There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 232

< The Legend of the Yongma (2) >

The Yongma [a mythical winged horse] I finally faced was so impressive that even I, who wasn’t particularly interested in horses, was taken aback.

‘He’s handsome.’

The passage of time was evident in the graying of his mane, revealing his age, but even considering that, he was a magnificent horse that anyone would envy.

“Whinny.”

However, unlike his dignified appearance, he seemed exhausted, squatting in front of the cave, merely glaring at us.

Seeing him groan and stubbornly block the entrance to the cave, a question arose in my mind.

“Your Highness, it’s dangerous!”

“Please step back!”

The people, brandishing their pitchforks, hurriedly stopped me.

Remembering the Yongma’s rampage in Yeoju, they were worried I might get hurt.

‘Still…’

I didn’t think the Yongma would harm me.

If he had wanted to, he would have tried to break through the encirclement long ago.

But the fact that he was tired and squatting in front of the cave meant there was something he had to protect here.

I stared straight at the Yongma and subtly shifted my gaze to the side.

Then, I saw something wriggling inside the cave.

“T, there’s a foal, sir.”

“…”

A foal with the Yongma’s trademark W-shaped white spot.

‘The bloodline is definitely there.’

He was eating cabbage that the Yongma seemed to have plucked from the field, but stopped and stared blankly at us.

“It was a baby.”

With this, I could understand why the Yongma hadn’t been able to escape the encirclement.

No, from the beginning, the reason he hadn’t shown his violent nature and had been avoiding fights all along.

It must have all been for his child.

But his struggle was coming to an end.

“W, what should we do with this one?”

The Yongma already looked like he was nearing the end of his life.

He was a remarkable horse with great strength and longevity, but death comes equally to everyone.

‘Did I cause this by sending people to chase him?’

No, that couldn’t be.

He was just going because it was his time.

“Venerable Naong captured him with his spiritual powers, but Your Highness is capturing him so recklessly…”

I could feel Muhak speaking with a subtle tone of reproach.

Ah, all roads lead to Rome.

Isn’t that right?

Still, seeing the Yongma panting and looking at me with anxious eyes, I felt a pang of sympathy.

“I won’t hurt you.”

I knelt down on one knee and stroked the Yongma’s mane.

The Yongma stared at me for a moment, then bowed his head once.

When he raised his head again, the light had already disappeared from his eyes.

As the Yongma’s body slumped down, the foal ran over and hurriedly rubbed his head against his mother’s head.

“Whinny, whinny.”

But the already dead Yongma couldn’t move.

‘What do I do with this one?’

The Yongma, who had terrified all the people of Yeoju, was dead.

But I was deeply troubled about what to do with his foal.

“Your Highness, step back. We will take care of it.”

“He’s the child of that wicked Yongma, so the foal will be the same. We must eradicate him completely.”

These guys are scary when they talk.

I already promised the Yongma that I wouldn’t hurt him.

‘Still, I was planning to cut him off if he seemed like a bad seed after looking at him.’

Maybe it’s because he’s still young, but he doesn’t seem as violent as his mother.

“The Yongma’s foal. You’ve obtained a strange creature.”

Yi Seong-gye said, examining the foal.

“This must be a kind of fate. Let him live.”

Yi Seong-gye said.

Then the faces of the people turned pale.

“Grand Royal Father!”

“If that foal grows up and starts rampaging, we won’t be able to handle it!”

“Ah, who told you to raise him? I won’t leave him in this district, so don’t worry.”

Yi Seong-gye waved his hand, and only then did the people breathe a sigh of relief.

“Are you planning to leave him in the care of the Royal Stud Farm?”

Yi Seong-gye replied to my question.

“That would be fine, but… how about you raise him yourself?”

“…Me?”

“Isn’t he the foal of a divine horse that Venerable Naong could only restrain with his spiritual powers? If you tame him well, he will be of great help.”

The rumors about the Yongma have spread far and wide, so it would be good for propaganda.

“I’ll think about it for now.”

Leaving him like this would be an unsatisfactory ending.

