How Does Brother Namgung Know the Femboy Eunuchs…?
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"Great Hero, here—someone asked me to deliver this letter to you…"
Hong Siman, the sharp-eyed head clerk of the inn, approached Brother Namgung and held out a single sheet of paper.
"My thanks. Let's see…"
Brother Namgung accepted the letter casually at first and began to read. But the further he went, the graver his expression became.
"Brother Namgung, what on earth is written in that letter to make you look like that…?"
"……"
His frown had long since passed into a deathly pallor, and worry made me ask. Yet Brother Namgung gave no sign he had even heard me until he finished every last word.
"…Come with me."
He carefully folded the letter, tucked it into his robes, and led me to his room. There he handed me a cookie and began to speak in a heavy tone.
"…You must be hungry. Eat while you listen.
To cut straight to the point—we are about to meet the most powerful man in the Central Plains today."
Crunch, crunch—
"The most powerful man?
Do you mean His Majesty the Emperor?"
The words "most powerful man in the Central Plains" immediately brought the Emperor to mind, so I asked. Brother Namgung only clicked his tongue.
"Tsk tsk. Man, your news is more than twenty years out of date.
…Let me explain briefly. Ever since the present Emperor ascended the throne, he has practiced taijeong—neglect of government—for a full twenty years already.
Rumor has it even the prime ministers have forgotten what His Majesty's face looks like."
"Taijeong means he abandoned state affairs and just… plays around, right…?"
Brother Namgung gave a small nod.
"Mm. He truly seems to have had no interest in politics whatsoever.
…In any case, His Majesty is brilliant, yet his interests lie solely in playing, eating, and drinking. He has delegated full authority to the court and has not handled a single practical matter for twenty years.
After twenty years of pure amusement, power naturally concentrated in the hands of the eunuch who acts as His Majesty's proxy."
"Whaaat—!?
Then it's just like the Ten Attendants of the late Eastern Han who ran rampant—isn't that a sign the country is about to fall?!"
If the nation collapsed and chaos descended, commoners like me would be the first to lose their heads. That thought made my voice rise almost to a scream.
"Quiet…! Your voice is too loud. Hear me out to the end.
On the contrary—after twenty years of neglect, the national strength that had been badly shaken under the previous emperor has dramatically recovered."
Brother Namgung's explanation, in short, went like this: before he withdrew into neglect, the Emperor had pushed through intense reforms. Once those reforms were underway and he declared his retirement from governance, the court fell into a panic—if it filled itself with incompetents, the Sixteen Kingdoms era would return. A ruthless meritocratic atmosphere therefore took hold; salary thieves were weeded out by self-purification, over and over…
Does that even make sense…?
Honestly, I could not believe a word of it. While I sat speechless, Brother Namgung added one more point.
"And when your family threw the Central Plains' economy into chaos, the court seized the opportunity to strengthen centralization even further.
That misfortune became a blessing; in ten years the Central Plains underwent a transformation close to the old saying 'mulberry fields become blue seas.'"
My family's fraud becoming the foundation of national progress…
I found it hard to believe, and even if it were true I could not decide whether to laugh or cry.
"Ha… haha… Is that so….
But then, who exactly is this supreme power-holder…?
Ah—if not the Emperor, then a provincial governor or a prime minister?"
"I already gave you the answer a moment ago.
It is precisely the eunuch who acts as the Emperor's proxy."
Not a prime minister, not a governor—a eunuch…?
But why would such an important person want to see Brother Namgung?
"Is the eunuch who asked to see you so eccentric that you're worried?"
At my question Brother Namgung pressed a hand to his forehead.
"No… 'eccentric' does not begin to cover it.
That person… they are strange."
The deathly white expression on Brother Namgung's face as he described the eunuchs was something I had never seen before.
It was the look of someone confronting the incomprehensible—an instinctive revulsion, a deep aversion.
To make Brother Namgung wear a face like that… just what…?
Judging by that expression, the situation was anything but ordinary, so I decided to let him go alone in peace.
"Ahem, Brother Namgung. Please don't worry too much.
I'll stay quietly at the inn and pray for your safe return…"
"What nonsense. Central Regular Attendant Baek Sojin asked to see both of us."
It was a bolt from the blue I had half-feared.
"M-meee…?!
Don't tell me—they've found out what my family did—"
My voice was climbing toward a scream again, but Brother Namgung cut me off.
"Probably not.
He may simply want to see me and, while he's at it, recruit you."
"Recruit me as an official? You mean… into the court?"
