Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 224

Turning my head, I saw a man who was clearly drunk, stumbling around and bumping into things, barely able to support himself.

“Ughhh-”

“Ouch! What are you doing!”

‘It was good to get him drunk to exploit him, but did they really have to bring someone so far gone he can’t even stand?’ I wondered.

‘I should have just rifled through his pockets while he was drunk and taken his money pouch,’ I thought with a touch of regret.

Well, it would be easier to deceive him by saying he lost the money gambling.

“Hey, can’t you keep it down? It’s loud as hell.”

“What did you say? What are you doing right now, huh?”

But drunks were unpredictable creatures; you never knew what they would do.

“Kyaaak!”

The two men who suddenly started fighting began to turn the surroundings into chaos.

No, it seemed like the one who was losing was taking advantage of the situation to flip the table, literally. Thanks to that, the one who was winning got angry and grabbed the other’s collar.

‘This wasn’t in the plan?’ I thought, surprised.

And the drunks who started the fight weren’t alone, as several others joined in, and those who were hit by stray shoves and punches from here and there also began to participate.

Maybe now there would really be people who were deliberately trying to flip the table, causing even more chaos.

‘This is why you shouldn’t gather drunk people together…….’ I mused.

Clicking my tongue, Jia slowly moved away.

Originally, I was going to cause a commotion, but I was grateful that someone else was doing it for me.

“Oh, what should we do!”

“Someone call for help! Kyaaak!”

“Ughhh!”

Seeing the geisha [Japanese female entertainers trained in traditional arts] who were still somewhat sober running out, Jia noticed some of them running towards the inside of the building, not the restaurant, and exchanged glances with her Siyoungwon [Special Intelligence Unit] colleagues.

Jia signaled to her flustered colleagues that she would chase after the geisha, and then followed them.

‘Maybe this was a chance that wouldn’t come again,’ she thought, her heart pounding with anticipation.

Thankfully, the inside was still dim.

‘I’m not deliberately coming in, I just accidentally came in by mistake,’ Jia repeated to herself, rehearsing her excuse.

In fact, it wasn’t a bad excuse if I got caught.

The problem was whether they would believe it.

Still, I had been gambling while pretending to be a son of a good, wealthy family, so I calculated that they wouldn’t be able to do anything easily.

Besides, Jia was also pretending to be drunk, just like the drunks who were causing a ruckus in the gambling den.

Even if I wasn’t actually drunk, the fact that I smelled like alcohol meant that I had enough excuses to say that I was drunk and chasing after the geisha.

Besides, Siyoungwon colleagues had clearly witnessed Jia entering this way.

‘Of course, it’s over if it’s revealed that I’m a woman. If I don’t come back, they’ll really bring even the young lady,’ she worried.

I was doing this for the young lady, but I didn’t want to cause any harm.

I had a feeling that such a thing wouldn’t happen, but it was better to be careful. Jia quietly followed the geisha.

Until just now, they seemed to be screaming and running away, but after turning a corner, everyone naturally slowed down.

I almost had a heart attack when they turned around to see if anyone was following them, but fortunately, it seemed like I wasn’t caught.

Thanks to the darkness of the passage, they seemed to think that no one was there, and I could hear the giggling conversations of the geisha nearby.

‘Listening to their voices, they don’t seem too surprised by the drunks’ riot,’ I observed.

Well, it might be a common occurrence if you work in a place like this. It would be better to run away quickly than to get caught up in it and get hurt.

“Ugh, I’m so sick of this. Not only drunkards but also gamblers.”

“I came here because they said I could earn a lot of money, but instead of earning a little more, I’m just suffering and watching everyone’s faces.”

“They really make us do everything, are we geisha or glorified servants?”

Jia had a rough idea of what the geisha who worked here were like.

‘The environment doesn’t seem very good,’ she thought, feeling a pang of sympathy.

Well, it seemed difficult to compare them in many ways to the entertainers who only performed at Siwolgak [a high-end entertainment establishment].

A timid voice leaked out from among the women who were continuing to complain.

“Will they accept me if I go over there now?”

“…….”

It was a small voice, but when there was a moment of silence, Jia, who was secretly following, thought while shrinking her body in case her footsteps were heard.

‘That voice…… I think I’ve heard it somewhere before,’ she realized.

I had run errands while going in and out of gibang [traditional Korean house of entertainment] when I was creating Siwolgak, so I thought I might have seen her before.

Fortunately, the awkward silence didn’t last long.

“Hey, do you think they’ll accept you?”

“Well, that’s true.”

The geisha laughed with self-deprecating voices.

Then they soon began to whisper like this.

“Looking at the fight over there, we won’t be able to go back for a while anyway, so shouldn’t we go back to our rooms and change our clothes?”

“That’s right. My clothes are wet from the alcohol.”

“That’s right. Looking at it, they’re throwing things around and making a fuss. Do we have to clean that up?”

“What if we say we were hiding in fear?”

“Should we?”

After looking at each other for a while, the geisha went to another place, not the direction they were originally going, saying they would secretly take a break.

It seemed to be their dormitory.

Jia paused for a moment because she couldn’t follow right behind them because she was already out in the open.

