"Master Dal! Please save me! Do not let them do anything to me, or our child in my belly!" "Your Highness! This servant may have done something wrong, but I hope that you can spare her life, for the sake of her child that she is carrying!" Of course Seo Yeon had to speak up in my most vulnerable time when i was left completely dumbfounded, shocked and honestly too embarrassed to look anyone in the eyes even though I had been on my knees for the entirety of this interrogation. "Master Dal, am I not the only woman that you should care about? Young Mistress Seo, i beg of you! I beg of you to support me and the Master Dal! i am already pregnant with his child, and he only loves me, he has told me so ever since the Young Master Nam was forced against his wishes to enter the palace to fulfil his wishes and carry out his dirty work." "You bitch! Who force fed you these lies! It is simply impossible that we have a child together! You seduced me time and time again and i rejected you! You are just trying to trap me and I bet that you are not even pregnant at all! You cannot climb up the ranks though me girl! And even if you are, no-one cares about an unwed woman and her bastard child! Stop bringing disgrace to the Nam family and leave at once!" "No! please, someone have mercy on me! I am pregnant for goodness sake! Or is that no longer important in Confucius laws!" "Your Highness, this only proves my point further of how corrupt the Nam's have become in their own decadence. And no matter how arrogant the servant has become, he should reap what he sows. Please help me to protect this girl, who is also a victim in your kingdom despite their lowly statuses."
"Well, family is an important unit in this kingdom, and now i can see how little the Nam family care for it at all. What a messy and disturbing drama this is now…" "Please forgive me, Your Highness! But Seo Yeon has no opinion to voice in my personal affairs." "As of now, her status ranks higher than yours, so she can say what she wants to say." "Thank you, Your Highness. This servant might be from a poor family, but even a beast will not eat its own child, how can anyone deny such precious life when there are noblewomen who are having a hard time conceiving children to expand their own family clans? Master Dal clearly needs to be disciplined to behave well and take up his responsibilities like a real man, how else could he have taken in his own concubine without marrying officially first, which defies Confucius laws. This also brings shame to one's family, which goes against showing filial piety, a value that we hold dear in the face of Confucius. Look, even her arms are covered in wounds! She must have also been abused in this family, how can they treat her like this, never mind come up with the idea to usurp the throne. He wants to kill his own maid and unborn child if it means trying to survive, just like Nam-Jeon himself!" That was all it took for my life, my goals and plans and my heart to spin out of control from that moment on. I was supposed to he a helping hand to my father, but now I had become my half-brother's pawn to bring him down instead. And as for a pregnant maid, who cared about that? Unless the scandal was exposed to the right people and by a woman of all people.
Some women were like pearls coated with dust; they looked remarkable at first glance whilst others were truly remarkable behind the disguise they hid themselves in, just like Seo Yeon was. She was able to think of such a unique solution that nobody else could think of on the spot. She gained her enemies respect, her friend's admiration and her first love's obsession. She always gained her goals in a single strike and she obliterated her obstacle's reputation when it happened, not leaving a single chance for anything to hurt her again.
"No, wait! i have proof that this maid is a trap that is set up by the Young Master Nam to bring me down along with my Master Nam-Jeon. I only spoke bluntly to her once after she failed to seduce me, so this is her petty revenge against me! Relationships between servants and maids are unacceptable, so why would I endanger myself like this?" "Enough of this nonsense! Is there any proof of this pregnancy or not? This matter implicates family morality and it shouldn't be handled lightly" "Your Highness, I have proof with her love letters…" "…that you just happen to carry on your person, Master Dal? Ones that you have clearly accepted since you carry them with you. And there is one other problem to discuss with this evidence; this maid is completely illiterate. She doesn't know how to read or write at all, not to mention that she couldn't have possibly gotten her hands on a-grade paper that is several months years above her pay."
"So that is how my dear cousin ruined your life?" "It wasn't her fault! Seon-Ho was the one who pitted her against me! i never even got the chance to tell anyone how i am related to him" "Are we talking about the same Young Master Nam that housed her, that followed her from village to village, who keeps her under his roof and in his bed at all times?" "What the hell are you saying? Yeon isn't that sort of loose girl, unlike yourself, Kim Aerum." "She is currently pregnant, according to Hui-Jae anyways. and if you didn't sleep with her…" "NO! That isn't possible! Seon-Ho doesn't let anyone touch him! Ever! He goes off with girls but he cannot let anyone….I mean, not even i could touch him and he…no, it doesn't make sense because he doesn't lover her! He really doesn't!" "I agree, it is more of an obsession than anything else. But if he finds out about this, then he will more than likely marry her as soon as possible, and not even his brother-in-law to be can stop that. Actually, it rather looks like he is inclined to agree with the marriage, despite everything that they have both put each other through." "No, this cannot happen. I must find a way to abort that filthy half-bread monster that she harbours in her womb and make space for my seed alone. Seon-Ho can never find out about this! Never!" "So what will you do then?" "I shall take her far away from this place after she looses that demon child of his. And i will bring her back to brothel work to make up for everything that she has put me through until she is ready to accept my marriage. And all that i need to do is to go ask the Fifth Prince for his permission to marry her and we are all set for our future." "And what about her brother? My future husband?" "They are already far too close and affectionate at their ages, it is rather disturbing to be honest. i hope to take Yeon far away from her brother as possible s she can focus solely on myself and us as a family." "And what about Seon-Ho?" "I shall kill him for coveting what wasn't his to begin with, and i shall take pleasure in doing this. I will punish him so slowly and take back the career that he stole from me that he will beg me to kill him every single day."