However, the foal stayed close to his mother’s side, looking at us anxiously, and I couldn’t easily pick him up.

I don’t really want to, but should I take him by force?

“Your Highness, how about using this?”

At that moment, Muhak hurriedly ran over and handed me an old, worn-out bridle.

“What is this?”

“This is the bridle that Venerable Naong used to control the Yongma. Perhaps it will also be effective on the foal.”

“Thank you.”

To be honest, I don’t know what I can do with this old bridle, but I can’t refuse it since he’s giving it to me.

As I carefully approached and put the bridle on the foal, the whinnying foal instantly regained his composure.

Muhak was impressed by the sight.

“Indeed! My teacher’s spiritual power is amazing. He really tames the Yongma’s foal in an instant!”

Is that how it looks to Great Master Muhak?

Rather than that, I think the scent or traces of his mother left on the bridle give him a sense of stability.

However, there was something strange about this interpretation.

It’s been at least a few years since the Yongma escaped. It’s been a long time since the smell disappeared.

‘If you think about it that way, is it really a miraculous bridle?’

I shook my head.

There’s no such thing.

Naong must have just been an animal trainer who would appear in ‘There are no bad horses in the world’ [a famous saying implying everyone has potential].

After putting on the Divine Bridle, the foal moved obediently as I led him.

However, his gaze was still fixed on something.

His mother’s corpse… no, it’s the cabbage he stopped eating earlier.

When I brought the cabbage and threw it to him, the foal began to gobble it up.

Before I knew it, he had completely let go of his wariness of me and was burying his head, devouring the cabbage.

‘What a ridiculous guy.’

Somehow, he doesn’t seem as smart as his mother.

How can the foal of the Yongma, who avoided Yi Seong-gye’s trap, be like this?

Could it be that his mother kept leaving her child behind to steal from fields even when she was old?

“?”

Unaware of my thoughts, the foolish foal just stared at me, blinking his eyes.

“Although that Yongma committed a crime, he is a spiritual creature. Bury him in a sunny spot nearby.”

I said to the people.

Since he didn’t harm people after being released again, and knowing that he did it for his child, the people felt some sympathy and didn’t strongly object.

– Tomb of the Yongma at Yeoheung Silleuksa Temple

With the elegant writing I provided and the addition of the Yongma’s life and death circumstances, a plausible tomb was completed.

The people cheered with joy that everything was finally over.

“The Crown Prince has defeated the Yongma!”

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has taken in the Yongma’s foal to eradicate any potential danger!”

It’s like they’re saying I defeated a dragon and obtained its egg.

Don’t use such strong words.

It’s embarrassing for me.

===

“It seems Your Highness is greatly disappointed.”

Muhak said, glancing at the Crown Prince.

On the way back to Hanyang.

The Crown Prince, while complaining that the foal was too stupid for a quarter dragon, was still leading him by hand.

Sending resentful glances at Yi Seong-gye, who had hyped him up as the Yongma’s foal.

“Didn’t he know and play along? How could a Yongma exist in reality?”

“As a member of the Buddhist community, I believe in strange legends. It is said that Wonhyo [a famous Korean Buddhist monk] prayed for seven days at the current site of Silleuksa Temple and ascended nine dragons, and I thought that the rampaging Yongma might be the offspring of those dragons.”

“So, what did you see in reality?”

“I heard that he had the head of a dragon and the body of a horse, but he was an extremely normal horse.”

Yi Seong-gye nodded.

At best, he was an unusually intelligent and resilient creature, but not a legendary half-dragon, half-horse.

Even if the people believed so.

“But what is the reason for making Your Highness take in that foal?”

At Muhak’s words, Yi Seong-gye looked up at the sky and sighed deeply.

“Do you believe in destiny, Great Master?”

“Of course. How can I not believe when the very person who obtained destiny is right before my eyes?”

Then Yi Seong-gye shook his head.

“It seems there is someone else who truly possesses destiny.”

Yi Seong-gye thought of the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner that his grandson had discovered.

