RED STAR IN THE SKY GORYEO (The Scent Of Life 2)
CHAPTER 26 POLITICAL MARRIAGE
Songak's condition had calmed down. As promised by the King, Prince Wang So will be married to princess Gyeonghwa, daughter of Crown Prince Wang Mu. A strategy for the Crown Prince to have the support of his other brothers. The preparation of the great wedding is done carefully. The citizens of the palace were busy with their respective duties.
Byeol was just quietly pensive under a shady tree in the garden of his house. Wang So is getting married. He asked inwardly why she felt sad and jealous about all this. Is because all this time he always showered the attention of the man. And in a moment he will belong to someone else.
Byeol stood up and walked to the edge of the pool. His face on the surface of the pool like a mirror. Before long, there was a shadowy figure of Wang So next to her shadow. Byeol noticed Wang So's presence and turned to the man.
"What are you thinking? Are you sad about my wedding plans?" asked Wang So.
"Why are you crying?" wang So asked to see Byeol's eyes watering
Byeol immediately turned his body.
"No, my eyes hurt a bit today to the point of watering a little bit" Byeol said, trying to hide his feelings
Wang So turned Byeol around and raised Byeol's chin to look at him. Byeol looked at the face of the male figure that had just filled his heart.
"Listen to me. Whatever happens. I still love you, Byeol-ah. This marriage is just a political strategy. Nothing more. I hope you calm your heart. I will ask the king's Majesty to make you my companion" said Wang So and hugged Byeol. Byeol did not refuse.
"I just feel jealous" Byeol said softly to Wang So
Byeol placed his head on Wang So's shoulder. He wanted to believe in Wang So's promise whatever it was.
"Follow me. There's something I want to show you," Wang So asked while leading Byeol to follow him
Wang So took Byeol to his residence. Byeol looked with admiration at Wang So's palace. This was the first time Byeol had set foot into the house of a noble. Wang So asked Byeol to close his eyes. Then he led the girl to a wall that displayed a painting of a girl wearing a Goryeo-style white peach clothes holding flowers. Behind the girl there is a view of the hills and the sun at dusk. Wang So opened Byeol's blindfold. The girl suffocated in amazement at the beautiful painting before her.
"That's you Byeol-ah, I painted it for you, inspired by your beauty in the ruins of that twilight fortress" Wang So said
"It's so pretty" praised Byeol.
Byeol touched the painting with the tip of his fingers. Flashback of his memory in the future. Kang Seo Woo once showed the painting to Man Se. Seo Woo said that the painting was made by Wang So, and Min Hyuk presented it to Seo Woo. The face of the girl in the painting was similar to Man Se. Man Se's soul in Byeol's body confirmed that it was indeed a painting of Byeol, the girl whose face resembled her.
Wang So took something from behind his shirt. A sapphire blue pendant necklace and Myungwool's clams.
"This is for you," said Wang So as he put the necklace around Byeol's neck.
"Do you want to live with me?" said Wang So.
Man Se in Byeol's body felt familiar with the necklace. The necklace was exactly the same as the necklace that Kang Min Hyuk had given when proposing to him. Byeol was in a dilemma as to whether or not he would answer yes. While there was no guarantee of any position for him on Wang So's side. He's a soldier who swore an oath of allegiance to die for his country.
"You haven't answered the servant's question, What is the servant by your side?" ask Byeol
"Can't you just be by my side? As the one who will accompany me until the end of my life. Whatever happens I will protect you, as my woman," Wang So told Byeol.
Byeol lowered his head and looked at Wang So deeply. Byeol approached and hugged the man.
***
The two brides were sitting opposite each other in a room dominated by red. The bride looked down and her eyes were sad.
"Daughter, you know our marriage is just a political marriage. You are legally my wife. But you know in my heart there is already a woman I love" Wang So said frankly.
The woman smiled and raised her face. Gyeonghwa looked at Wang So's face with straight eyes.
"Your honor, be generous" said the woman.
