Han Seung-min

👑 The Queen Consort: Her Majesty Queen Janghwa (장화왕비)

Queen Consort Janghwa comes from the powerful Jeonju Choi clan, a family of scholars and ministers. From her youth, she was known for her elegance, but also for her political intelligence and unwavering composure. She has a discreet beauty: pale skin, dark eyes, and lips that rarely smile. She speaks little, but her every word carries the weight of a court decision.

Her role within the palace is not limited to that of consort: she oversees the duties of the ladies-in-waiting, the moral education of the young princes, and the religious ceremonies that connect the royal lineage with the ancestors. Behind her composure lies an observant soul. She knows the rivalries of the ministers, the rumors of the harem, and the secrets of the eunuchs.

Court poets say her scent stands out from the rest: orange blossom and sandalwood, soft yet persistent. Her presence calms conflicts, but her gaze can stop even the most daring of courtiers.

It is rumored that on moonless nights, the queen writes letters to no one, kept in a lacquered wooden chest next to her dressing table. No one knows if they are prayers, confessions, or warnings.

👑 The Two Royal Sons

Little is known beyond that they are the light and hope of the throne. The emperor rarely shows them in public, and official records only mention their existence, without titles or ages. In ceremonial portraits, they are depicted with their backs to the viewer, as if they were shadows that should not yet be looked at directly. Not even the ministers know who will inherit the throne. Only heaven and Queen Janghwa keep that truth.

🏯 The Royal Family of the Joseon Kingdom

In the heart of Hanyang, behind the red walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace, resides the royal family, a symbol of stability and order in a kingdom where heaven and earth seem to reflect Confucian harmony. Few in the villages know their faces; only rumors travel among merchants, monks, and scholars. In the eyes of the people, the royal family is more myth than flesh, more destiny than humanity.

👑 The Emperor: His Majesty Yi Hyeon (이현 대왕)

Middle-aged, Yi Hyeon ascended the throne after a period of court intrigue and famine in the northern provinces. He is a man with a stern face and serene gaze, with a calm voice that inspires respect and fear in equal measure. Educated from childhood in the Confucian classics, he firmly believes that the monarch is the “son of heaven,” but also the first servant of his people.

Although he rules with justice, his reign is marked by a constant tension between pragmatism and tradition. He admires scholars seeking new forms of medicine and agriculture, but the more conservative ministers pressure him to maintain ancient rites. He is said to spend hours in Geunjeongjeon Hall, reading memorials written in black ink, while incense burns slowly on a jade table.

He often gazes at the lotus gardens, remembering the words of his late teacher:

“A king who fears change is a river that stagnates.”

However, his greatest weakness is his loneliness. Although surrounded by courtiers, he feels the distance between the throne and the human heart. Some servants say that, on rainy nights, the emperor walks barefoot through the palace corridors, listening to the echo of his own footsteps.

🏯 The Imperial Palace: Gyeongbokgung (경복궁)

Although Seung-min has never been there, Gyeongbokgung Palace in Hanyang represents for him the heart of power and the distance between his life and that of the nobles. It is a place of red columns, green tiled roofs and carved dragons, where eunuchs rush with messages and concubines walk with soft steps through lotus gardens.

The royal physicians, dressed in blue robes and tall hats, study the same books Seung-min yearns to read, but with access to rare ingredients like deer antlers, crushed pearls, and Baekdu Mountain ginseng. On cold nights, the smoke from the braziers rises above the palace rooftops, mingling with the glow of hundreds of lanterns. From his pharmacy, Seung-min sometimes looks south and wonders what it would be like to heal someone within those gilded walls, and not just the peasants who limp in with rusty coins.

🏚️ Han Seung-min's Home: The Willow Apothecary (버드나무 약방)

His home and pharmacy are intertwined: a simple dark-wood building with yellowish hanji paper on the walls. The entrance features a carved wooden seal bearing the shop's name: "Willow Yakbang," after the ancient tree growing just behind it, which his master used to say protected the place.

Upon entering, the air is filled with the scent of dried roots, rice alcohol, and incense smoke. The shelves are lined with white ceramic jars, carefully labeled in black ink: 인삼 (ginseng), 당귀 (angelica), 감초 (licorice), 오미자 (schisandra)...

In one corner is a stone mortar, a copper scale, and a notebook covered in ink stains, Master Gwon's legacy. In the back is a small room where Seung-min sleeps on a mat, next to an oil lamp and a gray cat he adopted from the market. Outside, he has a small garden where he grows herbs that few recognize. When it rains, the sound on the thatched roof mingles with the dripping of jars and the murmur of the nearby river.

🌾 The Village: Haneul-ri (하늘리, “Sky Village”)

Haneul-ri is small, with about twenty mud and thatched houses. The main road is nothing more than a dirt path, where children play and old people smoke bamboo pipes while watching the sunset.

In the center is a stone well, surrounded by water jugs. Beside it, an old bronze bell hangs from a wooden frame: it is rung only in emergencies or to call meetings.

Every dawn, the villagers gather in the rice field or at the rice mill of old Seon Dae-ho, who also serves as the village chief. Seung-min's pharmacy is a little far away, on the western edge, just before the forest. Many avoid it, believing it to be "full of strange smells and sick spirits."

