The Savage King (Min Yoon-gi) Completed

24. A different King

No tax raise since the new King got crowned.

The people are still starving from high tax raise and long famine.

Jin looks worried when he reports, "Your Majesty, the people in southern parts are rebelling again. What Hoseok did only make it worse..."

He has a secret meeting with the King after the formal court session is over.

Yoon-gi scratches his head. He only got married a fortnight ago. Hoseok and his men have been sent to a farming village to help ploughing the rice fields.

He orders, "Bring all the paperwork, Jin. As many as you could."

"Your Majesty would be buried alive."

"I don't care if I would be caught in a landslide caused by paperwork. I have to go somewhere later."

Jin orders and eunuchs kept swarming in with paperwork. He isn't bluffing. Yoon-gi has to stayed up until late at night just to finish most of them.

A knock on the door before Jimin enters it. He looks worried.

He scolds, "Your Majesty, you haven't eaten anything since lunchtime."

"Oh, I'm not hungry yet."

"Please eat something. The Queen has asked her maid to deliver some meat buns for you."

Yoon-gi smiles when he eats the buns. His eyes never dart away from the reports.

"Your Majesty, please have a little bit of rest."

"Quit nagging like an old spinster, Jimin. Don't forget to send bird nest soup for the Queen tomorrow afternoon."

Jimin smiles brightly. People keep saying this is a political marriage. The way the couples stare each others as if no one else exists around them. The way they kept reminding others to eat more properly.

Yoon-gi frowns when he reads the reports. The famine stroke in the southern regions in the last few years. The death toll. It's terrible numbers. Even higher than casualties from the long war.

Father, what have you done? Why are you so heartless? The peasants are humans just like us.

Cursing his dead father won't solve anything. He has no choice. He must go there and solve the problem on spot.

He hasn't realized he has fallen asleep on table until the next morning. He stretches his head to the left and right. His body is stiff.

He washes his face and then combs his long hair. Usually an eunuch would do it for other King. Yoon-gi prefers to do things on his own.

He changes his clothes to his Royal Robe. He stretches his body.

No, it won't do. I'm so sleepy. I can't be yawning in the Court like my old geezer.

He takes off his Royal Robe. He changes his clothes into his comfy old peasant clothes.

He orders, "Jimin, warn me after half an hour."

He grabs his swords and walks into courtyard. He practices martial arts. He slashes and stabs invisible foe.

No fun at all.

Yoon-gi calls, "Nam Joon?"

"You call me, Your Majesty?"

The Captain and the bodyguards show up from behind him.

"En Garde!"

That's all he said before he attacks his poor bodyguards. Of course none of them could be his fair match.