Perfect Crown in Royal Academy of Korea - Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One: A Delicate and Feeble Mind

Hwan's resistance failed. The reasons for the failure were several, but among them the greatest mistake was that he trusted Yoon Sungwon, who was Irang's father. Under the Special Act on the Royal Family which prohibited opening the medical records of the Crown Prince carelessly, Hwan needed the help of Sungwon, the board chairman of the Royal Hospital.
 
"Would you also not wish for your female child to be happy."
 
By common sense, it was a valid thought. Because there would be no father-in-law who would welcome a son-in-law suffering from nervous exhaustion due to long depression and anxiety.
 
"Do not worry, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I will guard your side."
 
He appeared like a dependable ally. Whenever and wherever Hwan wished, he appeared and soothed his anxiety, but he did not give what Hwan wished for the most. While dragging time saying he would seek out a method.
 
Sungwon did not need an excellent son-in-law. He merely needed a son-in-law who was the Crown Prince. If it were before the state marriage was announced, he might have put on a pretense of exerting effort. But in a situation where the entire nation knew Irang as Hwan's match, he held no mind wishing to help in the slightest. Because if a calling off of the marriage was carried out along with Hwan's deposition, Irang likewise must live bearing all that dishonor as if it were her own.
 
Above all, Grand Prince Leean ascending to the position of Crown Prince was not pleasing.
 
Even looking at the case of Queen Uihyeon's ring, it was so. Despite the King's command and the Crown Prince's request being present, Grand Prince Leean did not budge. Although the royal relatives and the Cabinet stepped forward to settle the situation, that likewise did not work. Rather, he merely threw a tantrum asking if they were disregarding Queen Uihyeon's last wishes.
 
The thought arose that if that kind of person became king, it would be a succession of matters that would not be easy.
 
Above all, the monarchy of today stood before the greatest crisis in history. Although the nation treated the royal family, which proclaimed a constitutional monarchy by itself, with respect and love, there was no one who gave a clear answer before the question of what meaning a royal family existing in the 21st century possessed.
 
But it was certain it was a system that must definitely be maintained. It was a royal family that had never collapsed even a single time during a time surpassing 600 years. The tradition and history that kind of royal family possessed were the pride of the country, and the pillars supporting it were the yangban of prestigious families.
 
As long as the royal family existed, the story that all people were equal did not form. Because to prove the nobility of the royal family, they had no choice but to recognize even the difference in social status. Even if that was merely in name, as long as a name was attached, it was bound to become an undeniable existence.
 
Therefore, Sungwon wished for the royal family to be eternal. Since only an eternal royal family could safeguard the wall of social status that was becoming blurred.
 
Sungwon, who sought out the Eastern Palace at the calling of the Crown Prince, thought. That the deposition of the Crown Prince was not even feasible.
 
"I can no longer wait."
 
Hwan spoke in a shape just like a ferocious beast right before starvation. Sungwon, who let out a low sigh, bowed his head.
 
"Do you at long last... intend to commit an impiety toward His Majesty."
 
"What did you say."
 
"His Majesty the King was not the Crown Prince but a Grand Prince."
 
"Therefore."
 
"If the late King, Gwangjong, had possessed an offspring... His Majesty the King would likely have lived merely as a royal relative of the royal family."
 
Hwan's eye rims sharpened coldfly. The late King, Gwangjong, was Hwan's paternal uncle and the unique older brother of the current King. His life, which stopped at forty without leaving behind even a single offspring, left behind questions like a grand hole. The announcement of the cause of death as 'death from overwork' by the Royal Hospital was also nothing more than an empty echo. It was because they remembered the robustness of Gwangjong, who lacked a single time of minor illness.
 
The arrow of suspicion headed toward Grand Prince Gyeongon, who was Gwangjong's younger brother. The point that Gwangjong's last track was a hunt he did together with Grand Prince Gyeongon was the source of trouble. The glare of the Queen Dowager Lee, who became a widow, was fierce, but there was no basis to the suspicion and no point of agreement was discovered.
 
Grand Prince Gyeongon, who ascended the throne amidst the controversy, never resented his sister-in-law who became the Queen Dowager. Rather, he merely wrapped around her saying he understood the sorrow of his sister-in-law who lost her husband.
 
But when even the Queen Dowager Lee, for whom sorrow became an illness, died of illness 1 year later, the suspicion sprouted up once again.
 
"Are you unaware under what kind of suspicion His Majesty lives."
 
"Do you dare insult Royal Father."
 
"I am speaking the word that His Majesty needs Your Highness."
 
Sungwon answered, putting force into his neck.
 
