The First Red Plum Blossom
Unknown
I stared up at the plaque bearing my new name, both hands pressed against my burning cheeks.
I finally got it!
It felt entirely different from the treasures that had been handed to me before I even wanted them, or the gifts I'd received merely by letting a hint of longing show. This was a reward for something I had accomplished—a gift I had requested, planned out, and brought into being with my own hands.
The fruits of my own effort.
Something swelled up inside me until my chest stood straight with pride, like a handful of glittering stars rising into the sky of my heart.
Now I can learn whatever I want, can't I? I even get to pick my own teachers. Oh my, I'm so excited.
Beyond the basic education and classical studies, I had decided to start with riding and swordsmanship. I wanted to put this healthy body of mine through its paces, after all. For swordsmanship in particular, the very master who instructed the Crown Prince had agreed to teach me too.
Come to think of it, that master seemed like a person with quite the story behind them... I supposed I would find out once we met.
I just hope it turns out they're secretly a swordsmanship genius!
Or a riding genius, or anything at all, really!
Because, the truth was... I had already discovered while practicing archery with the Crown Prince that I was hopeless at it.
The Crown Prince can hit a target blindfolded, from twice the distance, with a toy bow... and I couldn't even hit it while staring straight at it.
I kept at it, hoping practice would help, but I hadn't improved by so much as a fingernail's width. I was starting to think I should quietly give it up—if only out of pity for Ansi, who strained so hard to find something, anything, to praise about my pitiful archery.
I did enjoy archery itself, so I'd keep it up now and then as a hobby.
If I try this and that, surely at least one or two things will turn out to be things I'm actually good at, right?
It would be enough for a hobby to simply be fun. But if I could help it, I wanted a genuine talent, not just a pastime. Honestly, I didn't want just one—I wanted three. No, ten or so.
That way, after I'm gone... people will remember that Princess Cheonmyeong was truly wonderful with a sword. That's better than being remembered as the sickly girl who did nothing but lie in bed in pain, isn't it?
And once I got good at something, I would have to show Mama and Papa in person. So they could remember me healthy and well. So they could brag about me to everyone they knew.
Oooh, the anticipation.
So this is why celestial attendants and mortal children sometimes lie awake all night before their first day of school.
It's a shame I won't have friends learning alongside me like at a school... but I'll at least be studying swordsmanship with the little Crown Prince!
March, when lessons began, could not come fast enough. I counted down the days on my fingers.
Only a few more to go!
That afternoon, the East Palace was expecting a guest: Princess Onseol, Cheonmunhye.
She was the reigning King's full-blooded younger sister, and a nun who had taken vows with the Yeonhwa Teachings.
She had promised to visit once after the Cloud Dragon Festival, but a river of blood had swept through the palace the moment the festival ended, and her visit kept getting pushed back.
With matters more or less settled and the weather finally warming, this was to be her first official visit at last.
Official though it was, it remained at heart a private meeting between an aunt and her nephew and his wife, so the tea table was laid not in the lesser hall but in the pavilion in the garden.
Roughly halfway along the corridor connecting Jamryongdang and Unyeondang, a path branched off toward the garden. It led to a pavilion overlooking the pond, built so that the Crown Prince and Crown Princess could take their rest or hold modest little gatherings there.
Having nothing else pressing to do, I went out early and seated myself in the pavilion well ahead of the appointed hour.
The garden is full of flower buds. Spring really is coming.
The garden that had once sent chills down my spine was now neat and charming in every corner. Once the flowers bloomed in full, it would be a bright and lovely sight.
Compared to the garden in my chambers at Sangra Palace—lavish to the point of grandeur, wreathed in every celestial art until it shimmered with mystery—this place was humble. But having watched it transform day by day from an utter ruin into something tidy and tended, I had somehow grown attached to it without noticing.
Which flowers went where, how the trees would be transplanted—I heard every report and made every decision myself, after all.
The pond, once so rotten and murky, had cleared until carp of every color glided beneath its surface. Down at the pond's edge, Ansi was crouched there at play—tossing feed to the carp, then snatching one up bare-handed to inspect it from every angle before plopping it back into the water.
Ansi plays more like a cat than a bird, doesn't she.
Then, all at once, she glared darkly at the bracelet on her wrist—Gwangcheol-i—before wrenching him off and flinging him straight into the water.
Did Gwangcheol-i pick a fight with her or something?
From the finger-sized dragon thrashing away in a silent scream of panic, I could almost hear a wordless chorus of despair.
Ever since he showed up, Ansi seems less bored, at least.
I used to feel a little sorry that she did nothing but stand guard at my side every single day, so I was glad she seemed to be enjoying herself roughhousing with Gwangcheol-i these days. I gathered the two of them even sparred now and then.
