Chapter 62: Geoncheon-dong [3]
Whoever it was, he did not seem to be an ordinary person.
Seeing Yi Sun-sin trying to show this much courtesy.
Kanghyeok also rose along with him and straightened his attire.
By now, having been in Joseon for quite some time, even that appearance no longer felt awkward on him.
“Ahem.”
The man Sun-sin had referred to as daegam cleared his throat.
At the same time, Sun-sin sprang out of the room.
It was agility that did not look like that of someone who had been drinking at all.
“You’ve come.”
“Oh, yes. So, are your preparations for departure coming along well?”
“Yes, thanks to you, daegam.”
“What do you mean, thanks to me? It is because your ability is outstanding.”
The way the two faced each other and laughed made it seem they were anything but casually acquainted.
Kanghyeok belatedly stepped forward beside Sun-sin and offered his greeting.
“How do you do. My name is Baek Kanghyeok.”
“Oh. So you are Baek Kanghyeok.”
The middle-aged man laughed heartily.
For some reason, he seemed quite pleased to see Kanghyeok.
“I’ve heard a great deal about you. They say your medical skill is extraordinary?”
“It is only a meager talent.”
Pretending to be humble was already second nature to him by now.
Kanghyeok bowed his head and said words he did not mean in the slightest.
“Come, please go inside. I’ll have them set out a new table.”
“Let’s do that.”
The man picked up the cushion that had been placed on the saddle and entered the room.
Hm, why is he bringing that in?
For some reason, Kanghyeok was reminded of the Anseong Hyeongam.
Tilting his head, he followed into the room.
Before he knew it, the dishes that had already been half-emptied had been cleared away.
It seemed the servant had already taken them away.
How in the world did he train them?
Was beating them really the answer after all?
Kanghyeok found himself thinking of his own servant, Dolseok, who was different in many ways.
He was loyal, but no matter what, he was rather slow.
Lately, he had even started getting cheeky.
“Come, a fresh spread will be brought out soon.”
Sun-sin dropped down onto the bare floor as he spoke.
Judging by the way he moved, he looked like a man who had never injured his leg at all.
The other man seemed to be thinking the same thing, because a satisfied smile spread across his face.
That was when he gently set down the cushion.
“So now you’ve truly recovered.”
“Yes. It is thanks to Kanghyeok.”
“Indeed, what remarkable skill.”
“Ah, I still haven’t introduced daegam to you.”
“Ah, is that so? My apologies.”
The man laughed heartily and carefully sat down on the cushion.
Kanghyeok’s doctor’s instincts flared up again, and he began running through possible diagnoses in his mind.
Judging from the slight crease in the man’s expression, he seemed to be in some pain.
Does he have hemorrhoids?
No matter how he looked at him, he was the spitting image of the Anseong Hyeongam.
Though he looked far more composed and seasoned than that gentleman.
“Let me introduce myself.”
“Ah, yes, daegam.”
Kanghyeok bowed again.
Whatever the case, this was a man being addressed as daegam.
That meant he was someone of terrifyingly high rank.
There was no harm in making a good impression.
“My name is Ryu Seong-ryong. I have known this Sun-sin here well since he was young.”
“Ryu... Seong-ryong!”
To think he had looked at Ryu Seong-ryong and been reminded of the Anseong Hyeongam.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. It’s just that I have long admired you.”
“Haha. Thank you, even if it is only flattery.”
Was Ryu Seong-ryong not already renowned far and wide in his own time?
So a reaction like Kanghyeok’s was not something he had encountered only once or twice.
Though none of them had shouted like Kanghyeok.
“No, it truly is an honor.”
His voice was sincere.
On his left was Yi Sun-sin, on his right was Ryu Seong-ryong.
Facing them in person gave him an entirely new feeling.
Even if he were offered an Azure Dragon on the left and a White Tiger on the right, this was not a lineup he would want to trade away.
To think the country had nearly fallen despite having such a great general and such a great statesman.
Just what kind of leader must they have had for things to turn out that way?
King Seonjo, just what in the world were you...
He was nearly left speechless.
—Slide.
