Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 362

362. What Increases When Shared: Work and Desire (4)

Hyang frantically racked his brain at the words, ‘I’ll give you a choice.’

‘A choice? About what?’

Quickly reviewing the events that had occurred and the conversations he had with Sejong, Hyang immediately understood.

‘The culprit is you! Hangeul!’

“Your Majesty, I choose the creation of the alphabet.”

“Huh?”

Sejong, who was about to continue with a serious face, momentarily gaped when Hyang answered immediately.

After a moment, Sejong, regaining his composure, asked Hyang,

“How did you know I was going to talk about creating the alphabet?”

“There have been few important matters lately, and the important matters that do exist all require a long time. Moreover, there was the promise I made to Father, so I thought there was only one answer.”

At Hyang’s answer, Sejong turned his head and muttered quietly.

“Either way, he’s a disgustingly clever fellow.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing, nothing at all. Hmm…. Anyway, since you have some idea, I’ll be frank. Wouldn’t it be better to have me hand over the regency [delegated governance] ?”

“Absolutely not!”

Hyang expressed his refusal with his whole body at Sejong’s words. Sejong, seeing Hyang’s reaction, began to worry instead.

“Do you dislike it that much? It’s what you’ll have to do when I die anyway.”

“Your Majesty is still full of energy, so why would you hand over the regency? Surely there will be those who will misinterpret it.”

Sejong nodded at Hyang’s words.

“That’s true, but…. Wouldn’t handing over the regency be a little easier than creating the alphabet?”

“Since I was young, I have enjoyed pondering things. Also, I have felt the need for our own Joseon alphabet since I was young.”

Sejong succinctly pointed out the core of Hyang’s lengthy answer.

“So, you don’t want to hand over the regency, but you’ll only do the alphabet creation?”

“Yes!”

“Such a consistent fellow…. Tsk!”

Sejong clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Wait here for a moment.”

“Yes? Yes.”

Sejong disappeared in a flash, and Hyang, left alone in the room, sighed deeply.

“Hoo~. That was close.”

* * *

Having suffered from depression in the 21st century, Hyang found state affairs burdensome.

‘Presenting opinions or announcing various policies is just an announcement, so I can get by, but the actual work is just not for me!’

Hyang was making excuses for himself, but there was a fact that Hyang was overlooking.

The amount of administrative work that had to be done at Area 51 and the research institute was also considerable. Of course, Jeong Cho, Jeong In-ji, Yi Cheon, and others shared a large amount, but Hyang was handling the majority.

In the end, it was a matter of aptitude related to his passion.

* * *

After a while, Sejong returned with two large bundles in both hands.

“Eucha!”

With a small shout, Sejong placed the two bundles on the desk and sat down. Hyang asked,

“What are those bundles filled with?”

“Open them.”

“Yes….”

At Sejong’s command, Hyang opened the bundles and his eyes widened.

There was an enormous amount of books, easily over 40 volumes.

“This is….”

Hyang opened the book that was placed on top and looked at Sejong with surprised eyes.

“Have you already finished creating it?”

“To some extent?”

“Then there’s nothing for me to do?”

“You have a lot to do. First….”

Sejong tapped the books with his hand and continued.

“I created the letters and wrote down the principles, but I think there may be errors. Also, there is a high possibility of conflicts in the explanations at the beginning and the end. So you need to cross-validate that part.”

“…Yes.”

As Sejong’s explanation continued, Hyang’s face gradually turned yellow.

“…And when that’s done, you need to organize the examples [Hae Rye, explanations] related to pronunciation. And when that’s done, you need to create a vernacular translation [Eon Hae, translating Chinese to Hangeul] based on the examples. Do you know why?”

“It’s to compare the example text and the vernacular translation to understand it more quickly.”

Sejong smiled and nodded at Hyang’s answer.

“Hahaha! That’s right! As expected of the Crown Prince!”

“I’m more worried about whether I’ll do it properly.”

At Hyang’s words, Sejong took out a few pieces of paper from his sleeve and handed them to Hyang.

“This is…. Oh!”

Hyang, who had taken the paper without thinking, checked the paper and looked at Sejong with surprised eyes.

The paper Sejong handed him was the paper on which Hyang had written Hangeul. It was definitely some of those papers that had been scribbled on with lines and painted over with black ink. Hyang, who was just gaping at the papers that still had stains here and there, opened his mouth when Sejong spoke.

“Was it concrete before? When I heard from the historian that you scribbled and erased it, I had some idea. So I investigated just in case, and I became convinced. You must already have something in mind, so the work won’t be difficult.”

In the end, Hyang had to wave the white flag.

“I will do my best.”

“I want to receive the results as soon as possible.”

At Sejong’s request, Hyang attempted a final resistance.

“May I bring Anpyeong and Jinpyeong to use?”

“Those children have other things to do. If you complete it properly, I will test with those children and other children to see if it is easy to learn. And if I get satisfactory results in that part, I will have Anpyeong organize the folk songs, and Jinpyeong….”

Sejong suddenly stopped talking and sighed deeply.

“Haa~. Jinpyeong is the problem. He’s only obsessed with the iron horse….”

An idea flashed through Hyang’s mind at Sejong’s grumbling.

“Then how about having him write the research records related to that iron horse in this script? If this script is properly completed, the records of the research institute and Area 51 must all be rewritten. In such cases, we can test in advance whether the script can play its role.”

“That’s good.”

* * *

Having taken on homework from Sejong, Hyang left Gangnyeong Hall with bundles in both hands.

“Your Highness, I will carry them.”

“It’s okay. Anyway….”

