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Chapter 3
The Princess Who Went to the Eastern Country (3)
Ausis and the Great Mun Empire had spent a year and a half repeatedly negotiating over numerous matters of cooperation.
The princess seemed to have readily believed the story that Yi Juwon had learned the Ausian language in just one month.
But that wasn’t true.
Throughout the year and a half of negotiations, Yi Juwon had often grown frustrated.
In the end, he began studying Ausian for two shijin a day—four hours.
Ana Rosa had been impressed by the Emperor’s Ausian, but in truth, he was even more fluent when reading documents.
Ultimately, Ausis had conducted negotiations in which it conceded quite a lot, and in exchange, they placed Ana Rosa in the vacant position of Empress.
Naturally, the King of Ausis must have instructed Ana Rosa to “win the old man’s favor, conceive a child, and disrupt the line of succession.”
Anyone could have guessed as much.
Everyone avoided saying it aloud, but even while held in the Emperor’s arms, Ana Rosa had insisted that she was physically capable of bearing children.
If they had known that she was, at best, straightforward and, at worst, completely oblivious to the situation around her, they might have given her a little more education.
Perhaps she simply didn’t understand what having a child actually meant.
Or perhaps she did.
The Emperor recalled the people who had followed behind Ana Rosa earlier.
Among the weasel-like officials and fox-like maids, there had been one sturdy-looking woman who was innocently giving off an unmistakable killing intent.
Her hostility had been so blatant that not only the Emperor’s guards, but even the Ausian officials standing in front of and behind her had been tense.
Whatever she had intended to do, she would have been restrained the moment she acted.
Most of the delegation had clearly been assembled for this political marriage.
But that woman alone appeared to have been specially prepared for the young princess.
Perhaps they had assigned her to Ana Rosa because the princess was so young and innocent.
After thinking for a moment, the Emperor spoke.
“I am sixty-nine years old. Soon, I will reach the age when I may act according to my heart without violating propriety.”
It was a playful interpretation of Jongsim—the age of seventy, when Confucius said one’s heart could be followed without transgressing moral principles.
“So whether or not you are capable of bearing children is of no importance to Me. In My eyes, a woman is…”
The Emperor set Ana Rosa down.
Ana Rosa looked around the palace she was standing in.
Unlike the white, gleaming Ausian royal palace, which was made of marble, the place where the Emperor had set her down was made of dark wood.
It smells like wood.
Like a forest.
Tap.
The Emperor placed a hand on top of Ana Rosa’s head.
“Once your investiture is complete, there will be a banquet tonight. You should see My women then.”
He smiled.
“They are incomparably… mature.”
The Emperor burst out laughing.
The man standing beside him frowned.
He appeared to be around the same age as the Emperor. His clothes were similar in shape and style to the Emperor’s, but their decorations were much simpler. A square-shaped embroidered insignia was sewn into the center of his robe.
“Your Majesty.”
“Prime Minister, why are you frowning? I was merely giving the young lady some advice that will serve her well.”
“Your Majesty, I do not know the language of this foreign country, but I have served at Your Majesty’s side for many years. Could that truly be what you meant?”
“I always tell you this, don’t I? Being so perceptive will only hasten your death.”
“If my life can be hastened merely because of that, then I suppose it must be the lifespan Heaven has granted Your Majesty’s servant.”
“You’re perceptive, but you lack flexibility. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.”
The Emperor laughed again.
Ana Rosa raised her head and looked up at him.
He was enormous.
He stood so high above her that it was like looking up at the top of a fortress wall.
She couldn’t understand what they were saying.
She could barely make out four words: Prime Minister, Your Majesty, I, Heaven.
Prime Minister meant the chancellor.
Your Majesty meant Your Majesty.
I meant himself.
And Heaven meant Heaven.
But with only those four words, she had no way of understanding what had been said.
Regardless, the Emperor gestured toward somewhere.
A group of women entered gracefully.
They knelt before the Emperor and pressed their foreheads to the floor.
Ana Rosa’s eyes widened in shock.
She had never seen anyone kneel on the floor like that unless they were a criminal.
“We pay our respects to the Emperor.”
“Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand ten thousand years!”
“May Your Majesty enjoy boundless blessings.”
Yi Juwon looked down at the elderly court lady kneeling and performing the kowtow at the very front.
She was the woman he had specifically appointed to serve this young Empress.
“She is the senior court lady of the Empress’s Palace. What would you call her in Ausian? A steward, perhaps?”
Yi Juwon turned his head toward the interpreter.
