Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 57

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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.
Episode 57
She would have tested the poison on animals first.
If it were the Deposed Concubine Hong, she wouldn’t have left such evidence in an obvious place.
Though she may not have been innocent of poisoning a concubine or two before, a woman so careful as never to be caught would not have made such a mistake.
‘Of course, I’m the one who actually witnessed Yi Su ordering the poison to be put in.’
But if I claimed to have eaten it knowingly, I might invite unwanted backlash.
Wouldn’t the blame fall more heavily on me for eating something I knew contained poison than on whoever put it there?
People would first doubt that a mere six-year-old child could think such things. Whether they believed it or not, they’d call the child unnerving.
It was common, even in modern times, for a victim with some flaw to be scorned more than the clear perpetrator. There was no reason to think this age would be different.
Hasn’t my reputation fallen quite a bit even now?
It wasn’t easy for a mere eight-year-old girl to make the ministers’ hearts race so.
‘Whether for good reasons or ill.’
Perhaps that’s why people everywhere have been pulling back, reluctant to bring me in as a daughter-in-law.
Come to think of it, that seems rather fortunate.
‘The interrogations of the court ladies would surely have turned up testimony that Gyeong Eon Gun ordered it.’
I was hovering at death’s door at the time, so I don’t know the details.
No one was about to explain that dreadful interrogation to a small child.
But it would have been easier for everyone to accept that Hong, the boy’s mother, had done it rather than believe that a mere thirteen-year-old boy had tried to harm his sister.
Besides, the Queen Dowager wanted Gyeong Eon Gun to live.
The King seemed to fall into thought after my answer but did not reproach me.
He only asked one final question.
“Surely the Crown Prince didn’t order you to do this?”
“I beg your pardon, but I’m afraid I’m not the sort of younger sister who obeys her brother’s commands so readily.”
“……Yes, that’s true.”
The King laughed hollowly, stroking my head for a long while with sad eyes, and I felt a small pang of guilt.
***
Rumors about the Deposed Concubine Yi Su never ceased to stir the Capital City.
First came stories of her virtue, then condemnation followed one after another on people’s lips.
But the single tale of her virtue was distant, while all manner of condemnation rushed in from everywhere. Bitter irony it was—everyone preferred to spread sensational and cruel rumors rather than wholesome ones.
Particularly effective and credible were the eyewitness accounts that spilled from the mouths of those currently serving in the palace.
Unlike court ladies who lodged within the palace, there were many who worked on a daily commute, and through their mouths, rumors spread in no time.
The palace was a place where people lived; if rumors weren’t strictly controlled, they spread easily. The Central Palace, which should have been strictly monitoring such talk, was deliberately refraining from doing so, letting it spread unchecked—which made it all the more effective.
“What’s the mood like these days?”
“The ministers who had argued that the punishment of the Deposed Concubine was excessive have all fallen silent, I hear.”
“Hmm.”
Sometimes I wonder if I even needed to send those dried persimmons, but there’s no use thinking that now.
Instead, more and more people were outraged that members of the Rebel Faction had managed to approach a prisoner under House Confinement so easily—the local magistrates and other officials involved paid the price for it. (Not with their heads, merely their positions.)
“And surprisingly, though I hesitate to report it……”
“What is it?”
Ga-i rarely held back her words, so I pressed her, and an unexpected answer came.
“There are voices saying it may be improper to execute the Deposed Concubine Yi Su.”
“What?”
I hadn’t even hoped for that. Why suddenly? This is too fast.
“The very fact that the Rebel Faction tried to make a prisoner into a king is itself the problem, is it not?”
“Right.”
That’s…… true.
I’d forgotten it for a moment as things improved so rapidly, but a royal family member elevated to kingship by rebels equals a threat to the throne—a person without guilt still receives the Poison Cup, don’t they?
“It’s said most are ministers who received the Egg Honey Cake sent by Si-a.”
“Hmm.”
Rather than the cake changing their minds, it’s more likely they already leaned that way, and once they saw that I and the Crown Prince wouldn’t sit idle, they grew bolder about it.
“I worried how opinion about Si-a might shift after sending the dried persimmons to the ministers, but fortunately it seems to be moving in a positive direction.”
