"…when her aunt lectures her, she usually doesn't care for her pride at all." "No wonder she was so jittery when I met her just now, she cannot even defend herself when being bullied to extreme levels like that. What will become of the girl after marrying into a family like that one?" "Who knows, Mistress Nam, it looks like she will have to suffer even more so that she has done for her entire life." "She will need a strong guidance in that home to survive, maybe I should step in sometime? We are close after all now…" "well well well, I haven't heard about your reputation no matter how hard I try, Mistress Nam. Maybe it is said that yu are gentle and virtuous like all of the rest of the married women, but somehow I doubt that. Maybe you cannot keep up that facade for long and will begin to interfere in my new sister-in-law's matters?" "Maybe that is so, because I can certainly put a bully in there place, miss. And for your information, I was the maid of The Third Prince before he granted me a marriage for my excellent service, you can ask him if you do not trust me at all, miss. I t always treat others how they treat me in return, so if I get dealt with a bully than I shall become one myself. But I I truly face a gentle and virtuous woman, of course I shall treat her with respect."
"You….how unfortunate you are not to marry into my family and…." "So are you saying that my conferment is a mistake? That was personally granted by The Third Price himself; my title and my husband included? If you think it is a mistake, then you are welcome to tell his Royal Highness himself. And speaking of what is proper, I am simply astounded at your lack of manners. For a noble lady who is supposed to come from a prominent family, how can you be so hostile to your senior? Your superior? I am a married woman with a child and yourself? When is your betrothal going to happen exactly? You are old enough now, are you not?" "You…! You have no husband and yet you…" "is that so? I wonder if I magicked my son into appearing then? Or maybe I stole him from somewhere even though he clearly has my face? Is this how your family have taught you to behave to your gusts?"
"You…!" "I am at least still an honourable guest in case you haven't picked up on my visit yet? Is this the etiquette that you were taught?" "No-one even likes you here at all1" "Nobody knows me, that is why, and I prefer to keep it that way." 'Even your pick of bride for my brother isn't that great, my mother liked somebody else and then…" "Ah yes, that bride mysteriously vanished overnight as soon as it was revealed that your brother, one of the closest men to The Third Prince will marry a close relative of his wife's? Are you now admitting that something happened to the previous choice of the bride?" "How did you….no, no of course not…you are just a lowly uneducated maid that has no virtues at all." "And yet I was entrusted to keep an eye on such a bride that will marry into such a family after all. And since you are more well-bred than I am, you should certainly inherit more…gentle and virtuous manners, should you not? But we are from the same generation, so it would be inappropriate for me to each you personally. Maybe I should have a word with your parents the next time that I see them…!" I really could not help but to get annoyed, so much so that the back of my hand found her cheek and things happened after that. Her mother came in to scold her daughter as soon and as loudly as she could in order to try and rectify her family's image.
"That bride will be married into our family why on earth are you making things hard for our guests, daughter? Have you utterly lost your mind? How can you face you brother after this? Or The Third Prince himself! Tell me! How dare you show off to the world like some sort of hussy! Go back to your room and reflect quietly on your mistakes today and do not even think about coming out from there!" "But mother…" "No buts!" Here I thought that carrying out this mission for my brother-in-law and his fiancé would be easy, but I couldn't hold myself back anymore with these rude guest that I was dealing with after being haded the care of the bride that was going to marry the last man standing of The Third Prince. I needed Yeon by my side to keep my anger in check as I was not raised in a noble society as everyone around me was. I barely had time to educate myself since I had very little slaves to help me raise my son and I was getting by at this betrothal party by sheer luck at this point.
"…it was His Highest himself who appointed me this marriage, so I dare not reject such grace without reason. You all speak as if if was so unreasonable for me to break off my previous betrothal, then why don't you all complain to The Third Prince himself then instead to teasing me as my own betrothal party? Because neither myself nor my family is indebted to anyone to fulfil marriage request like this…" :Madame, where are you going? Your guests are just lightly teasing you new daughter-in-law, she made the right decisions to break up her previous betrothal to accept yours, wasn't it? No matter how soon it was?" "I…"
"…it really is shocking, isn't it? It is hard not to be suspicious after all…maybe they were having an affair long ago?" "Forgive me, but I am not like you all who invest gossip just because I am still unmarried like the rest of you. It isn't my fault that The Third Prince didn't come up with marriages for the rest of you." "I…we are all decent young ladies with manners, we are not like someone who flirts around with others and seduced them into marriage and more than once. Her new fiancé is an upstanding man who knows nothing of these tricks, so I am afraid hat he will be bewitched…" 'Is that so? Then let me teach you something about manners then." The fiancé showed up at just the right time as all of the guests started to belittle the bride-to -be to save their reputations, which just made my job a little harder at this point. But there was nothing I could do until I found something that would help me to break this marriage apart for good so that I could be rewarded for my services.
"…she sure is fortunate that the groom will disregard social Protocal and come into the women's section just for her, what a great prospect that she has indeed." "Social Protocal did you say? And what about all of these female guests here are openly discussing my bride's private matters like market shrews! Unmarried ladies of noble birth at that, so do you think it is appropriate that you are the one who can talk about social protocol? Hw many times did you openly use the word 'seduce' as if an unmarried woman such as yourself even understands what that terms means? Unless it was your family who taught it to you? Although I would have no idea why they would do that at all…" "You…!" "Are you aware that I was granted a nice pair of concubines last month? Only for them to be taken away by first your brother and then your father? Maybe your new potential step-mothers should be more apt in being praised for their seduction skills?"
He left as swiftly as he came and the gossip did stop for a while, until the betrothal banquet came to an end and these snobs just couldn't help themselves to change their opinions from turning against the bride to talking about how ungrateful she was for not thanking her fiancé from helping her. There really was no pleasing these people and maybe I was better off just staying in Yeon's company after all.
"…he admires you so much, but you ignored him like that?" "If I admit to it, I shall be known as being unfaithful, but if I ignore you all, then you will think that I am being supercilious and looking down on my husband who is a favourite of The Third Prince himself." "We are only being frank about our admiration towards your fiancé, but you clearly feel guilty about it all since you didn't answer me." "I am just too lazy to talk to you; I know that everyone has eyes on my fiancé, but I am going to marry him now, and I am the first one to marry amongst you…" "You are not even married yet and you keep bringing him up…"
I really couldn't stand this anymore, so I just left and I returned to my humble abode where the only people that I cared about were waiting for me, but this wasn't the end of the matter. I still had to return to these families and break up that marriage before I was called into the palace to take up my new role so I could provide my son with the best life possible.
"So? How was the betrothal banquet?" "It was just as insufferable as you described it to be, I had no idea what possessed me to no believe you." "Well?" "It looks like the groom is willing to defend the bride, but I have no idea abut genuine feelings, since the groom pretty much slept with all of the female guests that were torturing the bride today." "We still need to break up this marriage, The Princess Consort is already dead and we need to take down The Third Prince ourselves…." "So doesn't it make more sense to let this marriage happen? So she will bring down her husband just like her relative did to her own husband?" "You know what, I still have no idea how to approach this topic at all, we just need to see how it goes between them…" "Are you alright? You still look kind of pale and fragile ever since Moon-Bok found you at the bottom of the cliff. And you…" "please do not bring it up! Not now and not ever, I didn't know about it until I had lost it and I…" "Yeon, it isn't easy for any woman to have suffered a miscarriage, it is naturally traumatising…" "I didn't even know that I was pregnant, and now I am not sure if I can be ever again…" "Does the father know?" "No, and you can never tell him, or he will really kill me. I am being serious."