Surviving as Jang Hee-bin's Child Court Lady - Chapter 55

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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 55. In Secret, In Silence
“You summoned me, Your Majesty?”
It was still early morning.
A middle-aged warrior of tall, lean build entered the Royal Chambers.
The King, who had been reading a memorial while wearing reading glasses, lifted his head.
“I have summoned you because there is an urgent matter I must command.”
“I await your instruction, Your Majesty.”
The King slowly removed his reading glasses.
Though his eyesight was said to be poor, the King’s gaze remained sharp and piercing.
“That day I spent time with Jang Hee-bin in the Back Garden—you said you saw the young maidservant who accompanied her, did you not?”
“Yes, I did see her.”
The King nodded and issued his command quietly.
“I order you to conduct a background investigation on that child.”
A sovereign of an entire nation ordering an investigation into a mere three or four-year-old maidservant.
Yet the man was one who rarely displayed emotion before the King.
Though it was a bewildering command, he accepted it with an unruffled expression.
“I shall obey your command, Your Majesty. What information do you wish me to uncover?”
“Investigate the child’s lineage, and confirm the life or death of her parents and elder siblings. And….”
At that point, the King drew a measured breath.
“Most importantly, conduct a thorough investigation into the child’s mother—her name, her family, and if she lives, her whereabouts must be discovered without fail.”
“Then I shall first examine the Palace Maids registry for the young maidservant.”
“Do so.”
The bowing man offered his respects to the King.
“I shall proceed at once, Your Majesty. I shall take my leave now.”
It was at that moment he was about to depart.
“Kim Che-geon.”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
It was exceedingly rare for the King to call the man by his name.
Kim Che-geon instinctively understood that this matter held profound significance for the King.
“This must proceed in secret. With utmost discretion.”
“I shall obey your command.”
Kim Che-geon.
The man whose name had become legendary as the greatest swordsman of the age.
Without hesitation, he obeyed his sovereign’s command and departed the Royal Chambers with silent footsteps.
***
Upon leaving the Royal Chambers, Kim Che-geon’s first task was to verify Hwang Bong-bong’s entry in the Palace Maids registry.
The path to the Nam-chon residence listed in Hwang Bong-bong’s records.
Kim Che-geon walked lost in thought.
Hwang Bong-bong had left quite a deep impression on him as well.
It was because of that peculiar sight in the Back Garden when the King and Jang Hee-bin shared an intimate moment—her face flushed crimson as she blew flower petals into the air.
She had been adorable, and the memory of his own daughter at that age had made him chuckle softly.
‘Yet the King has ordered me to investigate the child’s background.’
Now the matter took on an entirely different character.
To command an investigation into the personal affairs of a mere four-year-old child—not a seasoned palace attendant, not an official—was unprecedented.
In all his decades serving as the King’s loyal blade, he had never been tasked with such a thing.
What troubled him most was a particular detail.
Hwang Bong-bong’s entry records stated: ‘Parents deceased. Parental names unknown.’
Yet the King had commanded: ‘Verify the parents’ status.’
‘Investigate the child’s mother in particular. Her name, her family, and if she lives, her whereabouts—leave nothing undiscovered.’
The King’s eyes had grown terrifyingly dark and distant when speaking of the child’s mother.
‘What could this possibly mean?’
Though he pondered deeply, Kim Che-geon could not fathom the King’s inscrutable intentions.
As always, he chose to abandon speculation and focus entirely on executing the command.
Finding Hwang Bong-bong’s Nam-chon residence proved simple enough.
He spent considerable time meticulously searching every corner of the dust-laden house, which had clearly stood empty for years.
It was then that he discovered a folded piece of paper wedged between the floorboards.
As Kim Che-geon unfolded it, his eyes flickered with a tremor.
[Hwang Ho. Cheok Yu-hwa. Hwang Jin-gi. Hwang Bong-mok.]
And….
[Do not forget. Remember this.]
The final sentence, written with careful precision.
