There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 349

350. The Weight of the Crown (3)

Royal weddings usually take place between the ages of ten and thirteen.

Even with the custom of early marriage, I wouldn’t send my daughter away at that young age. But the Crown Prince’s wedding is about bringing someone in, not sending someone out.

I suppose that’s something to be thankful for.

“To be honest, I think it would be better to hold it a little later.”

My younger siblings all married relatively early, but honestly, what’s the point of marrying them off so young? It’s just playing house.

However, Yi Bang-won, the old Joseon [dynasty] man, thought differently.

“Even if the ceremony is held later, we should bring in the Crown Princess early so she can learn the dignity befitting her position. Wouldn’t it be good for the couple to get to know each other from a young age?”

That’s just Yi Bang-won’s opinion. There’s also the Westermarck effect [the psychological phenomenon where people raised in close proximity during early childhood are desensitized to sexual attraction].

Why do childhood friends always lose in romance?

It’s said that boys and girls who grow up together see each other as family and lose interest as potential partners.

There may be exceptions, but that’s the general trend I’ve heard.

But of course, that’s not very important in this palace.

What’s important is the political implication it holds.

‘Lobbying is coming in through all sorts of channels.’

Crown Prince Yi Dan’s position is more solid than ever since the founding of the nation, and since he doesn’t have any younger brothers yet, the rarity of Dan’s offspring is even greater.

‘Actually, this might be a problem with the system.’

Joseon has procedures for selecting not only the Queen Consort but also concubines, but the system isn’t properly established yet, and I already skipped it once during my own royal wedding.

As a result, there’s fierce competition to push their own people into not only the Queen Consort position but also the concubines.

Among the royal family, there’s a growing consensus that the Crown Princess’s wedding should be held quickly to establish order.

Because of that, it was decided to hold the Crown Princess selection this year.

Candidates were gathered from both inside and outside Joseon, and their birth data were submitted.

‘The problem isn’t just one or two things.’

Since every noble family with a daughter of age was required to submit their data, it was a lot of work just to narrow down the candidates for interviews.

“The Crown Prince is of age, so you need to act like a father. Don’t grumble and pick one quickly.”

Anyone who heard that would think I haven’t been acting like a dad until now.

There’s no dad who works as hard as I do and still plays well with his kids.

“That’s just something you enjoy doing. A real father’s role is to properly pave the way for his children’s future, isn’t it?”

‘Is that why you tried to cut off my uncles?’

Thinking about how they were running around trying to stop Yi Bang-won from acting like a dad still makes me sweat.

‘Even after going through that mess, they’re still submitting candidates here.’

I subtly pushed one of the birth data submissions at the bottom to the corner.

Originally, families closely related to the royal family are excluded during the royal wedding, but not all members of the Yeoheung Min clan are the same.

Even among them, it wouldn’t be strange for families distantly related to marry into the royal family for generations.

‘Knowing that my uncles almost got their heads chopped off for being in-laws, they didn’t even try to stop it.’

The Min Mu-gu brothers learned to be careful, so it seemed that other families within the Yeoheung Min clan had put a lot of pressure on them.

In a way, they were trying to build a bridge to arrange the Crown Princess position.

But I can just filter them out.

It seemed like Yi Bang-won was thinking the same thing.

‘That’s a relief.’

I can’t let another bloodbath happen in this family.

In the meantime, Yi Bang-won swept the birth data envelopes on the floor with his feet.

‘Even so, it’s still paper with his granddaughter-in-law’s name on it.’

It’s a paper with not only the person’s name but also the names of her father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and maternal grandfather, but Yi Bang-won swept it away without hesitation.

That’s a very Yi Bang-won move.

However, Yi Bang-won, unconcerned with my reaction, slightly complained.

“Andong Kwon clan, Pyeongsan Yun clan, Gyeongju Kim clan, Cheongsong Shim clan… All families that don’t satisfy me.”

“Well, compared to our royal family, aren’t they prestigious families among prestigious families?”

Considering that the mentioned families are comparable to the Yeoheung Min clan, Yi Bang-won’s words were clearly shameless.

‘Are you trying to arrange a consanguineous marriage like the Goryeo [previous Korean dynasty] royal family?’

Or did his standards go up after marrying a Ming [Chinese dynasty] princess as his daughter-in-law? But Yi Bang-won’s words meant something else.

“They’re all guys who will strut around as the King’s father-in-law. If that’s the case, I’ll have to clean up the in-laws again.”

“…”

It sounds like he’s saying he’ll kill them all if he doesn’t like them.

I silently picked up the birth data submissions that Yi Bang-won had swept away and put them in my arms.

Still, these families have face, so I can’t disqualify them in the document review.

‘Still, he’s an expert on in-laws, just like his father.’

He knows well which in-laws to choose to avoid trouble.

“Actually, if I were confident in properly handling the aftermath, these wouldn’t be bad either, but how long will I live?

Then you’ll have to take care of the cleanup, but I can’t let my son get his hands dirty.”

“Yes, yes.”

You’ve worked hard to be a father.

Yi Bang-won continued to sweep away the submissions with his feet.

I was also busy grabbing the fluttering papers and pushing them to the corner.

Shouldn’t servants be doing this kind of work? But we’re secretly picking the Crown Princess together, so there’s no choice.

Yi Bang-won’s gaze stopped somewhere as he was picking them out until there weren’t many submissions left.

“Yeonil Jeong clan…? Read this one.”

When Yi Bang-won, whose voice suddenly softened, said that, I picked up the submission and read it.

“Second daughter of the Yeonil Jeong clan. Father Jeong Jong-seong, grandfather…”

I couldn’t figure out what Yi Bang-won was hooked on, so I read it smoothly, but soon my voice faltered.

