Chapter 49
Chapter 49. Grand Prince Suyang Meets Lady Kwon (1)
Only after going out to the Hyemin-guk did Yoonseo realize that she had confused it with the Hwalinseo.
Wait… in the drama Hur Jun, they treated poor commoners…
In reality, it was more like a high-end medical facility where fairly well-dressed yangban and commoners were treated—by equally refined and graceful female physicians.
"Where are the poor patients?"
When Yoonseo asked with a puzzled expression, Royal Physician Jeon Sun-ui smiled gently and replied respectfully,
"Your Ladyship, Lady Kwon, those who are poor and have no one to rely on are cared for at the Hwalinwon outside Dongsomun and Seosomun. It would be difficult to house such dangerous individuals within the capital, where His Majesty, the Crown Prince, and royal guests reside."
That was true.
Recently, Yoonseo had been promoted from a nanny court lady to a Senior Fifth Rank nanny court lady.
While continuing to care for Hongwi, it was a rank Lee Hyang had requested from the Queen, so that she would not face trouble during her activities outside due to too low a status.
Before her first visit to the Hyemin-guk, she had requested that a physician knowledgeable in medicinal ingredients be assigned to assist her in developing treatments for boils and various infectious diseases.
Lee Hyang had said he would assign that Jeon Sun-ui—the most famous among the royal physicians.
The very same Jeon Sun-ui who, despite King Munjong's boil worsening rapidly, had him continue receiving Chinese envoys and personally inspecting archery, ultimately leading to his sudden death!
"Your Highness! That Jeon Sun-ui is—"
As Yoonseo instinctively tried to object strongly, Lee Hyang—who had been affectionately touching her just moments before—suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace, so tight it was hard to breathe, and said,
"Did I not command you? Not to even utter a word about judging people. You once spoke to Court Eunuch Eom of 'self-fulfilling prophecy,' did you not? That applies to you as well, Kwon Yoonseo."
He warned her sternly.
It was a warning not to judge someone based on events recorded in history that had not yet occurred here—and an order not to let prejudice influence his future judgment as a ruler who must place talents where they belong.
And yet, the Jeon Sun-ui she met at the Hyemin-guk was exceedingly polite, saying he would actively assist "Her Ladyship, Lady Kwon" in her future endeavors.
So he really is the type who would boil his own liver instead of bear bile if it meant gaining favor with those in power, as Lady Park Sang-gung had said. Indeed!
"I have heard that Your Ladyship wishes to create medicinal ointments for external application. In that case, we must also consider the compatibility between the extracted medicinal components and the base substances used for application."
Jeon Sun-ui was genuinely serious about helping her.
So Yoonseo first explained the concept of disinfection. She suggested distilling high-proof alcohol once more to obtain a purer spirit, diluting it, and using it for preventing various infections—and asked Jeon Sun-ui to evaluate its feasibility.
She also requested that he investigate whether, in cases where a boil worsened and required incision, the concept of alcohol-based disinfection could be applied. She vaguely recalled reading that King Munjong's cause of death may have been acute sepsis from an infected boil wound.
As she discussed the possibilities of antiseptics and external medicines with Jeon Sun-ui and planned to extract active components from suitable medicinal herbs at the Royal Medical Office—
The person she had expected to meet, Grand Prince Suyang, did not appear even after an entire shijin had passed, when it was already time to return to the palace.
"His Highness the Grand Prince has urgent matters and cannot come at present. He will visit later this afternoon to supervise."
A messenger from the Grand Prince's Myeongrye-gung came to inform her.
Even after two more visits at three-day intervals, she still did not see him—enough to make her wonder if he was deliberately avoiding her.
In reality, Grand Prince Suyang had been visiting the Hyemin-guk in Yoonseo's absence, receiving detailed reports on Lady Kwon's work and how it could be integrated into the institution's existing system.
There were several complicated reasons why he avoided meeting her face-to-face.
