Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 227

Born as a Daughter of a Lowly Concubine 227

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“So, you’re saying you’re going to economically ruin them.”

“My, Princess. Your words… where did you even learn such expressions?”

Soya massaged her forehead and glared at Chunho as if she had found the culprit. Chunho shook his head, looking wronged, but that wasn’t the point right now.

“So, Jia?”

“Fortunately, we saw her in front of that restaurant earlier and immediately told her to come.”

Uncle Mauri answered immediately to my words.

He seemed more disciplined than usual.

‘Is he scared because he’s guilty?’

Before long, a young man staggered over and awkwardly bowed before me.

It was Jia, dressed as a man.

“Young Miss… no, Princess.”

I was sitting on the main porch, naturally looking down at everyone else, so I didn’t need to worry too much about formalities.

“Just call me whatever. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No…”

Jia awkwardly raised her head.

‘He even put on a fake mustache.’

Well, he needs to cover his face more with a mustache.

I wanted to tease him a bit, but it wasn’t the right time, so I had to reluctantly hold back.

“Why did you do such a dangerous thing?”

“It wasn’t that dangerous…”

“Sneaking into the house of a suspicious nobleman running a gambling den is dangerous.”

The most dangerous people in the world are those with money and power.

As I scolded Jia, Uncle Mauri interjected.

“Honestly, we weren’t in danger, but this guy was. Who told you to infiltrate that place?”

“But I didn’t think such a good opportunity would come again…”

“This guy still isn’t repenting.”

Jia looked wronged, but the Chetamin [secret agent] frowned.

Is he trying to make Jia take all the blame?

Well, Jia’s role was only to cause a commotion, but he directly jumped into a dangerous place, so it was a reckless act.

Of course, the others didn’t do well either.

“It doesn’t sound right for the people who pushed the kid into the gambling den to say that…”

“…I apologize.”

Soya quietly chirped from the side, easing the atmosphere.

“A kid? Princess, how old is Jia?”

“He’s just a civilian. Or can Jia easily take down five or six trained adult men?”

“Not that much…”

I deliberately spoke in a heavy voice.

“I know that Jia knows some self-defense. I also know that he jumped into a dangerous situation because he was worried about me, and of course, I appreciate that. But that doesn’t mean he can do whatever he wants. At least it’s something that someone who has been properly trained should do, isn’t it?”

“I apologize. It just so happened that all the children who had already been trained had passed the Chetamin exam and weren’t in Siyoungwon.”

I didn’t know that.

“Huh?”

And Jia didn’t seem to know either.

“Ah.”

Uncle Mauri seemed to have forgotten for a moment that it was a secret.

‘Chetamin are secret agents… It’s not like they’re going to announce to everyone that they passed the exam.’

There are so many children in Siyoungwon that they often just leave with a notice that they got a job, so it’s natural that Jia doesn’t know.

‘Everyone needs to be safe.’

In the awkward atmosphere, I wrapped up the situation.

“Anyway, don’t do anything dangerous in the future. Got it?”

“……”

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“No. I have a lot to say, but I’m not sure if it’s okay to say it here.”

Jia said, looking around.

And he asked the question that many people had wanted to ask me since earlier but couldn’t bring themselves to ask because of the atmosphere.

“But Young Miss… Princess, what is this place?”

“Hmm. I heard you were outside when I came in the palanquin [a covered litter or sedan chair], so you didn’t hear what we were talking about then.”

Jia shook his head at my words.

“No, I heard it roughly…”

He had a look on his face as if he wasn’t sure if he heard correctly.

I subtly avoided his gaze and sighed softly.

“Actually, I bought this place a while ago.”

“Yes?”

“I bought it.”

“Why, why?”

Several pairs of eyes were on me, as if they didn’t understand.

I tried to avoid those gazes and casually blurted out.

“I’m going to open another restaurant.”

“……Here?”

“Yeah.”

At my answer, those who heard this news for the first time today had a strange, truly strange look on their faces.

Soya and Chunho, who already knew, chuckled, and they seemed to realize it then, turning their heads and laughing quietly.

“I see. Well, it wouldn’t be bad to have another restaurant around here.”

“It doesn’t overlap with the existing stores in terms of location at all.”

“It seems like a good location to us.”

Everyone grinned and congratulated me on my new business expansion.