By age, Gwangcheol-i is leagues her senior, so why do the two of them feel exactly the same mental age...
The tiny Gwangcheol-i swam back to the pond's edge and bit down on Ansi's finger. She tugged at his tail, struggling to pry him loose, then transformed into a small bird with a pomf and bit him right back on the middle of his serpent body.
They are literally children. Actual children.
I was watching Gwangcheol-i, still clamped in her beak, flail about like a loach being hunted by a bird, doing my best to hold back my laughter, when I sensed someone approaching behind me.
Turning, I saw Choi Ja-myeong, a maid of Unyeondang, stepping into the pavilion with a woven straw mat balanced on her shoulder.
"Your Highness, my lady."
She bowed politely when she saw me. I nodded to acknowledge the greeting, then asked, "Are you laying that mat here?"
"Yes, my lady. The hour of Princess Onseol's arrival draws near, so I thought it best to begin preparing."
"Shall I move out of your way?"
"Not at all. Please, rest."
"All right."
I leaned against the railing and watched as Choi Ja-myeong laid out the mat. Spreading it smooth and even, she suddenly spoke up.
"Your Highness, my lady."
"Mm?"
"...My younger sister has been selected as a medical apprentice. Come spring, she will begin her studies at Jesaengwon."
Jesaengwon was the kingdom's national medical institution and school of the healing arts.
A uiwon—a martial physician—was one of the Gwoeryeoknansin who mastered not only medicine but every martial and Daoist technique that served the art of healing. It was a rank not just anyone could attain, and one held in considerable esteem.
So her sister being chosen as a medical apprentice was an occasion more than worthy of pride.
"A medical apprentice at Jesaengwon? Isn't that a terribly hard position to earn? Your sister is remarkable."
At my exclamation, Choi Ja-myeong smiled faintly.
"That child is the one Your Highness saved, my lady."
"What?"
"You gave her the prescription and the gold ingots, if you recall."
"I did hear that she made a full recovery..."
Not long after I had given her that prescription—about a month, perhaps—Choi Ja-myeong had come to me saying her sister had recovered completely, bringing back the money left over from the medicine.
It felt wrong to take it back, and I was touched by the thought behind it, so I just told her to keep it.
Choi Ja-myeong continued, her smile soft.
"Yes, my lady. With the medicine brewed exactly according to your prescription, that child rose from her sickbed after barely a month, and with the money that remained, she studied."
"That was only recently. And she's already passed the examination at Jesaengwon?"
"She had always run errands for the village physician, you see. He said that once she was a little older, he would take her on as his disciple—but when the landslide struck our village, he was lost as well..."
"Oh..."
"My sister says... she will study hard so that she can heal people who suffer as she once did. And that one day she will become a court physician and repay Your Highness. You have truly bestowed a great grace upon us, my lady."
Choi Ja-myeong's eyes had reddened. She straightened the mat fully, rose to her feet, and bowed to the floor before me without warning.
"Thank you, truly, my lady."
My heart stirred. It was a feeling somewhat larger, warmer, and softer than the quiet satisfaction I'd taken in the tidy garden. Like stars pricking into bloom one by one—as if the small kindness I had scattered had taken root like a seed, sprouted, and grown into a young tree.
"...What's the child's name?"
"Kim Choryeong, my lady. We bear different surnames, but she is as dear to me as a sister of my own blood."
"Kim Choryeong. All right, I'll remember."
Then I added with a smile, "And you don't need to repay me. That was your fortune, after all. But if she truly wishes to repay me... tell her that simply becoming an excellent physician will be repayment enough."
She gazed at me for a long moment with glistening eyes, then bowed deeply at the waist.
"Yes, my lady. I will tell her."
After Choi Ja-myeong left the pavilion, I rested both arms on the railing and propped my chin on them.
...This kind of thing. It makes me so happy.
Here in the mortal realm, I kept experiencing things I had never once known in over two hundred years in the heavens.
I really was glad I had come down.
I buried my face in my arms to hide the corners of my mouth creeping upward. I had been grinning like that for a good while when a thick wave of floral scent suddenly washed over me.
"...?"
I looked up in surprise—and a wall of deep crimson filled my view. Looking closer, it was a branch heavy with red plum blossoms in full bloom.
"What were you doing over there, my lady?"
The gentle voice drifted over the mass of red flowers.
Beneath the pavilion railing, the Crown Prince stood holding the plum branch and gazing up at me.
"The first red plum blossoms of the year. I brought them because I wished to give them to you."
"...For me?"
"The moment I saw them, I thought of you, my lady."
The boy smiled beautifully—a smile so lovely I felt certain its petals would dust my fingertips if I touched it.
Wordlessly, I accepted the branch the Crown Prince held out to me. Somehow, my cheeks had begun to sting with warmth.
This kind of thing... it makes me so happy, too.