Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 217

After confirming that the men had taken the criminal children away, I called Jia.

“Young Miss.”

“Thankfully, you were in Siyeongwon [a government office] today.”

“It’s been chaotic today. Besides, Siyeongwon seems to be short-handed these days.”

The former isn’t my fault, but the latter seems to be.

I received a new teacup and asked Jia,

“I asked you last time to find out where those kids who were gambling did it. Did you find anything?”

“Well, they just say they’ll quit gambling and won’t open their mouths. I wonder what they’ve been up to.”

“Why go that far?”

At my question, Jia frowned as if something unpleasant came to mind.

“I know, right? But somehow…”

“Somehow?”

“I have a feeling they were deliberately luring Siyeongwon children in.”

It seemed Jia had the same opinion as Court Lady Min.

But perhaps Jia felt something more concrete.

“Hmm. Why do you think so?”

“Siyeongwon people usually don’t have a reason to go to other places if they work inside Siyeongwon, except for farming or trading outside.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Yes. After all, they bring in a large amount of food from connected places. After buying as much as needed in the village, the rest is handed over to Siyeongwon. Besides, internal staff weave cloth, sew, embroider, study at school, and work at Siyeong Park or inside Siyeongwon. There are also people working at Siwolgak [a type of entertainment venue] or restaurants. Of course, there are cases where they go around delivering goods made in Siyeongwon.”

Listening to Jia, I felt a bit dazed.

‘What on earth did I create?’

Is this some kind of pseudo-religious community village? Or is this normal in this era?

“So, in most cases, they only go out to play. But in fact, except for Siwolgak or restaurants, they don’t really go around that much. They’re busy making a living, and there’s a lot of alcohol and food made internally, so there’s not much reason to go out. And not everyone has that much money.”

“Don’t you go out often, Jia?”

“I don’t go out much either, except when I’m commissioned for a lawsuit and have to go to the government office. If I ask the person in charge of the stall in the park, they’ll buy books for me when they get their stock.”

“Hmm.”

“Of course, you have to go to the market to buy luxury goods. But we don’t really need that kind of thing, do we…?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

I was puzzled, and she seemed a little unsure.

“Anyway, there’s no gambling around here, so if they’ve fallen into gambling, someone must have tempted them. But even so, it’s suspicious that so many people have fallen into gambling and are in debt.”

“Jia, you’re really good at talking.”

I knew she wasn’t just working as a solicitor for nothing.

“Don’t tease me.”

“I was complimenting you.”

“…”

Jia blushed slightly and avoided my gaze.

How shy.

We were talking for a while, and then the conversation was briefly interrupted.

“Waaah…”

A small sound like crying came from afar.

“Is that crying?”

“Yes?”

It sounded like the place where those young criminals were taken earlier.

‘They said they wouldn’t hit them?’

I turned my head with a slightly embarrassed face, and Soi came and covered my ears.

“Why?”

“It’s nothing.”

“What do you know?”

“What would I know?”

I guess Soi doesn’t seem to know anything.

I don’t know what it is, but it seems like a bad sound, so she’s covering my ears?

“Then let go when you don’t hear the sound.”

“I can’t hear it,” Jia said, shaking her head. Soi seemed similar.

“Get this out of the way.”

I pushed Soi’s arm away and got up.

‘I think I can faintly hear crying.’

I left the two of them and moved in the direction where the children were taken.

“Young Miss.”

“It’s okay. They wouldn’t create a scene that I can’t see.”

If the Chetamins [a group of people] wanted to, if they wanted to do something terrible, they could do it at any time.

If they had intended to do that, they would have finished it before I arrived and just sent the information.

But the fact that they didn’t means they still have some affection for those thieves.

The crying grew closer, and the voices were heard little by little.

Several people were guarding the front of what looked like a shed, and Mauri and the children were not visible.

“Is it okay to go in now?”

“…I think it’s okay.”

The guards exchanged glances for a moment and then opened the door for me to enter.

Soi and Jia looked reluctant, but still followed me in.

Cheonho was surprisingly… or rather, he had a nonchalant expression from the beginning.

‘Surprisingly, he might have lived a rough life.’

I didn’t want to delve too deeply into other people’s pasts, so I focused on the situation in front of me.

Inside, the guys who had been tight-lipped and the child who seemed a little out of it were all lying on the floor, sobbing.

The owners of the crying I heard must have been these children.

“I, I was wrong… I was wrong.”

“Mister… please…”

They were all sobbing, but they didn’t seem hurt anywhere.

‘They look fine on the outside…?’

Honestly, I wanted to hit them once, but Mauri’s mental training as a Chetamin was deeper than mine.

And when I turned my head, Mauri, who was sitting in a chair, didn’t look too good.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

His body was covered in wounds, as if he had whipped himself, making my body tremble without me realizing it.

