The Ultimatum
“Mmm.”
The court lady let out a strained groan.
Thinking she might not have heard me properly, I kindly repeated myself.
“I’m a court maid from Chwiseondang. Which hall are you from, Court Lady Mamanim?”
“……”
“My name is Hwang Bong-bong. What should I call you, Mamanim? Court Lady Kim Mamanim? Court Lady Bak Mamanim?”
“Mmm……”
Her face pale, the court lady continued to exercise her right to remain silent, then suddenly rummaged inside her robes. What she pulled out was a large yakgwa pastry wrapped neatly in paper.
“My, aren’t you a talkative, adorable little aegi-nain. Here, eat this first. It’s wonderfully sweet. I brought it straight from the Saenggwabang myself.”
“A Court Lady Mamanim carrying around fresh yakgwa made right in the Saenggwabang! Thank you, I’ll enjoy it. But I asked you earlier—which Court Lady Mamanim are you? Are you Lady Kim? Lady Bak? Or maybe Lady Choe? Lady Hong? Lady Yoon? Lady Cha?”
With every surname I rattled off, her face grew darker, shifting toward the color of wet clay. Even so, she stubbornly refused to reveal her identity.
Well, nothing I can do. Guess I have to give up here…
Did she really think I’d just roll over like that?
“S’okay if you won’t tell me. If I ask Yong-hee hamanim, she’ll spill everything anyway! Right, Yong-hee hamanim?”
“Eek! W-Why would I—!”
“Why not? Is this a secret meeting? All sneaky-sneaky?”
Yong-hee gritted her teeth and jerked her head away with a cold, haughty snort. Even as I happily munched into the honey pastry, I could palpably feel the thick tension pooling in the cramped space beneath the wall. Between bites, I watched the frantic looks flying between the court lady and Yong-hee.
Let’s stop prying for her name for now.
My real purpose was simply to instill a sense of dread in the woman—to let her know she had been caught. Besides, uncovering her identity wouldn’t be difficult in the slightest. The moment I dropped the description of a plump, heavily built court lady in her thirties, Seol-hyang, who knew every shred of palace maid gossip inside out, would hand me the answer on a silver platter. While I was already fairly confident she belonged to Bogyeongdang, it never hurt to tap a stone bridge before crossing.
In any case, their little rendezvous ends right here.
I couldn’t let the two of them whisper any further. Reaching out, I gave Yong-hee’s skirt a firm tug.
“Oh! Yong-hee hamanim! I almost forgot!”
“Ugh, what now?”
“Court Lady Han told all the aegi-nains to gather right away.”
“Court Lady Han did…? Why?”
Hearing the subtle tremor in her voice, it was obvious she was terrified despite her desperate attempts not to show it. If she was this cowardly, why on earth couldn’t she cut ties with Suk-bin?
Just what kind of grand reward did Suk-bin dangle in front of her?
A flicker of curiosity stirred inside me, but I decided I could look into that later.
“I don’t know. She just said to hurry up.”
Urging Yong-hee along, I took the lead. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the court lady shooting Yong-hee a swift, pointed look. No doubt a silent command telling her to handle things so their identities wouldn’t blow up. More than likely, Yong-hee would write off whatever I said as the wild imagination of a toddler. In a contest of credibility against a four-year-old, there was no better strategy.
Right. You have to find a way to survive too, don’t you, Yong-hee?
But you know what, Yong-hee?
I’m doing the exact same thing.
No, my desperation ran far deeper than hers. What was on the line for me was my actual life.
Which meant…
Let’s have ourselves a proper fight.
Bring it on, Yong-hee.
“Let go of me.”
After we had walked a short distance, Yong-hee’s sharp voice cut through the air. When I blinked up at her innocently, she roughly tore my hand from her skirt, pinching the back of my hand in the process. A dull sting flared across my skin.
“Do you really think Court Lady Han is going to believe you? You’re just a four-year-old brat. Kids your age babble nonsense all the time. Do you think she’ll believe a toddler who hasn’t even been at Chwiseondang for a month, or me, who’s served here for three whole years?”
Right on cue. She didn’t deviate from my expectations by even a millimeter.
