Chapter 132
Gwon Ram listened to me, then asked in reply.
"What do you mean by saying you will send him to join Goryeo?"
"I mean that I will erase him from this world, just as the former dynasty of Goryeo was erased."
"My lord, are you asking me, your child, whether I wish to harm my parent? Once a person is born, a child must fulfill his filial duty to his parents. How can you put such an outrageous thought into words? Even if a parent is utterly evil, I believe a child must still fulfill his duty."
Although Gwon Ram spoke that way, he seemed to be filled with the desire to get rid of his own father.
If he did not feel that way, then when an adult like me said something like that, the normal reaction would have been to angrily defend his father, saying, "My father is a good person. Why are you saying that?"
Yet he never said that his father was precious to him. He merely recited the duties written in the Confucian classics, as though he were reading from a textbook.
That was proof that he was extremely interested in my proposal.
"You need not hide it from me. I do not want to leave your father alone either. He is my enemy."
"Why are you doing this much for me, my lord?"
I closed the door and took off my upper garment.
Rather than explain in words why I was doing this, I thought it would be faster to convince him by telling him about what I myself had been through.
Gwon Ram's jaw dropped in shock at my sudden action.
"Why are there so many scars on your body, my lord?!"
"When Hanyang suffered its great fire last time, I rushed in holding a hammer in each hand to help put it out. No one ordered me to do it, nor was it my duty to rush in like that. I suffered some burns in the process."
Even now, I had to admit that what I had done was reckless as hell.
Was it really sensible for a civil official wearing official robes to charge around the front line of firefighting to save the people?
Even so, by throwing myself into the fire, I was able to protect countless lives and property.
"Can you guess why I did that?"
Gwon Ram tilted his head to one side.
"It was because I desperately wanted to save even one more person among those who had fallen into danger, people like you. You are suffering greatly because of your father, are you not? After seeing your situation with my own eyes, I felt sorry for you and wanted to reach out a hand. At the same time, I also wanted to punish the wicked people who trample on the weak."
"Is there truly no other reason besides that?"
In fact, there was another important reason.
The fact that you are Gwon Ram, the strategist who will serve Grand Prince Suyang.
A talent far too valuable to be placed under Sejo, a man consumed by his inferiority complex.
I intend to reform you and make you dedicate yourself to Joseon's development.
Along with your friend Han Myeong-hoe.
"It is said that a king must act like a king and a subject like a subject. It is also said that a subject must care for and cherish all the people like a mother. I wish to practice this principle that I learned from childhood, and that is why I am trying to help you."
Truthfully, neither parents in Joseon nor parents in Korea taught me to sacrifice myself for others like this.
It was the social-welfare official who treated my troubles as his own when I was on the verge of helplessly losing my family.
I am devoting myself this way because I want to become like him and repay the debt I owe him.
Gwon Ram hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
"I hate my father. He is infatuated with his concubine, who used to be a gisaeng, and he even ignores and beats my mother. I wailed and begged him not to do it. No matter how much I begged him, he would not listen. Instead, he even kicked me, saying that I had no right to interfere in what my father did."
"Your heart must have felt as though it were being torn apart."
"Yesterday, my mother was beaten badly by my father again. But perhaps that was not enough to satisfy his anger, because when he tried to beat us as well, my mother shouted for us to get out of the room quickly. That was why my sister and I ran away from the house. Although honoring one's parents is said to be a person's duty, how can I honor such a father? I am no Emperor Shun. I cannot do that."
That Shun bastard was not even human.
He was a figure from a Confucian fairy tale symbolizing an age of peace, one whose very existence is doubtful, yet they say that even when his father tried to kill him several times, he merely smiled serenely and avoided him.
They say he did it to keep his father from committing a crime, but is that human?
"Mencius also said that a remnant rebel is not a king. My father has violated human morality and abused his lawful wife and children like this, so why should I respect and honor him? My true feelings are that I want to get rid of him just as the former dynasty of Goryeo was removed."
"I will make your wish come true."
"Truly?"
As I got rid of that bastard Gwon Je, I should take this opportunity to establish laws concerning child abuse as well.
In Joseon, there was a tendency to let parents off if they killed their children, as long as they had not intended to do so. How could that possibly make sense?
Even from a Confucian perspective, that was utterly absurd.
And besides using violence, there were also madmen addicted to gambling who sold their young daughters as gisaengs or slaves so they could keep gambling.
If they were so poor that they were on the verge of starving to death and had no choice, I could understand it after giving them every possible benefit of the doubt.
But I could not forgive anyone who sold his child merely to gamble.
