RISING TIDES

Minister Han was seated in the interrogation room when The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong walked in.

"Your Highness." Minister Han said as he bowed his head.

"No need for that." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said as he took a seat that was opposite that of Minister Han.

"I heard that you had been apprehended and I hurried over immediately to see it for myself if it is in deed true." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"There is no need to worry over me your Highness, I am but a common official of the government and a servant of the country." Minister Han said.

"Still I worry about you since I take you to be a father of mine, besides your wife and my mother are very close friends and I knew her since I was young." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said with a smile.

Minister Han looked at the Crown Prince and smiled back at him.

"You needn't worry yourself with matters such as this your Highness, I am sure there are other more important things for you to do.

Besides, I am innocent and there is adequate proof that can save me from apprehension, it is a matter of time before I can actually be proven innocent and I shall be released." Minister Han said.

"What is it that they are accusing you of because as far as I know you are one of the most morally upright officials and great men of this country?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong asked.

"Haven't you heard a thing of it your Highness, I am being charged with illegal exportation and importation of goods, of all crimes great and small." Minister Han said as he laughed hysterically.

"I thought all goods that are brought into the country are taxed." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"Apparently, the tax records were never found in the office of records for the past three months and my allegation is that someone stole them." Minister Han said.

"That is ridiculous, who would break into the office of records and steal such vital documents, besides it is highly guarded?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"Even assassins can break into the palace which is the most guarded residence in the entire Kingdom even so without fail, why wouldn't someone break into a mere office of records?" Minister Han asked

"It is a little weird though but I can certainly understand that someone wants to frame me for this and this is not the very first time that something like this has happened.

Though I am quite smart and lucky that I kept the tax records and cheques with me back at my Manor, other than that, I would certainly be in much bigger trouble.

If it weren't for those other copies I wouldn't be able to prove my innocence so it is a matter of time before I am freed.

Besides, I have the Royal Charter that allowed me to operate business with them, with that in my possession as well I might track down the case back to the one who filled it and have them apprehended for false allegations." Minister Han added.

"That is very good of you your Excellency, you are in deed a very smart person." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said as he smiled at him.

"Go ahead." He thought.

"Spill everything you know about where you keep those documents, it will be to your surprise that soon they'll be missing from your household.

Then there will only be one way of saving you and that is by being indebted to me." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong thought.

"Very well your Highness, you are the first that I have told about this, if those documents go missing, I'll know for a fact that it is you who has orchestrated all of this." Minister Han thought as well.

"In deed I am flattered by your praise your Highness." Minister Han joyously replied to the Crown Prince.

"You really deserve it." The Crown Prince replied.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun was still following the mysterious person from the palace that he had seen earlier and the closer that he got, he noticed that the halved Jade pendant looked like the exact half.

The two of them suddenly approached an isolated alley and the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun took the opportunity to grab a hold of the stranger's hand.

He dragged the stranger who was barely resisting to one of the corners that was unseen by most of the passers by allowing him to at least have a conversation with the young stranger.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun pinned the stranger to the wall and then his eyes first fell onto the halved Jade pendant.

"What are you doing?" The stranger asked in a very strange and soft voice.

The Grand Prince didn't answer and only reacted by grabbing a hold of the halved Jade pendant that the stranger was wearing on the hanbok.

"Please give me back my pendant, my father gave it to me." The stranger said but the Grand Prince still ignored the stranger's words as he was after proving something else.

He pulled out the other half in his possession and then looking at the two closely, he could tell the material was exactly the same.

The colour, width, and even the designs, they were all an exact match that without hesitation, he brought the two pieces of the pendant together at the point where they were broken.

The pattern was perfectly patched and the Jade pendant was eventually completed.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun was still startled by what he was seeing in front of his eyes.

"My other half." The stranger said.

At once, the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun turned to the stranger who was trying to cover up their face and he looked into the stranger's eyes.

They were dark, darker than he remembered, nevertheless they were warm, the aura around the stranger was more different than it was the last time.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun only got closer and closer and he removed the cloth that covered the head and the mouth dropping it down.

At last he was beholding the face that he dearly loved and wished he'd have a glimpse of.

It was that very face that he had searched for the past eight years and he was now looking right at it thinking it to be the most beautiful that he had ever seen.

