Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I was born the daughter of a lowborn concubine.
Chapter 11
“Miss!”
“Goo!”
It was some time after the King made his promise at the Queen Dowager’s Palace that I saw my sister again.
The fact that we met at all was likely helped along, at least in part, by the trouble I’d stirred up in the Main Palace.
I’d made a point of crawling and playing whenever there were plenty of people watching, and I’d gotten in the way of the Royal Scribes’ work too.
Admittedly, I might have left a few too many handprints, worried that my making the King shout at his ministers would end up recorded in the Draft Records…….
But the paper used in those Draft Records would be washed and reused later anyway once the Record Disposal was complete, so I thought what harm could a little mischief do, and I grew somewhat reckless.
I do feel a bit sorry toward the Royal Scribes for disrupting their work.
Still, once word spread that I was moving about so freely in the Main Palace, they probably couldn’t keep me there any longer, no matter how embarrassing it was.
‘The matter of granting a Concubine Appointment falls to the Nae Myeongbu, and without a Queen Consort, the head of the Nae Myeongbu is the Queen Dowager.’
The Queen Dowager wanted to send me to another selected concubine to be raised. But the King was opposed, and she couldn’t just hand me over to another concubine without his consent—so it seemed she expressed her objection by withholding my Concubine Appointment.
The granting of my Sukhwon appointment was ultimately the Queen Dowager’s retreat by one step.
She seems to be the somewhat exhausting type, but what can be done.
I suspect that her attempts to keep sending me to Yeongbin, and her sending the child to test potential Queen Consort candidates, were all part of the same design…… but what am I, some sort of litmus test?
In any case, my sister, whom I was seeing again after so long, looked far healthier than my last memory of her.
Now formally a Senior Concubine of rank, her clothing and living quarters had changed from before, and fortunately it seemed that most of the people attending her had been replaced as well.
My sister pulled me into a tight embrace and wouldn’t let go. For a while I sat quietly in her arms, but it seemed to grow too much, so I began to squirm—and then someone spoke to my sister with a smile.
“Ma’am, it seems the young miss is finding it difficult to breathe.”
“Oh, I beg your pardon. Young miss. It’s just been so long that I…… You haven’t forgotten me, have you?”
“Goo.”
When I stretched out my arms and hung myself from her neck, my sister’s face lit with joy as she embraced me again and rubbed her cheek against mine.
“My, how much you’ve grown in that time. I thought I might never see you again.”
“Goo-goo-goo.”
I’m not entirely sure, but it seems I’ve grown quite a lot.
When my sister shed tears, the maid who had been speaking to me gently since earlier offered her a handkerchief and tried to comfort her.
“Ma’am. If you show such tears, the young miss might start crying as well.”
“Goo.”
When I accepted the handkerchief the maid offered and wiped my eyes with little dabs, my sister finally managed a smile.
“The young miss has grown so very much.”
“Mm.”
As my sister’s composure finally returned and she smiled, the maid beside her gently urged her on.
“You ought to introduce me to the young miss as well.”
“Hm-hm. Yes, yes, I should.”
“……?”
“Young miss, this girl has been a close friend of mine since my days as a maid at the Saenggwabang. Going forward, she will help me care for you.”
“Young miss, my name is Songbi.”
“Goo?”
This maid with the innocent-looking face was apparently not my sister, but rather a maid to attend to me.
But one cannot judge a person by their face alone. I clung to my sister and kept some distance from the unfamiliar maid.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Songbi is not a frightening person, so there’s no need for you to be so wary.”
Noticing my wariness, my sister leaned in and whispered softly in my ear.
It seemed that even during her illness, she must have heard that I’ve been quite choosy about people since going to Chui Young Dang—for both of them had somewhat tense expressions on their faces.
“Goo-ah?”
“Come now, I’m counting on you, young miss.”
“Mm…….”
Admittedly, my sister can’t spend all her time caring for me alone, so I do need someone to look after me full-time.
She seemed to be someone my sister trusted greatly, so I decided to trust her for now as well.
After I stared at her thoughtfully for a while, I finally held out my hand—and Songbi gently took it in both of hers with formal courtesy.
“Do you…… think I’m all right?”
“I should think so……?”
Along with the two of them’s uncertain voices, I heard sighs of relief coming from here and there.
It seemed that everyone had worried whether I might reject another person, and I felt a little sorry for that.