‘What should I do?’ she wondered.

The direction I was originally going was where the higher-ups were, but the house seemed quite large to wander around alone like this.

It was fortunate that there were many buildings, so I could somehow hide and walk around.

‘Thinking about it, there’s a way to dress up as a woman and pretend to be a geisha or maid…….’

It’s a woman wearing women’s clothes, so what’s so difficult about it?

I had helped the entertainers at Siwolgak change their clothes before. Thanks to the recent trend of Siwolgak, the hairstyles have become relatively simple, so it seemed possible to deceive them.

‘There may be people who know my face…… but not everyone who works here will know,’ she reasoned.

Jia carefully followed the direction the geisha went, looking around. Anyway, wandering around without thinking was suspicious as well.

“What should I do with these clothes?”

“Hey, just throw them away. They’re not expensive clothes anyway.”

“If we take them off, the maids will take care of them. I can’t see where they’ve all gone.”

“Isn’t there surprisingly few servants compared to the size of this house?”

“Are we supposed to do such chores? Who would call a geisha with rough hands?”

The youngest-looking geisha was seen gathering the clothes that the geisha had taken off and piling them up on the floor.

“Hey. Come in and take a break too. Who’s going to recognize you for being so diligent?”

“Yes, sister.”

As the geisha went inside and closed the door and started to fix themselves up again, Jia slipped in, stole a relatively old and cheap-looking piece of clothing from among the clothes that had been taken off, and ran away.

It seemed to be the clothes of the geisha who was complaining about spilling alcohol on them earlier, as they were damp and smelled of alcohol.

‘Sorry. I’ll repay you someday……,’ she thought guiltily.

Hugging the stolen clothes tightly and running away secretly, Jia suddenly realized one thing.

Thinking about it…… even if I get caught now, won’t I become a pervert who steals geisha’s clothes……?

Since I even stole the clothes I was wearing, I was an undeniable pervert.

“…….”

For now, this wasn’t the important thing.

If I get caught, there’s only a difference between being sent back alive as a pervert or being beaten to death as a pervert.

‘The geisha were going in that direction earlier,’ she reminded herself.

I looked around as I could, but there was always someone guarding the place that seemed important.

When I went to the back and looked inside, there was a warehouse where treasures were piled up, but it didn’t mean much to Jia.

And there was a building that looked important to anyone.

‘What should I do,’ she pondered.

I managed to get close, but it didn’t seem easy to approach enough to peek inside or hear the conversation because there was someone guarding it.

But I came all the way here, so it was too bad to go back without any results.

‘I should have learned some infiltration skills,’ she lamented.

Jia knew that some of the Siyoungwon children were learning such things.

I originally lived on the streets and had learned some self-defense skills, so I thought I was quite agile, but I couldn’t compare to those children.

While guarding the surroundings and feeling anxious, I saw someone running from afar and hid behind the building.

The men ran to a middle-aged man who looked a little older. He seemed to be their leader.

“It’s, it’s a big deal! There’s a fight among the drunks in the gambling den…….”

“Do you have to report such things one by one? The elder is also here, what kind of disgrace is this?”

“However…….”

They were the ones who worked at the gambling den. Jia had seen them a few times, so I knew their faces.

‘They must know my face too,’ she realized with a sinking feeling.

I was a regular customer now, so they must know.

As things got noisy for some reason, the door opened and another unfamiliar voice was heard.

It was a slightly older voice than before.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see his face from Jia’s hiding place.

“What’s going on?”

“That is…….”

The leader-level uncle was about to make an excuse when another middle-aged uncle’s voice was heard.

“It must be drunk troublemakers causing a commotion again. It’s a common occurrence. Anyway, they’re hopeless people who waste their time on alcohol and gambling.”

“Tsk tsk, even though the other side is noisy because people are coming and going to do some construction, now there’s even a commotion in the gambling den.”

“I’m sorry. You guys, how can you make a fuss over such a thing.”

“Ha, however…….”

The men seemed to have something to say, but the superiors, who were presumed to be the superiors, didn’t give them a chance to say the main point.

‘If the superiors are like that, there won’t be proper reports in the future,’ she thought, disapprovingly.

It was a characteristic of a group that glossed over problems and eventually grew into a big accident later on.

Of course, it was someone else’s business to Jia, so I didn’t care.

“Okay. Those guys are so crazy that you don’t know what they’ll do, so clean them up quickly.”

“Yes! I understand. Go quickly!”

“Um, it’s not that, but I know that there are children of high-ranking officials among those who are fighting now, but everyone doesn’t stop fighting…….”

“You should have said that sooner!”

You didn’t even give me a chance to speak……. I thought, amused.

‘I know what you’re thinking even if you don’t say it,’ Jia thought, imagining the scramble to avoid blame.

Jia felt a little sorry for a moment, but this wasn’t the time for me to worry about others.

No, I thought it might be a good thing.

“It would be better for you to go and handle it yourself.”

“Yes, elder.”

“Ah, no. I can handle it on my own!”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes!”

“Then go quickly and handle it properly! You too!”

‘What kind of luck is this?’ Jia thought, surprised. The dangerous guys were rushing away, and I could hear the conversation.