Chapter 42
Episode 42. King Sejong's Stance Towards Gwaya (1)
The restoration of the paper Gwaya had meticulously torn into small pieces was, in fact, completed in three days.
When Consort Cheon restored the content of Gwaya's three sheets of paper, written in a scrawl, King Sejong, upon confirming the contents, intended to summon Gwaya immediately and resolve the chaos unfolding in the East Palace and Myeongrye Palace.
However, something began to trouble King Sejong, a peerless genius capable of creating everything from new script to music theory on his own.
King Sejong, who could only find peace after thoroughly investigating anything that troubled him or that he didn't understand, went to the Queen's Palace on the fourth day, holding the note.
“Ah, Your Majesty! So this is what happened. I had no idea..."
The Queen's gaze, as she sighed, was unexpectedly calmer, clearer, and more subtle than ever before.
“Queen...!”
King Sejong looked at the Queen intently, surprised.
After experiencing that unspeakable tragedy early in his reign, the Queen's attitude towards him outwardly showed little difference from how she treated him when he was a Grand Prince.
Rather, she generously overlooked his endless philandering, and was equally lenient towards his concubines, including Consort Shin, and their offspring.
She became the epitome of a virtuous queen, rare in the world, even calling in concubines he favored to encourage them to serve His Majesty more devotedly, bestowing jewelry, and even preparing restorative tonics.
However, as a husband who had shared a bed with her for a long time, how could King Sejong not notice the disappearance of the vivid intimacy she had shown him when he was a Grand Prince?
That emotional distance had vanished from the Queen's eyes today.
“Queen, what happened?”
At King Sejong's question, Queen Soheon blushed slightly, like a noble maiden from a prestigious family when she first married, and then affectionately took King Sejong's hand.
“My Lady.”
This too had not happened since that day, so King Sejong unconsciously called her "My Lady."
The Queen calmly began to speak.
“The day the daughter-in-law of Myeongrye Palace was brought in, I actually had another seizure. After our Gwaya held me tightly then, she tapped my hand. And then, that day, my father was brutally...”
“My Lady!”
King Sejong, startled, gripped the hand the Queen held.
It was the first time the Queen had brought up that day's events herself, especially without crying out like a madwoman.
Instead of expressing her paroxysmal rage, the Queen closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths.
Her pupils could be clearly seen moving left and right beneath her closed eyelids.
After a long while of rolling her pupils and breathing deeply, the Queen opened her eyes again.
Her pupils were still trembling with pain, but it was not the intense pain that would make her lose consciousness.
And even more surprisingly, along with the pain, her eyes held a familiarity that she had only shown in her youth, before the tragedy!
“When Gwaya tapped my hand and moved her pupils back and forth, it felt like my body was acknowledging for the first time that the tragedy of that day had passed, Your Majesty. Before, whenever that day came to mind, my whole body would stiffen, and the bitterness I felt that day would vividly return, making it difficult to even breathe. But now, I feel that day passed long ago, and that my deceased father would be saddened if I continued to be trapped by that day. And...”
Queen Soheon placed another hand over King Sejong's, wrapping it warmly.
“I finally began to see that I wasn't the only one who was hurting and struggling, Your Majesty. You also had a difficult time during that period. You, who were so lustful, did not take other women until I accepted you. That was when you were in the prime of your youth.”
“...Queen.”
King Sejong felt an inexpressible emotion at the Queen's words, which contained a gentle scolding.
He had always felt so sorry that the Queen's father and uncle had been cruelly killed by his father, King Taejong, that he had never even considered that he himself had suffered in the process.
“You also went through a lot, Your Majesty.”
The Queen, who had thus considered her husband's suffering, even allowed him to bathe with the 'soap' that Gwaya had presented.
Although she did not personally apply the soap and wash him, watching the Queen gently instruct the Palace Ladies attending him on how to apply and rinse it, King Sejong was instead thrown into confusion, wondering what else this could be if not 'sorcery.'
The Queen's coldness, which had not improved despite countless prayers before various Buddhas in numerous temples, was now somewhat resolved by a few touches from Gwaya and the comical movement of her eyes.
A clear sign of improvement!
“Your Majesty, lately Hongwi is unbearably cute and lovely. I can't believe such a beautiful being can exist in this world. I never imagined I could feel such joy again.”
King Sejong was even more surprised when she smiled brightly and said that when Lord of Pyeongchang came to the Palace, she would personally care for him in the Queen's Palace and embrace the pitiful heart of a child raised in a private residence without a mother, as a grandmother.
Therefore, King Sejong became convinced that while Gwaya was not using evil sorcery, she possessed something far more potent than evil sorcery.
So, he summoned his trusted Chief Royal Lady and ordered her to gather information on Gwaya's past actions and to thoroughly investigate any changes in the Crown Prince's behavior.
“It is true that Kwon Ga, the maid, deeply cares for His Highness the Grandson, and it is also true that she quickly gained the absolute favor of His Highness the Crown Prince, Your Majesty. However, her demeanor is exceptionally bold, unrestrained, and peculiar.”
The Chief Royal Lady, entering Cheonsu Hall, reported in detail.
King Sejong nodded and murmured to himself, “Yes, peculiar. It was truly peculiar how she suddenly embraced and patted me after trembling, and then her eyes became confident.”
“Even when she encounters Princess Geum-ah, born to Hong Seung-hwi, she kneels down to meet her eyes and keeps talking to her, observing her intently and trying to teach her something. This is despite Hong Seung-hwi teasing her, saying she acts as if she were the Crown Princess. Once, His Highness the Grandson pushed Geum-ah away from Gwaya, and Gwaya scolded him severely...”
