The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 7: Jam (Sleep)

My time in this yangban was very unpredictable to say the least; when I wasn't being pulled into these games by the Young aster and a servant who was constantly suffering from her grand delusions, I was being...entertained by the Young Master himself, who certainly was unlike anything I could have even imagined. To others, he was cold and aloof, but to me he was just a lonely man with more personalities than one. He wasn't the frivolous type who was passing his time with vices like the rest of the noble sons that I couldn't help but to observe on my monthly days out. He didn't boast about his achievements to anyone and everyone who would listen, he didn't drink excessively, he didn't throw his father's money around just to show off and he wasn't an ignorant person. Far from that actually, he was rather intelligent and he had a good head on his shoulders. But his life story that he told me about himself had made him an outcast in his own village. It was very clear that he was repressing all sorts of emotions and even parts of himself just to survive under his father's roof since it was the only home he had. But to me, well, the only reason I could think of was because of this 'friendship' that we had, even though we were both from different worlds, but he seemed to show me something new everyday. Sometimes he was strict and formal with me and preferred to keep his distance, and yet he always found a reason to call on me, to check in on me, send me gifts and he genuinely seemed to be interested in my knowledge. He even gave me the privilege of reading his books whenever I wanted when I wasn't studying housekeeping to keep myself occupied.

Usually I would be the one to go into his study and choose a book for myself but the young master had gotten rather busy lately with the upcoming Liadong war that he was going to be a part of. So instead, he chose to send me a medicinal book of all things when he knew that I wished to learn Chinese to keep myself as busy as possible, so my interactions with everyone in this household would be limited in the eyes of the lord of this home, even if he was extremely busy. I thought it rather odd but then again, the Young Master did tell me that the only reason why I had lost my memories in the first place was because of a condition called epilepsy. Although I seemed to be the only person in this village to have the condition, there was still some knowledge that I could learn from it, to understand why I was the only one who had it. The young master refused to tell me if I was born with it or if something happened to me to make me that way.
But as soon as I had started to look into it, a flower pressed bookmark had fallen out of a page that was about herbs that could be used to help induce sleep. And to my surprise, it was all kinds of common herbs that I knew for a fact were being put into my prescription tonics that I was still taking...

I immediately ran to the young master's quarters, only to be turned away for once. Dal said that the young master was 'taking a nap', but we all knew that his father kept him on his toes at the most unpredictable of times, so he was only allowed to sleep at night just like everyone else. So why was he refusing to see me only minutes after sending me this book? Actually, now that I thought about it, I had been sleeping rather excessively of late. The only medical tonics that I could have taken for me to have that effect would have been my epileptic prescription, but the effects should have worn off by now. So what was it?

I immediately set off to the kitchens, where I knew I would find the only person in this house who had a grudge against me. I didn't even look her in the face as she carried on with her barrage of insults against me as I wasn't afraid to look for these herbs right in front of her to give her a good scare. Or at least I was tempted to anyways, but in truth, I only had to take a peak at the overflowing herb baskets whilst I was making a snack for myself to distract the others. And as soon as I got everything that I needed, I went out of my way to find Dal, who I knew had a little medical knowledge and I knew that he would be willing to help me out. "This is a Hengu acupuncture that the Chinese use: this needle will indicate any unusual sleepiness if the tip changes colour due to the after effects of certain drugs." "I am not currently on any medication, so it must be in my food..." "for this certain drug to be taken in so quickly, it must be in your drinks..." "or somebody could have increased the dosage of my prescriptions, the physician could have been bought off by someone higher up." "They would have been discreet about it, it is a little too subtle for my liking." "Really? So what could have happened if I didn't suspect anything?" "After about a month or two, you would have experienced somnolence and then psychotic delirium in under 6 months." "What a sinister trick indeed." "It is very important to take precautions..." "the priority should be to identify this poisoner." "Do you have a suspect in mind? The tonics are prepared in your quarters..." "even though my 'servants have come from the young master, they were still a part of this household and there is no denying that Chun-Ae's hand reach's quite far." "Let us not beat the grass to alert the snakes."