Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 196

“Aigoo! This little miss has quite a sharp hand.”

Wahaha!

People laughed cheerfully at the clown’s exaggerated complaints about being hit by a child, but the clown rolling on the ground was secretly stroking his leg and sweating coldly.

‘……Did Chunho do that?’

When I hit the mask earlier, the clown was already falling backward.

Looking at Chunho with suspicious eyes, he subtly avoided my gaze and smiled innocently.

It seemed Chunho had kicked the clown’s leg the moment he approached.

‘He must be in pain, one way or another.’

I decided to forgive the clown who paid for his rudeness with his body.

He tried to have some fun by making a child cry, so it was his own fault.

“Hmph. You surprised people for fun, so you’re being punished!”

“Aigoo! Please forgive me, little miss!”

The clown didn’t want to ruin the performance, so he rubbed his palms together and pretended to beg for forgiveness, even though his leg still seemed to hurt.

I deliberately wiggled in Chunho’s arms and tapped the clown’s mask with my hand.

“If it’s not fun, you’ll be in trouble!”

“Of course! Everyone, did you hear that? This little miss won’t let us off if it’s not fun!”

“Eek!”

The clown troupe all chimed in appropriately, and laughter erupted from everywhere.

‘This should be enough.’

Everyone is having fun, so I don’t want to spoil the mood.

But I didn’t feel like watching the performance anymore, so I tapped Chunho’s shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, little miss.”

It’s not like I’m still scared of the tiger mask like before, but I was startled for no reason. Thanks to that, one of my hands was still clutching Chunho’s clothes.

“Were you surprised?”

“A little.”

He must have known I flinched, but what’s the point of lying? When I told him honestly, Chunho patted my back.

“I’ll be by your side to protect you, so don’t be afraid.”

“I was just a little surprised.”

Blinking, I tilted my head for a moment.

‘When did we have a similar conversation… did we ever have one?’

It’s been several months since I’ve known Chunho, so my memory is hazy.

Soi, who was waiting for us in the back, asked with a smile.

“Did you not enjoy the performance very much?”

“Um… there are too many people, so maybe a little?”

“It’s getting dark, and they’ll be doing fireworks soon. Would you be okay with that? Or should we just go back?”

“Ah, I want to see that!”

I haven’t seen that before!

The fireworks are held at Cheonggyecheon [a stream in Seoul], probably because they might set something else on fire. They light charcoal powder to create fireworks, and it was more spectacular than I thought.

“Wow!”

As the fireworks crackled and fell, the people watching exclaimed.

‘It’s really… comfortable to have Chunho around.’

He keeps lifting me up so I can see well. He’s tall himself, so he seems to be able to see well just by standing there.

This is what’s convenient about being a child.

“Did you like it?”

“Yeah.”

“You like fireworks.”

“There are few people who dislike watching them.”

“Haha.”

It was nice to be able to watch comfortably.

‘I only heard the sound from afar back then.’

I definitely heard the sound of fireworks back then, and I was….

‘……Was Suchun taking off my clothes?’

Suddenly, I felt a sense of reality. No, it was definitely necessary.

“It seems late now, but next time, would you like to go see the Nakwa fireworks at the Han River?”

“Hmm. That’s okay.”

“You’re not interested?”

“Hmm. I said it’s okay.”

“Why? Let’s go see them.”

“……It’s okay.”

That little kid definitely said we should go see them together back then.

It wasn’t a big promise, but I felt a little disloyal, so I didn’t really want to go.

Well, maybe I’ll be fine with it after some more time passes.

It was getting late, but the streets were still crowded with people.

“Shall we go back now?”

“If you wish… oh?”

Soi, who was nodding, suddenly stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, I thought I saw someone I knew just now… I must have been mistaken.”

“Who is it?”

“Um….”

Soi tilted her head for a moment, then answered in an uncertain voice.

“I’m sure I know them, but I can’t quite remember who it is. I don’t think they’re from Siyeongwon [a government office]… but there’s no way someone I know would be here. I must be mistaken.”

“Haha. Soi knows a lot of people. They say there are many people who look alike in the world, so it might just be someone who looks similar. Let’s go back. If Sehwa is there, we’ll take her with us, and if not, we’ll go back by ourselves.”

“Yes, little miss.”

It was a pleasant time.

I thought we would return to the palace peacefully, but unexpectedly, Sehwa was waiting for us with the Crown Prince in the same place as before.

‘Hmm.’

What on earth happened between the time we parted?

The atmosphere between Sehwa and the Crown Prince was strange.

