The Young Consort Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 13



Chapter 13

 

***

 

Relaxing my body, I heard a gasp from behind me.

“You, you! Who are you to hold her like that?”

“The child’s name is Sanya. And you, being in the same position as Sanya, how can you be so presumptuous?”

“Damn, presumptuous or not, just put her down. Can’t you see she’s scared?”

I didn’t understand why they were fighting over me. For a moment, I wondered if I was Yehwa Aryun, that is, the Empress of the Kingdom of Seora.

“She’s scared of me?”

Mirinae’s voice sounded genuinely perplexed. I recognized that tone. It was the prelude to sarcasm, which naturally led to a voice tinged with a light sneer.

“Well.”

“You…!”

Despite the sound of something burning, Mirinae continued in a calm tone.

“Garam. Next time, if you need etiquette lessons, don’t come running here. I’m perfectly willing to show kindness from my position as a noble consort to those beneath me.”

Regaining his composure, Mirinae scratched Garam’s insides as usual with his words. I felt a bit relieved at that voice. So, his patience hasn’t shortened to the point of grabbing someone by the hair and fighting.

The sound of Garam fuming was audible. He always got angry at Mirinae’s words but never managed to retaliate.

Indeed, Mirinae was technically right in what he said, and it was also because Garam was too simple. However, much to Mirinae’s regret, this time Garam was correct.

“…Noble Consort.”

“Hm?”

At my small call, Mirinae immediately looked down at me. Although he wore a smile on his lips, he had been smiling even when he was provoking Garam earlier, so I couldn’t tell any change in his expression from before.

Is it because his eyes are covered? It’s hard to understand all emotional expressions just by the mouth. But he naturally speaks informally.

“I’m okay. Please put me down.”

Upon my calm words, Mirinae put me down, albeit after a slight hesitation. I bowed deeply to him then.

“It was a wonderful meal. Thank you.”

Garam’s ability was fire. I didn’t want to end up burnt to death like a shrimp caught between fighting whales.

I didn’t want to sit back down and laugh and eat in this situation; I wanted to leave.

“…I see. I hope we can meet again.”

Leaving behind Mirinae’s somewhat ambiguous farewell, I walked towards the door. I hadn’t noticed when entering, but the sound of silk rustling on the floor was pleasant to hear.

Before passing through the door, I also politely greeted Garam, who stood like a gatekeeper, and then lifted my head. And then, I was a bit startled by the sight of his face. He was staring at me blankly like an idiot.

Why is he like that?

He didn’t seem like he would respond anytime soon.

After waiting for a moment, I remembered Mirinae’s words and realized the happy truth that I wasn’t someone inferior.

I slowly walked out of the room, not looking back, and quickly ran.

For the first time, the Floral West Palace, which didn’t feel like home, felt like one.

 

* * *

 

Garam was stunned. It wasn’t as if someone had smacked him on the back of his head. He was the type to blow someone’s head off if they hit him there.

In front of him stood Mirinae, the person he disliked the most, seemingly with a tail or nine swaying behind him.

Mirinae simply looked at Garam, then soon twisted his lips into a smirk. To anyone looking, it was a clear sneer. Garam remained stunned at that sight.

Why am I here dealing with this guy?

That bewildered thought traced back to a recent event. When he had watched Joyun angrily take Sanya’s maid away, he had been reprimanded by his lieutenant as if his back was set on fire.

“Young! Child! Taking her maid! Why did you let that happen!”

“Ah, she’s just a young kid, right? She’s a child of the Yeoran family!”

“Just five years old! How lonely must she feel, coming into the palace all alone! And you let her friend be taken away just like that?”

Garam had felt quite wronged up until then. Sanya Yeoran was unusually quiet for a child, and her tact was on par with Mirinae’s, if not better.

Just the day before, after being thoroughly defeated by Mirinae, Garam had been told by his lieutenant to at least try to emulate the Noble Consort, which was quite the bitter pill to swallow.

Garam did not deny that Sanya Yeoran was young. However, he had seen Sanya sitting calmly amidst the scornful stares during the marriage banquet day. Just like the Empress, from a distance, Garam had wondered if the Yeoran family had sent a gumiho (a nine-tailed fox) in place of a human.

What kind of child wouldn’t burst into tears in such a situation?

“…Though she is small.”

Doubts about her being human arose considering her slender and tiny limbs, which seemed too fragile, and her small, clear face that could be completely covered by Garam’s hand. A five-year-old kid being so cunning.