"I can't love you" explained Wang So
"Well, I'll be gone forever from before you," said Gyeonghwa's daughter standing up and leaving in front of Wang So. After saluting him out of Wang So's room.
Wang So just silently looked at the woman's departure. He remembered a while ago before the wedding. Wang So saw Princess Gyeonghwa crying in the arms of a man outside the palace. Wang So knows that Gyeonghwa's daughter also loves other men. Wang So laid himself on the bed alone.
Gyeonghwa walked to his own pavilion past Wang So's study. The woman stopped and looked into the open workspace. In his view the Byeol painting installed by Wang So right facing the door. Gyeonghwa's eyes looked sad. On the one hand she is the unwanted wife of her husband, while on the other hand she cannot love and have a man who has filled her heart. His heart was wrapped in a cloud of mist that would disappear at some point.
***
Some time passed, in the palace rumors spread that princess Gyeonghwa wanted to become a monk in a Buddhist temple. The rumors are true. A motorcade came out of the palace through the highway leading to the temple. At that time Byeol and Yideum were out looking for cloth for clothes. Many people crowded around and talked about the figure passing inside the carriage.
"Miss, look at Princess Gyeonghwa's motorcade. I heard that she was going to be a nun" Jeideum explained to Byeol who was next to her.
Byeol just stared at the motorcade with an empathetic and sad look. Byeol had no idea why Princess Gyeonghwa became a nun shortly after marrying Wang So.
"Your Majesty, did you treat that woman badly? Ah no, I know you're not that bad. You're a gentle-hearted man," Inner Byeol inwardly seemed to question Wang So's figure.
Wang So's wife decided to become a monk, it's incredible news. Officials are worried about the king's descendants. Everyone talked about Wang So and wondered, why did he let his wife go to become a monk? But the conversation slowly passed, because there was big news coming, that the Khitan of Liao began to hit the drums of war with Goryeo. The small people began to fret over the state. At any moment a war can break out and only a small people will suffer.
***
In 943 AD, King Taejo Wang-goen died and was succeeded by Wang Mu who was titled King Hyejong. Wang Gyu was still at large, and his clan was still a prisoner in the palace. On a blazing afternoon, Byeol ran all the way followed by Yideum who was running behind him. They got word that Wang Eun's family would be executed in front of the palace gates.
Byeol lobbied his father to ask the king not to execute Wang Eun.
"Dad, please talk to the king's majesty not to execute Wang Eun. His Majesty the king once owed me a deferred request. I beg you to take that promise. I asked His Highness Hyejong to forgive Wang Eun, "pinta Byeol.
At that time Mr. Choi asked permission to go to the king to convey Byeol's request, but it was unexpected that King Hyejong did not comply and threatened the death penalty for anyone defending the Wang Gyu clan. Lord Choi returned empty-handed, which was greeted with a sad look of Byeol. Soon after, Yideum brings news that Wang Eun's execution will be carried out. Byeol took Yideum to the palace gate.
It was unexpected that the day that the Wang-goen clan tragedy had already begun. Byeol could not go to the front to see the execution process until Yideum urged people to step aside. Just then the executioner had already swung his sword slashing at Wang Eun's head. Byeol gasped, his eyes widened as if he could not believe what he saw. The boy is young, innocent. His fate alone was unfortunate because he was Wang Gyu's grandson, so all the families even the people involved had to die as well.
One by one the swords of the executioners slashed their bodies. All of Wang Gyu's daughters were executed, including Hyejong's wife and two sisters, who became the King's stepmother. The servants and court ladies-in-waiting associated with Wang Gyu's residence also did not escape execution. Blood flows through the earth. The heartbreaking tragedy of power struggle.
The execution was to lure Wang Gyu out of hiding. Byeol knew that Wang Mu did not have the heart to finish off his own younger siblings, but the insistence of the ruling clan to purge the regime of Wang Gyu's people made him an angel of death to his own brother. Wang Mu felt depressed, having to finish off his own sister's family. King Hyejong became ill with depression. Rumors spread that King Hyejong was soon due to the tremendous pressure he was under as a king.