Physical Evidence
Taehwadang stood nestled between Bogyeongdang and Jaedeokdang.
It was the private retreat where Royal Noble Consort Suk-bin Choe customarily handled her most sensitive, confidential affairs.
As Yong-hee crossed the threshold into the hall, her chest heaved, gasping for breath. She had seized a fleeting gap in surveillance to sprint the entire distance from Chwiseondang to Changdeokgung.
“To seek me out at such an hour,” Suk-bin murmured. Her voice was dry, yet laced with sharp rebuke. “You must have brought tremendous news. Have you not?”
It was a clear reprimand for daring to approach her in broad daylight, where any wandering eye might take notice.
A sudden wave of dread washed over Yong-hee, but she gritted her teeth and summoned every ounce of courage she possessed.
“Suk-bin-jaga. I… I have f-found it.”
“Found what?”
“The physical evidence.”
A faint flicker of interest stirred in Suk-bin’s otherwise impassive eyes.
“Evidence, you say. Let me see it.”
Fighting to steady her trembling hands, Yong-hee reached into the breast of her jacket and drew out the hidden object.
A doll. An unsightly thing fashioned roughly from dried straw.
It was the very plaything that Hwang Bong-bong was fond of calling by the bizarre name of ‘Boom-boomi.’
Yet Yong-hee was well aware of what such an effigy was truly meant for. It was an implement used by shamans when placing a deadly curse upon another soul. Having grown up in a household steeped in frequent exorcisms and occult sorcery, Yong-hee had recognized the nature of the doll the instant she first laid eyes on Bong-bong carrying it.
“This is a curse doll,” Yong-hee declared, her voice taut. “It is the sort shamans employ to harm others. I discovered it in the western quarters of Chwiseondang.”
It was a brazen lie.
In truth, Yong-hee had rifled through Bong-bong’s room and stolen the doll from inside a half-fall chest. But the truth held no value to her now. The only thing that mattered was that her heels were planted on the edge of a precipice.
Every few days, Suk-bin had dispatched Court Lady Chu to bear down on her, demanding tangible proof. She had even been threatened with banishment to the most grueling, squalid palace workhouses if she failed to unearth useful intelligence.
And then Hwang Bong-bong had confronted her.
The girl had brazenly spouted warnings—telling her to march straight to Court Lady Han and confess everything, reminding her that palace spies vanished without a trace, declaring that if she refused to come clean, she would ‘do what she must.’
The sight of that tiny, bean-sized child laying down such an ultimatum had been unnervingly oppressive.
Yong-hee’s panic had reached a fever pitch. The evidence Suk-bin demanded was nowhere to be found, yet she had even less courage to confess her treachery to Court Lady Han. And so she had chosen a desperate gamble: steal the peculiar straw doll and deliver it into Suk-bin’s hands.
“This is the proof,” Yong-hee pressed, desperate for approval. “You instructed me to watch Suk-jeong closely, Jaga. I found this after Suk-jeong paid her visit.”
“You found it… after Suk-jeong came by?”
“Yes. It is the truth, Jaga.”
Suk-bin lifted the straw doll by her fingertips.
…She had seen this object before. Not in the hands of Jang Hui-jae’s concubine, but clutched in the grasp of the toddler maid, Hwang Bong-bong.
Not that its true origin mattered in the least.
“If this is indeed the evidence you claim, you must have seen Suk-jeong carry it in with your own two eyes?”
“Pardon? Ah… y-yes.”
“Then Court Lady Han must also be aware that Suk-jeong brought this in.”
“Uh…”
“Naturally she would,” Suk-bin continued smoothly. “Nothing transpires within Chwiseondang without passing under Court Lady Han’s watchful eyes.”
“Yes. Th-that is correct.”
“And if Court Lady Han knows, then Hui-bin would surely be privy to it as well. Would she not?”
Yong-hee swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry.
It was far too late to retreat now. Terrified that a single slip might unravel her lie, panic drove her forward.
“Yes. Hui-bin is also aware of it.”
At that reply, Suk-bin nodded with evident satisfaction.
“So that is how it stands. You have accomplished something magnificent, Yong-hee. To unearth such critical proof… you have done remarkably well.”
It was the first time in Yong-hee’s life she had ever received praise from Suk-bin. A shiver of overwhelming relief and gratitude made the corners of her mouth twitch.
“Tell me, has anything else occurred?”
Emboldened by the approval, Yong-hee resolved to speak of Hwang Bong-bong.
“There is a four-year-old child maid residing in our quarters…”
She laid bare every detail of her encounter with the toddler.
“That brat tried to intimidate me, demanding I go to Court Lady Han and confess the truth, but I did not budge in the slightest.” Yong-hee paused, adding in a deferential, pleading tone, “Because I knew… that Suk-bin-jaga would believe in me, and protect me.”
“……”
A pristine, gentle smile blossomed across Suk-bin’s unreadable face.
“You conducted yourself admirably. My judgment of you was not mistaken. You truly deserve to be called one of my own.”
“Your benevolence overwhelms me, Suk-bin-jaga!” Yong-hee bowed low, her face bathed in obsequious delight.
Though Suk-bin’s lips maintained an affectionate curve, her eyes remained dead and devoid of warmth.