More than anything, Sehwa’s eyes seemed red….

I pointed out the most likely suspect.

“Did Older Brother bully you?”

Sehwa, startled by my words, hurriedly shook her head in denial.

“Yes? Ah, no.”

“Then why does your face look like that?”

What do you mean, no? Who bullied Sehwa, was it you? Was it you?

As I glared at the Crown Prince while whispering, the Crown Prince, who couldn’t have heard my voice, shook his head on his own with an utterly wronged expression.

When I frowned, Eunuch Song and the guards behind the Crown Prince also shook their heads.

Only after completing the second confirmation did I drop my suspicion, and the Crown Prince looked back and forth between the two people behind him and me with an absurd expression.

‘Aren’t you going too far?’

‘Not my problem.’

Sehwa, who saw me and the Crown Prince exchanging words silently, chuckled even though her eyes were still red.

“Hehe. That’s not it. It’s just that seeing the lanterns reminded me of my younger sibling I parted with a long time ago.”

“……Really? Older Brother didn’t bully you?”

“No.”

“You didn’t do anything weird?”

“Yes, no.”

Behind us, the Crown Prince was still grumbling, ‘How could you think of me like that……!’, but he seemed relieved to see Sehwa’s face brighten in front of me.

“If Older Brother bullies you, tell me secretly.”

“Yes. I will definitely do so.”

Certainly, it had been since the lantern festival that she had last parted with her sibling, so it was understandable that she would feel depressed.

‘Thinking about it from Sehwa’s perspective, she was separated from her sibling for a while because she was on a date with the Crown Prince, so she might be blaming herself.’

If she hadn’t left Suchun behind and had stayed with her, they might have been able to escape together back then.

‘But if they had escaped together, they would have definitely been caught.’

In the original story, Suchun was a child who didn’t even appear because she died early without any presence.

She only came out to the lantern festival with me, so she escaped.

At the time, Suchun was still a slow-footed child, and if Sehwa and the nanny had been with Suchun, it would have been difficult to escape together.

In the first place, if the siblings had been together, it was highly likely that they would have been stopped from crossing the four main gates.

But for some reason, people can’t judge things so calmly when it comes to their own affairs.

‘They just start thinking that everything went wrong because of their own mistakes.’

I had such thoughts in my past life too.

When my parents and younger brother passed away in an accident.

At that time, my parents had suggested that I go on the trip with them.

But I didn’t want to go with them and take care of my young brother, and I chose to study at the academy and chat with my friends instead.

If I had decided to go with them, they might have changed the date to fit my academy schedule.

No, maybe if I had stopped them from going at the last minute, the accident wouldn’t have happened.

‘I blamed myself for everything like that….’

Of course, later, my older sister very realistically refuted that it wasn’t my fault, and after time passed, I was able to think that it wasn’t my fault either.

It took time, and I needed someone to tell me that it wasn’t my fault.

‘But it would be difficult to do that for Sehwa, who is hiding her circumstances right now.’

No matter how much the Crown Prince, who doesn’t know anything, tries to comfort her, it won’t work properly.

From Sehwa’s perspective, it’s not easy to make a shocking declaration like, ‘I’m actually the child of a traitor!’

Even if she and the Crown Prince like each other, that would be a bit difficult.

‘Sigh.’

I sighed and took Sehwa’s hand and led her along.

Sehwa had been smiling since earlier, as if she was happy about something.

Am I funny? Well, it’s a relief if you feel better.

I was checking on Sehwa’s condition when I suddenly met the Crown Prince’s eyes as he approached Sehwa. Is that all you can do with an anxious face?

‘What, where are you coming? Don’t come, stay away.’

‘…….’

When I frowned, the Crown Prince retreated slowly with a dissatisfied expression.

“Puhut.”

“Pooh.”

Now that I looked, not only Sehwa but also the others were holding back their laughter.

‘Was I the only one who was serious?’

Whether the people around me were laughing or not, I led Sehwa into the house where we had changed our clothes.

We can’t enter the palace wearing such conspicuous clothes.

We left the clothes we had changed into here and were about to come out of the house after changing back into our usual clothes when the Crown Prince and Sehwa, who had changed clothes first, were talking intimately with embarrassed faces.

“The clothes you wore earlier suited you well, of course, but even in your usual clothes….”

“…….”

Can’t we leave now?

I grabbed Chunho and Soi’s sleeves and stopped for a moment. The two of them also understood the atmosphere and stopped immediately, but there was one being here who didn’t care about the atmosphere at all.