It was dawn, but the Queen still did not return. With an ominous foreboding rushing in like a tidal wave, Ha Soye headed to the Imperial Palace with several military officers just before dawn. The atmosphere was dark and no one spoke recklessly.
When she arrived at the imperial palace, the gate had just opened. King Mun. Even though the guards were puzzled by this, they moved away from the palace gate and let them. King Mun’s carriage ran straight into the Imperial Palace.
Ha Soye had someone she was aiming for from the beginning. As soon as she got off the carriage, she headed towards the concubinage. She passed the eunuch and the guard who guarded the concubinage’s gate, and as soon as she entered, she headed straight to the shrine.
The shrine is for court ladies, not the imperial family. When the benevolent Empress of her 100 years ago, when her own nanny died, she built a shrine to enshrine her memorial table. The nanny was highly esteemed not just by the Empress and other court ladies, so many wanted to offer prayers. Then the Empress opened the door of the shrine to the court ladies, and it began like that, and now the shrine has become a place where the tablets of the court ladies who died alone are enshrined.
She saw the back of a middle-aged woman sitting alone in the shrine and offering a prayer. Ha Soye crossed her arms.
“Long time no see.”
This shrine is also the place where the mortuary tablet of Court Lady Ho, who taught Court Lady Yoon when she entered the palace at the age of ten, is enshrined here. Ha Soye was well aware that Court Lady Yoon treated Court Lady Ho like her mother and offered prayers every morning.
“…… Why did you come?”
There was a time when Court Lady Yoon was scary when she asked with a voice like that. But Ha Soye was no longer afraid of Court Lady Yoon. No, she was planning to grab Court Lady Yoon’s hair at this shrine now, if necessary. If King Mun had asked to open the gates of the palace last night, it would have been a crime of treason and all members of the Mun family would have been killed. He had barely escaped death. Ha Soye had nothing left to see now.
“I would like to ask you directly, Court Lady Yoon. Her Highness, where is she?”
When Court Lady Yoon didn’t answer, she smiled bitterly.
“If you know what I am prepared to do,”
“She is in the concubinage’s prison.”
Court Lady Yoon raised her body and answered. And turned her body and looked at Ha Soye. Like asKing what she can do about it.
Ha Soye was unable to continue her speech for a moment before she asked softly.
“Prison, what do you mean?”
The Empress wanted to hear the song, so the Queen went to sing, but why was she in prison now?
“How about His Highness?”
“Prison, you say, Court Lady? Her Highness, what mortal sin has Queen Mun committed to be imprisoned without any trial?”
“…….”
“COURT LADY!”
As Ha So-ye’s voice rose, Court Lady Yoon covered her face and sighed.
She did not know that Ha Soye herself would come, but she expected trouble. The fact that Ha Soyes face hardened so much, who didn’t even know the whole story, it was just funny. Court Lady Yoon looked at her quietly and said,
“She disobeyed the orders of the Empress.”
“Yes?”
Ha Soye frowned at the absurdity. She knew her master, Queen Mun, well. She was a pure and gentle person. She was never one to challenge the Empress’s authority head-on.
Framed.
Court Lady Yoon shook her head as Ha Soye’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“It’s not a lie. She did disobey. She sang once, but it didn’t grant the wish. So the Empress ordered her to sing a second song.”
“?”
“She didn’t sing it.”
Yesterday’s scene flashed into Court Lady Yoon’s mind. That hellish sight. The innocent Queen who smiled when she brought the car was nowhere to be found. The bloody Queen shook her head as she trembled at the cold. She said she wouldn’t sing. She shook her head violently, even as the angry Empress ordered to cut off her tongue.
Her eyes, wet with tears, were burning with pure hatred. The hatred was so intense that she wondered where the Queen had accumulated such hatred on that small body. The Empress who woke up suddenly hated her, but the Queen hated the Empress as much or more. Even when the blade of the sword touched her tongue, she never sang the song.
“No way. She is not like that.”
The Queen hummed often. The Queen’s voice was just beautiful, especially when she embraced the melodies. It was so beautiful that all the maids loved it. The maids even informed the Queen of popular songs. When they shared with her about popular songs, the Queen often sang it for them. It was so sweet and pitiful that they had to do nothing but press down on their chests when the Queen sang the songs.
That Queen refused to sing?
Ha Soye blankly shook her head and then came to her senses.
“Her Highness, how is she doing now? Her condition is…….”
Since she refused the Empress’s orders, there is no way the Queen could have gracefully retreated. The Empress is the ruler of the concubinage. Her name was high in her cruel hands. Court Lady Yoon sighed as her face turned white.
“She will be very sick.”
At that moment, Ha Soye ran out of the shrine. Seeing her running away as if she had seen a ghost, Court Lady Yoon turned her head and looked at her mother-like person’s mortuary tablet.
“It’s time to say goodbye.”
Neither laughing nor crying, she said calmly.
***
Young-young was lying on a straw mat.
She was taken out of the Empress’s Palace yesterday and thrown away. She couldn’t move her body. It was impossible to even turn over. It hurts. The pain she had not felt in a long time boiled over her skin.
‘What does it mean, my child? Of course, I raised Heon-yeong as my son, but that’s because of my weak heart, not because he really is my child. Ha, haha, definitely not. Of course.’
