"Can I go to Yongsan for a few days?" Concubine Seo asks Emperor Sinjong with fear.
She has again come back to the concubines' palace. Staying in the royal palace longer as a mere concubine is not acceptable to the royal family unless that person is an empress or the Queen Mother.
All these days after staying in the royal palace, Concubine Seo has understood that she has turned into an object of hate by everyone. The Queen Mother doesn't like her anymore because of some unknown cause. She discovered this when she lost her baby. The Queen Mother did not react to that incident.
Consort Kim has never liked her since the beginning. Concubine Park shared a good relationship with her, but she now fears Concubine Seo after that incident at the concubines' horse stable. Concubine Seo also knows Concubine Park has something made up to ruin her in the future if the incident ever comes to light. After all Concubine Park did a lot for her to save her life during her miscarriage, that's why she has decided to remain silent about her.
Concubine Seo has turned into a lonely person in the palace.
"Why, Yun hee?" Emperor Sinjong asks softly.
"I am missing my family. It's been a long day already. I feel so lonely here," She replies in a timid voice.
"Is the palace making you lonely? There's a lot of companions & court ladies who can entertain you. I will arrange something for you that you will like."
"No, I am feeling so confined here. Can I go outside this palace, Your Imperial Majesty?"
"No, you can't. I will send you to Yongsan after the Queen Mother's birthday. You can't leave before this, the Queen Mother will take it as disrespect to her," he explains.
Concubine Seo remains silent at this. Sinjong understands that she is upset now. So, he changes his mind, "You can go with royal palace guards. I will order them to take you somewhere nice."
"Can I go without palace guards?"
"How can that be possible, Yun Hee? You are a concubine and I can't let any enemy harm my concubine. The outside world is different from the palace," the Emperor says in a bit of a harsh voice.
"Your Imperial Majesty, forgive me for my sudden rudeness. I made an absurd request to you that I could leave this palace as a simple person of Goryeo. Once I used to when I stayed in Yongsan. I miss the life that I once led. It's so childish and inappropriate now as your concubine. Forgive me for saying such a thing. You don't have to arrange anything for this mere concubine," She remains bowed towards the Emperor.
"You can but at least you have to at least take guards in disguise with you. I will send you the gate pass that only loyal court ladies and eunuchs use. The royals are not allowed to leave the palace without the Emperor's and Queen Mother's approval as now the palace is undergoing several enemy issues. Yun Hee, I don't want you to be unhappy. Don't do anything without informing me. I will try my best to make you happy."
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Consort Kim sips on a glass of red wine. Her heart is aching so much that she desperately wants to be drunk today. Emperor Sinjong came to her after a long time.
She felt the urge to hug him and to be lost in his body. But the scent of lotus flowers was so prominent on him; the scent of lotus which surrounds that low birth concubine. Maybe Sinjong came to her after having some intimacy with that low-birth witch.
Even after Concubine Park came to this palace, she never felt that her husband was growing distant from her. But the moment that low-life came, everything started to turn upside down.
She wanted to take away that disgusting smell of that low rank from Emperor Sinjong. But he didn't let her, did he? He broke the divine kiss that Kim Myeon Hye wanted to make it deep to get lost in each other.
But that moment he broke her heart into pieces saying, "Myeon Hye, I can't stay tonight. I am so tired. Let's sleep together later."
This is a story that's repeating.
( Flashback starts)
Once a siren was born from a bubble in the ocean near an island.
Sirens were dangerous creatures of the ocean having half feminine structure and half fish structure. Then why can't we call them mermaids, right?
Mermaids were beautiful aquatic creatures with melodic voices and used to fall in love with sailors and dragon warriors at that time.
But sirens were the opposite. They were predators, killers who used to seduce other creatures with beautiful bodies and seductive voices. They were born as enemies of dragons. Dragons and sirens both had pride in being amphibians. Both had the power to dominate the deepest part of the sea and the ground.
But how did a siren fall in love with a dragon warrior?
Once a siren suddenly got surrounded by a horde of breeding sea jellies ( jellyfish). Sea jellies were the tiniest but most feared creatures for other creatures at that time.
All of a sudden, a flap of a dragon wing made way for the siren to get out from the circle. The siren was mistaken as a mermaid to the dragon warrior. Honestly, the siren had more similarities with a mermaid than being a siren.
But it was only the first meeting.
The thing that the dragon didn't know, he was being followed since then. The siren didn't even let crabs and sharks disturb the dragon that used to sleep in the ocean cave. The dragon remained silent even after noticing the siren trying to impress him.
The siren fell in love with him with a subconscious mind.
But her dream was broken when the golden dragon with the largest wings flew down from the sky and took all of the heart of her loving dragon.
In the battle with the underworld, the nation of sirens took part on behalf of the God of darkness.
In the end, the battlefield was scattered with dead dragon warriors and the ocean witnessed the mourning of the Dragon Goddess.
But none noticed the siren's tragic disappearance as a bubble on the waves of the ocean. She sacrificed herself to protect her first love from her nation. For her tragic end, only waves of the ocean mourned silently on the bank of the island.
Flashback ends...
Consort Kim was the siren in her previous life. The siren fell in love with the dragon warrior, but the dragon warrior could never understand the siren's love as he was blindly in love with the Dragon Goddess. The siren silently accepted a tragic end for the warrior.
Kim Myeon Hye has been reborn as the concubine of Dragon Warrior Sinjong in this life.
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YOU ARE READING
Rise of an Empress
Historical FictionIt's a story of a mighty emperor, who rules the land upto horizon... A story of an innocent lady from a noble family who gets involved in a political marriage and becomes a low rank concubine... A story of an ancient Dragon Goddess who once flew dow...