THE UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong arrived at the Cheoncheugung palace, the State residence of the Crown Prince.
Hurriedly, he rushed over towards the Crown Princess' personal Chambers.
It had been about four years since the Crown Prince Gyeongjeong managed to marry the lady Incheon and the two had lived in a much isolative marriage.
The Crown Prince married for what was love and the need to keep a political alliance in the government a girl who was descended from the Jang nobility.
The Jangs were an influential family in the state affairs of Geosan and the King was confident that such a matrimonial alliance would possibly give his son the necessary support to be King.
The Jang clan and the Royal Clan of Hyeonju Lee had both maintained a very close relationship and the King new that if there was an inevitable rebellion, The Jangs whom by the King's grace had become a part of the Royal Clan would defend their King.
The first years of the Crown Prince Gyeongjeong and his wife's marriage were sweet until she became unsuccessful at child birth.
The first pregnancy was a miscarriage and the second being a stillborn child greatly discouraged the Crown Prince to only become distant with his wife
The condition that had happened about twice only turned the relationship with his wife bitter and the Crown Prince started having thoughts of getting another concubine as it seemed that the death of all his children in that woman was inevitable.
At the time, the Crown Prince however had a ray of hope in him and for some reason, he was very certain that at that time, the heavens would be in his favour.
Be it a son or a daughter, the Prince was willing to accept anything as long as his child, his own flesh and blood made it out alive.
The moment the Crown Prince arrived outside the Crown Princess'personal Chambers, he was halted by a couple of Royal maids.
"You can't go in your highness." They said but the Crown Prince could barely wait a moment.
He could hear the cries of his wife in labour rising towards him and he mourned as he grew worried with time.
The Crown Princess Incheon discharged so much blood but nonetheless the midwives delivering her urged her to push more and more.
"I can feel the head." One of the midwives said somehow giving all in the room hope.
"Breathe in, breathe out." the others kept on telling the Crown Princess who tightly clutched at the cloth that hung all the way from the ceiling.
She yelled aloud as she pushed the baby out.
"I have the hands out." the main midwife said.
"Keep pushing your highness." The other ladies still motivated her.
"It's just a little more." they said.
The Crown Princess gave one last mighty push to wind up her pains and the child finally came out from the body.
"It's a boy your Highness." The primary midwife said as only a couple of seconds shorter the after birth seemed to come out of the Crown Princess' womb with ease.
The Primary midwife stood up with the baby at hand as she seemed rather puzzled by it's appearance.
"Why isn't the baby crying?" The Crown Princess asked.
"Your Highness." The Primary midwife called as that time around, the baby was entirely pale and blue, lifeless without any heartbeat and the eyes a little bit open but awfully scaring.
"It is dead." The midwife said.
At once, the Crown Princess who in her fight to overcome the aches of her labour and was exhausted fainted from the shock of the news.
"Mama." the midwives cried as the King outside became more and more suspicious of the situation inside.
At first, the Crown Princess' screams had totally simmered down and before hearing the cries of a baby he was hearing the midwives screaming.
He made up his mind to just make an entrance by force.
Before he went any further to open the door, the Primary midwife walked out with her face sulky and her head looking down.
"Your Highness." She first offered her respect to the Crown Prince.
"How is the baby?" He asked first without considering the situation of his own wife.
"Forgive me your highness, we all tried our best and the best that we possibly could, I am afraid to tell you this but the baby was stillborn." The midwife said.
It was at that very moment that the Queen happened to be headed in their direction and she had arrived in the courtyard of the Crown Princess' Chambers.
The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong felt so shattered and he couldn't even believe the news that he was certainly hearing at the moment.
"What?" he kept on saying out of disbelief as he walked further and further away from the room.
"Wangseja." The Queen called her son but he only ignored and turned around as he dashed away.
The Crown Prince once outside got on a horse and started to ride towards the city gate in tears as the words he'd heard awfully replayed themselves at the back of his head
"Forgive me your highness, we all tried our best and the best that we possibly could, I am afraid to tell you this but the baby was stillborn." the midwife had told him.
Just the magnitude of those words alone was killing him and he could no longer take it anymore.
"Why is it me who is always unfortunate?" The Crown Prince asked himself until he finally stopped when he got to a hilltop.
