Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 78

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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 the daughter of a Concubine of Low Rank.
Chapter 78
The moment I stopped, the owner of the voice quickly blocked my path.
She was a young woman dressed in striking splendor.
Perhaps the most dazzling person I’d seen since my rebirth.
Because of her brilliance, passersby kept sneaking glances, and the attention bled over to me standing beside her—uncomfortable, to say the least.
Ordinarily, I’d expect concubines to dress more lavishly, but the palace atmosphere had always been rather dreary, and there were no particularly favored concubines, so I’d never encountered anyone adorned quite like this.
‘From her appearance and bearing, she must be a Gisaeng.’
In other words, she belonged to a world I had nothing to do with.
Why would a Gisaeng approach me of all people?
And naturally, irritation sharpened in Soi’s voice as she followed behind me.
“How dare you block the young lady’s path so rudely.”
“My apologies.”
But Soi was still a bit clumsy with her authority, so it didn’t sound particularly commanding; the woman didn’t seem the least bit intimidated.
‘She just seems to have stronger presence than Soi, I think.’
Regardless, I simply stared at the woman without answering, waiting.
In this harsh world, good little children run away when strangers speak to them… Well, actually, I’m not alone right now, so I’ll just pretend not to hear.
Besides, I have nothing to say, and it seems she has business, so she’ll handle it herself.
But Soi, apparently displeased at the thought of me conversing with a Gisaeng, moved protectively in front of me.
“Did you not hear me asking what this is about?”
“Young lady. This humble one is called Maehyang. Though unworthy, this one has some renown as a Gisaeng.”
And?
The woman who introduced herself as Maehyang bowed respectfully, her face earnest as she spoke.
“Could you not teach me that melody you were just humming, young lady?”
“Pardon?”
What on earth was she talking about.
I grabbed Soi’s sleeve, bewildered, and asked, “Did I sing something?”
“Yes. You were humming softly.”
Soi whispered in confusion that she didn’t know how the woman had heard it.
“What song did I hum?”
“It was a melody like this.”
Realizing I must have been unconsciously humming a modern song from my past life, my lips opened and closed wordlessly, when Maehyang suddenly unfurled a fan with a snap and began to sing.
‘She sings well.’
I’d wondered why she opened the fan at all, but it turned out to be pure performance.
There in the middle of the street, she broke into song without a trace of awkwardness or embarrassment, her voice clear and confident.
“Aaa~ah~”
It was a song without even lyrics.
And that song was… yes, one I knew—one that, strictly speaking, only I should know.
The problem was that the palace maids who’d heard me humming it occasionally, and the children of Siyeongwon, had started humming it the same way, until somewhere along the line it had spread even to the Marketplace.
‘No… did I really hum that again on the street?’
I was going to lose my mind.
While I despaired at my own unconscious habits, Maehyang finished the song and gracefully bowed to the gathered onlookers. Though it ended ambiguously, applause erupted from all sides.
And now I understood why she’d been looking so hard.
‘I must have just hummed that part at the end.’
The thing is, it’s always only the catchy part that lodges in your head, so no one would know the entire song. If I tried to improvise the rest, it would sound far too different from music of this era anyway.
“… You say you only heard it in passing, yet you remember it so perfectly.”
“This one has heard this melody frequently at the Marketplace of late. Until now, this one has never seen anyone perform this song properly, but surely you just sang it, young lady, did you not?”
I decided to play dumb.
“You must have misheard.”
Don’t ask me about this.
“You cannot know how shocked this one was when first encountering this song. And since no one knows the latter part of this melody, how frustrating it has been.”
I can’t hear you. I’m not listening.
Since everyone’s attention was already focused too intensely on us, I hid behind Soi, and her voice turned sharp.
“I understand your feelings, but with so many people staring, surely the young lady is frightened.”
“My sincere apologies.”
Maehyang, perhaps recognizing that I was a young lady from a noble household, waved her hands and shooed away the crowds.
And there I hung from Soi’s neck, whispering to her.
‘Let’s run away.’
That I was able to escape with only Soi came partly from the fact that I’d grown accustomed to the world outside the palace, and partly because keeping up with Ga-i and Song Bi had started to wear on me.

“My lady?!”
The fact that Soi could leap onto a horse with one arm wrapped around me, moving with such effortless grace, spoke volumes about her strength and physique.
The moment we were mounted, Jeok-a started forward as if she’d been waiting, and the gisaeng’s voice—tinged with bewilderment—fell away in an instant.
“Wow. Jeok-a really is fast!”
“My lady…”
Soi, trained by Ga-i since childhood, was also an excellent rider.
Jeok-a was good at navigating around people, and thanks to that, we arrived at our destination without delay.
“My lady. Were you very startled just now? Really, these gisaeng nowadays have no shame. Daring to block your path like that.”
“It’s fine. She was simply curious, I think. There’s no way she’d act like that if she truly knew who I am.”
“Had she known, I would not have shown such restraint.”
If she had known, in a way it would have been even more audacious.
Wandering through the Marketplace gave me enough sense of how deeply common people feared the royal family.
In any case, I’d rather not spread word of that song any further, so I’d need to avoid gisaeng going forward.
‘It’s already spread, but I can’t be the one propagating it.’
A person ought to have some conscience, after all.
Yet with such thoughts in mind, the moment I stepped into Siyeongwon, the children were already singing in earnest.