‘I’m really going to develop full-blown misanthropy. Or maybe I already have.’
But I couldn’t keep putting so many people through hardship, so I had no choice but to make a compromise.
After that first meeting passed, and after observing over several days, it turned out fortunately that my sister’s judgment in people hadn’t failed.
Songbi would often tell me stories about my sister from her days at the Saenggwabang, perhaps to help us grow closer. Though she might not have expected me to understand, the stories were fascinating to me.
“When other children would secretly splash water on her clothes and bully her, she would splash their clothes the exact same way in return. And then afterward, she called me aside separately, and I thought I was going to be scolded—but instead, would you believe it, she secretly gave me Yakgwa.”
“Coo, coo.”
“It seems the young mistress has grown quite fond of Your Highness.”
“Mm.”
I’d heard that even when my sister was pregnant, she would slip away to visit and bring cakes she’d made herself—such closeness between them.
But after I was born, visitors were forbidden entry, and she couldn’t risk calling at my sister’s quarters.
Perhaps having someone nearby to confide in brightened my sister’s face considerably. Those old wet nurse and nanny attendants had caused her trouble enough—living with them hadn’t been comfortable.
‘She’s allowed a childhood friend into the Inner Chamber, even though she’d just become a Sukhwon. Someone higher up must have taken considerable care of this.’
My sister, barely promoted to Sukhwon, couldn’t have requested such a thing herself—someone above had surely arranged it.
It couldn’t have been Yeongbin who’d done something so thoughtful, and Daebee didn’t seem the type for such delicate consideration either. So it was most likely Seonbin who’d made this happen.
‘It’s the duty of the concubines to help manage the Nae Myeongbu while the Crown Princess is absent, after all.’
Besides, Yeongbin was probably under royal orders to reflect in confinement at her quarters by now, so I couldn’t think of anyone else. And upon reflection, Daebee didn’t seem cooperative enough to extend such thoughtful consideration either.
“Young mistress. Does the food suit your taste?”
“Mm.”
Accepting Baby Food from Songbi felt quite comfortable.
Of course, by now I’d grown accustomed to the biological father feeding me, but a woman who’d spent her entire life serving others was clumsy at whatever she did—there was always something about her that irritated people.
In fact, some of my tantrums during feeding time stemmed from this. But I couldn’t trust anyone else with my meals, either.
Because of those moments, when the biological father visited my quarters not long ago, he wore a shocked expression, as if betrayed, watching me docilely accept Baby Food from Songbi’s hands.
‘He said he was relieved to see the Royal Princess seemed settled with the Sukhwon, yet his expression was oddly bitter.’
Even here, I didn’t trust all the palace maids, so my sister and Songbi looked after me together.
Since it was more fitting for a maid to work than a concubine, Songbi was essentially my sole caretaker. And Songbi was certainly the kind of person my sister could trust to entrust me to.
If anything could be called her fault, it was that she was too gentle.
‘They all become so honest in front of babies like me who can’t speak.’
After several days passed, I’d quickly learned that the other Inner Chamber maids were dismissing Songbi and dumping all their work onto her.
Perhaps because Songbi came from the Saenggwabang, the maids who’d been trained in the Inner Chamber from the start seemed to look down on her and exploit her labor.
Especially since Songbi had been a Saenggwabang maid, her hands were rough, and she was still a bit clumsy with the etiquette of serving royalty. The Inner Chamber maids mocked her for this.
“What can you do? You were making cakes in the Saenggwabang, and now suddenly you’re here. It must be hard. You have so much more to learn than we do.”
“Since the young mistress must learn proper etiquette correctly, the maid closest to her ought naturally to master these things. Isn’t that right?”
“You call yourself an Inner Chamber maid, but you’re practically a wet nurse. Don’t you all think it best to be a bit careful with your words? Who knows what the young mistress might say about it later?”
If she’d been a Wet Nurse Sanggung, they wouldn’t have dared treat her so freely.
Still unable to speak, yet they acted this way before me—who knew how they tormented her when no one was watching?
The real problem was that my biological mother, Yun Sukhwon, was also a former Saenggwabang maid.
“Hmph.”
I poured Dongchimi broth cleanly onto the clothes of the maids who thought I couldn’t understand what they were saying because I was so young.
Clatter—
My hands weren’t fully coordinated yet, so I could only tilt the ceramic bowl holding the Dongchimi, and it rolled across the floor, unable to hold its weight.
