Born As The Daughter of a Lowly Concubine - Chapter 80

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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.
Chapter 80
“Why do you avoid that woman so deliberately?”
When I returned to the palace, So-i—dressed once more in the robes of a court lady—had noticed my habit of steering clear, and asked as she checked the arrangement of my clothes before heading back to her quarters.
Since I couldn’t very well cite copyright concerns, I dodged the question as best I could.
“Well, she pursues me with such bright, eager eyes that I can’t help myself. So-i doesn’t seem to care for her much either.”
“Surely it’s better not to entangle yourself too deeply with people you needn’t, is it not?”
That was fair enough. She was someone I scarcely knew anyway.
In any case, I nodded at So-i’s words.
“Yes… ah, but don’t mention this to anyone else.”
“Mention what, my lady?”
At the familiar voice that suddenly reached my ears, both So-i and I jumped and spun around.
Ga-i, who had gone on a business trip (?) at some point, was waiting for us in front of my quarters.
“Welcome back! You’re home?”
“Don’t think you can brush this off with mere wheedling. Where have you been today?”
“I went to Si-yeong-won and came back. Ah, Ga-i—how did things go with the property you went to see?”
“We found suitable land and drew up a contract.”
“Excellent.”
“Will you be building another greenhouse there as well?”
So-i asked carefully, listening to our exchange.
“Yes. I’ve just acquired new land in the opposite direction from where the current greenhouse is located.”
“It’s fortunate your business is thriving so well.”
“Mm. If possible, I’d like to expand to other regions too.”
“Of course—everyone wishes to eat fresh vegetables even in winter.”
“That’s true. People don’t live only in Hanyang.”
I wanted to expand my market reach, but the difference in the population available for consumption between Hanyang and the provinces made it difficult to expand the venture so hastily. I needed to find regions where there were both wealthy consumers willing to pay high prices for vegetables and a sufficiently large general population.
Since vegetables live or die by their freshness, they naturally had to be farmed in the surrounding lands, which meant there were many factors to consider.
‘In modern times, roads would be paved and there’d be refrigeration facilities, so distance wouldn’t matter. But here, transporting fresh vegetables over even a single mountain is difficult…’
Moreover, depending on the region, tigers appeared on mountain paths.
It would be nice if roads could be improved at least around the Capital City, where the economy was relatively active, but objections kept arising for one reason or another.
In any case, Ga-i was building up the business according to her talents. I had worried whether she was overexerting herself, but she seemed quite happy about it, which was reassuring.
‘Since she travels with the former court officials from Si-yeong-won, there’s no need to worry about her safety.’
No matter how I thought about it, Seong Yoon had been a blessing that rolled in unexpectedly.
Now that I think about it, retired court officials still join Si-yeong-won from time to time.
They argue that it’s good for soothing their worn spirits and minds in an environment full of children, though I’m not sure how true that really is. In any case, they’ve been teaching martial arts to the talented children among those at Si-yeong-won.
Perhaps those children could later be hired as escorts.
I returned to my room and grinned as I listened to Ga-i’s business update.
“At this rate, Ga-i will be rich soon.”
“It is not I who shall become wealthy, but you yourself, my lady.”
“This is under Ga-i’s name, though. I’m thinking of trying my hand at medical work.”
Ga-i smiled broadly at my words.
“I have already heard that you desire to become a female physician.”
“Is that so?”
I wasn’t sure if ‘desire’ was quite the right word for what I wanted, but it wasn’t far off.
“What do you think, Ga-i?”
“For those of us who are court ladies, it is certainly more convenient to receive pulse diagnoses from female physicians. However, if rank is granted, we would no longer be able to treat them as casually as we do now, and there will surely be those who dislike that.”
“I see.”
“Yet if you, my lady, desire a capable female physician to take your pulse, how could anyone dare disobey?”
“Hmm.”
For all she said, the conclusion was that some would dislike it.
After all, those at my station, positioned at the very apex of the social hierarchy, would naturally have different circumstances from theirs.
But surely those court ladies, if given the chance to raise their own status, would agree without hesitation.
‘There’s a reason that saying exists.’
A saying I couldn’t use in this era—how frustrating.
***
Some time later, I heard similar words from the Crown Prince.
“There is much talk among the officials and scholars.”
“Is there?”
“Regarding the matter of granting rank to female physicians—they say that if we grant rank according to the Outer Rank System, as you suggested, there’s little grounds for objection.”
The Inner and Outer Rank Systems were the domain of the Queen Consort. If granting rank to female physicians under the Outer Rank System had no precedent in law, but we were to create one anew, what could be done about it?
To say one wouldn’t grant rank to lowborn government slaves was to deny the very court ladies who served within the palace walls.
“Beyond that, the objection was raised that female physicians lack proper decorum—how could they be given rank?”
“So the idea is to separate them so the work can be done by women, isn’t it?”
“Yes. The argument was that since they work alongside male physicians and face male patients, laying hands on them—there are many who view that with disapproval. By separating them entirely, we eliminate the grounds for dispute.” And once they heard that, they had nothing left to say.
This time—eating sweets while disparaging the ministers—was the Crown Prince’s stress relief hour.
It wasn’t bad, eating something delicious with her after so long, laughing together like this. Though something weighed on my mind.
‘The truth is, he’s past the age to be playing around with his sister like this.’