‘Ah… Mister, you said it was your fault for raising the children wrong earlier…’

I sighed and suggested the most urgent thing first.

“You should get treatment first.”

“No. Now that they all seem to have reflected a little, you should interrogate them first.”

The mister was quite stubborn.

But there were people who were more surprised than me, Soi and Jia.

“Ah, the Young Miss is surprised. Get treatment first.”

“Yes, Mister. How surprised would the Young Miss be?”

“…I’m sorry. I lived too rough and surprised the Young Miss.”

“Yeah. Okay, let’s get treatment first.”

Using my excuse seems to be the most useful.

When I called someone to bring medicine, the children who were lying down and crying finally raised their heads.

When they got up, I could see that they had some injuries on their bodies, but it seemed they had tried to block them but failed.

After all, no matter how much age difference there is, there seems to be a difference between someone who has trained their body and someone who hasn’t.

‘You need stamina to raise kids…’ I thought.

Now that mister is quite old. I secretly reviewed Mauri’s bonus payment plan.

The sniffling guys clung to the mister and kept asking if he was okay.

‘I thought they were out of their minds, but they still had some good in them.’

I’ve heard so many stories about guys who were crazy and sold their families, or abused their powerless families for money, doing things that people shouldn’t do. Seeing them crying and regretting like that, I was relieved.

Soon, Court Lady Min and the maids brought medicine boxes and wet towels, and started treatment with silent screams.

“I’m fine, so you guys answer what the Young Miss asks.”

“Yes, yes…”

At first, they didn’t even answer who told them to do it, but the shock therapy was quite strong, so now they were sniffling and telling everything.

“Where is the gambling den you went to?”

“Well, the truth is… we didn’t go to the gambling den from the beginning.”

The young criminals, who had stopped sniffling, tried to answer my words calmly.

“Then where did you go?”

“We sometimes go to Siwolgak or restaurants when we save money from work. But recently, we heard that a new big restaurant opened, so we all gathered our salaries and decided to go together.”

Ah, that place.

I frowned without realizing it, thinking of a place.

They must have thought I was upset that they went to a competitor, so they all started making excuses.

“At first, we just heard people talking about a new restaurant in the park, saying that the performances were amazing and the food was better than the places run by Siyeongwon, so we were curious and went in.”

“…That’s almost like picking a fight. You heard that kind of talk in Siyeong Park?”

“Yes.”

“Not just us, but many people heard those rumors.”

Doing viral marketing in a competitor’s area…

But if a guest who came to the park was spreading those words, it was impossible to catch them.

“Hmm. So, how was it when you went in?”

“Well… the inside was fancy, and as we heard, they were doing performances like Siwolgak.”

“Actually, compared to Siwolgak, it was a bit rustic… I wouldn’t say it was as good, but we weren’t expecting that much, so we didn’t care much.”

“We just thought the rumors were a bit exaggerated.”

It was a high-end restaurant that wasn’t much better than the Siyeongwon-related facilities we had already experienced, both in terms of interior and performance level.

“Since it was our first time going there, we were a bit dazed and confused, and some young… young men teased us for being stiff in a place like that, so without realizing it, we said we were from Siyeongwon and familiar with Siwolgak, so don’t ignore us.”

“Since they’re all orphans… it’s a habit to mention Siyeongwon like that when someone ignores them.”

Saying that, they all lowered their heads as if they were embarrassed.

It was embarrassing to say such a thing when they weren’t even children.

“Besides, this friend is going to be a scholarship student, so he even said unnecessary things because he didn’t want to be ignored.”

“Then it became strangely quiet, and some nobleman came up to us and was kind to us, asking if it was our first time in a place like this, and told us about the food and the performances, and even bought us drinks.”

No, that’s so suspicious?

“We haven’t had much alcohol, and since it was alcohol given by an adult, we drank it as they gave it to us. Then suddenly, those beautifully dressed courtesans came in and served us drinks, and we were so embarrassed that we drank the alcohol as they poured it, and just said whatever came out of our mouths, and just drank…”

Perhaps recalling what happened then, some of them slammed their heads on the floor.

Or maybe they felt a sense of reality explaining this in front of me, who still has the appearance of a young child.

I might have been looking at them with very pathetic eyes without realizing it.

‘Hmm… these guys got properly hooked.’

They were innocent kids who only worked and studied, so they couldn’t have been immune to that.

Well, it would be strange if they were immune.

The point was that the courtesans, who were familiar with men, stuck to them one by one to keep them from escaping, and they couldn’t refuse the alcohol and were caught.

“Then they said they would teach us a fun game… I think.”

“Yes. They asked if we wanted to enjoy a different kind of entertainment with a light heart… Ah, the courtesans were with us, but it wasn’t unhealthy!”

Roughly, they played a light game with the courtesans in that spot, and it was quite fun.