Chapter 77: A Web of Scheme

“I obey your Imperial command.”

Gangcheon passed her and headed toward the Great Hall.

He wondered if the Consort was anxious that the Empress might conceive first.

A hollow laugh escaped him involuntarily.

If he was that desperate, he should have focused on the calligraphy studies he was ordered to do.

Lately, Sang-hyo visited every day, pleading to be released from his duty as the Consort’s tutor.

Gangcheon had reached a point where even seeing Sang-hyo’s face made him irritable.

Despite being sternly warned, the progress was still non-existent; what was he to do with the Consort?

Thinking of Sirak used to bring a smile to his face, but that felt like a distant memory now.

He feared he might even lose his temper the next time they met.

How did it come to this?

There was a time when even the man’s fingertips seemed beautiful.

Gangcheon exhaled his lingering irritation and headed toward the side hall.

Documents he had been reviewing earlier lay scattered across his desk.

Before heading to his private quarters, Gangcheon had been reviewing edicts from the Yemungwan and applying the Imperial Seal.

Spread out on the desk was an edict regarding personnel changes to fill the vacancy left by the Minister of War.

Spotting the name of Jeong Yak-hong, the Vice Minister of War, Gangcheon clicked his tongue and thought of Sirak again.

Jeong Yak-hong was a timid man despite being a military official.

As was common for such men, he never stood out and lacked the ambition to climb higher.

In truth, he lacked the ability to do so as well.

He wasn’t the type to weave plots behind the scenes, which was precisely why Gangcheon had made him Sirak’s foster father and kept him close.

Honestly, Jeong Yak-hong was incompetent even for his current rank of Vice Minister.

All he knew how to do was keep his seat warm with his heavy backside.

Gangcheon had only let him stay because he didn’t try to overreach using the Consort’s influence.

However, the thought of placing him as the Jibusa was starting to give him a headache.

The man simply wasn’t up to the standard of the second-highest position in the Ministry of War.

Gangcheon sighed as he pressed the Imperial Seal onto the edict.

Since there was no immediate war, it should be fine.

If a war did break out, he could simply banish the man to the battlefield.

He didn’t even expect a victory; if the man lost the first battle, he could use that as an excuse to exile him.

If he happened to die at the hands of an enemy general, it would actually make things simpler.

Though the future was uncertain, he needed to ensure the Consort’s maternal relatives didn’t grow too powerful, even if Sirak were to become Empress.

So perhaps he should find an excuse to start a war and drive them out.

Gangcheon pondered this for a moment.

No. It was still too early.

The war against the barbarians, which had dragged on for over ten years, had only ended a few years ago.

The Imperial budget was ample, but the problem was the manpower.

When war broke out, the first to be conscripted were the young men who should be farming and working.

The long war had already thinned their numbers, and complaints about a labor shortage were coming from everywhere.

Though many children had been born since the war ended, they still needed time to grow.

It meant there were not enough numbers to start a war recklessly.

The military alone could not sustain a war, so he would have to wait.

If all else failed, he could just manufacture an excuse to have the man killed.

If Sirak did not become Empress, Gangcheon had no intention of keeping Jeong Yak-hong by his side for long.

He was only granting a grace period because of his prior promise.

However, if Sirak continued to act this way, that promise would be void.

Honestly, Gangcheon already wanted to ignore the promise.

The Empress was proving to be much more virtuous than expected, and he quite liked his upright, unyielding character.

Was it because he himself lacked such a personality?

The more he looked at the man, the more he found him fascinating.

Even in a court that had been corrupt since the previous reign, there were almost no officials as clean and frugal as the Empress.

He had purged many during the enthronement, but both the high and low waters were stagnant and rotten; one was as bad as the next.

The only reason the nation still functioned was because a few useful ones were being ground down like beans in a mill.

Without them, Yeoran might have been a wasteland by now.

Therefore, Gangcheon wanted to value that side of the Empress.

Being an Eumin and an Empress, he couldn’t be used broadly in politics, but he was a suitable person to discuss matters with occasionally.

He listened to others intently, and his most precious quality was his ability to speak the plain truth to the Emperor.

Recalling the Empress, who had tearfully but clearly spoken the right words despite his fear, Gangcheon felt a smile form once again.

‘Is it not ironic?’

‘I had ignored the man because I thought his stiffness was unappealing.’

‘Yet, once my interest was piqued, I found myself even wanting to cherish that very stiffness; the human heart is truly a fickle thing.’

