A Promise
King Sukjong, here in the flesh?
Even as I hurriedly bowed my head, I could hardly hide my sheer bewilderment. By all rights, a king was never supposed to appear in such a manner.
How on earth did he arrive without making a single sound?
Only when I caught sight of the palace women lingering anxiously near the far entrance—Court Lady Han among them, practically jumping out of her skin—did the truth finally dawn on me. The royal retinue trailing the King had been made to wait back there as well. His Majesty had clearly commanded them not to announce his presence.
But... why?
The Crown Prince seemed to harbor the very same question.
"Royal Father," he said softly. "What brings you here so quietly?"
"I was on my way to see Hwon and decided to stop by for a brief moment."
In other words, he had crossed over to Changgyeonggung to visit his youngest son, Prince Lee Hwon, and merely dropped by Chwiseondang along the way.
"However, Crown Prince. Is it not time for your midday lecture?"
"Ah, yes. I was just about to depart for the Crown Prince Tutorial Office."
"Then make haste. How could the nation's pillar neglect his studies?"
"...Yes, Royal Father. This son shall take his leave."
With a rather dazed expression, the Crown Prince offered his formal farewell bow.
He dismissed the Crown Prince just like that...?
When the reality of my predicament struck me, my legs genuinely trembled. Just like that, I had been cast into an impromptu private audience with the King himself.
Feeling the prickle of an intense gaze, I gathered my courage and lifted my head. Sure enough, two eyes blazing with the fierce, piercing luster of a tiger were staring intently down at me.
"I heard you fell gravely ill," the King said. "Has your fever fully subsided?"
"Ye-es... Forgive me for causing Your Majesty worry, Sire."
Why on earth would the sovereign of an entire nation keep tabs on a sick child maid?!
In that instant, a wild hypothesis flashed across my mind. Did Sukjong have an unofficial historical rumor about a secret daughter somewhere?
...No, of course not. I sifted frantically through every scrap of memory regarding both official chronicles and folklore, but no such absurd soap-opera storyline existed anywhere in history.
While my thoughts spiraled, the King, who had been studying me for quite some time, finally parted his lips.
"There is something I wish to ask you."
"Ye-es... Please ask, Your Majesty."
Sukjong's expression was grave. What was more...
Where is he looking?
His gaze was not fixed on my face, but directed somewhere down toward my body. Did I get something on my clothes? He seemed to be looking near my sleeve. Had I spilled soup or something...?
Just as I waited for the royal query with those uneasy thoughts swirling in my head—
"Bong-bong-ah, do you want some mugwort ri—gasp, Your Majesty!"
Sun-rye, completely devoid of situational awareness, barged in only to catch sight of the King's scarlet dragon robe. She dropped flat onto the floorboards in an instant.
Sukjong's brow twitched subtly. The sudden interruption clearly displeased him to no end.
"Leave in silence," he commanded coldly. "Do not say a word."
"Yes, Your Maj—"
"I said, do not answer."
"..."
Gasping for breath, Sun-rye turned pale as a sheet. She scrambled backward on all fours and hastily vanished from sight.
Aigoo... I'm the one dying here, honestly.
The King's lingering silence dragged on. The unmistakable chill of his displeasure saturated the room, turning the air bone-chillingly frigid. The suffocating pressure radiating from his commanding presence felt heavy enough to crush me flat.
At this rate, I'm going to burst into tears.
I was still a child. I might possess the mind of an adult, but physically and emotionally, I was bound to the frail vessel of a four-year-old.
Desperate to escape this unbearable tension, I resolved to take a reckless gamble.
"Sire... how is Geumdeok doing?"
It was utterly out of the blue, but I had to shatter this oppressive atmosphere somehow. I could feel my emotional endurance hitting its absolute limit.
"Geumdeok?"
Perhaps because of the sheer childish innocence of the question, the King let out a soft chuckle. At long last, the razor-thin ice in the air began to thaw.
"Geumdeok fares well. Yet, she does not romp about before me as playfully as she did with you."
"Even when you wave the stick for her?"
"Indeed. Hmm..."
He seemed to ponder something for a moment.
"Yes. It would be best to do this."
"Do what, Sire?"
"You must come to Huijeongdang sometime. You can play with Geumdeok and teach me how it is done."
"...Huijeongdang?"
Wait. Huijeongdang? The Huijeongdang that served as the King's personal office and bedchamber? Was I just invited to such a historic seat of power?
It was such an extraordinary proposition that I momentarily forgot how I had just been trembling in terror. But really, was there anything to deliberate? When the King commanded someone to come, they came; when he said go, they went.
"Ye-es. Whenever you summon me, I will come right away. But today..."
"Today?"
