Chapter 66: Oseong Daegam [1]
Chapter 66: Oseong Daegam [1]
“Oh, has Sun-sin come?”
Seong-ryong greeted Sun-sin with a brighter expression than ever before.
“I’m glad to hear you’ve recovered.”
“It’s all thanks to you for introducing Kanghyeok to me.”
Seong-ryong laughed heartily and patted Kanghyeok on the shoulder.
Back in Suwon, he had won the Busa’s favor with peppers, but after coming to Hanyang, he was winning the Yejo Panseo’s goodwill with an anus.
What on earth is going on?
It was not as though he had deliberately chosen it.
And yet, somehow, things kept getting resolved only through people’s lower halves.
“Come, come in.”
“Yes, daegam.”
Sun-sin strode inside.
Perhaps because he knew he was heading north, he looked sharper than usual.
“So, are all your preparations complete?”
“Yes, daegam. Thanks to you.”
“Once you get there, you must be fully prepared. It is always a place where the people’s temper runs harsh and turbulent.”
“I will keep it in mind.”
It was not for nothing that Seong-ryong and Sun-sin were showing such tension.
At the time, the northern frontier truly was chaotic beyond measure.
“First, have a drink.”
Kanghyeok pushed the cups filled with liquor toward the two men.
Sun-sin looked as though it was nothing unusual, but Seong-ryong seemed delighted.
That was only natural. For nearly a month, he had eaten nothing but greens.
“Shall we?”
“Yes, daegam.”
“Congratulations.”
The one who had entered official service was Sun-sin.
Yet the one receiving congratulations was Seong-ryong.
“Hoho. Very good, very good.”
As if to show off his restored anus, Seong-ryong did not even use a cushion.
How long had it been since he had sat his buttocks directly on the bare floor?
Even in that one small thing, gratitude and satisfaction overflowed.
They had been eating and drinking merrily for quite some time when someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Yes, Yejo Jeongnang Yi Hang-bok has arrived.”
“Yi Hang-bok?”
Seong-ryong tilted his head with a surprised look.
It was not that they were strangers who rarely saw each other, but neither were they especially close.
That was only natural. Yi Hang-bok was a disciple of Yi Yulgok and belonged to the Westerners.
As the rift between the Easterners and Westerners deepened with each passing day, he was an unexpected guest for Seong-ryong.
“Tell him to come in.”
Still, was today not a happy day?
There was no reason at all to turn away a guest who had come looking for him.
At Seong-ryong’s order, the servant ran off in a hurry, and soon the door swung open.
“Greetings, daegam. Yi Hang-bok pays his respects.”
There was something about his swagger that made him seem a little roguish.
So this is Yi Hang-bok.
Was it because this was the era of King Seonjo, when talent abounded? It was getting to the point where the people he met who were not great figures were rarer.
He’s handsome.
Ryu Seong-ryong was not a man who would ever be considered lacking in looks.
When he was young, he probably had the sort of face that made many women cry.
But Yi Hang-bok looked like that was still an ongoing fact.
If a man with that face recited a poem, plenty of women would probably come running.
“You’ve come at the right time. This man here is Yi Sun-sin, who has been appointed Josanbo Manho, and this is Baek Kanghyeok, the man who cured my illness.”
At the same time, Sun-sin rose to his feet.
“I am Yi Sun-sin. I’ve heard much about you.”
Only then did Kanghyeok hurriedly stand as well.
Now that he thought about it, he was the lowest in status among everyone present.
He was in no position to remain seated and receive greetings from someone in office the way Seong-ryong could.
Suwon was better in this one regard.
There, he had not needed to watch this person’s mood or that person’s mood.
Wherever he went, he had been the highest one there.
“I am Baek Kanghyeok. It’s an honor to meet you.”
At Kanghyeok’s words, Seong-ryong teased him.
“This fellow has made a habit of that. I thought he only did it to me.”
“Hm?”
“Didn’t you also say it was an honor to meet me?”
