Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 42

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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 low rank.
Chapter 42
“Come on, grab her!”
“Aahhh!”
“Oh no. What on earth is happening?”
While those caught off guard by the sudden commotion stumbled about in panic, the guards blocked the path of a horse that had not yet managed to escape and its young rider. The woman holding the horse’s bridle looked around in bewilderment.
Deok-chil, a slave designated as the son of the rebel faction’s leader and one whom the woman had been attending to, pushed through the startled crowd and rushed forward to seize the horse.
A slave of Kim Seon-ik’s Household and body servant to young master Suchen, Deok-chil knew little of the world, but he understood well enough what treason meant.
So instead of delivering the message to Ji-hwa as instructed, he chose a different course.
If the family that employed him were subjected to confiscation of assets, he had no way of knowing which household’s slave quarters he would end up in next.
Kim Seon-ik’s Household was not a cruel place to serve, but from what he’d heard of other slaves in neighboring households, there were plenty of masters who treated their servants mercilessly. How could he endure it if his next owner proved to be such a man?
And there was no guarantee he would not be separated from his family and sent to serve elsewhere.
Perhaps if he informed on the fleeing traitor’s child, he might receive a reward and escape such suffering.
Deok-chil forced himself to push away the image of the young master he had served, and reached out desperately.
“Where do you think you’re going!!”
“You wretch! How dare you lay hands on—!!”
“Huh?! Oh, no—”
Braced for harsh reproach, Deok-chil heard a voice entirely different from what he expected strike his ears.
“You dare call me the child of a traitor? Can you take responsibility for those words?”
“I, no—”
When Deok-chil stumbled over his words, the constable approached with suspicion.
“Speak plainly. Is this child the traitor’s offspring or not?”
“N-no. I, what is—”
No, wait! He was certain he’d overheard just moments ago that young master Suchen would be wearing that blue robe and riding the horse. How could that young girl be on the horse now instead?!
If so, then this child must know where Suchen had gone.
Unable to make sense of the turn of events, Deok-chil steadied his trembling body and opened his mouth.
And the problem erupted in that very moment.
As Deok-chil stumbled forward in his panic, he inadvertently grabbed the horse’s tail. The beast, already tense from the approach of armed strangers, startled and began to buck violently.
Neigh—eeegh!!
“Aahhh!”
“Oh, the young lady!!”
The woman holding the bridle and the others nearby flinched back in alarm.
And Deok-chil, who had seized the horse’s tail, could not flee.
The owner of this horse surely knew where young master Suchen was. Convinced he could not afford to lose this opportunity, he clung desperately to the tail—and it brought calamity upon him.
Crack—!
The servant, who had never stood at his young master’s side during riding lessons, was caught in the horse’s hind legs and knocked down.
“Aaahhh!”
Those who saw Deok-chil fall cried out, but Deok-chil could not move. He could not even comprehend what had befallen him.
“No, this can’t be!!”
And the horse, having freed itself of the grip on its tail, bolted forward in a frenzy.
The woman holding the reins tried desperately to give chase, but keeping pace with a galloping horse on foot was impossible, so she soon gave up and could only stamp her feet in frustration.
As everyone stood frozen in alarm, a sharp crack split the air.
Smack—!
The woman who had been holding the bridle so demurely until moments before had seized Deok-chil by the collar and was striking him savagely across the face.
“You bastard! If anything happens to the young lady, you will not escape alive!!”
“Ah, ah—”
He should have told them that this girl had been with young master just before, that she was the one who had given him the clothes to escape. But his head spun, and Deok-chil lost consciousness.
Even the constables did not attempt to stop the enraged woman, and they turned their attention away from Deok-chil.
To be blamed for injuring an innocent household’s young daughter based on the false testimony of a mere slave would surely make the days ahead unbearable.
And those who had been watching the commotion at Namdemun Gate began to slip quietly away, unwilling to become entangled in the matter.
The servant carrying the small young lady, who had lingered in the crowd unable to leave immediately, did likewise.
