Chapter 130
People often say that if you go around sticking your nose into other people's business, you can ruin your life.
Indeed, there have been more than a few cases of someone's life falling into the abyss even though all they did was show kindness.
There are even crazy people who pick up a wallet dropped in the street, take it to the police station the next day, and suddenly find themselves being sued.
There are even crazy bastards who file sexual-assault charges after you save someone's life with CPR.
If you are unlucky enough to get bitten by one of those crazy people, the investigation will reveal your innocence and you will not end up in prison, but you will spend at least ten million won.
On lawyers' fees and settlement money, that is.
In Joseon, where propriety and proper conduct still hold sway, if someone tried to sue over something like that, the plaintiff would be beaten with a club for making a false accusation, with everyone calling him less than human.
That makes Joseon a wonderful country in which to show kindness.
"Gapseok, let us take those children who just ran away over to our house. If two children are wandering around at this late hour, who knows what sort of misfortune might befall them."
Gapseok shook his head at my words.
"My lord, I am an ignorant man and do not know who the owner of that house is. However, it is easy to tell that anyone who owns such a large house in Bukchon must be a person of great power. If we carelessly get involved in the affairs of such a household, things will only grow worse. Please leave family matters to the family and hurry home."
Gapseok was right.
The owner of that house was Gwon Je, the former magistrate of Jincheon County, who had even served as a provincial governor of the second junior rank before being demoted after his acceptance of bribes was exposed.
Moreover, Gwon Je's father was Gwon Geun, one of the kingdom's top ten founding meritorious subjects, so the family's influence was truly immense.
Joseon was certainly a country where a person who showed kindness would not be wronged without cause, since it was a land of propriety and etiquette. But it was also a patriarchal country.
If the patriarch, Gwon Je, drank some liquor and beat his children, all anyone could do was click their tongues. Even when that bastard eventually killed his own daughter—though he claimed it was unintentional—he was not particularly punished.
The only thing written in the Veritable Records was, 'They say that bastard is trash.'
"If you meddle in another family's affairs, my lord, you will only suffer needless harm."
I could not offer any rebuttal to his words.
They were all true.
Yet I could not bring myself to simply pass by those poor children.
Partly because the boy running away was Gwon Ram, but even more because he reminded me of my childhood in Korea.
If it had been the social-welfare official who had helped me in every way when I was poor, he would have acted even knowing that things could become complicated and that he himself might suffer for it...
"You are right in all you say, but how can I, as a human being, pretend not to see these children? If they were children from a poor family, perhaps I might understand, but they are a young lady and young master from a yangban household. The rough gangs of Hanyang will surely do terrible things to them."
In twenty-first-century Korea, even if a minor ran away from home and slept on the street, they could generally get through it without anything terrible happening...
But in Joseon, where there were no CCTV cameras, if a boy and girl wearing such expensive clothes wandered around, they would catch the eyes of ruffians and be abducted without fail.
Once they were abducted, the prospect of their being released in exchange for a ransom would become remote.
That was because the ruffians knew they would be arrested the moment they appeared to collect the ransom.
So after abducting them, they would sell them as slaves somewhere in a remote countryside, claiming they were children from a noble household.
After that, they would never be found again.
"Let go of the reins."
"Good heavens, my lord..."
When I spurred my horse forward, Gapseok shook his head as though he had no choice and released the reins.
As we approached the children, their movements stopped.
Who would not be startled when a man on horseback hurried toward them late at night?
"My name is Kim Daebung. I serve as a fourth-rank Sain of the Uijeongbu. People call me Kim Daebung of the jibu sangso, and I hear that folks in the marketplace also call me Lord Jibu Sangso."
"Jibu sangso... my lord? Surely you are the illustrious..."
"The Kim Daebung you are thinking of is me."
Young Gwon Ram and the girl behind him were filled with fear.
They must have witnessed their father overturning the drinking table while drunk and beating their mother mercilessly. How frightened must they have been?
And when I looked closely, I saw that the girl even had a bruise on her face.
No wonder they had simply fled outside late at night without even thinking about what sort of tragedy might occur.
They were truly extraordinarily lucky to have run into me.
"What are your names?"
"My name is Gwon Ram, and my sister here is named Gwon Yeong."
"I see."
As I had expected, the boy's name was Gwon Ram.