“She dared to scold the Grandson? Ha! Her audacity knows no bounds.”
King Sejong muttered in disbelief, then suddenly clicked his tongue, “Well, Gwaya speaks her mind directly to me, so what about young Hongwi?”
The more they investigated, the more they confirmed Gwaya's unusual nature.
Even Princess Jeongui had commented, “Gwaya is humble, but she seems to be hiding something. I wonder what she would say if she decided to reveal what she knows, Father.”
King Sejong suppressed the urge to summon Crown Prince Yi Hyang and ask, “Was that miraculous cannon you tried to invent also suggested by Gwaya?”
If he answered that it was, he would have to question how Gwaya knew such things and how much the Crown Prince knew about her. But what if their Hyang only saw Gwaya in a good light!
“Gwaya is Hyang's woman, Your Majesty. You see how much brighter Hyang's face has become since meeting Gwaya, and how cheerful our Hongwi is. Even if Gwaya doesn't please you, please keep your lips sealed.”
If the Queen had not warned him, the situation might have been different.
King Sejong, driven by his desire to summon Gwaya and present the restored paper, and to question the source of her sorcery-like knowledge, finally could not contain his curiosity on the sixth day and ordered the newly appointed Grand Audience Hall eunuch to summon Gwaya to Cheonsu Hall.
As Yunseo prepared to go to Cheonsu Hall, Chief Consort Choi, who had come to take Hongwi to the Queen's Palace, conveyed the Queen's orders in a hushed voice.
“If His Majesty questions you, you are to bow your head and say you are sorry, no matter what. The Queen is worried, as His Majesty seems to harbor some suspicion towards you.”
Hongwi was now much more stable emotionally and often visited the Queen's Palace alone without Yunseo.
On this day too, Hongwi hugged Yunseo and whispered, “Gwaya Nyingya, I'll go with Halmamaa and Nakji,” then bravely took Chief Consort Choi's hand and toddled towards the Queen's Palace.
Yunseo's gaze, which had been smiling brightly at Hongwi, soon turned cold.
If things went as planned, there could be a bloodbath in the royal family, and a backlash against her.
But the arrow had already left the bow.
If King Sejong saw the contents of the note himself, he might be angered, but surely he wouldn't kill his son's woman, she thought, as she walked towards Cheonsu Hall with Eom Sangjeon and Maegeumi.
“Is it true that you wrote this, Gwaya?”
When Yunseo entered Cheonsu Hall and bowed, three sheets of paper restored by Consort Cheon, and three more sheets with the content neatly rewritten in brush calligraphy, were placed before her.
Consort Cheon placed the six sheets of paper before Yunseo and then, from behind King Sejong, slipped into the space behind the piled-up books and documents as if she were not there.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I am deeply sorry. I caused this whole affair by scribbling alone because I had no one to confide my distress to, so I am truly sorry, Your Majesty.”
“Yes. You can confide. As Hongwi's nanny, you couldn't express the sorrow Hongwi suffered, so you scribbled alone out of distress. Is that such a great fault? It is those who dug through it and called it a cursed object who are wrong. Is that not so?”
“...Yes, Your Majesty. However, I should have been more cautious, and I acted in a way that would invite suspicion. I am deeply sorry.”
That was how it was.
After deciding to take root in Joseon forever, Yunseo was determined to survive and to look one step ahead based on the knowledge she possessed.
So, realizing the danger of the place where she originally wrote and tore up her inner thoughts, she decided to set a trap there instead. She removed all the content she had originally written, wrote down the detailed sorrows Hongwi suffered from Lady Yun and Hong Seung-hwi, tore it up, put it in a pocket, and placed it conspicuously, slightly askew.
She had not expected that pocket to be presented directly to King Sejong, but she did not forget to add a little bit of her fluttering feelings for Yi Hyang, so that no matter whose hands it fell into or how it was restored, it would not arouse suspicion.
“Is everything you wrote here true?”
“Y-yes, Your Majesty.”
“You dare to treat the Grandson like this, is all of that true?”
“I am deeply sorry.”
Yunseo bowed her head.
Beneath it, Yunseo smiled faintly.
Yes, this was the stratagem for which she had written it. If His Majesty learned how he had treated the Grandson, and if he saw that content, not from a report or anything else, but from something she had written and torn up out of frustration, how could he not be enraged after seeing the earnestness with which she had repeatedly written and rewritten it?
You are all dead now!
But then.
“Gwaya, my brilliant Gwaya! If you were me, what would you think reading the contents of that paper?”
“...Yes?”
“You are a clever child. But if you, being so clever, did not completely destroy such content, but hid it there and were discovered, would the process of those who found it, without even realizing it was their own shame, reporting it, be normal? Wouldn't it be different for someone clever like you, if not for others? What if it was done with the intention of being discovered?”
“!”
A chill ran down Yunseo's spine.
Her hair stood on end, and cold sweat poured down her.
“Gwaya, if you were me, what would you think?”
“······.”
Yunseo dared not open her mouth.
She had overlooked the possibility that the other party could be King Sejong!
That while everyone else in the world might be deceived, King Sejong might not be.
The genius who, uniquely in world history, single-handedly created an artificial script and ensured it was perfectly used for generations, would never believe a note meticulously arranged like a formal accusation was merely a personal diary written without ulterior motives!
Ah, damn it! Damn it!
She could not open her mouth, and her mind felt like it was going blank.
But it was not over.
Yunseo.
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