"The Mistress Jeong has caused trouble once again! What do I do about this, Lee Geom? Just what the hell have you gotten me into when you introduced me to this bat-shit crazy brothel girl!" "My Lord, I have just come back from some very serious business in your kingdom that I need to discuss with you as soon as possible! But go to check up on the girl then I will have a talk with you. In the meantime, I will just help myself to your bed, so it is best to make it a quick trip before I cam caught here in your humble abode. By the way, what will you do about your Mistress?" "There is nothing that I can do since she has gained the trust of my adopted father in ways that I haven't yet...but I do have someone who has offered to deal with her on my behalf." "Really? I wonder who on earth could overpower such a powerful brothel Mistress that managed to convince The Third Prince into bringing her into the highest rank of The Imperial Harem for his son?" "Honestly? I have a better relationship with my sister than anyone else apart from you. And she had proved her care for me by sending someone who is quite capable in terms of everything that these noble women are not. She is almost like The Mistress Jeong, but in the form of a noble woman who is not afford to cross some lines to get what she wants, and yet I cannot imagine her to be as ruthless as my so-called Mistress is." "So-called Mistress?" "Listen Geom, for me; I need a harem of bloodthirsty and well-connected women who will do anything for me, and right now I have 2 in the running even though I feel nothing for one of them. I am trying to keep my emotions in check, but it is hard when I have never been able to express them at all. No wonder he was like that...." "What are you mumbling about now? Why who was like what?" "My...uncle, from a long time ago." "What about him? What did he do? I have never heard you talk about your blood family before." "My uncle was raised to be ambitious to survive as an illegitimate bastard under his father's roof, and he had as secret weapon to help him achieve everything that he wanted." "Let me guess, she was a concubine just as ruthless as The Mistress Jeong?" "No; she was his childhood friend's sister that he made his own woman and eventually his main wife despite her disability, orphanage and living in poverty in and our of brothels." "I do not understand." "You do not need to, I just...am now beginning to understand why he was so possessive over her, to the point where he really limited her interactions with me! And he away slept her hidden in his home as much as possible and basically gave her the entire world from the comfort of his own home..." "You should really go now and we can talk later; check up on the girl and let u both sleep off this hangover together."
"...Your Lordship; The Noble Lady Jung is well out of danger now, but she remains unconscious due to excessive water inhalation. We have already written prescriptions for her to recover quickly after the effects of such an incident, but it will still take some time for her to recover, thus rendering her incapable of serving you for at least the rest of this month." "You must spare no effort as her personal doctor; and where are her servants? How could they have allowed this to have happened?" "Please forgive us Your Lordship; our Noble Lady sent us away from her to carry out some errands upon her return to her quarters and she just..." "Your Lordship, The Mistress Jeong has just arrived from the temple." "Mistress Jeong? Wasn't Noble Lady Jung with her tonight? What happened?" "Your Lordship, I was indeed with The Noble Lady Jung, but I am simply unaware of her actions after she left my residence and I made it clear to everyone that I would be at the Temple in the evening. But Your Lordship, it is clear that the guards were inefficiently on patrol to come to Noble Lady Jung's timely rescue. I am afraid that this I say negligence in managing The Imperial Harem and I am willing to receive punishment, but there is another grave matter that I must inform you about that concerns your position here in The Royal Palace. If we were to speak in private first....maybe over dinner in my quarters?" "The guards patrol on scheduled shifts, if you are to be punished for this, then I should be as well by my father." "I can see now how inefficient the servants are as well! How could they dare to let this happen! Your Lordship, we should be doing everything we can to rectify this issue, starting from sending these useless peasants to The Department of Penalty, lest they become a burden to anyone else here in the harem!" "Your Lordship!" "Yes, Noble Lady Nam! Do you have something to say?" "Forgive me, but as a close friend of Noble Lady Jung, I feel it is inappropriate to send out heavy punishments on servants who were simply doing their job. When Noble Lady Jung wakes ups she will naturally be very vulnerable and seeing new servants may unsettle her. Why don't you punish the servants by taking away their stipends until their lady recovers? It won't be too late to action then if you are still unsatisfied with their services."
