Chapter 249: Downfall (Mollag)

"It is nobody else's fault that you were born into a poor family newbie, is that all of the gifts that you have received? The Noble Princess Consort's gifts are incomparable to The Concubine's gifts! I will have my new dresses made within 3 days and thank her personally for them! What a slut, was that an embroidery or a siren song that you sang this morning when moving into your residence? Do not forget that if you cannot sleep with His Majesty within the first 3 days, I dare you to still compete with me for his favour!" "Forgive me, but I did not mean anything like that. I will stop singing if you do not like it." "Oh please1 stop acting all cutesy to me! And don't you dare try to seduce His Majesty with that weepy face of yours, not on my watch!" "Very well, I shall leave my quarters whenever you arrive." "Take a walk around the Imperial Garden if you can, it certainly is a feast for the eyes…what is this? What on earth is going on? How are you getting more gifts that myself now!" "Well well, it looks like one's background doesn't really determine one's future after all."

It looked like my gifts additional had arrived in a timely manner as the concubine that I liked was being bullied for simply speaking out to me the most. She did oddly remind me of Seo Yeon when it came to her silver tongue and that was exactly who I needed to bring my husband back to me. "…you have a brigade of servants carrying your new gifts My Lady, is there enough space in your place for them?" "I shall have them dispatched to my family's home." "Well….my family was never short of stuff like that anyways, but it seems as though you are very good at buying off the new concubines."

"Is that so? I wonder how somebody as stupid as you could have been picked to be my husband's concubine. How dare you suggest that a more concubine like her can buy off The Noble Princess Consort!" "Your Highness! Forgive me, I…" "You come from a military family, isn' that right?" My family indeed comes from a long line of warriors, unlike the magistrate from a village." "And yet how you are acting full of jealousy right now makes you less superior than the family of my doorman. How dare you become a pain in the back already? Do you really think that you can just swagger into the palace with that priorly made dress and wasting good textiles? You have the manners of a soldier, so this is the result of your poor upbringing? You certainly do live up to your family's name, don't you?" "I…Forgive me…" "So why did you just attempt to maim a concubine who shares your rank? I thought it was my job to manage the harem, so who are you to take over my job? Do you want my throne as well?" "No! I would never! It was just that…they were making fun of me and I…just wanted to teach her a lesson. I didn't mean t offend anyone…" "I simply wanted to take a walk in the Imperial Garden only to have my day spoilt by a violent scene, what a disappointment. But I am afraid that you are not able to shoulder my responsibly as you are not worthy of it."

"Your Highness, I beg you to forgive me! Please! Spare me and my family!" "…the maple leaves do not seem to sport enough colour this season, but I hear that blood can add colour to the leaves, what do you say?" "Your Highness…?" "I shall therefore reward this unruly Concubine with the Scarlet Red to add colour to the maple leaves."

I had just carried out the punishment and I was on my way back to my quarters when I was suddenly ambushed by the Imperial Palace Guards and taken by the arms to carry out my kneeling punishment. I screamed, I shouted and I cried until my throat went numb and I could taste blood in my mouth, but nobody came to my rescue. My husband actually had the nerve to humiliate me once again and made the guards place their hands around my arms so that I could not escape. And so I had to endure my punishment of kneeling in front of the blazing hot sun where I could have contracted the plague myself at any time for his until I simply couldn't take it anymore. I felt my old and decrepit body fail me as my back was no longer able to support me and the last thing that I remember was my face hitting the asphalt ground before my eyes closed and I was engulfed in darkness.

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"…wrinkles furrow from her disappointed face whilst vigour and radiance shines on His majesty's…." "What is going on? Where am I? Just what on earth is this? Why has my quarters turned so messy?" "Peace be to you, My Lady…" "My Lady? How dare you address me as such!" "My Lady, you have been officially deposed from the time of your punishment, and you are no longer The Third Noble Princess Consort. The Third Prince has also initiated a divorce decree, so you are no longer living in the Palace of Purity. You are now living in the cold palace and you are assigned only a single maid here. She will come to clean up your new quarters for you…" "What on earth have I done to deserve all of this! I have only helped His Majesty to contain this plague and…." "I regret to inform you that you have failed; the physician that His Highness was looking for has turned up dead with evidence that you had the crime committed, along with other evidences that you had a lot of Imperial Physicians killed that were able to find cures for this plague months ago. That was evidence enough to divorce you." "What are you talking about?" "The Master Dal was also found responsible for humiliating all of the newly-appointed Ministers, under your orders. The Third Prince is beyond furious and humiliated in front of his father, and he is put on home arrest whilst his man Moon-Bok helps to fight off the plague, including some maids that were recently infected."