The word "recruit" sparked the tiniest flicker of hope—until Brother Namgung burst into a hearty laugh, as if he found the idea hilarious.
"Hahaha, you really are a joker.
Of course he means to take you as a eunuch."
Eunuch… recruitment…?!
"I-I don't want anything cut off—!?"
Whether scrotum or penis, cutting anything off was something I would refuse even for a fortune in gold.
"Mm. In the dynasty before last they cut off both penis and scrotum; in the previous dynasty they cut only the scrotum…
But the present imperial house cuts neither. They simply disable the vas deferens and render the man sterile."
"Haa… is that so…."
Brother Namgung's explanation brought a little relief, yet the idea of being made sterile still sat poorly with me.
I, too, hoped someday to see children as cute as rabbits.
Brother Namgung gripped my shoulders, locked eyes with me, and spoke each word with deliberate force.
"In any case… when you meet Central Regular Attendant Baek Sojin, do not answer until he asks a question, and even then reply as briefly as possible.
Don't overthink—just say whatever comes to mind first.
With looks like yours, His Majesty's night… ahem.
If you catch Baek Sojin's fancy too thoroughly, you might find yourself kidnapped into the palace while you sleep."
Forcibly abducted and turned into a eunuch…
Rising from ignorant commoner to official would be advancement of a sort, yet it was a forced promotion I never wanted even in dreams.
"A-all right. So when do we go see him?"
"…Right this moment. The letter says to arrive within one shichen of receiving it… let us hurry."
………………………………………………
Any complaint about being summoned the instant the letter was read, as if we were mere underlings, meant nothing before the title of the most powerful man of the age.
Thus I had no choice but to follow Brother Namgung to the villa of Central Regular Attendant Baek Sojin in Cheonju—a mansion so vast that even the word "magnificent" felt inadequate.
It's bigger than the entire estate my family used to live in…?
A mere villa, yet standing in the heart of Cheonju at this scale…
One could easily guess the weight of his influence.
To amass that much wealth, he must have entered service as a eunuch in childhood and worked until he became a withered old man, right?
Imagining the Central Regular Attendant's appearance, I was guided by a strangely pretty page boy into the reception hall—
where a woman of classical beauty rose to greet Brother Namgung and me.
"You have come, Great Hero Namgung."
Is she the Central Regular Attendant's concubine…?
As I drew near the woman who stood with poised grace and a gentle smile, a sweet fragrance washed over me.
Ugh…!
It was nothing like the scent of the courtesan I had once held; this was the intoxicating perfume of a highborn lady, and I felt my face flush hot.
"I pay my respects to Lord Baek.
…This friend of mine is…"
Judging by the refined, expensive-looking robes that suited her so perfectly, I had already decided she was a proper lady of high station—
until Brother Namgung's next words shattered that assumption completely.
This is the foremost of all eunuchs—the Central Regular Attendant…?!
"Ah, h-hellooo, I'm Yu Gaeul…!"
Faced with so exalted a personage I swallowed the questions surging up and offered a greeting. A kindly smile and praise came in return.
"Fufu, what an adorable child.
…Looks that would not shame Great Hero Namgung's cherished favorite."
"Ehehe… thank you."
I answered honestly, just as Brother Namgung had instructed—yet for a fleeting instant, visible only to someone as sharp-eyed as I prided myself on being, Lord Baek Sojin's brow twitched ever so slightly.
"This new favorite of yours is truly pure."
"He's a good boy."
I could not guess the reason, but when Lord Baek was not looking, Brother Namgung winked at me as if to say I had done well.
We took the prepared seats; a page immediately brought tea. After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Brother Namgung, Lord Baek Sojin set down his cup and spoke.
"Great Hero Namgung. As I always say, I have never forgotten the grace I received from you."
"Grace? Your words are far too generous; I do not know where to put myself."
At Brother Namgung's modest reply, Lord Baek shook his head firmly.
"No…. Without the Femboy Divine Art, how could the entire eunuch bureau have received imperial favor?
Because of that favor the eunuch bureau became one and forced the reforms through; every one of these achievements is thanks to Great Hero Namgung and the Femboy Divine Art."
"Haha… truly excessive praise."
Imperial favor… the eunuch bureau…?
Surely the "imperial favor" he's talking about isn't the kind I think it is…?
Lord Baek Sojin, who had been trading compliments and modest denials with Brother Namgung, suddenly grew solemn.
"And so, Great Hero Namgung… regarding the search for a method by which men may become pregnant—have you made any progress?"