Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 307

How amusing.

He asks me to join him, saying he will become the Crown Prince again, but when I say I’ll help, he looks like he’s heard something he shouldn’t have and hastily changes the subject.

“Sia, you’re going to help me? How?”

“Didn’t you ask me to join you?”

“No, I wasn’t thinking of asking you to help with anything.”

“Do you really think there’s nothing I can do?”

That day, I was so angry that my head wasn’t working properly, but now that I’ve sorted out my thoughts, I can see things more clearly.

Especially after talking to Crown Prince Seongwon, I naturally learned a few things.

‘He’s been keeping up with my news even while he was away.’

Well, it’s only natural.

Even commoners who aren’t related to me by blood know about me to some extent because I’ve been making such a splash, so naturally, it would have reached his ears.

‘Even people who aren’t interested would have read the newspapers.’

So, he probably knows that I’m a princess who, even before my wedding, has a wide network of connections.

“Sia, you really… want to help me? Not help His Highness the current Crown Prince?”

“Of course, after hearing what you have to say, if it makes sense. We couldn’t even talk properly that day.”

With those words, I took the Crown Prince’s hand.

We had come into the room under the pretext of the cold outside and were served refreshments, so the distance between Crown Prince Seongwon and me wasn’t that great.

The building looked old from the outside, but it was quite warm inside thanks to the fire.

Although I wonder if it makes a difference with the window open.

Looking out the window, the desolate courtyard was almost empty. I could see the tops of people’s heads passing by beyond the fence.

How many people were around earlier? There weren’t many, but most of them looked familiar, so they must have been people from when Crown Prince Seongwon was the Crown Prince.

‘Should I say he still has some popularity?’

Or are they people chasing after past glory?

“What if it doesn’t make sense?”

“Then I’ll take care of it myself.”

As he listened to me, the Crown Prince’s gaze was directed at the refreshments in front of me.

Is he worried that I haven’t touched them?

“Ever since I ate a persimmon with poison in it, I’ve become a bit picky about food, so I hope you understand.”

It was a statement with both persuasiveness and destructive power.

“…I see. You look pale and you’re not eating anything, so I was just a little worried.”

“I think it’s because I’m cold.”

“You need to take care of your health.”

Crown Prince Seongwon’s tone became more timid.

I wonder if he’s flagellating himself for not trusting me.

He was talkative when he was bringing up memories, but now that we’re getting to the main point, he’s become less talkative.

I sighed and pretended to get up.

“If you’re not going to talk, I’m just going to go back.”

“Sia.”

“Then talk. I’m not a six-year-old kid anymore, and I can make my own decisions. And, brother, don’t you have anything to say to me at all?”

“I’m sorry. It’s not that… it’s just a little awkward seeing you so grown up.”

He still feels like I’m a child, so it’s hard to bring up serious topics.

Maybe when he said ‘let’s work together’, he just meant he would protect me.

‘It can’t be helped that a younger sibling looks young.’

But dragging this out won’t solve anything.

“You need to become the Crown Prince again, right? And you think that’s what’s best for me and His Highness the current Crown Prince.”

“Yes.”

The answer comes out relatively quickly. I don’t know if he’s trying to persuade me or not.

“You know it’s dangerous, right? Are you confident?”

“I’ve been preparing for this for a long time, so if I join, it won’t easily fail.”

Saying it’s been prepared for a long time as if it’s someone else’s business, there are too many things that bother me.

“You’ve been preparing for a long time?”

“I wasn’t the one who originally prepared it. But it would be better for me to step in than for someone else to do it.”

“…Is that so?”

I already knew that there were rebellious factions preparing a coup for a long time, so it wasn’t strange that Crown Prince Seongwon wasn’t involved from the beginning.

It’s the intermediate process that’s suspicious.

“I know you’re planning to start something since you’ve even raised private soldiers. Are you prepared?”

“…How could I have planned this far without being prepared?”

“I didn’t think you liked seeing blood.”

“Of course, I don’t.”

With those words, Crown Prince Seongwon smiled bitterly.

After considering a few possibilities, I decided to throw a card that would shake Crown Prince Seongwon.

“I also hope to avoid bloodshed as much as possible… so how about taking me hostage?”

“What?”

Crown Prince Seongwon looked clearly flustered, but I pretended not to notice.

“Why? You’re doing it for us, right?”

“No, that doesn’t mean you have to get involved.”

What do you mean, ‘doesn’t have to’?

Just because you say that with a straight face doesn’t mean it’s true.

“You might think that way, but what about the others? This isn’t something you can handle alone, is it?”

“Don’t get involved in this.”

“Isn’t it already impossible not to be involved?”

While we were bickering with unproductive conversation, another voice suddenly chimed in.

“If Princess Consort joins us, wouldn’t that be an even better thing?”

The old man who appeared so obviously villainous was someone I knew.