The child, feigning sleep on the servant’s back, could not tear her eyes from the direction the horse had galloped, her small fists clenching the servant’s clothes tightly.
***
“Whoa, whoa there. Easy, easy. That’s right. Good girl.”
Snort—!
“It’s all right, all right. You gave me quite a fright.”
I reached out and stroked the horse’s mane.
‘She held on well without throwing me, even in that chaos.’
Though I had done my part in holding on firmly too, of course.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my still-racing heart, and reflected on what had just transpired.
‘That fool walked right up to us and startled Jeok-a.’
In fact, from the beginning, Jeok-a’s feigned panic and the commotion that followed were half-planned. Horses, despite their size, were surprisingly skittish creatures, and it was hardly rare for them to spook and cause a fuss.
Just when I was considering postponing the plan because of this unexpected obstacle, the fool’s very presence had frightened the horse so convincingly that the acting turned out almost better than expected—not a bad outcome after all.
‘I thought the guards near Namdemun Gate might already have received word to capture the siblings.’
By the time the household servants could reach the area near Namdemun Gate, it would have been entirely predictable.
However, since no military uprising had occurred in the Capital’s vicinity, I doubted they would close the Four Gates early on a day like this and unnecessarily stir up the people’s anxieties. Besides, it would take time for such an order to reach someone with that level of authority.
And what had fled was nothing more than servants and still very young children out on an outing.
At best, they would have received word only to capture a pair of siblings around the same age as Ji-hwa and Suchen. When would they even distribute a Wanted Sketch?
Of course, one of the captured servants might be stationed nearby to identify them, and riding horses would certainly attract too much attention, so I had decided instead to draw their eyes toward myself.
‘I never expected Suchen’s servant—the one he sent to bring word to Ji-hwa—to appear in such a manner.’
Perhaps in the original work, Suchen’s servant had behaved similarly.
‘Could that be how the child died in the original story?’
If so, then Suchen had cleared the greatest hurdle.
He had certainly left through Namdemun Gate ahead of me.
It was already late evening, and there were plenty of tired, whimpering children being carried along by their guardians as they left.
“Sigh.”
The weight of inevitability pressed down on me—the realization that something I had hoped would not happen had come to pass.
If my memory served correctly, in the original work this treason had nothing to do with Kim Seon-ik from the beginning.
When other factions’ treason plot was exposed, and it became clear they had tried to draw in Kim Seon-ik, the Provincial Governor of Hamgyeongdo, Jwasang—who wanted to topple him—had orchestrated a script that transformed Kim Seon-ik into one of the pillars of the treason itself.
Officially, it was a case that grew when his subordinates betrayed the Provincial Governor Kim Seon-ik and reported him to the court. I could not recall all their names, but it was highly likely they were the same individuals this time as well.
In the novel, Gyeong-eon and Jwasang had fabricated a treason incident to prevent the Crown Prince’s position from becoming secure and to shake the King’s heart.
And Kim Seon-ik, the sacrificial lamb, was already dead by the time Ji-hwa, the protagonist, left the Capital. I remembered the scene where Ji-hwa later learned this and suffered greatly.
‘But then who now? For what reason?’
Gyeong-eon had already fallen, as had Jwasang. Neither should have the power to do this.
Or did some of their influence still remain?
Hamgyeongdo bordered the northern frontier and was perpetually under military tension. With so many soldiers stationed there, the court was inevitably sensitive to any military movements from the province.
For that reason, a trusted official was sent as Provincial Governor of Hamgyeongdo.
Moreover, his daughter was a candidate for Crown Princess.
Kim Seon-ik’s future stretched before him like a well-paved road.
It would have been natural for those who envied him to exist.
In truth, the Governor had no reason to commit treason, so the King doubted the denunciation and hesitated for some time, but the forged evidence was far too convincing.
‘Moreover, the Governor had taken a second wife while in Hamgyeongdo.’
When the question arose of how he could have committed rebellion while leaving behind his children living in the Capital, the revelation that he had a son and daughter born to his second wife in Hamgyeongdo lent even greater credibility to the charge of treason.