Right—among the servants who had entered earlier, there was someone who could play Instrumental Performance.
Seeing the children’s interest, I’d brought them some Musical Instruments to learn with if they wished, and now they’d taken to gathering during their work and rest hours to play and sing together, enjoying themselves thoroughly.
Well, it wasn’t causing any trouble. People need Entertainment after all.
“Sister!”
The moment the song ended and the children noticed my arrival, Ayoung—who had grown taller than me in the meantime—came running and embraced me.
Child, settle down.
Of course, the other children noticed my presence as well and quickly scrambled to their feet.
I found it burdensome, but the status difference meant that telling them not to do so would be dangerous, so I couldn’t very well protest.
“My lady has arrived.”
“Yes.”
During the four years that I’d grown from eight to twelve, Ayoung had grown from five to nine.
“Have you been playing well?”
“Yes.”
“And your studies?”
“Ehehe…”
Ayoung spun me around in joy, expressing her delight with her entire body at my arrival.
I wouldn’t lie and say she’d been diligent with her studies, not even if it killed me.
Min Sanggung, who understood my habit of playing with the children first, simply bowed and quietly withdrew.
Even when I’d told Min Sanggung she needn’t come to greet me when I arrived, she wouldn’t listen. I suppose, having been trained that way her entire life, it would be difficult for her to change.
I left Jeok-a in Soi’s care and spent a comfortable time exchanging pleasantries with the children.
The children, who had watched me for years now, seemed to be beginning to sense something strange.
“But sister, why don’t you grow?”
At one child’s innocent question, I saw the older ones stiffen.
“You children. Take him with you.”
“Yes, sister.”
At Ayoung’s word, several children—only a year or two older—promptly dragged away the boy who’d asked the question and disappeared.
“…Where are you taking him?”
“A child without tact will find it hard to survive in this world, sister.”
Ayoung spoke with surprising maturity, insisting it was all for the child’s own good.
A few years ago, I think you’d have asked the same question yourself.
But diminishing a child’s standing with such words wasn’t right either.
Even among the children, there was a hierarchy.
And the older, more perceptive children seemed to have already caught on somewhat to my true status.
Indeed, rumors that Princess Su-yeong did not grow had already spread far and wide throughout the Capital City. The royal family didn’t particularly hide it either.
I’d appeared without reservation before the royal family and the clan’s events, so everyone could only understand the fact even if they dared not speak of it. The fact naturally spread through the clan branches to the outside, so anyone with even a passing interest would know.
And Siyeongwon belonged to Princess Su-yeong.
I’d been frequenting Siyeongwon since its establishment.
I’d meddled in various affairs concerning the servants.
At this point, anyone with even a modicum of sense couldn’t possibly not know my identity.
‘I thought about it before, but by now there must be at least one child here who’s figured out I’m a Princess.’
But the fact that the children were now eyeing me nervously after having sent away that one boy probably wasn’t the reason.
In truth, they were simply curious themselves.
“Are you curious about why I don’t grow?”
“…Yes.”
Hesitantly, the children nodded. I decided to ease their curiosity.
“Well…… I ate the wrong medicine when I was young.”
Poison is still medicine, after all.
“Pfft!!”
“Ew! Gia, that’s gross!!”
The moment I answered, Gia, who had been quietly sipping water beside me without a word, sprayed it out. At the same time, several others who had been listening silently to our conversation showed similar reactions.
“Oh. So eating the wrong medicine can do that to you.”
“That’s scary.”
While someone beside me choked and coughed, I continued my conversation with the still-innocent children.
The children looked frightened, clearly shaken by what they’d heard, so now it was my turn to soothe them.
“That’s right. So you must listen carefully to the Court Physician and take medicine only in the proper dose, exactly as prescribed. Understood?”
“Sister, did you meet a quack?”
“Well, less a quack than a bad man?”
He wasn’t a real physician, after all.
At my words, the children grew more indignant and clenched both their fists.
“Wow, can you believe it. You just left that awful man alone?”
“Hmm. Since he was so bad, he died young.”
“Yay! Good for him!”
I laughed with genuine delight, and the young children joined in, but the older ones watched us with troubled expressions on their faces.
Ah, what, why, what.
“We listen well to our physician sister, so we’d never eat anything like that.”
“That’s right. You must always listen.”
The physician sister the children spoke of was the daughter of the Court Physician’s household, someone they had known since their days as beggars.
Once she learned the children were living at the Siyeongwon, she began visiting occasionally, and I heard she looked after them regularly.
“Does she still visit often these days?”
“Not frequently, but she comes to the Siyeongwon occasionally when she hears news of us.”
She visits to check on how the children are faring and whether any of them are ill, I was told.
Gia answered my question as she brought out tea.
“Gia, since you see her often, you know her well, don’t you? What sort of person is she?”
“She meddles in everything. Though not quite as much as you, Princess.”
“What do you mean I—”
Whoa!
Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the direction of the gate, cutting our conversation short.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure either. There’s no reason for such a commotion at this hour.”
Puzzled by whatever was happening, Gia and I rose naturally to our feet.
As we approached the source of the noise, I spotted a familiar face.
“My goodness, Princess. We meet again.”
It was Maehyang, the gisaeng I’d encountered earlier, who smiled brightly upon catching sight of 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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