His eyes narrowed with suspicion as he hastily withdrew the paper and began transcribing its contents.
It was because of that single name: ‘Cheok Yu-hwa.’
‘The Cheok clan….’
Kim Che-geon reached back into his long memory.
Though the world believed the Cheok line had vanished entirely in early Joseon, he knew that the clan’s sole descendant had lived as recently as a decade ago.
The Goksan Cheok Clan.
The last bloodline to inherit Cheok Jun-gyeong’s swordsmanship.
‘Cheok U-myeong.’
Cheok U-myeong had been the King’s personal bodyguard and, more than that, a warrior whom the King himself had called ‘friend.’
A legendary swordsman of his age, praised for possessing the kind of skill heaven itself had bestowed upon the Cheok descendants.
The King had affectionately called him by the nickname ‘Cheok.’
‘But…. Cheok U-myeong is dead.’
The King had killed him.
It had happened during the chaos of the Gwanghaegun Coup.
He had decimated his friend’s clan and issued a royal decree commanding his friend to take his own life.
Kim Che-geon also remembered the rumors that the King had wept tears of blood.
In the end, Cheok U-myeong had chosen death.
Thus the Goksan Cheok Clan was annihilated.
And yet….
‘Cheok Yu-hwa, you say.’
Had Cheok U-myeong possessed a younger sister?
Kim Che-geon did not know the details of Cheok U-myeong’s circumstances.
But even with the clan’s destruction, they would not have taken a woman’s life.
He gazed carefully at the four names listed on the paper he had copied.
‘Perhaps Cheok U-myeong’s younger sister survived, married, and bore children—and this record contains the names of that family line.’
Yet doubt still lingered.
Hwang Bong-mok.
That very name was the problem.
It was precisely when Kim Che-geon was pondering the two names ‘Hwang Bong-bong’ and ‘Hwang Bong-mok’ that—
“Pardon me, sir? Have you come to view the house?”
A middle-aged woman emerged from the neighboring dwelling, her face brightening with interest.
“Indeed.”
Kim Che-geon replied with composure.
“Is this house vacant? If so, I wished to know who the owner is.”
“Ah…. Yes, it is vacant. Quite vacant, I assure you.”
“Then, who might you be?”
At Kim Che-geon’s question, the woman lifted her head without shame.
“I am as good as the owner of that house. Originally, a pair of orphaned siblings lived there, but with no elder brother and the girl being only four years old, I have been managing the property on their behalf.”
The woman continued with covetous eyes.
“If you’re interested in purchasing, just say the word. I shall sell it at an excellent price.”
“So the true owner is a four-year-old child. What is the owner’s name?”
“Why, what need have you to know that….”
Kim Che-geon’s gaze swept across the woman’s face.
Intimidated by his piercing eyes, the woman lowered her gaze.
“Hwang Bong-mok. Even if you wished to meet the owner, you would not be able to. You must speak with me.”
“Why is that?”
“The child has entered the Pal—”
A slip of the tongue.
When Sang-gung had taken the child away, had she not sternly warned that one must never speak of a yangban child becoming a Palace Maid?
The woman hastily corrected herself.
“A kisaeng house. She was sold to a kisaeng house. Poor thing—a yangban’s daughter, and yet such a pitiful fate.”
Having gleaned this new information, Kim Che-geon pressed further.
“The people who lived here—were they yangban?”
“Yes. Impoverished, certainly, but yangban nonetheless. The mother who died after bearing the girl was said to be a fallen yangban, and the father, though possessing nothing, was a yangban who could read and write.”
Kim Che-geon quickly pieced together the situation.
The name “Hwang Bong-mok” surely referred to Hwang Bong-bong.
Whether by mistake or deliberate action, her name had clearly been recorded incorrectly during her entry into the Palace.
“My lord. This house has been well maintained, nonetheless. The brother of the girl who is no longer here looked after it most diligently. In truth, if you have any interest, I could arrange the sale for a hundred nyang….”
“Her brother is no longer here? What do you mean by that?”
