"Just what the hell do you think you are doing right now! Who I their right mind gave my husband deer blood wine and alcohol! In the morning as well!" "Forgive me Madame Seo, but he just simply wouldn't take no for an answer and everyone else we can tell is preoccupied with Moon-Boo and Chief Park…and maybe you shouldn't nag him so much…" "is that so? Then why don't I allow you to dictate my role in my own marriage then? Go on, I shall just sit here and wait for all of you servants to tell me what to do!" "Forgive me Madame! We just cannot dissuade our Master…" "is that so? My brother and his wife is here, you could have said something to them? But you didn't because you all have ulterior motives with my husband, don't you!" "How could we dare to…" "Can all of you women hand the crime of seducing and indulging your master? What if I tell you parents about it, maybe they will punish you all even more than I ever could?" "Madame, please…" "Madame, your husband is waiting for you inside of his quarters…" "Since he has all of you to tend to him, then you can sober him up on my behalf lest you wish me to fire all of you." "But The Lord Nam…" "If he can act like this in my absence, then he hardly needs me at all, isn't that right? You can even put this servant girl that I have just slapped into his service if he is already missing the kingdom to act like this in my father's village! How dare he!" "Very well Madame, we shall comply with you wishes." "And all of you shall kneel on your knees until my husband pardon's you." "Madame! Where are you going! What shall we tell your husband if she asks about you!" "He knows where to find me if he wants to!" If I had wings on my back then I wold have flown over to my children who were both sleeping rather peacefully with their older cousin Geom accompanying them and my beloved nephew Chul playing some game with Bo-Geom and her siblings close by as if to protect the little children. Chul took on my husband's personality and had my brother's face and I could not have loved him more even I had the chance to show it. I picked him up in my arms as soon as I could and I almost crushed him under my bear hug and a barrage of tickles that had him laughing so hard that he was almost out of breath as soon as I put him down.
"Aunty! You're back! Did you get me anything!" "Here children, take your share of sweets and hide them well from your parents and as usual, don't you dare reveal the source of this sweetness lest I get in trouble with your parents." "Of course we shall not aunty." "Where are your parents?" "They were busy working in the village that is why I am here with my brother and cousins. Aunty, why do you spoil me so much?" "You are precious brother's precious eldest son and you have his face, why wouldn't I spoil you?" "But you hug me more than my mother does!" "Baby; some women are better mothers and some women are better wives. Your mother is everything that my brother needs, so I am here to love you as much as I can along with my own children, are you ok with that?" "So are you like me second mother?" "Yes, something like that but I am always your aunt in name." I refused to let him go from my arms and he slowly but surely fell asleep in my lap with his little face planted into my neck as I played with Bo-Geom and her siblings for a while until my brother found us all and took his own babies away from me and tucked them into bed himself for a change. "Look at you brother, when did you finally grow up and hold your eldest son?" "What can I do when he keeps running into your arms and playing all day instead of studying?" "Hasn't my husband discussed this with you yet?" "He has been playing the fool and acting drunk out o this mind with this new maid he has under his employment. This is his way of proving a point against us I suppose." "Well he can play that game on his own; I am home now and this is where I intend to stay since he ruined everything for me in the kingdom." "What did he do now?" "He…it is a long story and I do not need you killing the father of my children just yet anyways." "You are not the only one who stop me from doing so; he spoils my sons so much that they will never forgive me if I do kill their uncle, I can understand that and their young age." "Just let him play his games because that is all it is, he knows he cannot take on any final decisions without you." Yes he does; I am coating on youth keep your eyes on him for me sister, because we both knew that despite his honourable intentions, one day this place will become too small to contain him in." "No matter where my husband leads me, I shall never abandon you brother, never again." "Let us see whether you can keep that promise sister, because you can no longer stop me from taking you back if I washed it to happen." "Of course brother." "Go on, the sister of that troublesome maid is probably waiting to speak to you privately about her sister's horrific deeds; maybe I will have to pass on judgement once and for all." "This village is small, so it still needs a justice system put into place so the right people can judge fairly."
