Surviving as Jang Hee-bin's Child Court Lady - Chapter 86

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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 86. Hwang Bong-bong Does Not Stop
The palace maids from Sung-gyeong Hall who had been dragged away to the Uigumbu never returned to their quarters.
The King showed no hesitation before shedding blood.
This time too, Suk-ui sought out the Royal Chambers to plead for mercy.
But unlike the honey incident, the King coldly dismissed her.
Every palace maid who had handled food in the Nae-so Kitchen was executed immediately.
Yun Sang-gung could not escape death either.
It was because she had failed to manage the palace staff amid the successive poisoning threats.
Yi Hwon’s nursemaids managed to preserve their lives, but they were expelled from the Royal Palace along with the other palace maids.
Sung-gyeong Hall was filled entirely with new palace staff.
The only glimmer of hope amid the catastrophe and tragedy was that Suk-ui’s condition showed a remarkably swift recovery.
And the fact that Yi Hwon was growing up vigorously.
Whoooosh—
The height of summer.
The delayed monsoon rains had begun.
Chwisuondang and its palace maids were quite close with the staff of Sung-gyeong Hall.
Naturally, a somber atmosphere had lingered in Chwisuondang for some time.
Yet in the end, time became the answer.
Those who had been lost in sorrow gradually returned to their daily lives.
The days passed when rain fell in torrents that seemed endless, tears shed by the palace maids themselves.
At last the dark clouds parted, and the sun emerged.
***
After ten days of unrelenting rain, there came a day when the downpour finally ceased.
“Come now, young prince. Won’t you come to Jang Hee-bin?”
“Ooh ooh!”
“My, how steadily you walk! How dignified. Truly, how splendid you are!”
“Mya mya mya! Byaa byaa!”
I lifted my head abruptly from where I lay upon my bed.
Consumed by an overwhelming sense of helplessness, I had secluded myself for some time.
I could not quite recall how many days I had spent locked away in my chamber under the pretense of illness.
It was the familiar voice and laughter drifting from outside that awakened my waterlogged spirit.
I quietly opened my door and peered out into the courtyard.
“Byaa! Byaa ah!”
In the center of a circle of Palace Maids, Yi Hwon toddled forward with unsteady steps toward Jang Hee-bin.
And there was Suk-ui, adorned in a pink robe, her face radiant with joy.
“…Sob.”
I did not understand why tears suddenly spilled forth.
Jang Hee-bin bent low and opened her arms wide to Yi Hwon.
He took careful steps at first, then suddenly burst into a run, tumbling into her embrace.
“How wonderfully you’ve come! How admirable, young prince!”
“Kee woo woo!”
The laughter of Yi Hwon, Jang Hee-bin, Suk-ui, and the Palace Maids echoed through the courtyard like crystalline chimes.
A radiant moment brimming with the vitality of the living.
A coin with two faces—life and death—held in my trembling hands.
If what had tormented me with such anguish was the dark face called death,
then what now unfolded before my eyes was the brilliant face called life.
Yi Hwon laughed aloud with delight.
A radiant smile bloomed across Jang Hee-bin’s face.
And in Suk-ui’s expression, there was a healthy flush I had never seen before.
The tears that had fallen ceased their descent.
I wiped my eyes roughly with my sleeve.
Swallowing my sobs and drawing a deep breath, I opened the door wide and stepped outside.
“Bom-bo! Bom-bo!”
Yi Hwon, spotting me, clapped his hands and wriggled with excitement.
“Bong-bong, are you feeling better from your illness?” Jang Hee-bin asked.
Jang Hee-bin asked.
In that moment, my body moved of its own accord.
It was an impulsive act—something I would never ordinarily do, something I should not have done.
Though I knew this, I could not restrain myself.
I ran barefoot across the courtyard.
Rushing toward Jang Hee-bin, who held Yi Hwon, I stretched out my short arms with all my strength and embraced them both.
“….”
The palace maids fell silent at my sudden action.
“Oh my. I nearly forgot that our Chwisuondang has a little one too. Are you jealous? No matter what anyone says, you are Chwisuondang’s precious treasure, Bong-bong. Don’t be upset.”
Jang Hee-bin patted my bottom with a beaming smile.
Only then did the palace maids burst into laughter.
“Come here, Bong-bong.”
