Futile Love

Bipaan was a man he could never understand, a man who stood aloof from everything since he was a child.

Ruhae tilted his head back after taking a deep breath. His flushed neck with protruding blood veins produced a shrill cry. His clenched fists loosened. After staggering a bit, he collapsed on the floor with a thump, but court officials couldn’t even touch the door of his room, stunned at his unprecedented actions.

If the floor of his room was cold, it would be better for him, but it was warm because the court ladies had moderately adjusted the temperature of the heated floor.

He laughed a hollow laugh unconsciously.

“Hahaha. What a guy you are…Ha ha ha ha ha…”

Tears flowed from his empty eyes.

Even before the fight began, Ruhae knew he lost. Although Bipaan was a man who didn’t show his intentions to anybody and didn’t get close to anybody, it was Ruhae who was closer to him than anybody else and knew the most about him.

He didn’t know at first, but soon he discovered that he was a loser from the beginning.

Ruhae gave the name Damkang, meaning a ‘clear hill,’ to the baby.

His full name and title was Dohwan Taehwanggun Danmok Damkang

And he was the son of Kyosul and somebody.

Three years later…

Dukwol and Oran faced each other in the innermost room of the West Palace.

There was no refreshment tray. Dukwol smiled at Oran with his eyes, and she also looked at him, smiling at his face. Though they were looking at each other tenderly, the atmosphere was far from warm. Rather there was a cold and tense atmosphere in the room.

“That baby is already three years old. As I heard it, I guess you already know that, too.”

“Haha, you mean how the emperor thinks about him?”

Dukwol, who burst into a hearty laughter, waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry, Oran. Everything will be alright. ”

“But honey… ”

“Honey!” Dukwol cut off her words when she was leaning forward to say something.

After letting out a sigh, she corrected her posture and sat upright.

What could she do when he, whom she loved and trusted, said everything would be alright?

Nonetheless, Oran couldn’t shake off her anxiety, and Dukwol was well aware of that.

“Actually, it is true that the power of our faction has been greatly weakened by the birth of Dohwan Taehwanggun, but don’t you know that the powerful factions of the Lee family and your father firmly support our faction?”

“But Bipaan’s faction is supported by the powerful Taegongsin, isn’t it? You shouldn’t ignore the Hwa kingdom, Kyosul’s motherland.”

“Although the birth of the baby attracted many political figures to Bipaan’s faction, their actions are fleeting, so don’t worry.”

Now, Dukwol, who had been smiling at her, looked straight at her. His creepy eyes were as dark as an abyss, sparkling.

Faced with his unaffected face, Oran blushed slightly. It was his eyes that attracted her back then. The moment she saw his eyes, she was captivated by him.

“Our son Mu is now ten years old. Everybody knows he is a smart boy. Even Taemunhang told me he was paying special attention to him.”

“Oh, really?”

Oran shouted for joy at his remarks.

Taemunjang was the chief royal scholar and he was the highest of all civilian servants. Though he was lower than Taegonsin in rank, he was still regarded as a powerful figure on the central political stage.

He was the oldest of all the bureaucrats serving in the Mok Kingdom and spent a long time in politics while keeping the title from the previous emperor’s rule. Unlike those who sat on the fence because of the competing rivalry of Bipaan and Dukwol, he was the most powerful figure who remained neutral. Accordingly, the fact that he was watching Mu closely was something very special to Dukwol and Oran.

Oran’s face was flushed.

“Huh, do you mean that Taemunjang will protect him?”

“Well, the problem is I can’t figure out how to read that old scholar’s feigned smile.”

But the smile on Dukwol’s face was surely filled with confidence.

“Besides, Dohwan Taehwanggun has a fatal weakness.”

“A fatal weakness?”

It was the first time she heard it from him.

“He’s only a child now. Even if he has flaws, what’s the big deal at this point?”

“If we shake the child’s existence itself, can’t we gain power enough to overturn the current power structure?

It was something that Dukwol hadn’t mentioned to Oran up to now as it was a very sensitive issue, though they shared every secret between them.

So, he waited until he became fully convinced of that before revealing it to Oran, but he felt he could talk to her about it now.

“His existence itself? What do you mean? ”

Oran tilted her head and got close to him. They were looking at each other up close before they knew. With all smiles, he put his mouth to her ear, as she was full of curiosity. The more he whispered, the more her eyes widened.

Her face turned white as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

If this was true, it would be a great help to Dukwol as well as a secret weapon to knock Bipaan down because he seemed so arrogant.

Soon Oran’s face was full of twisted smiles.

“And then…”

“And?”

Repeating after him, Oran looked at him. His smiling face looked sweet, but it was kind of frightening. It was something that thrilled her for a long time.

“After defeating Bipaan with that fatal weakness…”

As if to heighten the tense moment, he stopped talking abruptly and smiled at her.

“Our son Mu, not Damkang, will become Hwangtaeson, the grandson successor of the emperor.”

“Really?” Oran exclaimed with a bright smile.

Hwangtaeson was the top among the emperor’s grandchildren in the succession hierarchy. Originally, there were no ranks among the emperor’s grandchildren, and only the grandson chosen as Hwangtaeson obtained the official title as the next successor. In other words, he was the most likely successor of the next emperor. Once a baby son was chosen as Hwangtaeson, his rank would never change regardless of the political turbulences. When he grew up, he would be officially designated as the Crown Princethen the Emperor without problem.

In the current situation where there were only two grandsons in the royal family, Dukwol thought Mu had a high chance of achieving the title of Hwangtaeson. If Mu could achieve it, Dukwol, even though he was not the Crown Prince, could wield indefinite power as the father of the next emperor.

Although there was a way for him to be the emperor, he could aim at the next best option through Mu.

“If Mu becomes Hwangtaeson…”

He thought that if that happened, those who leaned toward Bipaan with the birth of Dohwan might come back to him. With Mu at the forefront, he could promote Oran’s power, too. Actually, she was dreaming of various possibilities rather than aiming for just one thing.

“I think we have to report it to the Emperor to make our dreams come true,” she said, with a sly smile. She clung to his arms with deep emotion. He embraced her with his big hands.

If everything went according to their plan, the position of the next emperor would surely be Mu’s. And he was convinced that the pendulum of power would shift back to his faction.

***

Under the clear and high sky a child was playing under a big tree in the middle of a hill.

“Wow!”

The kid who ran around happily kept falling down and rolled over to the grass, as if he had great fun doing it. As a result, the hat on the child’s head fell off, but the child simply rolled around, not caring at all. He got grass in his short hair.

“Damkang, Damkang. Be careful! You might get hurt.”

A woman called him with a smile on her face.

Dohwan Taehwanggun, who was rolling on the grass, replied, grinning at her, “Mom!”

Kyosul approached him. Dohwan stood up and toddled along to her, grabbed her skirt and sat down. She sat down with the child.

“Damkang, what a mess you are! Covered in grass…”

Smiling at his cuteness, she cleaned the dust from his body. Dohwan, scratching his head with his small hands and shook his head hard. Small blades of grass fell off. While shaking his head, he staggered as if he felt dizzy and fell into her skirt.

“Mom, I feel dizzy.”

The young Dohwan couldn’t speak well, but as he grew up amid her affectionate care, he often expressed his feelings well.

“Because you shook your head so hard, it’s natural you feel dizzy,” she said.

She caressed his face as he lay on her skirt. Every time her hands touched him, he moved his face around with a hearty laugh.

Kyosul was so grateful that she could spend time happily with her child. In fact, he could not see the light of the world. He was born through her unacceptable relationship with Ruhae. Belying all this ironic situation, Dohwan was growing up so brightly and strongly.