Chapter 40: Aluemdaun Sinbi (Beautiful Mystery)

This was a new low trick that I had never even heard of before; the womenfolk from a noble household all ganging up on an illegitimate son, knowing full well that he didn't have any rights to speak up at all, not even to defend himself. But as far as I knew, even if I was in a worse situation than him, but I had a single advantage that he didn't. I was a legitimate child, as far as I knew anyways, and I wasn't shy about using this to help the young master that I was still really angry with. I had no idea why our relationship was like this; even in our most turbulent times, we still turned to each other without hesitation, but it didn't look like he was going to give me the answers that I was so desperately craving any time soon. And I really was not coping with it at all. So when this corrupt and blatantly unjust family tried to humiliate Seon-Ho in exactly the same way that he did to them, I could only jump at the chance of venting my anger on them and blaming the noble families like Nam-Jeon's of treating us lowborn however they wanted without directly blaming him. But I was wise enough to at least have my servants investigate the village I was living in with no memories at all so I could at least be aware of the sort of people that I was meant to be hiding from. And I even got extra information from my servants which I was able to put to good use for Seon-Ho's sake, not that he knew about it.

"You...how dare you...you slander...in front of your elders..." "Slander? Big Madame, if you wish to insert a spy in our home, the very least that you can do is to make sure that she doesn't show off to anyone and everyone who will listen to her tall tales of what kind of family she escaped from. The problem comes from your own home, so I suggest that you swiftly return before the Master Nam returns." "The concubine..." "unless you want to continue to stand there and let a junior explain exactly how you decided to murder your cousin and seduce her husband for this entire village to hear. Why else would your husband who is younger than you be forced to accept a pregnant elder bride..." "you shut your mouth! That never happened!" "What never happened?" "I did not...." "...seduce your current husband? To hide the fact that you were pregnant with illegitimate children in your belly when turned up on his doorstep..." I did not even hesitate to shout as loudly as I could to get my point across whilst Seon-Ho ran up so close to me that I almost fell over if he didn't catch me in time. In front of half the village who were peeking outside the Nam gates of the front courtyard. "This is absolutely outrageous! I am going to teach this orphan a lesson once and for all! I really want to see who will stop me!"

"My cousin has always been virtuous, kind and generous. She has never behaved badly, but you barge your way into my father's home overbearingly to cover up for your husband's incompetent schemes! Your concubine has put my family in debt and now you want to take away the only person who can clean up her mess!" "Teaching her to be filial is a duty I must fill on the behalf of both of your absent mothers!" "Acting in a manner that can only backfire on your husband, no wonder you had to use such low measures like seduction to gain a foothold in a noble home that would never accept you otherwise." "You bitch! You vile, scheming little minx! Who are you to talk to me this way! You have absolutely no support at all..." "The facts speak for themselves! Your children are older than your entire marriage, they all got into the palace by the 'recommendation's their father but have yet to produce any real achievements at all and my cousin over there that you treat like a dog at least has the privilege of having private meetings with the Emperor himself! So I wonder how he will react when one of his most trusted men is being treated like this!" I gave her time to come up with an excuse as I checked up on he young master who was still visibly shaken. This poor man, he had the right intentions and every justification for his actions, but he was still far too impulsive, reckless and could not think too far ahead. He still could not cope with the barrage of insults that he had to put up with on a daily basis, how did he think he was going to achieve his goals if he could not cope with criticism? "Are you alright?" "Yeon, how are you..." "I will talk to you later in private when all of this is over. In fact, I need you to take me out of here for a few hours." "Why?" "Just do it, think of it as payback for what I am going through now." "Yeon?" "Go and get your father, it is time to bring this family to and end once and for all." "But..." "Just go! Don't you trust me?" "Stay close to Dal until I return, do you hear me?" "Yes, now go."

"...your testimony is irrelevant if this is brought up before the emperor. I..." "I am a member of the Nam family who is in charge of this household. And you are a woman who trapped a married man into a life of misery after committing a single mistake in his otherwise perfect life. How else can you explain his absence now? I may be a humble woman, but I will never let somebody as corrupt as you bully me." "Then I will not hesitate to use my life to stop your filthy lies!" "Well well, I am very impressed. If you had kept to this promise more than two decades ago, I am sure that a lot of things would be different for your family now." "You...I will file a complaint about you! I will have you torn apart for..." "for what exactly? Go on?" "For not staying in your place and charging me with all of these insults and lies exactly like a man would!"

