The Five-Year-Old Baby Princess Rules the Palace - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#28. The Young Princess’s Rage

 

“….”

 

With This Servant’s trembling voice trailing off as she kept her gaze fixed on the floor, a long silence fell.

 

“Perhaps there are some snacks you would command me to prepare separately? Or were the refreshments I served this afternoon regrettably not to your taste?”

 

Unable to wait any longer, This Servant asked Eunhye again.

 

But once again, silence descended.

 

With her growing anxiety, This Servant kept her head bowed while rolling her eyes left and right, then slowly raised her gaze. But wasn’t Princess Eunhye staring at her as if to bore right through her?

 

“Gasp! For-forgive me, Princess.”

 

This Servant, who had dared to meet Eunhye’s pitch-black eyes, prostrated herself flat on the floor.

 

Eunhye looked down at This Servant’s back with surprise and confusion, tilting her head as if finding it strange.

 

Where did that child go?

 

Why isn’t he clinging to This Servant’s back now? Don’t tell me Queen Dowager forcibly made him achieve enlightenment? Or… could she have made him disappear entirely!

 

Eunhye looked at This Servant, who was prostrated and trembling, with a worried expression as she spoke.

 

“I have a question.”

 

At Princess Eunhye’s voice finally directed toward her, This Servant swallowed dry saliva and bowed even lower.

 

“Yes, Princess. Please ask your question.”

 

“Why did your younger brother die?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

So shocked that she unconsciously lifted her head, This Servant stared at Eunhye with wide eyes. Then she hurriedly lowered her gaze and began trembling violently.

 

How could Princess Eunhye know that she had a younger brother?

 

That fact which she had never told anyone, not even the head court lady who brought her here, nor her roommate! How could Princess know about it?

 

Too shocked to even remember to answer, with her chest heaving, This Servant heard that cold voice again from above her head.

 

“I asked why your younger brother fell into the well and died.”

 

Crash!

 

This Servant fell backward, nearly fainting from shock.

 

Eunhye glared at This Servant with sharp eyes and clenched both fists tightly.

 

“Don’t even think about lying and tell me the truth!”

 

Eunhye recalled This Servant’s pale face that she had seen through the Ghost Boy’s eyes. It had certainly been a sad face, but wasn’t she the wicked sister who had pushed her young brother into the well and covered it?

 

That young child’s sleeve edges were completely frayed and tattered as he thrashed about dying in the cold well water, and he had cried out “Sister” dozens of times as the icy water flowed into his lungs, causing him agony!

 

This Servant, who had fallen backward, quickly got up and prostrated herself before Eunhye again, trembling violently.

 

“Pr-Princess, how could you know that…”

 

Watching This Servant who couldn’t even speak properly, Eunhye unconsciously bit her lower lip hard.

 

She could vividly hear in both ears the voice of that child calling for his sister until his throat was raw.

 

“Why did you kill that young child who knew only his sister by drowning him in the well!”

 

How wronged and resentful he must have been to be killed by his own sister.

 

In that resentment, even after death he couldn’t achieve enlightenment and clung to his sister’s back.

 

Eunhye glared angrily at This Servant, who was prostrated and only shedding tears.

 

Even without trying to remember, the bone-chilling well water and the well opening that seemed impossibly high automatically came to mind.

 

And under the silver stars covering the black sky, his sister’s sad face looking down at him fallen in the water…

 

But even while being slapped by Grandfather Gwangjo, the child had smiled faintly at her and shook his head as if to say no.

 

Why had he done that?

 

Wasn’t he asking for revenge or to punish his sister?

 

Then why was he shedding tears of blood!

 

Wasn’t he sad about being killed by his sister? Why smile like a fool.

 

I will scold her. I will absolutely not let your wicked sister go unpunished!

 

This Servant crawled toward Eunhye, who was gritting her teeth in determination.

 

Then, without even realizing her impious behavior, she lifted her head and asked.

 

It was a situation where her head could fly off for impiety and no one could say anything.

