Discarding, Sinking, Burning, Burying
“Suk-jeong. That doll earlier—what was it meant for?”
Inside the bedchamber of Chwiseondang, Suk-jeong sat opposite Jang Hui-bin, offering an airy, unconcerned reply.
“It is of no great importance, so you need not fret over it. When the proper time comes, I shall explain everything in due course.”
“Is that so?”
Hui-bin pressed, her gaze laden with suspicion.
Yet Suk-jeong merely smiled and smoothly changed the subject.
“Far more important than that is this talisman. Please keep it safe. You must sleep with it tucked beneath your pillow for an entire month.”
“Can a talisman such as this truly turn a man’s heart back to me?”
“Of course. Have you forgotten how my earnest devotions cleansed the Crown Prince of his smallpox last time?”
“Very well. Having already witnessed its efficacy, how could I doubt your words?”
Hui-bin carefully accepted the talisman and handed over a piece of silver. Upon receiving the pouch, Suk-jeong’s face brightened with satisfaction.
“By the way, Hui-bin-jaga. Regarding that child maid…”
“Do you mean Bong-bong?”
“Yes. We nearly gave that wretched Suk-bin an opening to strike, yet the little thing handled it with remarkable wit. She is surprisingly cunning.”
“She arrived at Chwiseondang only a few days ago. Come to think of it, she remained extraordinarily composed during her initiation—hardly like a child at all.”
“Is that so?” Suk-jeong murmured, appearing momentarily lost in thought. “A child who does not act like a child… Such a thing is rarely an unmixed blessing, wouldn't you say?”
Hui-bin fixed Suk-jeong with a steady, searching gaze.
Her brother’s concubine.
Suk-jeong was undeniably a useful presence, acting as Hui-bin’s arms and legs in place of her exiled elder brother. Yet grateful though she was, the woman had a nasty habit of forgetting her station.
Feeling the weight of that penetrating gaze, Suk-jeong quickly lowered her eyes.
“Whether she acts like a child or not, what does it matter?” Hui-bin said with a faint smile. “A servant needs only to perform her duties well. At any rate, Suk-jeong, you have worked hard today. You may take your leave.”
“Say, Hamanim…”
After returning to our quarters, I carefully broached the subject with Seol-hyang as she neatly folded our laundered clothes.
“Lady Suk-jeong, who visited today… Does she come by often?”
“Ah. The second mistress of Lord Jang Hui-jae’s estate?” Seol-hyang asked, her expression turning lukewarm. “Why do you ask?”
“Jus’ because… She’s a bit scary…”
“Did she act like that toward you as well? She’s always been rather peculiar…”
“Was she scary to you too, Hamanim?”
Snap, snap. Seol-hyang shook out a starched jacket before answering.
“Hmm. She tends to torment the court maids with endless superstitious nonsense. She claims turning your back to the sunrise brings misfortune, killing a spider invites terrible omens, and you must scatter salt outside on nights with a full or new moon… She’s the sort of person who pesters everyone with the most bizarre grievances.”
“Ah. I see…”
I had thrown out the question without expecting much, but it yielded an invaluable piece of information.
Suk-jeong is a blind fanatic when it comes to superstitions.
The implications were unmistakable. From the moment she orchestrated the curse incident, her intent to see Queen Inhyeon dead had been resolute. Her husband, Jang Hui-jae, had been driven into exile, which likely made her desperate—but she might be far more wicked than the history books let on.
“Bong-bong. What are you brooding over so intensely?”
“Huh? Oh, n-nothing!”
“At any rate, I’ll be away for an hour or two. Don’t go wandering off anywhere—stay right there and study your Eonmun primer. Understood?”
“Why the primer?”
“Why else? You need to master reading and writing before you turn five! In a few days, you’ll be a year older, so five is right around the corner!”
“Master reading and writing by five?!” Naturally pretending to be an illiterate toddler, I threw on an expression of utter shock. “I’m no prodigy! How am I supposed to memorize the whole alphabet already?!”
I knew full well she was teasing me, but I had to play along to keep up appearances.
“Why couldn’t you? Even an aegi-nain needs to know basic script. Do you know what happens to people in the palace who can’t read?”
“…What happens?”
“You get kicked out of Chwiseondang and relegated to scrubbing the night-soil buckets!”
“Eeeek!”
To convey absolute terror, I widened my eyes to the size of saucers and dropped my jaw.
“So study hard if you don’t want to haul the dung buckets!”
“No way! I hate the dung buckets!”
Watching me frantically scramble to open the primer, Seol-hyang smirked with satisfaction and stepped out of the room.
Left alone in the room, my face instantly straightened as I sank into deep thought.
Now then, how on earth do I dispose of this hideous thing?
Should I toss it down the privy?
Buzzer sound—denied. Excrement was collected and recycled as agricultural fertilizer. In the Joseon dynasty, even night soil was a carefully gathered resource. The privy was out.
What if I tie a rock to it and sink it into a pond?
Buzzer blaring! Absolutely out of the question. If something like that bobbed back to the surface of a royal pond, the entire palace would erupt into chaos. The pond was disqualified.
Should I burn it to ashes?
Where would I even get fire? During Joseon, hearth embers were treated as precious assets with dedicated caretakers.
Ah! I can just chuck it into an ondol heating furnace!
I trotted over to the heating furnace as fast as my stubby legs could carry me, but—
“Hey! Shoo! What is a tiny child doing snooping around here? Do you want to get burned?!”
I was immediately chased away.
Burning was impossible too. In the end, only one solution remained.
I have to bury it.
It carried substantial risks, but I concluded it was my best bet.
I’ll head to the northern forest.
The northern woods of Changgyeonggung connected directly toward the Secret Garden of Changdeokgung—a desolate, largely unused expanse of timber.
