The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 26: Seuteipeul (Staple)

I do not know which part of what I said offended him so much that he actually dropped my arm from his grasp, but he suddenly did with such force that I almost fell onto the floor if I didn't manage to catch myself on time. I couldn't help myself but to glare at him momentarily before I just stormed off without saying a word. But he actually caught me by the arm again and just dragged me back to his quarters for a talk about the servants, completely ignoring what happened earlier. "How was your first day at work? I really do apologise for dinner..." "I have managed to find new servants, but so has the new maid. I do not think that I need to tell you where she got them from." "Young Master? What about work..." "...those maids are either punished subjects from the palace or those with signed slave contracts, but either way they do not have much foundations. You should look for any excuses to sell them off and handle the rest later." "Hang on, why wasn't I informed of this earlier?" "Because you are still invisible and even if you were informed, you would have found a way to reject them from the start, right? And then it would have created a scene from my father and lead to a drama that they could not answer to. And here, in terms of managing the household; here are some mock accounts I have drawn up to test you. You can ask Dal if you are having any troubles understanding anything at all. But more importantly, I need you to expel as many of her people as possible as fast as you can in order not to leave any future trouble. It will not be easy, but you have my full support. But be careful not to do it in a distasteful way, even the Emperor himself fears gossip from his citizens. You can even try to assign them to manual labour outside. But they should not be in this home for more than a few weeks, before they can start leaking out information from inside this manor. And something else." "Yes?" "I do not want you to have any male servants. At all. Just keep Dal close to you, ok?"

To say that I was completely taken aback by that statement amongst his ranting was an understatement. What on earth was he talking about? I usually stayed inside my quarters and I hardly needed the servants services and he knew this. I was carrying out all of my chores by myself at this point just to keep myself busy, so what made him think that I was talking to any male servants at all? "...they can stay outside. And as for the maidservants, you cannot really disallow them to enter the inner courtyard, but try as hard as you can to exaggerate any fault, exploit any weakness you can and always find the right timing." "Yes, Young Master. I will help you as much as you can with these never-ending battles..." "You will never be a part of those. I just need your assistance with this one single task and I promise you that I will never rope you into a game like this again. And I apologise for it in the first place." "So why did you chose me? So soon after I had just woken up..." "it is because your existence in this household has made me aware of some issues I could have dealt with a lot earlier. If I did, I wouldn't be as pitiful as I am now maybe, who knows. And I have you to thank for that. You have given me a purpose to keep pushing through when I am at my lowest. And I promise you that you will be rewarded for this, just be a little patient." "And what sort of reward do I get? For helping you?" "Security, stability in this house, and maybe the freedom you have always longed for if everything goes right." "What do you mean?" "You are different Seo Yeon. No matter how eloquent you are now, I know more than anyone that you are stuck inside this prison, as am I. A noble life actually suits you more than most, but you do not want it, do you?"

He really wasn't stopping himself with the surprises today. 'You really know me that well?" "To be honest, apart from your clothing and attitude, your personality and temperament hasn't changed at all." "Great wealth and a high position, of course it has its benefits. But that is only for the surface, that is covering numerous compromises, cheating and hidden battles just for survival. It can be said that you and I are capable, but it is exhausting and not worth it if it costs us our peace of mind."

Once again, I had no idea what I had said to make him bury himself in his books once again, but it was still too early to read him, so I just decided to focus on the task at hand instead of sticking my nose in somewhere in my past when I still had not regained my own memories yet.