"Mistress, maybe you should get some more sleep? I know that the baby has kept you up all night long..." "Forget it, there is no excuse for me to set a bad example to all of the other concubines; I am in the position that I am in now and I will not abuse it, no matter what circumstances I face. Is the soup ready?" "Yes My Lady, we have had the physician that Noble Lady Nam threw out recruited to our side. He has been promoted to Physician of The Imperial Harem under your orders." "Very good, although I still cannot believe that dense little slut made His Lordship replace my guards! Nobody has ever stepped over my authority like this in my entire lifetime and I shall make sure that it never happens again! For treading all over my face like she did last night, I shall make sure to replay the favour tenfold in this case!" "Mistress, you new silk robes have come in from His Lordship himself. It seems as though he is pleased with your idea from last night. It certainly has all of the minister satisfied with this plan, although temporary until His Lordship can sire a real heir. The Third Prince though..." "Yes, this plan has certainly come back to bite him since he has made it his agenda from the start to wipe out all illegitimate children. Wasn't that the base of his feud with the brother-in-law of Seo Hwi? Who was an illegitimate half-breed by three quarters?" "It was Mistress, which is why we need to do everything we can to get you pregnant before everyone else, or I fear that he will stop supporting you." "And that is why I need you to look into this mystery friend of his adopted son that he keeps locked up in his quarters. There is absolutely no way that they have the type of relationship that I think, since he clearly loves his women. But if he is wise and bold enough to be able to give His Lordship advice, to have his ear like nobody else? He would be the perfect person who procreate a child with. And whatever happened to that Companion Kang? Is anyone serving her in the cold palace?" "She has had a breakdown on her first day and has been in a wicked mood ever since; she keeps kicking out her maids and bringing them back for some reason or another." "Let us keep one servant and silently gift her to Noble Lady Nam, for I will have a use for her against this small social circle that seems to be hell-bent on going up against me. Get everyone ready for the morning assembly now."
Finally, I now had a means and motive to carry out my plans to make everyone else in this Imperial Harem redundant, I just needed to meet this future mate of mine who was hiding himself in the shadows and then I would be set for life here in the palace with no threats to me now or in the future at all. I could finally breathe a little and I could even have the powerful families of these concubines under my thumb; maybe not for a long as I wish, but then hopefully I would get pregnant before anyone could figure out what I was doing and nobody would be able to question me then. So I made my way to the assembly hall with my head held high for the very first time since I settled here in the palace before anyone else in the best silk robes and scented wigs with the most expensive accessories in the kingdom to see all of these concubines already waiting for me; not The Princess or His Lordship, but little old me from The Ihwaru Brothel who outdid everyone there to be set on the path to becoming a Princess Consort.
"Concubines; it has almost been a year since your arrival and none of you have successfully conceived at all, which worries all of us at The Imperial Court. So with His Lordshiop's blessings, I have prepared you all gwibitang soup that we shall all be taking regular during these assemblies. Fear not, for I shall be drinking the same soup with you to ensure your safety and any concerns that you have about this. I have had it prepared especially for you, so take this as an honour from The Royal Family that we all serve and bless His Lordship for this favour that he has bestowed upon us...what is it? Why are you all not drinking this? Are you all perhaps suspicious of my intentions? After I have just declared that I shall be drinking this soup with you all? Noble Lady Nam? Let us start with you." "I think not Mistress, not until I have thoroughly examined this suspicious concoction of yours myself." "Greetings to you Princess, but I think that you are unaware of certain things that have taken place recently in your absence..." "That doe snot excuse youth act how you please without any restraint or blessings from my father himself, Mistress. And I have certainly never heard of gwibitang soup that contains gromwell and mungbean beans before. Don't these beans specifically prevent conception in women? Have you thought about how we will all deal with the backless from all of this if anyone were to ever find out? Well?"