First, there was the delicate situation surrounding the royal command he had received to improve the systematic operation of the Hyemin-guk.
After returning from accompanying the royal trip to Onyang hot springs, he had not been entrusted with any new tasks by the King and had begun to feel uneasy.
However, as an exceptional hunter, Grand Prince Suyang knew that the more anxious one felt, the more one must suppress one's presence. Shooting an arrow in impatience would only alert the prey and cause it to escape.
So when his wife, having encountered the strange entity called Lady Kwon, became furious and insisted she could not leave her alone, he calmly told her to wait—that unless it was a decisive strike, opportunities would come in time.
Still, when his father summoned him—not to just anywhere, but to Cheonchujeon—his heart had leapt with anticipation.
Entering the hall reserved for only a select few, his father spoke:
"Yuya, you know that since the early years of my reign, I have established medicinal herb fields in many places to cultivate herbs suited to our soil. However, their use has largely been limited to decoctions. I would like you to take charge of extracting their medicinal properties and developing them into external medicines."
"Yes, Father. I will cooperate with the Royal Medical Office and the Bureau of Medicine to produce excellent external medicines."
Developing medicine was highly beneficial—something that would earn great praise from both officials and the people—so Grand Prince Suyang inwardly rejoiced as he accepted the command.
But then—
"Take this and try using it."
The King handed him, through Court Lady Cheon, a small paper-wrapped lump and a container resembling those used for women's rouge.
"That is soap and jawungo made by Lady Kwon—the nanny of Hongwi… no, now a Senior Court Lady. When I used the soap, my body became very clean, and the jawungo works very well for minor itching and mosquito bites. Since Lady Kwon, who can make such things, wishes to develop even more effective external medicines at the Hyemin-guk, you should go there and participate in the development with her."
…Even Father is talking about Lady Kwon.
He had just come from calming his wife, who lost all reason whenever speaking of that woman—uttering insults too vile to repeat.
A headache throbbed at the back of his head.
"…Are you commanding me to serve as an assistant to this Court Lady Kwon?"
Without realizing it, Yi Yu's usually respectful tone toward his father turned slightly sharp.
King Sejong looked surprised and examined his second son's expression.
"No. Though she has received the Crown Prince's favor, she is still merely a nanny court lady. How could she command authority in carrying out work at the Hyemin-guk? You, as a Grand Prince, must go and supervise so that everything proceeds smoothly."
After saying that, he paused briefly, then added meaningfully,
"Lady Kwon is highly likely to become an important woman to the Crown Prince in the future. Would it not be good for you to build a cooperative relationship with her?"
"…Yes, Father. I will faithfully supervise and ensure the creation of excellent external medicines."
Though he spoke obediently and left Cheonchujeon, Grand Prince Suyang felt a deep sense of disappointment and frustration at being, in his father's eyes, placed on the same level as a mere court lady—no more than a candidate for the Crown Prince's concubine.
Moreover, upon hearing the news, his wife warned him not to meet Lady Kwon directly for the time being.
"From what I have experienced, and as the shaman also said, that woman will surely become an obstacle to everything you wish to accomplish—and to our plans. So I have already ordered shamans and sorcerers to perform curses. I fear that if you go near her, you may be affected."
Having long lived as the Crown Prince's immediate younger brother—the second in line to the throne—Grand Prince Suyang understood that his father's command to cooperate with Lady Kwon likely held deeper intentions beyond simply advancing medicine and improving the Hyemin-guk.
And he also knew that his wife was plotting something far more dangerous than mere curses.
Yet, the anger and self-loathing of someone who had once been quietly treated as a potential Crown Prince—now reduced, after the birth of the royal grandson, to a position where he must even concern himself with a mere candidate for the Crown Prince's concubine—ran deep.
He feared that if he treated Lady Kwon carelessly, it might instead draw suspicion from his father and elder brother. So deliberately, he only visited the Hyemin-guk when she was not present, receiving reports on its operations.
However—
There came a moment that made Grand Prince Suyang change his mind and decide he needed to see Lady Kwon for himself.
