Secret of the Two Kings (89 CHAPTERS - ON HOLD)

PROLOGUE

This story marks the beginning of a forgotten era in Korean history.

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Drums thundered throughout the entire palace (bom bom bom!), marking the commencement of a sacred ceremony. Flags were hoisted onto every corner of the palace brick walls and fluttered gracefully in the cool spring wind. The palace guards unbarred the eight wooden main gates, and people from different parts of the kingdom entered.

First class, top of all citizens next to the royalty—the nobility. Inside their servant-carried palanquins, draped windows gaping open, they swanked their florid clothing and priceless, rare jewelry. Noblemen donned their silk festal robes sheathed by dark, fur-lined cloaks. Shiny hairs brushed up with precious expensive pins, secured in silver top knots. Their pride and dignity, the symbol of their conspicuous masculinity (either to boast to other noblemen or to seduce women—it could be both). 

Wives and daughters were the incarnations of human goddesses. Elaborately clothed in ornate silk brocades, glistening, lush hair braided in loops and festooned with sophisticated hair ornaments. Bright faces were painted with the same light powder, while their lips were various shades of red lipstick. Fake smiles unto each other and a hidden frown for those who shared the same facial cosmetics with them.

While these high-status nobles engaged in an unwritten competition of wealth, elegance, and hierarchy, the commoners, in their run-of-the-mill tawdry robes, paired with either baggy pants or dull, third generation, ragged skirts, arrived on foot and held hands with their families. Unused to such splendor, the common folk were transfixed by the complex designs of palace pavilions, the grandeur of the courtesans' hoop skirts, which could shelter three kids when it rains, the court ladies' colorful dresses, and the impressive stature of the palace guards, acting like live action figures which would blink when poked. These sentinels carried long, sharp spears and shielded by iron-plated armor vests and helmets while standing wide awake like statues in every corner of the palace.

The crowd began to gather in the main courtyard, where a wide, red-varnished wooden dais especially built for the ceremony, stood at the far end. Ruby damask tent canopied the hallowed stage against the admissible heat of the late afternoon sun. A long, white-mantled table filled with food, candles, flowers, and incense vaunted as an offering to the Heavens. 

Sitting on his mobile throne, King Jae Joong scanned the thronging crowd. Like a true descendant of the Heavens, his angelic hazel eyes shone as bright as his radiant smile. His high golden crown, with strands of gold and precious stones, wrapping his hair and dangling from his face, enhanced his soft facial features, while his white meditative mulberry robe—complete with billowing sleeves and embroidered with black dragons—swathed his tall, lean body. Undeniably, the begotten son from the paradise—the father of Silla.

Beside him ensconced ten noble council members or Hwabaek. Five on each side, dressed in their uniform purple cloaks and cylindrical black hats. Their personal court ladies and guards stood at attention behind them. The rest of the nobility stayed on sumptuous chairs on the left and right sides below the grandstand, while the commoners assembled in a cramped huddle on the court, enduring the numbness of their legs. Palace guards served as human barriers between the classes. Special troops lined the sides of the red carpet and the perimeter of the palace grounds. Air units had been assigned on pavilion balconies, eyeing on possible threats from above and afar.

From the northern gate in the opposite direction, a red carpet ran smoothly onto the holy stage. It diverged to left and right, running across the quadrangle, upon kissing the base of the blessed platform.

Behold! A sacred, covered water well-like structure, amid the square—atop the carpet. An inanimate, divine deity as such. One could look, but shall not touch.