I could not recall what became of them in the original work, but I did remember that Ji-hwa, the protagonist, later learned of their existence and harbored conflicted feelings about it.
‘Will Ji-hwa be safe? She’s the protagonist, so of course she will be?’
But she certainly could not have heard the servant’s message about meeting her brother at the Ferry Landing.
That servant would not have relayed the message to Ji-hwa.
If anything, he likely revealed the direction where Ji-hwa was. But the Crown Prince was with her—surely he would have helped her escape somehow?
‘I thought my chances of survival would be higher if I stayed with Ji-hwa.’
Perhaps this was the best outcome after all.
And for now, I had no business concerning myself with others’ affairs.
After a long time lost in thought, I came back to myself and looked around.
We must have ridden quite far from the Capital—there were no people in sight. There should have been plenty of homes outside the city, yet this place was so dark. Where on earth were we?
“Where are we, Jeok-a?”
Neigh!
Jeok-a shook her head as if to say she didn’t know.
Well, you were the one galloping along.
‘Though I suppose we mostly followed the road.’
If I retraced the road until we reached a fork, and saw some people, I could quickly ask the way back to the Capital.
From a distance, the area around the Capital and Mok-myeok Mountain were lit by lanterns, so if I simply followed that direction, it seemed impossible to fail to find the way back.
Besides, since I could see the Capital from here, it didn’t seem far at all if we rode horseback.
“Let’s go back.”
As if understanding my intent, Jeok-a turned around on her own.
“That’s right, our Jeok-a is clever indeed.”
I praised her and stroked her mane. She seemed pleased—partly from the satisfaction of a good long gallop, it seemed.
‘I hope they escaped safely.’
Before we parted, I had held the round-faced, frightened child close one last time and assured him it would be fine.
That he would be safe, and we would surely meet again later.
Naturally, I had no certainty of the child’s survival.
It was merely a hope born of my own wish, but just as I had somehow survived contrary to the novel’s progression, I hoped that child would survive as well.
I’d swapped the child’s outer robe for mine before we parted ways.
That servant must have eavesdropped on our conversation from beyond the courtyard, then rushed to inform the Uigeumbu guards.
So in their haste, the young master I’d been serving and the porter carrying the child never caught their eye—they were only looking for my clothes. Fortune favored us that day.
The robe I’d given to Suchen seemed too fine, so I’d changed into something plainer, which turned out to matter far more than I’d expected. The irony made me laugh despite myself.
The child would be safe.
Ga-i would exit through the Soui Gate—closer to Namdemun than most—hand over the horses to those two, and return.
With horses, they could flee much faster and much farther.
Trackers would account for a young child’s stamina and pace.
So unlike Seong-won who’d died, or my sister, or the child in my sister’s womb, the child wouldn’t be dragged down and perish entangled with me.
‘I did it. I saved them. This time, I did.’
My lips lifted of their own accord into a smile.
Now I just needed to return and confirm from Ga-i that they’d escaped safely.
That child would never know why I’d gone to such lengths.
But for me, it was enough that the child lived.
Even if the rest of their life turned out to be more wretched than servitude.
‘I’ve done all I can do.’
My mind felt clearer than it had in days.
Time to return. Everyone would be waiting.
I’d comfort the despondent Crown Prince, soothe Ga-i and Song-bi and the attendant who’d labored so hard, endure the scolding from the palace women frantic over my absence, drink a bowl of Sujeonggwa because I was exhausted, and finally lay down to sleep.
A treason case had erupted—many more would die because of it. But what could I do?
I’d saved those my hands could reach. Now I wanted peace.
“Heh heh.”
A child riding alone in the dead of night, giggling to herself—it sounded like something from a ghost story.
As I chuckled and leaned against my horse’s neck, strange voices cut through the darkness ahead.
“Little miss. You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“Oh.”
Well. What a spectacularly eventful day this had turned out to be.
I exhaled softly and studied the figures before me.

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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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