"What on earth makes you think that? Why would they reach out to me?" "Because The Concubine Choi has her family aligned with her husband's family already, and the very last thing she should wish for is a union of marriage with her husband's man and her prior Mistress's relative. But how will she react when she finds out that the bride-to-be is already pregnant and the wedding will have to go ahead no matter what?" "What! What did you just say! Pregnant! Are you sure!" "And you as a man, what interest do you have in an unmarried woman's pregnancy?" "I…look, this doesn't concern me at all! That bastard inherited the position as the head of the household but he was too immersed in his damned stones and trying to control that girl! She was the only girl that he had ever come in contact with, and he didn't even care about the family business! I have the ambition, even if I am not related t anyone by blood…" "you are…a friend of the adopted son, are you not?" "I…i just wanted a fair chance…." "In somebody else's family! Does that make any sense at all!" "I am an illegitimate bastard! Nobody in my family wants me at all!" Here we go again, another case of illegitimacy that drove these people who even ask to be born go mad with their own birthright, which was something that they couldn't control at all…
"So you didn't work hard at all and you just stayed idle, of curse no-one will take you seriously at all! Even if you were beaten down and humiliated, you should have kept going on and…" "how easy for you to say! You are not a help-breed like myself, so what do you know about anything! Keep your simple advice to yourself!" "I am close to Nam Seon-Ho, who is an extremely successful so-called half-breed in the palace right now, and his father treated him like an disposable toy, so what excuse do you have! Nothing more than intolerant scum will ruin a person like yourself." "That is right, my own mother is very similar to this one who blows everything out of proportion that even I cannot get out of their bullshit! It is no wonder that I have been idle for all of my life!"
That was all that I needed to hear before The General Inspector caught us together after overhearing the confession that I had managed to extract from the perpetrator, but my worst fear in that moment had come true when I realised that he was not alone. A very familiar pair of eyes were burning into me when he realised how close I was to the man who had grabbed me! But of course, that didn't matter to him at all, which just didn't make any sense after what he put me through…but seeing him so soon after I….it was enough to instil fear into me as he never had before. Looking back at it now, I had always been lucky enough to curb his unnecessary anger on the rare occasions that it came my way, but it now looks like I had run out of luck when I felt the intensity of his resentment towards me right thee and then, and it was so powerful that I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that moment. But with all of the chaos that was going on, my best hope to avoid him was to slip right past him when he wasn't looking, but I was a fool if I really thought that was going to work, because guess who was right behind me and had followed me right to my chambers before he started destroying everything in his sight.
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"Why on earth did you do that, My Lady?" "What are you talking about servant, what did I do exactly?" "You are always gentle and considerate to Seo Yeon to her face, so why did you call in her ex-fiancee to the crime scene earlier in that noble home?" "Because this was his plan in the first place, to help me get back into the palace. Are you saying that I should't have called him over?" "To lure him to seeing her so close to that other man, making him misunderstand her as soon as he lost his baby?" "For everything that she has helped me with, I am willing to keep that secret for her. But The Mistress Han has grown to powerful in the palace once again, and for the survival of myself and my child, I cannot let her align herself with a powerful man such as my brother-in-law, despite Yeon's trauma with him right now. Call me selfish, but the world will be balanced once again when they reunite together. In fact, the sooner he gets her pregnant again the better, so that they can never part from each other again. They say that even a baby cannot keep an unloving coupe together, but it will work for them." "And why do you say that, My Lady?" "Because they truly and deeply love each other, even if they cannot accept it at the moment." "But why? In a world were courtship is frowned upon and parents fix marriages, then why…" "Because Seo Yeon is a talented girl with too much trouble falling into her lap where her family is concerned, so she cannot give him the attention that he craves right now. And as for him, he is far too ambitious to stop and think about that, he isn't the most considerate person when it comes to her." "But he gives her everything…" "Throwing things at her isn't the same as thinking about her emotional well-being, which is something that most men do not think about anyways."