Garam was once again firm in his resolve, which was soon shattered by the news brought by his lieutenant.

“She’s eight years old.”

“Huh?”

“Consort Cho, Sanya, that is. She’s eight years old.”

He dropped the pancake he was eating in surprise.

Eight years old?

Garam first doubted his lieutenant’s intelligence gathering. After all, Sanya’s size was exactly that of his younger sister when she was precisely five years old, if not a bit smaller. But children grow quickly, so he had generously assumed.

But eight years old?

A look of knowing appeared on the lieutenant’s face, as if saying, ‘I thought you’d be surprised.’

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. It’s information extracted directly from the Yeoran family.”

“Is she really human?”

A dragon, perhaps, or even a ghost. Could a human’s growth be so anomalously slow?

Garam thought unusually precisely, and his lieutenant dismissed it succinctly.

“It can happen due to malnutrition. Like Consort Cho, who’s as thin as a stick.”

To add, Sanya was a bit thinner than average. Of course, that was expected. The Yeoran family would not neglect the body of a child they were sending to the palace as a concubine.

However, Sanya had difficulty eating properly due to long-term abuse, a testament to which was her inability to consume much food or the wrong kind of medicinal herbs without falling ill for days. Hence, there was a limit to how much weight she could gain. But, as the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome if one only keeps on walking.

Garam and his lieutenant were wrong in their speculation process but right in their conclusion. Sanya Yeoran had been abused by her own family.

“No wonder, why would such a high-ranking family send off their dearly nurtured youngest daughter with only a single maid?”

“…”

“Take the maid back from Consort Seolbi and apologize. Say you’re sorry.”

Garam followed the instruction without a word of protest. Thus, he arrived at the Floral West Palace and encountered the palace attendants frantically searching for Sanya. It had been a long time since he had seen Seoyeon, who had served the Empress, looking so disheveled and panicked.

The moment she saw Garam, she could hardly greet him properly before asking if he could find Sanya. Having felt guilty, he readily agreed.

Based on his childhood reputation for disappearing and causing his family’s worry, Garam knew a few likely places where a child might hide and quickly found Sanya.

Intending to take her to Seoyeon, Garam took a step towards Sanya, who was quietly sitting and watching flowers, turning her head towards him.

The child seemed oblivious to the chaos outside, her face innocent and clear. Garam thought it was his duty as an adult to scold her.

Therefore, what happened next was, Garam swore, not intentional.

At Garam’s call, Sanya collapsed to the ground. The face of the doll-like child was clearly stricken with fear. Her usually expressionless face turned pale with terror.

The child, always polite and unemotional, whispered a feeble plea, looking like a trembling rabbit. Garam immediately dropped his aggressive stance and threw his weapon far away.

“I won’t kill you.”

The words came out spontaneously, like finding an unexpected treasure while walking on the beach. But it wasn’t a lie. Sanya was small standing up, but sitting down, she seemed even smaller. Covered in dirt and dust from who-knows-where, the child looked pitifully small. For the first time in a long time, Garam felt a twinge of conscience.

She’s so small.

He felt ashamed. He should have protected her when Joyun was bullying her. He should have immediately retrieved her maid when it was taken away.

She was just a small child.

When he told the child he would return her maid, she just bowed her head in gratitude with that clear face.

There was no hatred towards Garam in her face. How could that be? His attempt to ask if she wasn’t angry was halted by memories from the past.

Garam was strong. His ability was a violent fire, and his temperament was similar to his power.

Perhaps a child who had lost a close friend hadn’t resisted, not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t.

Eventually, he handed the child over to Seoyeon and fled from the Floral West Palace as if running away. He was haunted by the image of the child, bowing down to pick up the heavy sword he had carelessly thrown.

As always, Garam had to admit that his lieutenant was right. Midway through his stride in the corridor, he stopped.

“Apology!”

He shouted the word, which also meant “fruit” in a homonymic twist, then turned around and hurried off.

Garam had forgotten the most important thing. He came to apologize, but he had failed to actually say “I’m sorry.” For once, Garam blamed his own foolishness.

However, by the time Garam, wishing he could burn his own head in frustration, returned to the Floral West Palace, its master had already left. Seeing Sanya’s palace attendants loitering at the gate, he frowned.

But soon, forgetting all decorum, he started running wildly.

“…Consort Cho has gone to the Noble Consort’s palace.”

This was why he ran, having heard it from Seoyeon.


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