Just then, Sun-sin’s servant carried in the table.
Since Sun-sin said he had gone hunting, it seemed he had not caught merely one or two birds.
Each table he brought in had a pheasant laid on it.
There was also a bottle of the liquor Kanghyeok had tasted earlier.
It seemed Ryu Seong-ryong knew that liquor well too.
Laughing heartily, he opened his mouth.
“This is also a gathering to send Sun-sin off, so let us first fill our cups.”
“Yes, daegam.”
At Ryu Seong-ryong’s suggestion, Sun-sin and Kanghyeok quickly filled their cups.
Once all their cups were brimming, Seong-ryong spoke again.
“Sun-sin, you know that there were difficulties in recommending you for the post of Josanbo Manho, do you not?”
Josanbo Manho.
Though it was only a Junior Fourth Rank post, it was also far too high an office for someone who had only just passed the Military examination.
Sun-sin knew very well that this was entirely due to Ryu Seong-ryong’s efforts.
“I know.”
“So when you go there, you must do well.”
“I will keep it firmly in mind, daegam.”
“Good. I’m sorry that I cannot say only pleasant things to a man about to set out on a long journey.”
“Not at all, daegam. On the contrary, it gives me strength.”
“Haha. Good. Come, let us drink.”
Perhaps because Seong-ryong had joined them, the drinking gathering had become a little awkward.
Neither Kanghyeok nor Sun-sin could laugh and talk openly the way they had before.
Instead, they merely listened quietly to Seong-ryong’s words and sipped their liquor.
“You, Sun-sin, may already know this, but for Kanghyeok, it is probably the first time hearing it.”
“Yes, daegam.”
“Not long ago, a man named Tachibana Yasuhiro came as an envoy.”
“Yasuhiro?”
It was a name he had absolutely never heard before.
To begin with, there were not many Japanese names he knew at all.
He could only remember names like Sora Aoi or Satoshi.
“That fellow mocked Song Eung-hyeong, the Sangju Moksa, and also behaved arrogantly in Hanyang.”
Kanghyeok already had no favorable feelings toward the Japanese because of the wako.
Even now, the memory of Changgwon dying in his place remained vivid in his mind.
Sun-sin also spoke, his eyes shining fiercely.
“If I had been there, I would have cut him down with a single stroke.”
“No. Even so, one cannot kill a man who came as an envoy so recklessly.”
“What envoy behaves that arrogantly? To dare say to a moksa that his hair had turned gray for doing nothing...”
“Throwing pepper around at the banquet went too far.”
It seemed Sun-sin knew the detailed circumstances, for he ground his teeth as he spoke.
Seong-ryong quietly watched him.
There was a smile around his mouth, but he also seemed to have some intention in mind.
“So I do not intend to grant what he demanded.”
“Then do you mean you do not intend to send an envoy to Waeguk?”
“That is right. We are not even familiar with the sea route, so how could we send someone rashly?”
“That is perfectly true. You have made a truly excellent decision.”
The two of them laughed heartily and tossed back their drinks.
Kanghyeok did not know the full circumstances, so it was hard for him to understand everything.
Still, there were a few new pieces of information he could grasp.
At the very least, it would still be a long while before Kim Seong-il or Hwang Yun-gil went to Japan.
He did not know who Yasuhiro was, but in any case, it seemed they had no intention of sending an envoy this time.
If so, then there was still quite a lot of time left before the Imjin War.
The unease he had felt over Sun-sin entering official service eased a little.
Only then did he finally have the presence of mind to ask what had happened.
“Um, pardon me. I am foolish, so I do not know exactly what happened. What exactly did that envoy do?”
At Kanghyeok’s words, Seong-ryong burst into a broad laugh.
“Ah, right. You were in Suwon, weren’t you?”
“He also participated as a military physician in the disturbance that happened this time in Eotan-myeon.”
“I heard, I heard. Half of the letter Yungil sent this time was about Kanghyeok.”
Now that he heard that, it seemed that loose-lipped gentleman had even run his mouth to the Ijo Panseo.
In a tone showing how deeply impressed he had been by the contents of the letter, Seong-ryong went on.
