Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 44

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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 concubine of the lowest rank.
Chapter 44
“Brother.”
“I suspected it might be you when I heard the story about a girl on horseback, but to think it was truly you. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. I’m fine.”
I dismounted to show him I was unhurt, but my legs gave out beneath me without warning.
“Oh!”
“But you just said you were fine!”
While the Crown Prince startled, Gai caught me calmly and began massaging my legs to reassure him.
“It’s simply that your nerves have relaxed, Your Highness. No matter how brave the young lady is, she nearly fell from her horse and wandered alone in an unfamiliar place.”
“Yes. I’m thirsty.”
“Let’s go at once.”
The sentries who had panicked the moment I collapsed seemed considerably reassured when they saw me remount with Gai’s support. They’d been dreading complications, after all.
“You seem quite shaken. It would be best to escort you home as soon as possible.”
One of the sentries ventured cautiously to suggest our return.
Apart from the earlier commotion, the gate remained crowded, and the sentries continued watching the people coming and going, unaware that the person they sought had already fled.
‘I wonder what happened to Jihwa.’
If something had gone wrong, the Crown Prince surely wouldn’t be here like this.
We left Namdaemun Gate and hurried toward the palace.
Since the Crown Prince was riding Jeok-a with me, I asked him about the time I had missed.
It wasn’t a conversation we could have outside, and it would be even harder to broach once we entered the palace, so now was the only moment to ask.
“A servant came and told me to run away.”
“Which servant?”
“I don’t know that much, but I did confirm that two people fled the capital.”
For my part, I explained what had happened on my end.
“How could this have happened?”
“Kim Sun-ik was the Provincial Military Commander of Hamgyeongdo, and he was someone Father trusted so deeply that he intended to make his daughter the Crown Princess. Yet suddenly he’s accused of treason.”
To begin with, the position of Provincial Military Commander of Hamgyeongdo was not one that could be held without the king’s deep trust.
Only after holding that post could one advance to what was commonly called the rank of General, and if his daughter became Crown Princess, his future promotion would be all but assured.
“But you helped him escape without even knowing the circumstances?”
“Even if he had plotted treason, what fault could young children have in it? And if she’s the daughter of a traitor, she’d become a palace slave anyway……”
“That’s right. You did well.”
I tapped his head lightly to ease the concern that surely weighed on him even as Crown Prince, and a faint smile flickered across his tense face.
“Only you understand what I’m thinking.”
It was perhaps an overstatement to call it praise, but sensing his unease, I let him hold me close without complaint.
Perhaps the Crown Prince himself understood all too well his current position—how oddly reluctant noble families were to offer daughters as Crown Princess. Or rather, he surely did.
‘I’m exhausted.’
The tension I’d maintained all day was catching up with me. I felt guilty toward Jihwa and Sucheon, who were still in flight, but as my nerves unwound, my body grew heavy with fatigue.
‘I hope they made it safely.’
That child who laughed like a puppy.
I’d packed food, clothes, and money for their escape—I hoped they wouldn’t go hungry anywhere.
Would I ever see them alive again?
I hadn’t given Jihwa much besides sweets, but she’d escaped well enough, hadn’t she? I thought she was the protagonist, so perhaps interfering too much would be unwise, which was why I’d stayed out of it.
Whether or not we met again, I just hoped they’d survive.
While I sat lost in such thoughts, my head dipped without my realizing, and consciousness dimmed.
Today really had been exhausting.
***
“Mm?”
“Your Highness the Princess?”
“Mm.”
At Gai’s cautious voice, I opened my eyes to find myself in my familiar room.
Heavens, when had we returned? I had no memory of the journey.
‘Well, it was rather a full day for a child.’
Drowsy and wrapped in the warm comfort of quilts, I debated whether to close my eyes again or get up, but eventually thirst won out and I decided to rise.
As I reached toward the edge of my bed, Gai poured water and handed it to me.
“Did I fall asleep like that?”
“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince carried you all the way to the palace. You must be weary—rest a while longer.”
The Crown Prince carried me? What was that about?
