I rushed to the Lady's side as soon as I heard about the colour that her child had come out with, but that wasn't the only unsettling thing on my mind. Who would have dared to salt the meat at such a festival where the kingdom was supposed to remember their ancestors? Pulling such a bold stunt was worthy of clan extermination, so who would dare do it on the day that I didn't even plan to return to the kingdom without my husband? And this baby? What was wrong with it? Surely a colour of c hold could not change simply due to stress…right? It just have been due to a medical condition that she must have contracted somewhere, isn't that right? Yes, because there was no way that more than one coincidence could take place like this, there was just no way. My husband was at home with our babies since they were so young, he wasn't at ease to leave them in the care of the other women yet, even the ones in our social circle.
"…The Lady has given birth to a son with yellow eyes and skin; the midwives and nanny's here have served in the palace for decades and they have never even seen something like this before!" "My child…please give me my child…" "But according to the palace rules, a sickly child like this cannot be allowed to live and prolong their pain senselessly like this. It must be buried alive to ward off spirts of the dead who cannot read until they know that all of The Imperial Heirs are kept safe…" No, I could not let this happen! I could not let a child die for my sake no matter what my revenge warranted! I meant to come back here and build up relationships and alliances, not be cast off as some weird jinx that brought death to those who chose to interact with me! I need to investigate this myself since I was on my own here with no help from anyone in the palace and I needed to do it quickly…
"…you cannot bury my baby! You have no right! He is my child, not a child of the palace!" She was slapped right across the face before I could say anything by an aggressive and old midwife who seemed to be more concerned with the rules of the previous dynasty compared to new life. "If anyone tries to help her, then they will also be met with the same punishment!" "I dare not hinder you in implementing the law, but we should leave this matter up to His Majesty specifically since we are his received guests of this failed banquet!" "Madame Seo! You dare to interfere in His Majesty's personal affairs by bothering him with the birth of a woman unrelated to him?" "I dare to interfere in matters pertaining to the life or death of His Majesty's people! Aren't you quite casual forgetting her husband's role within The Royal Palace? Or are you so self-assured about the difference in statuses that you think she and her family can be replaced at any time!"
"Madame Seo! Even The Imperial Physicians have never seen a case like this…" "and how can they when they are confined to the palace walls? Of course they haven't seen such a thing, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other doctors outside of the palace who haven't seen a case like this, don't you agree with me?" "But…" "And just imagine; god forbid, but just imagine His Majesty has a case similar to this with one of his own heirs and he makes the wrong decisions due to lack of medical knowledge of the case? I believe that he should do all that he can to save his heirs instead of disposing of them on a whim, don't you agree, midwife?" "Please save my son…my son…" "Diet is a main factor of one's pregnancy, we should carry out an investigation from there!" "Are you really wiling to bear the consequences of such an investigation? Exactly how many lives do you think you have, Madame Seo!" "I believe that I have enough to carry out justice! And as for you, just who do you think you are raising your voice at! Well!" "I…yes, forgive me for my lack of manners, but this situation…" "Do you or do you not hear this baby crying at full volume of his lungs! He is a life that is just as precious as anyone else's, so why do you refuse to carry out a medical investigation at all? As a woman in that profession, what excuse do you have to go against your own life's work?" "I am faired that things are not as simple as that…" "My Lady, a physician from one of the nearby villages have been summoned and is already here, awaiting to see this baby." "Already? But I didn't call for anyone…" just what on earth was going on here? Who was aiding me when nobody in my close circle even knew that I was leaving my husband's side today? How many coincidences could occur in a matter of a few hours?
"My Lady, there is nothing wrong with this child at all, he just has a little jaundice that wug eventually fade away within a week's time given the proper treatment." "That is impossible! Jaundice happens on just a few limbs, it does not spread across the whole body and even dilute a human's pupil's!" "And with your limited experiences in the palace, who are you to say that you are such an expert in the disease, midwife?" "I…" "The midwife speaks of congenital jaundice and the most common type. But this form of the conduction here appears to be linked to the mothers diet indeed; she must have eaten sweet things in excess to satisfy her cravings upon her pregnancy and yet it can still eventually fade away in a few weeks time without needing any medical assistance at all." "Servants! Return the baby to the mother at once and escort her back to her home as soon as possible! And what has come of the investigation of her diet? Wasn't she…a frequent visitor of the palace until late? We should also take a look into the meals that have been provided for her here."