"Well... since you have come all this way, perhaps you could see Hui-bin-jaga before you leave?"
Truthfully, it was not the sort of remark a four-year-old child should make. Yet it carried my deepest earnestness. Sukjong had walked here on his own two feet—I could not bear to let him slip away in vain like last time.
"See Hui-bin before I depart... Are you making a request of me?"
"Ye-es, Your Majesty."
His eyes instantly turned arctic cold.
"Did Hui-bin put you up to this?"
"No! Not at all!"
"Then why?"
"Uh..."
My tongue tied. How could I possibly explain why a mere four-year-old child maid had blurted out that he should go visit Jang Hui-bin?
Think. Think, Bong-bong...!
Glimpses of daily life at Chwiseondang flickered through my mind. Above all, I remembered the sight of Jang Hui-bin as I had watched her day after day.
Dressing up so exquisitely each morning, bathing in fragrant waters, painstakingly choosing which tteoljam hairpin and norigae pendant to wear, applying and wiping away red rouge again and again, only to sit gazing endlessly toward the distant halls of Changdeokgung...
"Because..." Though a chill of fear ran down my spine, I looked straight into Sukjong's eyes and spoke softly. "Because Hui-bin... misses Your Majesty so very much."
The King fell utterly silent. For a fleeting second, his gaze seemed to waver.
"Hui-bin misses me..." he murmured, quietly echoing my words. "Is that truly so?"
"..."
"Is it not those glorious days of the past that she longs for, rather than me?"
His voice sounded unexpectedly desolate. Naturally, he must have assumed that a child like me could never fathom the true meaning of his words.
Yet I understood. I understood the myriad layers of meaning buried within that regret-soaked question.
A cold politician. A monarch who wielded the bloody purges of factional upheavals without an ounce of mercy. A ruthless strategist. ...And at the very same time, a man who had once staked everything for love.
"Your Majesty," I said quietly, struggling to suppress the tremor in my small voice. "Hui-bin longs for Your Majesty each and every day."
Always anxious that her beauty might fade, struggling desperately to hold on to the sands of time as they slipped through her fingers.
"Without missing a single day. Yesterday, today, and even right now..."
"..."
Sukjong slowly closed his eyes, then opened them. The fierce, tiger-like glint vanished from his gaze for a brief heartbeat. Haa. A long sigh escaped his lips. Yet that glimpse of vulnerability proved fleeting.
"You are truly... a peculiar child."
The man who had been tracing the footsteps of his lost youth was gone. Restored once more as a formidable, cold, and inscrutable monarch, the King fixed his eyes upon me.
A flicker of suspicion dwelled in his eyes, sharp enough to cut. ...I acted far too unchildlike. Did my desire to mend things end up ruining everything instead? Just as unease began to creep into my chest—
A dry chuckle broke from the King's lips.
"Seeing Hui-bin. That is your request, is it?"
"Ye-es. It is, Sire."
In my earnestness, I clasped my small hands together without thinking. In doing so, my loose sleeves slid downward, exposing my forearms.
"..."
Sukjong's eyes narrowed instantly. ...Why was he staring at my arm again?
"I have pressing state affairs to attend to today, so there is no time. However, I shall grant your request within a few days."
"R-Really?"
...This actually worked?
"In return, you must grant a request of mine as well."
"Ye-es! Please tell me!" I answered eagerly, my voice brimming with excitement. There was no reason to hesitate over such an offer.
"On the day I summon you to Huijeongdang, I have an urgent question to ask you."
"A question?"
"Indeed. Promise me that you will answer that question without hiding a single thing. Do that, and I shall grant your request."
...Just what kind of question was it that warranted such elaborate conditions? Come to think of it, Sun-rye had barged in just as he was about to ask that very question earlier. Frankly speaking, I was dying of curiosity myself.
"Ye-es. I promise, Your Majesty!"
"Good. Very well." He paused, then added in a firm tone, "Speak of this to no one. Do you understand?"
"Ye-es. I will keep it in mind, Sire!"
The King nodded. With a subtle gesture of his chin, the attendants waiting in the distance moved in unison to attend him.
"Um... Sire."
He turned back to look down at me. I wondered if I was pushing my luck, but I was someone who utterly loathed ambiguity.
"Could you please tell me how many sleeps count as a few days?"
"...Hmm?"
"Two sleeps, three sleeps, or four sleeps count as a few days... but ten sleeps isn't a few days, is it?"
Ho-ho.
A low, gentle rumble of laughter rolled from the King.
"Yes. You speak the truth. Ten sleeps is indeed far too long to be called a few days. So watch closely over the coming days."
A gaze that had softened considerably swept over me.
"See for yourself whether the King of Joseon is a man who keeps his word, or not."