"…this is her home wither children and her husband sister; she is our Mistress and we are lucky enough to find employment until they establish the school here and we can all get an education and venture out of this place! Why are you so hell-bent on ruining this for us and disrespecting her? She is already being gracefulienough in not punishing you harshly as you deserve!" "The Madame Nam or Seo or whatever she is dances in and out of this village, of course she does not have our devotion like her brother does, so why should I bow down to her just because of her familial relations to The Village Chief! She isn't a damned Empress you know!" "Sister! Please! You will kill us all with your off-handed comments like this!" "It is not my fault that she is failing to establish a benevolent reputation for herself! She can't publicly punish us lest she looks bad now and be publicly criticised by us! And she won't share her husband with anyone at all! And the same thing goes for her sister-in-law! There are more women than men here, what do they want us to do! Of course it would benefit everyone if they established the concubine system here! I am prettier than her and I know how to do my chores well! Why can't any of the men see that here in this village? Everyone here is so busy that of course the men should have some…" "Some what? Please explain to me what it is that you feel the men in this village need since you are such an expert on men? I will be more surprised than anything if you really are a virgin at your age with all of this knowledge that you have despite being unmarried." "My Lady! What are you…" "My Lady! Please forgive me! Forgive me and my sister over here! She just…" "My Lady, that is a rather nice hairpin that you are wearing today! It is so unique as well, I am wondering where you got it from?" "What? What hairpin?" "I think that my sister means the one that is sitting atop of your head, Madame Seo…" I did not doll myself up before the house and I didn't wear any accessories at all, so I had no idea what this girl was talking about. But before I even had the time to check my head, my husband stormed up to me in his drunken stupor and snatched it off of me so violently that I thought I was going to fall over. But I had already excepted this from him, so I held my ground and I barely looked at him as he began to viscously interrogate me in front of these sisters about my whereabouts as if I he had no idea what I had bene through since left his side yesterday.
"…do you not have an answer for me, wife?" "I do not husband; you can think of whatever you want to and I shall obey your orders. I can even pack up all of my things and move back to the kingdom at this very moment long with my children if you wish." "And just who the hell says you are taking my children anywhere from me?" "You can ask your brothel friend all about that from the dungeons that he is rotting in for the attempted assault and murder of myself in front of your entire office of Inspector Generals, husband." "My Lord! What about her hairpin…" "It is just a stupid hair accessory! What are you getting all bent out of shape for it?" "But clearly she got it from another man! Why are you just brushing this issue away as if it was nothing?" "Was it really from another man? And what is your proof exactly? Since you sound so confident; please show me what evidence you have collected even though you have been staying in my home to look after my family in my absence?" "I…" "I believe I shall leave this to you, husband.' "And just where do you think you are going?" "I am going to take a nap with the children before I help cook tonight!" "You will come back to our home immediately!" "I shall not!" "I will confiscate…" "..everything that you bought me? Very well, I shall go without as I always have done!"
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"…My Lord Nam, please forgive me…" "What have I told you about punishing your sister? When are you going to listen to me for once! Am I not your master?" "You are but…it wasn't my fault! Every single day she is here she constantly tramples on my dignity by accepting bribes to work for you…if she truly carted about me as her sister who got her this job then she should have had the common sense to save my face and…" "and where did that hairpin come from? I know it isn't my wife's, so who does it belong to?" "It might have…come from my sister…" "do you really t think that you can replace my wife with these loser tricks of yours? She didn't even fall for it for a single second! Is this really what your devotion is worth to me?" "Well what do you expect me to do if you will not honour me as a Mistress? I live like a servant and I have no resources at hand, how can I possibly overcome her? But you! You defend my sister over me? And even your wife? You prefer their company over mine? After everything that you told me…how nice it must be to have all of these beauties wondering around you like this! How pleasurable for you? And you make me guard an empty room that you have never entered even once?" "And do you think that I can with the whole village watching my every move? As soon as my children were born!" "I will no longer put up with your excuses! Do you know the effort I put in to look for you and wait for you every single day! I will not listen to you anymore! You shall make me a concubine and you shall do it right now!" "A concubine? You want to become my woman after all of the damage that you have caused! You bully your own sister and defy your master and his wife!" "You make me kneel on a thin sheet all night long instead of letting me serve you, what else do you expect me to do! I am frustrated because you frustrate me!" "You are my servant until my wife gives her blessings, you know how this should work! She is the sister of the Village Chief, I cannot just betray her like this!" "Do you even care about me? Or am I a toy for youth throw around like this! How can you not show me off when I come from the same background as your own wife!" "And yet you couldn't be more different to her! You pull your sisters hair and put needles into her skin for disobeying you! You even tried to pull out her fingernails in her sleep, is life really that worthless to you in your eyes!" "Do you really care about her that much!" "Even a concubine has to me gentle, virtuous, refined and amiable as her sex demands and not become an incorrigible and malicious monster as you are!" "You must find me repulsive as you can only think of your wife and nothing else! But she can also be vicious just like me!" "My wife only punishes wrongdoers and always spare the innocent! And you can destroy and entire persons on the whim of your jealousy alone! You disgust me more than the palace officials ever have! Now leave me!"