 

But This Servant, curious about how Princess Eunhye could know about her dead brother that no one else knew, opened her eyes wide and asked again.

 

“How does Princess Eunhye know about our Seonnam!”

 

He was a child who had died at the age of five, right before she entered the palace.

 

How could the princess of Byeolgung know about that child, whom even the head court lady who helped her enter the palace didn’t know about?

 

This Servant stopped even breathing and spoke while trembling violently.

 

“I-I truly do not understand why Princess seems to know about my dead brother and asks such questions.”

 

Eunhye quietly looked at This Servant, who dared to lift her head while prostrated before her and speak.

 

Since that Ghost Boy wasn’t beside This Servant today, she couldn’t even ask why he had been thrown into the well.

 

But the scene from that night that she had just seen and felt was definitely the memory of the boy who had been killed by his sister.

 

Eunhye slowly opened her mouth toward This Servant, who was trembling all over yet looking straight at her.

 

“You must have heard the rumors circulating about me. Is that not so?”

 

“Yes, yes?”

 

This Servant’s eyes, who had been prostrated with her head up, widened greatly.

 

“As the rumors say, I can see things that people cannot see. For example, ghosts.”

 

“Pardon?”

 

This Servant’s eyes, now pale beyond description as if about to expire, became as wide as if they might tear.

 

Toward such This Servant, a cold and stern voice that could not be called that of a young child burst forth.

 

“So tell me the truth. Why did you kill your brother!”

 

How could this be happening!

 

How could Princess Eunhye be asking me why I killed Seonnam?

 

This Servant, who had buried her head that she had been holding up, felt her heart pounding wildly, and hot tears began to flow.

 

“No, no. Absolutely not.”

 

Watching This Servant, who was prostrated and sobbing while muttering, Eunhye clenched her small fists tightly.

 

“Tell me truthfully why you killed him. If you lie, I will not let you go unpunished.”

 

“Gasp… sob… huh… sob sob sob.”

 

This Servant, who was prostrated and gasping, could only cry without giving any answer.

 

As Eunhye looked down at This Servant with stern eyes, a chilling coldness suddenly began circulating through her body.

 

With the hair behind her ears standing up in an eerie sensation, came the voice of a boy crying sorrowfully from the direction of the door!

 

[It’s not sister’s fault!]

 

Eunhye’s head snapped up, and she saw the Ghost Boy limping and rolling as he ran toward them. With bloody tears flowing from his two pitch-black pupils, and with each limping step, thick grayish water pooled around him.

 

Eunhye clenched both fists and gasped at the terror that rushed over her in an instant.

 

Where is Queen Dowager?

 

The Ghost Boy, who had rushed to the frightened Eunhye, embraced This Servant’s neck and began crying.

 

[Sister! Don’t cry. It was my fault!]

 

Eunhye held her breath at the scene before her eyes.

 

Doesn’t this child even hate the sister who killed him? Why does he say it’s not sister’s fault?

 

Why does he cry so sorrowfully?

 

Eunhye’s small chest rose and fell greatly.

 

That night seen through the boy’s eyes,

 

It was definitely This Servant who had pushed the well cover closed, leaving him to die.

 

But why does he cry so tenderly and sorrowfully?

 

As Eunhye watched the two with a confused expression, she saw Gwangjo entering the room.

 

Queen Dowager!

 

At Gwangjo’s appearance, smiling and nodding as if to say not to worry, Eunhye composed herself from the approaching fear and straightened her body.

 

The boy was still crying while embracing his sister’s neck.

 

[Child, grandfather will be by your side, so don’t be afraid and ask about the things you want to know.]

 

When Gwangjo came to stand beside her, her pounding heart became much more peaceful.

 

Eunhye slowly inhaled and exhaled, then opened her mouth toward the crying This Servant.

 

“This Servant, I ask you once more. Why didn’t you save your brother and instead pushed the well cover closed?”