"Your Highness, please take a look at this."
After the hour of sinshi (around 3 PM), when Lady Kwon had already left, he visited the Hyemin-guk and found the air thick with the intense scent of various medicinal herbs—forsythia, honeysuckle, atractylodes, lithospermum, and more.
Royal Physician Jeon Sun-ui was experimenting, combining small amounts of a liquid that looked like oil.
"This is part of our experimentation with medicinal ingredients and extraction methods to create an external medicine even more potent than jawungo."
Ever respectful to those in power, Jeon Sun-ui showed him a bound record that looked like a booklet.
But the method of recording was quite unusual.
Unlike the typical approach of listing items vertically and writing explanations beside them, the record said to have been devised by Lady Kwon was organized into a grid—a "table"—allowing one to see at a glance the names of extracts, quantities used, methods of combination, and mixing ratios.
"You're saying Lady Kwon created this 'table'?"
"Yes, Your Highness. And also—please look at this."
Jeon Sun-ui took out a flat container wrapped tightly in oiled paper. When he opened the lid, a strong scent of pine filled the air.
"This was made by placing fresh pine needles into a distillation device resembling a liquor still, then collecting only the oil that floats on top of the water. Compared to boiling herbs into decoctions, this oil retains a much stronger original scent and appears to contain far more of the medicinal properties. In the same way, we are currently extracting components separately from the flowers, leaves, and stems of fresh herbs such as honeysuckle, forsythia, angelica, millet, angelica dahurica, and peony."
There was even a faint note of excitement in Jeon Sun-ui's voice.
A royal physician already recognized as the finest—so skilled in acupuncture and decoctions that he had received robes from the King himself—now admiring the work of a mere court lady and proudly speaking of it as if it were his own achievement…
Grand Prince Suyang had never seen such a side of him.
Jeon Sun-ui was nothing more than a petty man who clung to power for his own safety and glory—so why would someone like him react this way?
Just what is this Lady Kwon, that Father entrusts her with the creation of the script, and now even the affairs of the Hyemin-guk? And why does my usually composed wife never lower her guard around her, constantly plotting against her?
More than anything—why was his elder brother, who had been utterly indifferent to women all his life, obsessing over Lady Kwon like a madman, even assigning guard eunuchs and administrative aides so she could carry out outside work freely?
That was why Grand Prince Suyang felt the need to see her with his own eyes.
"When will Lady Kwon come here again?"
"She visits once every three days, so she will arrive the day after tomorrow, around osi (11 AM)."
"Hmm."
He decided then that he would come and see for himself exactly what she was doing.
Thus, over the course of about ten days, he familiarized himself with everything Lady Kwon had accomplished—
And finally, on the last day of the month, he came to the Hyemin-guk at the appointed hour.
"There are many different types of boils, so when applying this medicine, we must record the treatment patterns separately. First, we observe the progress, and for the types that show excellent results, we can then vary the composition of the ingredients to determine which mixture produces the best therapeutic effect."
As he stood before the door of Lady Kwon's office, he heard a woman's calm voice speaking through the wide-open doorway.
A young-looking woman—too youthful for a court lady—stood there wearing a green dangui, her hair simply tied up. She was explaining experimental methods to two bongsa (rank 8 medical officials) and six female physicians.
At that moment, a passing female physician spotted Grand Prince Suyang and brightened, offering a greeting.
"Your Highness, the Grand Prince has arrived!"
At those words, Lady Kwon turned her head to look at him.
"!"
For a fleeting instant, a sharp killing intent and hatred flashed through the eyes of that cool beauty.
The keen hunter that was Grand Prince Suyang did not miss it.
But in the very next moment, as if that gaze had never existed—almost as if mocking him for imagining it—Lady Kwon smiled brightly and bowed.
"At last, I have the honor of meeting Your Highness, the esteemed Grand Prince."
In that instant, Suyang felt a surge of intense irritation and anger rise within him.