Her mother told her not to die, but Young-young was not sure if she could listen to her mother anymore. The moment she heard those words, her eyes went white. It was unbelievable.
What did she just hear? Did it give birth inside your belly? In fact, Young-young finds it difficult to understand. The goblin’s egg or something, she was stupid, her brain was bad, she didn’t know, maybe that’s why she couldn’t understand.
What’s different about the twins? She saw the blood of Sa Heon-yeong. She tried mixing her own blood with it. Her own blood may not be noble, but at least it is human. And Sa Heon-yeong’s blood was the same as her own. As it mingled, it was impossible to tell which was whose blood.
She was beaten and for an hour she knelt in the Empress’ yard, before she was dragged back. The Empress told her to sing. She was afraid of what would happen. But.
Young-young shook her head.
No. I won’t sing you any songs.
While she was whipped, something made of wood appeared. She was tied to it, and she was beaten. It was hurtful and painful. She thought she could do anything if she could end this beating, but when the beating stopped and she was ordered to sing, she unknowingly shook her head.
No.
‘Queen Mother. You have to call her Queen Mother.’
That morning, Sa Heon-young said so.
‘Queen Mother?’
‘You’re my wife. She has become your mother. It means Empress Mother.’
Mother, he called this woman his mother.
Young-young remembered her dead mother. She was a nervous mother at times, and she was also a strange person. She must have had moments of being a good mother and moments of being a bad mother. But she has always been Young-Young’s mother. She never once denied it. Young-young had never been denied.
There were times when Sa Heon-young seemed lonely. At that time, he continued to dig into Young-young’s arms. Young-young hugged the tall man with a big body. No matter how much she hugged him, it was too much. Even if she had used all her limbs, somewhere in his body would have poked out and he would have been cold and lonely. But if he had been hugged by his mother when he was a child, when he was very young, he wouldn’t be lonely.
Isn’t he her own child that she gave birth to in her own belly?
Someone put a goblin’s egg, so sing to find out who that person is?
Young-young didn’t know what effect her song had. It seemed to bring good dreams or bad dreams, but it was a dream anyway. She wanted to deny him even in a dream, so to this woman she would use a song.
Her chin got caught. Forcing her to open her mouth, her tongue was caught and a blade touched.
‘Do you want it to be cut off?’
The woman asked.
Her tears flowed out. Her crotch was wet. Her pee leaked out. She was scared. This woman is really going to cut off her tongue. She might kill Young-young. She had been beaten by both her father and his wife a lot. Once upon a time, a terrifying man rode on her body in the middle of the night. But even with all of that, it wasn’t as scary as it is right now.
Death flew by, and it licked her. Her whole body was tainted with all sorts of body fluids. She was engulfed in fear, and with shame she did not lift her head. She was just terrified and afraid. At first, she would have sang songs or whatever. Young-young was not a strong woman.
But Young-young shook her head.
She thought it would be easier to die because she was scared and sick and in pain, but she didn’t want to sing. Young-young continued to shake her head. Sa Heon-young called you mother. But why do you say Sa Heon-yeong is not your son? Why? She couldn’t understand. Young-Young didn’t want to join in the act of telling that Sa Heon-Young wasn’t her son, above all else.
That beautiful man.
Seeing him smile coldly, her heart raced. He always hugged her and whispered sweetly to her. He knows everything. A strong and perfect person. The one who saved her. The one who gave her name.
And a little lonely. The little gap was more lovely, so Young-young couldn’t take her eyes off him.
She realized it instinctively. If she sings a song right now, she knows that it is a betrayal of that man.
No, I don’t want it.
The blade of the blade slit her tongue, but while she was crying because she was scared and going crazy, Young-young shook her head. Then the Empress clicked her tongue.
‘I don’t know what kind of guts this vile and dirty thing is doing this. Listen carefully.’
When she opened her eyes, the Empress’s face was in front of her.
‘How good was it to be Queen Mun? It must have been very sweet to enjoy a luxury you had never had in your life. So, don’t you want to sing? What bitch hid her goblin’s eggs in my stomach, use that little dirty tongue and sing. Then, I will turn a blind eye to the Queen who doesn’t even fit in this place.’
‘…….’
‘Or, will you be deposed!’
The Empress’s hand gripped Young-young’s face.
Young-young didn’t know what deposed was, but she knew it was a very bad thing. It was probably meant to be a sinner. It seemed like she would never see Sa Heon-young again, and she really didn’t want it.
‘If it’s…….’
Her memory suddenly flew away. It was instant. Young-young muttered with empty eyes, if she was deposed. She blinked and blinked, but she couldn’t remember what he said.
An iron bar was seen. Square iron bars. Suddenly, King Mun’s bedside came to mind.
There is a window that is incomparably beautiful with this iron fence…….
Moonlight……, Lord Heon-yeong, his face shining…….
Let’s go hunting. Bird……,
Ah, that black fluttering thing she sees over there is a bird……, and
Young-young closed her eyes. Tears fell from her eyes, dripping down on the straw.
***
“Oh, that girl. She must have died.”
“I didn’t think she would last. But didn’t they say she was a high person?”
The two guards rolled Young-young’s small body into the straw mat. Her white hands protruding out of the mat spread out like flowers with a bent stem.