The 21st Century Grand Grand Duchess in the Royal Academy - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Twenty-First Century Grand Duchess in the Royal Academy
A Tender Heart Breaks
Hwan’s resistance had failed. There were many reasons for the failure, but the greatest miscalculation was his trust in Yoon Sung-won, Yoon Irang’s father. Under the Royal Family’s Special Law, which prohibited the arbitrary disclosure of the Crown Prince’s medical records, Hwan needed the assistance of Sung-won, the director of the Royal Hospital.
“Surely you wish for your daughter’s happiness as well.”
By ordinary logic, it was a reasonable argument. No father-in-law would welcome a son-in-law suffering from nervous exhaustion brought on by prolonged melancholy and anxiety.
“Have no fear, Your Highness. I shall remain by your side.”
He had appeared as a reliable ally. Whenever Hwan wished it, he would materialize to soothe his anxieties, yet he withheld the one thing Hwan desired most—all while claiming he would find a way, merely buying time.
Sung-won did not need an excellent son-in-law. He needed a Crown Prince as a son-in-law. Had this been before the national marriage was announced, he might have at least pretended to make an effort. But now that the entire nation knew Yoon Irang as Hwan’s destined bride, he harbored no desire to help. If Hwan were deposed and the betrothal dissolved, Yoon Irang would have to bear all that shame as her own burden for the rest of her life.
Above all, he was displeased at the prospect of Prince An ascending to the Crown Prince’s position.
The matter of Queen Uihyeon’s ring had demonstrated this clearly. Despite the King’s command and the Crown Prince’s request, Prince An had not budged an inch. The royal relatives and the Cabinet had stepped in to manage the situation, but even that proved ineffective. He had only grown indignant, as if they were disregarding Queen Uihyeon’s wishes.
The thought that such a man becoming king would bring an endless succession of troubles was inescapable.
Above all, the current monarchy stood before the greatest crisis in its history. The nation had regarded the Royal Family with respect and affection for having voluntarily proclaimed a constitutional monarchy, yet no one could provide a clear answer to the question of what meaning a royal family held in the twenty-first century.
Yet it was undeniable that this system must endure. The Royal Family had never collapsed once in over six hundred years. The tradition and history possessed by such a dynasty was the nation’s pride, and the pillars supporting it were the yangban nobility of the great families.
So long as the Royal Family existed, the claim that all people were equal could not hold true. To prove the nobility of the Royal Family, one could not help but acknowledge the distinction of rank. Even if it were merely a name, once that name was given, it became an undeniable reality.
Thus Sung-won wished for the Royal Family to be eternal. Only an eternal monarchy could protect the increasingly blurred boundaries of social rank.
When summoned to the East Palace by the Crown Prince, Sung-won reflected: the Crown Prince’s deposition was utterly unthinkable.
“I can wait no longer.”
Hwan spoke like a beast on the verge of starvation. Sung-won exhaled a quiet sigh and bowed his head.
“Are you truly determined to commit filial impiety against His Majesty?”
“What did you say?”
“His Majesty was once a prince, not the Crown Prince.”
“And?”
“Had the late King Gwangjong left an heir… His Majesty would have lived merely as a member of the royal family.”
Hwan’s eyes grew sharp and cold. King Gwangjong, the late king, was Hwan’s uncle and the current monarch’s only elder brother. His life, which had ended at forty without leaving an heir, remained a gaping wound of questions. The Royal Hospital’s announcement of “death from overwork” as the cause of death was but a hollow echo. This was because those who remembered King Gwangjong knew of his robust constitution, unmarred by even minor ailments.
Suspicion’s arrow had pointed toward Prince Gyeong-on, King Gwangjong’s younger brother. The fact that King Gwangjong’s last known activity was a hunting expedition with Prince Gyeong-on had been the spark. The widow Queen Consort Lee’s gaze had been piercing, but suspicion lacked foundation, and no point of collusion was ever discovered.
Prince Gyeong-on, who ascended the throne amid controversy, never resented his sister-in-law, who became the Queen Dowager. Rather, he merely comforted her, saying he understood her grief at losing her husband.
But when the Queen Dowager Lee herself succumbed to illness—her sorrow having become a malady—a year later, the suspicions rose anew.
