an excellent asset to the country.
After that, well, thanks to the excuse of Dan Ijae, the dialogue between Pasa and Hayun was reopened, and the two countries renewed their alliance.
Miraculously returning to the palace and achieving valuable merit, he grew up as a reckless youth who drank heavily without studying.