"The plague has broken into the Palace? When? How? No, I need to speak to His Majesty, I am innocent of these changes…here, take this and…" "I am deeply flattered, My Lady, but ii work only for His Royal Highness himself and your distaste for eunuchs such as myself has become legendary throughout the Kingdom if not The Palace alone, so I am unworthy to serve you, since we are subhumans to you, isn't that right?" "Wait! Has His Majesty been informed that I fainted from a head-stoke at least?" "His Highness has been informed of it, that is correct." "And?" "And he is celebrating that fact by having his first night of confinement with a new concubine that he has chosen for the night." "Already? So soon after my divorce? What about my name tag?" "You will be evicted out of the palace as soon as the plague has been eradicated, so there is no use for your name tag at all." "Not even after I just fainted? Does he really not wish to see me anymore?" "He is not seeing any of the old concubines at all, he wants to spend time with the new ones, that is all I know." "So he is still very angry at me over a whore that he barely knew for a year. It wasn't my fault that she miscarried, truly…" "His Highness has expressly forbidden anyone to bring up this miscarriage in particular, along with yourself and your once honourable name. You are demoted to a commoner and are forbidden to leave this quarters if you want to keep your head in place."

"What am I to repent for? I didn't do anything wrong! Who do adorn myself for now? No, my cousin….she will marry into the family and save me…And as for the first concubine, bring her to me!"

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The once Noble Princess Consort held enough power to kill every concubine and unborn babe in sight, and would summon them over to her palace for hours on end multiple times a day without mercy. They were seldom allowed to leave before 6 hours of meetings took place." "And your precious Concubine's inevitable strong emotions would add more damage to her health. The Palace of Purity has also…" "you need not comment on it anymore brother, I had to prioritise national interests above my own marriage sometimes, as a Prince of heaven. The daily consumption of her cosmetics items are small and is only effective in use after a long time." "Which is why you never had reason to worry until…" "How the hell was I supposed to know she was going to pull that stunt as soon as I was away from the palace, fifth brother? I basically let my main wife kill my illegitimate babe." "Could there be other reasons for this?" "Every singer concubine who walks through these palace doors are all poison somehow at different stages of ranking due to my wife. It usually doesn't get discovered for a while." "So it was her physical state was too weak to prevent this miscarriage also?" "I guess so." "Brother, I have known you to be with hundreds of women, and I have never seen you s downcast as you are with this one. Why?" "Fifth brother, I know that women are not exactly to your taste, but let me ask you, what do you think of Seo Yeon?" "If I was a man who liked women, I would have married her as soon as I could, just because I prefer men it doesn't mean that I am oblivious to her beauty and her intellect that is rare for a woman, especially of her social status. She would have become a renowned scholar if she had been born a man." "Seo Yeon has certainly inherited everything from her mother and more, but there is something about her cool intellect that has…captured me. And she is beautiful to match and she is just so ripe and…" "And?" "…and she is obviously in love with the half-breed that obsesses over her, Concubine Park is the only woman that I have met that is closest to resembling her." "So, do you think…" "You know what I am like with women brother, and I can only imagine that she has the same effect on the half-breed. There is no way that a woman who looks like that is still a virgin, even if I thought the half-breed was more like you in that department. He has had to have had her more than once, so what good will she do by my side?" "I'll take the half-breed, for he is certainly the prettiest one that I have ever seen in this entire kingdom." "He is, isn't he? No wonder he has Seo Yeon under his spell…"

"Your Majesties! I have an urgent report to hand in about the results of the miscarriage of The Concubine Park!" "What is it!" "The Concubine's satchels were found to have contained alpine pelleted deer musk; a rather precious spice and 10 times as strong as normal musk." "Who were the satchels made by?" "The previous Mistress Han under the orders of your wife and yourself, and her pregnancy weakened as soon as she miscarried for one hour after attending all of those meetings…" "And my wife's cosmetics and incense that already had musk in it…I was on guard against the wife that I didn't want, but it ended up costing me my unborn son…" "Doesn't dangmenzi have a light colour to its so it doesn't stand out with the other spices? Not even physicians can pick it up? That was why it wasn't detected before? Third brother?" "This type of musk is very forceful and it can easily find ways to enter the body." "So The Mistress Han had something to do with this? Very well, I want her whipped 100 times before she is put into my wife's services in the cold palace, and that is where she shall remain. And send a message to my concubine, to that she can think twice about moving to a nunnery now." "Are you forgetting something, Third Brother? How about the contribution of a certain someone…" "Seo Hwi and his men did everything in my service, but due to my punishment, they had to hand everything over to my father, thus relinquishing their services to him now." "I wasn't talking about them." "I will figure out what to do with that other person later on, brother."