Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 124

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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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Born as the daughter of a concubine of the lowest rank.
Chapter 124
At my words, Se Hwa swallowed hard, looking slightly tense.
I’m not that frightening a person, really…….
“What is it?”
“It’s just that the Crown Prince comes across as trying too hard to seem impressive, always putting on airs.”
“……Ah, yes.”
And at my response, I could see her shoulders sag as if all the energy had drained from her.
Look, I was being quite serious about this.
“Let’s add a bit of foolishness…… no, rather some carelessness.”
“Y-yes…….”
Se Hwa seemed to be holding back laughter, but I pretended not to notice.
“A person who’s too perfect isn’t interesting. There needs to be some humanity to them.”
“Yes, quite right.”
Apparently my words were hilarious, because So-i and Seong Ji beside me, along with Se Hwa, all broke into barely suppressed giggles.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Yes, hehe. But Miss, have you perhaps considered writing the story yourself?”
“Me?”
Se Hwa, still smiling, brought up something unexpected—perhaps to change the subject.
“Yes. After all, this story is something you largely created. I merely added flesh to the bones.”
“No, I don’t really have much talent for original creation.”
What I’d given Se Hwa was simply the plot of a story I already knew, a brief summary of events that had already happened, arranged with reasonable plausibility.
In other words, it was a story that already existed. I had no real ability to develop a narrative in the first place.
‘I have sometimes thought it might be interesting to write the history I already know directly as a novel.’
After all, if it’s actual history, there’s no guilt in copying someone else’s work, and my conscience stays clear.
But because it’s been covered so often in historical dramas, I’m most familiar with the early Joseon founding period, which is relatively well documented—and I simply gave up on the idea early on.
If I wrote the tale of the Late Goryeo–Early Joseon Period as a novel, readers would inevitably become obsessed with Yi Seong-gye as the story’s protagonist. After all, he was an undefeated general, and a Divine Archer who could even shoot down an arrow with a helmet strap.
But then Yi Seong-gye, after destroying Goryeo and founding Joseon, suddenly acts like he’s lost his mind—ignoring his five grown sons from his first wife, and insisting on making his youngest son, a small child born to his second wife, the Crown Prince?
‘The author must be insane, readers would cry character assassination.’
Everyone would complain that their Yi Seong-gye would never be like this.
Critics would flood in saying the author had destroyed the protagonist chasing shock value and melodrama, questioning whether a man would really behave this way just because he was infatuated with his second wife. Readers would voice their disappointment in the author.
There would be wild speculation—that this looks like the youngest-son inheritance custom of nomadic peoples, so wasn’t Yi Seong-gye actually from that world? There would be heated debate among history enthusiasts about how, since ancient times, men of power have fallen for young new wives and neglected their first wives and their children, often bringing ruin. The theories would fly.
And then, among Yi Seong-gye’s impressive sons, Yi Bang-won—the only one who became a civilian official rather than a general, the youngest of the five brothers (though his sixth brother, Yi Bang-yeon, had also passed the civil service exam under Goryeo but died shortly before or after Joseon’s founding)—kills all his half-brothers and puts his second-eldest brother on the throne, then takes the crown himself?
I could already see the comments: the author’s clear favorite must be Yi Bang-won, a suddenly pushed character.
How suspicious that he suddenly passed the civil service exam despite coming from a military family—clearly this was all buildup for him.
And then this Yi Bang-won, now king, even defeats his undefeated general father in war?
This is favoritism taken to absurd lengths. I couldn’t understand what the author was thinking. Readers would say he must have grown sick of Yi Seong-gye while writing, weren’t they right?
And Yi Bang-won didn’t stop there—he purged his in-laws, the very family that had helped him become king, scattering them to the winds…….
If things had gone well after that, fine. But the eldest son he made Crown Prince turns out to be an utterly hopeless vicious brute, so he’s deposed. Then the third son—not even the second—becomes Crown Prince because he’s clever. And then the author, wanting to eliminate the in-laws again, scatters the third son’s wife’s family to the winds as well.
Wait, is the author perhaps a bit unhinged? Does the author perhaps have some grudge against royal in-laws right now?
And then, after going through such a turbulent process to become Crown Prince and then swiftly ascending to the throne, this third son later becomes an absolutely extraordinary Sage King?
People wouldn’t hesitate to curse the author as a pervert.
There are limits to contrivance. The author would definitely be accused of twisting the narrative to defend Yi Bang-won.
‘Of course, there might be some people who enjoy unpredictable developments.’
But I didn’t want to write while being cursed like that.
On top of that, the Sage King’s eldest son dies young, the second son seizes the throne from his young nephew and ultimately murders him, and then the children of that second prince die one after another—if that kind of story came out, there would be nothing to say except that the author has strange tastes.
‘After all, non-fiction stories are most thrilling. Human imagination can’t keep up.’
Without knowing it’s actual history, people would just think the author is insane.
The story itself has melodramatic flair and might become popular, but the backlash would obviously be intense—and with my ordinary temperament, I simply decided to give up.
Having abandoned those literary ambitions, I should just focus on running the business well.
“And once this is finished, let’s adapt it and stage it as a play as well.”
“Really? Would that be acceptable?”
“Well, ideally I’d like to build a proper theater or something later and do it properly.”
Since the purpose of staging this work as a play is image-making for the Crown Prince, I’m planning to have many people see it, so there’s no need to go that far right now.
But going forward, I should consider a more upscale strategy.
Luxury isn’t everything, but there’s always demand—across any era—for people who want to indulge in a touch of refinement in tasteful surroundings.
