The Crown Prince's Bath

By Song Jisoo

In 6th Century AD, a small kingdom struggles to survive a fierce and bloody campaign to unify the kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula. Crown Prince Joon is eager to produce an heir and secure the throne, but his father, King Jae-sung has other ideas. Things heat up when a new, beautiful, and clumsy maid is assigned to tend his bath chambers. With his line of succession hanging in the balance, young Prince Joon must quickly learn to navigate treachery and politics in his government in this heartwarming, coming of age, historical romance. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Song Jisoon
• Release date: Jan 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224844319

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The Kingdom of Samgaju

In the 6th Century AD, during the period of the three Kingdoms, there was a Kingdom by the shores of the East Sea on the lands of the modern day Republic of Korea. Although it was small, the Kingdom of Samgaju flourished under its young and vibrant ruler, King Hyun Jae-sung. It drew its wealth from fishing activities in the sea, farming rice, millet and soybeans on the fertile delta and mining amethyst and other precious stones in its deposit-rich hills. These it traded with the islanders off the East Coast and the inland peoples to the north and south.

King Jae-sung took to the throne at the age of seventeen. He was not yet a man but not quite a boy either. His father and predecessor, King Jeong-ho had experienced difficulty securing an heir with his first wife, Queen Hae-won. When she was betrothed to him, her father made it known to him that she was sickly. However, the queen came from a city state in the north that had many strong soldiers including three of her own brothers, and King Jeong-ho needed their partnership to strengthen his own army. He accepted the marriage, knowing that a strategic military alliance was more valuable than a satisfying union.

King Jeong-ho, a man of good moral standing, refused to take concubines during his reign and instead married a second wife after the illness took his queen. The union was blessed with an heir, but the grief of losing Queen Hae-won as well as repeated incursions from the southern kingdoms wore him down. At only half a century and seven years young, King Jeong-ho passed on, leaving his only heir, seventeen-year-old Jae-sung to take the throne.

This was a period of great instability for the Kingdom of Samgaju. The Southern Kingdoms had long been pushing for unification of the kingdoms, a notion that King Jae-sung resisted fiercely. The ideology of the South clearly stated that only those of sacred lineage could rule or attain government positions in the new kingdom. Only those with the noble surnames Kim, Park or Lee would rise to the royal and aristocratic classes. His own surname Hyun, had been held by the royals of Samgaju for four generations. He was not prepared to let his kingdom fall.

Because of this, worries of an heir and the continuity of the kingdom were ever-present in the populace’s psyche. This necessitated the young King to make haste in finding a queen. He did not have to search far as there was already a girl who had been raised to be his queen. With the Queen’s father by his side as a trusted advisor, King Jae-sung vanquished his enemies and those he could not, he brought under his umbrella.

The Fire Moth King

Samgaju expanded under King Jae-sung’s leadership. Many of the independent clans sought to be joined with his Kingdom when they heard or witnessed his violent conquests. With time, he came to be known as the ‘Fire Moth King’ for his adept and sophisticated use of fire weaponry in battle.

Unlike his father, King Jae-sung rewarded himself with a concubine after every victory in battle. He would take a concubine from the conquered lands, a strategic decision to unify the clans. But he was also a young King with a ferocious appetite, so this tradition of his was equally self-serving. At only forty five-years-old, his eldest son and heir, the Crown Prince Hyun Joon was already twenty-seven-years old. He was a man old enough to ride into battle with his father and command a brigade of archers.

After the last battle, however, King Jae-sung did not take a concubine from the conquered lands. Instead, he chose a young woman of twenty two who was the daughter of a commander in his army. The girl, Lim Hye-jin, would have been married off as soon as she came of age. But rumor had it that her parents had been waiting four years for the palace to issue a royal edict on the Crown Prince’s marriage. It was widely expected, before the Fire Moth King claimed her for himself, that she would marry the Crown Prince and become the next queen.

In fact, in the inner chambers of the royal palace, the Queen Dowager and Queen Da-som had been privately lobbying King Jae-sung to approve his son’s marriage. However, having taken the throne at such a young age, the king had a strong conviction that the Crown Prince should enjoy his youth free of the Crown’s responsibilities for as long as he wanted.

Let him go hunting or study in the mountaintop monasteries as a young man with no concerns, he would say. My youth and strong body allow me to grant him the freedom and luxury I never had. Now stop nagging and let the boy be. 

Since he was already past the common age of marriage, many of the Crown Prince’s peers took wives before he did. Soldiers who worked under his command in the Archer’s brigade and friends who worked in his father’s government married before he did. Since improper conduct was strictly forbidden for a royal like him, it was no secret that the Crown Prince had never known the warmth of a woman.

This was what earned him the title ‘little cub’. The soldiers often derided him behind his back saying, We’re riding with the little cub today. Even court ladies groused about being assigned to his service saying, The little cub is more moody than usual today.

The Crown Prince was well aware of this and had been quietly resentful of