"It is already quite late at night, you should return earlier in the morning if you wish to pay your respects to me, servant." "I am just full of gratitude towards you, My Lady; if I didn't come to greet you tonight, then I would have felt ill at ease." "What excuse did you give to your Master, Dae-Jung?" "I didn't have to say anything at all, as he is rather busy with his fiancé in his palace chambers and…" "What? What did you just say? But Seo Yeon was banned from the palace, so how could she possibly…was it him that sneaked her in here? Even after she embarrassed him to the highest degree and got herself publicly banned from the palace! But they were supposed to break up right there and then, so why would he…" "He…has been keeping The Young Mistress Se confined to his quarters…" "…and of course, there is nothing that I can do about it since complaining about the issue now would certainly make me look like an even more insensible person than everyone already perceives me to be. But I still have the chance to regain my favour if I turn on The Concubine Chung; so that everyone can praise me for my devotion to the nation and my righteous acts after my…blunders." "My Lady, if it wasn't for your enlightenment of keeping watch over The Nam's and keeping myself dull against their wit, then I could have never found out about what that monster of a man did to my entire family…" "Only by accentuating her intelligence, can someone as insecure as Seo Yeon fall into her own intellectual traps. And as for myself, I still have to find ways to keep myself informed as The Lord Nam no longer seems to confide in me with anything anymore. His own favour towards her only serves to increase her boldness, but her own personal goals are still unknown and it is far better to err on the side of caution. Now go back to their side as I figure out my next move against them." "Very well, goodnight My Lady."
I waited until I was alone to utterly break down and vent my anger on my quarters that were stripped bare and child was taken away from me due to some false allegations put on me that I was an unfit mother and therefore unable to suit the role of the Royal Children's nanny. I had lost everything that I had worked for and I simply had nothing to show for it at all, apart from the ridiculous scene that I made when I was being investigated for the rounds of poisonings that occurred in the palace. I still cringed every time I thought about it; I did everything in my power possible to hold onto the palace and now I was seen as an insincere person and a hypocrite in the palace where sons where the ultimate prize to a secure and wealthy lifestyle for the rest of their lives. So when myself and The Concubine Chung went in on her during the banquet…was she goading us to push her that far? Then she poisoned herself to make us look like he bad people? And then she sent her pregnant sister-in-law to set the both of us up? So she knew about our plans to poison her? But how? Who exactly was the rat around me leaking all of our plans? It wasn't Dae-Jung, because he wanted my help with his family issues, and he wanted Seo Yeon for himself. So she used me all along to get close to me and them dump me like this just because she was upset that my husband moved on and chose me at the time all of those years ago? No, if this was the case, then who knew what she would do to my son? How she would punish him in spite of her jealousy against me? She will use him to raise her position in marriage from a concubine as her status suits it to become the main wife? How conniving of her indeed!
"Good evening Widow Nam." Only Seo Yeon had that high-pitched voice that made me feel goosebumps every single time that I heard it. She was standing right behind me without fear of being caught at all, which just made me trust her even less to the point where I dropped all formalities between us. "Well well, this room looks just as bare as your servant quarters in the Nam yangban, I really wonder what happened here at all." "They all say that I have been demoted due to the fact that I only got my job in the palace thanks to you, Seo Yeon. So without you, I do not even have the chance to reclaim the luxury items that were at my behest when you lived here with me at all. Apparently, I will have no more use for them as I will be expelled from the palace soon entirely. It is already a miracle that I am not living in the dungeons thanks to my brother-in-law and I am no longer allowed any servants…" "…Since you started out as one and now that you lost custody of your own son, you no longer need a widow title as the wife of a deceased criminal. But do not fret, for I shall have those luxury items sent directly to you're son's quarters so that he may get some use out of them, unlike yourself. But won't you congratulate me for my upcoming nuptials?" "You mean you want me to congratulate you for stealing my title as The Mistress Nam? Well, I would send you a gift if I had anything to spare at all, but as you can see, that is quite not the case for me at the moment." "So, what exactly are you going to do now?" "I do not see how that is any of your business at all, especially after you stole my child from me." "I think that you mean to thank me after tending to him after your brother-in-law saved your life. Do not fret, I shall take good care of him after you're exile in the palace, where you can never bring him to harm again." "That bastard never aided in the promotion of my social status anyways, so you can do what you like with him. Your marital rank and status will surely surpass my own with his presence in your life, so I suppose that it is only natural that you will try to bond with that boy." "As dull-witted as you pretend to be, you do realise that insinuating these false insults upon me will not save you at all." "Seo Yeon, you surely do possess a perceptive mind and keen intellect that very few men can even compare to. So what exactly are you here for?"
"Widow Nam, it seems to be in both of our best interests that you do not stray too far from The Chung family at all, despite how they treat you." "Is that so? And why exactly should I lean against her during her family's downfall?" "Because she will seek to destroy you either way if you retreat from her side now, since you must know most of her secrets, have you even thought about that?" "And what if she manages to reinstate her family as she always does? What do I do then?" "She must be too afraid to lower her favour again to do anything at all, let alone plan anything to bring her family back to the centre of palace society." "She still sees you as an enemy due to your families close ties to The Third Prince." "I am aware of that, but that is where our common interests end." "And our alliance ends where exactly?" "When our interests cease to align, then my husband will reinstate your position with your titles and deeds as long as you agree to care for his nephew again." "But given my humble status, I fear that I can never contend with you at all, so I must deem myself unsuitable for the job." "You are refreshingly candid Widow Nam, but your stubbornness will only lead you to your end rather quickly." "What can I say? My prospect are not boundless like yours…" "But your opportunities are; for I can see that you have somehow kept a hold of your marital hairpin even after all this time and have kept it in pristine condition. The same goes for your beautiful hands, that just needs a touch f jasmine oil on them with winter petals that would please The Master Chung." "The Master Chung? But he…" "Do you really think that he will let himself or his family collapse? After everything he has done to help this nation bring itself on it's feet?"
She left me in a state of shock and confusion as I pondered over her words. Would The Master Chung really support me, now that my brother-in-law had abandoned me? And what would I have to do in return? Just feed him news from The Seo's and Nam's? What could I get out of this? How could I preserve myself with them? But what about The Concubine Chung? She would surely loose her position and then what? Who do I ally myself with in The Chung household? The main wife? The mother? The sisters? Maybe I can already be of help to them and I had no idea about it at all? Should I reach out to them now, before I was judged and dragged all over the place in the palace? I could no longer bear the humiliation and shame that I did as a servant and there was no doubt that I would have to face all of that again….
"Servants, clean up the side room of The Lord Nam's chambers, as my fiancé's nephew will be staying wit his permanently from now on." Seo Yeon, you really couldn't wait to throw all of this in my face? To raise my son upon your shoulders and show off about being some saint to take in your own fiancé's nephew that still hasn't married you yet? Really? I couldn't catch a glimpse of anyone important in the palace despite my efforts because of her, so I was completely useless otherwise in the palace at all and I had nobody else to rely on here. I didn't know how to serve anyone here properly and I had no illustrious image of family to lean on anymore. But as for her, that damaged little girl, it is already her great fortune to be serving her fiancé on her hands and knees like the dog that she was. An orphan girl with her defects should be lucky to serve as a maid to a nobleman like I was made to and feel grateful for those blessings every single day. So why on earth was she gifted simian attributes to those who were born into nobility? Why her? That just wasn't fair! She didn't even step into the noble world to take advantage of what she had at her fingertips, so how dare she compete with me? But even if I could not bring her down to her place, then I knew of someone who would gladly help me out no matter my current circumstances.