The Love They Never Had: The Chase

Chapter 187: Metamorphosis (Byeonhyeong)

My hard work, humiliation and patience had all been for naught, as I woke up in what looked similar to the prison cell that I was arrested in with my whole family and I was dressed in rags again. I felt like i was relieving a horrible nightmare that I just couldn't wake up from, no matter how hard i had tried. But I was on my own this time with no fiends or family around me, only my old household maid from my glory days, who looked just as relieved to see me as I was to see her myself. "What...what on earth...where am I? And what on earth am I wearing? What is this outfit? How can i wear these rags!" "Young mistress, please just bare with this, we have no other choice." "Where are we? Who is in charge here? What on earth is this place? It is beyond filthy and it stinks here! I want to go home! I need to go to the palace! I need to..." the doors suddenly burst open and a woman that seemed familiar to me came charging at us dressed in noble silk. I almost mistook her for a noblewoman myself, although I was soon proved wrong, Servants were not allowed to dress in such fine clothes, unless they were the servants of very rich and powerful people in the Emperor's court and they heard a certain amount of influence. Whoever this maid was, her Master surely had the power to help me get back on my feet.
"Servant! quickly! i need a bath and i need to meet your Master straight away...." Before i could even take a step forward, she had come up to and slapped me so hard that I fell straight onto a nest of insects right where I was standing. I couldn't have screamed any louder if i had tried, but instead of people trying to comfort me, I instead received another slap for my troubles. I simply did not understand, where was i ? And what was I doing here? My trembling hands barely hovered against my bright red cheek and i was beginning to sweat profusely out of fear of the unknown. Why was everyone treating me like this? What exactly had i done to be treated like this? To anyone? My skin crawled and my bones were beginning to rattle in the cold environment where i had been placed and I could feel the small hairs on the back of my neck standing up in fright.

"I just need a bath, please get it prepared..." please? Please! Since when have I ever used that word before? "You damned servant! Who are you to bark orders at anyone! You must draw up on your own bath if you want one, but do not even think about getting the chance to meet the Young Master! Who is he to clear up his schedule to meet you? Your sister has already brought shame on your family, you are incredibly lucky to be working at all!" "Hang on a minute, what are you talking about? Sister? i have no sister! I am an only child...do you even know who I am?" "Delusion must have gotten the better of you, I understand. But your sister Ae-Cha angered a lot of important people during her time in prison and as her blood sister, you are here to make up for it with free labour until the Master feels you have repaid your sister's debt. You may be here for years, so you might as well get used to the place. Also, you have never lived in nobility, so who are you trying to fool with this act of yours?" "Years! You damned servant, can't you hear me at all!" "Very well, if you dot wish to conform to the rules, then you both can go without dinner tonight, but you must both start cleaning the feaces buckets, or you shall be whipped! Come on!"
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My hard work, humiliation and patience must have worked off as I found myself dressed in silk noble clothes, flawless makeup and jewels that I used to see all around me when i was a little girl. And now I found myself dresses in such when I woke up in a brand new place that eerily looked like my quarters in the Nam yangban. Now what was going on? Where was I? And how did i end up to be here in this room full of luxurious, sweet incense and a team full of servants that took me to be scrubbed and washed up as soon as I opened my eyes. "Where am I? Whose place is this? Am I in another brothel?" "Young Mistress Seo, you are in a private quarters just outside of a brothel that you will continue your previous services in. You are being hosted by the Young Prince who hosted the banquet in the village along with your fiance..." "my fiancé? Is he here? How did he find me? When did the war end?" I was so surprised that I stood up so quickly in tha bathtub that i almost launched myself out of it. "But wait, if he has found me, then why do I need to be in a brothel at all?" "Your fiancé seems to have run up some debts that only you can pay off with your company and nothing else for the remainder of the year. And once that is done, the Prince is willing to host your wedding in his accommodation. But as to your living space, you are confined here under these quarters and you are not allowed to invite anyone in here other than your brother and his new bride...." "His new bride? He got married without me..." "and whoever dares to find your location here will be immediately beheaded."