Hyang glared at the eunuchs following behind.

“Was it you guys?”

The eunuchs bowed their heads at Hyang’s question, which contained many meanings.

“Please forgive us.”

Seeing that, Hyang sighed deeply and muttered.

“Hoo! What did you guys do wrong? It must have been all by royal order…. I need to make a shredder right away….”

As he grumbled and moved his steps, Hyang suddenly stopped.

“Wait….”

Hyang’s expression, looking at the bundles with his steps stopped, was more serious than ever.

‘The things I wrote on that paper are all words? And I wrote them randomly…. Isn’t this going to be different from the Hangeul I knew?’

The Hangeul that Hyang scribbled on the paper was written randomly, following the flow of consciousness. Instead of writing in rows and columns, he scribbled randomly in the empty spaces as he thought of them. Of course, there were also things that he transcribed Chinese characters in the process of writing reports and petitions, but it was certain that mixing them with those randomly written things would only increase the confusion.

‘If this goes wrong…. It was a mistake not to examine it properly earlier!’

Hyang began to sweat cold.

For example, he could have written ‘ㄱ’ and the pronunciation could be ‘ㄴ’ or ‘ㄷ’.

If Hyang’s worries became reality, it meant that he would have to completely overhaul it or learn it anew.

‘No, it would be better to learn it anew than to overhaul it all myself.’

“Hoo~.”

Having made a decision, Hyang sighed and moved his steps.

“Why are these bundles so heavy!”

“Your Highness, we….”

“It’s okay!”

Hyang’s voice was sharp with the rising annoyance, and the eunuchs had to be restless.

* * *

Hyang, who returned to the East Palace, immediately unpacked the bundles and began checking the contents. It was more urgent than anything to check whether it was the worst situation or not.

Hyang, who had checked about half of the books in the bundle, sighed in relief.

“Hoo~. Fortunately, there’s nothing out of line….”

Having confirmed that it was the same principle, consonant and vowel forms, and pronunciation as what he had learned in the 21st century, Hyang soon had another question.

“But why is there so much volume?”

Most of the related information he knew was in the half of the volume that had already been reviewed.

Looking at the contents of the remaining books with curiosity, Hyang had a dumbfounded expression.

“Oh my…. You’ve even made pronunciations for Chinese, Latin, Greek, and Arabic? That means…. The results could have come out faster if you hadn’t done this part?”

Hyang, who had repeatedly examined the part that was organized about the books that came into Joseon and the languages used by foreigners, muttered with a hollow face.

“It’s not ‘The language of our nation is different from Chinese (나랏말ᄊᆞ미 듕귁에 달아),’ but ‘The language of our nation is different from the world (나랏말ᄊᆞ미 사해(四海, 세계)에 달아)’…. You want me to organize all this and make example texts and vernacular translations?”

Hyang, who was making a hollow expression at the enormous difficulty and volume than expected, soon smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“Really…. I’m a cheat key, but that man is out of standard….”

* * *

The time when he was a purchasing agent was when the research institute and Area 51 were being created. It was almost 10 years.

Even if Sejong had spent nearly 10 years, it was a near miracle to have independently created a unique script by studying Chinese and Western phonology books on his own.

Of course, there were the papers he had scribbled on.

However, even if the paper he had scribbled on in Hangeul had been helpful, it was certain that it could not have been of great help. ‘Reverse engineering’ is something that cannot even be attempted unless the person attempting it has a similar level of skill or knowledge.

Rather, Hyang’s paper would have certainly become a trap if he did not have excellent analytical and judgment skills.

Therefore, Hyang had no choice but to recall the evaluation of ‘out of standard’ that he used to say habitually.

* * *

“Anyway, I have to do it since I took it on…. Tsk!”

Clicking his tongue, Hyang picked up the books again and began to read them.

As he was reading the books again, Hyang burst into laughter at the part that explained how to give examples related to pronunciation.

“Heh!”

The part where Hyang burst into laughter was as follows.

In the part that expresses the pronunciation of ‘ㄱ’, he put ‘군 (君, Lord)’, and in the part that explains ‘ㄲ’, he put ‘규 (虯, baby dragon)’.

If you connect all the parts in this way, it becomes ‘군규쾌업 (君虯快業, The lord and the baby dragon worked happily.)’.

Since the baby dragon usually meant the Crown Prince, it could be written as follows.

-The king and the crown prince worked happily.

(Note 1)

In other words, Sejong was saying this to Hyang.

‘I’ve gilded you, so work hard!’

“Yes~. Yes~. I will roll hard.”

Hyang, who was constantly chuckling and muttering to himself, unfolded a blank piece of paper and began working.

* * *

A month later, Hyang visited Gangnyeong Hall with two large bundles.

“Please review it.”

Sejong, who was silently looking at the bundles Hyang handed him, turned to Hyang.

“Why, has the amount increased a bit?”

“Ah, while organizing, there were conflicting parts in the usage example field, so I organized that part separately and added suggestions for solutions. Also, I have organized words that are good for writing (作文) but are rarely pronounced in reality. Please judge whether to remove them or leave them.”

Sejong, listening to Hyang’s explanation, opened the bundles and picked up a book to examine the contents.

Sejong, who examined the red annotations-written in the script Sejong made, resentfully-that were densely written on the original written by Sejong and the newly rewritten copy, glared at Hyang.

‘Is this intentional? Is this definitely intentional?’

“As Father said, the amount has increased a bit as I worked happily.”

Sejong sighed at Hyang’s answer.

“Okay. I’ll check and let you know the results.”

“Yes, Father.”

* * *

Note 1) https://namu.wiki/w/훈민정음