Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 30

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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 lowly concubine.
Episode 30
I wrenched free from Gai’s grip and bolted from the room.
No. It couldn’t be like this.
I didn’t even stop to remove my shoes before rushing inside, and the metallic stench of blood hit me like a wave.
“Your Majesty, you mustn’t lose consciousness!!”
“Ah, Miss! Your Majesty, your daughter has arrived. Please, open your eyes!”
My sister’s face, barely breathing, held no color—only a terrible pallor.
Her eyes, unable to focus properly, turned toward me.
“Miss…….”
I heard her faint voice and grasped her hand, now grown cold.
Tears blurred my vision until I could see nothing.
“That you were…… here, brought me…… such happiness……. You are…… my daughter…….”
Those were her last words.
My sister moved no more, her eyes closing softly.
“No, no…… no, no, noooo……!”
Why so suddenly.
How could this happen.
The Crown Prince. My sister.
Why are they both leaving me like this, so suddenly.
In the depths of winter, fever rose through my entire body, my head burning.
“Miss!”
Beyond my fading consciousness, I heard the palace attendants calling my name.
***
When I came to, the King sat beside me, dressed in mourning robes.
“Are you awake?”
“……Father.”
My mind was a tangled mess.
‘Why am I here…….’
Where is my brother? Where is my sister? Where is everyone?
Why am I alone here.
Ah.
“……Are they dead?”
“……Yes.”
To my half-conscious words, the King simply closed my eyes instead of speaking at length.
I wanted to weep, but no tears would come.
I drank the water he offered me and fell asleep again, as if dead.
Between dream and waking, I heard familiar voices drift in and out.
“I thought being so young, she might not yet understand the meaning of death…….”
“But she is remarkably intelligent. She is unlike other children.”
“We shall need to prepare the funeral rites for Sukhui…….”
“Given that we are still observing the official mourning for the Crown Prince, it seems we must conduct it with simplicity.”
“See that it is done.”
Sometimes I heard the King speaking with one of the attendants.
“If only Miss had not existed, perhaps Sukhui would not have gone either.”
“What are you saying.”
“Sukhui was never one to seek the King’s favor. She made no real effort to serve him actively. She took no interest in adornment. But when Miss came to be disliked by Yeongbin, Sukhui pushed herself too hard to gain the King’s affection to protect Miss. That is what brought this upon us.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“She could have lived at peace, but her excessive desire brought ruin.”
“They said she collapsed from fright at the tiger, didn’t they?”
“If she had not been with child, would a mere collapse have done her in? No one else suffered any serious harm.”
Perhaps there was truth in those words.
In the novel, it only said the young Ongju had died—it contained nothing about concubines being harmed.
Perhaps everything I had done was meaningless.
The Crown Prince could not escape his predetermined fate and died regardless.
My sister—Sukhui—might never have died at all, but my actions changed her fate; she gained the King’s favor, became pregnant, and in the end, died.
What of me, then.
Do I die as the novel dictates?
If so, is it Gyeongeongun who kills me, as in the story?
And what of Yeongwon?
Yeongwon?
Her eyes fluttered open.
“My lady?”
“Gai? Songbi?”
“Yes, my lady. Are you awake?”
There had been a king here a moment ago, or so it seemed, and palace attendants too.
But their voices were not those of the attendants I knew from my own quarters.
The attendants had busied themselves feeding me water, feeding me rice gruel, bathing my body, and tending to my fever.
I tried to gather my thoughts as my head cleared, and asked:
“Where is Mother?”
“His Majesty came to see you and cared for you with his own hands for several days before departing.”
So it was not all a dream.
“You lost consciousness that day, and your body burned like fire.”
“Do you know how terrified we were?”
As they spoke, the attendants wiped away tears with reproachful voices.
They must have feared I would not survive.
The attendants carefully explained what had happened while I lay ill.
Though they seemed anxious that I might collapse again from shock, I found myself able to listen calmly even about my sister’s funeral.
“And Her Majesty the Queen came herself to inquire after your welfare.”
“Yeongwon also visited to check on your condition.”
“I see.”
My head still felt somewhat foggy. I blinked hard, and Gai hesitated before speaking.
“And also…”
“What is it?”
“Hong Sukhui and Gyeongeongun came to see you as well.”
…
Why would those people…
Before I realized it, my brow had furrowed, and Gai clenched her fists, eager to reassure me.
“Do not worry. We did not allow them into your chamber, and I stayed close behind them to ensure they caused no trouble.”
“They didn’t harass you?”
“How could anyone harass us with you here?”
So they would harass them the moment I was gone.
Without giving me time to dwell on other thoughts, the attendants produced a bowl of medicinal broth as if on cue.
“Why do you look troubled, my lady?”
“No, it’s just… something I remembered.”