From high above, he stared at the city down below and tears flowed out of his eyes at the sight.
He got off the horse and running towards the end of the cliff, he paused and looked up at the heavens before he gave off a deafening scream and fell to his knees.
"I lost again." he said.
"I lost my son." He added.
"I lost my baby." He cried.
Seunghyeonjeong had arrived at home and he was seated with Shin Ji in his room as they span the red cotton.
He embroided it with golden thread and made the designs around the edges while Shin Ji helped to tailor it into a fine attire very much resembling those of assassins.
Along with it, he had made a perfect head band with the golden crest bearing a phoenix adorning it as well as a face mask of the same bird.
"Why would young Master be making this?" Shin Ji suddenly asked.
"I have come to think about it all of a sudden." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"What have you thought about?" Shin Ji asked as they stared at the attire they had fixed in a secret compartment behind the closet.
"I was reading a couple of documents the other day when I happened to eavesdrop a certain conversation." Seunghyeonjeong replied.
"What is it young Master?" Shin Ji asked.
"There are assassins in the city and apparently, they attempted to assassinate the Minister of state about three days ago." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"How then and why do you want to interfere if I may ask young Master?" Shin Ji asked.
"Who taught you the ways of the Sword?" Seunghyeonjeong asked.
"You did young Master." Shin Ji replied.
"Who taught you how to fight?" Seunghyeonjeong asked again.
"You did young Master." Shin Ji replied.
"When I was young, my father told me that I needed to fight for what I believed and right now that he is away working in the province of Haeji I can't help but worry about him." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"He has seen the King's favour and he has been surrounded by the King's protection for years, there are Ministers that are out there loathing his power so much they would go the extra mile to hurt him." Seunghyeonjeong added.
"Your father is a wise man, he can see anything even before it comes for him." Shin Ji said.
"Even the smartest of people die the most unnatural deaths, I fear if not now so soon that he might lose his life.
The best I can do is bring all those who could possibly harm him to Justice before they even have the chance to do so." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"Young Master, why play the hero when even you are smart enough to foil the plans of all your allies?" Shin Ji asked.
"What I am going to do can turn me into an enemy of the state and I do not want the lives of the rest of my family members placed on the line because of me.
We have seen how the children and people from humble backgrounds suffer at the hands of the Innocents and I am in no political position to help my people.
I am not the King or a Minister, I am not a governor or a general, and even if I was I would be limited by my responsibilities yet I bleed when I watch this our Kingdom suffer along with its people." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"What you are doing young Master could have dire consequences, you are rising up against men who are strong and experienced.
These are men who are powerful in every single aspect and it is without a doubt that they won't rest until they have you." Shin Ji said.
"There is only one way that I can save my people the way that they want." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"Which way is it?" Shin Ji asked.
"By becoming their hero." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"It is not about the risks that I am ready to take, it is about the lives that I am capably going to save." Seunghyeonjeong added.
He stared at his new attire and sword all ready, sometime from then he'd manage to save some one but he did not know who it was.
"Young Master." Someone else called that the two of them hurriedly covered the secret compartment right before Mr. Song barged in after sliding the doors.
"What is it Mr. Song?" Seunghyeonjeong asked.
"Young Master." Mr. Song said while bowing down his head.
"Your father is back." Mr. Song added.
"Father is back?" Seunghyeonjeong said surprised that he dashed through the doors immediately without waiting at all.
He ran across the courtyard towards the main gate and entrance of the Han Manor where he watched his father slowly descending from his carriage.
"Father." He said as he bowed down and then walked in to his father's embrace.
"I can see that you really missed me so much." Lord Han said.
"Of course father." Seunghyeonjeong said.
Seungjae arrived later with their mom and they both embraced Minister Han.
"Let's get in." Mrs. Han said as they walked straight into the living room.
Once inside the living room, the entire family sat down to have dinner altogether.
"I thought that you weren't going to join us this time around for our supper." Mrs. Han said.
"I wanted to surprise you all but it turns out that I was also surprised by some rather awful news from the Crown Prince's residence." Minister Han said.
"Cheoncheugung palace?" Mrs. Han asked.
"Exactly." Minister Han replied.
"What happened father?" Seunghyeonjeong asked.