Of course, that’s only if the plays we’re doing now succeed.
‘Come to think of it, I want to expand the restaurants too. If I’m building anyway, maybe I should design a space suitable for performances and set up regular shows.’
I’ve seen that sort of thing a lot in historical dramas.
And maybe I should open some tea houses as well.
‘I’ve been thinking, with more people coming to Siyeongwon these days, I’d like to earn a bit more money and create some new employment opportunities…….’
While I was lost in business calculations, patients had begun trickling into Hye Minser one by one, so I decided to slip away without being in the way.
Hye Minser was never really an ideal meeting place to begin with.
So opening a tea house was definitely the better idea. Somewhere hygienic that I could trust.
I was about to say goodbye while thinking such thoughts when I noticed Se Hwa packing up her things.
“Oh, where are you off to, Se Hwa?”
“A house call. Sometimes patients request visits when they’re unable to move.”
“Is Seong Ji going with you?”
“Yes.”
Apparently, even when symptoms weren’t severe, quite a few female patients requested house calls.
“So where are you headed?”
“Pardon?”
I now had guards stationed on both sides of me, so it wouldn’t hurt to take my time getting around.
The Crown Prince probably anticipated this when he assigned them—but it didn’t matter either way.
Of course, I felt bad about keeping those two out late, but our precious author’s safety mattered too. The sun hadn’t even set yet, so it wasn’t an unreasonably late hour.
“I’ll take you back, so come on.”
“Oh, thank you. But—that may not be a suitable place for you to visit, miss…….”
“……?”
A place I couldn’t go? What place was that?
Se Hwa realized that unless she gave me a satisfactory answer, I wouldn’t back down, so she hesitated before finally opening her mouth.
“It’s the Dabanggol Kisaeng House.”
“Ah…….”
I understood why she thought I shouldn’t go.
“Actually, this works out perfectly. Let’s go together.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve been meaning to visit that place anyway.”
“You—what?”
Besides, that wasn’t somewhere I genuinely couldn’t visit.
Regardless of Se Hwa’s shock, I called for my guards and mounted the horse. Seong Ji smiled silently, as if he’d seen this coming.
“No, wait. Miss?”
“Have you ever been to the Dabanggol Kisaeng House before, Se Hwa?”
“What? No, I haven’t visited yet.”
“Then I’ll show you the way.”
“You—what……?”
Conveniently, everyone traveling with me at the moment had been to the Dabanggol Kisaeng House before.
‘Well, I’m not sure about Seong Ji, but So-i is probably the only one who’s never set foot inside.’
This was a chance to go in legitimately(?) at last.
It was still broad daylight, and the kisaeng house wouldn’t be crowded at this hour.
‘Maehyang must have been quite frightened by what happened last time. I should go show my face there to put her mind at ease.’
I’d sent word that I was fine to avoid her worry, but Maehyang had replied with a deeply despondent letter saying she had no face to show me.
It seemed she blamed herself, since I’d been kidnapped on the way back from meeting her that day.
‘Well, if I hadn’t dressed plainly that day to meet Maehyang—if I’d worn my usual yangban household clothes instead—I might not have been so easily kidnapped.’
Perhaps passers-by would have thought something was amiss and caught my abductors.
After all, even a servant acting under their master’s orders couldn’t handle a young lady of a yangban household roughly.
But even so, none of that was Maehyang’s fault.
It was the abductors’ fault.
‘And perhaps it was because I was kidnapped that day that those who nearly became unjustly enslaved were able to escape unharmed.’
Maybe I was only thinking too optimistically.
But dwelling on something that wasn’t a mistake, wasn’t intentional, but happened due to someone else’s malice—it was utterly pointless.
The most productive course was to catch and punish the one who caused it. There was no reason innocent people should suffer uselessly.
‘Of course, it’s not easy for the person involved to think that way.’
So first, I had to show myself safe and sound and put her at ease.
More than anything, Maehyang hadn’t simply informed me of this situation to help prevent people from unjustly becoming nobi—had she?
Normally, gisaengs wouldn’t carelessly leak information they heard at drinking gatherings, as it was for their own safety, but Maehyang must have given me that information knowing full well that the kisaeng house itself might suffer some consequences.
The fact that she wanted me to come in person rather than sending someone else was probably because she couldn’t be sure whom to trust.
‘She deserves to be praised.’
It would have been easier and safer to turn a blind eye, but Maehyang didn’t.
Of course, if it became known that Maehyang had given me information, it could harm her, so I couldn’t make it public.
Actually, I’d wanted to visit the kisaeng house when I came out last time, but the moment I left Siyeongwon the rain poured down, so I couldn’t go anywhere—not even to see that play.
I’d been thinking I’d stop by today since I was out anyway, and now that Se Hwa was going, it killed two birds with one stone.
I walked alongside Se Hwa and asked as if remembering something.
“By the way, who’s ill?”
“Ah, one of the courtesans at the Dabanggol Kisaeng House has a high fever and has been vomiting, unable to keep food down. I’m going to perform a Pulse Diagnosis on her.”
“I hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Yes, I hope so too.”
Se Hwa reassured me, saying that physicians actually treated minor ailments far more often than serious ones, so I shouldn’t worry too much.
The Dabanggol Kisaeng House wasn’t far from Hye Minser, so we arrived sooner than expected.
The atmosphere at Dabanggol seemed somehow unsettled.
As we approached the kisaeng house, someone suddenly came running out, shouting.
“Small, smallpox!!”
What?

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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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