Chapter 3
“What are you staring at? Until evening. You can do it, right?”
Was it even possible to harvest this much in this era? The quantity looked like something you’d see piled up at a wholesale produce market.
“Are you listening to what I’m saying?”
Startled, I turned my head. The woman with the prominent cheekbones stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring at me.
“All of this?”
Her face stiffened. Behind her, Chuseol and Danso shook their heads vigorously, as if telling me to stop talking and just do what I was told.
“Ah, yes! Of course. I’ll finish it by evening.”
Apparently that was the correct answer, because the tension in Chuseol and Danso’s raised shoulders eased.
Before any more nagging could come out, I grabbed a pod of beans and began splitting it open with my fingernails to take out the peas.
I heard a sigh from above my head. I expected another scolding, but perhaps she was busy herself, because she quickly walked away.
Preparing ingredients was usually the job of maids who had just entered the household. Girls my age normally didn’t do it, but I was learning everything from scratch.
“Amnesia really is a convenient excuse.”
By the time I was summoned by the Outer Steward, my cheeks were already swollen from the several times I had slapped myself.
Thanks to the testimony of Chuseol and Danso, the Outer Steward seemed to conclude that something had gone wrong with my head.
He looked a little eccentric, but his nature wasn’t bad. He told me to spend three days recuperating.
Accepting the absurd truth—that the previous “me” had died and I had somehow transmigrated into a martial arts novel again—didn’t take as long as I expected.
Even if you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, they say you’ll survive as long as you keep your wits about you. I needed someone who could help me.
That evening, I told Chuseol and Danso, who shared the same quarters as me, that I couldn’t remember anything.
Chuseol looked as if she had expected that much, while Danso immediately teared up and muttered, “What should we do?”
And that was how things had become what they were now. I was being trained again from the very basics.
“They say Mount Tai is high, yet it’s still just a mountain beneath the sky.”
Looking at the enormous pile of pea pods, it was obvious the household had a lot of people staying here.
But then shouldn’t there also be a lot of maids? Why was I the only one doing this?
Looking around, the others were working in small groups, chatting as they went. Only I had been assigned the bean duty.
“So either she has it out for me, or this is some kind of hazing.”
This kind of bullying wasn’t new to me. That cheekbone lady… she must have thought I was easy prey.
“Here. I finished everything.”
The other maids’ eyes widened at the work I had completed through sheer grit. The cheekbone lady inspected it from every angle before nodding.
“Take the bean pods to the stables.”
I bowed my head politely, then easily lifted the large basket and walked outside.
And the next day, I found myself staring upward with my mouth open.
“By evening. You can do it, right?”
This was an amount that absolutely couldn’t be handled alone. It was even more than yesterday.
“Uh…”
While I hesitated, another order followed.
“Once you’re done preparing the beans, handle this laundry as well.”
Th-this… this crazy cheekbone lady. A flood of curse words that I couldn’t possibly say out loud exploded inside my head.
“Do it properly. Unless you want to be thrown out.”
As she passed by me, she whispered so only I could hear.
Wow. This was harassment. Workplace harassment!
I pointed at her and looked around for support. The other maids simply sighed and shook their heads.
“Looks like you’ve been marked.”
Chuseol patted my shoulder with unusual sympathy.
“But why? What did I even do wrong?”
“Ah! Could it be that?”
Danso clapped her hands softly and whispered into my ear.
“She’s secretly in love with the Outer Steward. But it looks like he’s showing you some consideration, so she’s being petty.”
Oh… so that’s what it was?
No, wait—how cowardly could you get?!
Fuming, I squatted down and continued separating the bean shells and peas. Suddenly, anger surged up inside me.
“Damn it.”
Why was I only thinking about finishing the work? Why!
For a moment I felt miserable, wondering if some deep-seated slave mentality had taken root in me.
I remembered the day I had fallen into this place.
Yes… fallen.
The bean pod I was holding slipped from my hand and dropped to the ground. I stared at it in a trance as it fell.
“Fell… and ended up here?”
If that was the case…
What if I fell from a high place again?
Maybe I could go back.
*
Murong Sehui was pressing his eyebrows together tightly. Standing across from him was a servant of similar age, fidgeting nervously with his hands clasped.
“So.”
He knew well that scolding Sobuk wasn’t entirely fair. Still, what had been brought in had been brought in.
“You’re telling me you accepted this on your own?”
