Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 3

I was born as the daughter of a low-ranking concubine. [In some East Asian cultures, concubines were secondary wives or partners of a man, often of lower social status than the primary wife.]

‘He doesn’t resemble Si-un, but he’s quite handsome. But who on earth are you?’

As I dredged up my memories, my head still foggy from sleep, my last memory was falling asleep in my sister’s arms… but.

I turned my head to look around, and the scenery inside the room was unfamiliar.

It wasn’t my sister’s humble abode.

The spacious room was filled with luxurious furniture at first glance, and it was decorated with seemingly expensive ornaments all over.

And for some reason, several court ladies were quietly watching me from one corner.

Among them, I could see my familiar wet nurse and nanny.

No, wait, could this be?

“Kkyaaaa!”

“Hick, you scared me.”

They brought me here while I was sleeping!

“Hic, euuu!!”

Ha, I was deceived, deceived!

I screamed in frustration.

“What, it’s ugly and noisy too. You can’t help your lowly birth.”

The child said that and poked my cheek.

What was that?

‘Ugh, there’s nothing I can do about this immature brat.’

What more could a body that couldn’t even get angry do? I just closed my eyes and turned my head.

The young brat was so rude; it was very unpleasant to look at.

But my actions didn’t seem to please him.

“What? Are you ignoring me?”

The youthful face that had been smiling annoyingly turned cold in an instant, and the child’s rough hands grabbed me without hesitation.

“Kkiak!”

The young brat’s touch was so rough that tears welled up in my eyes.

‘It hurts!’

At that moment, a young court lady who had been watching from afar stopped the child with a flustered voice.

“Grand Prince Gyeong-eon, the Princess is still young and frail. If you do this, something terrible might happen…”

“How dare a mere palace maid block my way?”

The child, shouting in a shrill voice, was already grabbing the court lady’s collar and hair instead of me. The court lady tried to suppress her screams and trembled, unable to do anything about her grabbed hair.

“?!”

Thanks to the sacrifice of the nameless court lady, I was freed from that crazy kid’s hands, but I shrank back in an atmosphere where I couldn’t relax.

How on earth did such a crazy kid come about?

I wanted to run away from him, but it was impossible with a body that could only crawl.

A court lady, who looked to be barely twenty years old, trembled but still shielded me and begged the child for forgiveness.

“I, I was wrong… !”

“Get out of the way!”

“!!”

Thud-!

The court lady, tossed around by the child’s violence, fell and made a loud noise. The fact that she couldn’t even scream in the midst of it was even more chilling.

‘I, I’ve been dragged into such a dangerous place?!’

I wanted to cry, but I thought it would be better not to attract attention.

Creak-

The fallen court lady groaned and got up, and someone hurriedly opened the door and came in.

“Why is it so noisy? I told you to take good care of the Princess.”

The person who came in as the door opened was Royal Concubine Yeong. [A royal concubine is a consort of the king, but not the queen.]

Given the situation, even that woman felt welcome.

Royal Concubine Yeong was also flustered by the scene in the room, and she approached the boy as if she would pounce on him.

“Grand Prince Gyeong-eon, what is going on?”

“I was just trying to play with my younger sibling who came, but a lowly thing dared to block my way, so I was just disciplining her.”

Looking at the title of Grand Prince Gyeong-eon, he seemed to be a prince born to Royal Concubine Yeong. Royal Concubine Yeong, with an uneasy face as if the child’s words were unexpected, signaled the trembling court lady to leave.

And, unfortunately or fortunately, Grand Prince Gyeong-eon, who had already lost interest in the court lady, turned his attention back to me.

“I don’t know if it’s because of her humble origins, but other than the fact that she seems healthier than my previous younger sibling, there’s nothing I like about her.”

“Grand Prince Gyeong-eon, that child’s matter…”

“Don’t worry. I won’t make the same mistake as last time this time.”

A spine-chilling feeling ran down my back at the sight of his twinkling eyes as he smiled slyly.

‘What?’

Royal Concubine Yeong also seemed to sense something, and she anxiously intervened between Grand Prince Gyeong-eon and me.

“You must always be careful with your behavior. His Highness the Crown Prince’s health is not good, so Grand Prince Gyeong-eon must please His Majesty.”

“I understand, Mother.”

“Also, you must not call me Mother outside. Do you understand? Grand Prince Gyeong-eon?”

“Hmph.”

Grand Prince Gyeong-eon had a sulky expression as if he didn’t like something.

Even if the king’s children were from concubines, they all had to treat the queen as their mother, so officially, they could not call their biological mother ‘Mother’.

Moreover, the status of the king’s sons and daughters was higher than that of the king’s concubines, so even if she was their biological mother, she had to use honorifics to her children.

However, it was impossible to know whether what Grand Prince Gyeong-eon didn’t like was really that or something else.