“Oh! C-cold! Cold!”
“Oh, young mistress!”
“Hmm.”
As startled Songbi rushed to pick me up, the Inner Chamber maids hurriedly wiped the spilled broth. The maids who’d been lounging about, relying on Songbi because I’d been so quiet, suddenly became busy.
“Goodness. The young mistress does have strength. But the broth is cold, young mistress.”
“Mm.”
Cradled in Songbi’s arms as she fretted over whether my clothes had gotten wet, I pouted down at the maids.
‘Hot broth is dangerous, so we’ll go with Dongchimi for now.’
But next time, I didn’t know what else I might spill.
After I threw several fits like that, word eventually reached the administrative staff.
“Perhaps the young mistress simply doesn’t care for those maids.”
My sister’s new Inner Chamber attendant, Min Sanggung, was a woman rather strict about principles and regulations, which was likely why she’d ended up in the Inner Chamber of a lowly concubine like me. But I found her strictness oddly reassuring.
Moreover, whether she’d been given a heads-up or not, she swiftly replaced anyone I disliked.
“There was a stern order that those who might harm the young mistress were not to remain at her side.”
I wanted to ask who’d issued such an order, but something told me it came from someone outside the Nae Myeongbu, so I held my tongue.
‘Never mind—I still can’t speak anyway.’
There had been familiar Inner Chamber maids from the Main Palace who’d looked after me, but of course, no one wanted to leave work at the Main Palace for a lowly concubine’s Inner Chamber—and the lowest-ranking concubine at that.
Yet because of what those maids had learned, certain considerations naturally reflected in how the new Inner Chamber maids were selected.
‘Young mistress. We have no connection to that place… Chui Young Dang.’
‘Only one maid among us has a close connection to… that place. Please trust us.’
‘What am I supposed to do about that? Aren’t you all going too far?’
‘Shh, be quiet. If the young mistress starts crying again, it’ll all be your fault.’
‘Keep your mouth shut unless you want your assignment changed to… there.’
On the day the Crown Prince carried me away and emptied the Main Palace, the maids there realized I understood the words Chui Young Dang and Yeongbin, and they desperately avoided those words while appealing to their innocence.
As a side note, the maid who’d attracted suspicion for sheltering the Chui Young Dang maids and being intimate with them—I made a dramatic peace with her before I left the Main Palace.
‘I truly had nothing to do with… with that place, madam! Please believe me, young mistress.’
‘Mm-hmm.’
Thinking that workplace ostracism was never a good thing, I patted the maid’s trembling shoulder in reassurance—whereupon she became so moved that she swore then and there never to exchange another word with the other maids of Chui Young Dang.
Perhaps because of such incidents, a maid with no connections to Chui Young Dang was deliberately assigned to our quarters.
‘But it seems even a character check was beyond our reach.’
Songbi was the maid my sister had chosen, and she was effectively serving as my Wet Nurse Sanggung. So it would never do for the other maids to treat her as subordinate. Otherwise, how could they regard my sister?
‘It’s difficult to endure when someone you thought beneath you becomes your superior.’
In this male-centered caste society, the avenues for women to rise in status were grotesquely few.
It was lamentable, but from the position of being tormented, I couldn’t simply endure it in silence.
And it was always Songbi who first noticed that I would overturn a dish whenever the maids harassed her.
“Young mistress, are you protecting me?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Hehe. Young mistress truly takes after Her Highness.”
They pretended propriety before their superiors, but even the cleverest people grew honest before a child who could not speak—and so I came to easily recognize those who harbored ill will toward us. Their true nature always slipped through.
Because of this, though I never reacted as violently as I had with Yeongbin, I made a clear refusal toward any maid whose character seemed questionable enough to torment Songbi.
They might resent me for it, but I had no choice if I wanted to live in peace. It was better than watching them tear each other apart from within.
Songbi had a gentle, even temperament and rarely quarreled with anyone.
I worried about that gentleness, but… in any case, the remaining maids were ultimately assigned as reasonably decent people.
Only after the household had been sorted out could I finally fall asleep peacefully beside my sister.
‘Perhaps now I can live with some ease.’
Not long after I began to relax with that thought, Seonbin—still pale—came to our new quarters bearing a gift.
At her side walked a boy with a stern, unsmiling expression.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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