Gap-soon Is Mine Now — She Has Become Mine
In this era, there were only two kinds of slaves.
The solgeo slave and the eoceo slave. A solgeo slave lived attached to a nobleman's household, while an eoceo slave kept his own house and family outside the walls.
So which was I? A solgeo slave, through and through. These days eoceo slaves were more common, but Lord Shin Do-yoon had always preferred keeping his slaves under his own roof.
For one thing, his estate was positively enormous. As for how that was possible — apparently he'd caught the eye of Gwanghaegun, the king who would one day be remembered as the Bloody Monarch — I didn't really know the details, so I never pried.
In any case, Lord Shin Do-yoon held a very high office. Senior Third Rank, was it? I'd earned a top grade in Korean history back in my old life, but honestly I didn't remember every detail about men like him — and besides, I was a slave. Best not to stick my neck out.
Anyway.
"Good. Dol-soi. You want to set up your own household, do you?"
"Yes, my lord! That's right!"
"Hahaha! Well then! A man ought to have a proper wife! And truth be told, I'm relieved you're the one taking Gap-soon."
He said it as though it truly were a relief. From his perspective, it must have been an awkward situation all around. His family had been a great house for generations, which meant most of his slaves had been born and raised within its walls — the useful ones kept, the useless ones sold, the whole stock bred and culled like livestock.
That was precisely why Gap-soon, the most beautiful and best-proportioned of all his slaves, was neither something he could casually sell off nor comfortably marry away. And into that dilemma, the most trusted slave in the entire household — me — steps up and offers to take her off his hands. How could he not welcome it?
"Will you take her out and live apart? Or will you remain here?"
"We'll remain here, my lord."
"Good. You've thought it through."
He stroked his beard with evident satisfaction at my answer. Leave as an eoceo slave? I'd been born here and lived my whole life as a house slave. I got four full meals a day and a soft place to rest — why on earth would I leave?
The slaves here never seemed to stop smiling. That was thanks to his kind heart — he treated us not as property but as family. Of course, like family was not the same as being family, and he was perfectly capable of discarding one of us when it suited him. But that was the nature of yangban and slave alike; nothing strange about it.
"Very well. Then... hmm. Dol-soi, you know the storehouse I had built recently?"
"Yes, my lord. I know it."
"Set up your household there."
"...I'm sorry — what?"
The storehouse he'd built lately was huge. Naturally it wasn't a proper house, so it wasn't exactly luxurious — but that was judging by modern standards. This man was handing me a building with a tiled roof.
Since when did the wind blow so favorably through Lord Shin Do-yoon's estate?
I'd let out a shout before I could stop myself, and I hurriedly bowed low to make up for it. He just waved a hand as if it were nothing.
"Dol-soi. Have you ever held a blade?"
"...May I ask what you mean, my lord?"
"I have a feeling I may need such a thing soon."
Drip.
Cold sweat slid down my back.
Under Gwanghaegun's reign, private soldiers were strictly forbidden. That was why Lord Shin kept me posted as his personal guard at all times — hiring military men for security cost money and invited suspicion. I hadn't worked that out on my own, either; he'd told me himself.
Lord Shin Do-yoon is not Gwanghaegun's man.
He enjoyed the king's favor, sure — but more accurately, it was Gwanghaegun sending love letters to Shin Do-yoon's talent, not the other way around.
When was the Injo Coup again?
Shhh...
Had I been living too comfortably? All at once, the memories of the future I'd filed away since arriving in this body came flooding back into my head, unbidden.
Now the sweat wasn't on my back — it was beading on my forehead. I could feel Lord Shin Do-yoon's eyes on me. What was this? Was he testing me?
No. More than that—
"These days it's hard to split firewood properly, and I've been thinking I ought to truly learn the axe. Perhaps I could use a woodcutter, my lord?"
"Ha, hahaha... Hwahahahaha! Good! I'll assign you the finest woodcutter in the land, one whose axe work is nothing short of legendary!"
What he was showing me was trust. Not some clumsy little test.
I bowed my head even deeper, and his voice came down over me.
"Dol-soi."
"Yes, my lord!"
"If Gap-soon bears you a child, I will free you both. The child as well."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Free us?
He'd take us out of slavery?
"That is all I'll say on the matter. You may go now."
"Y-yes, my lord..."
"Ah — one more thing. Move into your new quarters tomorrow. Someone else will be taking your old room."
"Yes, my lord!"
Click.
I closed the door on Lord Shin Do-yoon, still seated alone in the flickering light of a single candle, deep in thought, and walked away at a brisk pace.
He tells me to take up an axe. He grants me quarters far above my station. And above all, his promise of freedom — he was expecting something from me. Something enormous.
In that moment, I felt as though I had just stepped into the center of a vast, churning whirlpool.
Wham!
"Uuurgh... it huuurts..."
Right. Why am I thinking so hard about all this? Let's just not think about anything at all.
"Oh, come on! I said it hurts! It HURTS!"
Gap-soon, groaning from sore muscles all over, grabbed my arm as I lifted it. I'd pulled her into a tight embrace and was kneading her breasts, and she was grumbling about how worn out she was.
"Aigo-oo... a husband just wants to touch his wife's chest, and look at this — scolded!"
"Hnn...! Hey! You already went five hours! And then another two just now! I'm sore, I'm telling you! Hiiing..."
Tsk.
Maybe I had pushed her too hard. Watching her tear up about how her whole body ached, I felt guilty all over again.
I took Gap-soon's head in my hand and slid my arm under it, pillowing it against me.
"Wh-what is this...?"
"Come now. It's our wedding night — of course we sleep together. Come here."
"Th-that's still—!"