Still, I had no intention of tattling on her this very day. Once I decided to test the waters, I had to do it thoroughly. Identifying that hefty court lady and pinpointing Yong-hee’s true goal took precedence. And more than anything, I wanted to give Yong-hee one final chance. Not that I was trying to play the saint after coming this far, but…
Ten is still so terribly young.
I had made plenty of mistakes when I was ten years old. I had committed things that could easily be called bad deeds. I had told lies, spoken ill of friends I fought with… I had done all of that.
I looked straight into Yong-hee’s eyes, dropping every trace of toddler lisp and baby talk.
“So. You intend to keep playing the spy?”
“……!”
Startled by the abrupt shift in my speech, Yong-hee’s eyes wavered violently.
“You must have been promised something incredible in exchange for leaking Chwiseondang’s secrets, but do you honestly believe that promise will ever be kept?”
“Of course it will! Suk-bin-jaga is not someone who breaks her word! She doesn’t throw wild temper tantrums or mistreat her maids like Hui-bin does…”
Those words alone proved where her allegiance lay. She had attached the reverent title of jaga to Suk-bin, while calling Royal Noble Consort Jang nothing more than plain ‘Hui-bin.’ It was true that Hui-bin was generally indifferent to maids other than myself, but still…
Switching sides to Suk-bin of all people? You really ought to rethink that.
Remembering the terrifying sight of Suk-bin flogging her maids until their palms tore open, I couldn’t help but shake my head in disbelief.
“So what, do you plan on transferring to Bogyeongdang?”
At that, Yong-hee let out a faint, mocking scoff.
Oh? So it isn't Bogyeongdang?
Glaring down at me, Yong-hee sneered, “Don't run your mouth about things you know nothing about. What would change if I went to Bogyeongdang? I'd still be just a court maid! I won't settle for being some measly palace maid. Someday, I will definitely—”
Definitely what?
Why stop there?
Watching Yong-hee clamp her mouth shut as if realizing she had said too much, I mulled over her words. Won't settle for being a mere palace maid. There was only one possible meaning behind that.
Wait… does she want to become a royal concubine…?
Hold on. King Sukjong’s age right now was… forty…
Ugh. A wave of nausea washed over me, but I quickly regained my composure. No matter how ambitious she was, a ten-year-old aegi-nain harboring dreams of becoming the King's consort was absurd. Yet she was clearly painting a remarkably grand picture for her age.
Looking at the strange smugness on Yong-hee’s face, I pieced together the clues before me. The promised reward from Suk-bin. Her refusal to settle for being a court maid.
If it’s a dream that Suk-bin actually has the power to grant…
The scattered puzzle pieces snapped into place, and the answer became crystal clear.
“I see.”
“What could a brat like you possibly know?”
“She promised to send you to Prince Yeoning-jaga’s side, didn't she?”
A flicker of triumph crossed the lips of the girl who had been glaring daggers at me. As expected, my deduction hit the bullseye.
Well, that’s certainly well within Suk-bin’s power to grant.
Compared to the hollow lie Suk-bin had fed Bok-hee, this was infinitely more believable. Promising to transfer Bok-hee to the Crown Prince’s quarters had been an utterly baseless, laughable lie. With Hui-bin watching the Crown Prince like a hawk, how could her mortal enemy Suk-bin possibly meddle in the affairs of the heir apparent's palace? Even a toddler wouldn't buy such nonsense. Well… with the exception of Bok-hee, of course.
Prince Yeoning’s quarters are a completely different story.
Currently, Prince Yeoning resided in Jaedeokdang, located right next door to Bogyeongdang. But like all royal princes, he was slated to leave the palace soon to establish his private residence outside the palace walls.
She was probably promised that she could serve in Prince Yeoning’s household and then leave the palace with him when he moves out.
To Yong-hee, being a servant in a prince’s private manor might seem vastly preferable to spending her entire youth trapped inside the palace walls. At least outer-residence servants enjoyed a semblance of personal freedom.
Or perhaps… Suk-bin promised her something even bigger.
For instance, becoming Prince Yeoning's concubine in the