HSM 10

Chapter 10

“P-please spare me! This lowly one was short-sighted and failed to understand Young Master’s heart!”

Of course I couldn’t die like this.

I prostrated myself flat on the floor and begged Eok I-geon for now.

“When did I ever say I would kill you?”

Eok I-geon snorted as if absurd and spoke.

“I’ve been feeling this since this afternoon, but you have a tendency to be excessively afraid of me. Did some rumor spread in the meantime that I devour servant girls?”

“N-no! About Young Master’s excellent character, I’ve heard until my ears were worn out since becoming a servant in the Palace.”

“Is that so?”

“Having dared to disturb such a person’s mood, this lowly one deserves death, but please give me a chance to explain.”

When I slightly raised my head to look, Eok I-geon was sitting turned completely toward me.

His lips curved up at an angle, seeming quite amused by this situation.

That bastard.

I’m dying of fear right now and you’re laughing?

I was flabbergasted, but if I showed it, I’d really have to bid farewell to this world.

I took a deep breath and began explaining as calmly as I could manage.

“Originally, rice balls are food that lower servants make in their spare time to stave off hunger. Naturally, they don’t suit noble persons like Young Master. They’re made by roughly mixing leftover rice and side dishes – how could I possibly offer such a thing to Young Master?”

“Cheon-gang seemed to eat it quite deliciously though.”

“If you’re curious about that taste, though it’s not befitting Young Master’s status, shall I include it with dinner? I’ll prepare everything fresh, not with leftover rice and side dishes.”

“Very well. Do that.”

Only after seeing Eok I-geon answer as if he’d been waiting and turn away did I realize.

This was what he wanted to hear from me.

He had frightened me to hear these words.

If he wanted rice balls, he could have just told me to bring them – why provoke me by toying with someone’s life?

It was fortunate I knew Eok I-geon was a madman, otherwise I would have been bewildered and just died without understanding.

From ice water to knife-cut noodles, and now rice balls.

Had I led him down the wrong path?

The original work never mentioned he had a big appetite.

“This lowly one will take leave now to prepare so you can dine immediately after your bath.”

I didn’t want to stay with Eok I-geon for even one more moment. As soon as his permission was given, I escaped Mokgan with quick backward steps.

“Whew!”

My legs had no strength at all.

Perhaps because the tension was released, I couldn’t walk far before collapsing right onto the floor.

This time I really almost died.

If I hadn’t begged for my life, I would probably be lying on the cold floor as a cold corpse by now.

That vague speech pattern right before committing an act.

He pretended otherwise, but if I hadn’t caught that, there would have been only one ending.

“Sob, Grandmother…”

The joy of survival was very brief.

I desperately missed Shin Geum who would be diligently rolling noodles at the shop.

Grandmother wouldn’t know.

How many times I stepped on death’s threshold today.

I’ll escape Maegyo and when Eok I-geon launches his invasion of the Martial Arts World later, I’ll tell her my heroic tales then.

I’ll definitely tell her how I survived two terrifying months.

I’ll boast that I saved Grandmother’s life too.

Steeling myself with resolve I couldn’t tell anyone, I pulled myself together.

There was no time to delay. I had to hurry to add rice balls to dinner.

Jami-gwan is going to be turned upside down again.

“What? You want me to make rice balls for Prince Lee to eat? Me?”

As expected, Sook was on the verge of fainting.

The girl who could make rice balls with her eyes closed was trembling and nearly in a panic state.

Still, thanks to my nagging, the rice balls were somehow completed, and I safely served dinner to Eok I-geon.

It was worth increasing the number of rice balls, remembering the afternoon’s knife-cut noodles.

Eok I-geon didn’t even glance at the formal dishes and kept stuffing only rice balls into his mouth.

It would be so nice if those were stones.

Then maybe three or four of his teeth would have fallen out?

Just imagining it filled me with quite a refreshing feeling.

But if such a thing actually happened, it wouldn’t do.

I had to survive.

Though it was pitiful and frustrating, serving him well was the only way for me to live.

“Phew, now all that’s left is the late-night snack.”

After bringing the dinner tray to Jami-gwan and returning, a long sigh naturally escaped my lips.

