The Young Consort Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 89

* * *

I became puzzled by that reaction too.

“You sent me a letter, didn’t you?”

“I never did such a thing.”

I was confused by Garam’s firm denial. Is he really not the one, or is it an amazing act?

“You can tell me honestly, I won’t get angry.”

I added that, thinking he might be afraid I would get mad, but Garam still had a face of not understanding the situation at all.

“It really wasn’t me. What kind of letter did you receive that you’re like this?”

He seemed quite sincere. I hesitantly handed him the letter I had brought.

“When I woke up, it was by my pillow.”

Garam unfolded the letter and quickly frowned.

“Who wrote such a stupid letter? There’s nothing written, yet they shamelessly ask for a reply.”

“…”

Who do you think wrote it to criticize it so harshly? It could be Mother, Mirinae, or even Gowun.

‘If it’s Gowun, I’ll give him a good scolding to apologize.’

I glanced at Garam and sighed.

“So it wasn’t you who wrote it.”

“Of course. Anyone can see it’s not something I wrote, right?”

Uh, well. I can’t answer that. When I avoided his gaze, Garam spoke as if disappointed.

“How could I write a letter like that?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“…So, anyone could make mistakes.”

We should always keep all possibilities open, shouldn’t we?

When I slyly tried to smooth things over, Garam glanced at me once and relaxed his expression. It seemed to mean he would let it slide.

“I heard you have a particularly clingy maid in your palace.”

“Are you talking about Heesa?”

I felt a bit sorry for Heesa for answering right away, but Garam nodded, indicating I was right.

“That maid could have written it too.”

It was a pretty good deduction. Heesa and Garam had many similar aspects in their personalities.

But no matter how comfortable Heesa is with me, I’m still her master. There’s no way she would write a letter in casual language…

‘You never know.’

Actually, it’s a bit shocking that it wasn’t Garam. I firmly believed it would be him. Suspecting again that it might not be a lie, I raised my head.

Garam was slyly watching my reaction. Just as I was about to ask why, he carefully opened his mouth.

“It’s lunchtime now, and Suksu’s cooking skills are quite good…”

It wasn’t difficult to understand what he was trying to say.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

I answered without even hearing the rest. Just with that, Garam smiled brightly.

* * *

Having enjoyed a delicious lunch, I talked with Garam for a long time before leaving his palace. With my stomach comfortably full and the gently swaying palanquin, I ended up dozing off.

I must have fallen asleep quite deeply rather than just napping, as I had closed my eyes in the palanquin and opened them on my bed. The sunset was beautifully painting the sky outside the window. It seems I slept for quite a while.

I was debating whether to get up and do something or go back to sleep when I heard a low, small voice outside the door.

“I want to be assigned to another palace.”

It was the voice of a palace maid. My palace maids didn’t often speak to me about their difficulties. Since they can’t complain to their master about this or that being hard, it’s natural, but sometimes I wanted to ask.

No matter how well you treat them, there must be hard things.

“Why?”

The voice wasn’t familiar, so I focused and listened intently. Then I heard a familiar voice.

‘It’s Heesa.’

“Hey, you’re really stupid, aren’t you? Everyone knows except you.”

“Yes, yes. I’m stupid. Why don’t you, the smart one, tell me? Why another palace?”

“Well, because now the princess is a kite with a cut string.”

A brief silence followed the maid’s nonchalant words.

“It’s because the princess had the backing of the Yeoran family that she could wield such power. Without the strength of her family, would she have even received a title?”

Gowun, who was standing beside me, quietly approached the door. I held his hand to dissuade him.

She’s right. It would have been difficult if Giyun hadn’t supported me.

“I heard the princess and her father had a special relationship, but how do we know if she turned a blind eye to this incident?”

I already knew that. But I didn’t turn a blind eye. Do you know how hard I tried to stop it?

“Right now, the princess stays in the Eastern Palace because she is favored by Her Majesty, even without a drop of imperial blood. But once a prince is born, it will quickly change.”

Ah, this one hurt a bit. I tried hard not to think about it and buried it, but it keeps getting poked. I don’t want to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet, but that assumption is too plausible.

I let out a small sigh. My chest felt stuffy.