In fact, those guys weren’t stupid, so they were operating in Siyoungwon, or rather, quite far from the same type of businesses that I run, almost on the opposite side.

Therefore, there are no directly competing businesses in this area.

‘It’s a good location to do business well, apart from the gambling den.’

A lot of people pass by, and the neighborhood is reasonably good.

Even if it wasn’t a gambling den, if the food and service quality were good, it would be doing well now.

But I’m coming in?

Honestly, this was gangsterism.

‘But that side is the real gangster. They even run a gambling den.’

If someone else had started a business here instead of me, they might have used the gangsters working at the gambling den to threaten them.

‘But no matter how much you bribe, it’s very difficult to oppress a direct descendant of the royal family who is favored by the king in a monarchy.’

Even if it’s a royal family member who isn’t favored, depending on the king, he might get angry and show the power of his authority, saying that he dared to insult the royal family.

‘Honestly, I’m grateful if they touch me. I have no reason to stop them if they’re going to set up their own sacrificial table.’

They’re not stupid, so I don’t think they’ll do that.

But talking about such things too openly is a bit… not right. Somehow.

“Ahem. Actually, the number of people working in Siyoungwon keeps increasing, but there aren’t many jobs… There are too many people in the existing restaurant, so I thought it was time to make a new one.”

“I see!”

Actually, it was late…

I just didn’t make it because I was too lazy.

I had been thinking about opening more branches of the restaurant.

However, some people were starting similar businesses, so I just left it alone, thinking that the food service industry would develop a bit.

But after all, those kinds of guys are an exception, aren’t they?

“So, for now, from the original place… let’s call that the main store (本店) [běndiàn – original store] now. I was wondering if about half of the people who worked at the main store could come here.”

“Half?”

“It’s hard to work if only newbies gather. It’s not like we’re bringing in new recruits all at once, but we’ll divide them up after they’ve received even a little bit of training in advance at the main store. Not everyone is a complete beginner.”

It’s still under construction, so there’s plenty of time anyway.

‘Since we’re opening a new one, I need to have them think about some new menus.’

While I was organizing the plans I had already made, the people of Siyoungwon, who had been laughing, asked a question.

“But isn’t it too sudden?”

“I originally do it when I think of it.”

Siyoungwon was also made relatively impulsively.

“But why did you hide it?”

“Rather than hiding it… the restaurant was originally a business that started before Siyoungwon was properly established, so Gaia bought the building anyway. This time, Gaia bought it as an agent again.”

Although he’s not here.

“The site was also wide, so it looked good for doing something.”

Everyone looked puzzled at my words.

“You’re not just making a restaurant?”

“Well, I just had some things in mind.”

“……? Well, I’m sure the Princess has something in mind.”

As everyone was reasonably accepting the answer, Soya quietly muttered.

“But you bought it on impulse.”

……Be quiet.

“……Young Miss?”

“Um… I heard that a house near that restaurant was on sale for cheap, so I thought it would be useful, so I thought I should buy it first~.”

As I made up an excuse, Jia asked directly.

“Was it really an impulse buy?”

“……”

“Young Miss?”

I tried to avoid Jia’s gaze.

“Well, yeah.”

“……I see.”

Hmm… To be honest… it was an impulse buy.

In fact, I was so angry at the time that I bought it first, but I thought about it a lot after that.

Honestly, it felt like too much of a corporate tyranny, like there was no business ethics, but!

Still, I came to the conclusion that I had to ruin them a bit.

‘If they weren’t making a gambling den and attracting our kids, could I just let this go?’

Would I have needed to worry about this if it wasn’t for the gambling den?

Moreover, gambling in this era was easy to lead to human trafficking.

No matter how hard you crack down on human trafficking, it’s hard to catch if the gamblers jump in themselves.

‘They said that they don’t stop women from entering, even if they block children from entering.’

Of course, the children wouldn’t come to such places on their own.

Those who brought the children would probably have a hard time getting addicted to gambling and wouldn’t spend money on women, so they probably wouldn’t make much money and would rather think it was a business obstruction.

‘Of course, they wouldn’t care about the child after they got addicted to gambling.’

In the case of child trafficking, it was even more difficult because if a child was not seen, the neighbors would report it because of the kidnapping I had experienced in the past, and if the child was indeed missing, the reporter would be rewarded.