 

This Servant, who had been prostrated and only crying, suddenly lifted her head.

 

“No! That is absolutely untrue! I didn’t even know that Seonnam had fallen into the well!”

“That’s not true! I saw it clearly! Your brother crying out to you for help from inside the well! Why didn’t you save him! Why! Why did you push the well cover closed!”

 

At Eunhye’s scolding, This Servant shook her head with a face as if her soul had left her body.

 

“Ah… did this lowly one… did this lowly one leave our Seonnam to die? Sob sob. Was our Seonnam still alive until then? Heh heh heh.”

 

This Servant muttered to herself like someone who had lost her mind.

 

[It’s not sister’s fault. It was dark. It was dark and too deep, so sister couldn’t see me!]

 

Seonnam sorrowfully let out a voice that couldn’t reach his sister.

 

Seonnam was like a child she had carried on her back and raised in her arms.

 

In a small fishing village, their father who was a fisherman died at sea, and their pregnant mother collapsed from the shock and died while giving birth to Seonnam.

 

Was it called a breech birth? The baby who came out foot-first instead of head-first was pulled from his mother’s womb with one leg bone broken by the cruel hands of the old woman next door, just as his mother breathed her last.

 

In place of their dead father and mother, seven-year-old Seonmi gained a disabled younger brother.

 

The two orphans were left with a distant relative of their dead father, and unable to endure the beatings, one summer night when she turned ten, Seonmi ran away from that house with her four-year-old brother.

 

Seonmi, who resembled her mother with good intuition and skillful hands, was able to get a kitchen helper job at a trading company that dealt with foreign countries, and while his sister worked, young Seonnam had to play alone in his room or in the courtyard.

 

There was an old well there.

 

After a year had passed like that, one day her brother fell into the well and died.

 

She had always kept the well cover tightly closed every day, always being careful in case her young brother might fall into the well…

 

Seonmi, who had searched for Seonnam all night long without knowing he had fallen into the well and died, met her brother’s corpse the next morning after hearing Chanmo’s scream while drawing water from the well.

 

Princess Eunhye is five years old this year, the same age as my dead brother Seonnam…

 

This Servant, who wore a sorrowful smile on her tearful face, opened her mouth with a long sigh.

 

“Princess, this lowly one’s dead brother’s name was Seonnam. From birth until the day he died, he lived limping on one leg. And he died so pitifully. Sob sob.”

 

Unable to finish her words and weeping sorrowfully again, Eunhye tilted her head as she watched This Servant and the Ghost Boy still crying beside her.

 

You pushed him into the well and killed him, yet you say he died pitifully?

 

The last person that child saw as he was dying was definitely you.

 

As Eunhye frowned and scowled, This Servant’s tearful voice reached her ears.

 

“Princess, this humble servant dares to ask you something.”

 

To This Servant who was prostrated and looking up at her as if seeking permission, Eunhye nodded.

 

“Speak.”

 

“Did you truly see my brother, Princess?”

 

Eunhye nodded while looking at the Ghost Boy still crying while clinging to This Servant’s neck.

 

“Gasp!”

 

From the eyes of This Servant, who covered her mouth with both hands, thick tears like chicken droppings fell again.

 

“Seon, Seonnam…!”

 

The Ghost Boy clinging to This Servant’s neck also let out deeply sorrowful cries.

 

[Sister! Sister, I’m sorry. Waaaaah!]

 

At the sight of the two, Eunhye’s nose tingled without her knowing it, and she looked up at Gwangjo with an expression that showed she couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

 

Then, This Servant opened her mouth with a sobbing voice.

 

“Princess, my brother Seonnam… fell into the well and died on a night when this lowly one returned late from work. The next morning at dawn, Chanmo who was drawing water from the well discovered…”

 

“Lies! Why do you keep lying? You saw your brother! Your brother saw you clearly too!”

 

Eunhye’s scream-like cry of intense anger echoed loudly enough to reach the ears of Lady Park and Lady Han outside the chamber.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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