The Five-Year-Old Baby Princess Rules the Palace - Chapter 6

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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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#6. This Can’t Be Real

The Young Lord’s eyes widened as he looked down at his hand that had been sharply slapped away, accompanied by the fierce voice asking if he wanted to die.

Did I just hear things?

Did this little girl, who had been sniffling pitifully like a puppy soaked in rain just moments ago, really shout at me asking if I wanted to die?

Another incredible scolding reached the ears of the Young Lord, who was only blinking his eyes with a bewildered expression.

“You rascal! Unless you want to die, how dare you lay a hand on my body! Get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness right now!”

The Young Lord, who had been so flustered that his mouth hung open, frowned his dark and straight eyebrows at the sight of the chestnut-sized girl standing before him, fuming.

No matter how young she was, this was incredibly rude.

Asking if I want to die? Telling me to get down on my knees and beg?

Judging by her clothes and appearance, she seemed to be from quite a powerful family, but her behavior was completely that of a little ruffian.

The Young Lord, barely suppressing his rising irritation, began to scold Eunhye in a rather dignified voice.

“Since I’m seeing you for the first time today, it’s natural that I don’t know who you are. And it’s not proper for you to speak so rudely to me, who came to help you instead of just passing by when you were in trouble.”

Instead of prostrating herself flat and begging for forgiveness, Eunhye’s nostrils flared like coins at the sight of the Young Lord trying to teach her instead.

She was already furious from the humiliation she had received from Lady Gyeongbin earlier, and now where did this guy suddenly pop out from to rub salt in her wounds? Eunhye opened her eyes wide and lifted her face up close.

“Proper? Do you know who I am right now, yet you dare speak of propriety! I am not someone you can treat so carelessly!”

The Young Lord’s expression grew serious at the sight of Eunhye shouting loudly with her eyes blazing blue.

How could this tiny girl, who only came up to his chest, be so fierce and unruly? He stared at Eunhye with a dazed expression, unable to close his mouth that had fallen open in surprise.

He had tried to help her when she seemed to be in trouble, but was this child truly mad?

The Young Lord, at a loss for words at the harsh words from this bean-sized girl who treated him like a criminal, could only blink his eyes.

On the path through Princess’s Palace Garden where no one happened to pass by, the spring breeze that had been blowing hesitated and stepped back at the standoff between the five-year-old Princess in her azalea-colored jacket and the Young Lord in his blue silk robe.

After a moment, the Young Lord let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, looked up at the blue sky, and sighed softly.

“Haa… So this is why they say you shouldn’t show kindness to just anyone.”

“What did you say?”

The Young Lord looked down sternly at Eunhye, who retorted sharply without backing down even once, and shook his head while touching his forehead.

“Let’s stop this. I merely tried to help you because you seemed lost and were running around, then got scolded by what appeared to be a Palace lady and were crying. Since it seems you don’t need my help, it would be best if we each go our separate ways.”

At the Young Lord’s words that sounded patronizing, Eunhye scrunched up her face and flared her nostrils.

“You rascal! When you should be kneeling and begging right now, what are you going on about this and that? If you knew who I was!”

“Haa! More and more!”

Just like Eunhye who was furious, the Young Lord who was equally dumbfounded and felt like his insides would burst glared at each other again.

The Young Lord’s name was Kim Jihoo.

He was the only son of Kim Gyo-hyeon, a Saheonbu inspector who was also Eunhye’s teacher.

And today was Jihoo’s eleventh birthday, and he had been touring the Palace with his father Kim Gyo-hyeon.

Jihoo was a child famous as a genius among geniuses, having learned the Thousand Character Classic at age three and already studied all the basic Confucian classics including Elementary Learning, Analects, and Mencius by around age five.

When Crown Prince Lee-hwan turned seven, there was an event to select study companions to learn together with him, recommended by the Queen Dowager.

Six-year-old Jihoo at the time became a candidate for study companion through the recommendation of Park Nam-il, the Minister of the Board of War who was the Crown Prince’s maternal grandfather.

