Prospective Mother-in-Law, Stepmother: Submission
In the pitch-black dawn, when most people were still deep in slumber, she lay alone in her room... Im Jeong-ok slowly rose from her bed. It wasn't just because sleep eluded her. Today was the official wedding day, when the groom would finally come to fetch his bride. Despite her desperate attempts to stop it, she had failed utterly, and this was the day that would seal that failure.
'In the end... I couldn't do anything for her. As a mother... I couldn't protect my daughter from this misfortune at all...'
Im Jeong-ok had always felt like a thorn was lodged in her throat. Today, that thorn felt sharper and more unyielding than ever. With heavy steps, she began making her way toward her daughter's room.
'It's meaningless now... but still...'
She knew full well how hollow this gesture was. Yet she had to do it. No... she wanted to. To apologize... as a mother who had failed to safeguard her daughter's life. A futile, powerless atonement.
With those leaden footsteps, she quietly opened her daughter's door and slipped inside.
"My daughter... are you asleep?"
The blanket glowed faintly in the moonlight, a large shape huddled beneath it. Careful not to disturb her, Im Jeong-ok closed the door softly and approached the bed. Her daughter, who would leave for her husband's home tomorrow. As a mother, she wanted to bid her a final farewell... and offer some comfort.
But...
"...Huh?"
Suddenly, an eerie sense of wrongness washed over Im Jeong-ok. With trembling hands, she cautiously lifted the blanket.
And then.
"! ...Hyo... Hyo-jeong?!"
Im Jeong-ok flung the blanket aside. But all that lay there was an empty straw dummy. Her daughter was nowhere to be seen.
Even seeing it with her own eyes, she wondered if she was hallucinating. Overwhelmed by bewilderment, her mind went blank for a moment.
"What... what in the world... Where could she have gone all of a sudden..."
The bride had vanished on the eve of her wedding. She couldn't fathom the reason, but the consequences of this catastrophe were beyond her imagination.
In her dazed state, Im Jeong-ok thought she had to find her daughter first. She started to rise—
"...Huh?"
Her eyes caught sight of a single letter. Sealed with candle wax, and beside it, these words:
To Mother.
"Ah... Miss?"
"Yeok-in!"
The moment she stepped down from the palanquin, one man came into view. Joo Yeok-in. Spotting him, Seo Hyo-jeong rushed over and threw her arms around him.
For days, wedding preparations had confined her indoors, denying her even a glimpse of his face. Reuniting with the man she adored beyond measure filled her with soaring joy.
"What... what on earth happened? I thought you were supposed to marry that young master over there..."
"I'll explain the details later. Right now, we need to leave this place... escape Joseon soil first."
Cutting Joo Yeok-in off briefly, Seo Hyo-jeong approached the man standing nearby, watching the scene. Once an abhorrent villain and near-enemy, he was now the great benefactor who had made this escape possible. Toward him, Seo Hyo-jeong bowed deeply—sincerely, for the first and last time.
"Thank you so much. I will never forget Young Master Han's grace for the rest of my life."
"I only did what needed doing. By the way, did you leave the letter I gave you as instructed?"
"Of course. Just as you said, I hid it inside the straw dummy."
"Good. That should do it."
A few days earlier, during a meeting under the pretext of wedding arrangements, Han Taeyang had handed her a sealed letter. Unable to read its wax-sealed contents, she had trusted his word that it would tidy up loose ends. Obediently, she had placed it inside the disguised dummy.
She had no curiosity about its message or the fallout it would cause. Her family had always treated her as a tool, a doll. Her father went without saying, and her mother was little more than a powerless parrot repeating "endure it." Whatever befell them now was irrelevant to Seo Hyo-jeong.
Following Han Taeyang's instructions to the letter—labeling it "To Mother"—she had slipped out through a hole in the wall, boarded the pre-arranged palanquin, and arrived here. This small port in Incheon was where Joo Yeok-in, brought by Han Taeyang as planned, awaited her.
"That ship will take you safely to the mainland. I've already bribed the captain, so no worries about being discovered."
"We truly thank you."
"To go this far for us... If the chance arises, we'll repay this debt someday."
Clutching the hefty pouch of silver coins Han Taeyang had provided, the two bowed repeatedly. With unexpected seed money in hand, they boarded the ship with faces beaming in bliss, departing Joseon shores—just as the 'original story's' ending dictated, known only to one man in this world: Han Taeyang.
As the ship carrying the pair vanished into the dark sea, a thick smile crept across Han Taeyang's lips. Not one of pure goodwill, but laced with writhing desire.
