Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 30

“Oh, Princess….”

I shook off Gae’s hand that was holding me and ran out.

No, it couldn’t be.

I rushed inside without even taking off my shoes, and a fishy smell filled the air.

“Your Ladyship, you must not lose consciousness!!”

“Oh, Princess! Your Ladyship, the Princess has come. Please, open your eyes!”

My sister’s face, barely breathing, was pale and bloodless.

Eyes that couldn’t even meet my gaze properly turned to me.

“Princess….”

I held her cold hand, listening to her faint voice.

Tears blurred my vision.

“Because… the Princess is here, I was very… happy…. My… daughter….”

Those were her last words.

My sister stopped moving and quietly closed her eyes.

“Ah, ah… noooo…!”

Why suddenly?

Why did this happen?

Crown Prince Oraboni [term of endearment for an older brother] too. My sister too.

Why are they leaving so suddenly?

It was the middle of winter, but my whole body, my head, felt like it was burning up.

“Princess!”

Beyond my fading consciousness, I heard the voices of the palace maids calling me.

***

When I came to, the King, dressed in mourning clothes, was by my side.

“Have you come to your senses?”

“…Abamama [term of endearment for father].”

My head was a mess.

‘Why am I here….’

Where is Oraboni? Where is my sister? Where are they all?

Why am I the only one here?

Ah.

“…Did she die?”

“…Yes.”

To my rambling words, the King closed my eyes instead of giving me details.

I wanted to cry, but no more tears came out.

I drank the water the King gave me and fell asleep again as if dead.

Whether it was a dream or reality, I heard familiar voices from time to time.

“I thought she was still young and wouldn’t understand death….”

“Isn’t she intelligent? She is different from other children.”

“We need to prepare for Consort Suk’s funeral….”

“Since the Crown Prince’s funeral is underway, it should be held simply.”

“Let it be so.”

Sometimes I heard the voices of the King and some of the eunuchs.

“If it weren’t for the Princess, Consort Suk might not have left like that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your Ladyship was never interested in the King’s favor. She didn’t actively try to serve His Majesty. She wasn’t interested in dressing up either. But because the Princess was hated by Consort Yeong, she tried to gain favor to protect the Princess, and that’s how this happened.”

“You, you watch your mouth.”

“She could have lived comfortably, but excessive greed brought disaster.”

“She collapsed after being startled by a tiger, right?”

“If it weren’t for the royal seed in her womb, would she have been in such a state just from collapsing? No one else was seriously injured, right?”

That might be right.

The novel only mentioned that the young Princesses died, but there was no mention of the concubines being harmed.

Maybe everything I did was in vain.

The Crown Prince eventually died, unable to escape his predetermined fate.

And my sister, who might not have died, had her fate changed by me, received the King’s favor, became pregnant, and eventually died.

Then what about me?

Am I going to die according to the novel?

If so, will Gyeong-eon be the one to kill me, just like in the novel?

Then what about Grand Prince Yeongwon?

Grand Prince Yeongwon?

My eyes flashed open.

“Princess?”

“Gae? Songbi?”

“Yes, Princess. Are you feeling better?”

I thought the King was here until just now, and there were palace maids too.

But those were definitely not the voices of the palace maids from our residence that I knew.

The palace maids busily gave me water, porridge, and wiped my body, making a fuss.

I organized my slightly clearer mind and asked.

“Where is Abamama?”

“His Majesty came and personally took care of the Princess for several days before leaving.”

So it wasn’t all a dream.

“The Princess lost consciousness that day and your body was burning up.”

“Do you know how surprised we were?”

Saying that, the palace maids wiped away tears with resentful voices.

They must have thought a series of deaths was about to happen.

The palace maids carefully explained what had happened while I was sick, and I was able to listen calmly to the news about my sister’s funeral, as if afraid that I would collapse again from the shock.

“And Her Majesty the Queen personally came and worried about the Princess.”

“Grand Prince Yeongwon also came and checked on the Princess’s condition before leaving.”

“I see.”

My head still felt a little fuzzy, so I blinked hard, and Gae hesitated before opening his mouth.

“And, um.”

“What is it?”

“Consort Hong and Gyeong-eon also came by.”

“……”

Why those people?

My brow furrowed without me realizing it, and Gae clenched his fist and reassured me.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t let them inside, and I stayed right behind them to make sure they didn’t do anything foolish.”

“You weren’t bullied, were you?”

“Who would bully us when the Princess is here?”

Does that mean they get bullied when I’m not around?

The palace maids didn’t give me a chance to think about other things and brought the herbal medicine as if they had been waiting.

“What’s wrong, Princess?”

“No, something… I remembered something.”

What was it? Why did I think of the herbal medicine…? Ah.

“Gae definitely said that day that he saw a palace maid from Chwiyeongdang [Consort Hong’s residence] at the medical office.”

