Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 8

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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.
Chapter 8
The moment Kim pushed open the door, the sight that greeted him left him speechless.
The room was an absolute disaster.
The Writing Desk that the King used when reviewing memorials had toppled over, scattering Writing Supplies and petition documents across the floor in wild disarray, while ink stained the room’s floor in great dark pools.
But what shocked him most was the King sprawled undignified across the ground and the Young Princess, eyes wide as saucers, resting her head upon his palm.
……
For decades, Kim had served the King since his days as Crown Prince before his ascension, eating the bread of the Palace and watching the court’s intricate dances.
Reading the situation at a glance, Kim first signaled for the door to be closed, then lifted the Young Princess into his arms and spoke in a hushed voice, checking on the King’s condition.
“Your Majesty, shall I summon the royal physician?”
“…No matter. How is the Young Princess?”
“Ah-oo.”
The child, understanding that he was asking after her, toddled toward the King with uncertain steps and patted his shoulder with a soft touch.
“It seems she hasn’t been hurt.”
With a small groan, the King rose with Kim’s support and let out a labored sigh.
In his panic, he’d kicked the desk and thrown himself forward to catch her, but his body was no longer young enough for such recklessness.
“Perhaps it would be better to move the Young Princess to another chamber, Your Majesty?”
“She’s been far too well-behaved until now. Fragile things must be put away—they’re a danger to the child.”
Having said this, the King glanced around the room and changed his mind.
“No—I think the entire room needs clearing.”
All three fell silent, their sighs heavy as they surveyed the ink stains scattered throughout.
“…Did the Young Princess just sigh?”
“That’s… hardly possible, Your Majesty.”
While Kim busied himself organizing the important documents before summoning the attendants, the King kept the child close to prevent further mischief and examined the items that had tumbled from the cabinet.
“So this is what you’ve made me dig out.”
“Ooo-ooo.”
The child, who had been laughing brightly moments before, now sat demurely in his arms with a subdued expression. She seemed to sense his mood, and began gently stroking the arm that had struck the floor.
“It doesn’t hurt. Don’t worry yourself.”
“Ha-oo.”
Fearing she might begin to cry, he quickly seized an object within reach and held it before her.
“Look at this. These are things left behind by the Queen Mother, your mother’s mother, long ago. You’ve opened it yourself—have a look.”
“Ooh-aah!”
Though the Jade Rings and crude Ornamental Pendants and Hairpins were trifling pieces of Jewelry fit only for a street merchant, the child’s delight was clear as she squealed with joy.
Most of the Queen Mother’s Jewelry had been passed to the Crown Prince, but these humble pieces he had kept for himself.
“These were things I bought for the Crown Prince’s Consort during a Secret Excursion in my days as Crown Prince. Compared to what the Queen Mother usually wore, they’re nothing—yet how happy she was to receive them.”
“Ooh.”
“But I was her debtor.”
“Ooh?”
Selected as a concubine when barely more than a girl, the Crown Prince’s Consort had entered the Palace at a tender age.
Though her position glittered with glory, it held no happiness.
Torn suddenly from her parents, the young girl had to endure the cold and rigid life of the Palace.
The elders of the Royal House were pleased by her gentle temperament, but the Palace was a place where gentleness was a weakness.
Countless eyes watched her every move, and she was bound by layers of obligation to her royal seniors.
Such a life bred constant chest-tightness, and she lived tethered to medicine.
Perhaps because of this, she bore few children, suffered miscarriages, and the son she finally bore passed from the world all too soon.
When years passed and the Crown Prince’s Consort did not produce an heir, she herself petitioned for the selection of additional concubines, claiming she had failed in her duty.
Even her brothers and father pressured her rather than defend her, urging the selection of concubines to be brought into the Palace. How much anguish must she have suffered?
Watching her pain, I could no longer defy my father’s will. The concubines who entered then were those Selected Concubines chosen all at once.
Because of this, I fulfilled only my basic duties to those Selected Concubines without offering them my affection.
When the Crown Prince’s Consort finally bore an heir, I thought her suffering would end. But Heaven is indifferent.
‘When she drew her last breath, she said she would go to meet the daughter who had passed before her. Perhaps she was even glad—truly glad—to finally leave this Palace.’
The Crown Prince’s Consort, whose youthful face remained vivid in memory, had spoken of bearing a beautiful daughter and living simply with her, hoping only to arrange a late Imperial Daughter’s Marriage when the time came.
This soft, warm, round child—how tenderly she had yearned for her.
“Yun shares that longing as well.”
“Ooh?”
At his murmur, the child’s eyes widened as if she understood his words.
“It’s as though you know I’m speaking of Yun—your birth mother.”
“Kah-ruh-ruh.”
Clutching the Jade Ring, the child laughed brightly, the earlier chaos forgotten entirely.
Watching the child’s smile, his heart grew lighter, and a question suddenly rose in his mind.
‘What in heaven’s name has Yeong Bin done to frighten the child so?’
What had truly occurred in that room?
The child bore no marks, and the physician had found nothing amiss with her either.
And moments later, the King would find himself ruefully lamenting that his distraction had caused him to miss what came next.
