Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 297

“Why is he acting like that today?”

“I heard the Princess is angry because he did something wrong.”

“Oh dear, what happened?”

Everyone was worried about Cheonho because he seemed down, but their words weren’t particularly helpful.

“Well… even if it’s not under the Princess, there are many other paths, so don’t worry too much.”

“I’m not going down another path.”

“It’s concerning that the generous Princess is angry, but it doesn’t seem like you committed a big crime.”

The older men smiled warmly and roughly ruffled Cheonho’s hair as he panted, exhausted.

“Ah, it’s not like that!”

Cheonho pushed away their arms, annoyed, but their warmly affectionate gazes didn’t leave him until he left the training grounds.

The older men, who had put all their energy into teasing the kid, finally started cleaning up once he was gone.

“But why is that kid so eager to serve the Princess?”

“Is there any other reason for a kid his age to be so fixated on something other than success?”

“Oh dear. So devoid of dreams and hope….”

The older men chuckled and clicked their tongues at the same time.

“Ah~ well, it’s common to have such admiration.”

“When we were young, if there was a rumor that the third daughter of some household was pretty, we’d *gwaenhi* [hang around for no particular reason].”

Just as the older men were about to reminisce about their childhoods, someone threw cold water on their enthusiasm.

“Oh, but when Cheonho first met the Princess, she was still a child, wasn’t she?”

“Ah? That’s right.”

“Until recently, she was really small and petite, but she’s grown into a young lady so quickly.”

“Indeed. She was so small that she barely reached our waists.”

The faces of those who remembered the Princess running around and laughing as she was caught by the Crown Prince were unconsciously filled with warm smiles.

It was so satisfying… heartwarming to see the Crown Prince, who cruelly drove his officials, struggling with his disobedient younger sister.

As everyone recalled their own heartwarming memories with faces full of emotion, someone brought up another new fact.

“Wait a minute? Come to think of it, Cheonho is actually younger than the Princess.”

“Really?”

“He’s big, but he’s younger than he looks.”

The older men looked in the direction Cheonho had disappeared and sighed for no reason.

“It’s better for him to realize the reality quickly.”

***

Cheonho, who woke up early again today and moved according to his schedule, sighed deeply.

‘I was too tired yesterday and just fell asleep.’

It was his own fault, but he couldn’t help but worry about what would happen.

But he couldn’t bring himself to read a book either.

‘Where did the jade ring go? I can’t find it anywhere….’

In fact, he had no idea where he had lost it, so he had been diligently looking around since he realized it was missing, but he had no luck.

In fact, one of the biggest problems was that the place where he was presumed to have lost the jade ring was inside the palace.

Moreover, Cheonho’s usual range of movement was not narrow, so in order to find the ring, he had to wander around the palace, looking here and there…….

‘It looks too suspicious.’

He couldn’t cause trouble for the Princess by accidentally entering a restricted area.

In fact, it would be a bigger problem if he were to be investigated.

Moreover, since it was a jade ring, there was a high possibility that someone among the palace staff had simply taken it.

Even if he found it, no one would believe it was Cheonho’s since his name wasn’t written on it.

‘I thought even the Princess wouldn’t recognize it, so I just carried it around.’

Of course, he didn’t carry it around conspicuously, but…….

‘I kept it because it seemed like a precious item back then, but after 10 years, she probably wouldn’t recognize it.’

She might have completely forgotten about it.

Caw- Caw-

Cheonho raised his head at the now familiar noisy sound and saw a few crows.

‘Those guys, are they after the jade ring too?’

If so, it might be in a crow’s nest somewhere.

He had been carrying it around well, but the reason he lost it might be because of the crows and the kitten… no, the now too sturdy cat. As he thought about those two, he couldn’t look at the crows favorably.

Last time, he had stopped the two from fighting and causing a ruckus, and his clothes had been torn by their claws.

When he first saw the jade ring, wasn’t the string holding the ring caught in a crow’s claw?

The items that the Princess had given him when he was escaping were surprisingly useful when he was on the run.

He wondered how the young Princess, who had only lived in the palace, knew so well.

One day, he was organizing the remaining items and found the jade ring.

He quickly realized that it was the jade ring that the Princess had.

It was the same color string as he had seen back then, and the way the string was tied to the ring, and the traces of it being cut with a knife and re-tied.

Knowing that, he couldn’t sell the jade ring and kept it with him.

