Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 56

I was born as a daughter of a low-ranking concubine (56) [In Joseon dynasty, concubines were ranked, and 56 might refer to her specific position].

As expected, the *castella* [a type of sponge cake] I sent caused a stir in the capital within a day.

I even felt a bit sorry for not sending anything to those who opposed me, so I sent *castella* without dried persimmons, which clearly indicated my intentions.

“Your Highness, the Princess. His Majesty may be furious.”

“Would Father really kill me just because he’s angry?”

Of course, he wouldn’t kill me, but there was one thing I was worried about.

“Rather than that, I’m more concerned that the blame might fall on you for not serving me properly. I’ll do everything I can to prevent that, so don’t worry too much.”

“It’s even scarier when Your Highness says that. I’d rather take the beating myself.”

“Ah, I’m not going to die. I’m telling you, I’m not going to die. But you might actually die if you get beaten, so don’t say things like that.”

“Your Highness!”

Although Gai was with me when I visited the Crown Prince, it was Songbi who baked the *castella*, so they were both accomplices.

Besides, who else would deliver the snack boxes I sent?

No one would think that the Crown Prince wasn’t involved at all, but I couldn’t possibly ask someone from the East Palace [the Crown Prince’s residence] to run errands for me, so my own palace staff made the deliveries themselves.

Naturally, they said they were sent by the Princess.

Although they didn’t object at the time and even helped, they were now holding me back, pouring out worries and nagging.

‘I do think I need to get rid of my quick temper.’

After dying once and being reborn, and then dying and coming back to life again, this temper has only gotten worse, not better.

I was desperate in my own way.

If that bastard comes back, if that enemy who I was barely relieved to know was living a life worse than death comes back alive.

‘I don’t know what I might do.’

He will definitely try to kill me.

Just like he threw me into the pond.

Just like he caused my sister and my birth mother to die.

Just like he tried to poison Grand Prince Yeongwon.

If that bastard and his mother are left unchecked, they will surely threaten me and those around me.

Some people might think that he has truly matured and is repenting.

But if he repents and comes back, am I supposed to forgive him?

Even though the dead can never come back to life?

I blankly looked up at the dark sky. It looked like it was going to rain again.

“Before this matter gets any bigger, I need to check what happened with the task I asked of Commander Seong.”

If things go wrong, I might not be able to see Commander Seong for a long time, so I should check it now if possible.

Of course, it’s not that I might die, but I might be confined to my residence for a while.

***

Everyone nags, but they carry out orders promptly, so Commander Seongyoon found me that day.

After asking about the task I had requested and receiving the answers, Commander Seongyoon cautiously asked if he could ask me a question first, with an anxious look. He must have heard the rumors.

Well, unlike me, he was in a position to directly hear both the rumors circulating in the palace and those circulating in the capital.

“Your Highness, is the rumor circulating in the capital recently true?”

“What rumor?”

“The rumor is spreading that the now-deposed prince tried to harm Your Highness when you were still very young.”

“Ah, that. Is the rumor widespread?”

In fact, I had fueled the rumors through my palace staff.

There were quite a few people commuting to and from the palace, so it wasn’t a difficult task.

I couldn’t stand the sight of good rumors spreading about the deposed Lee Soo these days.

And isn’t it true that these kinds of sensational and bad rumors spread faster than beautiful stories?

Moreover, this rumor had leaked out once before in the past.

It seemed to have been glossed over back then, but if people said, ‘Ah, I’ve heard that story before! So it was true,’ the credibility would increase.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, it’s true.”

Commander Seong looked shocked, as if it were an impossible thing.

Seongyoon must have been somewhere in the north at the time, so he didn’t know about the shocking events that had happened in the palace.

“Then, the rumor that Your Highness ate dried persimmons with poison in them…”

“Yeah, that’s also true.”

Quite a few people know about this, but I guess he didn’t know.

Well, the death of the concubine and her unborn child is a more sensational topic, and there might have been rumors that the Grand Prince, who would become the Crown Prince, was almost poisoned, but the fact that I was on the verge of death after eating it wasn’t really well known. Some people knew, but those who weren’t interested didn’t really know?

I had already been frail with a fever after the consecutive deaths of the Crown Prince and my birth mother, so it wasn’t strange. In the first place, people don’t really know much about a princess who isn’t a prince.

And Commander Seong also mentioned the latest rumor.

“The rumor that Your Highness sent a *tiffin* carrier [a lunch box] filled with dried persimmons and egg cake to the houses of the ministers is also…”

“That’s also true.”

Seeing Seongyoon’s eyes trembling in embarrassment at my nonchalant voice, I almost felt sorry for him.

‘Those eyes… I’ve been seeing them a lot lately.’

It’s the look that my close palace staff, like Gai and Songbi, who have been by my side for a long time, give me.

It was unexpected.

How could he look at me with those eyes after only seeing me a few times?

‘Is he really weak to young children?’

That’s how it was when he helped me when he first saw me. How could he have been a spy with such a weak heart?

“How could such a precious princess have gone through such terrible things?”

Seongyoon couldn’t even eat the snacks I offered and spoke, trying to hide his resentment.

This is better than what I sent to the ministers, what a waste.

It’s not like I did it on purpose. It couldn’t be helped that the quality of the mass-produced goods was somewhat lower than before.

“They don’t value me that much. What could a young child like me do? My birth mother was of humble status and had no backing to look after me, so it was difficult to be treated with such importance.”

“I heard that Royal Consort Sook-ui was a concubine favored by His Majesty.”

