The Hated Male Concubine

“… I asked Gyeongsa-bang to take out Yeonbin’s nameplate for his frivolous crime.”

“…”

“Do you think my decision is harsh?”

Yihan insinuated Juwon once again. He thought that no matter if Yeonbin was a troublesome son in the family, if he was treated badly frankly like this, then as his father, Juwon would have no choice but to be perturbed. 

However, Yeon Juwon originally never expressed his feelings honestly, so no matter how furious he was, he would not easily show it to the emperor. Before he could give any answer, Yihan continued to talk again.

“Well… if I think about your position, it is very harsh of me to punish Yeonbin like this…”

“No, Your Majesty.”

However, Juwon’s answer, which continued as soon as the emperor finished talking, was too far from Yihan’s expectations again this time. 

Yihan unconsciously opened his eyes wide and stared at Juwon.

“What did you say?”

“How could I intervene when you ruled over your family as you wish, Your Majesty? If Yeonbin has made a fuss and disturbed Your Majesty’s mood, of course, he should gladly accept the punishment you give him, so you don’t need to mind me.”

“Bu-but still…”

“I will only accept your consideration for me and pay it, Your Majesty.”

Then, he gave a deep bow, so that Yihan could not say anything else.

Yihan didn’t really want to use Yeon Juwon to do something. He really believed so, but when he saw Juwon cut off his son like that, he felt unpleasant for no reason. His lips pouted like a grumpy boy until Juwon left the hall. 

***

“Ahjin.”

After returning from the Empress Palace, Hwawoon suddenly halted his steps and called Ahjin before he entered his room. Ahjin made a worried look while answering “Yes, Your Highness,” because her master looked somewhat down. Ahjin wondered if it was because of the words he heard in the Empress Palace, but the spoken words were completely different.

“Can you prepare some snacks and… give them to the guards guarding Jeongan Palace when they take turns for them to eat.” 

“Pardon? To the guards?” 

“Yeah. Come to think of it, they must have had a hard time protecting Jeongan Palace, and I feel like I never took care of them.” 

Ahjin really couldn’t really understand the unexpected order from Hwawoon, but this was absolutely natural for Hwawoon.

To begin with, the ministers of this nation didn’t welcome the emperor picking guards from civilians. They expected if people whose origin was unknown were selected and put into the imperial palace, and if they were placed in charge of the royal palace’s safety to boot, there would definitely be someone who held a wicked intention and made a fuss.

Of course, the real reason behind it must have been that they did not want to create a flaw in the reputation of the imperial palace guards, which were mostly made up of sons of noble families. 

Only the emperor’s determination proceeded with the work against such opposition from the ministers. The emperor hoped he could give small hope to those who were in despair because they had no future. Although they could not be treated the same as people who were born with it, he hoped that there would be people who would achieve his dream at least once if they wanted it so badly, and hoped that they would be his own people. 

In the end, the ministers had no choice but to yield their opinions due to the emperor’s stubbornness. Instead, there were conditions such as meticulously checking not only their martial ability but also their personalities, making they could not take charge of major places in the imperial palace, and discriminating them significantly different from the noble sons. For that reason, many of the selected people like Hawoon were in charge of Jeongan Palace.

Because Jeongan Palace was a place that the emperor avoided the most and did not care about. 

“Just… Just please do that, Ahjin.”

Hwawoon said that with a subtle smile while looking back at Ahjin, who still had a clueless expression.

After he became Yeon Hwawoon, he sometimes saw those guards while he walked around Jeongan Palace. Some of them came into the palace along with Hawoon, used the same official residence, ate together, and talked with him. But now they couldn’t recognize Hawoon and Hawoon also couldn’t pretend to know them, so even in the midst of struggling to adapt to his sudden situation, Hwawoon felt restless whenever he saw them.

Hwawoon was in a situation where he couldn’t even ask about the people closest to him. Perhaps they all quickly forgot Hawoon, but they were a few friends Hawoon had in his life.