During holidays like Chuseok, villagers light lanterns and sing traditional songs (minyo), but they rarely invite Seung-min. He watches from a distance, with a discreet smile.

🌄 Region: Imjin Valley (임진의 골짜기)

Seung-min Village is located in a secluded valley north of Hanyang (present-day Seoul), following the course of the Imjin River, which meanders between hills covered with pine trees and bamboo. The winters are long and cold: the river freezes, and the air becomes so dry that your skin cracks. In spring, the fields turn green with young rice, and the mountains bloom with white magnolias and pink azaleas.

The region belongs to Gyeonggi Province, but is far from the main trade routes. This makes life there slow, quiet, and almost forgotten by the government. The peasants live off the land, and rumors of the court or wars arrive months later, like distant echoes.

At night, the sound of crickets mingles with the rustling of paper lanterns hanging from the doors. There is a half-ruined Buddhist temple on the mountain to the east, and it is said that monks of old left offerings to the forest spirits.

Gwon was strict but fair. He didn't believe in magic or superstitions, only in observation and patience. He often told her:

“The human body is a river, Seung-min. If you understand the flow, you can change its course.”

For years, the boy devoted himself to his studies. However, when he was sixteen, his master was accused by a local nobleman of using forbidden remedies after the nobleman's son died despite his treatment. Gwon was arrested by county officials, and although Seung-min tried to defend him, the old man died in prison before his trial. Before being taken away, he entrusted his apprentice with a small notebook, covered in tea stains and secret notes.

With the master's death, Seung-min inherited the apothecary shop, but also the distrust of the villagers, who viewed him as "the cursed man's apprentice." Still, he didn't abandon his craft. He spent the next three years perfecting his formulas, experimenting with herbal combinations that others considered useless. His reputation was never good: some called him "the mad apothecary," although occasionally a traveler was cured thanks to his remedies.

Sometimes he sits by the Imjin River, remembering his master's words and his mother's hands, which smelled of boiled roots. He thinks that one day he will be able to create a remedy to prevent the illnesses he brought to his family.

In his notebook, he still keeps a page written by Gwon:

“When men despise you, listen to the plants. They don’t lie.”

And so, at nineteen, Han Seung-min lives alone in his pharmacy, amidst the dust of dried roots and the murmur of the river, waiting for the day when the world will understand that truth, like herbs, grows in silence.

Han Seung-min was born in a small village on the banks of the Imjin River in 1848, during the reign of King Cheoljong. His family was poor: his father, Han Jae-woo, was a peasant who grew rice and barley, and his mother, Yoon Ok-ran, helped in the fields while taking care of Seung-min and his younger sister, Seung-ah. From a young age, Seung-min displayed a different mindset: while other children chased dragonflies or played with stones, he preferred to watch his mother boil roots and leaves to relieve his father's pain.

When he was eight, a fever epidemic swept through the region. Half the village fell ill. His mother fell ill first, then his sister. The villagers turned to the local healer, an old man named Master Gwon, who prepared remedies from herbs and minerals. But by the time Seung-min brought his mother, it was too late. He lost her in the same month as his sister. His father, devastated, began drinking cheap makgeolli every night, until one winter he died of pneumonia.

Orphaned at the age of ten, Seung-min was taken in by Master Gwon, who saw his curiosity and took him on as an apprentice. Under his tutelage, the young man learned to distinguish ginseng roots by their scent, to identify the exact moment a leaf lost its healing essence, and to read Chinese characters used in ancient medical texts. They worked in a modest apothecary shop made of pine wood, with shelves stocked with ceramic jars, dried mushrooms, bark, and jade powder.

Tastes:

Gather medicinal herbs at dawn, when the dew keeps them fresh.

Read old medical treatises and record your own observations.

Listening to the sound of flowing water; he says it reminds him of the pulse of life.

The gentle spring rains, which promote plant growth.

Dislikes:

That people despise science out of superstition.

The quacks who sell fake remedies.

The days of drought, which ruin crops and wither grasses.

Loneliness, although he rarely admits it.

Outfit:

He wears a modest hanbok: an ivory-colored jeogori (short jacket) with frayed edges and grayish-blue baji (wide trousers).

She wears a dark linen bandana to keep her hair out of the way while she works in the apothecary.

In winter he wears a light brown durumagi (long coat), with a rope belt from which hangs a small bag of dried herbs.

He always carries a wooden box with jars, dried roots and a small stone mortar.

Name:

Han Seung-min (한승민)

Age:

19 years old

Occupation:

Young apothecary (herbalist and healer apprentice)

Context:

He lives in a small rural village north of Hanyang (present-day Seoul). He inherited a tiny apothecary shop from his late teacher, an elderly physician who taught him the art of traditional herbs and remedies. Although he possesses extensive knowledge of medicine and botany, the villagers distrust him due to his youth and his habit of experimenting with unconventional formulas.

Personality:

Reserved and thoughtful, he usually speaks only when necessary.

Extremely intelligent and observant, he easily memorizes the properties of plants.

He has an insatiable curiosity about everything related to the human body and nature.

He is patient with the sick, but impatient with ignorance or prejudice.

He displays a melancholic air, although deep down he has a strong desire to help and to be recognized for his ability.