Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 7

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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 as the daughter of a concubine of the lowest rank.
Chapter 7
The Crown Prince and the man beside him sprang to their feet and bowed.
“I hear Sia cried loudly again earlier. Has she settled now?”
“Please set your mind at ease, Father. When I happened to visit the Dae-jeon and heard her cries, I went to see Sia, and her weeping ceased.”
The one who had suddenly appeared was my biological father.
My biological father and the Crown Prince’s biological father is the king of this realm. And whenever he visits, the pleasant atmosphere inevitably shatters.
The Crown Prince’s teacher, who had been regarding us with satisfaction, quickly excused himself and departed, and the king took his seat before the Crown Prince.
‘We were playing so well, and he had to come looking for us.’
But since the man in question was the king, perhaps I should humor him. While I was pondering this, the king extended his hand to the Crown Prince.
“You must be weary from attending to the child all day. Let your father take her now.”
“But what is Your Majesty saying? Surely your son understands that it is you, Father, who has grown weary from caring for Sia each day. Allow me to keep her a while longer. Fortunately, Sia follows your son well, so would it not be fitting for her to sleep in the East Palace for just this one day?”
“It is not good for an infant’s surroundings to change too frequently.”
“With me present, it will be fine. Will it not, Sia?”
“Mm.”
It mattered little to me who I was with, as long as my safety was assured.
But if I agreed to go with the Crown Prince, my biological father—who had been tending to me with such dedication—would seem rather pitiful in comparison.
‘And besides, the palace attendants in the East Palace don’t seem to care much for me.’
Moreover, no matter how one looked at it, it was my biological father and his close attendants who had cared for me thus far.
I was wondering whether to pretend I couldn’t refuse and side with the king when the two of them began something peculiar.
“Then let us see whom Sia chooses.”
“Ha. Do you truly think she would abandon me—the one who feeds and shelters her—and choose you instead?”
With that, my biological father and the Crown Prince placed me at a distance between them and sat facing me, both calling for me to come to them.
What were these two doing?
‘Even in the Joseon era, humans have not changed much.’
Has mankind not evolved at all?
I regarded the father and son engaged in this pointless competition with a weary eye, looking back and forth between them.
If I had to choose between my savior and my biological father, the choice itself was not difficult. But knowing what the wisest answer in this situation was, I feinted toward the direction where the two men sat, then changed course.
Outward.
“…??”
“Sia?”
“…Princess?”
Among those standing outside the pavilion, the ones who rushed forward in alarm that I might fall were the Crown Prince’s guard from earlier and the attendant who always followed the king.
And arriving a step behind the two of them was Yun, the lady-in-waiting from the Dae-jeon.
“Uh-uh!”
I reached out and grasped whatever hem came readily to hand.
“…Why Seon-o…?”
When I looked at whom I had inadvertently chosen, it turned out to be the Crown Prince’s guard whom I was meeting for the first time today.
His name must be Seon-o. The young guard called Seon-o awkwardly adjusted his posture to meet my gaze.
“Uh-uh!”
As I gripped his hem and pointed outside the pavilion with my finger, he understood my intent perfectly and asked in return.
“Do you wish to leave this place, my lady?”
“Mm!”
“If that is what the young lady desires, I can only obey.”
This man knew how to read the situation.
His head was bowed, but his mouth was clearly smiling.
“However, His Majesty and the Crown Prince are waiting, so would you not reconsider once more?”
I turned to look at the two bewildered men and furrowed my brow.
Then I approached them and sat firmly between them, slapping the floor with my hands in protest.
“Uh-uh-uh!”
“Fine, fine. We shall cease at once.”
“Father. Your son has never been scolded by a child before.”
“Nor have I.”
Once the father and son’s meaningless game ended, the two of them walked together, speaking ordinarily of lessons the Crown Prince had been learning of late.
‘Just put me down…’
Carrying me around like this.
And predictably, by day’s end I found myself back in the Dae-jeon.
The Crown Prince sent me off with longing eyes, though I would see him again when he came to pay his respects tomorrow anyway.
I waved to the Crown Prince and to Seon-o, the guard who had been dragged into it all, and returned in my biological father’s arms to the king’s chambers, which had now become familiar.
‘They should just send me back where I belong.’
Not being able to speak yet made this heartbreak all the keener.
After that day, my biological father barely left my side more than before.
He’d always kept me near him while working, except when I slept, but when he heard that I’d screamed and wept the moment he left the room, he seemed genuinely shaken.
I felt a pang of guilt toward the palace attendants who had nothing to do with Young Bin, so I resolved to be kinder to them from then on.
‘But I was frightened too.’
People I’d been watching continuously for months since birth had turned out to be a genuine threat to my life—that realization rattled me.
I couldn’t feel safe unless the person looking after me was someone truly concerned for my welfare.
But I couldn’t stay here indefinitely either, not like this.
‘This won’t do… It won’t work!’
Stable as it was, if I remained docile here much longer, I felt I’d never make it back to my sister.
Surely they wouldn’t send me to yet another Royal Concubine, and I wouldn’t just stay here forever, would I?
Even if the child is well-behaved, keeping an infant at your side while working hardly seems reasonable!
Whether it was the Crown Prince bringing a baby to his lessons or the King working with an infant beside him, like father, like son—they were cut from the same cloth.