“Yes? That, that day… Ah, yes.”

Maybe there’s a connection between Chwiyeongdang and what happened this time.

The maid from Consort Suk’s residence said that after the Crown Prince’s funeral began, my sister’s condition worsened after taking the herbal medicine.

The Chwiyeongdang palace maid had been going in and out of the medical office around that time, so it wasn’t impossible for them to be plotting something.

But, if that’s really the case, really.

‘My sister’s death is because of me.’

My brow furrowed at the feeling of suffocation, and the two people opened their mouths anxiously.

“Princess, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. I’m not sick.”

“Princess, do you suspect Chwiyeongdang?”

“It’s suspicious, but….”

But there’s no evidence. If I had been in my right mind, I might have been able to find some clues.

I bit my lip.

Those herbal medicines would have already been disposed of, and in the case of a concubine, there is no autopsy, so there was no way to find evidence.

Besides, if it was just a drug that induced a miscarriage, it wasn’t poison, so it was likely that it would be difficult to detect with the autopsies of this era.

“Princess, you don’t look well.”

“You’re still not well, so you shouldn’t think about other things and rest.”

“…Okay.”

I couldn’t insist when everyone was worried about me and clinging to me, so I closed my eyes again as they told me to. The fever had gone down, but my body was still tired.

I didn’t want to think about anything.

***

After I came to my senses, several people visited me as the maids had said.

The King, the Queen, Grand Prince Yeongwon, and even the concubines sent people to check on me.

But I couldn’t see the people I wanted to see the most.

Several days passed, and after hearing from the royal physician that I was fine, I was finally able to leave my room and headed to my sister’s residence first.

Only one person was missing from that place, which was still no different from the image in my memory.

‘My sister is really gone now.’

I quietly wiped away tears as I watched the palace people silently crying, and I blankly thought that.

I hadn’t fully recovered yet, and my sister’s mortuary bier [a stand on which a coffin is placed], was outside the palace, so I couldn’t go there.

Without any other choice, I returned to my residence and lay down again.

I wondered what good it would do to go to the bier now, but I realized once again that being a concubine was a sad thing.

‘My sister doesn’t have any other family anyway.’

I sent away the maids who were worried about me and went to bed alone.

I really wanted to be alone.

‘Aaaagh!! Si-ah, Si-ah!!’

It’s my sister.

It’s my sister’s voice.

My sister was crying like crazy.

I turned my head towards the place where my sister’s voice was coming from, and I saw my sister collapsed on the floor, wailing, and a man supporting her.

And my smiling portrait.

Ah, that was my funeral hall.

‘My sister must have cried like that when she heard the news of my death.’

Sister, sister.

Poor sister.

Without realizing it, I reached out and grabbed my sister.

And the face of my sister, who turned her head, had changed to the pale face of my sister in my last memory.

‘It’s unfair. Princess….’

Saying that, my sister grabbed me with her cold hand.

“Gasp!”

When I opened my eyes, it was my familiar room.

‘It was a dream.’

Tears streamed down as I blinked.

Why did I have this dream now?

‘Is she blaming me for not doing anything?’

I got up panting, found the water beside my head, drank it, and got up.

It was the middle of the night, judging by how dark it was outside.

‘Are they all asleep?’

I left the duty palace maid, who was dozing off while sitting, probably exhausted from taking care of me, and quietly went outside, finding and putting on the black coat that was hanging there.

The reason I wore black clothes on purpose was simple. I didn’t want to be noticed by anyone.

Not many people would notice a small child wearing black clothes walking around in the middle of the night.

‘Unless a tiger really comes out.’

Perhaps because security had been strengthened since that day, rumors about tigers were no longer heard.

Whether it was because of the tiger rumors or because of the funeral, there were many people lighting fires and staying up all night here and there, so it wasn’t difficult to walk around even in the dark.

I quietly approached the place where the light was leaking out, and I heard the voices of the palace maids.

“Where will Your Ladyship’s burial site be?”

“Will the Prince also be buried in the same place?”

“I don’t know. Maybe so.”

The child my sister gave birth to was already dead in her womb, they said.

I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but he must have been by my sister’s side that day.

‘This younger brother wasn’t even born alive.’

Rather than feeling sorry, I had the twisted thought that Consort Hong and Gyeong-eon would have hated him even more if he had been born safely.

Was it because I thought of Gyeong-eon? My steps unconsciously headed towards Chwiyeongdang.

I know.

That I can’t find out anything by going like this.

But after waking up from that dream just now, it suddenly occurred to me.

It was fifteen days after the Crown Prince died.

In the novel, the assassination attempt on Grand Prince Yeongwon took place then.

And today is probably the fourteenth day.

Tomorrow is the fifteenth day.

Then won’t something happen today?