Perfect Crown in Royal Academy of Korea - Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Personal Feelings

Wan visited the principal's office early in the morning and said.
    
"Please consider the full opening of the archery range."
    
"The archery range?"
    
The school principal asked with a puzzled face. Because the Grand Prince, who had never once visited him since admission, said he had something to request privately, he had been harboring a bit of expectation. After all, before being a disciple, he was the Grand Prince of this country.
    
It was a tradition for the royal relatives of the royal family, including the Grand Prince, to study at the Royal Academy, but it was an unwritten rule not to stand out from admission to graduation. If one was too magnificent, there was much risk of being on people's lips, and if one was too lacking, it didn't save face as royalty, so finding the golden mean was the task.
    
In that sense, Grand Prince Leean was a slightly unusual case. Because despite being the second son of the King, he sparkled conspicuously.
    
Although it was also funny to wish for him not to sparkle when he possessed a tall stature and a beautiful appearance, he was not afraid of sparkling. He always maintained the highest rank in grades and also showed prominence in arts and physical education such as traditional archery or calligraphy.
    
As if he were a person who wanted to make his talent known to the whole world.
    
That didn't mean he was the arrogant, bragging type either. It couldn't be said that he didn't have the arrogance unique to royalty, but it wasn't in a method of ignoring or speaking down to the other party. It was just that because he was noble by birth, the leisure of not caring about his surroundings was soaked into his body.
    
Therefore, how strange would a personal request like opening the archery range feel.
    
"Grand Prince, Your Highness, may I ask the reason you request so."
    
The school principal, who used polite honorifics to call it a relationship between teacher and disciple, asked. Grand Prince Leean, who tilted his head for a moment, calmly opened his mouth.
    
"Confucius said, 'A virtuous man has nothing to compete for, but in archery, he must compete.'"
    
"Consequently...."
    
"For the friendly match that will be soon, the schoolmates are burning their enthusiasm. If the principal cheers for that enthusiasm, wouldn't it be even more pleasing."
    
It was a clear answer, but there was no answer as blurred as that. But it wasn't that he could ask further either. Because he couldn't give disappointment to the Grand Prince who was smiling like a person who already heard the answer he wanted.
    
"Since Grand Prince, Your Highness, speaks so... I will consider it with all my heart."
    
On the face of the Grand Prince, who knew those words meant acceptance right away, a small smile hung. Not too bright, and not too conscious, just moderately.
    
Wan, who came out of the principal's office, crossed the hallway with steps no different from usual. From him, who maintained a straight posture without putting in effort, a neat and noble grace was felt, but inside his head, it was nothing short of chaotic.
    
In a school whose purpose was learning, and over a single girl at that, to make a personal request. It was an impossible thing.
    
"You said it like that? To the school principal?"
    
Hwan, who visited Wan’s private residence, asked.
    
"Why, what."
    
Wan, who couldn't hide his displeased state of mind, grumbled. No matter how quiet a request it was, he was not unaware that every single one of his actions was reported to the palace. Therefore, it was obvious it would enter his Royal Father's ears before long.
    
Because he had committed it and felt worried, he expressed it to his brother, but to think he would come running headlong.
    
"For my younger brother to have an unrequited love...."
    
"It's not that kind of thing, alright?"
    
"Then what, is it compassion? Something like giving alms?"
    
"What?"
    
"They say that girl is an extramarital child of Castle Group. In that unlucky school, if you're a commoner and an extramarital child... isn't it a miracle that she's even alive?"
    
Although it was an anachronistic remark, it was a word that could not be refuted as no. Because while officially aiming for equality, it was a country where status existed.
    
As long as royalty existed and the bloodline of aristocrats was maintained, classes had no choice but to exist. When thinking of the habit of people who like to flock together with their own kind and ostracize categories different from themselves, discrimination could not disappear.
    
"It's not that, but...."
    
"But?"
    
"There are no incorrect words in it."
    
Wan, who shrugged his shoulders, recalled Heejoo's words.
    
"She says she will enjoy every opportunity that her enemy enjoys exactly the same, and that she will become dirty exactly the same because of that, so do I just watch that?"
    
"Ah, so you helped her? Telling her not to become dirty?"
    
At the tone that was clearly teasing, Wan threw a cushion. When Hwan, who was hit squarely on the head, shouted, "This is treason from you," the court lady standing outside the room door asked if he was alright. The two brothers, who had been laughing, stiffened their faces in an instant, but—
    
"I am fine, so do not mind it."
    