‘I suppose this incident was a shock to him too.’
Just as I had once been shaken by the death of Seongwon Crown Prince and his mother, that boy must have been shaken as well.
people close to me dying or suffering misfortune.
‘……and I suspect I’m complicit in some of that.’
It’s strange to feel guilty about it now, but I’ll have to make him castella sometime to make amends.
In any case, that’s not what matters right now.
After drinking some water, my mind began to clear. I asked the most pressing question first.
“Where is the Crown Prince right now?”
“As soon as he returned to the palace, he dressed properly and went to see the King regarding the matter of treason.”
“I see.”
Looking out the window, I could see it was still dawn, the sky barely light.
“……Haven’t you slept at all, Gai?”
“The cleanup had to be done by my own hands for my peace of mind.”
Indeed, the Crown Prince had snuck out and come back, I’d fallen asleep, and he had no time to rest at all.
“Gai, thank you.”
“I’ve done nothing worthy of praise from you, Princess.”
When I embraced her tightly, Gai didn’t seem to mind, patting my back gently.
I wished yesterday had never happened at all. That it had simply been a good day.
But how could things have come to this?
‘Without the Prime Minister—who else could it be? Why?’
To understand yesterday’s events in detail, I’d need more time.
The Crown Prince would be occupied for a while, and it would be difficult for him and me to have secret conversations alone.
As the Crown Prince grows older, I suppose it will naturally become that way going forward.
‘I’ll likely marry and leave the palace within a few years. Based on the current atmosphere, they may arrange my marriage early but delay my formal departure much longer. Will I be able to see the two of them reunite by then?’
If I recall correctly, the Crown Prince and the female lead part ways vaguely in childhood and don’t meet again until adulthood.
‘If this were a drama, it would be fascinating.’
Once the child actors’ scenes ended, the screen would fade to black and cut to adult performers, with melancholic music swelling in the background. Then the first meeting of the two as adults would appear in next week’s preview?
But unfortunately, this was reality.
In a drama, you’d know what happened to them within a week at most—but in real time, their reunion would take years, minimum.
‘And if treason has actually been discovered, then… many people will die and be hurt.’
Conspiracies like this usually involve far more than one or two people, so even if it weren’t Jihwa and her siblings, many others had surely already lost their ordinary lives since yesterday.
Of course, if the rebellion succeeded, I’d be one of those who suffered most, so I was hardly in a position to pity anyone uninvolved in the conspiracy.
Besides, there was something more urgent to deal with.
“But Gai—did anyone find out we left?”
With security heightened due to the treason, I asked carefully whether we might have been seen upon our return.
“About that…….”
Either you know or you don’t—just tell me straight. Why the hesitation?
Gai shook her head somewhat uncertainly.
“For now, it seems you shouldn’t go to the King’s chambers for a while, Princess.”
“Right. I suppose not.”
With the uproar over treason, it wouldn’t look good for me to go seeking the King out either.
The Crown Prince was different.
‘In the novel, we weren’t discovered, but maybe I, as an unplanned variable, changed things.’
In the original story, the King hesitates to tell the anxious young Crown Prince about the treason or Jihwa’s family’s involvement, planning to inform him the next morning instead. But apparently, when the Crown Prince senses something and visits him in the night, the King finds it admirable rather than troubling.
Either way, there was nothing I could do in this situation.
And the Crown Prince was likely in much the same position.
As I’d feared, events were unfolding along their predetermined course.
‘I hope both of them escape safely.’
Morning came regardless, and as I washed and prepared myself late into the day, I suddenly felt something was missing.
“It’s gone……?”
The Jade Ring—which I always wore around my neck, the last gift the dead Seongwon Crown Prince had given me before his military campaign—was nowhere to be found.
My heart sank in an instant.
“Gai, Gai!”
“What is it, Princess?”
“Did you not see the ring when you changed my clothes?”
“The ring, you say……? No, I did not see it.”
When I’d returned to my quarters asleep, it would have been Gai who undressed me.
And all the palace attendants who served me, including Gai, knew that I cherished the Jade Ring—Seongwon Crown Prince’s keepsake—and wore it around my neck at all times.
