Black Corporation: Joseon

At the words “I will give you a choice,” Hyang’s mind raced furiously.

‘A choice? Of what?’

Quickly reviewing the various events that had transpired, unexpected incidents that had occurred, and conversations he had shared with King Sejong, Hyang immediately realized.

‘It’s you! Hunminjeongeum!’

“This son chooses to create the writing system, Father.”

“Huh?”

King Sejong, who was about to continue speaking with a very serious expression, momentarily gaped at Hyang’s immediate response.

After a moment, King Sejong regained his composure and asked Hyang.

“How did you know I was going to talk about creating a writing system?”

“There haven’t been many important matters recently, and the few significant issues all require a long time. Additionally, I made a promise to you before, Father, so I thought there could only be one answer.”

At Hyang’s reply, King Sejong turned his head and muttered softly.

“He’s sickeningly clever, as always.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing, nothing at all. Hmm… Well, since you’ve guessed this much, I’ll be frank. Wouldn’t it be better to serve as regent instead?”

“Absolutely not!”

At King Sejong’s words, Hyang expressed his refusal with his whole body. Seeing Hyang’s reaction, King Sejong began to worry instead.

“Do you dislike it that much? You’ll have to take over when I die anyway, won’t you?”

“Father, you are still in your prime. How could I serve as regent? People will surely misinterpret it.”

King Sejong nodded at Hyang’s words.

“That’s true, but… Wouldn’t being regent be easier than creating a writing system?”

“This son has always enjoyed pondering since childhood. Also, I’ve keenly felt the need for our own writing system for Joseon since I was young.”

At Hyang’s lengthy answer, King Sejong briefly pointed out the core issue.

“So, you don’t want to be regent, but you’ll only create the writing system?”

“Yes!”

“This consistently stubborn fellow… Tsk!”

Clicking his tongue, King Sejong rose from his seat.

“Wait here for a moment.”

“Eh? Yes.”

As King Sejong swiftly disappeared, Hyang, left alone in the room, let out a long sigh.

“Phew~. That was close.”

***

Having experienced depression in the 21st century, Hyang found government affairs burdensome.

‘Announcing political views or various policies is one thing since it ends with the announcement, but practical work is really not for me!’

Although Hyang was making excuses to himself, there was a fact he was overlooking.

The amount of administrative work that needed to be processed in Area 51 and the research institute was not insignificant. Of course, Jeong-cho, Jeong Inji, and Lee Chun shared much of the workload, but Hyang was still handling more than half of it.

In the end, it was a matter of aptitude related to his interests.

***

A moment later, King Sejong returned carrying two large bundles in his hands.

“Hup!”

With a small grunt, King Sejong placed the two bundles on the desk and sat down. Hyang asked,

“What’s in these bundles, Father?”

“Open them and see.”

“Yes…”

As Hyang opened the bundles at King Sejong’s command, his eyes widened.

Inside were an enormous number of books, easily exceeding 40 volumes.

“This is…”

Hyang opened the book on top and looked at King Sejong with surprised eyes.

“Have you already finished creating the writing system?”

“To some extent, yes.”

“Then is there nothing left for me to do?”

“You have much to do. First…”

King Sejong tapped the books with his hand as he continued speaking.

“I’ve created the letters and written down their principles, but there might be errors in my thinking. Also, there’s a high possibility of conflicts between the explanations at the beginning and end. So you need to cross-verify those parts.”

“…Yes.”

As King Sejong’s explanation continued, Hyang’s face gradually turned pale.

“…And when that organization is complete, you must also arrange the examples related to pronunciation. And when that’s done, you need to create vernacular explanations based on those examples. Do you know why?”

“It’s to understand more quickly by comparing the example book and the vernacular explanation book.”

At Hyang’s answer, King Sejong nodded with a smile.

“Hahaha! Correct! As expected of the Crown Prince!”

“I’m worried whether I can do it properly.”

At Hyang’s words, King Sejong pulled out a few sheets of paper from his sleeve and handed them to Hyang.

“This is… Oh!”

Hyang, who had thoughtlessly taken the papers, checked them and looked at King Sejong with surprised eyes.

The papers King Sejong handed over were the ones on which Hyang had written Hangul. They were clearly some of the papers he had scribbled on, crossed out lines, and even inked over. As Hyang stared open-mouthed at the papers still bearing stains here and there, King Sejong spoke.

“Was it concrete? Ever since I heard from the court historian that you had scribbled something and erased it, I had some suspicions. So I investigated just in case, and it confirmed my thoughts. You must already have some ideas, so the work shouldn’t be too difficult.”

In the end, Hyang had to wave the white flag.

“I will do my best, Father.”

“I’d like to see results as soon as possible.”

At King Sejong’s request, Hyang made one last attempt at resistance.

“May I bring in Anpyeong and Jinpyeong to help?”

“Those children have their own tasks. Once you’ve properly completed this, we’ll test how easy it is to learn through those children and others. And if we get satisfactory results from that, Anpyeong will organize vernacular songs, and Jinpyeong…”

Suddenly stopping mid-sentence, King Sejong let out a long sigh.

“Ah~. Jinpyeong is a problem. That boy is obsessed only with the iron horse…”

At King Sejong’s complaint, an idea flashed in Hyang’s mind.

“Then how about having him write the research records related to that iron horse using this writing system? If this writing system is properly completed, all the records from the research institute and Area 51 should be rewritten as well. This would be a test to see if the writing system can fulfill its role in such cases too.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

***

Having thus taken on the assignment from King Sejong, Hyang left Gangyeongjeon carrying the bundles in both hands.

“Your Highness, let me carry those.”

“It’s fine. By the way…”

Hyang glared at the eunuchs following him.

