Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 59

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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.
Episode 59
‘So he’s more valuable than I am, is that it?’
By birth, by sex, in every way.
The thought that the Queen Dowager might feel no loss even if I died only made me more stubborn.
“Did you not bid me fetch a cushion? No—I have wronged the Queen Dowager, and how could I sit at ease on a proper seat? I shall kneel on the stone floor and beg forgiveness.”
With those words, I seated myself before the Queen Dowager’s Palace.
It was summer, and fortunately still morning, so the stone was not yet hot.
Scattered across the ground were the pitiful remnants of the French toast the Queen Dowager had flung away earlier.
It had sugar sprinkled on it too—the ants would come running.
I’d been rushing about since dawn baking bread and preparing food, and the sight of such waste wounded me.
The children in my Residence would be giddy with joy for a whole day if they got a single bite of that, watching me with ardent eyes, wondering when they might have it again. To see something so precious destroyed like this.
‘A person of her rank simply doesn’t know the value of food.’
Forget the children in my Residence—there were countless children outside who would throw fits for just one bite of it.
‘Ah, I’m so tired.’
Between the sleepless nights lately and the exhaustion, my eyes kept closing on their own.
‘No, I can’t—if I fall asleep and crack my head on the stone, what a disgrace that would be.’
Of course, at eight years old, such disgrace hardly matters in the grand scheme of things.
Even as the palace attendants bustled nervously around me, my eyelids grew heavy.
At this rate, before my head could hit the ground, the anxious attendants would surely catch me themselves.
Come to think of it, I’d prepared all these dishes since before dawn to present to the Queen Dowager, only to be rejected—a pitiful young granddaughter collapsing wouldn’t be a bad image either.
Yes. Let it be that way. I can’t hold on much longer.
Just as I was reaching an accommodation with the Sleepiness Demon creeping over me, I heard familiar voices.
“Si-a!”
“Si-a!”
The voices of the King and the Crown Prince.
‘Oh. Perfect timing.’
As I felt the footsteps draw near, I let myself slip peacefully into sleep, reassured. My last memory was of someone cradling my head safely, and I sank into a slumber more profound than I’d had in ages.
***
When I woke, I was lying beside the Queen.
“…Your Majesty?”
“You’re awake. Princess.”
“…Yes.”
While I blinked in confusion, a waiting Physician came forward and took my pulse.
As soon as the Physician gave an encouraging nod and assured everyone I was well, the Queen issued instructions to her attendants.
“Lady Jung. Please inform His Majesty that Princess Si-a has awakened. Assure him there is no cause for concern.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After rising from the Queen’s side, I drank the cool beverage offered to me and began quietly observing the situation.
“His Majesty was greatly alarmed.”
“I am deeply sorry.”
Now that I thought about it, why had those two come to the Queen Dowager’s Palace at all?
At the time I’d been too drowsy to think deeply, but for such busy people to visit the Queen Dowager’s Palace was hardly coincidence.
And the answer came from the Queen herself.
“Did you not say you would pay your respects to the Queen Dowager this morning before coming to me? When I heard the relatives were visiting to pay their regards to the Queen Dowager, I thought something might happen.”
She had anticipated trouble, stationed attendants nearby, and when something went wrong with me, called for someone to manage the situation.
‘Hmm, if I hadn’t fallen asleep, holding out longer might have been fine, or even collapsing from heat stroke later.’
I knew better than anyone that my body was small and weak. If I’d endured much longer, I would likely have collapsed from heat stroke, or at the very least, come down with a fever by nightfall.
Of course, it was more likely the King or Queen would have heard about it first.
Either way, considering how unexpectedly sympathetic public opinion has been toward me recently, this could only fuel that further.
Still, the Queen had done this out of concern for me, and I was grateful for it.
Not that I had any fondness for illness myself.
Watching me offer my thanks, the Queen sighed softly after checking my condition once more.
“Princess. How could you display such impudence to the Queen Dowager? This is your fault.”
“I am deeply sorry, Your Majesty.”
“And above all, you must not forget that your health must come first. When His Majesty witnessed your collapse, he grew greatly angered and severely rebuked the relatives who came spreading unnecessary gossip to the Queen Dowager.”
How delicious.
I barely suppressed the corner of my mouth from twitching upward, keeping my head bowed in an expression of contrition.
Of course, through the Physician’s examination and testimony from my close attendants, it became clear that I’d simply fallen asleep from sleep deprivation while absorbed in baking bread, and once assured of this, the King was put at ease.
“However, since this matter arose from your own recklessness, you must be more careful in your words and actions going forward. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The Queen’s tone was deliberately angry, so anyone listening from outside would have thought I was being scolded.
Yet even as she spoke that way, her expression remained calm, and her hand held mine firmly while stroking my hair—so I could tell she wasn’t angry with me at all.
“I hear you haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
“There have been frightening things. How could a girl sleep peacefully?”
To the casual ear, it would seem to be about the Yeok-mo, but the Queen surely understood I was referring to something else entirely.
“His Majesty will protect you. What is there to fear?”
“……Aren’t you uneasy as well, Your Majesty?”
“His Majesty will not abandon the Crown Prince and Si-a.”
Noticing that the Queen herself was absent from the list of people His Majesty would protect, it was clear she too felt uncertain—but I deliberately did not press the point.
Perhaps we were thinking the same thing.
Not long after, the King and Crown Prince arrived at the Queen’s Palace, and they likewise inquired after my health, reproached me, and offered comfort.
“How could the Queen Dowager say such things to Si-a!”
“I am well, Father.”
Since the King resisting the Queen Dowager was a matter of an entirely different order than a small child speaking out of turn, I first sought to soothe the King.
“The Queen Dowager went too far this time. How could she defend the Deposed Consort before you?”