"His Majesty has no choice but to safeguard legitimacy. Because only that is the method by which His Majesty expresses innocence. However, if Your Highness steps down from the position of Crown Prince..."
 
"Stop!"
 
Hwan spoke, holding his throbbing head.
 
"Grand Prince Your Highness will likewise come to listen to the same sound as His Majesty the King."
 
"Did I not tell you to stop!"
 
"Are you trying to commit an impiety toward His Majesty, and give dishonor to your one and only younger brother."
 
"......"
 
Thick tears dropped from the eyes of Hwan, who had been holding out. Sungwon, who noticed that his delicate and feeble mind had collapsed, changed his pressing face softly.
 
"Your Highness needs to do nothing."
 
"......"
 
"Just guard your position."
 
"I, I...."
 
"I will guard Your Highness's side."
 
Sungwon, who dared wrap around the hand of the Crown Prince, said. Hwan's first and last resistance failed like that.
 
Wan worried about Hwan, who could not be contacted. The state marriage date approached, but no communication of any kind came from his older brother. Whether persuading Royal Father did not go well, he could not know the turning situation at all. Although the thought arose that he might try to find out through Court Lady Choi, he didn't wish to press his older brother.
 
'If you say you dislike it, I won't do it.'
 
He recalled the last conversation with his older brother. When he told him to become his background support was whenever, but the word he said having sought him out at his private residence was that kind of thing. It appeared his heart was troubled at laying a burden on him.
 
Being weak-spirited.
 
'Brother, with that kind of mind, even what would work won't work.'
 
'Even so, what you dislike, I dislike too.'
 
To that kind of older brother, there was no younger brother who would say he disliked it. When thinking of himself who would become the Crown Prince and become king in the future, it wasn't entirely enjoyable, but he wished to be on his older brother's side. The feeling that the dream he had merely been thinking of disrespectfully was becoming distinct also arose. Although he would receive a bit of hatred from Royal Father, because that was something he received every day, he was not fearful.
 
Rather, the one who weighed on his mind was Irang, who could not know all these plans. Because she would be greatly startled, and also greatly hurt. But he exerted himself to think that calling off a marriage was better than a divorce, and a complete absence of marriage was better than a marriage without mind.
 
To the very end, Wan could not grasp the situation until the very day of Hwan's state marriage. It was because he came to perform instead the overseas public duty Hwan was scheduled to attend. Everything was Hwan's plan, and Wan did not suspect.
 
'By the time you return, everything will be sorted out.'
 
Because he believed that word of Hwan.
 
But the overseas schedule was added continuously, and the schedule to return was delayed day after day.
 
Wan, who arrived in Korea only when it became the very day of the state marriage at long last, headed straight to the Eastern Palace.
 
"Grand Prince Your Highness, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is still...."
 
"Step aside."
 
Court Lady Park, who saw Wan who appeared likely to leave even someone dead right now, blocked in front of Wan desperately, but there was no one who could stop Wan at that moment. Even if that was Hwan, who was the master of the Eastern Palace, it was so.
 
Wan, who threw open the door of the bedchamber, realized that he was deceived by his older brother only after seeing Hwan in his wedding attire state. Asking what it was again to avoid his gaze after having played around with a person. Wan, for whom a hollow laugh burst out, crossed the door sill.
 
"Grand Prince Your Highness!"
 
Sungwon shouted strictly. Whether he became intoxicated at the fact that he would become the Internal Prince soon, daring to raise his voice in front of him was laughable.
 
"The state wedding begins soon."
 
"Therefore."
 
"Go out and guard Your Highness's position."
 
Wan, who replaced an answer by lifting his eyebrows, advanced toward Hwan.
 
"If His Majesty knows, he will strike a punishment saying you are irreverent toward His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
 
"......"
 
"Will you be alright."
 
Wan, who paid no heed, strongly gripped and twisted Hwan's collar. He himself, who had been agonizing for a few months saying he would rescue his weak-spirited older brother, was pathetic. The times he was fluttered due to unfolding what he had folded away as an unachievable dream were also pathetic. It wasn't that he hadn't known he was an older brother who amounted to merely this much either.
 
"I clearly gave you an opportunity."
 
"......"
 
"Whatever happens in the future, handle it on your own."
 
Wan, who let go of the collar he had been gripping and came out, stared at Sungwon who stood at his side. The face that was looking at himself as if looking at a villain was absurd.
 
"Inform him exactly as it is. Just as tattering is your enjoyment, being punished for the crime of irreverence is also my enjoyment."
 
What it was he, who grasped his older brother's mind, wished to do, Wan was not curious in the slightest.