Should I sneak out in the dead of night to bury it? Or wait a couple of days to observe the situation?
I deliberated for a brief second before making up my mind. Strike while the iron is hot. Rather than keeping such a lethal curse item tucked away and courting disaster, getting rid of it right this instant was the safest course of action.
Seol-hyang stepped away. This is my chance.
Taking a deep breath, I tucked the doll securely against my chest and tiptoed out of the quarters.
True to my expectations, the northern forest of Changgyeonggung was quiet and desolate. Aside from the dry branches clattering in the wind and the chilly calls of late-afternoon birds, the only sound echoing through the trees was—
Scrape.
Scrape.
Scratch, scratch.
The desperate sound of a pint-sized child digging into the dirt with all her might.
My tool was sourced locally: a thick, sturdy fallen tree branch I had scavenged from the underbrush.
Just a little deeper…
How could digging one tiny hole be this exhausting? Sweat beaded on my forehead and my arms trembled violently, but I gritted my teeth and pressed on.
Right then.
Rustle—
My breath hitched in my throat.
That was entirely distinct from the ambient sounds of the woods. It was unmistakably the sound of weight stepping onto the forest floor.
I froze solid.
Was it a person? A palace night watchman? A court maid? An intruder?
Or… a wild beast?
There are plenty of historical records of tigers wandering right into the royal palaces…
Whether human or beast, either spelled utter doom. Goosebumps erupted across my flesh, and the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
A moment later, the sound of dry leaves being crushed rang out once more.
A wave of primal terror washed over me, choking the air straight from my lungs.
Crunch, crunch.
Patter-patter-patter—!
“Eek!”
As the rapid footsteps charged toward me, I snapped my head up in sheer panic.
“Meow!”
…Meow?
Haaah. I nearly lost ten years of my life just now.
“Dammit, you scared the daylight out of me!”
“Nya-ong?”
Clutching my wildly hammering heart, I glared at the sudden intruder.
A pair of round eyes blinked blankly back at me. Its stout body was the color of a golden-brown, freshly baked loaf of bread—a textbook ginger cat.
However…
“What on earth have you been eating to end up this chunky?”
My character wasn't so rotten that I didn't realize how rude that sounded. Even so, the words tumbled out on their own accord.
“Are you a leopard cat or something?”
No matter how I looked at it, it appeared to be an ordinary Korean shorthair. Yet its frame was positively gigantic.
Just as the portly feline was vigorously scratching behind its ear, it suddenly began waddling straight toward me.
“Hey, cut it out!”
Its target was the fluttering crimson daenggi ribbon woven into my hair. The cat raised a front paw and began swiping wildly at my head.
…This little brat.
Starting a brawl by grabbing someone’s hair right upon meeting them? Its feline personality was completely bankrupt!
“You furry little hooligan! I told you to stop…!”
The cat couldn't have cared less about my indignant squeals. Driven into a corner, I hoisted my secret weapon—the sturdy branch in my hand—high into the air.
“Kitty! Look over here!”
Whoosh, whoosh!
I flicked the stick back and forth like a fishing rod.
“That’s it! Good job! Isn’t this way more fun?!”
“Nyaaa-ooong!”
Mesmerized by my dazzling wrist movements, the cat fell into an absolute trance. It darted to the right, zigzagged to the left, scrambled across the dirt, and leaped into the air with astonishing vertical hops!
In my past life, I had adored cats, though I had never dared to adopt one myself.
Instead, I lived as a dedicated internet-butler, bingeing every feline channel online.
Little did I expect that such modern trivia would come in handy after being reincarnated into the Joseon dynasty.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s stop here. Good kitty, right?”
“Ae-ong!”
“How are you so brazen, huh? What’s your name?”
I threw out the question absentmindedly before shaking my head. A stray beast roaming the palace grounds wouldn’t have a name.
…Wait, would it?
A crucial historical fact I had momentarily forgotten struck me like lightning.
King Sukjong.
Sukjong had been an obsessive, die-hard cat lover. He adored his felines so fiercely that he kept them by his side even while attending to state affairs, and historical records noted that he personally hand-fed them choice cuts of meat from his royal dining table.
Was that cat’s name Geumdeok, or was it Geumson?
“Nyaong?”
Finding my sudden silence strange, the cat let out a soft mew and tilted its head.
I scrutinized the plump animal before me. Could this hulking, heavily bulked-up physique be the direct result of meat tributes from the King himself?
No way. It can’t be. The palace is probably crawling with stray cats.
Regardless, I had wasted far too much precious time playing with this feline. I needed to finish burying the doll and hurry back to Chwiseondang—
“Yaooong!”
Patter-patter-patter!
“Hey! No! Come back here!”
Disaster struck in the blink of an eye.
The moment my guard dropped, that shameless furry thief clamped its jaws around the curse doll and took off at a full-blown sprint!
“Hey, hey! Give that back right now!”
There was no time to think. I bolted after the cat as fast as my little legs could carry me.
Thinking this was a thrilling game of chase, the cat bounded and swerved around me, staying just barely out of reach.
“Give it back! Hurry up!”
I lunged forward and managed to seize the doll’s dangling legs, but the cat clamped down on its head with unyielding tenacity. Neither of us gave an inch in the fierce tug-of-war. After a breathless struggle, I finally wrenched the doll free from its jaws.
…What’s this? Did the sun set already?
The surrounding forest suddenly dimmed as if dusk had fallen prematurely.
It did not take long to realize that an immense, towering shadow had fallen directly over me.
“……”
An inexplicable chill pierced the air. Slowly, stiffly, I tilted my head upward.
And there, filling my vision…
Was a brilliant swathe of crimson silk, undulating like eerie, living blood.
The ultimate symbol of the reigning sovereign: the royal dragon robe.