Even for a ten-year-old child maid, how could anyone be so thoroughly witless? To have her identity uncovered by a four-year-old toddler, and still harbor hopes of receiving mercy.
A mere four-year-old said and did such things?
Frankly, it defied belief. Yet the conclusion was inescapable.
Her tail had been stepped on.
If so… there is no choice but to sever it cleanly.
Right at that moment, an attendant maid slipped into the hall with hurried steps. Leaning close, she whispered in a tone too soft for Yong-hee to hear.
“I have received word that His Majesty intends to visit Chwiseondang tonight.”
“……”
Suk-bin’s expression hardened into a terrifying chill. With a subtle gesture, she dismissed the attendant maid.
Turning her gaze back to Yong-hee, who was fidgeting restlessly as though sensing she ought to take her leave, Suk-bin retrieved a small piece of silver.
“Yong-hee.”
“Yes, Jaga?”
Suk-bin reached out and personally took Yong-hee’s hand, curling the girl’s small fingers tightly around the silver chunk. For a ten-year-old child maid, it was an unimaginable fortune—more wealth than she had ever held in her entire life.
“J-Jaga! I thank you. Truly, I—”
“Yong-hee. Bring your ear closer.”
“Yes, Jaga.”
Suk-bin brought her lips directly to the girl’s ear. Her whispered words were so faint that not a breath of sound escaped into the room.
“Tonight… the Jwibulnori…”
Only a scattered syllable or two brushed the air. Yet by the time Suk-bin drew back, Yong-hee’s face was drained of all color, pale as a corpse.
“Can you accomplish this?” Suk-bin asked, fixing the girl with a piercing stare.
Yong-hee’s pupils trembled wildly. Forgetting that she stood in the presence of an exalted royal consort, she bit down hard on her lower lip. After a torturous moment of hesitation, she clenched the piece of silver until her knuckles whitened.
“Yes. I… I will do it.”
Her voice shook with suppressed terror. Bowing her head, Yong-hee slipped out of Taehwadang without making a sound.
“……”
Left alone in the quiet hall, Suk-bin stared down at the straw curse doll.
“…Evidence.”
At long last, it had fallen into her hands.
A complete fabrication.
A subtle, venomous smirk played across Suk-bin’s lips. Whether it was genuine or counterfeit held no significance whatsoever. The truth was an irrelevance.
There might not be a shred of truth residing in this bundle of straw, but the tale she would weave around it would soon become the only truth that mattered.
“Jaga. It is Court Lady Chu.”
“Enter.”
Court Lady Chu stepped inside, looking noticeably ill at ease.
“Well… concerning tonight, His Majesty is scheduled to visit Chwiseondang…”
“I have already heard.”
“Ah… Then have you also heard the tidings regarding the Huwon?”
“The Secret Garden?” Suk-bin echoed, her brow furrowing.
Court Lady Chu lowered her voice cautiously. “Court maids who went to the Secret Garden this afternoon witnessed them. They reported that His Majesty and Hui-bin were together.”
“…Without the Crown Prince?”
“Yes. The atmosphere between them was exceedingly tender—” Catching her own blunder, Court Lady Chu hurriedly amended her words. “That is to say, they reported that Hui-bin’s demeanor was exceedingly coquettish.”
“……”
Suk-bin’s countenance froze into glacial stone.
She maintained meticulous surveillance over the King’s bedchamber, receiving reports on every woman he shared his nights with. Of late, the King had kept all palace women at arm’s length, citing the crushing burden of state affairs and an exhausting eye ailment as his reasons. Yet just days ago, for the first time in over half a year, he had crossed the threshold of Chwiseondang.
That visit alone had posed a formidable threat. But to now stroll the Secret Garden in intimate company? Had the embers of their past romance truly been stoked back into flame?
“Suk-bin-jaga,” Court Lady Chu added hesitantly. “They say Hui-bin has recently doted on a particular child maid, keeping her constantly by her side. That child was also seen accompanying them into the Secret Garden today.”
“…A child maid?”
A child maid of Chwiseondang.
A strange, prickling sense of deja vu settled over her. How many times today had she heard that name, and turned it over in her mind?
“There are three child maids in Chwiseondang. Which of them do you speak of?”
“The four-year-old child of the Hwang clan. The one His Majesty frequently summons to his presence. I crossed paths with her once myself, and young though she is, the creature was cunning beyond measure.”
“……”
Suk-bin sank into silent contemplation.
Four years old was an absurdly tender age. Yet from the very moment she first beheld Hwang Bong-bong, the child had been anything but ordinary.
Passing that directive about the ‘night of the full moon’ to Hwang Bong-bong had merely been a ploy to test the child’s mettle. Yet astonished though Suk-bin had been, the girl had actually wielded that scrap of intelligence as a weapon to intimidate Yong-hee.
Furthermore…
A child shielded by the King’s favor.
…And the very one who had possessed this hideous straw doll from the beginning.
Ever since Hui-bin took that child under her wing, points of contact between her and the King have begun to form anew…?
Suk-bin looked down at the curse doll resting on the table before her.
Should she dig into the girl’s background?
No. Why squander such unnecessary effort?
If the child was a subversive seed… If she was a cunning little wretch who already dared to perch atop the heads of her betters at the tender age of four…
Before she reached the age of five, six, ten, or twenty.
Would it not be far simpler to snip that bud before it could ever bloom?