readsfreenovel Chapter 248 : It Was an Imperial Command
Chapter 248 : It Was an Imperial Command
At the Crown Prince’s pure and childlike question, the tension in the hall grew extremely thick.The Crown Prince had merely found the sight of the chest floating lightly through the air to be fascinating and amazing, and had asked to be taught out of curiosity. However, if Jin Seong-un truly taught him, that would mean he would become the Crown Prince’s martial arts master.
The Crown Prince’s master, the Grand Preceptor (太師).
This position, traditionally held by the Grand Scholars of the Imperial Palace, was one that neither the greatest trading companies under heaven nor the highest-ranking officials of the central government could dare treat lightly.
Amid this, Jang Gyeong, the Commander of the Royal Guards, stepped forward to control the situation.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, from what I have heard, that appears to be the profound principle of Psychokinesis. Even old masters like myself find it difficult to perform. If Your Highness wishes to wield Psychokinesis, you would have to train in martial arts every single day until your hair turns white.”
Jang Gyeong spoke of the cold reality and attempted to persuade the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince looked at Jin Seong-un and tilted his head repeatedly.
“But that person is young, is he not? His hair is black too.”
Jang Gyeong’s gaze turned toward Jin Seong-un.
In truth, this was what he himself wanted to ask. How had such a young martial artist reached that kind of realm?
“…He is an unusual one. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say he is exceptional.”
“Oh?”
The Crown Prince’s eyes shone as he looked at Jin Seong-un.
The Crown Prince also knew that Jang Gyeong had an extremely blunt personality. Words spoken by such a man were, for the most part, all true.
An existence that went beyond unusual and into the realm of exceptional.
It was more than enough to leave a deep impression and spark intense curiosity in the heart of the young Crown Prince.
Immediately after the auction concluded.
Jin Seong-un and Lee Seowon, having successfully bid for the development rights to the Eonsa Prefecture Hot Spring Commercial District, headed for the Imperial Palace.
This was because Jang Gyeong had conveyed that the Emperor wished to see the winning bidders.
In truth, Jin Seong-un was not particularly inclined to go.
There were mountains of things that needed to be done, and he had no time to loiter around the Imperial Palace.
However, before Jin Seong-un could even respond, Lee Seowon accepted. No, rather than acceptance, it would be more accurate to say he received the imperial command.
All intentions conveyed by the Emperor were imperial commands.
Of course, there were calculations beneath this as well, befitting his role as Chief Steward.
When proceeding with large-scale commercial district development, they were bound to encounter all manner of difficulties. Among the few problems that even the martial prowess of the innkeeper and Chef Seo could not resolve were those arising from the authorities.
Simply returning after hearing favorable words from the Emperor would make many future problems originating from the authorities far easier to resolve.
.
.
.
A dining table so densely packed with dishes that one might worry about the table legs giving way.
Jin Seong-un and Lee Seowon sat side by side, with the Crown Prince and Jang Gyeong seated across from them.
Sitting at the highest seat was, naturally, the master of this country and the one called the Son of Heaven—the Emperor.
Jin Seong-un looked at the Emperor with renewed eyes. He had untangled the knotted meridians, but seeing him awakened like this left him quite satisfied.
“So, a mere inn is to proceed with development?”
Lee Seowon closed his mouth.
He wanted to say that it was not merely an inn, that there was the Hwa-un Trading Company, and that several trading companies were involved together.
However, the Emperor was clearly looking at Jin Seong-un as he asked. It would be improper to step forward recklessly.
Lee Seowon could only hope that Jin Seong-un would answer properly and gracefully.
Soon, Jin Seong-un opened his mouth.
“Yes, well….”
Lee Seowon felt his heart sink.
How could that possibly be an answer directed at the Emperor?
Be that as it may, the Emperor instead twisted the corner of his lips, as if finding it quite interesting.
In truth, the Emperor was feeling something strange as he looked at Jin Seong-un.
‘It should clearly be our first meeting, yet why do I feel such familiarity?’
The Emperor did not know it, but perhaps it was only natural. Within his body, however faintly, flowed Women’s Moon Qi.
It was not merely because of the label of senior and junior brothers that those who cultivated the same martial arts held one another dear.