“Coo!”
Crash—
As though she had never been subdued at all, the child began rummaging through another drawer and scattering its contents across the floor.
“That is not a plaything, you mischievous creature.”
“Giggle.”
He scolded her, but truthfully, it would be the palace servants who cleaned up the mess, not him.
The child, whose expression had always been solemn, now seemed delighted, and the King—watching with unexpected fascination—found himself lifting her into his arms and rising to his feet.
“Why do your hands keep reaching for the ceramics?”
“Ooh! Oooh-oooh!”
“When you are older, I shall give you as many as you wish. For now, you must learn to let them go.”
“Ooh?”
The child stared up at him with wide eyes, as though understanding his words perfectly.
This was… the gaze of genuine desire.
A nursing babe who loved ceramics?
Absurd as it was, the King found himself nodding in acceptance.
‘Well, I suppose it could happen.’
The glaze gives them such a lustrous sheen that a child’s eye might well be drawn to it. And they are large enough that she cannot put one in her mouth. If only they did not break so easily…
‘But there is no guarantee they won’t.’
With a sigh, he called for the palace servants and had the ceramics cleared away.
“You must not do such dangerous things again, you little one.”
“Hee-hee, ehhehe.”
When he gently shook her as if to scold her, she only laughed as though it were tremendous fun.
‘Truly, one can never predict what a child will do next.’
Though he had other children above her in rank, he had never before spent such intimate time with any of them, and each of her gestures seemed wholly novel.
Yet no one could have foreseen that far more absurd matters were still to come.
***
“Your Majesty, we humbly beg your consideration.”
“The Princess sleeps. Lower your voices.”
The ministers, who had hesitated at the soft rebuke, continued more quietly than before.
“But Your Majesty, the post of Queen Mother cannot remain vacant for a single day.”
“How could the selection of a Queen Mother be made lightly? Moreover, this is a matter of the Royal House, and you are to speak of it no further.”
“Your Majesty!”
They had come flocking again at word that Yeong Bin was confined to her quarters.
Yeong Bin was the Left Prime Minister’s adopted daughter, after all.
‘Affairs within the inner palace leak to the outside far too easily.’
They wished to bind him hand and foot, to prevent him from any freedom of action—particularly the late King’s ministers, who were dissatisfied with their treatment and sought to grip and shake the current throne itself.
‘If I do not settle this vexing matter myself, the Crown Prince will inherit these troublesome men.’
For all his reputation as clever, the Crown Prince possessed a gentle and yielding temperament. Could he truly be capable of such harsh measures?
Even now, these cunning old retainers stood before him, spewing forth passionate arguments while flecking spittle with their disrespect.
And worse, they were also the Crown Prince’s maternal relations.
The Crown Prince’s maternal uncle, Papyeong Bu-won Gun himself—that dull-witted fool—stood among them now, did he not?
‘Bu-won Gun must have been drawn in with assurances that elevating Yeong Bin to Crown Prince’s Consort would protect the Crown Prince.’
He was not a particularly clever man to begin with; moving him would not have been difficult for the Left Prime Minister.
‘If Yeong Bin is elevated to Crown Prince’s Consort, there will be peace for a time, but thereafter even greater turmoil will arise. Even now they are thus—would they truly remain still after elevating her?’
While the King pondered, the ministers continued to raise their voices on the matter of the Consort’s selection.
And that shrill, clamorous voice eventually succeeded in awakening the sleeping infant.
“Waaaah!!”
A cry—or perhaps a shriek—from beside the King, one that seemed to possess the uncanny power to snap shut the mouths of even the most zealously arguing ministers!
Word of Yeong Bin’s confinement had already begun to spread, and with it, news of the young Princess.
The child was rumored to be frail from birth and particular about those around her, clinging constantly to the King—and regarding her health, the ministers maintained a careful, delicate silence.
All of them knew that the King had already lost several young heirs before.
Even the Left Prime Minister fell silent, his brow creasing momentarily.
“…….”
“…….”
“……Sigh.”
In the quiet chamber, only the soft, measured breathing of the sleeping child could be heard.
When the King’s gaze finally shifted from the child to his ministers, the Left Prime Minister opened his mouth once more.
The second round had begun.
And the voice that had started quietly now burned with intensity, growing louder.
“Your Majesty! This concerns the very foundation of the realm!”
“Waaaaaah……!”
“Left Prime Minister.”
“……I beg your pardon.”
Fortunately, the child proved less temperamental than rumor suggested—at the King’s gentle patting, she quieted almost at once.
But the trouble was that the matter did not end there.
“Sob sobbing……!!”
“Waaaaaah!!”
“Left Prime Minister.”
As this pattern repeated several times over, the ministers all began to sense the King’s displeasure and held their tongues, yet the Left Prime Minister did not cease.
“I beseech your understanding……!!”
As Hong Sang Jo bowed deeply and pressed his case, he suddenly felt something approaching him.
It was a very small hand.
“……?”
He did not need to confirm whose hand it was, yet when he reflexively raised his head to look at its owner, his tongue seemed to freeze in his mouth and he could only fall silent.
Smack!
“……!!”

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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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