Confine me? Well, that sounded so much like Seon-Ho, of course he would confine me as soon as he found out what had happened to me...wait, the brothel..."do you have any news? About the brothel that blew up in flames? Please, tell me anything that you know." "Madame, I am here now and i will carry on this task. Please prepare the Young Mistresses clothes before she has her breakfast, she has been asleep for almost 2 days now." "2 days? What on earth is going on?" I couldn't have been more thrilled at the sight of my old maid, my heart was practically jumping for joy. She only worked for my husband exclusively and nobody else, and only he himself could have provided her with such luxury clothing that were similar to mine. "Young Mistress, it is so good to see you again!" "What are you doing here? How have you been? And where is he? Why hasn't he greeted me yet?" The Young Master has been quite busy and is currently recovering from the war. He will be indisposed for a few days, so you will be expected to dine alone before entering the brothel to continue giving good advice and help build up new connections for the Young Master, only you can do this job."

This wasn't making any sense; Seon-Ho would much rather kill me himself than let me walk into a brothel, never mind make me sit there for hours on end to entertain other men. Or was this his punishment for me? To hide from me and exploit me in such a harsh way that I never thought he would allow. And here I was, waiting for him to get me out of this I had given everyone in the previous brothel enough hints and ammunition to envisage the Princess Consort, which was Seon-Ho's biggest bait to capture his enemy and set my brother free from the Third Prince's grip. So what was he doing? What was going on?

"Young Mistress, it has come to my attention that the Young Master wishes for you to re-educate yourself in the rules of etiquette and manners before heading the brothel and even coming around to manage it. He has bought out the place and he wants you to train the women he will bing in from the Ihwaru brothel to become his spies, just as the previous owner did before him." "Ok, that makes more sense. He just wants me to train them, and i guess that I need to show them what to do physically. He doesn't want me to actually serve anyone...thank goodness." "Of course the Young Master will never exploit you, he cherishes you far too much to let you do that." "Very well, let us get ready and eat, so I can meet this new tutor of mine."
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"Young Master, I have just served you your food, I shall now return to my work in the garden." "The garden is already full of white flowers, but I need one in my place since Yeon...well, I just cannot be alone right now. Where are we, anyways?" "We are in one of the quarters of the Prince that hosted the banquet, which is a short way away from the local brothel that you cannot step foot in. The place is full of his spies against his enemies and does not like to place anywhere os his alliances close by." "Does he have work for me? What about my job as a scholar? I need to go back to the palace...." "That is exactly why you are here. The senior scholar has used your absence during the war as an excuse to give his son your role and the Emperor himself could not find an excuse to disagree. The Prince however, has his own work for you and once you proved yourself, then he will personally take you to the Emperor himself and fight the case against the Senior scholar, who is already in his old years anyway. Let his arrogance ruin himself and his family whilst you keep the evidence and pick up after him. You should correct his mistakes by replacing his work with yours and let us see who is better at being a scholar....what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?" "This is a plan that Yeon would have come up with herself...never mind. It sounds like a good plan that i shall get started on as soon as I meet the Prince. By the way, have you heard anything about her brother? Seo Hwi? I need to find him as soon as possible." "Her brother had a double wedding along with his sister and he is newly married to his own bride that I know nothing about, other than the fact that she is a whore that was close to Yeon herself...." "That is impossible, Yeon doesn't have any close friends apart from Hwa-Wol and..." "it is a fact that her brother is married, you can hear about that from anyone in the capital." "That bastard didn't even wait for me to return...so. i have lost the Seo's and my only trusted man whilst fighting for the goof of the country..."

The Young Master had been somewhat of a mess since I had saved him from that ditch and brought him to this new place of accommodation. He had been drinking on an empty stomach non-stop and was barely able to function for a while. He never mentioned Yeon's name again until now and he just starred into space with a blank look on his face as if he was grieving for what he had lost. "Young Master, let us just be relieved that we are now safe and sound. But....let us not tell anyone that i helped you, lest they forced us together against your wishes. It will also tarnish my reputation and let others see me as a gold-digger and I just...want to start afresh now, by your side. That is all that I could ever want and ask for presently..." "my my, it looks like you have rather grown up in my absence." "I know that you can never love me or anyone else like you did her, so what is the point? I would much rather live as your maid in silence, if you shall have me. I apologise for everything that my sister put you through and i still have affections for you and I just wish for your happiness and nothing more. So rest assured that i shall keep my mouth shut about the events that have taken place before this, although it will forever remain a very happy memory for myself indeed. I am already content to be with you by this much already and to care for you and keep you company. Let me help you overcome such a difficult situation and put aside your dislike for me. You are a rising star in the palace and you need to focus on your ambitions and pull yourself to the top and..." "I remember asking her and her brother to dine with me at the same table forever in earnest. But they all walked away from me and left me on my own..."