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"Young Mistress…" "My life will always be in danger, that is why i gave my brother a bride and that is why i pushed my man so far away now that he...just doesn't want anything to do with me at all. Those who want me dead are not going to let me live in peace now, are they." "But…" "The more hardships I suffer through now, the more ease their hearts will be at. And if my brother has gotten married to a living witness of the Princess Consort's brother, no-one will come after him or Hyeon. I should be with them right now, but you heard what Dal said, he will never let me reunite with him, so this is all that i can do for now." "Young Mistress, you do not suppose that…" "Of course he is responsible for all of my humiliation and suffering in my mother's brothel. He has the same hero complex that he had in his father's yangban and he wanted to use it after 'saving me' and then making money off of me in the new brothel that i haven't been to yet." "But Mistress…." "If they want to make assumptions about my health, then they can, it will only harm themselves in the end." "Young Mistress, you have just woken up after half a week and have had to relive all of your trauma, you must eat something to regain your strength and bathe. Your brother dropped off the leftover kisaengs in the new brothel and you must meet with them regardless if you want to start working there or not." "How can i possibly trust the food in here? Who knows if they wish to poison me or not?" "Don't you worry about that Mistress, I am very careful with our food here." "Where is my zither that…that he gave me?" "The string snapped, I am looking to have it fixed for you." "Only few understand my melody, who would be listening now that I broke my lover's string?"
I was in my most broken state that I had been in a while, I had lost the one thing that I wanted in this lifetime due to the plots of others and now I could only make it though these dark days when I thought of the man that I love rather than the one i woke up to in the Fifth Prince's quarters with Dal looking down at me as soon as i opened my eyes. I screamed so much when i saw him that i almost had a panic attack right there and then until he had to leave the premises and I had been trying my best to keep him at a distance from me ever since then. But now he had become a man woking for the Prince that was housing me and I knew i had no choice in getting a say in whose company i wanted. As far as everyone in this residence knew, i was Dal's fiancé and there was nothing that he wouldn't do to make it known that i was his property, just like his brother. They were both just so possessive, too ambitious, obsessive and cared too much about surface images…but Dal wouldn't hesitate to sell me out when it comes to his goals where as Seon-Ho enveloped me in them. Dal wanted a natural courtship to fit the image of a perfect gentleman whereas Seon-Ho…never let anyone touch him, apart from myself. He constantly demanded my attention and affection and coming from a lone-wolf from him, that wasn't something normal or a small achievement at all. I was surprised that he did still try to make time for me despite how busy he was with work and so on. And he never let me sleep at night without giving him what he wanted and…to be honest, a marriage would't change anything between us. I was already his wife and now i was branded as a whore weather or not I let anyone touch me.
"What is this? Why are you bringing out this food?" "What do you mean, Mistress?" "This is the very last meal that I had with him…what are you trying to do? What is going on here? Who do you truly serve?" "Young Mistress, i have already told you this. I am making a livelihood for myself from looking after you…." "But on whose orders? Do you work for Dal? Hui-Jae? Or the other 2 girls who bought me here? Tell me!" "Young Mistress, those girls died a long time ago, both of them." "What! Where? When? How? And why?" "They both betrayed each other and they took on each other's identities, but doing that lead to their own misfortune and those of their family members and clans." "What…what on earth…why hasn't my brother updated me with any news? Why hasn't he come to see me?" "Young Mistress, it looks like he is having problems tearing himself away from the Third Prince who also wants to keep you apart." "What? Please, i beg of you, please update me with news of my brother and…" "And his pregnant wife?" "Really? Will i become an aunt already?" "I believe the Third Prince will use the Nam clan to keep your brother close to him." "What! And where is Seon-Ho?" "He is trying to untangle himself from his new suitor, the Lady Min." "The sister of the Third Princess Consort?" "She demands his hand in marriage and will not give up."