“Was it you all?”

At Hyang’s question loaded with meaning, the eunuchs bowed their heads.

“Please forgive us.”

Seeing this, Hyang let out a long sigh and muttered.

“Huu! What fault is there in you? It must have all been by royal command… I need to make a shredder first thing…”

Grumbling like this as he walked, Hyang suddenly stopped.

“Wait…”

Hyang’s expression, as he stood still looking at the bundles, was more serious than ever before.

‘What I wrote on those papers were all just random words, weren’t they? And I scribbled them haphazardly… Could this end up different from the Hangul I know?’

The Hangul Hyang had scribbled on the papers were written randomly, following the flow of consciousness. They weren’t written in neat rows and columns, but scrawled wherever there was empty space as thoughts came to mind. Of course, there were some characters transcribed from Chinese while writing reports and petitions, but mixed with those random scribbles, it would surely only add to the confusion.

‘If I’m not careful, this could… I made a mistake not checking properly earlier!’

Hyang began to break out in a cold sweat.

For a simple example, he might have written ‘ㄱ’ but pronounced it as ‘ㄴ’ or ‘ㄷ’.

If Hyang’s worries turned out to be true, it meant he would have to either revise everything or learn it all anew himself.

‘No, it would be better to learn it anew than to revise everything.’

“Phew~.”

Having made his decision, Hyang sighed and continued walking.

“Why are these bundles so heavy!”

“Your Highness, let us…”

“It’s fine!”

Hyang’s voice was sharp with irritation that rose unconsciously, and the eunuchs had to remain on edge.

***

Upon returning to the Crown Prince’s palace, Hyang immediately opened the bundles and began checking the contents. It was urgent to confirm whether it was the worst-case scenario or not.

After checking about half of the books in the bundles, Hyang let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew~. Fortunately, nothing’s off…”

Having confirmed that the principles, consonant and vowel forms, and pronunciations were not different from what he had learned in the 21st century, Hyang soon became curious about something else.

“But why is there so much content?”

The half he had already checked contained most of the related information he knew.

As he looked through the contents of the remaining books out of curiosity, Hyang’s expression turned bewildered.

“My goodness… You’ve even created pronunciation notations for Chinese, Latin, Greek, and Arabic? That means… if this part hadn’t been done, the results could have come out faster?”

After examining several times the sections that organized not only the books that had entered Joseon but also the languages used by foreigners, Hyang muttered with a dejected face.

“It’s not ‘The sounds of our country’s language differ from Chinese,’ but ‘The sounds of our country’s language differ from the four seas (the world)’… You want me to organize all this and create example and vernacular explanation books?”

Faced with an unexpectedly enormous difficulty and volume, Hyang wore a dejected expression but soon shook his head with a wry smile.

“Really… I may be a cheat key, but that man is beyond standards…”

***

The time when he had acted as a purchasing agent was when the research institute and Area 51 were being established. It had been nearly 10 years.

Even though King Sejong had spent nearly 10 years, self-studying Chinese and Western phonology books to create an independent writing system was a miracle that made the impossible possible.

Of course, there were the papers he had scribbled on.

But even if the papers he had scribbled Hangul on were helpful, it was certain they couldn’t have been of great help. This was because ‘reverse engineering’ is impossible to even attempt without a similar level of technology or knowledge in the person attempting it.

Rather, without exceptional analytical and judgment skills, Hyang’s papers would surely have become a trap.

Therefore, Hyang couldn’t help but recall his habitual evaluation of “beyond standards” once again.

***

“Anyway, since I’ve taken it on, I have to do it… Tsk!”

Smacking his lips, Hyang reopened the books and began reading through them again.

As he read through the books again, Hyang chuckled when he reached the part explaining how to give examples related to pronunciation.

“Heh!”

The part that made Hyang laugh was as follows:

For explaining the pronunciation of ‘ㄱ’, it used ‘군(君)’ [gun, meaning ‘monarch’], and for explaining ‘ㄲ’, it used ‘규(虯)’ [gyu, meaning ‘baby dragon’].

If all the relevant parts were connected in this way, it would become ‘군규쾌업(君虯快業)’ [gun-gyu-kwae-eop, meaning “The king and the baby dragon worked joyfully.”]

Since ‘baby dragon’ usually referred to the Crown Prince, it could be paraphrased as follows:

-The king and the Crown Prince worked joyfully.

(Note 1)

In other words, King Sejong was telling Hyang this:

‘I’ve gilded it for you, so work hard!’

“Yes~. Yes~. I’ll work hard.”

Continually chuckling and muttering to himself, Hyang spread out blank papers and began his work.

***

A month later, Hyang visited Gangyeongjeon carrying two large bundles.

“Please review these.”

King Sejong, who had been silently looking at the bundles Hyang handed over, turned to Hyang.

“Well, the volume seems to have increased?”

“Ah, as I was organizing, I found some conflicting parts in the usage examples section, so I separately organized those parts and added suggestions for resolution. Also, I organized words that are good for composition but are rarely pronounced in reality. Please judge whether to remove or keep them after reviewing.”

As he listened to Hyang’s explanation, King Sejong opened the bundles and picked up a book to examine its contents.

After examining the dense red annotations – impertinently written in the script King Sejong had created – in both the original manuscript written by King Sejong and the newly transcribed copy, King Sejong glared at Hyang.

‘Is this deliberate? It’s definitely deliberate, right?’

“As you said, Father, I worked joyfully, so the volume increased a bit.”

At Hyang’s answer, King Sejong sighed.

“I understand. I’ll check and let you know the results.”

“Yes, Father.”

***

Note 1) https://namu.wiki/w/훈민정음

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