Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The greetings were over, so he wished she would leave, yet Hwaryeong did not go and took a seat instead.

He was about to hear about Hwacheon, and with an outsider sitting there, it was thoroughly uncomfortable.

Ryu Hyeok’s mood soured, and he cleared his throat loudly, showing his displeasure again and again, but Yu Hanshin failed to notice and kept babbling praise of his concubine-born daughter’s looks without pause.

‘Honestly, she is pretty only in her own father’s eyes. Summoning someone of my standing, as they put it, only to subject him to this. What an outrage.’

At first he had thought nothing in particular of Hwaryeong’s beauty, but with Yu Hanshin raving on like that, it went beyond indifference and he began to view her with a jaundiced eye.

Had he not said it before? That what matters when looking at a person’s face is not the appearance itself but the heart of the one receiving it.

Since his heart had turned unkind toward Hwaryeong, it was only natural that her beauty should look faded.

In any case, he was eager to hear about Hwacheon quickly.

What she liked, what sweets she had enjoyed as a child. Amusing anecdotes of that sort.

As her father, he could not fail to know that much, however much he had discriminated between his legitimate and concubine-born daughters.

In truth, Ryu Hyeok had not believed everything Hwacheon said last time at face value.

‘People tend to remember what was done to them in magnified form, and to grieve over it excessively.’

Perhaps Yu Hanshin had cherished his legitimate daughter in his own way.

Yet quite apart from that guess, Yu Hanshin did strike him as a petty man.

It is said that the arm bends inward and the crayfish sides with the crab. It would not do for a husband to be swayed by believing only his wife’s words, but if a husband did not listen to his wife, who would?

So he would observe the father and daughter objectively, but he could not shake the thought that a father who had made his legitimate daughter miserable was fundamentally the cause of the problem.

“Your Highness, you know the tale of the mottled bamboo of Xiaoxiang , of course.”

“Of course I do.”

According to the old story, Emperor Shun had two wives, Ehuang and Nüying, who were sisters to each other.

One day, when Emperor Shun died, the sisters, unable to bear their grief, threw themselves into the Xiaoxiang River, and the bloody tears they shed were said to have left stains on the bamboo.

Why he had suddenly raised this topic, the prince grasped at once.

Emperor Yao had married off his two daughters in order to test whether Shun had the qualities of a sovereign. After all, when sisters marry the same man, quarrels easily arise.

But because Shun was of excellent character, his household remained peaceful even though he had taken the sisters as wives at the same time. This must have been because Shun’s virtue was as vast as the sea.

Yu Hanshin’s purpose in bringing up this story in such a situation was obvious.

“They say a truly great sovereign keeps a harmonious household even when he takes sisters as wives.”

He was presenting his concubine-born daughter to him.

Not content with sending his legitimate daughter as the primary wife, he meant to have the concubine-born daughter taken in as a concubine as well.

As befit a man quick of wit, the pretext was plausible. Praising Ryu Hyeok as a great sovereign, he was urging the sisters to serve him together.

Ryu Hyeok let out a faint, incredulous laugh at the situation, then looked at Hwaryeong for a moment.

There was no disputing that she was a lovely young woman. If Ryu Jin had been in his position, he might have happily accepted. That fellow could not resist a pretty woman.

But Ryu Hyeok was not starved for beauties, nor was he much given to lust.

Moreover, quite apart from his own excellent qualities as a sovereign, he was well aware of how much Hwacheon loathed her half-sister.

‘She said she hated the dumpling girl because it felt as if she had taken her father away.’

She screamed with resentment over losing her father, so if her husband were taken too, could that fragile girl survive? She was even now begging to be killed.

If he took Hwaryeong as a concubine, Hwacheon would break. Even if she did not break, she would at the very least be ruined, that much was clear.

‘…Am I underestimating her too much?’

Considering her fierce temper, it did not seem entirely bad. Perhaps her jealousy toward Hwaryeong might become Hwacheon’s will to live, or her passion.

But was Hwaryeong so desirable that he would risk testing that? The answer was no.

She was certainly not a talent he coveted. Of course, taking a pretty concubine could serve as a useful tool for leaving a good impression when entertaining guests.

But Ryu Hyeok was not in a position to fret over using a concubine to impress others, nor was there any reason for him to.