There was a very beautiful young man in front of him, in wonderful make up and with a look of wonder on his face.

It was round and ended in a chisel chin, the lips were cherry red and the eyes small like twinkling stars while the nose was small, skin flawless it was without a doubt he was an angel.

"You're, you're, the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun." The stranger said.

"Your Highness." He hurriedly paid his respects and bowed his head.

Nevertheless, the Grand Prince held him by the chin and then lifted his face up to look into his eyes.

He recalled the last time that he had fought with the stranger who bore the halved Jade pendant and that time that he had cornered him.

"You are?" The Grand Prince asked.

"Jang Heungseon, Jang Heungseon your Highness." The stranger replied.

"Such a beautiful name, a name that suits you just right." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said.

"Your Highness." Heungseon said.

It was then that the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun remembered that they were in a public place and he pulled away leaving a reasonable distance between himself and Heungseon.

"You kept it all these years." Heungseon said.

"I was eager to know who my first love is, at last, after all these years, I finally found you." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said.

"You're Highness, perhaps we'll meet and talk some other time formally, for now, I must rush back to my family." Jang Heungseon said.

He got hold of his halved Jade pendant and then he snatched it from the Grand Prince's hands and then he ran away out to the main Street after he had negotiated the corner.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun wanted to call out his name but he was at a distance and he remained there with his hand stretched while pointing in Heungseon's direction.

"Jang Heungseon." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun murmured to himself.

"Jang Heungseon." He called again as he smiled before he turned and headed back to the Gaesungseong palace.

The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong got out of the interrogation room only to meet Sangil waiting outside.

"Your Highness." The nearby guards said as they bowed their heads.

He ignored them as he approached Sangil.

"Your Highness." Sangil said as he bowed his head.

"I have a job for you." The Crown Prince said.

"Speak Lord, this your humble servant is listening." Sangil said.

"The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong dragged him farther away from the rest and whispered into his ears.

"Go out there at Minister Han's Manor tonight and check through his study for all his trade documents, the charters, records and the cheques.

Make sure that you are not caught, his residence is a very secure one and there are a number of private soldiers so you need to be careful." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"Yes your Highness." Sangil said as he withdrew and bowed his head before he immediately walked away.

The Crown Prince remained there looking at the interrogation room as Minister Han was being dragged out and being taken back to his dungeon.

He smiled.

"They never say no to me and I shall always get what I want." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said to himself.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun arrived back at the palace as he looked at the halved Jade pendant in his palms and he smiled.

He could vividly recall a series of mixed memories along with the face he thought belonged to the pendant's real owner.

"Your Highness." Mr. Oh suddenly called him that he looked up at him.

"What is it Mr. Oh?" The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun asked with a smile on his face.

"Your Father wants to have a word with you." Mr. Oh said.

"Really?" The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun asked.

"Yes your Highness." Mr. Oh replied as he bowed his head.

"Take him to me." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said.

"This way your Highness." Mr. Oh said as he started out in the direction of Jeonyuhwa Hall while the Grand Prince followed closely behind him.

The two walked until they eventually arrived at the entrance of the hall.

The doors were opened and the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun walked inside.

"Father." He said as he bowed his head.

"It took you long enough." King Gwangyang said as he looked at his son.

"I had gone out of the palace." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said.

"And now that you are here I suppose that I should get straight to the point." King Gwangyang said.

"What is it father?" The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun asked.

"Have a seat first." King Gwangyang said and the Grand Prince obeyed and came over finally settling in the seat in front of his father.

"I am aware that I won't be here forever and I certainly do understand that you are now old enough I can not keep you around the palace just as my son.

You need to first of all indulge in politics and for that to be the case first and foremost it is necessary that you get married to someone who is from a respectable family.

I want you to get married to someone who is going to benefit the entire Kingdom and that being the case I have come to think of it keenly." King Gwangyang said.

"Yes Father, I also think that it is high time that I also got married to someone, Gyeongjeong is already married and he is on the hunt for a concubine, I am soon making nineteen so I gave it a thought as well.

If you give me the green light father then I would certainly get married without question." The Prince Gyeongseongmun said joyously.

King Gwangyang was surprised by what he had heard and he smiled even wider.

