MOSC 28

Finally, the princess flopped down and began to pick at her ear.

…This was how it had come to this.

On felt like she could die.

What on earth had she done as a princess?

Was it the incident where, instead of greeting the guests at the royal banquet, she held a wine glass, took sips of wine, and forgot the dignity of the royal family?

Was it the incident where she secretly diverted the rice cakes made from the relief rice prepared to aid the people to the princess’s palace, exposing that disgrace to all the people under heaven?

Or was it the incident where she lay down day and night using books as her pillow, and spent her days in mere rest and pleasure without reading a single line of text?

On’s insides were boiling.

“Your Highness the Princess…!”

“Be quiet. I am going to take a nap now, so wake me up when it is time to eat.”

The princess, who was stretched out on the floor like a languid cat, muttered that even the sunlight was bothersome, then had Mogyun cover her face with a fan before performing the feat of falling back asleep.

“Miss…”

Mogyun, who had unwittingly served Princess Bonghwa, pushed by her momentum, looked at the dumbfounded On with the most pitiful expression in the world.

On exchanged a look with Mogyun.

‘How on earth have you been living all this time.’

‘It was just as you see.’

‘You have suffered.’

‘Thank you for at least understanding.’

And so, On, with the princess’s official recognition, came to completely occupy (?) the position of the legitimate wife.

“…It cannot be helped. For the time being, call me ‘Madam’ instead of ‘Miss’ in front of others.”

In the end, this time too, the person who caused the trouble and the person who cleaned it up were separate.

On conspired with Mogyun to somehow patch up the mess Princess Bonghwa had created.

The quick-witted Mogyun promptly helped On.

This was because Princess Bonghwa was not the only problem.

“The Kkeutbun Mother is fiercely determined not to easily grant you the authority as the mistress of the Sim household.”

It was the conflict with the Sim family servants.

It was not that she had not anticipated such a thing.

A princess’s life as a new bride was a major event from the start.

The norms of the royal family and the family laws of a prestigious household accumulated over a long period were bound to clash. It was a difficult problem of grafting the laws of one family with the hierarchy of the royal family.

On had long since guessed that such confusion would befall them.

“If the Kkeutbun Mother alone does not open her heart, the servants of the Sim household will also never accept the princess as their mistress.”

On was conflicted.

‘What should I do about this.’

Of course, since On had often experienced this kind of hazing in the palace, it was not a huge blow to her.

‘Rather, it is proof that the servants of the Sim household are loyal, so in the long run, it could be a good phenomenon. Loyalty sometimes requires an absolute amount of time. If I stand in a position to be acknowledged without hoping to be acknowledged, there will be no problem.’

On decided to gradually think of a way to overcome the situation.

There was another problem.

It was the workers sent from the royal family.

On heard from Mogyun about the eunuch, Eunuch Gong, and the court ladies who came with him.

“Miss, no… Madam. In that case, should you cover your face to avoid the Naegwan and the court ladies sent from the palace?”

The quick-witted Mogyun first worried about whether the faces of the swapped Princess Bonghwa and court lady On had been revealed.

On thought for a moment before answering.

“There will be no need for that. Although the princess certainly holds a high status as a direct descendant of the royal line, she was not frequently exposed even within the palace, and the quarters she used were also separate, so unless someone is a very close personal attendant, there is no one who knows her face properly.”

This was also the Queen’s decision.

“…This child must be distant from the world. Whenever that wen… no, the princess steps out, the inside of the palace is turned upside down, so it is for the peace and stability of everyone’s mind and body to have her in a place where she cannot be seen.”

Since On was the princess’s closest personal attendant, she knew all these facts.

However, the higher up one went in the palace leadership, the rarer it became for anyone to know these inner circumstances.

‘Let us hold out somehow until the princess changes her mind.’

On knew Princess Bonghwa’s whimsical personality better than anyone.

Therefore, she predicted that this eccentric behavior would also see an end someday.

Besides, had she not received a reward for this ordeal?

Even amidst all this confusion, On had secured one thing to rely on.

On fiddled with the money pouch in her bosom. In addition to the money Wigyeom gave her, the silver ingot that was her retirement money from the royal family was definitely in here….

On rummaged inside her clothes and then paused.

‘Huh…? Why is it not here.’

What should have been there was not there.

Thump.

On’s heart plummeted into an abyss.

It was a moment when On’s courage, which had been cultivated to not even flinch an eyebrow at any of the princess’s eccentricities, shriveled up.

Mogyun, seeing On’s pale face, asked.

“What is the matter?”