Jang Hee-bin pulled me into a tight embrace.
She seemed to think I was jealous of Yi Hwon for monopolizing everyone’s affection, but such a thing hardly mattered.
The warm tenderness radiating from Jang Hee-bin’s arms.
Within that embrace, my crumbling heart found its shape once more.
That heart slowly grew solid again.
“Bong-bong!”
Yi Hwon reached out his arms toward me.
His small hands gently caressed my cheeks.
I grasped Yi Hwon’s delicate hands, small as autumn maple leaves.
As though I would never let go. Holding tight like this.
Jang Hee-bin’s tender hands stroking my back.
The laughter of Suk-ui and the palace maids.
Yi Hwon’s voice, clear and vibrant as the fresh green of new growth.
‘I will not waver anymore.’
These people here were those I must protect.
‘I will never crumble or flee again.’
Here lay the reasons I could not surrender to helplessness or be defeated by pain.
I made my resolve once more.
I would not cease my journey forward toward life.
Even if death follows at my side, I will fight so that death does not become my own.
Predetermined fate.
Recorded history.
I will no longer fear them.
***
I steadied myself and regained my composure, and soon I was busy once more.
Having languished in a terrible lethargy for some time, I had accumulated quite a bit of work.
Maintaining my duties as a Palace Maid at Chwisuondang was important, but there was something far more pressing.
A matter I had set aside while consumed by the chaos of the Sung-gyeong Hall incident.
It concerned my brother, Hwang Jin-gi.
I already knew the answer to ‘whom I should seek out’.
The person who had told me that Hwang Jin-gi was alive and searching for me.
If I could meet with Park Moon-soo, so many things would be resolved.
‘But… how do I meet Park Moon-soo?’
That was the problem.
As a young Palace Maid, leaving the Palace was not an easy matter.
However, I possessed information about his maternal uncle that Park Moon-soo had given me.
Since his maternal uncle Lee Tae-jwa was a librarian at the Crown Prince’s Institute, I knew exactly where to go.
“Ugh, it’s so hot.”
As I made my way toward the Crown Prince’s Institute, I was constantly wiping away sweat.
Though I hadn’t walked such a great distance, my entire body was already damp.
The monsoon season had ended, and now a scorching heat wave continued relentlessly.
The Royal Palace, nestled within the ripening summer, gleamed with brilliant verdant hues, yet darting about beneath the blazing sun was undeniably arduous.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Crown Prince.’
Part of it was because I had been secluded for some time, but recently the Crown Prince had been extraordinarily busy.
The Queen’s carbuncle had flared up again, and the Medical Bureau had been established.
The Crown Prince was visiting Junggung Palace without fail, day and night.
He already had an exhaustingly tight schedule.
Not only did he study all day at the Crown Prince’s Institute, but he also had to travel back and forth between Changdeok Palace and Changgyeong Palace morning and evening.
‘Being a Crown Prince is truly an extreme profession.’
But that aside…
‘How do I approach Lee Tae-jwa and bring up Park Moon-soo?’
I didn’t want to be branded as a strange child for suddenly striking up a conversation.
It would certainly be more difficult to appear normal in a situation where a young Palace Maid suddenly appeared saying, ‘I happen to know your nephew…’
‘This is really troublesome.’
I was pacing back and forth in front of the Crown Prince’s Institute, my mind spinning.
Then I heard sounds from within.
Soon, murmuring voices followed.
The soft voice was unmistakably the Crown Prince’s.
The adult male voice that followed was also quite familiar to my ears.
‘Please. Let it be Lee Tae-jwa…’
At that moment.
“I am deeply grateful, Your Highness! Not only have you invited me to the Royal Palace, but you have personally guided me to the Crown Prince’s Institute as well. Truly, this is boundless honor, glory to my house, and personal distinction!”
…Huh?
This peculiar manner of speech—it’s quite familiar, isn’t it?
“What an honor, what a privilege to lay eyes upon Your Highness’s countenance. I am utterly overwhelmed with gratitude and reverence….”
I could bear it no longer.
I had to see the face of whoever was babbling on so relentlessly.
Slipping out from behind the wall where I had been hiding, I scurried toward the entrance of the Crown Prince’s Institute.
And….
‘Found you, you flattering fool!’
There he was, Park Moon-soo, fawning and bowing before the Crown Prince!

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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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