It felt like a talisman because it was the item of the person who had helped him escape, and he wanted to return it someday because she had said it was precious.

‘It’s like a child’s fantasy, but…….’

Of course, when he actually met her, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

He had thought that if his father’s false accusation was cleared, he would be able to confidently tell her that he was grateful for her help that day…….

But to lose it so futilely.

‘Should I have secretly taken it somewhere without revealing it?’

But it didn’t seem like such a precious item, so it didn’t seem like the current Princess needed it.

She might have valued it when she was young, but not now.

She often goes out in relatively comfortable clothes, so she doesn’t particularly enjoy dressing up flamboyantly. The Princess wears precious items as if they were natural.

Such an item, it wouldn’t be anything.

‘Besides, if I had revealed from the beginning that I was Sucheon, that would be… a burden to the Princess.’

Wasn’t it like secretly helping the child of a traitor escape?

10 years ago, the Princess was also very young, and there were few people who knew or would reveal it, but now it was not something that could be easily overlooked.

‘Hmm. Would she get angry if she found out?’

He wanted to earn some points before that, but there was nothing Cheonho could do for the Princess.

He was originally working under the Princess.

He wanted to be helpful, so he went to training and asked the people he had become familiar with about the former Ikwisa members [a group or faction], but it was so long ago that he couldn’t get any information other than what the Princess had already published in the newspaper.

Sometimes, they would mention that there was a very strong man.

‘Uncle and Seong Gyeomsa-bok aren’t here, so there’s no one to advise me.’

The people who used to drive people relentlessly are not there when they are needed.

Thanks to that, he just went around working early in the morning, training, and that was it.

He had never thought it was boring before, but why is it so uninteresting these days?

Of course, it wasn’t like he wanted to quit.

“…….”

‘Cheonho. Do you perhaps like the Princess?’

Cheonho shook his head to clear his mind as Sehwa’s words came back to him, and tried to think of something else.

‘Jwa Semeo Yeon Seon-o is definitely the person with the scar on his face that I met in Gangwon-do before, right?’

He was the hero of some kind of oral legend, but he was definitely a real person that he had even met.

Even considering what he had heard from the Chakhogun men in the past, even if there was some exaggeration, he seemed to be a great person.

‘Ah, come to think of it, are those men still in Hanyang?’

Perhaps because Cheonho was going to the arcade today, he naturally thought of those men.

Come to think of it, they seemed to be there every time he went since he first saw them there.

‘Did they get a job offer somewhere? Why are they still loitering around in Hanyang?’

There was no reason for them to leave their familiar area, so he didn’t know why they were still playing in Hanyang. In fact, it wasn’t easy to come from Hamgyeong-do to Hanyang.

‘The current situation is so suspicious that everything seems suspicious.’

Thinking that, he went to the arcade and found the Chakhogun men in their usual spot.

“Are you still playing here?”

“Why are you picking a fight?”

“No, I was wondering if you were hunting here now since you don’t live in this neighborhood.”

“Hey, what are you going to do if you’re scared?”

Cheonho changed the subject, thinking he was being too confrontational.

“……Did you meet my uncle?”

Come to think of it, he wasn’t in Hanyang now, so he wondered if they had seen him before he left, and the men nodded.

“Yeah. That friend told him about the acquaintance he was looking for, and he left without saying goodbye. He’s not very sociable…….”

“The person he was looking for?”

“You were too young to know. He said that *hyungnim* [older brother or respected male figure] was an acquaintance when he was in the barracks somewhere.”

“……Is that so.”

Thanks to the letter he had opened at home a few days ago, he knew that he was going to Hamgyeong-do, but he didn’t write anything detailed because he was worried that someone would see it. He only knew it to some extent by intuition.

Is something really changing?

“But are you okay? You don’t look good.”

“Yeah, well.”

After exchanging pleasantries, the men cautiously checked their surroundings and asked Cheonho in a small voice.

“But that young master you serve. Is he acquainted with the Princess, the owner of this place? Everyone says that if you go through that young master, you can convey messages to the Princess.”

“……Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Cheonho, who was wondering what they were talking about for a moment, was able to nod not too late.

Come to think of it, that was the original setting.

He felt like everyone who knew knew it now, but in fact, outsiders couldn’t even imagine that the Princess would walk around so casually.

Still, the children who had accused the men of being thieves that day had roughly noticed, so could it be that these men hadn’t noticed?