Hwan's quick-wittedness was fast as if familiar.
    
"Isn't Court Lady Park standing with her ear pressed to the door right now?"
    
"Probably? She does that often at the Eastern Palace too."
    
Compared to Hwan who appeared unfazed, Wan, who was disgusted, waved his hand.
    
"Ugh, just go to the palace quickly. Don't get scolded by Royal Father for nothing."
    
"Royal Father doesn't scold me."
    
"Ah, right. The scolding will be mine."
    
The complexion of Wan, who spoke absurd words, was plain. Hwan, who felt sorry for such a younger brother but could not comfort him, needlessly shifted the topic.
    
"So, is that girl pretty?"
    
"What?"
    
Once again, Hwan was hit on the head with a cushion.
    
At that time, Heejoo was suffering from anxiety. She couldn't endure it because the verbal confrontation with Wan last night weighed on her mind.
    
Although Heejoo boasted a winning rate of a hundred victories in a hundred battles to the point of not feeling ashamed of the years she lived as the mad dog and fighting cock of Vermilion Bird Palace, the opponent being royalty was a slightly burdensome thing. No, it was a very greatly burdensome thing.
    
"It won't be expulsion, right?"
    
Eventually, Heejoo, who couldn't even eat dinner properly, sat on a bench and repeated her regrets.
    
"Aren't I going to jail for something like insulting the royal family?"
    
Heejoo, who was chewing over the words she had said to Wan, ended up making even terrible imaginations in the end. Things like expulsion, or expulsion, or expulsion.
    
Just when she was repeating self-torment while tearing at her hair like that—
    
"Hey, hey. Get up. A notice has been posted."
    
A Vermilion Bird Palace friend, whom she came to know through Jungwoo's introduction, shook Heejoo's shoulder.
    
"A notice? Why?"
    
"Ah, get up quickly."
    
It was not a period for notices to be posted. The exams had finished not long ago, and the academic schedule for this semester had been shared a long time ago. If so, don't tell me. Heejoo, who grew scared that her imagination might become reality, began to run toward the central building.
    
"What is this..."
    
Heejoo, who pushed through the murmuring students and advanced right up to the scroll, could not hide her hollow feeling.
    
Full opening of the archery range, of all things.
    
"Isn't it great? They say it's a full opening for a month. You whined that practice time was insufficient."
    
It was a good thing. Because a full opening meant that one could practice all day even without an approval form.
    
But somehow, she didn't feel good.
    
The more she read the clause stating, <We and archery are conditions courtesy entering etiquette. exiting for inform only range that the>, the more her pride was hurt. There was no way she couldn't know that Grand Prince Leean, who heard her injustice last night, had personally stepped forward.
    
"So annoying."
    
Heejoo, who murmured lowly, turned her back fiercely. She wanted to consume every bit of the grace bestowed by the grand Grand Prince Leean. Continuously until not a single piece remained.
    
Heejoo was not unaware that her heart was ugly. She could also admit that he, who found a better method than punishing her, was a quite magnificent senior.
    
But the fact that he was in a position where he could bestow such grace was humiliating to the point of being unendurable. It was also mortifying to the point of being unendurable that the only thing she could do for such a him was to have a grateful heart.
    
It felt like he was telling her, who determined to willingly become dirty in order to win, that there was a method to win cleanly. Dare to tell her, despite living a life where he didn't even have to win.
    
Therefore, Heejoo straightway packed her bow and searched for Jungwoo.
    
"Let's go to practice."
    
"Suddenly? It's not even 7 o'clock yet?"
    
"It's special training starting from today."
    
"Did you fight again with that kid named Ryu Minseok or whatever?"
    
Heejoo, who shook her head to Jungwoo asking worriedly, said only one sentence.
    
"I really hate losing."
    
    
From the Royal Academy School Regulations
    
Article 50, Paragraph 1: Every autumn, this school holds a friendly match to promote friendship between dormitories.
    
Article 50, Paragraph 2: The events of the friendly match shall be designated as traditional archery, horse riding, and calligraphy.
    
Article 50, Paragraph 7: The representative for each event shall be elected individually by each dormitory.
    
Article 50, Paragraph 8: In the friendly match, victory or defeat is secondary, and the representatives of each dormitory shall make protecting dignity and honor their foremost duty.
    
Article 50, Paragraph 12: The student who wins in the friendly match shall be awarded an Eosahwa flower on behalf of the compliments of the Royal Family.