“Ah. It was an honor with you too, daegam, and it’s an honor here as well.”
“Hoho. What a bland fellow you are.”
What would Ryu Seong-ryong know?
Not one person gathered here was someone who had failed to leave footprints in history.
As for Yi Hang-bok, was he not the statesman who became one of the foremost contributors to postwar reconstruction?
A man who would eventually become Yeonguijeong as well.
Kanghyeok scratched the back of his head with a somewhat aggrieved look.
“I mean it.”
“Come, sit down first. We can’t keep you standing forever.”
“Yes.”
It had been fun enough when three people talked, but once Yi Hang-bok joined in, the level of fun was different.
His wit was genuinely excellent.
He was practically the Ronaldo of drinking gatherings.
In particular, there was a flood of irreverent jokes about his father-in-law, and since Kanghyeok knew that man was Chungjanggong Kwon Yul, it made it even funnier.
“Do you remember that day? The day my father-in-law stood barefoot before His Majesty?”
“Oh, I remember. I remember. Hahaha.”
“He’s the sort of gentleman who’s fun to tease.”
“No matter what, you shouldn’t tease your father-in-law like that.”
“But it’s not as if I can tease a daegam with whom I have no such relation.”
“That’s true enough.”
Seong-ryong had been in a good mood from the start, so he burst into laughter at practically everything.
He looked almost like a giggling high school girl in puberty.
As they laughed and chatted for a long while like that, Yi Hang-bok’s target shifted slightly.
It was still family, but now someone even closer.
“Have any of you perhaps seen my wife?”
At that, everyone shook their heads.
If someone nodded here, the mood would be worth seeing.
There might even be bloodshed.
Though all three were respectable men, so it probably would not go that far.
“But you’ve surely seen my wife’s father?”
“If you mean Kwon Yul, of course.”
Seong-ryong had known Kwon Yul since the days when he would not listen to anyone and had not yet entered official service.
They were not close enough to be called friends, but at least acquaintances.
“My wife is the spitting image of her father.”
“Hoho. Is that so?”
Everyone except Kanghyeok, who had never seen Kwon Yul in person, imagined Kwon Yul’s face.
As a military man, he had a bold, impressive face.
But if that face belonged to a woman?
That was a rather different matter.
“Hoho. I see.”
Seong-ryong laughed awkwardly first.
If Yi Hang-bok’s words were true, it was a face that could hardly be called beautiful.
Even Sun-sin, who was usually quiet and taciturn, let out a laugh.
He seemed to be imagining Kwon Yul with long hair.
“This jaw, especially, is exactly the same.”
Yi Hang-bok laughed heartily as he shaped a square jaw with his hands.
The gesture looked so much like Kwon Yul that Seong-ryong burst into roaring laughter too.
“Hahaha. She really must look like him.”
“Yes, exactly. Hahaha.”
Even after that, Hang-bok’s jokes continued.
If he had done nothing but joke, he would have come across as a frivolous man, but the insight he revealed from time to time was extremely sharp.
Especially when speaking about that “Yasuhiro,” he was like a blade.
“So you’ve heard about that fellow too.”
“Yes. Because of the decision you made, daegam, he is probably dead by now.”
“Dead? Why do you think so?”
“Yasuhiro is a retainer from a family that has served for generations as vassals to the Tsushima domain, offering tribute to Joseon. It would be difficult for such a man to be deeply trusted within Japan. A man like that came as an envoy and returned with an unfavorable answer, so he has surely been killed.”
Yi Hang-bok’s voice was full of certainty.
Only then did Kanghyeok recall something he had seen in some drama.
Ah, so the bastard who came to Joseon acting full of himself and then went back and died was that guy.
It was one thing for Kanghyeok, who knew the historical facts, but for Yi Hang-bok to infer this so keenly from the circumstances alone was truly remarkable.
Seong-ryong laughed as though he found it hard to believe.
“Hoho. Even so, would they really kill him?”