“That is… to say, he is d-dead, my lord.”
Kim Che-geon did not miss the flicker of hesitation in the woman’s eyes.
The woman exhaled a long sigh.
She was positively thrumming with excitement at the prospect of seizing the house and selling it off.
Yet this man, asking only irrelevant questions, was burning her patience to ash.
An ordinary person would have thrown him out immediately, but the man’s aura was so forbidding that she dared not interrupt him.
“Then, the family name of the mother who died giving birth to a daughter—might it have been Cheok?”
“Cheok? I have never heard such a name in my life. It was Cheon. Cheon Yu-hwa, I believe that was her name. When we held the funeral rites, her ancestral tablet clearly bore the name Cheon.”
Cheon Yu-hwa.
Though a new name had emerged, Kim Che-geon was not particularly surprised.
It was common for daughters of exterminated clans to change their family names to conceal their true identity.
Cheon Yu-hwa was none other than Cheok Yu-hwa.
He was certain of it.
“Then, my lord, might you wish to see the interior of the house as well….”
“I shall return another time.”
Kim Che-geon cut short the conversation and departed from the house.
Hwang Ho, Cheok Yu-hwa, Hwang Jin-gi, Hwang Bong-mok.
He kept a paper with the family’s names carefully tucked inside his garments.
He had not taken the original document.
He had folded the original as it was and left it in its place.
He could not bear to shatter the powerful will of someone who had left behind the words “do not forget, remember this.”
***
It was shortly after that when Kim Che-geon spotted Hwang Bong-bong approaching from a distance.
It was no mere coincidence.
On the very day he had come to investigate Hwang Bong-bong’s background, he happened to encounter the child.
Kim Che-geon altered his plans.
He discreetly followed Hwang Bong-bong and the woman presumed to be a Palace Maid.
And then….
“The White Star has risen in the southeast. The White Star shall surely strike down the guilty!”
He discovered a woman chanting strange incantations and rolling her eyes wildly as she trailed after Hwang Bong-bong.
Kim Che-geon observed everything.
The mad woman peering at the child from behind the tavern wall.
Slipping through the back door of the inner room while the tavern bustled with sudden customers.
The woman carrying the child fleeing in haste.
Vanishing down the deserted Village Shrine Path and entering some decrepit Abandoned Shrine.
***
“Release the child.”
Kim Che-geon’s blade grazed shallowly across Suk-jeong’s neck.
A drop of blood fell.
The moment Suk-jeong staggered backward….
Thwack!
Kim Che-geon struck Suk-jeong’s back of the head with his sword hilt.
Suk-jeong collapsed into unconsciousness.
“Are you hurt?”
Kim Che-geon asked.
Hwang Bong-bong stared at him with wide eyes, clearly in shock.
The child, trembling so violently she could barely speak, managed a faint nod.
“Do not worry. I shall safely escort you to the Royal Palace.”
“….”
“How frightened you must have been, little one.”
On the verge of tears, yet holding back.
Her lips quivered, but the child swallowed her sobs.
“Ugh….”
The fallen Suk-jeong let out a low groan.
“The White Star, she said. That it would punish the guilty.”
Kim Che-geon murmured softly.
The mad woman’s words were not wrong.
Today, this woman would pay a terrible price for her crimes.
He retrieved a length of rope and bound Suk-jeong’s entire body securely.
After tying her to a pillar to prevent escape, he finally gagged her mouth.
“Let us go, Bong-bong.”
Kim Che-geon lifted Bong-bong gently into his arms.
The child wrapped their arms around his neck and nestled into his embrace.
It was then that the child, who had been biting their lip as if refusing to cry, finally opened their mouth.
“Thank you, Mister Buri-buri.”
Though Kim Che-geon could not fathom what “Buri-buri” meant, he said nothing and gently patted the child’s back.
Once outside the Abandoned Shrine, Kim Che-geon secured the door with a heavy bolt.
It was not his place to determine the punishment for the woman’s crimes.
Her fate would now fall to the King.

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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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