As the energy flowing through their bodies became the same, their very essence grew similar. All people felt comfort in what was familiar.
After gazing at Jin Seong-un for a while, the Emperor asked,
“I hear you are at odds with the Myriad Gold Manor.”
“That is how it turned out.”
“And what was the reason?”
“The current figures of the Myriad Gold Manor do not see people as people.”
The youngest, Ha Joo-yeon, had opened the floodgates to secure his own benefit, threatening the lives of the people downstream.
The second, Ha Cheong-a, had attempted to sacrifice nearly a thousand children to restore the Black Wolf Saber Art.
“Human ethics, then.”
The Emperor nodded for a while, then paused and fell into thought.
Amid the silence, the meal continued.
The food did not go down easily for Jin Seong-un. It was not because he was nervous before the Emperor.
Before long, Jin Seong-un turned his head and asked the Crown Prince, who was staring at him with an intense gaze,
“…Do you have something to say?”
“Teach me martial arts.”
“I refuse.”
“…Why?”
“Your Highness lacks martial talent. And I am very busy as well.”
Silence followed once more.
Lee Seowon lowered his head and put food into his mouth. Thinking inwardly, ‘That man is truly insane,’ he wished this situation were nothing more than a dream.
How much time passed like that?
The Crown Prince, as children his age often did, did not give up easily. Instead, with a slightly petulant expression, he pressed the matter.
“Did I not grant you the commercial district under my management? How can you say you cannot even repay that much?”
His voice was bright, but his words carried a subtle weight unbecoming of a child his age.
Once again, blood proved thicker than water.
Thinking this, Jin Seong-un looked the Crown Prince straight in the eye. The Crown Prince flinched. Even seasoned masters of Murim often shrank back when meeting Jin Seong-un’s gaze, so the Crown Prince was no exception.
At the Crown Prince’s words, the Emperor’s eyebrow twitched.
He set down the teacup he was holding with an audible sound.
Clatter—!
“You say you gave the commercial district?”
“…Pardon? Yes, that is correct, but—”
“You are wrong.”
The Emperor’s voice was low, but the force contained within it was as cold as a blade of frost.
“That commercial district was given by me. More precisely, Jang Gyeong, acting on my command, prevented the mistake you were about to commit and preserved it.”
“……”
“Say it yourself. If Jang Gyeong had not appeared, would you have endured the Princess’s pressure and upheld the principles? Or would you have hidden under your sister’s skirts and voided the bid?”
The Crown Prince’s face flushed red. He could not refute it. Just before Jang Gyeong had kicked the door open and rushed in, he had clearly said, “Then……” and had been about to follow the Princess’s wishes.
The Emperor did not avert his eyes from the Crown Prince’s shame and pressed into it relentlessly.
“In the end, things turned out well, so it seems you believe it was your merit. However, a king’s eyes look beyond the result and see the process. Today, you did not protect the authority of a king. You were merely rescued by good fortune.”
It was a lesson in discipline.
Unlike the anxious Lee Seowon, Jin Seong-un paid it no mind at all. With the burdensome gaze of the Crown Prince finally gone, he was able to continue his meal in comfort.
“What is order?”
“It is a sequence or arrangement that proceeds smoothly without chaos.”
“Good. Then what is integrity?”
“It is an attitude of not bending one’s heart before external pressure and firmly upholding one’s resolve.”
“That is a subject’s integrity. To value the trust pledged with others more than one’s life, and for you to be unable to defy your sister’s words and attempt to withdraw the bid—that would have been trust as a younger brother, or as an individual.”
“……”
“But a king’s integrity is different.”
The Emperor’s calm voice felt truly immense. That massive pressure bore down on the Crown Prince’s entire body like Mount Tai.
“A king’s integrity is showing that the established laws and principles do not waver by even an inch, no matter whom he faces. Even if the other party is a blood relative with whom he shares blood, even if a blade is pressed to my own neck—the resolve that the order I have established will never collapse. That is the integrity a king must uphold.”
The Crown Prince could not lift his head.
The Emperor had already heard in full, through Jang Gyeong, of everything that had transpired at the auction hall.
“In trying to protect a private bond with your sister, you sold away the fear and trust that a king must show to all under heaven. When the order is reversed, order collapses, and when order collapses, the king’s words lose their power.”
