Hangul and Compulsory Education (5)

Three days had passed since I submitted a fake sick-leave application to Byeon Gye-ryang.

For three days and nights, I had devoted myself to drafting improvements to Hunminjeongeum's orthography and a plan for implementing compulsory education, cutting my sleeping time down to the bare minimum.

And the result was now in my hands.

"At last, it's finished."

I had pushed my body to its limits, devoting myself to this task without even sleeping a single shijin (2 hours) a day.

After spending three straight days desperately focused solely on my research, I should have been so mentally dazed and physically exhausted by now that I could barely muster any strength and would stagger around automatically...

Strangely, however, my body was overflowing with energy, and my heart was filled only with the desire to do even more work.

That was why I wanted to get to work and show this report to King Sejong the Great as quickly as possible, without wasting even a minute or a second.

If he received and read it, Sejong would surely smile as though he had gained the entire world.

After all, this was the very Hunminjeongeum that, in actual history, he had created even as diabetes nearly robbed him of his sight.

He had done so while imagining the salvation of all the people from ignorance.

"Is there no one outside? Bring me my official robes."

Hearing my voice, Gapseok appeared before me carrying my official robes.

Then, after examining my complexion, he was utterly horrified.

"My lord, surely you aren't planning to go to work in this condition? You can't. Absolutely not."

"Ah, yes. That's right. I haven't washed for the past few days, so I must be filthy. In that case, I need to bathe before I go, so hurry and boil some water. Hurry! Every moment counts."

"Good heavens, my lord. If you've been working yourself to the bone and sleeping less than one shijin a day for the past few days, please take this opportunity to catch up on your sleep and look after your health. Lady Gyeoul has been extremely worried that you might damage your health whenever she saw you so absorbed in your work."

"I'm not even thirty yet. Nothing is going to happen just because I haven't slept for a few days."

When I worked as an administrator in a central government ministry, there had been times when I worked for nearly a week while sleeping less than an hour a day.

I had been sleepy then, too, but it had hardly interfered with my work.

I had lived that way until I reached my late thirties in Korea without any particular problems. Surely nothing would happen just because, in Joseon, I had spent three days sleeping only one hour a day in a twenty-six-year-old body?

"The affairs of the state I am handling right now are more urgent and important than taking care of my body. So hurry up and prepare my bathwater."

I believed that accomplishing both compulsory education and Hunminjeongeum would be the greatest achievement a Korean reincarnated in Joseon could accomplish.

In my personal opinion, it was a greater achievement than expanding Joseon's territory all the way to Manchuria.

In the fifteenth century, when the average illiteracy rate exceeded ninety percent, Joseon alone achieving an illiteracy rate of one percent?

A feat possible only in the developed countries of the twenty-first century was about to be achieved in the fifteenth century. How could I not hurry?

As I continued hounding Gapseok, Gyeoul appeared behind him.

She always smiled whenever she saw me, but today, a rare sight indeed, her face clearly showed that she was angry.

"Vice Academician."

Ever since giving birth to Jangsaeng, Gyeoul had begun addressing me as "you" in both public and private.

When we first got together, our different social statuses had been a problem, but Yi Bang-won and Sejong, determined to work me to death, issued a royal decree elevating Gyeoul to my legitimate wife, neatly resolving the matter of status in the process.

On top of that, she had even given birth to Jangsaeng, the legitimate eldest son of our Kim family, truly making her the undisputed mistress of our household.

That was why the way she addressed me had changed to "you."

Well, whether Gyeoul called me 'you,' 'my lord,' or nari, our relationship remained unchanged from before: a truly pure and devoted love...

'In truth, what she called me in ordinary circumstances wasn't particularly important.'

However, the fact that she had suddenly changed from always calling me 'you' to 'Vice Academician' was proof that Gyeoul was in a very bad mood.

"Gyeoul, I'll finish this task and rest. So, just this once..."

When I uttered what was practically a plea for her to let me off just this once, Gyeoul cut me off with icy decisiveness.

"Until now, you said that there was a great undertaking you had to accomplish even if it cost you your life, so I did not interfere when you devoted yourself to your work late into the night."

"Thank you for understanding. I am always grateful."