“I hear that the man called Hideyoshi, who has now unified Japan, is extremely cruel and quick-tempered. If he felt he had been slighted, killing him would not be beyond him.”
“Hmm.”
There was logic in Hang-bok’s argument.
Ryu Seong-ryong had also heard information from merchants who traveled between Japan, Joseon, and Ming.
At the very least, it was widely known that Japan had been unified, and that its leader, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was a brutal man.
Hang-bok continued speaking toward Seong-ryong, who was nodding silently.
“Before long, Japan will probably send another envoy. They will likely wish to be recognized as the king of a nation.”
“If that happens, what do you think we ought to do?”
“I believe it would be best to send a proper envoy. There is no reason to court their resentment. It would also do well to remember the words left by Daegam Shin Suk-ju in the past.”
“Shin Suk-ju...”
That was a name too weighty to be passed over lightly.
One of the representative great ministers of early Joseon, who had served King Sejong, King Sejo, and King Seongjong.
It was very famous that he had gone to Japan as a Seojeonggwan in his youth.
And equally famous were the words he was said to have left to King Seongjong before his death.
“Please do not lose your friendship with Japan.”
There was no way of knowing exactly what Shin Suk-ju had feared when he left those words.
But King Seongjong had not taken them lightly, and had sent an envoy to Japan.
Yet after King Seongjong, no envoy had been sent to Japan.
They had merely treated envoys well when they came and then sent them back.
Ryu Seong-ryong nodded, as though he had realized something.
“Is that so.”
“That is my thought. It may be a distant country across the sea, but if one is determined to go, it is not a country one cannot reach. If we can do that, then they can do the same.”
Every short sentence he spoke carried weighty meaning.
Ryu Seong-ryong nodded with a deeply impressed expression.
“I never realized you had taken such a deep interest in international affairs.”
“I am only stating my opinion, so please do not take it too much to heart.”
“No, not at all. If another envoy comes next time, I will certainly not forget your opinion.”
Kanghyeok merely sat there quietly listening to the conversation between the two great men.
People who are truly learned really are different.
When Yi Hang-bok first started off with nothing but jokes, Kanghyeok had honestly been a little disappointed.
What he had expected was a great statesman, not the Ronaldo of drinking parties.
But once Hang-bok began revealing his insight, his true worth became clear.
Being ignorant really is a miserable thing.
If only he had known a little more about history, politics, and society, he might have been able to join in this conversation.
Who would have thought that living his whole life focused solely on medicine, shutting himself off from every other field of study, would become such a regret?
Just as Kanghyeok was sinking into that sense of regret, someone knocked on the door.
“My lord, it is already late into the night.”
That meant the bell would soon be struck, and it was time to go home.
All four men had been so absorbed in the conversation that they had truly lost track of time as they talked.
Seong-ryong looked outside with surprise.
Sure enough, the sun had set long ago, and the moon was shining brightly.
“My, when did it get so late?”
“Well then, I suppose I should be on my way now.”
Sun-sin sprang to his feet at once.
Hang-bok, on the other hand, was dragging his heels.
“It’s not all that enjoyable to go home. Daegam, would it be all right if I stayed here tonight?”
“There’s no problem with that... but did you send word ahead?”
“I did not. Well, I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“Hoho. Do as you please.”
Having obtained the host’s permission, Hang-bok looked visibly delighted.
He strode over to Kanghyeok, who had spent most of the time simply laughing.
“Well then, Kanghyeok. What do you intend to do?”
“For the time being, I plan to stay at this house.”
“Is that so? Excellent. To be honest, there’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”
Hang-bok slung an arm around Kanghyeok’s neck and led him off toward a secluded corner.
Since Kanghyeok was so much larger, the sight looked a little strange.
It was almost like a child clinging to an adult.
What’s wrong with this gentleman now?
The way he kept drawing him into a secluded corner made it seem like some issue that would be hard to reveal to others.
What now? Is this man Viagra too? No way.