"What matters most of all now is having a firm discipline over The Imperial Harem; they all cannot conceive at once to upset public order." That is deceptive reasoning as I have ever heard..." "I am just protecting The Imperial House with your brother's blessings, Princess. And what are you doing, Noble Lady Nam? Are you not going to drink this after my various warnings?"
Despite everything I had said and done to this malicious Noble Lady, I really did feel like now was the time that I would get this wretch under my thumb once and for all. But imagine may shock and utter fury when this capricious Noble Lady dumped the bowl of this very expensive concoction on my shoes that would have cost more than her annual expenses alone! It was already taking everything in me to not strangle each and everyone of these women in the presence of The Princess, but this so-called Noble Lady in particular was really starting to get under my skin now, just when I had much more to loose than before. "Just what the hell do you think you are doing? Are you looking down on me right now? I really am beginning to wonder what sort of home training that your parents gave you before sending you over here to live in The Imperial Harem?" "Forgive me Mistress, but drinking this concoction would be a disservice to His Lordship and this Imperial Harem entirely. And I would much rather disobey your orders than His Lordship's or The Third Prince for that matter." "Do you think that you get a say in this, you bitch!" "Mistress Jeong! It sounds to me as if Noble Lady Nam has made a sound judgment indeed; concubine must never forget their only duty here in The Imperial Harem. Also, I am here to fetch the concubine that my brother has called for a meeting with. Let us go, Noble Lady Nam." "Princess! She cannot just..." "Forgive me for not indulging in your tantrums Mistress, but we all have far more serious issues to deal with at present." "I really do wonder what can be more important than your brother's offspring, Your Highness." "There is a certain criminal act that has taken place in the heart of this kingdom that has everyone questing their own safety at the moment; is that still a good enough excuse, Mistress?" "Whatever can you mean?" "Can you imagine Mistress, that there was a temple in the kingdom that was burnt down, along with a team of monks who had just taken in a new-born baby that was suspected to be the illegitimate son of my adopted brother. But I suppose that you have no information regarding this, do you Mistress?" "I..." "I thought not."
"Thank you, Your Highness for taking me out of that dangerous environment." "Forgive me Noble Lady Nam, for throwing you into this harem and not meeting with you much sooner. This experimental harem has proven to cause much more trouble and chaos than we all anticipated, and so soon at that. But since it was my official idea to hold this on your behalf, I am the one taking responsibility for every single detail..." "My behalf?" "Do you not remember our letter exchange after our first meeting in the market stalls? This experimental harem was your idea in the first place and I have to say that it has pacified my father immensely. But there is such chaos occurring outside the kingdom with this counterfeit silver issue and rebels in each and every corner of this kingdom that my father has to deal with alone..." "Excuse me? What dd you just say? Counterfeit silver?" "...and then I have to make sure my brother is handling affairs well on his own and not drinking so much. So forgive me once again and I shall ensure that we have a proper meeting soon, but now I am expected to have lunch with some of the women that I introduced to you before. Farewell, Lady Nam." Letter exchange? What letter exchange? I have always met up with The Princess face to face whenever she summoned me after our first meeting, so what on earth was she talking about? And how did she already know about the counterfeit silver situation? Just what was going on behind my back? How did The Seo's expect me to survive here without telling me anything at all? Just how was I supposed to answer these questions the next time that I was alone with her? No, as much as this hit my pride, I now realised the mistake that i committed against Bo-Geom and I badly needed her on my side again, but how? I had both insulted and assaulted her, to the point where I was slightly scared to look at Seo Hyuk in the eyes after this. Good god, what on earth had I done to myself? I was biting the hands that fed me and cutting off the main connections that I had in this hellhole of a harem, even though they were wrong for what they did to me. I needed them as much as they needed me, as much as I hated to admit it, but this was the situation that I was stuck in for the rest of my life, so I needed all of the help that I could get to help myself, to help them and potentially helped my husband, if they allowed me to do so.