"However, watching you overwork yourself has left me anxious the entire time. I was worried that you might damage your health. That was why I personally prepared medicinal decoctions that were good for your body, and took special care with the food you ate. I did it so that your health would not suffer while you worked yourself so hard."

Brewing a medicinal decoction is no easy task.

For several hours, one must keep watch over a small brazier while constantly adjusting the strength of the fire.

The fire must be neither too strong nor too weak, so how exhausting would it be to sit in front of that brazier for hours on end?

That was why even places like the Naeuiwon often assigned slaves to brew medicinal decoctions.

When I heard that Gyeoul had volunteered to do such arduous work, every retort I had been about to make vanished from my mind.

"Even so, the work I am doing right now is extremely urgent and important, so I can't help it."

"I know. A few days ago, before you shut yourself away and immersed yourself in your work, you told me with a beaming smile that this would help create a country where everyone could learn easily and freely, and that being able to do this work was a great honor for you. I can still clearly remember that smile, which was as happy as when Jangsaeng was born."

They say that when a person secretes large amounts of dopamine, they can continue immersing themselves in work without even realizing how difficult it is.

This is an extreme example, but NBA players sometimes become so absorbed in a game that an excess of adrenaline puts their bodies into a state of extreme excitement....

The adrenaline released can make them unable to feel pain at all, and I had heard that there were even cases of players trying to keep playing without realizing that they had shattered an ankle.

I had once heard that one of an NBA coach's jobs was to pull out players who tried to keep playing without realizing that their bodies were broken, then put them in an ambulance.

But my body was perfectly fine right now.

I wasn't injured anywhere, and I wasn't old enough for anything to go wrong simply because I had worked for a few days without sleeping properly.

So I was about to say that I would finish this task first and rest afterward, when Gyeoul raised the hand mirror she had been holding and reflected my face back at me.

I thought I had enough energy to work in this condition for another two days, so I expected my face to look perfectly fine as well...

"This is what I look like right now?"

My reflection in the mirror was extremely shocking.

Dark circles had taken up residence beneath my eyes, making me look like a panda, and my skin was dull and brownish.

Gyeoul held me tightly and spoke.

"Taking on difficult work for the sake of the people is admirable, but if you damage your health in the process, you will become incapable of working for the people any longer. You must understand that no one among the people would want you to wear yourself out to the point of ruining your health for their sake."

"I suppose that's true."

"The people you saved during the last fire still occasionally visit temples and pray for you to remain healthy. If they saw you looking so haggard because you were overworking yourself, how much would it pain them?"

As I listened to Gyeoul, I realized that I had become wildly excited and was overexerting myself because I was thinking of nothing but implementing compulsory education and promulgating Hunminjeongeum.

No matter how important compulsory education was, Joseon had many other things it needed to accomplish as well.

Although we had now occupied part of southern Manchuria, whereas actual history had only allowed us to secure the Four Garrisons and Six Forts, it would hardly be surprising to hear at any moment that we had lost that territory.

Even if the level of technology among the Jurchen tribes, including Imanju, lagged behind Joseon's by hundreds of years or more, with a little exaggeration...

They might be ignorant, but they were not stupid, and they would surely steel themselves and try to drive Joseon out of their lands.

Moreover, Japan also had to be incorporated into Joseon's territory, and if the Tumu Crisis erupted and shook the foundations of the Ming dynasty's survival...

We had to seize the opportunity and absorb at least Manchuria in its entirety into Joseon.

I still had a mountain of work to do.

Gyeoul embraced me and gently patted my back.

"You don't have to hurry so much. Rest for now, and then you can work hard again."

Until just a moment ago, my entire body had been overflowing with strength, but the moment Gyeoul's touch reached me, fatigue came rushing in like a flood.

As my mind calmed down, the exhaustion I had not felt while in an excited state came surging forth like a burst dike.

My eyelids grew terribly heavy.

Gyeoul naturally guided me down onto the bedding.

Then she offered me her lap as a pillow for my head.

My entire field of vision was blocked.

"Sleep well."

When I opened my eyes, it was already the next day—or rather, the day after tomorrow.

So this was what it meant for time to disappear in an instant.

After sleeping soundly, my body felt remarkably light.

With my body and mind refreshed, I wrote the policies essential to spreading Hunminjeongeum far and wide in a memorial and submitted it to Sejong.