“But why did you bring that thing to Mother’s residence? Isn’t it supposed to be brought as my toy?”

“Watch your words, Grand Prince Gyeong-eon. Although she is born of a lowly court lady, she is Grand Prince Gyeong-eon’s younger sister.”

“Who cares about a princess born of a lowly court lady?”

“Grand Prince Gyeong-eon.”

“…I understand.”

Perhaps he listened to his mother, Grand Prince Gyeong-eon glanced at me with a displeased face, left his greetings, and went outside.

Seeing the lights being lit around, it seemed that it was late and he had returned to his room.

‘What’s going to happen to me?’

As if to answer my question, one of the court ladies who followed Royal Concubine Yeong quietly spoke to her.

“Grand Prince Gyeong-eon seems to be uncomfortable because of the Princess. Should we have brought the Princess here?”

“His Majesty has rarely been close to women for several years since the Queen passed away. A sudden favored palace maid. Moreover, she quickly conceived, so no one knows where His Majesty’s favor will go.”

“There have been several concubines who have conceived before, but there have been no concubines who have been favored.”

“Because most of them miscarried. Or they were all born weak and died early.”

Royal Concubine Yeong, who was muttering like that, turned her gaze to me.

“Yes. So I was relieved, but I didn’t expect Yoon Sang-gung’s baby to survive.”

Royal Concubine Yeong’s eyes turned to me.

As expected, she was the mother of Grand Prince Gyeong-eon; her eyes were very piercing.

“It’s a relief that she’s a girl.”

“Then there’s no need to bring her here. Yoon Sang-gung may have conceived, but she’s not a very favored concubine.”

“Don’t be naive. How many princesses haven’t even reached a hundred days before dying? If there is a surviving child, naturally your heart goes out to them and you end up looking for them. Yoon Sang-gung is not in a position to take care of the Princess properly, so isn’t it the best choice for the Princess for me, the mother of the strong and healthy Gyeong-eon, to raise her?”

This is the palace intrigue I’ve only heard about…!

How did I, powerless, get caught up in this?

“While I’m in charge of the Princess, His Majesty might look for me on the pretext of the child. It would be even better if I conceived again during that time. And if that happens, that child will no longer be needed. It would be troublesome if His Majesty were to think of Yoon Sang-gung because of the child.”

Then she turned her head to my wet nurse.

“You’ve been continuously feeding her honey while breastfeeding, right?”

“Yes, I’m following your instructions. But she keeps refusing…”

“She’s quick to catch on because she’s of humble birth. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have had the troublesome task of bringing her to my residence.”

She was trying to feed it to me on purpose!

I felt a chill down my spine as I watched her reveal her true colors in front of a newborn baby.

‘If I stay here, I might really die!’

I had barely survived a fever right after I was born, but what kind of rough life is this?!

Did I do something wrong in my life? I never bullied anyone, I always donated to underprivileged neighbors with my meager allowance, and I bought Christmas seals at the end of the year… no, I bought them, so how could you do this to me!

If I were a normal newborn baby, I might have died by now.

‘The only way to screw over Royal Concubine Yeong right now is… one thing.’

In the first place, there was nothing else a baby who couldn’t even crawl could do.

I calmed my mind and took a deep breath.

“Bbaeeeeaaaeng!!!”

“What, what is it?”

“Why aren’t you comforting the baby!”

“Yes, yes! Oh my, why is she acting like this when she’s always been so quiet.”

As the familiar face of the wet nurse held me, goosebumps rose all over my body and I trembled.

Tears streamed down my face out of sadness.

‘She was trying to feed me honey, not because she didn’t know, but on purpose.’

I didn’t like her that much, but I didn’t know she was this kind of person.

The wet nurse and nanny, who had only seen my quiet side until now, started to panic as they looked at me, trembling and crying.

“No, why, why is she doing this?”

“It seems we need to call a doctor.”

“What? No. If she’s been fine until now and then acts like this as soon as I bring her from Yoon Sang-gung, it will look like it’s my fault.”

“But if we leave her like this…”

“Bbaeeeeaaaeng!!”

No matter what Royal Concubine Yeong said, I cried without stopping.

Fake crying or whatever, I was really crying because I was sad and wronged.

‘I’m dizzy.’

Crying with a young body was also hard, but if I stopped here, I wouldn’t be able to escape from Royal Concubine Yeong’s hands.

“Hurry up and comfort the baby. If the sound of her crying leaks outside, what will people say about me! Yes, we need to cover her with a blanket to prevent the sound from leaking out…”

It was when Royal Concubine Yeong covered my blurry vision with a blanket because of tears.

Creak.

With the sound of the door opening, the surroundings became quiet and only my crying echoed in the room.

“!?”

“What on earth are you doing, Royal Concubine Yeong!”