Settling the Pecking Order
As I followed Chil-seong, who had come to fetch me, toward where the Madam was waiting, the slaves around us kept sneaking glances in my direction, one by one.
As if their stares could cow me. My skull hadn't even cracked open yet.
"Well, uh... I'll be off, then."
"Good work."
"Eesh..."
With Chil-seong gone, I stood waiting at the door.
The principle was simple: unless the higher-up tells you to come in, you wait.
After a moment, Kwon A-young's voice drifted out from within.
"Enter."
"Yes, Madam."
Creeeak.
I opened the door and stepped inside to find the Madam seated in a composed, dignified posture.
The first wife of Lord Shin — in other words, the true mistress of the house, and Shin Ha-yoon's own mother.
I was still turning her information over in my head when she spoke.
"Dol-soi."
"Yes."
"What happened this time was excessive."
A slave is the property of the yangban.
In other words—
I, a mere slave, had come close to maiming other slaves.
Twice.
One was the slave I'd knocked out with a thrown axe. The other was the one Gap-soon had seized by the hair.
Those two.
Kwon A-young hadn't asked for the circumstances. That much was none of her concern, after all. We were slaves, and they were the masters.
And Kwon A-young was the true wife of the real master, Lord Shin, and the lady of the household.
Managing the slaves was her duty as mistress — which was surely why she'd summoned me here for a scolding.
"Yes. I understand."
When I nodded and answered, Kwon A-young let out a sigh.
"Very well. Explain why you did it."
First, the scolding — because I had done wrong.
Then, the question — because she wanted the story.
An ordinary slave would have simply been scolded and punished on the spot. But I was the slave her husband, Lord Shin, doted on.
So no matter that she was the mistress of the house, she couldn't punish me without hearing my side first.
"You will be aware, Madam, that I recently set up my own household."
"Yes. I know it well."
"I am. And it seems those female slaves were plotting together to have their way with me."
"Wh-what...?"
The face of Kwon A-young, who had been nodding along so calmly, flushed deep red.
Her coldly maintained expression crumbled into open fluster.
"I heard them say that if they stuck their backsides out to catch my eye and showed me what was between their legs, they could knock me right over."
"I-is that so. And so Gap-soon..."
"Yes. You know better than anyone how much that girl loves me, don't you, Madam?"
"W-well... yes, I suppose."
Nod.
Kwon A-young was, by default, the one who managed the slaves.
So it was safe to assume she knew everything about the comings and goings among the servants.
Which meant she already knew that I had rescued Gap-soon from Ok-soon's bullying, and that Gap-soon had fallen for me because of it.
"It seems Gap-soon momentarily lost her reason. So please, I beg you — punish me in her place."
"N-no... no. You two will not be punished."
The ones at fault were the others.
Besides, Gap-soon and I were a couple that Lord Shin favored to the point of personally granting us our own storage quarters — how could he possibly punish me?
And because I knew all of this, I threw myself down and banged my head against the floor.
"This is my fault entirely! It's because I took off my shirt in the heat! Punish me with death instead!"
BAM! BAM!
"No, no! Stop that!"
Startled, Kwon A-young hurriedly grabbed my shoulders as I slammed my forehead into the floorboards.
Let's consider her position for a moment.
I was Lord Shin's favored slave. Fine. She could accept that much — she played favorites with her own slave, Ok-soon, after all.
But this time I hadn't merely bullied another slave; I'd nearly crippled two of them.
So what had she thought when the news reached her? Something like, 'Ah. The boy has finally forgotten his place.' But then — wait a moment.
When it all came out, there wasn't a shred of fault on my side.
So what was she to do? Her plan had surely been to say, "Right. Be more careful from now on. Hmm? I'll have a word with those girls myself this time, so let it go." Something along those lines.
And then, out of nowhere, I was smashing my forehead into the floor and begging on my wife's behalf — from her point of view, the situation had suddenly jumped from a scripted WWE match into a no-holds-barred UFC bout.
"E-enough! I said enough!"
