Crime and Punishment
“Your Majesty!”
At the King’s abrupt appearance, Gwi-in Kim, who had just been browbeating me, hurriedly bowed her head.
Yet...
Did she just... smile?
It was only a fleeting flicker, but I saw it clear as day: a ghost of a smile curling the corners of her lips.
Smiling in a situation like this? Why?
Bowing low while sneaking covert glances at the King, her behavior felt unnaturally staged. Suk-bin Choe, on the other hand, kept her head lowered in absolute silence, just as she had from the very beginning.
And as for me...
First, I paid proper homage to the sovereign. After carefully gauging the mood with innocent, cautious glances, I quietly sank down into a small squat on the ground. Then, I began gathering the scattered sweets, making sure to fix a mournful, heartbreaking stare upon the dirt-streaked confections.
Under ordinary circumstances, I wouldn’t have bothered putting on such a theatrical act. But given what Gwi-in had just done, she practically begged for it.
I scooped up the pulverized pine pollen dasik dust bit by bit, dusting the grit off the glazed treats with delicate pats...
“Rise.”
The King’s deep voice cut through the air.
Keeping my head bowed low, I pushed myself up from the stone ground, clutching a single dirt-covered root of candied bellflower loosely in my little fist.
“Gwi-in. Explain yourself.”
As if she had been waiting for that exact cue, Gwi-in parted her lips without missing a beat.
“Yes, Your Majesty. We must have startled you. Forgive this one for causing a disturbance. However, there was a pressing reason for my conduct.”
“A reason, you say?”
“A child from Chwiseondang was loitering in the vicinity of Huijeongdang. Lurking about the King’s royal quarters carrying an unidentified bundle without legitimate business—I could not simply overlook such insolence, so I took it upon myself to interrogate her.”
Her voice practically brimmed with self-satisfaction. It carried that unmistakable boast of someone declaring, Look at what a grand deed I have accomplished.
A faint realization dawned on me. She might have stirred up this ruckus on purpose just to draw the King out.
No way... Did she honestly think the King would be impressed by this?
Did she genuinely believe that tormenting a four-year-old toddler would look like loyal vigilance in the monarch’s eyes?
The more I learned about Gwi-in, the more peculiar she seemed. At times, she struck like a viper who knew the deepest, darkest secrets of Sungyeongdang, yet she remained utterly blind to the basic atmosphere of the royal court. Doing something so astonishingly foolish just to catch the King’s eye...
An utterly erratic woman.
At any rate, she was exceedingly triumphant, seemingly overjoyed at having engineered a meeting with the King.
“...Interrogate.”
The King uttered just that single word.
In his downward glare toward Gwi-in and in that solitary, clipped syllable, a raw, naked displeasure seeped through.
Yet Gwi-in failed completely to read the frost in his demeanor.
“Yes. I believe suspicious palace maids loitering about must be thoroughly deterred. Lest something occur to disturb Your Majesty’s peace of mind, after all.”
It was then.
“Hah.”
A scoff slipped from the King’s lips.
It was a chilling, sardonic laugh—one I had never heard from him before. Equal parts utterly dumbfounded and barely suppressing a volcanic fury.
The King bent down toward me.
“You must have been frightened, little one.”
His gaze settled on the dirt-smeared candied root clutched in my hand.
“I wasn’t frightened, but... my sweets...”
Putting on the most heartbroken expression a child robbed of her cherished treats could muster, I let my little shoulders droop.
“They were precious gifts bestowed by Your Majesty, but now they are completely ruined.”
Royal gifts.
At those words, Gwi-in sucked in a sharp, audible breath.
“Worry not. I shall bestow double the gifts upon you. However...”
The King turned his gaze back to Gwi-in.
Only now was she trembling like an autumn leaf.
How can someone’s inner thoughts be so transparently shallow?
I had to seriously reconsider my suspicion that she was the mastermind behind the poisoned porridge incident at Sungyeongdang. Looking at her now, it was impossible to find the strategic cunning required to orchestrate such a covert plot. Though, either way, I couldn't be entirely certain just yet.
“Gwi-in. I heard your words well.”
“What might Your Majesty mean...?”
“That Bong-bong was loitering near Huijeongdang carrying ‘some bundle or another.’”
“Your Majesty, this concubine merely—”
“That ‘bundle or another’ contained the gifts I personally bestowed upon her.”
“...”
“And you took it upon yourself to cast the King’s gifts into the dirt.”
“Your Majesty!”
Turned deathly pale, Gwi-in babbled frantically.
“I had no inkling, not even in my wildest dreams! Though I asked where the bundle came from, the child refused to answer! How could that be my fault? It was the child’s fault for acting so suspiciously—”
“Haha.”
