Nothing Left to Lose
A suffocating silence descended upon the room.
Neither Jang Hui-bin nor Court Lady Han could possibly mistake the weight behind the words "the night of the full moon." Yong-hee, already pale as a ghost, turned utterly ash-white. And Suk-bin...
Suk-bin simply glared at me.
Her gentle countenance, her demure gaze that once seemed poised to offer warmth and kindness to anyone in need, turned freezing cold in the blink of an eye. Yet she neither hesitated nor faltered.
"When did I ever?" she simply asked in return.
Then, letting out a faint, scoffing chuckle as if the accusation was utterly absurd, she turned to Jang Hui-bin.
"Hui-bin-jaga. The young child must have had quite a vivid dream. To utter such sheer nonsense." Suk-bin smoothly added, "Then again, she is only four years old, is she not? At that tender age, children often mistake their wild daydreams for the truth..."
"I didn't daydream it!" Taking advantage of the momentum, I sprang right to my feet. "It was that very day! The day I went to Huijeongdang! That day, when I was passing in front of Bogyeongdang, I was grabbed by your court maids, and you saved me, Suk-bin-jaga!"
Terrified that she might slip away, I rushed ahead without drawing breath.
"You struck the palms of the Bogyeongdang maids with a hoechori! And right after that, you whispered to me in secret. You told me to tell Yong-hee, 'the night of the full moon'!"
I had deliberately woven truth and lies together.
In truth, Suk-bin had told me to say "the day of the full moon," not "the night." Furthermore, the person she had instructed me to pass the message to was not Yong-hee, but Bok-hee. I had reshaped the facts specifically to slam every possible escape hatch shut on both Suk-bin and Yong-hee in one fell swoop.
"Ha..." Suk-bin let out an immediate, effortless laugh. "This goes far beyond a toddler's childish delusion. What is this gibberish about me rescuing you, and what utter absurdity is this talk of a hoechori? I haven't the faintest idea what you are rambling about. Nor do I understand why I must sit here listening to it..."
"I have proof!"
Trying to play dumb, are you?
I refused to back down and cried out, "Bring in those court maids who claimed they saw Yong-hee earlier! The welt marks where they were struck across the palms with the hoechori will still be right there!"
Suk-bin's mouth snapped shut.
Meticulous and calculating though she was in all matters, that was one detail she had clearly failed to anticipate.
"Check their palms! Right now!"
Before Jang Hui-bin could even issue the command, Court Lady Han had already stepped outside. She returned only moments later, her voice ringing out with grim authority.
"I have verified it, Mama. Across the palms of the maids from Bogyeongdang, the switch marks are unmistakably fresh."
Before Court Lady Han's words could even settle, Suk-bin cut in sharply.
"I merely took up the rod to discipline the unruly maids of my own quarters! What proof could that possibly constitute? To stir up such an uproar over the babble of a four-year-old child..."
"And yet," Jang Hui-bin, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke, "two things strike me as rather strange."
The leisurely poise vanished from Suk-bin's eyes. She seemed entirely unaware that her teeth were biting down into her own lower lip.
"First, that you, Suk-bin—who never wastes breath on long explanations—are being so remarkably verbose. And second..." Jang Hui-bin's gaze shifted toward Yong-hee.
Yong-hee was trembling so violently it was pitiful to behold, her face already a sodden mess of tears and snot. Even so, she continued stealing desperate sideways glances at Suk-bin.
"Yong-hee. This child must be the second answer." Jang Hui-bin's voice dropped to a terrifying chill.
Suk-bin remained silent. As her silence stretched out, I hammered in the final nail.
"Suk-bin-jaga ordered Yong-hee to do it! She told her to spy on the western grounds of Chwiseondang! She told her to find proof whenever the young mistress came on the full moon!"
"Silence!" Suk-bin shrieked at the top of her lungs.
It was a violent explosion, the likes of which none of us had ever witnessed from her. She glared daggers at me, having evidently abandoned all pretense of benevolence and restraint.
"That is a lie!" Suk-bin shouted.
At last, I resolved to unleash my ultimate blow. Suk-bin and I were openly enemies now. That reality was unavoidable, so every shred of truth had to be laid bare right here and now.
"Yong-hee-hamanim! Do you know why the Bogyeongdang maids are standing outside?"
"W-What? No... why?"
"Suk-bin-jaga brought them here herself! Those Bogyeongdang maids said they saw you sneaking into Chwiseondang carrying live embers!"
Yong-hee's tear-streaked eyes widened to twice their size.
Oh dear. She really didn't know a thing.
Had she believed that so long as she confessed to causing an accidental fire, Suk-bin would pull strings to rescue her? The realization that Suk-bin herself had stepped forward to accuse her of arson hit Yong-hee with cataclysmic force.
"I know nothing of this. What bizarre mockery is this supposed to be? I shall take my leave..."
Just as Suk-bin moved to escape the room once more, a trembling voice stopped her in her tracks.
"N-No, that can't be true, right, Jaga?"
It was Yong-hee.
"What Bong-bong said... it isn't true, is it? That you brought those maids here? It's a... a lie, isn't it?!"
"I told you, I know nothing about it!" Suk-bin snapped callously, glaring viciously at Yong-hee with narrowed eyes.
It was an unspoken, suffocating threat. But Yong-hee had already lost all reason; she was shattered beyond repair.
"Suk-bin-jaga... P-Please do not just walk away... You must help me! You promised!"
"Cease this senseless babble!" Suk-bin grated out through clenched teeth. "I. Do not. Know you."
"Suk-bin-jaga... How could you do this to me...?" Yong-hee collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Gripping Yong-hee tightly by the shoulder, Court Lady Han demanded, "Answer plainly if you wish to live. Is everything Bong-bong just said the truth?"