When I kept hammering my head against the floor, she shrieked at me.
Only then did I stop splitting my scalp, and Kwon A-young let out a long sigh.
"Hooooh... I-I will not punish you, so stop this at once...."
"Thank you, Madam."
Sighing, Kwon A-young swept a hand across her ample chest in relief.
I bowed my head in deference, and she — perhaps her head ached from all that thudding — clutched it with one hand while waving the other at me.
"Fine. Now you may take your—"
BANG.
"What is the meaning of this."
"...Eh?"
But at that very moment—
Someone flung the door wide open.
"I asked you, what is the meaning of this?"
"Th-that... husband! It's an o, a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!"
"I heard everything from outside. And you would tell me falsehoods now?"
Lord Shin himself.
My partner-in-crime, asking the question with a face carved from ice.
The flustered Kwon A-young flailed her arms as she spoke, which only made her look all the more suspicious.
And just as Lord Shin's expression began to twist open with suspicion—
"My lord. It truly is a misunderstanding."
"...Speak, then."
Lord Shin, his lips twitching, turned his gaze not to his wife but to me, as if to hear my account first.
Feeling his eyes on me, I bowed my head even deeper.
"The truth is, this time the fault was indeed mine. May I be permitted to explain the circumstances?"
"Do so."
I told Lord Shin everything, one piece at a time.
Naturally, I shrank Gap-soon's share of the blame to nearly nothing while inflating the crimes of the female slaves enormously.
Kwon A-young realized exactly what I was doing, but she kept her mouth shut.
As he listened, Lord Shin's face gradually softened, and by the time I finished, he was smiling.
"Ha ha! So it was I who misunderstood. My dear wife — I apologize."
"...! N-no, not at all!"
At Lord Shin's apology, tears welled up in the corners of Kwon A-young's eyes.
Stroking his beard, he gave her shoulder a light pat.
Yet even that alone seemed to be more than enough — her whole body trembled.
"Very well. I have heard the whole of it... Dol-soi. What do you think should be done?"
Here it comes.
At Lord Shin's question, I dropped flat to the floor and answered.
"How could the likes of me possibly ask anything of you, my lord? That you have withheld punishment is more than enough."
"You rascal! Out with it, now!"
Lord Shin pressed me playfully, half in jest.
And at the sight of it, Kwon A-young's eyes went wide.
I pretended not to notice her pupils shaking violently at how much more he favored me than she'd imagined, and spoke up carefully.
"Well... could you possibly let Gap-soon handle some of my duties, with those two? I find myself rather buried in work these days—"
"Ha ha ha! Of course that's easily done."
I have a lot of work.
In other words: between the tasks assigned to me and how exhausting my nighttime "training" had become, I was implying that even with Gap-soon's help, the load was too much — and Lord Shin laughed and agreed.
Above all, he seemed pleased that I knew my place.
My place.
No matter that we were "in the same boat," I was still nothing more than a slave.
So demanding too much of him would have been nothing short of madness.
Lord Shin was likely saying it half out of indulgence, half out of a wary hope that I wouldn't try to climb any higher.
Nodding lightly with a smile, he said:
"Good. From now on, stick only to the duties assigned to you. And how is Gap-soon? Any news of a child?"
"How could there not be?"
"Heh heh heh heh! Good, good. How many does she plan to bear?"
"She ought to bear at least five."
"Aigoo, five? Will that be enough?"
My conversation with Lord Shin grew deeper and longer by the minute.
And watching it, Kwon A-young's eyes weren't just wavering anymore — now her whole body was flinching.
Because this was a relationship that could no longer be called that of a master and a slave.
"Hooo... very well. I will handle this matter myself. By the way — have you no thoughts of taking a concubine?"
"Gah—!"
A concubine.
The moment that word left his mouth, Kwon A-young couldn't keep her lips pressed together.
Chatting with him for a long while? Having a deep conversation? Taking his side?
Fine. All of that, she could believe.
But asking his permission to take a concubine — a permission never sought — and him volunteering, before anyone asked, that I should take one? That was trust beyond anything she had imagined.
