Surviving as Jang Hee-bin's Child Court Lady - Chapter 32

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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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Chapter 32. The Way of the World
Tap, tap, tap!
“Just a little more, a little more!”
“To the right, no, the left!”
The Inner Courtyard of Chwisuondang erupted into chaos.
‘What on earth is happening?’
Returning from my errand to Sung-gyeong Hall, the sight that greeted me was Sun-rye wielding a pole as tall as herself, thrashing away at the persimmon tree with all her might.
“Ugh, my arms are about to fall off!”
Sun-rye let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“Really. Sister, what are you doing?”
Seol-hyang asked, and Sun-rye answered.
“Han Sang-gung’s orders. She wants every last persimmon knocked off this tree! But my arms can’t reach high enough.”
Sun-rye let out a frustrated cry.
“Cursed ripe persimmons! Why did one have to fall right on the lady’s head and cause all this trouble?”
The other Palace Maids burst into giggles at her words.
…I’m sorry. I’ve committed a grave sin.
I crept quietly toward Sun-rye and gently tapped her waist.
“Sun-rye.”
“Hmm? What is it, Hwang Bong-bong?”
“The persimmon tree is too high. Knocking down the fruit is too difficult. Please stop.”
“You’re right? Even you can see it’s hopeless, can’t you? Fine. No matter what Han Sang-gung orders, this is impossible!”
Sun-rye hurled the pole to the ground with a whoosh.
Dusk had already settled over the courtyard of Chwisuondang.
The ripe persimmons hanging from the branches of the tree swayed gently in the whispering breeze.
***
An owl’s cry echoes through the Royal Palace at night.
Whizz!
A stone shot from somewhere sliced through the air.
“Direct hit.”
A small voice, barely audible.
Whizz—
“Another direct hit.”
In the blink of an eye, five or six persimmons tumbled across the ground with soft thuds.
“Heh.”
A tiny shadow, satisfied with itself, slipped silently back into the sleeping quarters.
…And then, the next morning.
“Good heavens!”
“Where did all the persimmons go?”
“Were we bewitched by spirits? Did goblins appear?”
Faced with the persimmon tree stripped bare overnight, leaving only skeletal branches, the Palace Maids were utterly bewildered.
No one noticed the small figure grinning in the corner—my ‘lucky charm’ self.
***
“Ouch, that stings!”
“Just bear with it a moment. We need to make it pretty, really pretty!”
“Gently, please! You’re pulling out all my hair!”
In the room I shared with Seol-hyang, the sounds of grooming had been going on since early morning.
Seol-hyang was braiding my hair.
“There, all done! My, how lovely. Our little Hwang Bong-bong, shall I show you the mirror?”
“No need!”
“Why not?”
“Mother must have already made me beautiful.”
“Oh my, how prettily you speak!”
Seol-hyang pinched my cheek lightly.
I was being dressed up carefully.
Head Sang-gung was scheduled to come fetch me.
Under Seol-hyang’s insistence, I wore my hair in a neat braid with a red ribbon hanging down.
Finally, Seol-hyang dressed me in a jeogori vest.
‘Honestly, it’s rather grand for a maid to wear.’
Unlike the plain vests worn by ordinary Palace Maids, mine was quilted silk. And naturally, it was Jang Hee-bin who had given it to me.
‘If she says to wear it, I wear it.’
After all, I had no choice in the matter.
In any case, there was still time before Head Sang-gung arrived.
I wandered out into the Inner Courtyard.
Morning was always a busy time for the Palace Maids.
So I expected the courtyard to be empty, but a familiar face appeared in one corner.
Twang!
‘Yong-hee.’
The timing was actually quite convenient.
Despite considerable effort, I hadn’t managed to encounter Yong-hee in all this time.
Ten-year-old Yong-hee was responsible for menial chores in the Nae-so Kitchen, which meant she rarely left that area.
Meanwhile, my duties consisted of odd jobs and external errands, so our paths simply didn’t overlap.
Seeing my chance, I crept quietly toward Yong-hee.
Just because I hadn’t encountered her didn’t mean I’d abandoned my plans.
Over time, I’d quietly gathered information about her.
‘Ten years old, from a well-to-do middle-class family, takes pride in her status, recently grown distant from Bok-hee.’
And….
‘A spoiled brat.’
I’ll admit that last assessment was colored by personal feelings.
In truth, Yong-hee’s reputation within Chwisuondang wasn’t particularly favorable.
Put kindly, she was shrewd about profit; put harshly, she was a selfish child who thought only of herself.
That was how everyone around her viewed her.
And Yong-hee promptly proved my judgment correct.
How?
With her three-inch tongue.
“Tsk. I feel sorry for the silkworms.”
Huh? What kind of nonsense was this?
“That silk dress you’re wearing comes from silkworm cocoons, doesn’t it? And yet here it is, draped on some scrawny slave girl. Truly pitiful.”
Oh. That was a creatively vicious insult I hadn’t anticipated.
Yong-hee seemed firmly convinced I was of slave origin.
Admittedly, many palace maids were former government slaves, so it wasn’t entirely baseless speculation….
‘Listen. I’m from a yangban family.’