"Big Madame! Do not listen to her lies! She is a thief that constantly steals the Young Master away from me! She plays every single trick that she can think of and..." "what on earth are you talking about? Are you accusing me of spending time with my cousin as a ploy to steal him from you? What motivation could I possibly have to go up against a concubine? And as for the big madame, do you normally wail and make an unsightly scene when things do not go your way? No wonder your husband is not willing to stand by you."

"Enough of this! I really wonder what sort of excuse you all have into barging into my home at will! Yeon, get back inside your quarters this instant! You have already made a show of yourself enough! Men! I want you to arrest this so-called big madame and her servants until her husband returns from the palace so we can discuss this chaos! Seon-Ho! Report to my study immediately since this is your mess! And I hope that you do not expect me to clean this up for you!" I didn't wait for him to bark at me twice as I turned around immediately and I waited for everyone to go inside of the main house before I sprinted into the market for some fresh air. I knew that I was going to have to pay for this sooner or later, but I really didn't care. But I had to try and find something, anything that would link me to my past, otherwise I feared that I would really loose my mind in the Nam mansion. Scheming for survival was one thing, but doing it on a daily basis like the young master did frighten me a little. I was already aware that I was unlike most virtuous and gentle women, but it sounded like I had already gone through a great deal to get to where I was now and I didn't want to loose that. So until I got my memories back, I was not comfortable with just letting new people into my life and starting anew.

But what I did not expect was for the humiliated concubine to have somehow slipped out of the Nam's sight and follow me straight out of the yangban. In fact, I did not even notice her until she practically screamed my name out aloud for everyone around us to hear. And even though I was facing an uncertain situation in that moment, I still could not help but to look around at the sea of faces I was standing in and hoping that someone, anyone would recognise me and pull me out of here.

But nobody did, and being away from Seon-Ho for the first time, I really could not help but to feel a sense of panic and hopelessness, as if it was starting to feel unnatural to not always following him everywhere he went. And that frightened me even more. So out of confusion and desperateness, I ran as fast as I could anywhere that I could until I came to the exact river that I had dreamt about during my time with Chun-Ae. I couldn't believe that it actually existed and I wasn't going crazy after all. I was completely frozen on the spot when I came across it. I really could not move an inch at all until the concubine ran over to me and blatantly pushed me right back into the river with all of her might that I accidentally hit my head on the side of some rocks.

And that was when the nightmares that I had for so long suddenly replayed in front of my eyes in the water as soon as I opened my eyes. I could see and hear the boy in my dreams calling out for help in pure fear before he almost got swept away by the current himself. There were two little boys who were caught under the water that day and I could only get close enough to maybe rescue one of them. But before I could even get closer to either one of them, one of the boys suddenly started fighting the other one and pulling him down so he could climb over him and get to the water's surface. And I could tell by their clothes they came from different social backgrounds, and the poor lowborn boy didn't stand a chance of making out alive at all. He had just been attacked by the other boy and was really going to drown if somebody didn't help him at all. But that was another problem; why wasn't anyone else helping? Why couldn't I see anyone else in the river trying to help at least the noble child? No, if nobody was going to help them, then I could not just watch them trying to kill each other. And for some reason that I could not explain, my arms instantly reached out to the lowborn boy who looked so familiar to me...

That was until a little lowborn girl finally jumped into the river after them and immediately reached out for the lowborn boy who was still in shock after the whole incident. He passed out almost as soon as he could breathe again, leaving the other boy to be hit by a wooden log which was almost as big as he was. He was then swept under the current and disappeared from sight...

"Yeon? YEONNA!" As closer as the loud voice got to me, the memory or hallucination or whatever it was I just witnessed began to fade away before my very eyes. And of all of the emotions to feel in that moment, it was pure anger and confusion that started surging through my body. But then the concubine began to hold Seon-Ho back and grabbing him, resulting in him slipping in exactly the same way that I did head first into the water. He didn't even have time to shout out for help or even make a sound before he just disappeared before my very eyes, just like the boy in my dream.