“Do you not understand the suspicions under which His Majesty lives?”
“Are you daring to disparage my mother?”
“I am telling Your Highness that you need her.”
Sung-won answered with force in his voice.
“His Majesty has no choice but to protect his legitimacy. That is the only way for him to prove his innocence. But if Your Highness were to step down from your position….”
“Enough!”
Hwan spoke, pressing his throbbing temples.
“Prince An would face the same accusations as His Majesty.”
“I said enough!”
“Would you commit filial impiety against His Majesty and bring dishonor upon your only brother?”
….
Thick tears fell from Hwan’s eyes as his resistance crumbled. Recognizing that the tender heart had broken, Sung-won softened his stern expression.
“Your Highness need do nothing at all.”
“….”
“Simply hold your position.”
“I, I….”
“I will stand by Your Highness’s side.”
Sung-won spoke as he dared to clasp the Crown Prince’s hand. Hwan’s first and final act of resistance crumbled in that moment.
Wan worried about Hwan, with whom he could not make contact. The wedding date drew near, yet no word came from his brother. He couldn’t tell whether persuading Mother had gone well or not—the situation remained utterly opaque. He considered asking through Choi Sanggung, but he didn’t want to press his brother.
‘If you say you don’t want to, then we won’t.’
He recalled their last conversation. When his brother had asked him to be his backing, that’s what he’d meant by coming to the Private Residence. It seemed his brother was troubled by burdening him.
So weak.
‘Brother, you won’t succeed with that resolve.’
‘Still, if you dislike it, I dislike it too.’
No younger brother could tell such an older brother that he disliked something. Thinking of himself becoming Crown Prince and eventually king didn’t bring him joy, yet he wanted to stand with his brother. The dream he’d only dared imagine in his mind suddenly felt vivid and real. He would earn some of Mother’s displeasure, but he received that constantly anyway—it held no fear for him.
What troubled him more was Yoon Irang, who could know nothing of these plans. She would be shocked, and she would be hurt deeply. But an annulled engagement was better than divorce, and no marriage at all was better than a loveless one—he tried to convince himself of this.
In the end, Wan failed to grasp the situation until the day of Hwan’s wedding. He had taken over the overseas official duties Hwan was supposed to attend. Everything had been Hwan’s plan, and Wan had suspected nothing.
‘When you return, everything will be settled.’
He had believed his brother’s words.
But the overseas schedule kept expanding, and his return date was postponed again and again.
Finally arriving in Korea on the very day of the wedding, Wan headed straight for the East Palace.
“Prince, His Highness the Crown Prince is still….”
“Move.”
Park Sanggung, seeing Wan look as though he could kill someone on the spot, desperately blocked his path—yet in that moment, no one could stop him, not even if it were Hwan, the master of the East Palace himself.
As Wan threw open the Inner Chamber door and saw Hwan dressed in wedding robes, he realized his brother had deceived him. Playing with a person and then avoiding their gaze—what was that about? A hollow laugh escaped Wan as he crossed the threshold.
“Prince!”
Sung-won cried out sharply. Perhaps intoxicated by the fact that he would soon become a father-in-law, he dared raise his voice before him—how presumptuous.
“The ceremony is about to begin.”
“So?”
“Please go and take your place, Prince.”
Wan answered by raising his eyebrows and advanced toward Hwan.
“If His Majesty learns of this, he will charge His Highness the Crown Prince with disrespect.”
“….”
“Will you be all right?”
Indifferent, Wan gripped his brother’s collar forcefully. He despised himself for having agonized for months over saving this weak brother. He despised the excitement he’d felt while unfolding a dream he’d set aside as impossible. He hadn’t even been unaware that his brother amounted to nothing more than this.
“I gave you a chance, clearly.”
“….”
“Whatever happens from now on, bear it yourself.”
Releasing the collar he’d held, Wan turned to look at Sung-won standing beside him as he left. The way he looked at him—as though he were a villain—was absurd.
“Tell him plainly. Just as tattling is your pleasure, so too is my pleasure to see him punished for disrespect.”
Wan felt no curiosity whatsoever about what this man, who held his brother’s heart, wished to accomplish.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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