Jin Seong-un also paused his meal and focused on the Emperor’s words. He had little interest in educating another man’s child, but this was a passage that revealed what the reigning Emperor’s convictions truly were.
The Emperor placed a hand lightly on the Crown Prince’s shoulder. It was not a gesture of encouragement, but one of warning.
“I will ask again. Are you truly a man who can become Emperor? A petty man who says, ‘I gave you the commercial district, so offer your martial arts in return’?”
“……I am sorry, Father.”
The Crown Prince answered in a shrinking, creeping voice, his lips pouting. At this moment, he once again looked no different from a small child.
Even so, the Emperor’s tiger-like gaze did not diminish in the slightest. Instead, it burned all the more fiercely, like fire.
“Was it your father who would have suffered harm because of your actions?”
At that, the Crown Prince looked toward Jin Seong-un.
The meaning of the Emperor’s words was clear. He was being told to apologize directly to those who would have suffered harm.
The Crown Prince had been born noble and raised noble. He hesitated, as though words of apology to a mere merchant would not easily leave his mouth.
Then the Emperor spoke quietly.
“Those who are fearful fear apology and acknowledgment. It is because they worry that they will appear weaker. Are you a coward?”
The Crown Prince chewed on his lip with a wounded expression, then finally spoke.
“……I am sorry.”
“I cannot hear you.”
When Jin Seong-un said that, the Emperor suppressed a laugh. Perhaps because it had been a long time since he had seen such a madman, that fellow’s words and actions would suddenly strike him as amusing.
The Crown Prince widened his eyes and looked at Jin Seong-un, then spoke again.
“……I am sorry. From now on, I will look upon the world with fairness and righteousness.”
Lee Seowon rose from his seat as if deeply honored and bowed his head respectfully.
It was the attitude of a subject without excess.
By contrast, Jin Seong-un raised his thumb toward the Crown Prince. It was the attitude of an adult dealing plainly with a child, without excess.
The Emperor, still suppressing his laughter as he watched the scene, soon spoke. His tone was light, as though merely asking after one’s well-being, but the content carried was anything but light.
“Do you truly have no intention of becoming the Grand Preceptor (太師)?”
The Emperor asked in earnest.
He felt that his own death was not far off. That was why he had given Jang Gyeong the task of making the Crown Prince into an Emperor. And if a man like Jin Seong-un—indifferent to all matters, yet all the more steadfast for it—were by the Crown Prince’s side, he felt he could rest easy.
Jin Seong-un replied briefly.
“Yes. For now, I have too many things that must be done.”
The benefits gained from becoming Grand Preceptor were, of course, immense.
However, it would mean remaining within the Imperial Palace.
It would mean following at the Crown Prince’s side every single day and consuming one’s life entirely in the act of teaching him.
Jin Seong-un had many things to do.
He had business to conduct, and he had to resolve the grudges of the Martial Gods.
When Jin Seong-un answered decisively, the Emperor also nodded without regret.
“Very well, I understand. The bond between master and disciple is also connected by heavenly ties, so how could I force it.”
This was also said for the Crown Prince to hear. The Crown Prince, who had earlier tried to pressure Jin Seong-un with authority, lowered his head deeply once more.
As the meal was drawing to a close.
At last, the Emperor spoke the words that Lee Seowon and Jin Seong-un most wanted to hear. It could be considered a reward for helping with the Crown Prince’s table-side education.
“The Crown Prince and I also greatly enjoy hot springs and excursions. Therefore, the two of you shall take responsibility and make Eonsa Prefecture into a place pleasing to behold. This is an imperial command.”
At first glance, it sounded like words meant to pressure them, but in truth, it was the opposite.
The two were no longer merely merchants seeking to develop hot springs and make money. They were subjects who, having received an imperial command, had to create a commercial district that would satisfy members of the Imperial Household.
In Murim or the commercial world, that fact was not particularly important. They were, from the start, people who would create justification by any means and pursue their own interests.
However, at the very least, there would never again be any interference from the authorities. Whether it was the Anchaesa responsible for the region or high-ranking officials of the central government did not matter. In the end, they too were people most directly exposed to the Emperor’s influence.