Even if he had not been Gwon Ram, I had intended to protect him. But if he was the man destined to become Grand Prince Suyang's strategist...
I would need to form a bond with him, protect him, and educate him properly so that his character did not become twisted.
Judging by the path he left behind in history, he had truly outstanding abilities, but he was a man with a rotten character who went around committing nothing but evil deeds.
If I could improve his personality, would he not grow into a talent who could greatly benefit the nation?
Gwon Ram's sister trembled and asked cautiously,
"You are not going to tell us to go home, are you?"
"I saw you children run away from home at this late hour. How could I be so cold as to tell you to go back? You must have had your reasons."
The greatest reason I could not simply ignore these children running away was that they had reminded me of my previous life.
When I lived in Korea, I had been born into a very poor family.
My father died in an unfortunate accident when I was young, and my mother raised me alone until she became ill with cancer from overexerting herself.
She was not enrolled in cancer insurance, so she did not know what to do about the costly treatment she needed.
No, I later learned as an adult that she had refused treatment and intended to simply die because she had no money.
She said she had thought that going into debt to cure herself would be like killing her child just to save herself, which was why she had made that decision.
But I was young, and I ran to the local community office, throwing a tantrum and begging them to help me save my mother somehow. There, I happened to meet a social-welfare official who was nearing retirement.
Technically, it was someone else's problem, but that man worked incredibly hard to help our family.
He helped us with every bit of paperwork needed to be designated recipients of basic livelihood assistance, and did everything he could to expedite the processing so that we could be designated recipients of medical aid even one day sooner.
Because we became eligible for assistance, we received a full exemption from our medical expenses, and my mother was able to receive cancer treatment in time and ultimately survive.
We also received livelihood and housing benefits, so our family did not starve to death while she was undergoing treatment.
These children were not as poor as I had been, but how terrifying must the violence of a drunken head of household have been for them to flee like this?
After thinking about it this way, I could not possibly regard it as someone else's problem.
"For now, let us go to my house and rest. And just in case, I will call my physician as well."
"Thank you... But are you really sure this is all right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Our father was a provincial governor. And if you recklessly interfere in our family affairs, my lord, you will..."
You would be in a great deal of trouble.
You would be directly prying into the family affairs of the son of Gwon Geun, a founding meritorious subject, and a former provincial governor.
You have touched that man's sore spot, so he might try to kill you.
Even so, I could not pretend not to see children I was capable of saving.
I patted Gwon Ram on the head to brush aside his words.
"Haha, children should simply accept an adult's kindness with the innocent trust proper to children. If things go wrong, well, I might even be impeached by the Saheonbu. But that is for me to worry about, not for children like you to worry about."
"But, my lord..."
"You are remarkably thoughtful for a child so young. But you are still a child, not an adult. You need not judge matters with an adult's cool-headedness or take everyone else's circumstances into account."
If I were impeached and things became tangled this way and that, I might be stripped of my office and exiled.
So what if I were?
Even if I were exiled, my family was rich enough that I could still eat well and live comfortably.
A person only lives once and dies once.
So at the very least, I should live without doing anything that would make me ashamed in my own eyes.
That way, I could hold my head up before the official who had helped me and my family in every way when I was young.
"I will ask you again. Will you come with me?"
"We would be grateful for your help, my lord."
And so I rescued the two children from Gwon Je, who was drunk and making a scene, and returned home.
Winter was startled when we arrived, but after I explained the circumstances, she immediately called a physician.
According to the physician, because we had taken action early, the children would not be left with scars or other lasting marks.
Then, just as dawn broke the next morning, an unwelcome visitor arrived at our house.
It was Gwon Je.
The moment he saw me, he snapped at me as though rebuking me.
"No matter how much favor you enjoy with both Their Majesties at court, is it not outrageously presumptuous of you to meddle in another family's affairs?"
What I had done was presumptuous.
According to Confucian values, even if parents beat their children or went so far as to try to kill them, the children were expected to forgive everything and fulfill their filial duty.
That was the sort of world this was, so he could become angry and berate me for arbitrarily sheltering children who had been driven out of their home.
Hmm. Time to fight fire with fire.
"You were drunk and abused the children, my lord. Was that truly the right thing to do? Can you honestly say that you have nothing to be ashamed of before everyone?"