“My, my—so you can still speak. Little sister, this elder sister took pity on you and made sure you wouldn’t be lonely all by yourself.
Since I heard you were starving, I had your maids dragged out of the prison and put them in the basket myself. That’s why the blood hasn’t dried yet. So—do you like your elder sister’s birthday gift?”
Several of the guards standing nearby glanced into the basket and their faces turned ashen in an instant.
Go Gyeong-seong could no longer hold back. She turned her head and bent over the floor, but her stomach was completely empty; nothing came up.
“Ugh… ukh…!”
Even with her eyes closed, the bloodied fingers and ears inside the basket floated before her. The more she thought of them the more nauseating it became, yet she could not vomit. In the end she simply lay prostrate on the ground, wretchedly dry-heaving.
Her throat felt as though it were being wrung.
Yu Geum-yeon watched her with a look of dissatisfaction.
“How ungrateful you are. I specially called in a pig-slaughterer to do the cutting—his skill was excellent…”
Clutching her chest, which ached from the retching, Go Gyeong-seong turned her head and glared at Yu Geum-yeon with a ferocity she had never directed at another human being in her life. Hatred and icy coldness filled her eyes.
“Yu Geum-yeon, how dare you do such a thing! Innocent people—how could you!”
Yu Geum-yeon gave a derisive snort and, with an indifferent expression, idly played with her own nails. Admiring the neatly manicured tips, she spoke calmly.
“What’s wrong with it? You shouldn’t have been born into a poor household in the first place.
At the very least you shouldn’t have become a servant in your family. Or perhaps if you hadn’t followed her here, you might have died a little more comfortably.”
She blew lightly on her nails and continued.
“Actually, that isn’t true either. Not a single person from the Go family will walk out of prison alive.
You and your maids were destined to have your heads cut off together with them. All I did was send those things to the King of Hell a little earlier.”
A cruel smile curved her lips.
“It was Heaven’s will. And yet you accuse me of killing the innocent? Those wenches deserved to die from the start, little sister.”
Looking at Go Gyeong-seong, who was panting roughly with rage, Yu Geum-yeon smiled as if she found her pathetic.
“Look at yourself now. You can’t even save your own life, yet you dared try to protect your maids.
Go Gyeong-seong, what is in this basket is your fate. Believe it.”
She stepped closer still and leaned in to whisper against her face.
“When you die, I intend to grind even your remains into powder and distribute them to the beggars of the capital. They won’t know a shred of mercy—on the contrary, they’ll thank me.”
The moment those words reached her ears, a fiery rage surged up in Go Gyeong-seong’s chest.
I must kill her…
Reason had long since abandoned her.
The faces of her maids flickered before her eyes—smiling faces, faces that had worried over her, faces that must have twisted in agony as they died.
All of it because of this vicious woman.
Seizing the brief moment when the guards’ attention slipped, she rose like lightning and lunged at Yu Geum-yeon.
Slap!
Her hand shot out and struck the other woman’s cheek with every ounce of remaining strength. Yu Geum-yeon screamed and hastily stumbled backward.
In that same instant Go Gyeong-seong, having lost her balance, threw her entire body forward and shoved hard.
Yu Geum-yeon’s foot caught on the pile of dry firewood behind her. Her body swayed backward.
She flailed her arms trying to recover her balance, but she could not withstand the force of Go Gyeong-seong’s weight as well.
Thud!
Yu Geum-yeon toppled backward and crashed to the floor. Go Gyeong-seong’s body collapsed on top of her.
“Ugh…!”
Yu Geum-yeon’s eyes flew wide. Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged.
The weight that had fallen onto her abdomen knocked the breath from her lungs.
Still unable to grasp the situation, Go Gyeong-seong summoned the last of her strength and sank her teeth savagely into Yu Geum-yeon’s shoulder.
“Kyaaa—aah!”
Only then did Yu Geum-yeon let out a desperate scream.
Yet more terrifying than the pain in her shoulder was the strange sensation rising from her lower abdomen. Pain was spreading through her belly.
She felt a warm liquid flowing down between her legs.
