NTH 7

On the night he returned after dropping Nana off, Kwon Jeha once again dreamed of a very old past life. In that life, his name was Choi Gyoheon, and he was governing a certain town as a junior 6th rank hyeongam.

As a young hyeongam, he would tour various places within his jurisdiction whenever he had time. One day, while passing through an area with a bustling marketplace and private houses gathered together and walking in front of a large, palace-like tile-roofed house, Gyoheon stopped in his tracks upon hearing the voice of a man crying out sorrowfully.

Peeking through the gap of the open gate, he saw several sturdy men who appeared to be servants standing in the wide yard holding thick, long clubs, and beneath them, something wrapped in a straw mat was wriggling on the ground. The sound of crying was seeping out from within that very straw mat.

‘Myeongseok-mari’ [Straw mat beating] was something Choi Gyoheon had been striving to uproot ever since he was appointed to that town. It was proper for a person who committed a crime to be reported to the government office and punished publicly, but the villagers were in a situation where they could not easily give up the private punishment that had been handed down over many long years.

Gyoheon, with a displeased expression, stepped through the gate.

“What is going on there.”

Startled by the sudden appearance of someone dressed as a magistrate, the servants put down their clubs and bowed toward him. Gyoheon frowned and commanded.

“Unroll that straw mat at once.”

The servants looked at each other hesitantly, as if in a difficult position. The clerk, who was always by Gyoheon’s side, was fidgeting as if he had something to say to him, but Gyoheon ignored the clerk and ordered them again.

“What are you doing! Unroll it this instant!”

As the servants hesitantly unrolled the straw mat, a man was revealed. Judging by his attire, he was a servant. He could not stop his tears, his shoulders even heaving as if he was terribly afraid of the beating that was about to be inflicted. His long, full eyelashes were thoroughly wet.

Gyoheon looked at him with an expressionless face.

“What is your name.”

Hiccupping, the man swallowed his sobs, knelt down, and answered haltingly.

“I am… called Soondeuk.”

“Soondeuk. For what reason did you come to face such a thing?”

“That is… I…”

He fidgeted and glanced up at someone. It was the most clean-cut man among the surrounding servants who had been standing with clubs; he had sanpaku eyes with a lot of white showing, and his impression was somewhat vile. The man with sanpaku eyes met Soondeuk’s gaze as he looked up, but he quickly looked elsewhere, pretending not to notice.

Soondeuk looking up at the man with sanpaku eyes and the man with sanpaku eyes avoiding Soondeuk’s gaze happened almost simultaneously, in the blink of an eye, but Gyoheon, who had a good eye for detail, did not miss the scene.

Just then, a voice was heard from behind.

“For what reason has the esteemed hyeongam-nari graced such a humble place with his presence?”

He was a nobleman wearing a gat and a silk dopo, with a greasy, taut face and a demeanor and expression that were the epitome of arrogance. He approached closer to where Gyoheon was.

“My name is Yoo Yeonseong.”

The clerk, who bowed obsequiously and greeted Yoo Yeonseong, whispered into Gyoheon’s ear, ‘He is the son of Lord Yoo Jaeyeol, the Senior 3rd rank Daedohobusa.’ It seemed to be what the clerk had wanted to say from the moment Gyoheon had strode into the gate of this house.

Gyoheon, barely listening to those words, said to Yoo Yeonseong.

“I heard the sound of a person wailing from your residence. It seemed you were about to perform myeongseok-mari, which is forbidden by national law, so I have set foot in here without permission to find out the truth.”

“I was merely intending to sternly scold a servant with bad hands to set an example so that he would not do wicked things again.”

“It is just that the method seemed somewhat harsh.”

“Is not a master like a father to his slave? This is like a disciplinary matter between a parent and a child. Therefore, the busy magistrate need not concern himself at all. Please continue on your way.”

“Do you know the reason why the state has forbidden myeongseok-mari?”

“Hahaha! I was not aware that the hyeongam-nari had so much leisure as to concern himself with every little thing like a master scolding his servant. Would you rather rest for a while in our pavilion? I will have a table set up for you that will not be disappointing.”

“When someone is rolled up in a straw mat, the inside cannot be seen, so the one wielding the club feels as if he is hitting not a person but an animal or an inanimate object. Thus, they come to beat him more and more violently.”

Yoo Yeonseong continued to grin and blinked his eyes a few times. His attitude was one of ‘so what are you going to do about it’. Gyoheon continued to speak calmly.

“And the one trapped inside cannot curl up his body or block with his arms because of the straw mat, so he is struck without any filter on vital spots like the head or abdomen. They may acquire a disability that will never heal for a lifetime, and sometimes, they even lose their lives.”

“Hmm…”

“Is the deed this man committed a crime so serious as to deserve such a harsh punishment?”

At Gyoheon’s words, Yoo Yeonseong snickered and retorted.

“What if it is?”

“If so, then formally report it to the government office. I will fulfill my duty and pass a fair judgment to give this man his due punishment.”

“Since the hyeongam has spoken thus, I shall properly admonish that fellow with words.”

As Yoo Yeonseong tilted his head with one corner of his mouth raised, the man with the sanpaku eyes quickly helped Soondeuk to his feet. Even as he was led by the other servants and moved toward the other side of the yard, Soondeuk looked back at Gyoheon several times.