“Anyway, you chose the wrong side. You should have gone to the Noble Consort’s palace.”

The grumbling voice was laced with thorns.

So that’s what she was thinking.

I thought the work was hard or someone was being difficult.

If it’s a maid whose voice I can’t recognize, she must be a maid who hasn’t been here for long. It’s foolish to think everyone will be kind to me. I can understand palace servants since their power changes depending on the master they serve, but still.

‘I thought we were close.’

I was a bit disappointed. So I didn’t realize that Heesa had been silently listening all this time.

“Heesa. Did you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you keeping your mouth shut? Just answer- Ah!”

I was startled by the sudden scream. Then I heard Heesa’s kind voice.

“Be quiet, the princess just fell asleep and you’ll wake her up because of you.”

A brief silence followed those words. And soon a louder scream burst out.

“Ah! Ouch!”

Unlike before, it sounded a bit artificial. It seemed the purpose was to wake me up by screaming. I don’t know what Heesa is doing, but she wouldn’t use violence in front of me.

I lay with my eyes wide open and rolled around on the bed a few times before closing my eyes.

Ah, I’m suddenly getting so sleepy.

“Ah! It hurts, you! Aah!”

It’s so quiet around me. I’m a bit of a deep sleeper, you see.

* * *

Like that, I had my eyes closed and seems to have dozed off again.

“Your Highness. It’s Heesa.”

I opened my eyes at the small voice. Heesa’s voice was heavily subdued and dejected.

“If you’re still asleep, I’m sorry but I’ll come in for a moment.”

After those words, the door quietly opened. Heesa approached me with soft footsteps.

“Your Highness. Are you asleep?”

I kept my eyes closed at the repeated question. I put quite a bit of effort into not letting my eyelids flutter.

“Has Her Highness been asleep for a while?”

Heesa asked Gowun, and Gowun answered yes.

“That bad bit… no, that bad thing.”

A sorrowful voice continued. She handled it so indifferently earlier, but it seems she was quite hurt.

“Why is our princess a kite with a cut string? She’s a very sturdy person. Even if it falls, so what? I’m so good at sewing, I can just reattach it.”

The cute and touching words mumbled between sobs. I buried my face, feeling like I would cry and laugh at the same time. Heesa, who thought I might be waking up, paused for a moment and then slowly got up. She carefully pulled out the blanket and covered my body with it. It was a very meticulous touch.

Sometimes someone would cover me with a blanket every night. I thought it was Seoyeon, moving carefully so as not to wake me, but it was Heesa.

“You don’t know how scared I was when you fell asleep, Your Highness.”

Heesa sniffled and muttered.

“I’m so glad you woke up. Our princess.”

I’m really, really glad.

Heesa mumbled that a few more times.

* * *

Heesa took care of my bedding every night. Having learned that in a rather touching way, I thought Heesa was the owner of this letter. Although the letter used casual language…

But after coincidentally seeing Heesa’s diary, I gave up on interrogating her.

‘The handwriting is different.’

Heesa wrote in very pretty palace-style calligraphy. But the letter I received had square and neat handwriting, as if written in Hangeul. In the end, I had no choice but to do as the letter instructed.

[Hi.

I received your letter well.

You asked me to write a reply, so I’m writing, but there’s not much to write about.

The moon is bright today. The wind is a bit cool.

I’m Sanya.

Who are you?

Please reply.]

It lacked context. But since the letter I received lacked context, the letter I send should also lack context, shouldn’t it?

I nodded my head a couple of times in satisfaction, then folded the paper twice. Since the letter was by my pillow, I wondered if they would see it if I left it by my pillow too.

I had doubts even as I left it, but I fell asleep thinking they would take the bait.

And the next morning.

I found a piece of paper by my pillow. At first, I thought it was the letter I wrote yesterday, but the way it was folded was subtly different. When I opened the letter, I could tell more clearly.

‘I got a reply.’

The letter was similar to yesterday’s. But now the other person called my name.

[Hi, Sanya.

You’re right. The wind is refreshing.

It’s a bit difficult for me to just tell you my name.

Want to try guessing?

Please reply this time too.]

Having read it all the way through, I crumpled my face.

‘What’s with this kid?’