Perhaps even from a rather prestigious one at that.
Though I understood that social distinctions meant nothing, the malice embedded in the word “slave” irritated me somewhat.
So I offered a response of my own.
“That’s not quite right, Miss Yong-hee.”
“What’s not right?”
“You have no silkworm cocoons to apologize to.”
In other words, ‘Your family doesn’t have silk dresses like this, does it?’
Yong-hee flared up in anger.
“Hey. My family has tons of silk dresses. Where do you get off, you vagrant….”
“If your family has so many silk dresses, why does Miss Yong-hee wear nothing but plain cotton every day?”
I drove the point home with another jab.
“Between a maid in silk and a maid without silk—which one’s the vagrant, Miss Yong-hee?”
“Ugh!”
Oh. That was unexpected.
I never anticipated that Yong-hee would attempt to strike my cheek.
“…?”
I clearly saw her palm hurtling toward me at tremendous speed, yet—
My body moved before my mind could process the situation.
Without thinking, I simply sidestepped her hand.
Whoosh—
The wind brushed past my face.
‘…Am I a martial artist?’
I was startled by my own reflexes—those of a four-year-old child.
“What are you two doing?”
Seol-hyang entered the courtyard, her voice sharp and cutting.
Her gaze was decidedly menacing.
Yong-hee visibly flustered—both from the fact that I’d dodged her strike and from Seol-hyang’s sudden appearance.
Then….
‘This is an opportunity.’
I spoke with perfect composure, as though nothing had happened.
“Nothing, really. I was just talking with Yong-hee.”
“About what?”
“About what to eat on the Lantern Festival and playing with fire.”
“Is that so? Yong-hee, you promised to be kind to Hwang Bong-bong, didn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Yong-hee answered in a subdued voice.
“Good. Then play nicely without fighting.”
Seol-hyang, her expression now reassured, hurried away.
“….”
Yong-hee looked bewildered. She must have been certain I would tell on her.
“You…. What are you?”
At her question, I responded with utmost seriousness.
“Why do you hate me, Yong-hee?”
“….”
“I’ve done nothing wrong to you. Why do we, as Palace Maids, hate and torment each other?”
“That’s—! Because you’re so irritating.”
“I haven’t done anything. That day, I was just doing my embroidery work.”
“….”
“You called me an abandoned child, and just now you tried to hit me.”
Yong-hee, who had been glaring at me, suddenly burst out.
“Look! You act so hatefully! A tiny thing like you acting all proud, always talking back and being difficult!”
I regarded the agitated Yong-hee in silence for a moment.
Then I slowly opened my mouth.
“Let me guess something.”
“What?”
“Haven’t you heard such things said before, Yong-hee?”
“What things?”
“That you’re a child abandoned by your parents. That they had no interest in you and sent you away to become a Palace Maid.”
“….”
Yong-hee’s face drained of all color.
“So you said the same thing to me, didn’t you? Since you’d already heard it before, you just threw it back at me.”
“….”
“Isn’t that right?”
Yong-hee was completely speechless.
Yes, I knew it would be this way.
Those words about being “a child abandoned by parents” were far too malicious and twisted to have come from the mouth of a ten-year-old child.
A child is a mirror of the adults around them.
Yong-hee must have already known how devastating such words could be.
Through her own experience, no less.
“How did you even….”
Rather than coming at me with both barrels blazing, she simply admitted it—proof that she was, after all, just a child.
“Yong-hee.”
“What.”
“I don’t resent you. Everyone makes mistakes once.”
“….”
“But someone who knows something is wrong and repeats the bad deed again and again…will never obtain what they desire.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s the way of the world. You might think doing bad things will let you gain something great, but it never works that way.”
“You, what on earth are you….”
Yong-hee’s voice trembled.
“Do you know what happens to people who do bad things in secret?”
“…What happens?”
I arranged my expression to be as grave as possible.
“They disappear, that’s what.”
And with a swift gesture, I drew my finger across my throat.
“You, you….”
Now Yong-hee’s hands were shaking visibly.
“What could you possibly know to say such things?”
“I know nothing. I’m only repeating what Han Sang-gung told me.”
This time, I decided to throw Han Sang-gung under the carriage.
It was a calculated gamble—to plant the suspicion that Han Sang-gung might have already discovered that Yong-hee was a spy.
It worked. Yong-hee’s stern expression faltered as she bit her lip.
It seemed time for the final blow.
“Yong-hee.”
I leaned close to Yong-hee’s ear and whispered.
“They say the spy maid vanished without a trace, like she never existed.”
“…Hm.”
Then I stepped back and looked at her directly.
“But I think you’re fundamentally a good person, so I believe in you.”
“….”
“Even if you hate me, I don’t think you’ll do anything bad anymore, so let’s be friends!”
I flashed Yong-hee a bright, refreshing smile.
That was when it happened.
Han Sang-gung’s voice rang out, as if she’d been waiting for this moment.
“Hwang Bong-bong! The Head Sang-gung is almost here! Come out quickly!”
“Yes, ma’am! I’m coming!”
Leaving Yong-hee standing there frozen in place, I dashed across the courtyard in a flurry of hurried footsteps.

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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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