"Madame Seo! I must now insist that you take a step back from matters that do not concern you at all!" "Midwife, it was due to my assistance that the life of a child was spared, and yet you have not apologised at all yet, have you? Causing emotional distress can also harm both mother and child in the future if you do not make you're amends right now." "If the mother was craving too many sweets in her pregnancy, it mean that her body could have built up twice the amount of bile that it I used to, also curing internalised heat and changing the colour of the baby temporarily." "Are you saying that diet, geography and the state of one's health is all connected? Then why would she appear in the palace so much during her delicate condition? I just simply cannot understand this. Unless she was summon here multiple times…and on this issue, only her husband would know of her personal appointments since pregnant women are hardly allowed outside…." Sweets? This lady hardly had a bite of sugar since she had been trained to have a strict diet from the moment she was born to keep her slender figure, and even with the pregnant cravings, why would she indulge in so much of it? The concubines could not have been this stupidly reckless to endanger a woman in such a delicate condition? And why was the matter only being exposed in my presence? Why me? I didn't hold any power in the place to protect anyone outside of my family, so how could I have ended up in this mess? Who was targeting the companion that I had chosen for myself here in the kingdom? And why? Did it have something to do with me truly? Or did it have something to do with her family? If only my husband were here to help me out when I needed him this most…
"…her continuous summons to the palace to her troublesome diet along with that troublesome dog, I wonder who exactly in this place is making My Lady a target? She is of noble birth and yet she is just an ordinary civilian like anyone else who does not stand out too much, so why her? Why do these concubines lash out at her? What threat can she possibly pose upon the residents of the palace who surely have more power than she ever will?" "My Lady! The chef in charge of her meals has been found dead in her quarters!" "Dead? In her quarters? And not in the kitchens where there is currently a banquet going on?" "She was found to have a voodoo doll on her person of a pregnant woman with pins sticking in and out of it…" "Let me see this so called voodoo doll, for something still isn't right here and I need to get to the bottom of it!" "But it is an item of witchcraft…" "Everyone in the kingdom knows that I am the least superstitious person there is, so warnings such as these shall not hold me back! Now this voodoo doll here in my hands…is a fake." "Excuse me? But you just said that you were the least superstitious person in the palace, so how would you know of such a thing?"
"That is right, I have the least amount of knowledge on the issue, but I am not blind either. Even if this female chef did hold a voodoo doll against My Lady, it could not have been throughout her pregnancy due to the condition of this doll. It is brand new and it doesn't look like it has been affected by the 3 seasons of change that could have passed within 9 months. What about the Chef herself? Did you say that she was also clothed similarly to My Lady? But how could have gotten her hands on such fine fabrics and have time to doll herself up on the day of a banquet? No, this is simply too far fetched of a story to even be believed by children! And if anything; getting her hands on fine fracks one cosmetics, can she not be said to be imitating the concubines in the palace instead?" "My Lady! I urge you to show caution in your words…" "Why? What did I say that was wrong? This dead woman was a chef whose job it was to serve beautiful concubines all day long, maybe that is where she got her urge to copy them from…or her instructions to help bully this harmless lady through her harmful diet that indulged her pregnancy cravings so much…wasn't it the concubine who had just caused trouble today who summoned her the most? She just be the culprit in all of this then. I shall have the department of Inspector Generals write up a report to The Emperor about this, lest we harm him in some way be keeping this from him. Midwife, you do not an have issue with this, do you?" "Why…would I dare to…" "Because I couldn't help but to notice what a nice scent you are wearing today despite your hard work. I wonder who gifted this to you since it is a very expensive perfume that almost matches my own, but why would a mere midwife worry about using such products when the fragrance of it alone could be a potential trigger to some of your other patients with different health issues? Well?" That was all it took for another investigation to start on the midwife who was arrested right in front of my eyes and was found to have quite a lot of expensive items in her quarters that was well above her pay grade. There were so many things that The General Inspectors charged her with extortion and even theft and made her may for her crimes buy cutting off her right hand as soon as I was publicly summoned by my husband to return home. His meagre was read aloud in front of everyone so I couldn't fight to extent my stay even if I wished to, but there is still something about this case that I couldn't put my finger on. Why did the midwife wear exactly the same scent as myself? Did this mean that this crime was supposed to be pinned on myself? But for what reason though? What motivation would I have to do that when I had my own son? My son, and my daughter…no, I really did need to return home now so that I could figure this out later on.