As Gangcheon’s long train of thought ended, a eunuch entered to light the candles.

Gangcheon looked over the remaining edicts and sent a telepathic message to Seok-hwan.

[Have you heard from Seon and Hyo yet?]

[They are only sending basic daily reports. No significant information has come in yet.]

Gangcheon clicked his tongue.

He had expected it to take only two or three days.

[It is taking quite a while.]

[The events are old, so it will take time. Moreover, because of the incident with the gisaeng house proprietress, everyone seems to be wary of outsiders.]

[Oh dear.]

Gangcheon smirked.

[Inform me the moment they make contact. Even if it is during the heat cycle.]

[It shall be done.]

On the night he had visited the gisaeng house with Haeryeong, the proprietress had been killed by the blade of a drunken customer.

The culprit was caught immediately but had reportedly hanged himself while in prison.

Of course, it was all done under Gangcheon’s orders.

The “drunken customer” was a thug bought with money, and the silencing before the interrogation was the work of the Black Shadow Unit.

Gangcheon had ordered her removed because he feared she might tip Sirak off about their conversation that day.

However, since he wanted Sirak to hear the story, he had deliberately mentioned Jayangnu to him.

‘Since the proprietress was killed after my visit, I wonder what Sirak is thinking now.’

Thinking of the man who must be burning with anxiety, Gangcheon narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue.

‘What will your move be?’

Now that the bait was set, he only had to find out what he was plotting with the Minister of Rites.

Once he caught a shred of evidence, he would wipe out that entire clan.

He hadn’t previously considered that Sirak would align with the Minister of Rites, but perhaps this was for the best.

It made it easier to lure that old fox out.

While he had cleared out the Imperial family members, many of the bloodline of the Emperor before last were still alive and well.

‘I must take this opportunity to wipe them all out.’

The Minister’s wife—his aunt—would be the beginning.

****

Gangcheon’s mother was a court lady from a commoner background.

Originally a commoner, she had suddenly manifested as an Eumin after coming of age and received the Emperor’s favor that very day.

After a single heat cycle together, she conceived Gangcheon and was eventually granted a title, becoming a fourth-rank concubine, Suk-won.

Since there were already about fifteen concubines before her, it must have been difficult for a young woman with no backing to catch the Emperor’s eye.

In fact, she had almost never served the Emperor again after giving birth to Gangcheon.

She had borne a son, but with fifteen other children ahead of him, what was so special about the birth of a sixteenth prince?

Thus, the Emperor’s interest was severed completely after that first heat cycle and never returned.

Assigned a small, secluded pavilion in a corner of the Imperial Palace, Gangcheon’s mother raised her son in that narrow, shabby place as if he were the most precious treasure in the world.

Her attire was always modest, yet Gangcheon always admired her elegant and fragile beauty.

Even after being assigned new quarters at the age of five, he would frequent the pavilion where she lived to spend time with her.

At that time, the concubines were required to attend a meal hosted by the Empress once every ten days.

Even in those gatherings, accompanied by the young princes and princesses, his mother was the most beautiful in Gangcheon’s eyes.

The others wore heavy makeup and shimmering ornaments, but they couldn’t compare to his mother in her simple green jacket and red skirt without a single piece of gold foil.

Moreover, they were all so filled with malice that they reminded him of the goblins his mother told stories about when he was a babe.

His mother, assigned to the furthest corner, always ate alone as no one would speak to her.

Since the princes had their own separate area, Gangcheon could only look back at her, unable to stay by her side.

That beautiful mother of his began to wither away once even Gangcheon moved his residence.

Though he visited her every day to pay his respects, his schedule grew busier as he aged, reducing the time he could spend there.

In that quiet pavilion where few people passed, his mother was growing exhausted from waiting for him.

He wanted to be by her side always, but a prince’s day was grueling with studies.

After a brief appearance in the morning, it was difficult to see her face for the rest of the day.

The laws of the court were strict, even for a prince removed from the succession.

Following those laws and attending lectures all day usually meant the sun had already set.

By the time he finished his modest dinner, reviewed his lessons, and completed his tutor’s assignments, it was already midnight.

It was a time when showing his face to his mother even once was a struggle.

Consequently, her fair and white face grew thin and devoid of vitality.

Gangcheon watched that change every day during his visits.

Yet, there was very little he could do for her.

The winter he turned six was when his mother, withering away in solitude, finally became bedridden.

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