“No. I heard that Sook-ui wasn’t really one to crave favor in the first place. I heard that she tried to gain favor in order to protect me because the harassment from the deposed Lee Soo and his mother continued…”

I glanced at Songbi’s expression next to me as I spoke.

She looked sad that I even knew these facts.

I lowered my eyebrows and comforted Songbi.

“Don’t look at me like that. I knew everything about what the other palace maids were saying.”

“However, Your Highness.”

“Don’t worry too much about me and try to hide the rumors circulating in the palace. It’s even more troublesome if you don’t know and get caught off guard. Well, there aren’t many people in my palace for that kind of thing to happen, so it’s more comfortable.”

It seemed that the fact that there were so few people and no royalty in the palace was the result of the deposed Hong’s efforts, so I couldn’t be happy about it.

“Anyway, I don’t care what they say outside about sending dried persimmons and egg cake to the houses of the ministers. I have to survive too. If the deposed Soo is released from confinement and returns, he will definitely try to kill me first.”

The moment I finished speaking, sparks seemed to fly from Seongyoon’s eyes.

‘Was that my imagination?’

Well, objectively, he’s a bad guy, so it’s not strange to be angry.

“So, Commander Seong, don’t worry too much. Just take care of the children a little as I asked. If Father is furious about this, I won’t be able to take care of them properly for a while, so I called you to ask for that favor. This matter has nothing to do with Commander Seong, so you don’t have to be anxious.”

“Your Highness.”

“Ah, right. Commander Seong hoped for a peaceful life of leisure, following me around when I get married. There might be some disruptions.”

“…Of course. Isn’t my peaceful retirement dependent on Your Highness?”

Commander Seong forced a stiff smile, playing along with my joke.

Nevertheless, his eyes were still dark when he left, so I felt a bit sorry.

I need to give him work, but he won’t run away because he chose the wrong side, will he? He seems a bit worried about me.

Sympathy and practical benefits are separate matters, so I was worried, but I still hope he does his job and then runs away.

‘It’s not easy to trust people.’

Really. The Crown Prince’s distrust of people wasn’t someone else’s problem.

‘I’m okay, but the Crown Prince has to do politics, so shouldn’t he have a lot of confidants?’

The best way for a king or crown prince without his own power to create confidants is to inject young blood that isn’t involved with existing political factions, but this wasn’t easy in many ways.

First of all, the civil service exam has to be extremely difficult. It wasn’t easy for a dragon to rise from a ditch.

Moreover, even if they do come in, the existing forces won’t leave them alone, so it’s difficult to survive.

‘It’s not meaningful for me to think about this now.’

First of all, the Crown Prince is still young.

If the king is thinking of properly supporting his only Crown Prince, he will be helping him build connections through the Crown Prince’s Office of Lectures, the Royal Guard, and the tutors.

‘If the king doesn’t have lingering feelings for that criminal Lee Soo and doesn’t intend to endanger the Crown Prince, that is.’

This is really difficult.

I hate that bastard so much that I want to kill him, but to the king, he’s still his son, whether he hates him or loves him.

It was a time when the death of Crown Prince Seongwon had not yet been shaken off, so I couldn’t criticize the king for wanting to save his son.

Of course, I can criticize him later while looking at some history book, but I can’t morally criticize a father who deposed and confined his trash son for not killing him.

“But you have to make a choice.”

I was pushing him to hurry up and make that choice.

If talk about treason came out and the deposed Lee Soo was mentioned in the royal court, there was a high possibility that the king would have to decide on his fate again.

Perhaps this treason was a build-up for him, the scenario wasn’t bad.

First of all, I succeeded in definitely preventing the current Crown Prince from marrying a Crown Princess from a strong family, blocking his power expansion.

Next is to create a beautiful story that the deposed prince tried to protect his father even in the painful situation of being confined, and to form public opinion.

If he is reinstated as a prince, he may be thinking of somehow overthrowing the Crown Prince, who has weak support.

‘Of course, it could all be my delusion.’

I wish it were a delusion, but the reality is bad.

***

Some time later, I was sitting in the royal court as expected.

It was the king who called me, but he didn’t say anything for a long time after calling me in and seating me.

If the king called me, I was going to say confidently that it was an unavoidable choice, but I couldn’t open my mouth when I met the eyes of my clearly exhausted father.

Even if I said something audacious, he wouldn’t get angry at me, but that wasn’t because of his affection for me, but simply because he was very tired.

The king looked at me slowly with a calm voice and asked how I was doing. And after a while, he got to the point.

“I heard that *tiffin* carriers filled with dried persimmons and egg cake were sent to the houses of the ministers in your name.”

“…Yes, Father.”

His tired eyes were looking into the teacup, not at me.

I felt like cold sweat was running down my back, but I steeled my heart so that my voice wouldn’t tremble.

“Did you really send the *tiffin* carriers?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Why did you do such a thing?”

“…I have also heard things.”

I spoke in a roundabout way, but there was no way the king wouldn’t understand.

“Did this father seem like he couldn’t protect you?”

“I also know that the ministers’ opposition would make things difficult for Father and His Highness the Crown Prince.”

The king looked shocked at my answer.

He had been making an effort to show a bright face in front of me, but he was a king who had aged and become exhausted rapidly after the death of Crown Prince Seongwon.

“The sins they committed are not small. How can those who have not experienced that pain treat it as a thing of the past?”

“Wasn’t it Hong who put in the poison?”

That was what the ministers claimed, and it was also the claim of the deposed Hong.

But how could I not know?

“Father also knows. That day, it wasn’t Hong who ordered the palace maids to put in the poison.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“When the deposed Soo was free, there were always carcasses of dead animals in my palace. Among them, there were many intact carcasses that had only vomited blood.”