Although his mother was a priestess expelled from Taeshin Country Seongsu Hall, it was Park Nam-il’s choice after observing the upright character of his father Kim Gyo-hyeon and Jihoo’s exceptional intelligence.

However, due to his mother’s unexpected death while preparing for the exam, Jihoo had to give up the study companion selection.

Jihoo, who lost his mother and also missed the Crown Prince’s study companion selection exam, had five years pass since then, and before he knew it, Jihoo had turned eleven.

His father, Inspector Kim Gyo-hyeon, was showing his son around various parts of the Palace after entering the court for the first time in a long while, trying to console the lingering regrets from five years ago. Just then, he encountered a senior official from the Office of the Censors and had to briefly enter the office to handle urgent business.

No matter how much he was his son, he couldn’t carelessly bring an outsider into the office, so Kim Gyo-hyeon told Jihoo to wait outside for a moment before entering the office, and while waiting for his father, Jihoo’s eyes caught sight of a young girl hurriedly running in the distance.

Running so wildly in the solemn Palace like that, she’ll surely get into trouble.

Jihoo, forgetting even his father’s instruction to wait quietly in that spot, found himself unconsciously following that girl.

Why on earth did I follow this little one? Was I perhaps enchanted by the sight that looked like upside-down azalea blossoms floating along?

If only this mouse-sized kid hadn’t been running through the Palace like that, or if I had pretended not to see even after witnessing it, how much better it would have been. Or should I have just passed by when she seemed to be caught and scolded by what appeared to be a Palace lady?

But the sight of several large adults surrounding and intimidating one small child looked very pitiful, and in the end, the child holding her tiny fists and crying without being able to make a sound was just heartbreaking.

So without realizing it, didn’t I even take out my mother’s keepsake that I usually kept preciously in my heart and never brought out, to wipe her dirty nose?

But this shameless little brat, instead of saying thank you, was treating him like some unruly street thug.

The more he thought about it, the more infuriating it became.

Jihoo tried to straighten his eyebrows that were twitching with anger and opened his mouth toward the nasty little kid with a stern expression.

“Yes, I can see that you seem to be a girl from a family with considerable influence. But you are truly poorly educated. It’s not right to use your father’s authority and speak so harshly regardless of who you’re talking to!”

“Wh-what?”

At the ridiculous words spoken while putting on airs as if he were her superior, Eunhye looked up at the boy with a bewildered face.

“You, do you really want to die!”

Eunhye took a deep breath to calm herself and then slowly opened her mouth.

“You don’t think about your own rudeness! How dare you speak of right and wrong from wherever you came from! I’ll ask again! Who exactly are you to be wandering around the solemn Palace alone like this?”

At the scolding from the brazen little kid who showed no signs of remorse, Jihoo frowned while even rolling his lower lip inward.

“Haa… This is really getting more and more ridiculous.”

I should have just ignored whether she was standing alone crying or not and gone my way, so why did I meddle like this?

Jihoo slowly shook his head, let out another big sigh, and spoke clearly.

“You said ru.de.ness. Isn’t it rude that you, who seem much younger than me, keep speaking down to me? Just how great a family’s daughter are you to act like this? Why don’t you tell me?”

Then fierce anger began to blaze in Eunhye’s eyes.

“If you knew who I was, you could even die!”

What? Die?

Jihoo’s face turned red from holding back his boiling anger as he gripped the damp silk handkerchief he’d been holding even tighter.

Then with a furious face, he spoke coldly to Eunhye.

“What would be the point of going through the trouble of revealing my identity to you, but if I reveal my identity, you’ll have to reveal yours too.”

“Is that so? Go ahead and try saying it.”

This kid is getting more and more!

Just as Jihoo, who had been rolling even his lower lip inward, was about to open his mouth, Eunhye spread her chubby palm wide and thrust it forward.

“Ah, wait a moment! Before you reveal your identity! I have something to ask first. Where did you get that handkerchief you’re holding?”

“Wh… what? Ask? Aask? Ha!”