“I also heard that before that, you treated Duchang as well. Together with that fellow Heo Jun from the Royal Medical Bureau.”
“Ah, I heard about that too. They truly are remarkable men.”
Sun-sin was subtly pressuring him with his eyes.
He meant that Kanghyeok should accept the Busa’s recommendation and enter official service if at all possible.
I hate King Seonjo...
Wealth and power were fine things.
But to serve a king he could not stand.
That he disliked.
Kanghyeok silently shook his head, and Sun-sin immediately withdrew his gaze.
Seong-ryong, who failed to notice their wordless exchange, spoke again.
“Anyway, this Yasuhiro fellow. He was insolent beyond all measure.”
Seong-ryong, perhaps because his throat was dry, took another sip of liquor before continuing.
“This is what he said to Song Eung-hyeong, the Sangju Moksa. He said that he himself had spent his whole life on the battlefield, which was why his hair had turned gray, but that the other man had let his hair turn gray while merely playing around with gisaeng, so how could that be?”
“I don’t know how much war that bastard could possibly have seen, to spout such arrogant words.”
As if the words still enraged him even now, Sun-sin drank down his liquor roughly.
Kanghyeok quietly nodded and listened to Seong-ryong’s story.
The part about spending his whole life on the battlefield probably wasn’t a lie.
Japan’s Sengoku period, which continued from the fifteenth century into the sixteenth.
No matter how old this man called Yasuhiro was, he had most likely spent decades earning his living by the sword.
So to his eyes, peaceful Joseon must indeed have looked strange.
Those sons of bitches.
Thinking of the war Joseon would suffer because of men like him, curses came out on their own.
“Then what did he do at the banquet?”
Seong-ryong seemed pleased by the anger in Kanghyeok’s eyes as he answered.
“You know how precious pepper is.”
“Yes, I do.”
It was so precious that ordinary people could hardly even obtain it.
They said it mostly came in from Japan.
Most of it was consumed by the palace, and the rest was sold to China for an enormous profit from the price difference.
“He scattered such pepper all through the banquet. What do you think happened? The musicians and gisaeng all rushed to snatch it up.”
“The banquet must have become a complete mess.”
“That wasn’t all. What he said after the banquet was over was even more outrageous.”
“What nonsense did he spout?”
Seong-ryong seemed so enraged just thinking of it that he could not immediately speak.
Only after taking several deep breaths could he finally continue.
“He said that since discipline was this lax, Joseon would fall.”
“If that bastard had been in front of me, I would have cut him down without fail.”
Sun-sin, too, seemed unable to swallow his anger.
He downed cup after cup in succession.
But Kanghyeok did not hear those words as entirely empty.
Half of that was true, though.
If not for the two patriots sitting before him now.
Would the country not have fallen all too easily?
Was the disturbance in Eotan-myeon not proof enough?
The bows were so worn that they snapped the moment they were drawn.
Even when there was a decent bow, there were so few arrows that one could hardly shoot more than a few times.
The Busa was hastily reinforcing the weapons, but there was no telling how effective that would be.
Sun-sin, who had only just managed to calm his anger, turned to Seong-ryong and spoke.
“By the way... haven’t you been looking for Kanghyeok for quite a long time, daegam?”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
Seong-ryong adjusted the cushion again, as if his rear was uncomfortable once more.
“Hm. What should we do?”
“I think it would be best to give him a little time.”
Normally, Kanghyeok would already have been waving his scalpel around at once.
But for some reason, this time he put it off.
After all, this was none other than Ryu Seong-ryong’s backside.
It would not do to be careless with him the way he had been with the Anseong Hyeongam.
Even if he could not give him an entirely new backside, he wanted to make it something close to that level.
“Is that so? When would be suitable? These days it is even interfering when I attend to state affairs.”
Though Kanghyeok did not know it, Ryu Seong-ryong had in fact once collapsed even during the Imjin War.
Not for some other reason, but because of hemorrhoids.
That was how serious Seong-ryong’s hemorrhoids were.
“I will prepare as quickly as possible.”
“Very well. I shall make time.”