What was it? Why did the broth remind me… ah.
“Gai said she saw a Chuyeongdang attendant at the Naeuiwon that day.”
“Yes? That day… oh, yes, that’s right.”
Could there be a connection? Between Chuyeongdang and what happened to me?
The attendants at Sukhui’s quarters had said that after she began taking medicinal broth, her condition worsened after the Crown Prince’s funeral rites started.
The Chuyeongdang attendant had been frequenting the Naeuiwon around that time, so it would not have been impossible for her to scheme.
But if that were truly the case… if it truly were…
‘Then my sister’s death was because of me.’
As my breath caught and my face twisted, both attendants grew restless and spoke.
“My lady, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. It’s not pain.”
“My lady, do you suspect Chuyeongdang?”
“It seems suspicious, but…”
But there is no proof. If I had only kept my wits, I might have found some clue.
I bit my lip.
All those broths have already been disposed of, and concubines are not subjected to autopsy, so there is no evidence to find.
And if it was merely a drug to induce miscarriage, not poison, then it would be nearly impossible to detect with the autopsy methods of this age.
“My lady, your color is not good.”
“Your body is still weak—you should rest and not trouble yourself with other thoughts.”
“…Very well.”
They were all so worried about me, clinging and weeping, that I could not be stubborn. I closed my eyes again as they wished. My fever had broken, but my body felt heavy with fatigue.
I did not want to think of anything.
***
Once I had regained my senses, many visitors came over the following days, just as the attendants had said.
The King, the Queen, Yeongwon, and even the concubines all sent people to inquire after my health.
But the people I wanted to see most, I could not.
After several days passed and I heard from the physician that I was well enough, I finally stepped outside my room for the first time, and went straight to my sister’s quarters.
In that place, which looked no different from how I remembered it, there was only one person missing.
‘My sister is truly gone now.’
I stood there in a daze, thinking that thought, while the palace attendants behind me quietly wiped away their tears.
My body hadn’t fully recovered, and besides, my sister’s funeral hall was outside the palace, so I couldn’t visit it even if I’d wanted to.
With no other choice, I returned to my quarters and lay down again.
I thought, what use was there in visiting the funeral hall now? Yet I felt anew how lonely it was to be a concubine.
‘And my sister had no family besides us.’
I turned away the attendants who were worried about me and lay down alone.
I truly wanted to be alone.
‘Aaaah! Sia, Sia!!’
It was my sister.
My sister’s voice.
My sister was weeping wildly.
I turned my head toward the sound of my sister’s voice and saw her collapsed on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, with some man supporting her. I saw it all.
And my portrait, smiling.
Ah, that was my funeral.
‘My sister must have wept just as I did when she heard I was dead.’
Sister, sister.
My poor sister.
Without thinking, I reached out and grasped her.
And when my sister turned her face, it had become the pale, lifeless face of my sister from my last memory.
‘I’m sorry. Young mistress…….’
Saying that, my sister took hold of me with a cold hand.
“Gasp!”
When I opened my eyes, it was my familiar room.
‘It was a dream.’
As I blinked, tears streamed down my face.
Why would I have such a dream now?
‘Is she reproaching me for doing nothing?’
I sat up, breathing hard, found the water vessel at my bedside, drank, and rose.
The darkness outside told me it was the dead of night.
‘Are they all asleep?’
The duty attendant was nodding off where she sat, exhausted from caring for me. I found the black coat hanging nearby, draped it over myself, and slipped quietly outside.
The reason I deliberately wore black was simple: I didn’t want to be noticed.
A small child in black clothes wandering about in the middle of the night would draw little attention.
‘Unless a tiger came out, of course.’
After that day, with heightened security, the rumors of tigers had ceased.
Whether because of the tiger rumors or because of the funeral rites, there were many people keeping watch throughout the night with torches lit, so even in darkness, it wasn’t difficult to move about.
As I approached a place where light spilled out, I heard the voices of palace attendants.
“I wonder where the lady will be buried.”
“Will the young prince be buried in the same place?”
“I suppose so.”
The child my sister was carrying was already dead in the womb, they said.
I hadn’t paid attention at the time, but I must have been by my sister’s side that day.
‘This younger brother never even made it into the world alive.’
Rather than pity, a twisted thought came first: if he had been born safely, Hong Sukhui and Gyeongeongun would have hated him even more.
Thinking of Gyeongeongun, my feet moved without conscious thought—toward Chuyeongdang.
I know.
I know there’s no way I’ll learn anything by going there like this.
But after waking from that dream just now, it suddenly came back to me.
It was a fortnight after the Crown Prince died.
In the novel, that’s when the assassination attempt on Yeongwon was supposed to happen.
And today is probably the fourteenth day.
Tomorrow will be the fifteenth.
So wouldn’t something happen today?

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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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