An incense burner is a tool for performing ancestral rites.

Even though his knowledge is limited, he couldn’t possibly not realize what it meant for the heavens to bestow such a treasure.

‘It’s a pity that I won’t be able to see that great achievement before I die.’

It’s bitter, but there’s nothing I can do.

He will just do what he can before he dies.

Even if it’s just a rumor, if people believe it, even an ordinary horse can be transformed into a Yongma.

The Crown Prince must become a hero riding the Yongma.

For the sake of the great undertaking.

===

Similar conversations were being held secretly in the palace of Hanyang.

“Heaven has granted the world to the one above, so Emperor Wu (Cao Cao) [a famous historical figure in China] obtained a bronze sparrow.”

Emperor Shun’s mother had a dream of obtaining a jade artifact and gave birth to Shun [a legendary Chinese ruler].

Cao Cao heard this story and built the famous Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

Yi Bang-won mentioned that historical event.

The son wrote in detail that this was a relic of Baekje [an ancient Korean kingdom] and asked to take good care of it, but this must be just an excuse to hide the true meaning.

From himself, and from the emperor far away in Beijing.

“The shape of the incense burner is also very meaningful. The dragon is stepping on the ground with its claws and holding the main body of the incense burner in its mouth, as if the dragon is holding a wish-fulfilling jewel.”

“Does that mean?”

As Yi Bang-won raised his eyebrows, Ha Ryun cautiously replied.

“Isn’t it that the heavens have granted good fortune for our Crown Prince?”

Yi Bang-won’s eyes trembled.

Is that really so?

He had never believed in the will of heaven in his life.

If there was such a thing, he would not have been born as the fifth son.

The dragon throne he sat on, and the prosperity of Joseon [the Korean kingdom from 1392 to 1897], were entirely the result of his own achievements.

But his eldest son…

“Your Majesty, are you alright?”

Even though there is a king in the country, isn’t it as if the Crown Prince has obtained the Imperial Seal of Approval or the Jade Seal of the State [symbols of imperial power]?

“Why wouldn’t I be alright?”

If destiny truly lies with his eldest son, then Yi Bang-won’s ascension to the throne was also the will of heaven to pass Joseon on to the Crown Prince through him.

‘Not just an excuse to persuade the officials.’

If all his decisions were determined by heaven, he would feel a little more at ease.

However, Yi Bang-won was a slightly more composed man than his father.

Yi Bang-won sealed the cleanly polished incense burner tightly and said to Ha Ryun.

“I still don’t know what the will of heaven is. Keep it a secret until everything is over.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Ha Ryun nodded.

Yi Bang-won slowly closed his eyes.

The discovery of the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner by Yi Je was fueling imaginations in a completely unexpected direction.

===

‘My grandfather forced me to bring the horse, but…’

I don’t know how to raise a foal well.

Yi Seong-gye, the Mongol chiliarch [commander of a thousand soldiers], probably knows the proper way to raise a horse.

At least it seems like he’s weaned, so I don’t have to worry about developing a formula bottle.

“Hey, No-boon.”

After finishing about 5 seconds of deep thought, I called No-boon.

“Yes, Your Highness. Did you call me?”

No-boon quickly popped out and bowed his head, and I pointed to the foal.

“This is… what is it?”

“Yeah, I got him from Yeoheung. From now on, think of him as your own child and raise him.”

No-boon looked bewildered at my words.

“Even if I don’t have children, how can I think of a horse foal as my own child and raise him? W, what is the Royal Stud Farm doing?”

“Not a horse foal, a foal, you imbecile.”

And why are you talking so much when I tell you to do something?

No-boon doesn’t even have anything to take away.

“But I don’t know anything about horses either!”

I was about to tell him to go to the Royal Stud Farm and learn, but then.

“Horses,,,!”

I pinched my forehead at the familiar voice coming from somewhere.

“Horses are,,, my specialty,,!”

Why is my great-uncle always in the East Palace?

< The Legend of the Yongma (2) > End

ⓒ Pitkong