Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 255

I was born as the daughter of a low-ranking concubine. (255)

The children still frequented the arcade, so it wasn’t hard to find them.

I spotted the child with a sulky face amongst the other kids playing.

“Hey, kids. How have you been?”

“Wow, it’s the older sister. Long time no see.”

“Ah, it’s the older sister who bought us snacks!”

Perhaps it was the allure of delicious treats, but the children quickly recognized me.

“Yeah. Here, little one. The thing you were looking for. It’s exactly like your drawing.”

“Huh?”

The child opened the box I handed over with sparkling eyes, and soon tears welled up.

“R-Really mine… How did you find this?”

“A capable adult can do things like this.”

*Only if they have wealth and power.*

I heard a sound like air escaping, but I ignored it.

“Wow, it definitely looks like mine, but it seems to sparkle even more than when I had it.”

“Looks like the guy who took it polished it diligently.”

It was obvious. He was a thief who stole from a child, but he was more of an expert in maintenance than this kid.

Besides, it was intended as a bribe for royalty, so he must have managed it to a shine.

“The box looks cool too.”

“I know.”

I ordered tea leisurely, watching the child who was overjoyed.

And on the opposite side of me, there were men with strange expressions sitting.

“By the way, kids.”

“Yes?”

“Did you apologize to those men over there?”

“Ah.”

The children avoided eye contact, looking awkward.

“Even though there was a separate culprit, you have to apologize for misunderstanding and accusing them of being thieves, right?”

“Y-Yes…”

I was too busy to check last time, but I had to address what needed to be addressed.

“We’re sorry, sirs.”

“We misunderstood because of your scary faces.”

“The other man stole it.”

When the children readily apologized, the former Tiger Hunt Unit men coughed for no reason and looked away.

“Ahem. Okay. I understand.”

The former Tiger Hunt Unit men nodded with faces that were hard to tell whether they were smiling or frowning.

The men seemed bored, so they were teaching the children how to shoot arrows, and they seemed quite rewarded.

‘I haven’t prepared bows for children, should I teach them at the Siyoung Garden [a private garden or estate]?’

Teaching children in such a crowded place might be a bit dangerous.

I took the tea and snacks that the employee brought to my mouth and enjoyed the peaceful scene.

“Hey, older sister.”

“Yeah?”

When I turned my head at the child’s voice, the child was holding out the box to me.

“Why?”

“I’m giving this to you, older sister.”

“This?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a precious item, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But I was originally going to give it to you.”

The child said that and whispered in a small voice.

“You asked Ongju Haga [a royal title, roughly translated as ‘Princess Haga’], right?”

“…Why would you think that?”

When I smiled slyly, the child smiled slyly too.

“Everyone said that the only great and capable adult like this is Ongju Haga.”

“That’s not… necessarily true.”

There are more than one or two people with that much power in the world.

But the child shook his head.

“They say there’s only one great adult who can buy food for children, help them when they’re hurt, and even find their lost items.”

“Oh, dear.”

What to do with a world so harsh.

But it wasn’t wrong either.

“And they say that even if I have something like this, it’ll just be taken away again. And I think that’s right. Before coming to Seoul, I was almost caught and had it taken away several times.”

“Oh, dear.”

“So, I’ll give it to someone capable and fitting.”

“Won’t you regret it? It’s an item you cherished so much that you remember every little scratch?”

Remembering it so meticulously wasn’t just a matter of memory.

I knew because I had an item I remembered like that too.

The child bit his lip, wondering what he was thinking, and was silent for a moment.

“…My older sister found this first, not me.”

“I see.”

“We fought over who would have it, got hurt, and got scratches…”

“…”

The child’s voice, quietly talking about his sister, trembled more and more.

“My sister, she was so strong, but she got hurt somewhere, got a fever, and at the end, she said, ‘I’m sorry for hitting you back then,’ and… gave this to me…”

“…I see.”

I patted the head of the child who was shedding tears and comforted him.

“So, I don’t want it to be taken away by a strange person.”

“Okay.”

“You shouldn’t give it to anyone.”

“I’ll keep it safe and won’t let anyone take it.”

At those words, the child smiled even while shedding tears.

So, I had to take back the item I had brought with so much effort.

Valuable items are poison to those who can’t protect them, so it might be better to do this.

“Come find me if you want to see it later.”

“I don’t know well, but everyone at Siyoung Garden knows that you’re a busy person.”

“I’m busy, but I have enough time to find and bring back a stolen item for a child, don’t I?”

“…Yes!”

At my words, the child finally burst into laughter.

‘I’ve taken on something heavier than I thought.’

When you think about it, there are so many items with stories in the world.

Still, it was people who gave meaning to them.

Something I had lost a long time ago came to mind, and I unknowingly groped around my chest, but of course, there was nothing to grab.