When I offered her the classic arm-pillow from every modern romance drama, her face went scarlet. There were no dramas or webtoons in this era, so a single clichéd gesture of affection like that was enough to melt her into a grinning fool.
"Hee, heehee... f-fine, then. Just a little like this..."
Pretending to sulk while clearly delighted, Gap-soon burrowed into my chest. People in this era probably barely bathed, yet her body gave off nothing but a sweet, fragrant scent. She'd washed earlier, sure, but only with plain water, surely. A genuine mystery.
Anyway — lying there quietly with Gap-soon in my arms, Lord Shin Do-yoon's words kept circling in my head.
Take up the axe.
How tall was I now? The last time I'd measured, I was somewhere around 185 centimeters, but I honestly couldn't say anymore. Lately people kept telling me I seemed to have grown again. Nearly 190, and I'd have to guess ninety kilograms at least — after all, I'm the one hauling the plow and dragging what the oxen should be pulling.
And whenever I found a spare moment I went up the mountain to chop wood, so my body was nothing but a slab of muscle. A slab.
That was why Lord Shin Do-yoon constantly ordered the other slaves to keep me fed without stinting.
The Injo Coup, then.
As I recalled, the coup had two great justifications. The first was deposing the queen mother and killing the crown prince — the confinement of Queen Dowager Inmok and the execution of the king's own brothers, Princes Yeongchang and Imhae. That had already happened.
The second was restoring loyalty to the Ming — the charge that Gwanghaegun had betrayed the Ming dynasty that saved Joseon during the Japanese invasion and pursued a neutral diplomacy with the rising Later Jin instead.
Who led it again?
I knew Kim Ja-jeom was one of them; the rest I only half-remembered. After the coup came the great purge. So whose side would Shin Do-yoon be on?
The side of Gwanghaegun, getting purged? Or the side that betrays the king and shakes hands with the Westerners?
If it was the former, I wouldn't come out unscathed either. I'd already asked him for an axe, after all.
"Haah..."
"Hmmm... nnmmm..."
Letting out a sigh, I reached over to calm my troubled mind by groping Gap-soon's breasts. Careful not to squeeze too hard and wake her, I kneaded them gently, then brushed my fingertips across her nipples, little by little.
Her body trembled finely, and the faint, lewd moans that slipped out of her in her sleep nearly made me lose all control and flip her skirt up right then and there.
Exerting superhuman restraint, I quietly pulled her hand over instead, rubbed it against me until I'd spent myself once, tossed the soiled cloth scrap outside, and fell asleep.
"Oh my goodness — Gap-soon and Dol-soi?"
"I knew it would come to this."
"Well then, what happens to Ok-soon?"
"Pfft — what's that old crow going to say about it? Dol-soi might as well be Lord Shin Do-yoon's own adopted son!"
"That much is true. You know how much the master dotes on the man."
The news that Dol-soi, the power player among power players of the slave quarters, was setting up a household with Kim Gap-soon set the whole of Lord Shin Do-yoon's estate buzzing.
Nobody was particularly surprised that he was taking a wife — if anything, it felt a little overdue. But two things had everyone's attention: that the bride was Kim Gap-soon, and the house Lord Shin Do-yoon had granted them.
However much backing Ok-soon enjoyed from the lady of the house, what could she possibly say against a woman who was now the wife of Dol-soi — a man all but adopted by the master of the estate itself?
And as if to confirm the rumor, word spread that Lord Shin had simply handed over the enormous storehouse he'd recently built, ordered part of its contents sent to the couple for household use, and commissioned an entirely new storehouse to hold the rest.
Just how much money was this man throwing around?
"Aigoo, our Dol-soi is finally getting married!"
"Kim Gap-soon, of all people. Lucky bastard. No wait — is she the lucky one?"
"Good for them, I say!"
Each of the newlyweds was, of course, being mobbed and congratulated by their respective crowds. Dol-soi was surrounded by the male slaves, showered with blessings and green with their envy. Taking the most beautiful, best-built woman in the quarters naturally earned a few jealous glares, but no one dared show it.
Anyone who tried would be folded in half by Dol-soi.
Meanwhile, on Kim Gap-soon's side of the compound, a full-blown girls' talk session was underway.
"Gap-soon, honey, why are you walking like that? Was he really that big? Kekeke!"
"Everyone already knows how big Dol-soi is. Didn't you see the way he carried that lumber last month?"
"Ah, Gap-soon! Careful, don't fall over!"
Flusshhh...
Their bawdy teasing turned Kim Gap-soon's face bright red. She tried to stammer out a defense, but her legs were shaking so violently she could barely walk, and her aching lower back wouldn't let her stand up straight — a sight that only set the slave women laughing harder.
All of them had gathered out of their shared hatred of Ok-soon, which was exactly why they could joke like this.
Of course, not everyone was amused.
"Tch... her, with Dol-soi?"
"What a waste of a man."
"Bet she snagged him with those watermelon tits of hers."
"And that ass? You know she was shoving that lumber-wagon backside at him every chance she got."
The slave women had split into Ok-soon's camp and Gap-soon's camp, and with Gap-soon's side suddenly surging ahead, the Ok-soon faction was growing desperate. Trusting that Ok-soon would somehow fix things, they began tearing into Gap-soon behind her back without restraint. It was hopeless to switch sides now — better to cling to Ok-soon while there was still time.
When Ok-soon heard their whispering, she spoke up.
"Hah! Didn't I tell you? They're planning to marry me off to Chil-seong — the one working at the Choi household next door!"
"Oh my, Chil-seong?"
"That's right. They say he'll be sent over here for work any day now."
None of this had actually been settled, of course. It was mere talk, a rumor barely begun — but Ok-soon repeated it anyway to reassure the slaves who followed her.
While hiding the anxiety gnawing at her behind her back.