What should a senior court lady be called?
The interpreter understood the Emperor’s silent question and answered respectfully.
“She is a maidservant, Your Majesty.”
“Ah, yes. A maidservant.”
The Emperor gestured toward the women.
“These are the servants I am giving you.”
Ana Rosa turned deathly pale.
She had been born into nobility and had never once encountered a servant—let alone a slave.
What exactly was a slave?
She had never even encountered a commoner.
The maids who performed menial work within the palace could only move around inside it when they were certain they would not be seen by royalty.
Ana Rosa had only ever heard that there were such people as maids and servants.
She had never actually seen them.
Every maid who served her personally came from a noble family.
The lowest-ranking people she had ever encountered were illegitimate children of noble families.
Commoners were practically unimaginable to her.
Ana Rosa swallowed hard and couldn’t manage to continue speaking.
The interpreter suddenly said, “Ah,” and hurriedly clasped his hands respectfully before her.
“Director Geum is also of slave origin.”
A man standing behind the Emperor answered.
“Yes, Your Highness. This humble one, Geum, entered the palace as a palace slave and, by the Emperor’s gracious favor, has been appointed as a taegam—the chief eunuch.”
Ana Rosa couldn’t understand what he was saying.
But she could tell that he was agreeing with what the interpreter had said.
The interpreter smiled.
“I, too, am a commoner.”
Ana Rosa didn’t know what to do.
She turned around.
Blanca was still outside the palace, standing with the others because she had not yet been permitted to enter.
Without Blanca, Ana Rosa would have to speak with commoners.
After hesitating for a long time, she finally managed to ask in a tiny voice,
“A commoner… works as an official of His Imperial Majesty?”
“That would be difficult in Ausis.”
The interpreter smiled.
“But this is the Great Mun Empire.”
Yi Juwon glanced at the interpreter, silently asking what he meant.
“In Ausis, Your Majesty, no one except nobles may speak to or serve members of the royal family.”
“Then do the nobles do the laundry and cleaning themselves?”
“No, Your Majesty. Servants handle such menial tasks, but they must work without coming into the sight of royalty.”
“What a tiresome way to live.”
Yi Juwon spat out the words disdainfully.
At his chilly voice, Ana Rosa’s shoulders flinched and stiffened.
But then he looked at Ana Rosa and smiled gently.
The child must have grown up constantly watching people’s moods.
“What a well-behaved little girl. After seeing My own children, looking at this child makes My eyes feel refreshed.”
At his words, the eunuch smiled brightly and added,
“Her Imperial Majesty the Empress is truly beautiful.”
“She is cute, not beautiful. She is far too young to speak of a woman’s beauty.”
The Emperor looked at Ana Rosa.
“Regardless, this is a good thing. She has no use as a woman, but she seems likely to be useful in other ways.”
The eunuch clicked his tongue inwardly.
Most men liked young women.
But Yi Juwon had always had a longstanding preference for older women.
The God of War, the Sage King, the Conquering Emperor—this great man had a somewhat unheroic habit of resting his head on the lap of the woman he adored, acting spoiled around her, and entrusting himself completely to her.
The woman who had perfectly indulged that preference had been the Empress who had passed away from illness.
Although she had been five years younger than the Emperor, she had embraced and cared for him like an older woman.
Yi Juwon had loved the Empress so dearly that he was reluctant even to visit the concubines’ quarters when it was time to spend the night with them.
It had reached the point where the Empress herself had to take the Emperor by the hand and escort him to the concubines’ quarters.
Even then, he would often finish his business as quickly as possible and hurry back to the Empress’s Palace.
A great man destined to be remembered throughout history could become an immature child in front of the woman he loved.
To such a man, a twelve-year-old girl was barely old enough to have stopped wearing diapers.
The princess bowed once more to the Emperor, a graceful and delicate bow, before following the senior court lady toward the Empress’s Palace.
Watching her leave, the Emperor gave a small chuckle.
“Did My own children look like that when I sent them away to be married?”
At the Emperor’s words, the eunuch looked up at him.
He knew whom the Emperor was remembering, but he showed nothing on his face.
Since the Emperor had asked him a question, however, he had to answer.
He replied carefully,
“The princesses had a benevolent father who loved them. They must have felt more at ease.”
The Emperor gently stroked a ring.
The eunuch lowered his head, pretending not to notice.
The Left Chancellor standing beside the Emperor also lowered his eyes.
The ring on the Emperor’s finger had belonged to a princess who had passed away long ago.