‘Even if I had kept it, I might have lost it someday.’

There had been so many incidents since that day.

I would have lost it again somewhere and searched for it for a long time.

Rather, it wasn’t meaningless because the reason I came out to find it that day was because of the current Siyoung Garden.

I picked up the teacup again, but the tea had already cooled down, so I drank it all in one shot.

“My goodness… what a cool young lady.”

When the Tiger Hunt Unit man who was watching me muttered that, Cheonho asked with a slight provocation.

“Come to think of it, why are you still here?”

“What, why, are you complaining?”

“It’s not a complaint, but I’m curious. I’m sure the arcade is fun, but is it enough to stick around like this?”

At Cheonho’s question, the men clicked their tongues.

“It’s cold, so I don’t want to go outside.”

“Why don’t you do some winter hunting?”

“I have to do it even if I don’t want to, to make a living.”

“Yeah. I have to earn my keep here.”

The restaurant and arcade are heated, so they are relatively warm, but archery is half outdoors, so it was colder than other places.

‘Should I make it completely indoors?’

But then the difficulty of archery would be too low.

While I was worrying about the operation, the men left ominous words.

“…When there’s a bad harvest and winter comes, tigers come down. I don’t know about the capital, but be careful when you go to the mountains.”

“Yes. I won’t go.”

“You!”

Whether they were on good terms or bad terms.

That day’s outing ended quite amicably.

After saying goodbye and returning, Cheonho, who was holding the reins, looked at me looking at the accessory from earlier with a curious expression and asked.

“Did you like it?”

“Yeah. Including the ones in the warehouse, I don’t think I’ll be thinking about buying anything else for a while.”

“Are you okay? You liked something before, didn’t you?”

What did I like?

Ah, that thing that guy brokered.

“Yeah… I like antiques, but I don’t like getting involved with strange guys. Of course, I don’t like stolen goods either.”

“Haha. That’s right.”

Cheonho, who knew about Youngsun to some extent, agreed weakly.

“And there are things more important than just good things.”

“…”

“People can’t live just with objectively valuable things.”

“…That’s right.”

“I don’t know when precious things will increase again.”

“…Is that so.”

Cheonho made a strange face at my words and smiled as if he was happy.

“If Ongju Haga is happy, that’s okay.”

Cheonho, who said that, also had his hand on his chest for some reason.

***

“None of the things you’ve done have been done properly.”

“Elder!”

Moonwon desperately tried to cling to the elder, but he couldn’t even grab the elder’s pants because of the people around him.

“You failed to become a close aide to Ongju for ridiculous reasons, and the person you introduced to Ongju went to the police station as a thief.”

“I can explain everything about those things! And the fact that he was taken to the police station has nothing to do with me!”

“That’s enough, don’t appear in front of me for a while.”

“Elder!”

Moonwon, who had been pushed out, stared at the closed door in front of him with a dazed expression.

‘It can’t end like this…’

Everything was going well, so why did it get so twisted?

“Don’t be too discouraged.”

“You know how hard you’ve worked all this time.”

Comfort poured out at the drinking party without the elder, but it was not comforting.

“Didn’t I tell you? You can’t see good things if you get involved with Suyeong Ongju [another way to call Ongju Haga].”

Among the many words of comfort, that word especially pierced Moonwon’s heart.

‘That’s right. It’s all because of Ongju.’

That’s exactly what it was. Nothing had gone right because it was intertwined with Ongju.

“If it weren’t for Ongju, you and we would have been comfortable.”

“The elder wouldn’t be racking his brains like that either.”

“If there was no Ongju?”

“Yes, if Ongju disappeared…”

With that word, silence fell on the drinking party. Everyone had thought about it, but no one had dared to say it out loud.

“It’s not easy to persuade her, but it would be easier to get rid of her.”

“Oh, Ongju?”

“Ah. No! Ahem, I misspoke. Yeah.”

Everyone threw a bait that no one would have looked at if they were in their right mind and pretended not to know.

But Moonwon, whose eyes were turned upside down by the thought of being abandoned, grabbed the rotten bait.

“If I get rid of Ongju, will the elder recognize me?”

“Ahem. Well, if Ongju dies, they will start fighting among themselves over the remaining property. And the relatives will make a fuss over that property.”

It was an interesting story, but it didn’t move me now.

No, if I could just harass Ongju, that would be enough.

‘What does Ongju hate?’

The past of Suyeong Ongju was famous in many ways.

Among them, the most famous were the fake tiger incident and the poisoned persimmon incident at the time of Seongwon Seja’s [Crown Prince] funeral.

At the same time as recalling that, several hunters whom Moonwon had become acquainted with while working flashed through his mind.

‘If the sound of a tiger is heard on a winter night, even the famously fearless Ongju will be terrified, right?’