“What about the clothes I wore when I went out?”
“Please wait a moment, Princess. I will bring them at once.”
Gai retrieved the bundle she’d hidden away and searched the clothes carefully, but the ring was nowhere to be found.
I searched the room thoroughly just in case, but it still didn’t appear.
‘Could it have been yesterday……?’
When I’d changed into everyday clothes earlier, I was certain the Jade Ring was still tucked inside my garment.
So I must have lost it sometime after that—but there were far too many possibilities.
I’d wandered through the Marketplace all day, given my clothes to Sucheon to wear, watched Jeok-a panic and bolt, gone outside the Namdaemun Gate and come back again.
I’d thought something kept inside a garment wouldn’t be easily lost, but there had been so much commotion yesterday.
‘It’s quite possible I dropped it when I changed clothes at that Private Residence yesterday.’
Even if the string had come undone, it should have remained inside my garment—so if it was truly lost, it most likely slipped away when I undressed.
But I couldn’t very well return to that place.
That servant may have already confessed to his master that I and my companions were there with the young master, and if I showed up again, things could become troublesome if suspicions were aroused.
“Now that I think of it, what about that servant who made Jeok-a go wild yesterday?”
“Have no fear. That one will not speak, my lady.”
I asked because it had occurred to me, and Gai answered in a low voice. But why did her voice sound so unsettling?
What had happened while I was away? Had she threatened him?
‘Jeok-a did kick him yesterday—surely he’s not…… dead, is he?’
Jeok-a was originally a war horse, intelligent and possessed of exceptional physical strength. Being kicked by such a creature, even if it was the man’s own doing, he couldn’t have come away unscathed…….
Curious as I was, I sensed she wouldn’t tell me, so I decided to simply pretend I knew nothing.
Right now, Gai seemed tense, as if worried I might rush off to search for the ring myself.
‘Cheap though it may be, it’s still a jade ring—if someone found it, they’d surely keep it.’
Besides, if I’d lost it somewhere like the Namdaemun Gate, it might have been trampled or shattered, leaving barely a trace.
I’d carried it so carefully, and now it was gone.
I suppose that was the Crown Prince’s reason for entrusting it to me as well.
The jade was cheap with some flaws, but I handled it every day—now that it was gone, a strange emptiness crept over me.
Perhaps it wasn’t just the loss of the Jade Ring; I found myself wanting to see Jeok-a.
I hadn’t even seen him properly settle in yesterday.
‘Gai won’t object to something like that, surely?’
After finishing breakfast, I rose from my seat, gauging Gai’s mood.
“My lady?”
“I thought I’d go see Jeok-a.”
“Surely Jeok-a is exhausted as well, my lady.”
“That’s why I should go. We’ll only visit Jeok-a and return—nothing else. Don’t you think he was startled by all that rushing about yesterday?”
At my words, Gai gave a helpless smile and nodded her agreement.
“If that is your wish, my lady, it would be best to go and return quickly.”
“Right. I’m going to Saboksi, so pack me some refreshments.”
Truthfully, with the palace on such thin ice, visiting Jeok-a seemed to be my only solace for some time to come.
I gathered the refreshments and made my way to Saboksi.
Saboksi was the bureau responsible for managing the royal carriages, horses, and other mounts, and Jeok-a was being kept and cared for there.
No matter how much I cherished Jeok-a, I couldn’t very well build a stable within my own residence.
As I entered, the Saboksi attendants—whom I’d grown accustomed to seeing and who’d grown accustomed to my visits—bowed their heads as naturally as always.
I already knew where Jeok-a was kept, so I required no escort.
Yet unexpectedly, a strange man was standing there looking at Jeok-a, and beside him stood another man in the robes of a Deputy Stable Official—his rank wasn’t unclear, but his presence was most unwelcome.
“Is this horse also a war mount of His Majesty?”
“No, sir. He belongs to the Princess. The Seongwon Crown Prince gave his word before his passing that he would present this horse to the Princess.”
“……A fine animal. What a pity.”
Was he criticizing 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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