"However, I do not think it will be possible to kill him."
If one of Gwon Je's children died because of his abuse, I would have grounds to make a great fuss and insist that the bastard had to die.
But no one had yet been sacrificed by him, so it would be difficult to have him sentenced to death.
And was killing him necessarily the punishment that best suited that human piece of garbage?
"Instead, I can give him such terrible suffering for such a long time that he will wish he were dead."
"...... How?"
"I will impeach him and have him exiled. Ordinarily, a man like your father would live in a fine house even in exile, take a concubine locally, hire servants, and live comfortably. But if I impeach him with the utmost severity and expose all his misdeeds, such treatment will not be permitted."
Banishment was originally an incredibly harsh punishment.
Merely receiving a sentence of exile and traveling to the place of exile required an enormous amount of money.
And once an exile arrived at his destination, he had to live under the roof of the person responsible for hosting him...
Since that host had been forcibly saddled with the obligation to feed the prisoner, he would constantly scold and ignore him, then work him until he was ready to die from exhaustion.
That was what exile meant: living such a life without end until the king released you.
"Your father may be fond of his concubine, who used to be a gisaeng, but he will not be able to take that woman with him. He will have to live in a shabby shed in the countryside far from Hanyang while doing hard labor unlike anything he has ever done before. Even if he works himself to death every day, all he will receive in return is a meal made from proso and foxtail millet. How painful would it be for a man who had lived comfortably all his life to fall to the very bottom of hell?"
Surprisingly, there are many human-rights activists who support the death penalty.
It would be easy to assume that people who call for the death penalty are thinking of the rights of the victims, but the people those activists defend are death-row inmates and their human rights.
They say that sentencing someone who committed a crime worthy of the death penalty to life imprisonment and making him spend ten, twenty, or thirty years inside a prison is an extremely painful thing for him.
That is why, they say, the death penalty needs to be brought back.
I do not like the idea of protecting the rights of criminal bastards who deserve to die, but the claim that life imprisonment can be more painful than the death penalty is worth taking seriously.
A bloodthirsty smile appeared on Gwon Ram's face.
"Yes, it sounds truly painful."
"Living that way would be painful enough, but how humiliating would it be when everyone around him endlessly pointed fingers at him?"
The villagers would be utterly disgusted that a piece of garbage who got drunk, beat his wife and children, and did nothing but fool around with his concubine had come into exile, and they would not treat him as a human being.
To put it bluntly, even if a person were poor, if he wanted to be treated as a human being in his place of exile, his exile would have to be something clean like a political purge, as in Jeong Yak-yong's case. Anyone exiled for behavior as vile as that man's would truly be regarded as human garbage.
"...... Rather than killing him to send him to join the former Goryeo, I think this would be more painful. What do you think?"
There are quite a lot of cases of people taking their own lives because of bullying, gaslighting, and harassment in schools, the military, workplaces, and so on.
That is because they feel that being ostracized by the group they belong to is more painful than death.
A vicious bastard like Gwon Je deserved to live in that kind of agony.
"Do you want me to do that?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Good. From now on, I will tell you the price you must pay. Nothing in this world comes for free."
Gwon Ram swallowed hard at my words.
"From now on, you will study under me. And bring your friend Han Myeong-hoe as well. That is the price you must pay."
"What?!"
"Your father has thrown away the duties a human being ought to possess, so surely you have not learned what is right and wrong either. That is why I am going to teach you myself."
"Is that all you require?"
"There are widespread rumors that both you and that friend of yours, Han Myeong-hoe, will become great men someday. I have wondered whether what I heard in those rumors was true, but after meeting you and seeing you for myself, I think you have the makings of a man who could rise all the way to chief state councillor."
Gwon Ram would in fact go on to serve as Left State Councillor.
So even without my help, he would still rise in the world.
"My lord."
"Call me Master."
"Master..."
"Yes. From now on, I will teach you the principles of living as a human being, as well as your studies."
Although I said that, another scholar would be responsible for teaching these boys their letters.
I was a busy man with government affairs, so I could not teach them the Four Books and Three Classics from beginning to end.
Instead, I planned to fill their heads with many useful teachings.
Economics, for example.
"For the time being, think of this as your home and rest comfortably. I will soon bring your mother out of Gwon Je's clutches as well, so from now on, look only at good things and think only good thoughts. That is the privilege of a child, and a right you ought to enjoy."
Not long afterward, a memorial was submitted through the Royal Secretariat.
That bastard Gwon Je had taken the bait and petitioned the king for a divorce.