“Th-that is…”
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
Sobuk probably felt wronged as well. They must have carefully chosen someone who couldn’t refuse—someone who would be forced to take it no matter what.
When Murong Sehui untied the knot of the silk wrapping, which looked perfectly ordinary on the outside, a glossy black wooden box appeared inside.
The lacquerwork was exquisite; anyone could tell at a glance that it was an expensive item.
“So it’s the same thing again. Who do they think would use something like this? As the saying goes, you only see what you want to see.”
Luxury goods sent with persistent determination. Needless to say, the sender was the Yang Escort Agency.
In other words, it was pressure—pressure to accept the marriage proposal that had come from them.
“For now, shove it somewhere out of sight.”
At his command, Sobuk quickly moved the box away.
“How tiresome.”
Shaking his head, he tried to focus on the letter in front of him, but something tall outside the window kept drawing closer.
“What is that?”
Perhaps because of his foul mood, he couldn’t concentrate on the letter. Leaning out the window, he looked down and saw a massive pile of vegetables.
A maid was carrying the heap on her head.
For some reason, she looked familiar.
“Who was that again?”
The moment he thought about it, a sharp smack seemed to echo in his mind.
Ah—her. That crazy maid with the unforgettable first impression.
Without realizing it, his gaze followed the towering pile. He had thought she’d be thrown out for being out of her mind, but the Outer Steward seemed unexpectedly compassionate.
“Young Master Third.”
“What is it now?”
Murong Sehui looked at Sobuk.
“Well…”
That expression meant more trouble had appeared.
“Haah. Just say it.”
After hesitating, Sobuk handed him a bamboo slip.
Murong Sehui unfolded it, read it, then rolled it up and tapped it against his palm.
“It was suspicious enough that they kept sending gifts, but now they’re suddenly calling me into the Inner Court?”
Murong Daeyun, the head of the Murong family, had been stationed for years in the ceasefire zone with the Demonic Cult at the request of the Martial Alliance.
As the head of the family, he could have refused the mission. Yet Murong Daeyun had not done so. On the contrary, he had departed looking rather pleased, as if relieved.
Murong Sehui—the only direct son of the family head—had been living in the Outer Court with the collateral relatives since the first year after Murong Daeyun left the family estate.
Back then, Sehui had been barely fifteen.
Now he was approaching twenty.
“Could it be… that Father is returning?”
That was the only reason he could think of for suddenly being summoned.
Murong Daeyun and his wife Ak Jinok had been married through a political arrangement for twenty-five years.
Yet Lady Ak Jinok’s passionate devotion to her husband was still ongoing.
She had even named her residence the Gyuhwa Hall—Sunflower Hall—because she wished to be known as Lady Gyuhwa.
“Sobuk.”
“Yes, y-yes!”
“Pack our things.”
Murong Sehui’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“We’re returning—to the Inner Court.”
*
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The laundry bat in Sansan’s hand struck the clothes without pause.
After delivering the bean pods to the stables, she had come straight to the well to do the laundry.
“Haa… hoo…”
It was still early spring, so the water was painfully cold. Even though she had only just started washing, her fingers were already stiff and numb.
As she hurriedly swung the laundry bat, the surroundings gradually darkened.
The sun was setting.
“Oh no.”
According to Danso, because of some incident in the Outer Court, the work absolutely had to be finished by sunset.
Looking over, the clothes she was rinsing now were the last batch.
She barely managed to lift the laundry basket—now twice as heavy as when she brought it—onto her head.
Thinking about hanging the laundry quickly and finally eating dinner, she began to walk faster.
Then—
“Mother of—!”
Her right foot slipped forward suddenly, and her vision lurched.
Thud.
She landed hard on her backside. The laundry she had just finished flew into the air and rolled across the dirt ground.
How did it feel?
No need to ask. Absolutely miserable.
“This is driving me crazy. When am I supposed to rinse all of this again?”
Mealtime was fixed. If you were late, there would be no food.
“Hurry, hurry…”
She started gathering the fallen clothes when something thin—like a finger—caught her eye among them.
“What’s this?”
Her nearly cracked head, the clothes covered in dirt, and now this damn tube.
Anger flared up.
She looked around irritably, but no one was there. Feeling her face burning with rage, she picked up the object.
It was a thin bamboo tube with a stopper attached.
“Ah, whatever. Why should I care?”
She swung her arm back to throw it into the grass—
“Hey, Ma Sansan! Why are you so late? Something big happened!”
At the now somewhat familiar name, her head turned automatically.
“Something big?”