"Thank me? If anything, I should be thanking you."
*
What was the greatest threat to me, having possessed this villain's body? Obviously, the 'protagonist' with the power to destroy me in the original plot.
Joo Yeok-in, a commoner who fell for noble-born Seo Hyo-jeong. Despite his lowly status, as the protagonist, his abilities far surpassed mortal limits: exceptional intellect, superior physical prowess, charismatic speech that won hearts, and the protagonist buff's immense luck.
It might look like I held overwhelming advantage now, but as the story truly unfolded, reversal was inevitable. I could have yielded Seo Hyo-jeong and turned them into allies... but I opted for the cleaner route: granting them their 'happy ending' outright.
In the original, they left for the mainland anyway, uncomfortable with societal scrutiny after liquidating assets. I'd merely accelerated that 'slightly.' Shortened to the length of "the mustached art school reject killed himself," but it faithfully fulfilled the original conclusion.
With the protagonist's party off the board, I could now claim their leavings without worry. The so-called 'plot armors' of the original. And... the 'women' I'd coveted all along.
'Well then... time to collect my second one.'
*
The letter in her hand. Reading it by moonlight, Im Jeong-ok's face twisted with an indescribable emotion.
Her daughter's plea to seek her own happiness, not to search for her. That alone wouldn't have tormented her so.
The problem lay in what followed: resentment toward the mother who hadn't saved her. Words that, though unspoken before, now stabbed at the guilt Im Jeong-ok had harbored all along.
Her hand trembled as she read. Thick tears welled in her eyes, and the guilt scorched her heart black.
"...I'm sorry... so sorry..."
Tears streaming, she murmured futile apologies to the daughter she could no longer see.
And at the end of this letter, steeped in resentment and hatred... a single request.
If you consider me your daughter even a little... please grant this one thing.
Coldly rational, it was absurd. No guarantee it would work, and discovery meant disaster.
Yet she had no other choice. Psychologically cornered by her daughter's icy condemnation, realistically, finding the vanished girl was impossible—and she didn't even want to. Guilt toward her daughter, desperation from the crisis, long-suppressed resentment toward her husband who orchestrated this mess... all converged.
In the end, she made her decision. One even she deemed mad.
*
Chaos reigned at Minister Seo Yu-cheon's estate as the wedding feast began. Crowds filled the halls, with liquor and meat flowing freely from the start.
"They haven't even started properly, and they're already serving this much?"
"Lady's orders, apparently. Since it's a joyous occasion, she said to make the feast generous from the outset."
"Well, suits us fine. Come on, a round!"
"Ahh~ Perfect! Fill mine too."
The rowdy pre-ceremony buzz. The inner quarters supplied copious, potent liquor that spun heads after a glass or two. But in the festive heat, no one minded.
Amid the mounting intoxication, the feast's host, Minister Seo, guzzled heartily.
"Congratulations, my lord."
"Haha, thanks."
"If you return to vice minister, don't forget us humble folk!"
"Of course! As the saying goes, a true friend helps in hard times. I won't forget your efforts."
Snacks from his clinging concubine, flattery from guests—Seo Yu-cheon drank deeply. Mindful it was his daughter's wedding, he showed restraint, but today's booze hit unusually fast, leaving him slightly dazed.
"Ah... ugh... enough for now. It's my daughter's wedding; can't get sloshed as her father."
"Haha, fair enough."
"Save the rest for after the ceremony."
Setting down his cup, Seo Yu-cheon glanced forward. There stood two figures: familiar eldest son of Minister Han's house, Han Taeyang. Opposite him... a woman with makeup so thick it seemed caked on, head bowed low in ritual modesty, face obscured.
"What... that makeup's ridiculously heavy..."
In her wedding attire, his daughter looked strangely unfamiliar today. Distance and drink blurred her, but she seemed subtly different from usual... yet oddly familiar.
'Heh... up close, she really takes after her mother. Always has, but now...'
Sensing his once-childish girl had grown, he felt a fleeting paternal twinge. Trivial compared to the wedding's gains, of course.
"Alright! Ceremony's done—escort the pair to the bridal chamber!"
"Yes, my lord! To the bridal chamber!"
The bride, head bowed to the end, face hidden, hand clasped tightly by the groom as they departed. With them gone, the drinking resumed.
In his drunken haze, a belated thought crossed Seo Yu-cheon's mind.
'Darn! Come to think of it, haven't seen the wife all day... Eh, she's probably somewhere.'