‘I’ll have to cause just enough trouble to make them realize how hard childcare actually is!’
Memories of videos I’d seen on TV or the internet flashed through my mind—children who’d wrecked their homes and grinned radiantly at the camera.
‘Come on, they won’t kill a tiny baby just because she made a mess, right?’
I clenched and unclenched my fern-like fists, steeling my resolve one final time.
“Sigh.”
Having made my decision, I drew a deep breath and began to move.
I confirmed my biological father’s attention was fixed on the memorial, then crawled forward.
‘So this must be the King’s Bedchamber, then?’
It was exactly the sort of place you’d only see in historical dramas—though whether it was historically accurate was impossible to verify.
The room was furnished entirely with things that belonged in museum displays or period-drama sets.
‘Well, if I’m going to cause trouble anyway, might as well satisfy my curiosity.’
I’d been wondering what was inside that cabinet over there.
I crawled closer and my eyes caught on a Mother-of-Pearl Chest—you could sense the craftsman’s hand in every detail.
‘A Mother-of-Pearl Chest… I’ve always wanted one.’
And the ceramics atop the cabinet too. The elegance of that blue-and-white porcelain with its dragon design—the kind you only saw in museums—made me swallow hard without thinking.
‘I’ve wanted something like that for so long…’
Enchanted, I grasped the cabinet and pulled myself up, reaching out my hand.
That instant.
“She’s—she’s standing?!”
“Hmm?!”
I turned my head to find my biological father staring at me in astonishment, pointing a finger in my direction.
“Ehehe.”
I reflexively broke into a grin.
Slip—
And at that same moment, the drawer of the cabinet I was holding suddenly slid open.
***
‘What am I to do with the princess… Sia.’
The King set down his memorial and fell into thought.
From the moment he learned of her birth, he had tried not to grow attached to this child.
Yet here he was, keeping her at his side—the world truly refused to obey one’s intentions.
‘Perhaps it would be better to entrust her to someone and keep my distance as much as I can. After all, I am a wretched father who cannot even care for her properly.’
Even without him, the soft-hearted Crown Prince’s eyes shone with such obvious affection when he looked at the young princess that she would surely be well cared for.
‘Should I entrust her to her biological mother, Yun, after all? It would be more fitting to give the princess a title in the Inner Palace Hierarchy.’
It was uncommon to grant a Royal Concubine’s rank for bearing a princess alone rather than a prince, but it was not unheard of.
Yet if he elevated Yun to Sukwon, those troublesome schemers would doubtless make their displeasure known.
‘The ministers are already pestering about selecting the Queen, and they’ll surely make noise about granting a concubine’s rank before establishing a proper Queen.’
He sighed, remembering how he had stepped away briefly to receive a private audience with the Prime Minister, only for the child—usually so docile and silent—to wake and cry out in apparent distress. Barely an hour had passed.
It was fortunate the Crown Prince had been there; without him, he could not say what would have become of the infant. She was normally a composed, silent child, but she was still so young. He lived in constant worry that her crying might exhaust her.
Thanks to this, he had been spared from the ministers’ constant badgering for a time, though he could not imagine how much longer that reprieve would last.
‘After all, they already know what answer they want.’
When Young Bin failed to properly care for the princess, rather than losing momentum, they had simply grown more occupied with defending her.
‘I wonder if even one of them truly worries for the princess.’
Her chubby cheeks, soft limbs, small fingers.
The child, still at the crawling stage, always wore an expression of utter boredom, turning toys brought by attendants over in her small hands while rolling about on the quilts. When she grew restless, she would approach him and watch the memorial, yet strangely, she never rashly grabbed at it—only observed quietly beside him.
Because of this, even when he wished to be alone, he could keep her in the room without summoning another attendant to mind her.
Her silence was almost worrying, so he often found himself cooing at her and playing with her while he worked.
Then the baby would laugh soundlessly, batting her father’s hand with small taps before breaking into helpless giggles.
‘How adorable she is when she smiles.’
Though the child was often a handful, the memory alone made him smile without thinking.
He turned his head suddenly, following the trace of her presence.
The girl, who rarely strayed far from her usual corner, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where has she gone?’
An infant who couldn’t yet walk couldn’t have opened the door and left on her own—so curiosity overtook concern.
The King shifted his gaze. Seated where the entire room lay visible at a glance, finding the child should have been simple.
“……?”
The girl stood clinging to a mother-of-pearl chest along one wall, pulling herself upright.
There was nothing wrong with that—until he noticed her hands reaching toward the ceramic piece beyond. The thought that it might topple and strike her flashed through him, and he started to rise in alarm when her small legs straightened, meeting the floor with sudden resolve.
“She—she’s standing?!”
“Uh?!”
Sia turned at the sound of his unguarded exclamation, her small face lighting up as she gazed at her father.
“Hehe.”
Screech—
In that same moment, the handle of the chest she gripped slid free with a soft pull, and her precariously balanced feet slipped from beneath her.
The child’s body began to tip backward, head-first.
It happened in an instant.
His body moved before thought could follow.
Thud! Crash! Bang!
Screech—!
The cacophony that filled the chamber sent Kim, who had been standing guard outside, surging through the door.
“Your Majesty! What has—gasp!”

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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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