"Is that truly the only reason why you did this?" "Well, I cannot deny her intelligence, her beauty and her wits, but I too need to survive in the palace on my own merits, and I cannot always win. It isn't jealousy, it is about survival, and I know that apart from her brother, only Seon-Ho can keep her in check, especially now of all times." "So this has nothing to do with your husband's obsession with her" "I already made her pay for that with my betrayal today, but that it all." "So you really are her friend then?" "I guess so, but I will always place myself first before I think of her, as I am not as blessed as she is with the sheer amount of people that fall for her everyday or are willing to die for her. And as for her own licentious behaviour, who am I to say anything when I got pregnant out of wedlock myself….what is that? Who is arguing so close to this place?""It is the bride and her parents, that needed somewhere….more exclusive to talk things out since they no longer trust their servants and they are noble enough to have access to this place…" "Very well, you keep an eye on my baby whilst I eavesdrop on their conversation and report back to my brother-in-law in the morning. And keep me updated with what is going on with Yeon…" "everyone can hear what is going on in her chambers at this moment." "Just make sure that he doesn't become too…forceful with her, try to stop it if that happens." "Yes, My Lady."
"…afterwards, of curse it is to propose marriage and to set a date for the wedding…" "Have you utterly lost your mind, wife! Your daughter has committed such a foolish thing and you? What do you do? With what face do we see nay of these families ever again, let alone our own neighbours?" "Everybody is already goosing about our daughter's innocence in terms of that murder, we must strike whilst the iron is hot! If we don't marry her off now, then our entire family shall loose face, husband! And it isn't like she got pregnant on her own, was it? They loved each other as we did in our youth, husband…" "Don't you dare remind me of that! Everyone is already gossiping and…" "and how do you know about that wife, if you have only left our home today? Wife? It wouldn't have been you who dared to open your mouth after what happen today, isn't that right?"
"So what if it was me! The sooner this gets out, the better! We won't have lost too much face if I took control myself of these rumours, you have to see that husband!" "How dare you waste your own biological daughter like that! Are you even human!" "Me! I wasted her! Her second engagement wouldn't have become this fragile if you didn't agree to the first one at all! And I know that we have our reason, but our daughter has to live in this society that will constantly gossip about her! For breaking off her first betrothal for her second one! She is a woman, even if she is illegitimate herself! I did everything to secure my daughter's future and I have done nothing bad to repent over! You know how tricky The Third Prince can be and we needed insurance for ourselves, before powerful enemies can break this second couple up! She is my only daughter and I do not want her toiling away for the rest of her life!""You only know the glory of a manor, but not of the dangers inside! For this stupid plan of insurance, her own in-laws will torture her for this for the rest of her life! Who is to even say that she will have a boy! What if she gives birth to a daughter! Well! Tell me! Isn't my other daughter a perfect example of that! She is legitimate and her in-laws torture her for only having girls!" "That is because your main wife has no measures for her at all! This second from already fell for her, they are just expecting an ample amount of dowry…" "what dowry? The dowry her first betrothed family already wasted away! We have no dowry left to give! He is part of the wealthiest family in this village! Your lands and monies are given by me whereas my other daughter had her maternal family add to her dowry but you? You are an orphan, so what else do you have apart from what I give you! And that all probably amounts to a quarter of what they are expecting!"
"Isn't my daughter of your blood! That means that everyone else should put something in her dowry!" "You shut your mouth! You are just a concubine and you already live lavishly than everyone else! Even more than my main wife, that I was forced to marry to cover up the fact that I got a concubine before the main wife in the first place! You should have known your place and taught your children well instead! But look at her! She has become no different than these brothel women because of you! She has shamed our entire family, why should anyone else pitch into her dowry! What a great noble woman she has become! And you are selfish enough to harp on about dowry that you don't have! If you don't have it, why agree to this marriage in the first place! Don't you have any shame at all!"
"Shame! Who are you to talk about shame! I was still chaste before I met you and you…did you even think about what you were doing to me at all! You never thought about my sense of shame but you are angry at your daughter for failing into the same trap that I fell in with you! Are you being serious right now! In the eyes of a scholar, what is shame to you at all!" "I ached for you when your family lost everything and you had nowhere else to go, but come now and you say this! Let me ask you this, if I was a poor scholar instead of a rich one, would you have loved me at all?" "I would tell you anything that you wanted to hear, as long as it ensured my own survival! Have you really not figured that out yet? And now that my daughter's future is secure, she will take me into her family and I have no more use for you anymore, old man!" "I placed you in my head for 3 decades! What do you take me as!" "Exactly! You have a big heart, so think about your daughter with it! Even if it is for the reputation of your entire clan! The time you spend with me here is time you can convince then to go ahead with this marriage! It isn't a big deal if they got just a little close! Or we all loose face from this if they do no agree with this marriage now! A family together is their glory and their demise together!"