"Noble Lady Nam! It is imperative that we discipline servants in a time like this, lest our ponds become swimming pools for all of the concubines here. She is also responsible for the incompetence of her own servants...." "Mistress, pardon the interruption, but are you suggesting that we punish the unconscious Noble Lady Jung at this moment as well? I can imagine that her family will have something to say about that, especially to The Third Prince. I dare not even thin about what action her father would take against The Royal Family that would eventually let everyone else follow as well..." "Noble Lady Nam is right about this situation; what else do you suggest?" "Just like The Mistress Jeong said; we should be doing everything we can to rectify this issue, starting from sending these useless peasants to The Department of Penalty, lest they become a burden to anyone else here. So why don't we start with the people who are truly at fault here, which is The Imperial Guards. How is it that we have an entire fleet of them in the Imperial Harem alone and yet they were unable to stop such a small accident from taking place like this? What is the use of them at all otherwise? Leniency from then will send out the message that they can do whatever they want according to their unique ranks and not be held responsible for anything at all, or we The Royal Family are the incompetent ones for hiring incompetent servants, so we have no say in ruling this entire kingdom either. It is necessary to separate punishment and compensation when we are all trying to help establish your rule, Your Lordship, so the decision rests in your hands to make a sound judgement in this case." "Your Lordship! You cannot expect to make such a decision on your own..." "Mistress, can I ask why you ate trying to manage His Lordship like this? If you think about it, this decision will benefit you as well since this indigent took place right in your quarters. Anyone would think that you are in fact guilty of this crime and are trying to stop The Imperial Guards from being sent away in order to hide something pertaining to this accident. Punishing only her servants may harm your prestige on top of you having time to chance your clothes and make up between hosting The Noble Lady Jung in your quarters on such a dark night and checking up on her now." "You..."
"What an excellent observation Noble Lady Nam; it is most sensible to deal with punishments this way instead of acting hap-hazardously and gaining criticism from the family of the concubine who worked closely with my father in particular. And in order to better protect everyone here, I will personally have The Imperial Guards replaced and I am warning all of you that my father The Third Prince is not to be disrupted by petty grievances like this. As for this important dinner and talk, it had better be as serious as you say; this is a serious matter hat has occurred and I had better stay with The Noble Lady Jung until she recovers." "Very well, You're Lordship."
The amount of restraint that I was placing on myself to not lunge myself directly at The Mistress Jeong for being a bully and malicious enough to do this to another concubine! Just what on earth gave her the power to do what she did? She was a mere mistress and below us all in rank, so what put her at the top of the social order here? What made The Third Prince trust a kisaeng over the daughters of the minsters who were supporting his reign in The Imperial Palace? "My Lady, will you stay here to accompany The Noble Lady Jung until he wakes up?" "If The Mistress Jeong insists on taking away His Lordship, then I may as well keep myself busy instead if waiting on him hand and foot like this. I will make sure that he sees that I do not need him in my life at all to accomplish the goals that I have in mind..." "Distance makes the heart grow fonder. But My Lady, I have heard something through the grapevine of all of the servants..." "Yes? What is it?" "The physician that you sent away to check on The Noble Lady Jung...it turns out that he was a witness to everything that happened?" "Really? Quickly, bring him over here and..." "My Lady, have you forgotten all about your harsh words towards him? You banned him from ever entering your quarters ever again and we all took that into account on your behalf and submitted a petition on your behalf that we took to His Lordship and he approved of it straight away!" "Wait, what? When did this happen? And why did you do it without my approval?" "Mistress...you were the one who told him to pass on the message to us that you who would like us to come up with a petition for His Lordship to approve of. He is now assigned to The Attendant Kim and has been sent to her quarters until she gains the favour of His Lordship. My Lady...?" "You ate dismissed; please wait for me in my own residence to return whilst I shall have The Noble lady Jung's servant serve me."
The realisation that I was trapped by The Seo's more than anyone even after they had abandoned me here in The Palace only hit me once everyone had left and I was entirely on my own. All of this mental pressure and little support that I had on me alone was crippling and I did not even have a soul to share my burners with or a shoulder to cry on. Soon, Seo Chul would take over The Imperial Guards in The Royal Harem, Bo-Geom would be gaining the trust of the other concubines before I even had the chance to control them myself or expose the truth of The Msitress Jeong to any of them! How could this be! Just exactly how powerful were they! Nobody knew who their real identities were, including this so-called mystery friend of His Lordship who was probably a spy sent to him to influence god only knows what upon him. How on earth could I possibly handle all of these people on my own? How could I climb up the rank of these concubines without the help of these people who held so much power? They hardly integrated with anyone else, so whose power were they borrowing in the palace to achieve all that they were? How could Seo Chul, Hyuk and even Bo-Geom achieve everything that they studied and worked hard for during their first year out in the kingdom away from the village living on their own? Did they have other contacts elsewhere that were helping them? Or did The Lord Nam really help set up his children and nephews on their behalf like this? If The Lord Nam really did help them, then maybe there was a way that I could receive similar help as well? Was it possible?