“In what way?”
“That is……”
Song Bi spoke around it, but in summary, public sympathy for me had grown.
‘Ah, I see. The inability to tolerate the man who killed her mother returning safely is quite an emotionally relatable sentiment.’
At such a young age, I lost my mother and the sibling in her womb, ingested poison and nearly died, and even before that, I came close to being killed by that very man.
It seems people interpreted it as: this small child, hearing rumors that her enemy (or the enemy’s child) might be released, could do nothing but send sweets to the ministers.
Not knowing what else to say to the ministers, with her small fern-like hands she had carefully selected precious sweets—sweets her deceased mother had loved in life and that the child had made herself (a misunderstanding! Song Bi had made them!)—and sent them in boxes to the few court ladies she had any connection with……
……
When I laid it all out and heard it through, it was certainly a pitiful and tear-jerking tale.
‘Though I suspect the ministers who received the dried persimmons I sent must be thinking something quite different…….’
In this way, to the people, I had become a pitiable, wretched child, and they were channeling their outrage not at me but at the Deposed Concubine and her son.
‘Most people probably don’t have the luxury of worrying about me.’
Even though I’d endured a difficult childhood, I was eating five meals a day with snacks served on schedule, pulling on silk robes whenever I pleased, fanning myself and sipping iced punch on hot days, bundling up in quilted garments and fur on cold ones while lounging in the Ondol Room, collecting ceramics I fancied and amassing antiques—living well, living comfortably.
“I should try to live a better life…….”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
I shook my head as I watched the unrelenting downpour beyond the window.
This rainy season looked to stretch on quite long.
‘The life of a wealthy idle person isn’t so bad, really.’
Not stirring a step from my room, just eating whatever was brought to me and lounging about.
Even the powerful must be trudging through this rain on their commutes.
Suddenly, I remembered Ji Hwa and Su Cheon, who’d fled.
‘I wonder if they’re doing well.’
Su Cheon, I couldn’t say, but Ji Hwa would surely return to Han Yang someday.
They’d likely want to investigate what schemes lay behind this Yeok-mo affair.
For now, neither I nor the Crown Prince have the strength to root out the true culprits, but by then perhaps we’ll be able to catch those who (supposedly) tried to restore Yi Su—now Deposed—as a prince.
Having thought that far, I suddenly called for the palace attendants to prepare for an outing.
My destination was the East Palace.
***
“So what are you doing here anyway?”
“The future sister-in-law’s future Crown Princess—an elder sister’s good intentions?”
“I’m sure it’s about me, but for the life of me, I can’t fathom what on earth you’re talking about……?”
Unlike before, there were no royal secretaries about, so the Crown Prince and I could speak to each other comfortably.
“Never mind the reason—let’s eat first. I made this, so don’t worry.”
“Uh, yes.”
At my urging, the Crown Prince tilted his head curiously but picked up his chopsticks nonetheless.
Food I brought was always automatically approved, so the Crown Prince, who normally had to eat cold dishes because of all the inspections, couldn’t help but welcome what I prepared.
“You made pancakes because of the rain, I see.”
“Pa Jeon, really.”
It wasn’t particularly good for the body—being oily—but lately the boy seemed troubled, and his cheeks had grown a bit hollow.
‘Next time, perhaps I’ll make a meat dish.’
As I’d prepared food for the Crown Prince, I’d also laid out plenty for the others in the East Palace, and now heard murmurs of praise echoing like hallucinations from here and there.
Since it happened to be raining, everyone was delighted, saying they’d been craving Pa Jeon, and I felt pleased as well.
“On a rainy day, Pa Jeon goes with Makgeolli.”
“What did you just say?”
“I’ve just heard that saying is all. Come, eat plenty while it’s warm.”
The Crown Prince was staring at me with disbelief in his eyes, but I pretended not to hear and picked up my chopsticks.
However unregulated drinking ages might be in this era, I wasn’t about to eat Makgeolli at eight years old.
Strange as it might seem, we were sharing the Pa Jeon together like brother and sister in an ordinary household.
“Did you put meat in the Pa Jeon as well?”
“Yes. I wanted to use seafood, but given the season and all.”
