181
The Court — Human Contradiction and the Shadow of Power
"Will the war begin again?"
Park Seongjin's question was calm.
Within it, fear and curiosity were mixed together.
Yi In-jung looked up at the sky for a moment.
The western afterglow had already sunk into darkness.
"…For now, the main issue in court is clearing out the buwonbae.
Internal affairs are more urgent."
"The Ki clan?"
"Not only them. There are many.
Do you think only the Ki clan tried to cling to the Yuan court to secure their own gain?
They're merely the most visible example."
"Then… His Majesty is doing well, isn't he?"
Yi In-jung did not answer immediately.
Time passed with his lips unmoving.
Judging a king with words like right or wrong is not easy.
Even by the single standard of whether it benefits the state and the people, it was still too early to decide.
"…No. He is not that kind of man."
Fatigue colored his voice.
"But this much is certain.
Through this, he is trying to establish himself."
"So the rest of his governance is a mess, then."
"Hey—watch your tongue.
You're young, so I hold back because your thinking can slide into rigidity.
You might miss the other side of things."
"What kind of man is His Majesty?"
"He was sent as a hostage to the Yuan when he was young.
He even married there—
a union with an imperial princess, a seventh-generation descendant of Genghis Khan."
Yi In-jung stopped speaking.
An expression difficult to name crossed his face in the lamplight.
"After returning from Dadu as a hostage…
how should I put it.
He's… unusual."
"Unusual?"
"Yes.
Frighteningly brilliant.
And at the same time, endlessly anxious.
When you speak with him, you can't tell whether he's a king, a monk,
or someone from an entirely different world."
He quietly folded his hands.
"It's unclear what he truly believes, or what he truly hates.
He loathes the Yuan, yet he knows more clearly than anyone
that their blood runs through his own body."
Seongjin held his breath.
"His will to set the country right is immense.
But that will looks like a fire that burns itself away."
Yi In-jung slowly shook his head.
"One who understands the Way might call that study.
But in politics, it's different.
In politics, that kind of fire is ruin.
I cannot understand the idea of building a country
by destroying one's own foundation."
He gave a bitter smile.
"Politics is difficult even for me.
But now matters are flowing toward the military,
so I focus on that work."
Silence settled.
From afar, cicadas carried the weight of a summer evening.
"Senior brother… how should one serve such a king?"
Yi In-jung laughed lightly.
"Don't serve him.
Watch him."
"Watch him?"
"Yes.
A king is still a man.
Our task is to see where he goes, all the way to the end—
and at that end, to make the best choice we can."
"Is that what you call politics?"
"Yes."
Yi In-jung nodded.
"Even if you try to keep distance, it isn't easy.
Once you hold office, you can't escape the current of politics.
In that sense, your decision to study as an ordinary man—
I think it's entirely right."
"Heh… heehee."
"In the next ten years, many things will happen.
And your role will become important as well."
Seongjin thought that would not be the case at all.
What could a single low-ranking officer possibly do?
Yi In-jung's voice grew lower.
"His Majesty keeps making radical decisions.
I, too, worry where they will lead."
The afterglow faded completely,
and one by one the lights of Gaegyeong came on.
The two sat beneath those lights for a long time without speaking.
Thoughts that could not be carried by words passed between them,
longer than the wind.
---*
When One Task Resembles Another
Long after Yi In-jung finished speaking, silence remained.
The sunset had vanished, and the barracks flags waved quietly in the dark.
Seongjin lowered his head.
The king's work.
His senior brother's work.
The merchant's work.
His own study.
They seemed like different paths,
yet somewhere they strangely resembled one another.
One strives to govern the world.
Another strives to govern the mind.
The king manages human desire;
the one who studies looks at the roots of that desire.
One builds outer order;
the other builds inner order.
Yet the essence was the same.
An endless struggle.
Endless doubt.
Endless falling.
Facing one's own darkness.
The anguish of a king and the anguish of a practitioner
were like ripples rising from the same body.
To establish the world and to establish the heart
are the same fight.
Seongjin repeated this silently to himself.
His gaze caught Yi In-jung's back.
His senior brother's steps were slow,
and in that slowness lay weight.
"Study to raise a country."
Only now did the meaning become clear.
Each person establishes a place of their own.
A king establishes the king's place.
A merchant establishes the place of profit.
A practitioner establishes the place of the heart.
That place—
is that person's study.
Perhaps that was all his senior brother meant.
And yet, the study of the heart was clearly different.
The wind blew.
Far away, the lights of Gaegyeong shimmered on the river.
Watching those wavering reflections, Seongjin thought they resembled the king's face—
bright, unstable, and yet a light that did not go out.
"In the end, all work resembles one another."
By the time he whispered it,
darkness had already fully descended.