The Palace of Hot Springs was nothing short of what was potentially the biggest bath that I had ever come across in my life with heated floors and the typical palace rose petals covering most of it. It was a a refreshing change from The Royal Palace with it's repetitive green and red and blues and purples that made me depressed just by staring at the walls. But these marble walls and floors and just about everything else was painted red, the symbol colour of anger and revenge. What bitter irony was this? This was not the man that I had ever planed to hand over my virginity to and yet it was the key to my survival here. As I undressed myself and stepped into the boiling hot scented water, my mind instantly took me back to just a few months ago where I would sneak a peak of all of The Seo Boys jumping into the nearest river together after a long day of work or training or even catching up on extra studying. And it was always only Hana that got to tend to them as much as she could whilst Bo-Geom and myself were always stuck indoors with nothing but sewing and book to keep us company. As women, we were not allowed the luxury of stripping off our clothes and running into any river of any kind in pure freedom and chaos, and yet here I was, having to show off my most private assets and essentially sell myself off to survive for the rest of my life.
"You do not even look at me concubine, are you really that nervous? Or is this place not to your liking? I know that the red allure of this place can scare some women off, including the noble and pure ones..." "Red is certainly an angsty colour My Lord, but it does not scare me in the least. In fact, I find it rather inspiring away from the cool tones of the palace." "Is that why you refuse to look at me? Do I disgust you that much?" He caught me out; I indeed was having a much harder time than I thought being around this person who constantly reminded me so much of my enemies on such a personal level that there could be no possible way that I was imagining it all. In the entire village; apart from Physician's Moon-Bok and Chief Park's children, nobody was around them as much as I had been in the last 2 years and I even lived with them separately away from my own parents. And I even dare to say that nobody knew of Seo Hyuk's habits and mannerisms apart from myself, and maybe even his twin.
"Forgive my inattentiveness My Lord, I have been taught how to serve a Lord...but not a husband." "Husband? What makes you think so?" "Isn't it agreed by Confucius law that if any so partners commit an intimate act, that they are already husband and wife? So, isn't this technically my wedding night?" I simply could not resist the urge to take a good look at him whilst he looked at me in awe of my answer. And his face; I could have sworn on the lives of my family that this man was almost the spitting image of The Lord Nam himself. The shock of it all made me want to throw up right there and then; I had no idea what type of hell I had been thrown into, but there was no escape for me and we all knew it, so I just had to make the best of the situation that I was in somehow, and what better way to be compensated for my pain by reaching to the top of this political ladder? It was only then that I would be able to overpower The Seo's and beat them at their own game and take back my family from being their hostages. But I still could not in good faith put the entire village in danger just for the sake of my own family, so I had to play this game as safely as possible. "Are you aware of what will happen going forward? Do not expect to make any friends here, because this is a cut-throat competition where nobody wants to be left behind, not even for a single day. But I do have to ask...you are someone that my sister put into my harem; what is your goal?" "Her goal was to eliminate The Mistress Han and Mistress Jeong and nothing else. I am also to assist you in your journey to become a Prince that her father can truly rely on. Do you believe me?" "You...are different from any other woman that I have ever met. No, wait, not entirely but...let us just say that it has been a long time since I have met a woman who would rather use her intelligence over her body to get what she wants. Maybe I can trust you after all." "Maybe so, but My Lord...what makes you think that I can trust you yet?" "My Lady...."
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The hard part was over, but it was only for now; I truly did not know how much I trusted that naive fool who could barely read any memorandums on his own without the help of his adopted father's spies. Was it really Wirth it for me to try to educate a man who could barely function on his own? I had yet to find out how deep his adopted family had his claws sunk into them and I had yet to have a personal meeting with The Princess since the last time I saw her weeks before The Concubine Selection. Had she already abandoned me now that I was here in the palace? Or was she just keeping up with her socialite life outside of the palace now that she had me here in the palace to keep an eye on things for her? I was already required to hand in reports to her on her brother and The Mistress Jeong, so what else did she expect from me? And I need to find out The Seo's intentions as soon as possible so that I would not make enemies of them before I become powerful enough to overcome them...
"I bow to Noble Lady Nam! Peace and grace to My Lady!" "You? Weren't you a servant of mind in the beginning? What are you doing here now?" "Forgive me My Lady; I thank you for remembering me, but I am here to return to your service and I will even grovel at your feet if I have to..." "...without an apology of any kind from running away from 'my service' in the first place? I did tell everyone that I value loyalty over anything, and I am sure that you have been assigned to Attendant Cho? She will be displeased with you if she ever sees you grovelling at my sedan chair and this could even cost her her reputation, so I suggest that you go back to your Mistress and grovel at her feet instead." "But My Lady...!" "So this is where you were, servant? On the way to a physician for your 'bad stomach?" "Peace be to Attendant Cho." "Noble Lady Nam, there is no point in wishing me greetings since you are a rank above mine and are clearly powerful enough to start poaching servants from your sisters here in The Imperial Harem, especially since you have just had a third batch of new servants sent over to your quarters?" "Forgive me Attendant Cho; but I am afraid that you are misunderstanding me without seeking my side of the story at all. It is out of the question for me to re-employ a servant who abandoned me, and even if I waited for him back, I could have just as easily asked His Lordship to return him to me when he took me to The Hot Spring Palace....ah, forgive me once again, how can I possibly ask for your understanding in an environment that you have never experienced before?" "My Lady, I am just as informed of Palace protocol just as much as you are..." "So if you are in fact aware that I am also aware of it, how could you possibly accuse me of going against that despite may promotion? Let it make it clear now that I have absolutely no intentions of re-hiring anyone that leaves are service; not now and not ever. And you are right; I am a higher rank than you, so how could you even think to ever compare me to a simpleton thief? And as I am crank higher than you, I suggest that those who seek to betray their Mistresses for fame and glory and steals their innocence away should be castrated right away!"
I did not when I started to loose my temper so easily, to the point where any and every little thing started to irritate me; was this really the behaviour of my expected peers after I had accomplished what everyone else would eventually accomplish? And why? Just because I was the first to be taken to The Hot Spring Palace? Dammit! I should have payed more attention to Hana when she put people in her place instead of shrinking away for fear of my so-called virtue being tainted, as if that was a real thing! And I only did that because I saw how much Seo Hyuk disliked his sister when she was being anything but ladylike. And now I realised that I should have been taking notes from Bo-Geom all along; quite little Bo-Geom who only fought back with others through her subtle actions and still mangled to act every bit of a woman, when she wasn't acting like a man dressed in their robes...
"Congratulations for receiving a pepper-painted room, My Lady!" I was more than surprised to see my servants all lined up and bowing directly at me to congratulate me on something I was not even aware of. Now that I think of it, I do not even remember seeing anyone bow to The Seo Family at all, not even their servants in their home in the kingdom. But little old me who came straight from poverty had low level servants bowing down to me now? Just after a single night with His Lordship? It was a good start, but it was nearly good enough to compete with The Mistress Jeong, not yet anyways.
"...this is a folk custom that takes place on the wedding night; to commemorate all of the hardships that both husband and wife shall go through together! Not even The Mistress Jeong was awarded this!" "So she will count on to act arrogant and loose my place? Not knowing that is what is happening to her right now..." "My Lady? Did you say something?" "Never you mind; go and send some desserts to His Lordship and invite him over for dinner today when you can. I have already spent quite a bot of tie with him already, but I also need to make sure that he eats healthily during his busy schedule."