“Seafood?”
“Yes.”
Dongnae seafood Pa Jeon is famous precisely because it’s by the coast, I suppose…….
‘When I’m a bit older, I should go to a coastal village and eat seafood Pa Jeon.’
In Han Yang, we don’t lack seafood entirely, but summer is the season to be careful.
Once I’m grown, I’ll have Pa Jeon and Makgeolli properly.
I found myself missing that brief carefree drinking season of before.
“Ah.”
“What is it?”
“Oh, I just remembered something.”
Since being reborn, I’d lived so far removed from drinking that I’d even forgotten Makgeolli existed, and now something pleasant had surfaced from those memories.
“Oily food really isn’t good for the body…….”
“Did the person now feeding it to me really just say that?”
“Next time I’ll bring something lighter.”
“Fine. I’ll look forward to it.”
The Crown Prince still had a weary face, but he didn’t refuse the food I’d brought and ate it.
It was troubling enough that he had no appetite, and then on top of that he was particular about who prepared his food.
‘This is problematic if the male lead is this picky.’
Of course the kitchen staff would handle cooking, but what if he ended up refusing anything the female lead gave him too?
No, the male lead wouldn’t do that.
Without meaning to, I shook my head, and the Crown Prince gave me a suspicious look.
“……You’re thinking something strange again.”
“It’s not really anything in particular.”
I changed the subject and brought up something somewhat important.
“Did Father say anything about the dried persimmons I sent?”
“He seemed taken aback, but…… he said nothing else.”
This father-son relationship remained oddly ambiguous even now.
Because the King had consistently lavished his affection solely on Seongwon, drawing clear boundaries with the other princes, it now seemed difficult for them to grow close.
‘It’s not just favoritism—I think he’s doing it deliberately so the other princes and concubines don’t harbor ill feelings.’
Even if my own mother had borne him a son, I suspect he wouldn’t have treated that child with such warmth toward me.
As we exchanged various remarks and I worked my chopsticks eagerly, the plates emptied before I knew it.
“You’ve eaten well, so go on and leave now.”
“All right. Go to bed early yourself.”
The Crown Prince dismissed my words lightly and laughed softly.
“I have books I need to read, so that’ll be difficult.”
“Your eyes will get worse! You won’t grow tall! You’ll get fat!”
How important is visual appearance to the male lead!
The Crown Prince, not understanding my anguished cry, let out a sigh.
“Somehow you seem stricter than the Queen Dowager herself.”
That’s because I’m judging with a reader’s eyes right now, not those of a blood relative, male lead.
“You won’t want to be a husband shorter than your future wife later, will you? And if you end up being shorter than the officials, they’d have to look up at you, and that would feel rather awkward, wouldn’t it, brother?”
“What kind of curse is this……”
To the Crown Prince, whose expression had grown bitter, I pressed my point again.
This was advice that would become my flesh and blood, so he should heed it well.
“You must sleep! You must sleep well if your height is to grow! You must eat balanced nutrition, exercise moderately, get adequate rest, and maintain a regular routine.”
“I doubt anyone in Joseon lives as regularly as I do.”
It was true that the Crown Prince’s daily schedule was frighteningly rigid and demanding.
It made me wonder if Crown Princes throughout Joseon history had gone astray or fallen ill for this very reason.
‘And it’s rare for a Crown Prince with legitimate claim to actually ascend to the throne.’
Though that wasn’t the point right now.
As I withdrew, I spoke to Moon, the court lady.
“Moon. If my brother doesn’t go to bed even late tonight, come find me. I’ll force him to sleep myself.”
“Yes, Princess.”
At my words, Moon bowed her head with an expression that could have been joking or serious, and the Crown Prince gave me an exasperated look.
“Whose household does Moon even belong to?”
“This servant merely worries for Your Highness.”
At Moon’s words, I whispered softly to the Crown Prince.
“See? Sleep a bit at night. Your face isn’t looking good.”
“……All right.”
I wasn’t unaware. Probably the thought that the madman would return again kept him from sleeping.
Of course the mood had reversed now, but the human heart could not be set at ease so easily.
‘I’ll probably be losing sleep for a while myself.’
And everything depended on the King’s judgment.

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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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