As Gyoheon came out of the gate and began to walk, the clerk grabbed his arm, shook it, and made a fuss.

“Aigoo, Magistrate-nari. Why on earth did you try to meddle in the affairs of Lord Yoo’s household!”

“Did the clerk not see with me that they were about to perform myeongseok-mari, which is forbidden by national law?”

“Eing, whether that worthless slave dies or becomes a cripple, isn’t it that household’s business? Has the magistrate never heard the saying ‘let sleeping dogs lie’?”

“Had I not known, it would be a different matter, but I could not just pass by after seeing it with my own eyes.”

“If it were any other house, who would say anything. I am saying this because you just had to barge into the yard of the most powerful house in this town and stir things up so much before coming out.”

The clerk grumbled, trailing off his sentence vaguely as if talking to himself. As Soondeuk’s last expression, already filled with terror, had been weighing on his mind anyway, Gyoheon deliberately flattered him.

“What would I know, having been appointed from another region not long ago. When it comes to the affairs of this place, one could not find anyone who knows them as intimately as the clerk, so if you would give me some advice, I will keep it in mind and surely refer to it.”

At that, the clerk’s face brightened as if he had been waiting for it, and he began to recite the lineage of Lord Yoo Jaeyeol and his ancestors. After Gyoheon had listened with one ear and let it out the other for a long while, the clerk finally brought up an interesting story.

“…And the one who engaged in a war of words with the magistrate earlier is none other than Lord Yoo Yeonseong, the second son of Lord Yoo’s household. You will be in for a big surprise if you think he is a good person just because he has a fine physique and a gentle-looking face.”

“What is his temperament like?”

“He is so wicked and fiery that the people of this town hate to even make eye contact with him, for fear of being picked on for no reason. I do not know for sure, but that servant from before will surely suffer something several times worse than myeongseok-mari tonight.”

“Are you saying Yoo Yeonseong will punish him in a different way?”

“Ah, the myeongseok-mari is not the problem. Because of that fellow, did the magistrate not displease Lord Yoo Yeonseong? As they say, one takes out one’s anger for a slap received somewhere on someone else, so where do you think all that frustration will go?”

“Hmm.”

“There was a time before when Lord Yoo Yeonseong cut the heel of a slave in that household and drove him out. That fellow became unable to even stand, let alone walk, and ended up a cripple, crawling around begging, and soon starved to death.”

Gyoheon stopped walking. He felt uneasy upon hearing that the servant named Soondeuk would soon become a living corpse because he had meddled unnecessarily.

“Can you not find out what on earth happened to that fellow who was about to be subjected to myeongseok-mari? If that fellow gets beaten to death by Yoo Yeonseong, I feel my dreams will be troubled.”

“Aigoo, is this the time for the magistrate to be worrying about a mere servant? Now that you have made an enemy of Lord Yoo Yeonseong, you may suffer greatly in this town from now on.”

“I will take care of that myself, so for now, please help me.”

The clerk clicked his tongue and called over a couple of police officers who were following behind them and gave them some instructions. As Gyoheon and the clerk sat and rested in a pavilion, the officers returned a short while later and made their report.

“We scared and cajoled the manservant and the kitchen maid of Lord Yoo’s household and heard the story in secret.”

“What did they say.”

“Soondeuk is a fellow who came to the Lord’s household three months ago, when a ruined nobleman from a neighboring village, to whom Lord Yoo had lent grain, said he would repay with a slave instead of money. But…”

The police officers glanced at each other and could not easily continue. When the impatient clerk urged them on, one of them opened his mouth again.

“After Lord Yoo Yeonseong failed the state examination early this year and returned from Hanyang, he has been frequently calling that fellow to em, embrace him.”

“Eing? Embrace him? What kind of outrageous talk is that! Are you saying the young master committed pederasty with that lowly thing? Did you hear correctly? Know that your lives are no more than flies’ lives if you make up baseless stories and a rumor starts!”

As the clerk jumped up and down and pressed them, the police officers waved their hands as if to say they were being wronged.

“Before whom would we humble servants tell a lie? We deliberately called them one by one to ask, and they both told the same story. They were so afraid, saying they would be dead for sure if it was revealed that they had spoken, that it took quite a long time just to get them to open their mouths.”

In those times, slaves were not treated as human beings, so they had to do whatever their masters wanted. It was common for a pretty young female servant to be abused by the men of the master’s house and give birth to a child whose father was unknown.

Therefore, it was not a very surprising matter that the nighttime playmate of Yoo Yeonseong, a nobleman from a scholar-official family, was a male servant of that house. It was also quite possible that Soondeuk’s comely face and his slender frame for a man had appealed to Yoo Yeonseong’s tastes. Gyoheon asked in a calm voice.

“So, what does Yoo Yeonseong embracing Soondeuk have to do with the myeongseok-mari?”

“Today, Lord Yoo Yeonseong went to a neighboring village to attend a feast and returned earlier than planned, and what do you know, that fellow Soondeuk was doing that act with another fellow in the storehouse.”

“Another fellow?”

“They said Soondeuk was stark naked and lying under some man. That man ran away through the opposite door without a backward glance so fast that they could not even see his face, and they sent the underlings to chase him, but he was so fleet-footed that he disappeared in an instant.”

“And so?”