Naturally, just like Kwon A-young, I was startled too.
And then I understood.
He's showing her.
Lord Shin was warning Kwon A-young right now.
Don't touch this man.
And Kwon A-young was feeling the full, aching weight of that warning this very moment.
A glance.
Flinch!
The instant Lord Shin's gaze touched her, Kwon A-young's whole body shuddered.
Having confirmed that she'd absorbed the warning, Lord Shin clapped me on the shoulder and said:
"Think carefully on the concubine matter. I would welcome it."
"Y-yes, my lord."
"I'll take my leave now."
"...! F-farewell, my lord...!"
When Lord Shin waved a hand and turned away, Kwon A-young scrambled up from her seat to see him off.
The moment his figure disappeared into the distance, the strength drained from her legs and she sank down where she stood.
Thump.
"Haaah..."
The face of Kwon A-young, slumped on the floor, was the very picture of confusion.
She seemed unable to believe that what she had just witnessed was real.
She stole a glance at me and said:
"Th-that... you may go now. Today's matter will be handled between myself and my lord."
"Yes, Madam. Thank you sincerely."
"N-no need. Go on."
At her words, I closed the door and stepped out — and heard her voice through it.
"What in the world..."
Listening to her mutter, I turned my mind to how the household actually operated.
First, the master of this house, Lord Shin.
Then his wife, Kwon A-young, and Lady Shin Ha-yoon.
Finally, the concubines and their children.
One thing was absolute: Lord Shin Do-yoon was the master of this house, and that would never change.
But was Kwon A-young truly the mistress of it? Well... that was a different question.
She must feel terribly insecure.
Which was why she'd summoned me today for a scolding in the first place.
The concubines were winning Lord Shin Do-yoon's affection, so this was her way of firing a warning shot — at them, through me.
I have the authority to discipline even the slave my husband dotes on, and he loves me enough to allow it.
But it had backfired spectacularly. She'd ended up receiving a warning from Lord Shin herself.
After today, her standing within the household would shrink even further.
I was musing that noble houses really are a tangled mess as I walked along, when I heard a sound.
Pssst! Pssst!
"Hm?"
By this hour, all the slaves should have been busy at their work.
Wondering what was going on, I glanced to the side — and there stood Shin Ha-yoon, the picture of anxiety.
Seeing her beckoning frantically from the shadow of a secluded nook, I checked that no one was around and slipped in beside her.
Clunk.
"Wh-what is it? Surely... surely we haven't been found out...?"
"No. We haven't."
"Hoooooh..."
She apparently still didn't know the details, because she sighed in relief and pressed a hand to her chest.
Glancing warily around, Shin Ha-yoon asked me:
"Th-that is... you ought to tell me how we're to proceed from now on, shouldn't you..."
Whether she was embarrassed by her own words or not, she stole a glance at me and then stared down at the ground.
Snort.
"Wh-what are you smirking about...!"
"Are you looking forward to it?"
"Wh-wh-what...!"
At my question, her face went scarlet.
"The lakeside. How about it? No one else will be coming by."
"F-fine. Then... then we'll see. Heh...!"
Answering me, Shin Ha-yoon hurried off at a brisk pace. Just as she took hold of the door to head straight outside—
"Whew, it's hot as blazes. Summer's properly here already."
"Summer started ages ago, dummy."
She froze.
The slaves' voices from outside stopped her in her tracks.
She waited for them to pass, and the moment their voices faded, she flung the door open and said:
"S-see you tonight..."
"Ah, I can't tonight. I have business."
Aaah...
"Wh-what! S-since when does a slave have 'business'...!"
"I promised Gap-soon a long, leisurely night together. Or would you care to join us?"
"Are you mocking me...! I'll make you regret this, just you wait!"
And with that, she scurried off as if to hide from every prying eye — her face burning bright red. Why, there's a tomato right there.
The view of her from behind as she fled in mortification, back turned—
"Hoooh..."
was, quite simply, irresistible.