Today has been such a long day. This is only the first day and I’m already this exhausted…

I didn’t even want to imagine how the remaining days would pass.

I’d rather have only days like today.

Then I feel like I could somehow endure it.

“Seolha!”

It was when I had fallen into absurd thoughts due to extreme stress and mental weakness.

Someone was waiting for me in front of Geonyeong-gak’s main gate.

“Ga-ye Senior?”

She was a third-year senior I only knew by name but wasn’t particularly close to.

“What brings Senior here?”

When I asked in puzzlement, she approached with a smile and suddenly linked arms with me.

“What do you mean what brings me? I came to congratulate you.”

“Congratulate?”

“It’s your first day as Prince Lee’s dedicated servant girl. We usually congratulate each other on days like this. Let’s go quickly.”

“…Uh, I can’t leave my post…”

Though there wasn’t anything I had to do immediately, I was in a position where I had to stand by for Eok I-geon’s summons.

All the other servant girls had gone off duty, so there was currently no one in Geonyeong-gak who could replace me.

“Prince Lee is reading books right now, so it’s fine. Do you think we’d take you away without knowing such things?”

Ga-ye Senior reassured my hesitation and dragged me toward the Wall.

Her arm strength was so strong that I, who had been hesitating, ended up following her.

“You’re finally here?”

She called it a congratulation party, so why are we going to increasingly secluded places?

My question didn’t last long.

At the end of the Wall, a woman who had been crouching by a Tree trunk chewing something got up swaggering as soon as she saw me.

Behind her, I spotted a familiar face.

“I told you I’d see you later, didn’t I?”

It was Doe Senior who greeted me as if delighted, even waving her hand.

Her last greeting before we parted had seemed ominous – she must have been plotting this.

“How dare you lay hands on my sister?”

Sister?

When I looked back and forth between them in puzzlement, Doe Senior lifted her chin triumphantly.

I’d heard there were occasional cases of sisters getting jobs as servant girls together – these must be one of those cases.

Now that I knew, could I see it?

Their nasty, wicked expressions looked exactly alike.

“Is this bitch’s ears blocked? A senior like heaven is asking and you just keep your mouth shut?”

“Ji-ae, Seolha is scared. Don’t pressure her so much.”

Ga-ye Senior, who had brought me, had already switched to their side.

She hadn’t done anything particularly wrong to me, yet there was considerable hostility in her gaze directed at me.

“Seolha, I see you’re getting cocky relying on that pretty face of yours, but do you think that’ll make Prince Lee look at you differently?”

Ah, so that’s what it was?

I felt embarrassed for having briefly wondered if I had unknowingly hurt her feelings somehow.

Ga-ye Senior, just like the other maids, simply didn’t like that I had become Eok I-geon’s personal attendant.

“And there’s clearly a hierarchy and rules among us maids. Even if you became a personal attendant, how could you hit a senior?”

“They attacked first.”

It was even three against one. I was acting in self-defense.

Wasn’t it more petty to run crying to bring your sister after getting hit a few times?

“Oh my, now you’re finally opening your mouth.”

Doe’s Sister spat right in front of me. When I frowned at this, a slap suddenly flew toward me.

I couldn’t just take an obvious slap coming at me, so I quickly stepped back.

“You’re dodging?”

When her hand futilely cut through empty air, her expression immediately crumpled.

“I was going to end this nicely with just one slap, but I guess that won’t work. You’re going to get a beating from me today!”

Once again her hand traced an arc through the air.

But this time too, I easily escaped from her grasp.

Huh?

However, I was honestly a bit flustered by her subsequent footwork.

Her following movements were somehow different.

She wasn’t simply trying to close the distance.

She was cleverly interfering with my movements, driving me in a certain direction like herding a rabbit.

It’s footwork technique!

Unlike her younger sister, the older sister had definitely learned martial arts.

Indeed, she had something to rely on when she brought me here.

But what to do about this.

I’m not one to just meekly take a beating.

Though I hadn’t learned any great martial arts like the protagonists in typical martial arts novels, I was skilled enough to easily defeat a mere maid.

Our Shin Geum didn’t raise me carelessly!