At Eunhye’s blatantly disrespectful speech, Jihoo opened his eyes fiercely as if he absolutely couldn’t stand it.

“Did you just say you would ask me?”

Regardless of Jihoo’s angry expression, Eunhye boldly lifted her small chin and asked again.

“Didn’t you hear? I’ll ask again. Where did you get that handkerchief?”

“Ha! I’m so dumbfounded, what is this… such a tiny thing.”

This tiny girl with several small scratches on her small face and reeking fishy smell wafting from her skirt certainly has fierce spirit.

Toward the incredulous-looking Jihoo, Eunhye lifted her raised chin once more and asked in a firm voice.

“It’s inauspiciously embroidered with various letters in red and yellow thread. Where did you get that?”

Jihoo was truly angry at Eunhye, who pointed at the handkerchief in his hand and called it inauspicious.

Wasn’t this a keepsake left by his mother and no different from his own protective charm? Yet she pointed at this precious thing and carelessly called it inauspicious?

And that instead of saying thank you?

Jihoo’s chest heaved greatly.

From Jihoo’s mouth, who was grinding his teeth while barely holding back his rough breathing from anger, came a cold voice that couldn’t be called that of a child.

“No matter how young you are, seeing your uneducated state, I no longer want to know who your parents are. Also, since I’m concerned that standing here arguing with someone who doesn’t know proper etiquette might bring me down to the same level, it seems right for us to each go our separate ways.”

Having finished speaking, Jihoo turned around sharply. He no longer wanted to exchange words with this child. Jihoo even resolved to be more selective about whom he showed the kindness that his father had emphasized in the future.

Just as Jihoo, who had turned around with cold eyes, was about to take a step, a shout-like scolding was heard.

“You rascal! How insolent! How dare you turn your back in front of whom! Moreover! For someone like you to mention my parents! Do you know who I am!”

“Ha, really until the very end!”

In the eyes of Jihoo, who whirled around with clenched fists, he saw the girl furious with a spirit as if she would breathe fire.

The sight of her glaring at him with her tiny fists clenched tight and even her lower lip rolled inward…!

Jihoo lifted one corner of his mouth and asked in a sneering tone.

“Haa, insolent? Insolent, you say? Let me see, what are you to say such things. Are you perhaps Princess Eunhye who lives in the Palace?”

At the question that came out without him realizing it, the girl’s expression seemed to crack!

Jihoo felt a chill run down his spine for a moment and unconsciously opened his eyes wide.

No way…

No way…

Surely this reckless little kid couldn’t be the Princess. What Princess Eunhye would run around the Palace alone without a single attendant?

Moreover, from what he had seen earlier, wasn’t she being scolded by someone who appeared to be a concubine? If this kid were really the Princess, it would be impossible.

Jihoo’s pupils shook mercilessly with inexplicable anxiety as he watched Eunhye, who could only twitch her lips without giving any response to the words he had thrown at her.

Just then, someone’s voice calling for Jihoo could be heard from afar.

“Jihoo! Jihoo, what are you doing there!”

Huh? That person is?

Eunhye frowned her delicate brow as she looked at the man in official robes who was coming while calling the name Jihoo from a distance.

“Master?”

Wasn’t that person her writing teacher, Court Counselor Kim Gyo-hyeon?

Kim Gyo-hyeon, who was hurriedly coming almost at a run through the long corridor, seemed not to have noticed her yet, gesturing only toward this wretched child standing before him with a surprised face.

Eunhye, who had been looking up at Jihoo with her chin raised, put one hand on her hip and twisted up one corner of her mouth crookedly.

What, so this brat was Master’s son?

Jihoo also seemed flustered by his father’s voice calling him and turned his head, then gasped at the word “Master” that had burst from Eunhye’s mouth.

“Huh!”

“You! Are you the son of Court Counselor Kim Gyo-hyeon?”

At the dignified words of the tiny girl—no, Her Highness the Princess—who casually spoke his father’s official title with a wicked smile and confident voice, Jihoo’s head turned as if broken.

Creak, crack…

No, this… can’t be real.

It can’t be real…!

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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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