“…Jeong Mong-ju?”

“Now that I think about it, I’ve heard the story. Didn’t your cousin marry Jeong Jong-seong’s eldest daughter?”

I vaguely remembered it too.

Yi Bang-gwa’s son, Sunseong-gun Yi Mu-saeng, married the daughter Jeong Jong-seong had with his deceased first wife.

Well, my uncle is usually a bland person, so whatever.

“I heard that Jeong Jong-seong also had a daughter with his concubine. Jeong Jong-seong’s second daughter.”

Yi Bang-won said, stroking his chin with a thoughtful expression.

“I know Jeong Jong-seong well. He’s the son of that Jeong Mong-ju, so his character is gentle, and he’s known as a filial son. If it’s that kind of family, I can guess their family values.”

“Is that so?”

If he’s such a filial son, he’ll probably remember to the end that his father had Jeong Mong-ju’s head smashed.

Then Yi Bang-won laughed and waved his hand.

“I have nothing to worry about, so the problem is them. The fact that Jeong Jong-seong submitted a maiden’s data means that he has forgotten all the old grudges, right? Then what’s the problem?”

“…”

Well, when marrying off the Crown Prince, all noble families with daughters of the right age are required to submit their data in principle.

“Moreover, he has a reputation as a loyalist’s descendant, but he doesn’t have much power. Jeong Jong-seong doesn’t have a high position either. Isn’t it just right?”

“Are you really saying you want to bring Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter in as the Crown Princess?”

‘Are you senile?’

I gave my father an impudent look that I couldn’t bear to send.

‘But to make in-laws with the enemy of the family.’

Actually, it’s closer to our family being Jeong Jong-seong’s enemy rather than Jeong Jong-seong being our family’s enemy, but isn’t that the same thing?

“Ahem, considering various factors, I like it. If you, the father, don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do.”

Yi Bang-won changed his words.

But it looked like the instinct of a slayer of in-laws.

Now that he can’t kill his in-laws because of his son’s eyes, has he evolved to accept the family he already killed as in-laws?

I picked up Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter’s data and put it in my arms.

“Since Father says so, I’ll put it up as a candidate for now.”

‘I would have disqualified her without looking back.’

Let’s think of it as Yi Bang-won, the judge, using a super pass.

Even if the families have grudges against each other, she won’t be left until the end, right?

* * *

However, unlike Lee Je’s delusion, even the enemy of parents is helpless in the face of reality.

Even if it’s a family that saw blood in the process of founding Joseon, only a very few people still grind their teeth at it.

Even in the original history, Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter marries Yangnyeong Daegun’s son, Sunseong-gun Yi Gae.

Later, Jeong Jong-seong’s son, Jeong Bo, was involved in the Danjong Restoration Movement and was demoted to a concubine, but anyway, it wasn’t an impossible marriage.

However, even at the time, this marriage was considered quite unexpected.

The fact that ‘that’ Yangnyeong Daegun promoted Sunseong-gun’s marriage, forgetting the past, was enough to earn the praise of many scholars.

The news that Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter, who was expected to be dropped in the preliminary selection, safely advanced to the Produce Crown Princess finals spread in an instant.

The legal system was not fully established yet, and the country was much larger than the original Joseon, so even after being filtered out in the preliminary selection, there were still nearly twenty candidates left, but that was enough to attract people’s attention.

Jeong Jong-seong has a high name due to his father’s halo and filial piety, but that’s it.

The fact that a daughter from such a family remained in the selection was enough to ignite the imagination of many people.

“Could this be…?”

“Isn’t that exactly it, that thing.”

“Are you talking about Old Scholar and Lady Joo?”

“That’s exactly it!”

There was no one in the capital who didn’t know the story of Hanseong Geosa’s first work, Old Scholar and Lady Joo.

It was a novel that received both love and hate from the people to the point where even pirated versions with different endings were circulating, but to be exact, it seemed to fit the current situation.

“A marriage between enemy families! And that too, the Crown Prince!”

“But if the marriage really happens, wouldn’t it be truly romantic?”

Yi Bang-won promoted Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter for purely strategic reasons, but in the minds of Joseon people whose brains had softened with romance, a fervent delusion circuit was running.

Although Jeong Mong-ju was a figure who opposed the founding of Joseon, he had already been reinstated for a long time.

He was also a figure respected by many scholars for his integrity, so public opinion was very favorable.

“Oh my, if this marriage is successful, it will be quite a sight.”

“The Crown Princess is from a family of Goryeo loyalists.”

Of course, it was half out of interest and fun, but anyway, a generally supportive atmosphere was being formed.

And Min In-saeng caught the undercurrent of public opinion faster than anyone else.

The candidate submitted by the Yeoheung Min clan had already been dropped in the preliminary selection under the agreement of the King and the Retired King.

Min In-saeng, who had been subtly pressured by the family to promote our candidate – but didn’t really listen to it – had nothing to fear now.

The Crown Prince’s marriage is an important matter for the future of the country.

If the Sunbo [a newspaper] doesn’t cover it, where else can it be broadcasted?

Even so, he couldn’t speculate on the royal family’s intentions and mention promising candidates before the results were out, but it wouldn’t be a problem to publish the candidates and their family’s reputation.

In that case, the Sunbo would naturally have to publish articles focusing on candidates who would attract a lot of people’s attention.

“Our sister has confirmed it. The Retired King has chosen Jeong Jong-seong’s daughter.”

With the hint from Min Mu-gu, the major shareholder, the tone of the Yeoheung Sunbo began to lean to one side in an instant.

It was a situation that King Lee Je had not expected at all, but it was the same for others as well.