"Pardon me My Lady, but this might sting a little, but preforming acupuncture is essential in your case." "Very well, I thank you for coming all the way to the palace upon my request. Why did you have a falling out with Bo-Geom's family, again?" "There was just simply not enough work going around, so I had no choice but to venture outside of the our village, I have just settled into the kingdom this week, so I am very grateful for the work that you are giving me, Noble Lady. By the way, this is the Hegu acupuncture point; this particular needle with indicate any unusual sleepiness in your blood. It changes colour under the effect of certain drugs...ah yes, can you see the colour change on the tip of your needle? As you have expected, your tonics have been tampered with." "What is it then? Poison?" "Certainly not, the effects seem to be subtle so it couldn't be anything as strong as poison. It is common practise to increase a dosage of a certain ingredient to get results like this, and they have done it discreetly at that. That is why it has been too subtle to come to anyone's attention during routine visits. But if you have taken this tonic for a long time, then you will experience the following symptoms; excessive somnolence, deep fatigue and eventually psychotic delirium in under 6 months." "What a brilliant move indeed, she must have held me in high regard after I treated her like that..." Despite everything that I have been through with these people, my blood still ran cold at the thought of the people that I have grown up with going so far as to poison me for nothing with their agenda. And since this was a crime of medical negligence, who else could be behind this scene apart from Bo-Geom herself? What a two-faced bitch that she was indeed...
"...it is fortunate that we have found this easier on so we can treat it straight away. I shall personally prescribe you something strong to counter this, so you may be feeling out of sorts for a while, but that just shows that it works..." "When you return home tonight, I wish for you to pack up your belongings and move into the palace on my account and for my sake. Are you alright with that?" "My Lady, how can I ever repay you for this bountiful grace of yours!" "You shall be my personal physician from now on, I shall inquire about this to His Lordship as soon as I possibly can. I need your confidence and trust, for I now have the power to employ anyone that I wish to. By the way...how are my parent's? Have you seen them recently?" "The last that I heard My Lady, they have come into immense wealth in your absence and have even moved out of the village just before I did. There is a chance that they have settled into the kingdom, but I have not heard anything since my own leave." Hot tears suddenly appeared out of nowhere and burnt my skin when I realised that despite such a bi move, that they have already severed ties with me if they failed to inform me personally of such a change. I had been in this place for almost a year now, and I had yet to even receive a letter from them at all...
"This is a sinister trick that will surely subject me to my own death; I was informed that rivalries in the harem are always taken to extremes, leaving us unable to be too effective in our own defences. And without your help, I may have already been left for dead sooner rather than later." "It was pure negligence that has caused you suffering My Lady, is I vow be particularly careful in the future. I will now prepare and serve you tonics in person to prevent any form of interference." "It is already important to take precautions, but the priory right now should be to identify the poisoner. The only issue is that these tonics have been prepared in my own chambers according to your prescriptions. So the issue might lie with this mixed batch of servants that I have under my care, isn't that possible?" "Of course My Lady; the newer they are, the more likely that they have been sent to by your enemies, especially since you started feeling unwell after their presence in your humble abode." "In that case, I will have to watch them more closely and start picking out my own from The Household Department...I hope that you would like to put on a show with me to catch them out." "My Lady?" "It is best to act as if nothing has happened in order not to best the grass and alert the snakes." "If you so wish, My Lady." "Then I shall thank you for you services and I a pleased to hear that I am perfectly healthy to keep on serving His Lordship." "You may just be suffering from the usual fatigue that comes in The Spring Season, My Lady, so you may as well take any opportunity that you can to rest more." "I will, thank you for your concern, doctor."
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"My Lady; there seems to be a movable brick in the courted right next to the door! It seems to be new as well since we all would have defiantly caught onto it well before Spring came." "Trouble resides behind one's own screen walls, what else could I have possibly expected? I want you to keep this to yourself and keep a 24 hour watched starting from tonight with the older servants that were brought here into my residence. And also...no, I cannot have her watched, not yet...I will need to do something about her myself..." "My Lady? Did you say anything else?" "No, just do what I have said to do and that is that." "The old servants are currently watching how the tonic is brewed right in front of them, and there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary at all." "Then the only other possibility is that the utensils have been tampered with. Discard the tonic secretly and bring everything here for examination." "My Lady, you are right! Look at the lid of this teapot, doesn't it seem to be much darker and older that the actual teapot itself?" "But it dies go with the teapot design, maybe they did something to the lid itself?" "I do suspect that it has been simmered with poison, but I need the physician to confirm this for us. Quickly and discreetly take this to him and go to see if His Lordship is free to meet with me today. Who is in charge of brewing my tonics?" "The new girl Spice is, I shall bring her over to you right now My Lady." "And inquire abutter background whilst you are at it."
I only had a moment when my servant discard to break down as silently and as quickly as I could. Now that I had been abandoned in the palace and I had no choice but to serve His Lordship with my body, I was now aware of the fact that my life was in danger, plain and simple. And that was a fact that I had to swallow as if it was the most normal thing in the world. How ironic was this? When one lived in poverty, they usually lived much longer than the noble-folk, and that was only if they were lucky enough to survive starvation. But once you had become someone noteworthy, you already become a threat in somebody's eyes and a target to take out. And it was only now that I could see that despite my every reason to be angry at The Seo's, that I had committed a grave mistake by lashing out and distancing myself from them. If they were the one who put me in here, then surely they had 100 plans in navigating my life here and letting me leave in as much ease as possible. But it was already too late; Bo-Geom stole the love of my life and used him to humiliate me in the worst way possible, and now I had even less time that I had imagined to assemble my own team who would lay down their lives for me as I climbed my way to the top just as I was teaching His Lordship to secretly become as literate as his adopted father and The Imperial Court was.
"...why are you still using that shabby old pot to brew tonics for My Lady? Do you want her to appear as if she has fallen from grace?" "Forgive me Eunuch, but old pots are known to brew topics better, as new ones always to reduce the potency due to the new paint on them, and..." "Fine, you know better, is that what you are saying? Let me take you to our mistress so that we can hear her opinion about it!" "Eunuch! Please forgive me! I shall never say anting against you again! Please..." Calm down Kin Yeong; you have grown up alongside Seo Hana, who has put more than her fair share of people in their place simply by staring at them. You have learnt from her how to scold servants, to challenge your peers and now to the right people at the right time. You can do this, simply excuse your life depends on it and there is nobody else here who is willing to risk their loves for you yet...
"Forgive me My Lady, but I need to tell you this quick before he brings the servant to your attention; she is an old maid of The Companion Kang, and she was brought her after her confinement in the cold palace." "How interesting, so I am dealing with an avenger for Companion Kang instead of...do you have any information if she was close to the physician that I threw out of there? Have they even met before?" "My Lady I can assure you that you both have no such person in common at all." No, this did not make any sense in the least; what on earth did I have to do with her confinement? And for her to use medical malpractice, how could she not have taken the opportunity to have recruited the people who hated me to use them as she pleased? Why did this have to be so complicated? Why did there have to be so many twists and turns in terms of schemes in the palace? Just what on earth was I supposed to do with these enemies anyways? It wasn't as if I had His Lordship on beck and call, he would soon tire of me and my never-ending requests to take down this person and that person. No, I was the one who had become his teacher alongside the only other tutor that he had that was still a mystery to me. Little old me from a poor and obscure village had His Lordship's attention, and I must not loose it no matter what the cost. I had to show His Lordship what I was capable of so that I may remain by his side for as long as possible and show him exactly how to punish his enemies alone without having to hold his adopted father's hand all of the time.