He was also someone I expected.

‘I’m actually grateful that he showed up.’

It was Papyeong, the father-in-law of the Crown Prince.

‘If Crown Prince Seongwon were to start a rebellion, I thought his maternal relatives, the Papyeong, would be involved.’

Even if I didn’t know anyone else, the possibility of Papyeong not being involved was close to zero.

We weren’t particularly close, so I just gave a perfunctory greeting.

“It’s been a while.”

“It’s even more of a pleasure to see you in a place like this, Princess Consort. I wish I had seen you sooner.”

Despite my lack of enthusiasm, Papyeong greeted me with a bright face. On the other hand, the Crown Prince looked displeased.

“Uncle, what are you doing here?”

“When I heard that Your Highness was meeting with Princess Consort separately, how could I stay still? I was planning to come sooner, but strangely, there were many people on the road today, so I was a little late.”

“Who told you that? I was worried about my sister’s well-being. I’m not trying to use her like you think.”

“If Princess Consort helps the Crown Prince as his sister, who can say anything?”

“Uncle.”

The Crown Prince seemed to want to politely shut the father-in-law up, but the father-in-law didn’t seem to have that kind of patience.

“If only Your Highness had persuaded Princess Consort sooner, we wouldn’t have had to come this far.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Princess Consort wouldn’t know how much Princess Consort has been hindering Your Highness’s great cause.”

“?”

“Uncle, stop making unfounded statements. I can send the Princess back right now.”

“How can Your Highness say such weak things when the great cause is right in front of us? Princess Consort is also willingly offering to be Your Highness’s strength. If Your Highness had made a decision sooner, we would have already achieved our goal.”

Hmm.

Listening to them talk, I think I can get a picture of what’s going on.

“I’m sorry to hear that I’ve been hindering things, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If Princess Consort knew Your Highness’s intentions, how could you have done that…?”

“Stop it. It’s not something you should be so proud of.”

“Your Highness, but the private soldiers, the funds for the uprising…”

“Why are you blaming a young princess? It must be because you were lacking, Uncle.”

“!”

Why are you two dragging me into your fight…

The two of them started arguing with sharp voices, as if they had forgotten that the person in question was right in front of them. And the result seemed to be a victory for the Crown Prince.

“How about receiving Princess Consort’s help now?”

“If I have to receive help from my younger sister, it would be better to stop.”

“!”

The Crown Prince, who was being so wishy-washy in front of me, was surprisingly assertive in front of his uncle.

I remained silent, looking at the father-in-law as if to say, ‘You two should talk it out,’ but the father-in-law didn’t give in.

He completely ignored the Crown Prince and started talking to me.

“Actually, I’ve wanted to greet Princess Consort separately and give you the news for a while, but I’m sorry I couldn’t.”

“You and I weren’t that close. So, what did you want to see me about? If there’s anything I can help with, I’ll help.”

From the way he’s talking, I think I know what it is.

It’s a shame that if he had come to make an impression earlier, I could have stamped him as a rebel right then and there.

“Actually, before…”

“Stop!”

Just as an interesting story was about to begin, the Crown Prince urgently stopped the father-in-law.

“We have a lot to talk about as siblings, so please excuse us, Uncle.”

“The uprising is just around the corner. There isn’t much time to reminisce with Princess Consort.”

“I’ll escort you out. Please leave now.”

It wasn’t just a dismissal, it was an expulsion.

The father-in-law seemed to still have something to say to me, but the Crown Prince got up to escort him out, so he couldn’t refuse any longer. In the end, the father-in-law followed the Crown Prince and disappeared from my sight.

‘To leave like this. I thought I could get some useful information if I dug a little deeper.’

Feeling regretful, I looked around outside the window, but I couldn’t see anyone else, only one familiar person remained.

It was former Left Military Commander Yeon Seon-oh. The fact that he didn’t follow the Crown Prince meant it was probably the Crown Prince’s instruction.

He seemed awkward, glancing at me every now and then.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“…I can only apologize to Princess Consort.”

“It’s something my brother ordered, so it wouldn’t make sense to get angry at a subordinate.”

But as I spoke, I felt a surge of anger again.

“But does that mean you’ll do anything the Crown Prince tells you to do?”

“…His Highness the Crown Prince was having a very hard time.”

“Why?”

What happened to the Crown Prince back then?

I was too young at the time, so even if something had happened, I wouldn’t have known.

Now, the palace maids of the East Palace are very close to our children, so if there’s anything important I need to know, they share information to some extent, but I wasn’t on good terms with the palace maids of the East Palace back then.

Fortunately, unlike the Crown Prince, Yeon Seon-oh’s mouth spat out the same important keyword that Crown Prince Seongwon had mentioned earlier.

“It was because of… Youngbin, no, Deposed Hong.”

“That’s enough. Since when have you become so talkative?”