Even without a Crown Princess, at his age he ought to be showing interest in women. The fact that he showed none toward the court ladies at all troubled me somewhat.
As a person, he was at an age when he should be experiencing his first love.
‘But if Ji-hwa was that first love, their time together was far too brief for him to still harbor such feelings.’
Of course, someone might argue that time doesn’t matter in love, but this was years ago now. Surely that matters somewhat?
‘If he’s cutting himself off from women out of caution against scandal, well… that would be rather pitiful.’
Perhaps that feeling showed in my eyes—the Crown Prince, who had been speaking cheerfully until then, gave me a puzzled look.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Here, have more bread.”
I had given bread its name and taken to calling various baked goods “bread,” and now the term had half-officially settled into common use.
When people asked what it meant, I brazenly insisted it was “fluffy, so bread”—and given my age, they all smiled knowingly and believed me.
I felt a little guilty about that.
“As for the cultivation of female physicians, there’s the matter of the Queen Dowager and your involvement in it—so while there are those opposed, none dared argue too strongly. Even in the past, though uncommon, there were female physicians in the palace whose medical skill earned them more trust than the royal physicians, so one cannot simply claim they lack ability.”
Moreover, when an ungrowing king’s daughter—one who narrowly escaped poisoning—says she wishes those who care for her health to be properly ranked specialists, and because men are inconvenient, to be of the same sex as herself… the grounds to oppose it became rather murky.
Not to mention, the fact that the Inner Medical Office found nothing wrong with me has cast considerable doubt on the physicians’ competence.
Of course, there were those who objected.
“Realistically, there were those who opposed it for budgetary reasons.”
“But they’re already cultivating female physicians now.”
They just hated the thought of giving rank and salary.
“However, when I proposed that after becoming a formal physician and serving ten years, one could pay to secure manumission for oneself and one’s children, everyone made such a fuss that all the talk from before that quietly fell away.”
“So how did it conclude?”
“The matter of female physicians will be reorganized from the structural level first, and manumission will be discussed again later.”
There was also the question of whether to apply this retroactively to those who had already worked long as female physicians, so this matter seemed unlikely to be decided easily.
‘Besides, court ladies haven’t been granted manumission readily until now either.’
They can’t marry and spend nearly their entire lives in the palace—wouldn’t it be something to grant them manumission? It doesn’t even cost anything.
“Hmm. As for the budget problem, what if we made a separate facility that charges a small fee for treatment, rather than relying on the Hyemin Service or Hwalin Service alone?”
“If you’re thinking of establishing your own clinic, would you be comfortable with that?”
“If the locations don’t overlap, wouldn’t it be fine?”
It’s not as if I’m trying to grow rich from it.
“Ah, and if the cost of teaching is the problem, I could establish my own academy and teach alongside them.”
“You mean you’d teach together with the physicians you’re raising?”
“Yes. The government slaves would simply follow the methods they already use, but for commoners and common citizens outside that, couldn’t we teach them that way?”
“Won’t that be too much burden on you?”
“They’re already accepting everyone at Si-yeong-won—why worry about it now?”
The Crown Prince’s expression acknowledged the point.
“If circumstances allow, we’d take what little they can pay. Or else put them to work instead. Teach them for a set period, and if it seems too difficult, let them quit. For those with aptitude, there are scholarship methods.”
“Scholarship?”
“Yes.”
Was that even a word in this place yet?
Even if commoners learned medicine, it would be difficult for them to practice properly as physicians; they’d likely end up working at the Hyemin Service or my clinic.
‘Those hoping for manumission will manage it somehow, no matter how hard.’
Manumission is difficult, certainly, but there are already quite a few who have volunteered as soldiers seeking it, so this might be possible too.
“Either way, raising physicians takes time. In the meantime, we’d need to find a renowned physician and… employ them. Or rather, have them work with us.”
“I think I just heard your true feelings.”
“You misheard, brother.”
“But how do you intend to discover which physicians are truly renowned?”
I waved my wrist and smiled wickedly.
“Tell them to take my pulse. Wouldn’t that work?”
“……You’re not seriously planning to go yourself?”
“Well, what should I do?”
“No, where do you think you’re wandering off to? You, a frail child…”
Even as he spoke, the Crown Prince seemed to realize he’d misspoken, and he averted his gaze, his face contorting.
He couldn’t call me small, for fear of hurting my feelings about my not growing. Yet the word “frail” didn’t suit me at all, in his own mind either.
Watching the Crown Prince struggle to erase the bitter expression, I laughed silently to myself.
“If you’re so concerned about your sister, why don’t you return Seong Gyeom-sa-bok to his post?”
“A capable instructor with unparalleled skill at maintaining discipline is wasting his talents on nothing but food — truly a shame.”
Was that perhaps a subtle hint that Seong Yoon excelled at handling people?
“He is talented, certainly. I learned Archery from Seong Gyeom-sa-bok myself.”
“Archery? For a child?”
“Seong Gyeom-sa-bok says the northern nomads are already shooting from horseback by age seven.”
“Teaching Mounted Archery to children that young…… Should we consider doing the same?”
The Crown Prince, momentarily lost in thought about early military training for soldiers, couldn’t sit idle for long before duty called him away again.
‘What a relentless life.’
Someone has to waste time, and I suppose that someone is me.
Though lately, aside from eating, I haven’t been wasting much of anything at all. Perhaps I should indulge a little more?

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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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