Of course, taking both the legitimate and concubine-born daughters would make his political alliance with the Left Vice Minister firmer.

‘But the throne is not a seat from which one rules by borrowing another’s might.’

A throne that was decided merely by whether a marriage alliance existed was one he had no right to hold in the first place. Not that he thought political marriages had no effect on a reign.

“Lord Left Vice Minister.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“One pretty one in the household is enough for me. Hwacheon alone suffices.”

Whether he would take concubines in the future or not, he did not know, but for now that was how he felt. Hwacheon had only just married in, and there was ample time for the matter of an heir, so he had no room to think of secondary wives.

Unless Hwacheon were barren and unable to produce an heir, or unless he were in a situation where he had to take a concubine for a political pact, taking a secondary wife this early would be a hasty judgment.

“B-But Your Highness. Surely you will take several secondary wives in the future.”

“Who knows? If it is what fate decreed by Heaven, I will take them, and if not, I will not.”

To begin with, Ryu Hyeok was not in a position where a political marriage was desperately needed. Even without being greatly bound to expanding his faction, his foundation was already firm.

His imperial father had been the eldest legitimate son, and Ryu Hyeok, his son, was also the eldest legitimate son. Even if the succession rested on the Emperor’s will, the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate could never be ignored, and the eldest legitimate son was practically a symbol of legitimacy.

The problem arose when an Emperor chose a son other than the eldest legitimate one as his heir. To stop wavering legitimacy from giving rise to gossip, political marriages had been used to fill in the missing legitimacy.

And the more consorts an Emperor took, the better it was for his ministers. Nothing was better than a daughter of one’s house becoming a consort and wielding influence. That was why they petitioned tearfully, throughout an Emperor’s reign, for him to take consorts.

Ryu Hyeok thought it a bit grotesque. The Emperor was no stud horse, yet he was to be meddled with even in such matters.

He was even offended, feeling that the ministers who made such petitions looked down on the Emperor.

Besides, he had grown up witnessing the palace intrigues of the inner court firsthand. He had keenly felt how desperate the conflict between wives and concubines could be, and how complicated the circumstances entangled in the existence of consorts were.

Watching them, blinded by jealousy, plot poisonings or snarl at one another coveting the empress’s seat, left his chest feeling tight.

His father had been extremely fond of women, and while favoring his mother, the Empress, he had ceaselessly craved new ones.

Seeing his mother wounded in that process, Ryu Hyeok too had spent countless sleepless nights.

“As you know, that wretched Hwacheon has a truly vile temper.”

Well, well. Even now the Left Vice Minister was disparaging his legitimate daughter in order to push his concubine-born one forward. When it was thanks to that very legitimate daughter that Prince Hye had set foot here.

He should look after the daughter he had already married off, yet he was trying to marry off a new daughter as well. It was too much greed.

“This is exactly what I wished to tell you. Hwacheon has been peculiar since childhood. She looked down on her father and made all manner of trouble. And you cannot imagine how cruelly she treated her stepmother and half-siblings. Isn’t that so, Hwaryeong?”

At that, Hwaryeong, looking choked with emotion, covered her mouth and put on a show of composing her feelings.

“She even said to my mother… that she would tear her mouth open on both sides so that it could never close again…”

“If that is true, then Hwacheon went a bit too far.”

However much she was a legitimate daughter, a stepmother was her father’s concubine. She was not someone to be openly disregarded.

‘But it must have been galling.’

Ryu Hyeok was also of legitimate birth, so he was not wholly unable to understand Hwacheon’s feelings.

From a legitimate child’s standpoint, nothing is more unpleasant to look at than one’s father’s concubine.

Ryu Hyeok, too, had not liked his father’s consorts. Rather, he thought it strange to like them.

For nothing is harder than going against an instinctive repulsion.

“But there must have been a cause for Hwacheon to say that. She is not the sort of ruffian who would leap at someone who was minding her own business.”

At that, Yu Hanshin waved both hands and answered hurriedly.

“That is because Your Highness does not know that girl! My concubine was sitting quietly, having done nothing wrong, when she suddenly burst in, said such vicious things, and flew at her. You cannot imagine how startled I was.”

“Hm, is that so?”

Ryu Hyeok stroked his chin and nodded. Well, even so, Hwacheon’s behavior still did not lie wholly beyond his understanding.