The King chuckled dryly once more.
A laugh of blatant mockery and contempt.
“Then it seems Bong-bong deserves a reward. Keeping a private audience with the King strictly confidential is a matter of basic duty. Despite the browbeating of a mere concubine, this young child upheld her trust with me to the bitter end.”
“...”
A mere concubine.
Words that utterly stripped Gwi-in of her royal dignity and status right in front of me, a humble child maid.
“Your Majesty, I truly did not know! How could this concubine have guessed the child was summoned by Your Majesty...? It was done in total ignorance!”
“Ignorance does not erase a crime.”
“B-But...”
“Have you forgotten what transpired eleven years ago, Gwi-in?”
Eleven years ago.
At that mention, Gwi-in’s face drained of what little color remained, turning the shade of ash.
“You spoke the exact same words back then. Refusing to acknowledge the countless sins you had committed, claiming ignorance and pinning the blame upon others.”
Eleven years ago—he was undoubtedly referring to the Gisa Purge, when Queen Inhyeon and Gwi-in Kim were stripped of their titles and banished from the palace.
Even a chill ran down my spine at that moment.
In a sense, this could have been brushed off as a reckless, clumsy stunt by a royal concubine starved for monarchical favor. Yet to drag up that incident from eleven years ago over this?
It was recorded history that King Sukjong had treated Gwi-in with exceptional coldness.
I had no idea that hatred ran this deep...
And yet, as the King dragged up the most catastrophic chapter of Gwi-in’s life, his face remained completely detached, entirely devoid of emotion.
“No matter how ill the Queen may be, how can the Inner Palace descend into such utter shambles?”
Turning his freezing stare away from Gwi-in, the King shifted his eyes toward Suk-bin.
“Suk-bin. You two seem rather close.”
“...Gwi-in requested an audience, so we merely conversed for a brief spell.”
Though her tone was noncommittal, Suk-bin’s reply was as close as palace etiquette allowed to flatly declaring, We are not close.
Upon hearing those words, Gwi-in’s face flushed a furious, humiliated crimson.
“With two royal consorts of the Bin rank, the state of the Inner Palace is truly a disgrace.”
A verbal nail in the coffin.
After all, one of those two consorts, Suk-bin, was standing right here in the middle of this disgraceful scene.
Catching the sharp reprimand hidden beneath his words, Suk-bin’s expression froze in an instant.
“Hear this, Gwi-in.”
“...Y-Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Gwi-in has committed the grave offense of deliberately defiling royal gifts.”
“I-It was not I! The child dropped the bundle—”
“Silence that mouth!”
The King’s composure finally shattered.
Startled out of her wits by the thunderous roar, Gwi-in threw herself prostrate onto the stone paving.
“Guilty of a crime that warrants being deposed this very instant, yet you dare mock me with petty excuses?!”
The King’s fury crashed down like a tempest. Glaring at Gwi-in prostrating on the ground, he ground his teeth and spat:
“For the next one hundred days, Gwi-in is forbidden from setting foot outside her quarters.”
“O-One hundred days?! Your Majesty! That is far too cruel—”
“Then perhaps you would prefer to be cast outside the palace gates once more, as you were before.”
Gwi-in’s mouth clamped shut. Her tightly pursed lips quivered violently.
Now, the King turned his gaze to Suk-bin.
“Suk-bin.”
“...Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You are a woman of discretion, are you not?”
“...”
“Are you not?”
Suk-bin was not foolish enough to grasp at the King’s words or argue like Gwi-in had.
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty. Henceforth, I shall conduct myself with the utmost discretion.”
Presently, the King’s gaze returned to me.
I was still fidgeting with the dirt-covered candied bellflower root, wearing my best gloom-ridden expression.
A warm hand gently patted my head.
“Grieve not. Sweets are merely sweets. The heart with which I commended your service remains unchanged.”
“Yees... Your Majesty.”
What happened next almost made my soul leave my body.
Reaching down with both arms, the King scooped me up in a single, effortless motion!
My body lifted into the air. The very air around me shifted.
For a split second, I forgot how to breathe. The court attendants trailing behind the King looked just as dumbstruck, caught in collective shock.
W-What in the world is happening...?!
Dangling securely against the King, I peered out at the world.
Looking down, my eyes met the pale, bloodless faces of Suk-bin and Gwi-in.
“Let us head to Changgyeonggung.”
Without a backward glance, the King strode forward.
And just like my vision bobbing rhythmically with each of his strides, the ground beneath Suk-bin and Gwi-in’s feet had just violently shattered.