"The Royal household is rather in mourning as we speak right now and news reached the high ranking officials." Minister Han replied.
"What is the matter there?" Mrs. Han asked.
"It appears that the Crown Princess' son was stillborn." Lord Han replied.
"That is her third unsuccessful pregnancy, she was so close this time, what a pity!" Mrs. Han exclaimed.
"The Crown Prince was discouraged and heartbroken yet as his household mourns he is missing with nowhere to be seen that I just had a group of Imperial guards sent out of the city to find him and bring him back to the capital." Minister Han said.
"He must be going through a tough time given that this is the third baby he has lost." Seungjae said.
"I sympathize with him too, he could have ran away because he was unwilling to bury his own child another time.
It could even be because he feared humiliation since his wife the Crown Princess is going to be misbranded and called unlucky." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"What about the King, and the Queen, how are they?" Mrs. Han asked.
"The Queen is distraught whereas her husband, the King in his old age is rather worried and he'd been pressuring his son the Crown Prince to get married to a concubine." Minister Han said.
"Sometimes I can't help but feel that the King is inconsiderate, he is being hard on both his daughter in law and his own son at the same time." Mrs. Han said.
"You know the King very well, he is more and more focused on having a grand Child and someone to continue his bloodline.
The majority feel that he might even force the eighteen year old Grand Prince to marry sooner." Minister Han said.
"I only wish them the best, things don't seem to be falling in line at the moment." Seungjae said.
"I can't guarantee that we'll all be safe as of now, the entire Han clan is endangered at the moment." Minister Han said.
"What, why father?" Seunghyeonjeong asked.
"It must be the same old usual stories, more Hans multiplying in the government posts dear." Mrs. Han said.
"It's similar to that but this is more and more horrifying." Minister Han said.
"How horrifying Father?" Seungjae asked.
"I don't know if word on it reached the King's ears already by chance but it already spread amongst all other officials." Minister Han said.
"What is it this time my dear?" Mrs. Han asked.
"When I was in Haeji, I received news from the province of Hanseong about an old Seer who's popular among the people.
He happened to receive a vision he said was from the heavens and he declared that A CHILD FROM THE HAN FAMILY NOT SO FAR FROM NOW WILL SOON BECOME QUEEN OF THIS KINGDOM." Minister Han replied.
"It must have caused tension." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"Even the people were engaged in a fight with the provincial soldiers who allegedly wanted to apprehend the old Seer from spreading such false rumours that could spark up political and social instability in the Kingdom." Minister Han said.
"Most Han girls must be fearing for their lives." Mrs. Han.
"It is true, they are endangered as well as their families cause the Royal Clan won't allow that to happen at any one point." Seungjae said.
"We are much fortunate we were blessed with only sons." Mrs. Han said.
"Even young lads have been placed under suspicion since we have had more than ten male Queens in history though the majority greatly believe that it is most likely to be a girl.
It is without a fact that girls are cunning and following the examples of the former Grand Queen mother Queen Areum, it is inevitable to put most Han girls in a more difficult position than the boys." Minister Han said.
"More and more people are going to be caught up in this situation." Seunghyeonjeong said.
"But still, the final say as of now rests with the King and the King alone but most Hans with daughters are bound to soon fall from grace." Minister Han said.
They continued to eat and they had concluded their meal.
The Grand Prince had managed to get a room in a cheap inn and he was led by one of the Inn's staff to an upper room.
The Inn stood on a hill which overlooked the city below and it had a splendid view of the night sky and the surrounding area as well.
"If you need anything you can call me." The Inn Keeper said before exiting the upper room and leaving the Crown Prince alone at his own individual exposure.
The Crown Prince walked to the window and stared at the full moon that was shining bright outside.
His heart still mourned but as he gazed and mused at the extra ordinary beauty of the stars, he couldn't help but think back earlier in the day.
He recalled the cherry lips and Crystal eyes, mild and flawless skin as well as the elegant and graceful appearance of the stranger he had met at the store.
He was in deed an angel in his memory and he fathomed a number of feelings about that very attractive young man.
"What was his name?" He asked himself as his face started to lighten up with a smile.
"I forgot to ask him what it was." He remembered that he became angry at himself for his negligence.
Could it have been that the Crown Prince had fallen for the youngest son of the Han family, possibly or not?