Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 78

I stopped, and the owner of the voice hurriedly blocked my path.

The person was a young woman adorned in flamboyant attire.

Perhaps the most extravagantly dressed person I’ve seen since being reborn?

Thanks to her, passersby were glancing our way, making even me, standing next to her, feel a bit awkward.

Normally, the palace concubines should be the ones dressing up more splendidly, but the palace atmosphere has been so gloomy, and with no particularly favored concubine, I haven’t seen anyone dressed like her.

‘Judging by her attire and demeanor, she seems to be a courtesan [a high-class prostitute or entertainer].’

In other words, someone from a field completely unrelated to me.

Why would a courtesan be after me?

And, of course, Soi, who was following me, spoke with a hint of anger.

“How dare you rudely block the path of the young lady.”

“I apologize.”

However, Soi was still a bit clumsy, so she didn’t sound very imposing, and the other woman didn’t seem intimidated.

‘Or maybe she’s just more assertive.’

Anyway, I didn’t say anything and just stared blankly at the woman.

In this harsh world, good children run away when strangers talk to them… No, since I’m not alone right now, I should just pretend I didn’t hear her.

Well, I don’t have anything to say, and it seems like she has something to say, so she’ll take care of it.

However, Soi seemed displeased that I was interacting with a courtesan and stepped forward to shield me.

“Didn’t you hear me ask what’s going on?”

“Young lady, my name is Maehyang. I am a fairly well-known singer.”

So?

The woman who introduced herself as Maehyang bowed politely and said with a desperate look.

“The melody you were just humming, could you teach me that song?”

“Pardon?”

What is she talking about?

I was flustered and tugged at Soi’s sleeve, asking.

“Was I singing?”

“Yes, you were humming softly.”

Soi also seemed flustered, whispering that she didn’t know how she heard it.

“What song was I singing?”

“It was this melody.”

It seemed like I had sung a modern song from my past life again, so I unconsciously moved my lips, and Maehyang unfolded her fan with a flourish and began to sing.

‘She sings well.’

I wondered why she unfolded the fan, but it seemed to be just for performance.

She sang the song clearly in the middle of the street without any awkwardness or embarrassment.

“Ah ah ah~”

Even a song without lyrics.

And that song was… indeed one I knew, or rather, a song that only I should know.

The problem is that the palace maids and the children of Siyoungwon [a government-run orphanage], who heard me humming it occasionally, also hummed along, and at some point, it spread to the marketplace.

‘No… did I sing that on the street again?’

I’m going crazy.

While I was disappointed in my own subconscious, Maehyang finished the song and gracefully bowed to the audience. Although the song ended ambiguously, applause erupted from here and there.

And I understand why she’s looking for it so earnestly.

‘I think I sang the latter part just now.’

Since the “killing part” [the most memorable or impactful part of a song] is what usually lingers in your mind, no one else would know the whole song. And even if they tried to make up the rest, it would be too different from the songs of this era.

“…How can you remember it so well after hearing it just once?”

“I have often heard this melody in the marketplace recently. I have never seen anyone sing this song properly until today when I saw you singing it, young lady.”

I decided to play dumb for now.

“You must have misheard.”

Don’t ask me.

“You can’t imagine how shocked I was when I first heard this song. Moreover, no one knows the latter part of this song, so I was so frustrated.”

I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.

I hid behind Soi because I felt too much attention was focused on me, and Soi’s voice, as she shielded me, became sharp.

“I understand your feelings, but the young lady is getting scared because people are staring like this.”

“I apologize.”

Maehyang seemed to consider the fact that I was a young lady from a noble family and waved her hand to shoo the people away.

And I clung to Soi’s neck and whispered.

‘Let’s run away.’

There were reasons why I could only bring Soi out of the palace, such as me becoming more accustomed to being outside the palace, or Gai and Songbi gradually finding it difficult to follow me around.

“Young lady?!”

The fact that Soi was the owner of the stamina and strength to easily jump onto a horse while holding me in one arm was a big factor.

As soon as Soi and I got on, Jeok-ah started moving as if he had been waiting, and the courtesan’s voice, filled with bewilderment, quickly faded away.

“Wow. Soi is so fast!”

“Young lady…”

Soi, who had been educated by Gai since childhood, was also good at riding horses.

Jeok-ah was good at running away from people. Thanks to that, we were able to reach our destination in no time.

“Young lady, were you very surprised earlier? Geez, these days, courtesans have no fear. How dare they block the path of the young lady.”

“It’s okay. She must have been very curious. She probably doesn’t know who I am.”

“If she knew and still did that, I wouldn’t have let her get away with it.”

If she knew and still did that, it would be even more impressive in a way.

I knew well enough how much commoners feared royalty from wandering around the marketplace.

Anyway, I don’t want to spread that song any further, so I should avoid courtesans in the future.

‘It’s already spread, but I can’t spread it myself.’

I need to have a conscience, right?

But as I entered Siyoungwon with that thought, the children were already singing the song in earnest.