“The silver ingot…. The money pouch that I definitely put inside my clothes is not there.”

At that moment, a voice came from Princess Bonghwa, who was lying down. She said, picking at her ear.

“Ah. That? I put it away.”

On was horrified.

“You put it away?”

“Yes. The court lady or whatever said all the clothes had to be washed, so I gave them to her.”

“What did you say!”

Princess Bonghwa said nonchalantly.

“Ah. But if there was a silver ingot inside, I think it would have been reported to Eunuch Gong. That Naegwan my father the King assigned to me because he was worried I would not be able to manage the household at all. Right, I think if you look in the ledger, it would be recorded.”

On felt the sky turn yellow.

Was the silver ingot not On’s retirement money?

The only reason she could endure no matter what whim the princess had.

Her one and only pillar of support.

“Y, Your Highness the Princess…!”

On’s cry echoed throughout the separate quarters.

*

‘Absolutely not. My retirement money…!’

To defend her retirement money, On headed to Eunuch Gong’s quarters.

At that moment, Wigyeom’s earnest advice to not leave the main chamber did not register in her ears.

She did not care if he touched anything else. But touching her retirement money was a big mistake.

On was able to hear the full details about the man named Eunuch Gong from Mogyun.

“Actually, after that Eunuch Gong person arrived, the household affairs became quite strange. Eunuch Gong and the court ladies arbitrarily occupied the servants’ quarters, and the servants who were staying in the servants’ quarters were driven into cramped rooms. As if that was not enough, they made a fuss about reopening the soy sauce crocks and re-polishing the rice, and then it became a strange thing that the rice jars were empty overnight, so the servants are murmuring. Where would the grain that disappeared overnight have gone? Everyone is suspecting that Eunuch Gong and the court ladies either sent it back to the palace or diverted it separately.”

During the three days On was cooped up in the main chamber with Wigyeom, the household had fallen into chaos like an overturned game of go.

Eunuch Gong’s corruption did not stop there.

“There is a man named Jo Gyesaeng who was originally in charge of the outside work, but Eunuch Gong kept insisting on the royal family’s ways and distributed the work strangely, and now he is even touching the household ledgers. The inventory of supplies has become a complete mess. In the end, a fight even broke out among the lower-ranking people. Is that all? Not only did he take away the authority to manage the kitchen staff that the Kkeutbun Mother always had, but he also ordered the items to be reorganized in the palace style without even asking the gatekeeper who was in charge of organizing the warehouse, so they do not even know where all those many things have gone. Everyone is dumbfounded.”

While listening to all of those words, On had only one thought.

‘My silver ingot…!’

Her two eyes had turned into the shape of silver ingots.

In any case, On could not get deeply involved in the Sim family’s household affairs.

‘I am just a concubine, after all.’

On was in a position where she had to be ready to be kicked out at any time if the princess stopped her whims. Therefore, she absolutely could not get involved in the Sim family’s household affairs from an external position.

This was, to some extent, what Wigyeom had hoped for.

Because Wigyeom wanted On to know nothing and live in luxury in the main chamber until he could arrest Eunuch Gong and all the court ladies.

…But if On’s silver ingot was at stake, the situation was different.

Eunuch Gong had messed with the wrong person, and it was a very big mistake.

On originally lived a life without greed.

But when it came to the money she had saved as her retirement fund, the story was different.

Just as On did not take what belonged to others, she disliked having her own things taken away. It was a rule that money that entered her hands would never come out, like a gold ingot embedded in a rock crevice.

The moment Eunuch Gong touched On’s retirement fund, he was already fated to have a showdown with the woman with the greatest tenacity in all of Hwajo Kingdom.

‘Not my retirement fund…!

Arriving at Eunuch Gong’s separate quarters, On examined his desk.

Just as the princess had said, the silver ingot was indeed in Eunuch Gong’s quarters.

‘Just as I thought.’

On’s face crumpled with indignation.

Mogyun, who had followed her in a hurry, added a word.

“It really was here! What a despicable person. I mean, why would he record Miss’s, no, Madam’s personal property in the ledger as he pleases?”

On quickly rummaged through Eunuch Gong’s ledger that was on the desk.

Sure enough, the silver ingot that should have been kept as her personal asset had been transformed into a royal grant.

But that was not all.

Its use was recorded as a special allowance for the Naegwan and the court ladies.

‘Such a shallow trick…’

The corners of On’s eyes, who maintained her gentleness in most matters, narrowed.

Eunuch Gong had clearly underestimated Princess Bonghwa a great deal.