"Finally you have now grown into a better person." King Gwangyang said.

"You are now starting to see like a mature man, everything that I wanted to teach you so badly you'll soon put into practice." King Gwangyang added.

"Yes Father." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said with a smile.

"Since that is considered, I have already chosen for you someone who is going to be your prospective bride, in fact, I just met them earlier today." King Gwangyang said.

When he mentioned it, the Grand Prince's mind went back to the stranger that he had seen coming from this side of the palace.

The Grand Prince was more certain that his father had already met Jang Heungseon and was as well pleased with him that he smiled.

"You know better than anyone the right person for me father, I know if you chose them then definitely, they shall make a potential Grand Princess." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said.

King Gwangyang was surprised after he saw that his son was not opposing him at all that eventually, he took the chance to tell the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun what he had planned.

"Mr. Oh." The King called and Mr. Oh rushed into the palace immediately.

"Yes your Majesty." Mr. Oh said as he bowed his head in front of the King Gwangyang who was smiling widely.

"Tell all the Ministers to gather in the court tomorrow and also I want the Crown Prince Gyeongjeong and his brother the Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun present to attend it." King Gwangyang said.

"Yes your Majesty." Mr. Oh replied before he bowed his head and then walked out of the room.

"Do not worry my son, dress very well for tomorrow, I shall declare before the whole court and it shall be known in the Kingdom who is going to be your bride and your brother's concubine." King Gwangyang said.

"Yes father." The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun said as he stood up and he bowed his head.

Eventually, he walked out right at the moment that the King Gwangyang got hold of one empty scroll and then he wrote on it something.

When he was done, the dipped his fingerprint into ink and placed it on the paper and then stamped it with the King's Royal seal implying that even if he died, it was to be carried out as his Royal decree.

When he was done in his solitude, he tied up the scroll and then smiled at his work.

"This is the beginning of everything that I have out planned for you." The King Gwangyang said as he smiled.

**************

"What?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"Yes your Highness." the Royal Messenger said.

"Your father wants you and your brother to attend a court session tomorrow in front of the court officials where he is going to announce who your concubine is going to be and who your brother's consort is going to be as well." The messenger said.

"At what time?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong asked.

"He said you must be there early in the morning." The messenger said.

"Alright then." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

The messenger bowed his head and then withdrew from the Crown Prince's presence.

The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong remained seated as he thought about what his father had said and then lightly smiled.

"What are you thinking?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong asked himself when Sangil walked in moments later.

"Your Highness." Sangil said as he bowed his head.

"Are your men ready?" The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong asked.

"Yes your Highness." Sangil said.

"That is good then, remember what you are after and make sure it is done in the utmost secrecy." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said.

"Yes your Highness." Sangil said.

"Hmmm." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong muttered.

"I also really need you to find out which people my father met with in the palace today.

I need to at least have a hunch on what his plan for tomorrow is." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong added.

"Yes your Highness." Sangil said as he bowed his head and then walked out of the Crown Prince's study.

The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong remained there smiling.

"It doesn't really matter father, whatever you will do at least I'll be ready and one step ahead while on the other hand, it is only a matter of time before I can surely suppress your Minister Han.

You are going to know who begs and who gets, this I am certain." The Crown Prince Gyeongjeong said to himself.

The Grand Prince Gyeongseongmun stood in the courtyard in front of his Chambers and he looked up at the moon that was brightly glowing in the skies.

It was a starlit night and the view was a remarkable one it brought him some of the best memories of the day.

He couldn't stop thinking of the face that he had seen earlier in the day and he couldn't help but keep on smiling every time that it came back to his head.

He was tightly holding onto the half of the Jade pendant as he recalled the time he had met with it's bearer and saved him from falling off the horse.

Not so far from there, Seunghyeonjeong was also holding onto the other real half of the Jade pendant as he'd never stopped to wonder where the other half ever went.

He also looked up at the moon in the sky and he was thinking about a number of things that he could barely get his thoughts straight.

He mourned his father who was behind bars and he had decided on a very drastic move to save him, it was an awful plan that could perhaps make things worse than they already were.

His decision was bound to cause uproar in the government, it was going to give his father more enemies and it was bound to turn to close Royal brothers into bloody rivals.