Well, among the children who came in as slaves before, there were people who could play musical instruments, right?

Since the children seemed interested, I got them some instruments to learn as a hobby, and before I knew it, they were gathering and playing and singing together during their work breaks.

Well, they’re not causing any problems. People need entertainment.

“Sister!”

As soon as a song ended, Ah-young, who had grown taller than me, ran out and picked me up, having finally noticed me.

Hey, calm down.

Of course, the other children also noticed that I had arrived and hurriedly got up.

I wish they wouldn’t do this because it’s burdensome, but because of the difference in status, telling them not to do it would be even more dangerous.

“Young lady, you’ve arrived.”

“Yes.”

While I was twelve years old, Ah-young, who was five years old, had become nine years old.

“Were you playing well?”

“Yes.”

“What about studying?”

“Ehehehe.”

Ah-young seemed happy that I had come and expressed her joy with her whole body, spinning me around.

She would never lie and say that she had been studying hard.

Knowing my pattern of playing with the children first, Court Lady Min greeted me and quietly stepped back.

Even if I told Court Lady Min that she didn’t need to come out and greet me, she wouldn’t listen. Well, she had been educated that way her whole life, so it would be difficult to change her.

I left Jeok-ah to Soi and spent a comfortable time sharing news with the children.

The children who had been seeing me for years seemed to be slowly noticing something was strange.

“But why aren’t you growing, Sister?”

I could see the older children flinching at one child’s innocent question.

“Kids, drag that one away.”

“Yes, Sister.”

A few children, who were only a year or two older than Ah-young, dragged the boy who had asked the question away without hesitation.

“…Where are you taking him?”

“It’s hard for clueless kids to survive in this world, Sister.”

Ah-young says something like an older sister, saying that it’s all for the sake of that child.

I feel like you would have asked that kind of question a few years ago.

But it wasn’t good to undermine the child’s prestige with such words.

Children also have their own hierarchy.

And the children who were a bit older and more perceptive seemed to have noticed something about my status to some extent.

In fact, rumors that Princess Su-yeong wasn’t growing had already spread widely throughout the capital. The royal family hadn’t particularly tried to hide the fact that she wasn’t growing.

She had been appearing without hesitation at royal events and in front of the royal family, so everyone couldn’t help but know, even if they didn’t dare to say it. That fact had naturally spread outside through the royal family, so it wasn’t something they wouldn’t know if they paid a little attention.

And Siyoungwon was owned by Princess Su-yeong.

I had been coming and going to Siyoungwon since the establishment stage.

I had been meddling in this and that with the slaves.

At this point, anyone with a little bit of sense wouldn’t be able to not know my identity.

‘I’ve thought about it before, but now, among these little ones, there might be a child who has noticed that I’m a princess.’

But the reason why these children are watching me after sending one boy away just now probably wasn’t because of that.

Actually, it means they’re also curious.

“Are you curious about why I’m not growing?”

“…Yes.”

Even though they hesitated, the children nodded. I decided to satisfy their curiosity.

“Um… it’s because I took the wrong medicine when I was young.”

Even poison is medicine.

“Ptooey!!”

“Eek. Jia unnie [older sister], that’s dirty!!”

At the same time as my answer, Jia, who had been quietly drinking water without adding to the conversation, spat out the water. At the same time, several other people who had been silently listening to this conversation showed similar reactions.

“Gasp. You can become like that if you take the wrong medicine.”

“Scary.”

Whether they were coughing or not, I continued my conversation with the still innocent children.

The children seemed quite shocked and looked frightened, so it was now time to comfort them.

“Yes. So, you have to listen to the doctor and only take the prescribed amount of medicine. Got it?”

“Sister, did you meet a quack [an unqualified or fake doctor]?”

“Um. More like a bad guy than a quack?”

Because that guy wasn’t a doctor.

The children became even more indignant at my words and clenched their fists.

“Wow, seriously. Did you just let that bad guy go?”

“Umm. He was a bad guy, so he died early.”

“Wow. That’s good!”

The older kids were looking at me and the young children, who seemed happy, with complicated faces.

Ah, what, why, what.

“We listen to the doctor unnie, so we won’t have to eat something like that.”

“Yes. You have to listen well.”

The doctor unnie the children were talking about was the young lady from the doctor’s house that the children had known since they were beggars.

I heard that she found out that the children were living in Siyoungwon and visited a few times, and occasionally stopped by to take care of the children.

“Does that young lady still visit often these days?”

“Not often, but she hears our news and occasionally visits Siyoungwon.”

She comes to check if the children are doing well and if they have any pain.

Jia brought out tea and answered my question.

“Jia, you’ve seen her often, so you know her well, right? What kind of person is she?”

“She’s a nosy person. Not as much as you, young lady, though.”

“Why am I…”

Wow!

The conversation was interrupted by a commotion coming from the main gate.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know either. There shouldn’t be anything this noisy right now.”

Wondering what was going on, Jia and I naturally got up.