"I... I..." Yong-hee still could not let go of that pathetic sliver of hope. Staring up at Suk-bin, she whimpered, "Suk-bin-jaga... H-How should I answer...?"
A confession.
Coming from the mouth of a Chwiseondang maid, those words were nothing less than an outright admission that she was Suk-bin's spy.
"Do not make me repeat myself. I know no such wench as you." Suk-bin whirled around briskly. But the moment her hand reached for the sliding lattice door, a voice froze her where she stood.
"Halt, Suk-bin." Jang Hui-bin's frosty command echoed through the chamber like cracking ice. "Court Lady Han."
"Yes, Hui-bin-jaga."
"Drag Yong-hee outside and dismiss everyone from the surrounding area."
"Your orders shall be obeyed."
Court Lady Han hauled Yong-hee away. Even as she was dragged out across the threshold, Yong-hee continued to wail Suk-bin's name in frantic desperation.
Now, only three people remained in the bedchamber: Jang Hui-bin, Suk-bin, and me. Yet even at this eleventh hour, Suk-bin refused to yield to the truth.
"Hui-bin-jaga. What weight could the ramblings of a four-year-old and a ten-year-old possibly hold? A spy? No matter how young the child is, daring to insult me in such a manner warrants severe punishment—"
In that split second, Jang Hui-bin's palm cleaved through the air with ferocious speed.
Smack!
Crash!
Struck square across the cheek, Suk-bin lost her footing and crashed violently to the floor.
In that single instant, every facade Suk-bin possessed shattered to pieces. The innocent, gentle visage. The benevolent, merciful expression. The demure, graceful poise she had painstakingly cultivated for so many years—all of it crumbled beneath that resounding blow.
Clutching her stinging cheek and panting for breath, Suk-bin scrambled to her feet. A rabid, manic frenzy blazed in her eyes.
"Hui-bin!" Suk-bin screamed like a woman possessed. "Do you truly believe you will walk away unscathed after doing this?! To lay hands on me! I am a Royal Noble Consort of the Senior First Rank! A consort of the exact same standing as you! Do you still delude yourself into thinking this is a decade ago, when you could flog my calves as you pleased?! How dare you...!"
"How dare you!"
With a voice like a thunderclap, Jang Hui-bin threw the words straight back into her face.
"You were caught planting a spy inside Chwiseondang, and yet you stand there with that brazen face, daring to play me for a fool?!"
"It is a lie! I know nothing of any spy!"
"Then go on!" Jang Hui-bin's sharp roar tore through the room. "Go report it! Run to the Queen, or go straight to the Great Hall and proclaim it yourself! Cry and wail in mourning robes that Hui-bin slapped the face of an equal First-Rank Consort! Go on!"
"......"
"The very moment those words spill from your lips, I too shall kneel before the King's hall and expose your treasonous crime—that you dared to plant a spy in my quarters to set fire to my home!"
"And who would ever believe such a thing?! The mere babble of a four-year-old child—"
Jang Hui-bin let out a mocking sneer.
"You think His Majesty would not believe it?"
"......"
"Do you take His Majesty to be a fool incapable of discerning truth from falsehood?"
"......"
"Or could it be... that you truly believe your pathetic little act can blind the eyes of the King himself?"
Jang Hui-bin took a slow, deliberate step toward Suk-bin. Suk-bin flinched, shrinking back involuntarily.
Staring down Suk-bin with unblinking, predatory eyes, Jang Hui-bin spoke in a low, measured voice. "Tell me, Suk-bin. Do I look like someone who still has anything left to lose?"
"......"
"I have nothing left to lose. I climbed to the absolute highest seat a woman could reach, lost everything, and tumbled all the way down to this place. But you..." A venomous smirk brushed past Jang Hui-bin's lips. "You are someone with a great deal to lose, are you not?"
"......"
"You ought to know when to be content. If someone of such wretched, lowly birth managed to climb all the way to a First-Rank Consort, you should have learned where to stop."
By that point, even I was completely overwhelmed by Jang Hui-bin's terrifying aura. Holding my breath and swallowing dryly, I watched Suk-bin's face. Her tightly clamped lips were trembling uncontrollably.
"When the distant day arrives, and the Crown Prince ascends the royal throne..." Jang Hui-bin locked eyes with Suk-bin, her gaze deadly and razor-sharp. "Are you truly so eager to find out what judgment he will pass upon the woman who humiliated his birth mother, that you dare pull a stunt like this?"
It was a truly bone-chilling prophecy.
Suk-bin's entire body began to shudder like an aspen leaf in the wind.
"Now. Will you still go report that I struck your cheek?"
"......"
"I asked if you still possess the nerve to spy on me and defy me."
Finally, Suk-bin's tightly shut lips parted.
"...I overstepped my bounds, Hui-bin-jaga." Her voice sounded as though it had been wrung out from the depths of her throat. "I shall never cross your displeasure again. I swear this upon my word."
"You had best carve those words into your heart." Jang Hui-bin cast a brief glance toward me before fixing her eyes back on Suk-bin. "Never lay a finger on my people again. Do you understand?"
"Yes. I understand, Jaga."
Glaring down at her, Jang Hui-bin gave a slow nod. "Then withdraw."
Holding her head high with haughty disdain, Jang Hui-bin gestured toward the door with a tilt of her chin.
Suk-bin offered a bow deeper and more subservient than ever before, then turned and left the chamber. As she stepped away, tears welled in the corners of her eyes.
They were not tears born of sorrow or humiliation.
They were tears of pure, venomous blood, shed from burning rage.