“Father.”
“For some time, you are not to enter the Queen Dowager’s Palace. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
The King still held me on his lap and embraced me tenderly.
Seeing that I was now the only one to receive such affection, I felt somewhat apologetic in front of the Queen and Crown Prince, but thinking there would be ways to repay this kindness later, I simply nodded quietly.
But since it was still so hot, I soon began to wriggle free from his embrace, and the King chuckled softly.
“You seem to have grown thin.”
“The weather has been poor, so I have had little appetite.”
Enduring such a hot, humid summer without air conditioning or ice cream was bound to be difficult.
“Even if Father is busy and cannot care for you properly, you must still look after your health.”
“Yes, Father.”
And so it happened that all four of us took supper together that evening.
Of course, we did not eat from the same table—each of us received our own meal before us.
It felt strange that all four of us were eating together like this, seated so close and sharing a meal, as if for the first time outside of a formal banquet.
By the time I returned to my residence, it was quite late.
‘I had definitely left the residence this morning.’
I reassured the anxious palace attendants and returned to my chambers.
The attendants, having heard that I had collapsed, gathered around me and wiped away tears, but it was nothing serious, so I sent them all to rest.
Well, not collapsed—I had simply fallen asleep. How embarrassing.
There seemed to be some fear that I might be reproached for not serving Si-a properly, but I had settled matters smoothly with the Queen.
Somehow, the Queen and I had become the sort who understood each other without needing to speak.
And that evening, as the light faded, an attendant from the Queen’s Palace came to find me quietly.
“Her Majesty the Queen has instructed me to deliver this quietly to Si-a.”
With those words, the attendant handed me two offering boxes and withdrew.
‘I flinched, wondering if they were empty offering boxes.’
I was reminded of that story from the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, where Cao Cao sent Sun You an empty offering box, and Sun You ended his own life. I couldn’t help it.
This appeared in historical dramas as well. Sometimes the aftermath of watching too many historical dramas surfaced in strange places.
‘The Queen is hardly Cao Cao, and I am certainly not Sun You. It’s unlikely she would do something so pointless to me. Perhaps she simply felt that the offering boxes she sent to the ministers were too plain, given that I am nominally a princess.’
At that time, they had been obtained in such haste that it couldn’t be helped.
Rather, thanks to that, the feeling that a young child had sent them somewhat clumsily remained, and that in itself didn’t seem entirely bad.
The offering boxes the Queen sent appeared at first glance to be simply wooden boxes, but in reality they were subtly luxurious—combining six different types of wood with inlaid patterns and lacquered to a gleaming finish.
If she had simply made ornate boxes with mother-of-pearl inlay, someone else would surely lodge a complaint about extravagance.
In any case, opening one of these deceptively expensive boxes, I found it filled with elegantly decorated royal delicacies.
There were many things that looked beneficial for the body, such as Ginseng Preserve, along with all manner of confections I had never seen before. Of course, with the exception of any dried persimmons.
In contrast to the clumsy offering box I had sent with my own small hands, this was so elaborate I gasped in admiration.
‘Is this telling me to do proper decoration next time?’
Right, I have royal pride to uphold, and since I decorated it myself to show it was directly from me, it certainly came across as rather amateurish.
And when I opened the remaining one, it was filled with valuable jewelry. However did she manage to carry something so heavy?
‘Then again, I acted as a shield in the Crown Prince’s stead, so would such jewelry really be too much? The Queen is not of a lavish temperament, nor is she in a position lacking for funds.’
Had the Crown Prince sent dried persimmons instead, he would surely have incurred far greater displeasure.
Of course she would not assume the Crown Prince and I have no connection whatsoever, but if the other party is an eight-year-old girl, what grievance would she voice to anyone about this matter?
Today’s incident, too, had witnesses, so news would spread quickly through court.
What I inadvertently brought about today could be called nothing less than boldly standing against the Queen Dowager, and yet the King did not fault me for it.
The meaning of this was unmistakable.
And so was what I needed to do.
“I’ll have to make sweets again tomorrow and send them to the Queen Dowager’s Palace.”
“Your Highness.”
Father had forbidden me from visiting the Queen Dowager’s Palace. He was likely worried that if such things continued, I would be wounded again.
But if I neglected to send my regards, the King would certainly see to it that I faced even harsher criticism.
So I would have to continue sending people in my stead to offer my respects—though I felt sorry for whichever palace attendant would be the one to receive the Queen Dowager’s rebuke in my place.
‘It pains me to waste the bread. But there’s no help for it.’
At least I hoped she would eat it rather than discard it.
I soothed and comforted my own attendants, who were fretting just as much as I was.
“These pieces of jewelry—I think we could exchange them for money.”
“For money, Your Highness?”
“Yes.”
The Queen had likely intended exactly that.
They were not items of the sort supplied to the royal household, so they could be disposed of without difficulty.
The Queen had deliberately given me these rather than lighter documents or promissory notes, since those would leave traces of having come from her hand.
‘In a status-bound society, precious things cannot be worn by just anyone.’
Of course, wearing them in secret in one’s chambers would draw no comment—but if discovered, there was no telling what accusations might follow. I myself faced little risk of censure for possessing anything, but if I wished to give something to my attendants, I could not give them just anything.
My possessions included so many gifts from Father and the Crown Prince that the matter was all the more delicate.
“Take the larger pieces to be sold, but keep only the smaller ones.”
“Only the smaller ones?”
“Yes. They’re inconspicuous things, so each of you can wear one without drawing attention.”
“Your Highness?”
I laughed softly at my bewildered attendants and picked up a silver ring.
“You’ve all worked so hard. Take these, one each.”
“……!!”
The attendants broke into a silent chorus of joy.

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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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