“Ah… no…”
A guard rushed forward and hauled Go Gyeong-seong off, shoving her to the side.
Yu Geum-yeon stared at everyone with startled eyes and touched her own abdomen with trembling hands.
A damp sensation met her fingertips. When she lifted the shaking hand, her palm was stained entirely red.
Something she could not bear to look at seeped between her fingers.
“Ah… no… it can’t be…”
Her face turned paper-white. Her lips quivered.
Completely drained of strength, Go Gyeong-seong simply leaned where she had been shoved, staring blankly.
“This bitch! This venomous whore!”
Maids rushed in, raining curses. Someone seized Go Gyeong-seong by the hair; someone else slapped her face.
But she showed no reaction at all.
Even her breathing was nearly inaudible. She was like a puppet whose soul had fled.
“Quickly—the physician! Summon a physician at once!”
Amid the maids’ frantic cries, Yu Geum-yeon was half-dragged out of the warehouse, still clutching her belly. The door slammed shut with a heavy bang.
Silence settled.
Go Gyeong-seong remained sitting against the wall. Her eyes were open, yet unfocused.
How much time passed, she did not know.
Slowly she turned her head. Where Yu Geum-yeon had lain, blood had pooled thickly.
It was not the blood from her shoulder. It was the deep red blood that had flowed from between her legs.
Blood…
As she stared at that blood, all the rage and terror that had filled her eyes gradually subsided into calm.
She slowly raised her hands and looked at them. They were still trembling.
I… killed it.
The child. The child that had been in Yu Geum-yeon’s womb—On Mu-ae’s child.
She wanted to laugh, yet could not. That she could have done even this…
Strangely, however, she felt no regret. No guilt either.
Only a hollow emptiness filled her chest.
Now… I am finished as well.
Once On Mu-ae learned of this, he would certainly kill her. Or perhaps do something worse than killing.
But even that no longer mattered.
Her maids were already dead. Her father and the rest of her family would soon die as well.
What point was there in her surviving alone?
She starved through another full day and night.
Go Gyeong-seong could no longer tell what day it was.
Outside the warehouse hurried footsteps and murmuring voices were often heard. The entire princely household seemed to be in an uproar caring for Yu Geum-yeon.
Physicians came and went; the scent of decocting medicine drifted in on the wind.
But no one came to the warehouse.
So I will simply starve to death here.
Bang—!
At that moment someone kicked the door open. Through her hazy consciousness she opened both eyes. It seemed On Mu-ae was walking in.
Frowning, she leaned against the stone wall and sat.
Before she had even fully grasped what was happening—
Slap!
A sudden, hard slap struck her cheek.
The impact set her head ringing, yet her mind became clearer than ever. The taste of iron filled her mouth.
When she opened her eyes properly, On Mu-ae stood before her. Who else could that man be, radiating such fury and murderous intent toward her?
Go Gyeong-seong twisted her lips, yet the smile that appeared was more desolate than weeping. Meeting the rage in his eyes directly, she spoke in a hoarse voice.
“You’ve come…”
Seeing her reduced to such a wretched state, it was clear she had long since left Dongwon and been confined here.
Yet On Mu-ae no longer had the heart to inquire into the details. Yu Geum-yeon had lost the child.
His child was dead. That fact alone was enough.
Driven solely by the rage that flared up like wildfire, he shouted,
“Go Gyeong-seong, I never knew you were such a cruel and vicious woman! How could my eyes have been so blind as to bring a creature like you into the princely household!”
His voice reverberated through the entire warehouse.
This time Go Gyeong-seong truly burst into laughter.
Her cheek still burned from the slap, yet the laughter would not stop.
She looked up at him—the man who had once been the sole existence in her life, yet who had now forced her to look back on that life.
She continued laughing as she leaned weakly against the stone wall, gazing up at the man who was itching to kill her.
On Mu-ae scowled and turned his head. At the end of his gaze lay the finely woven bamboo basket.
He closed his eyes for a moment and clenched both fists tightly. His knuckles turned white.
When he opened his eyes again and looked down, the coldness in them remained undiminished.
“Seeing you weep and make a scene, Yu-a was forced to confine you here for fear of damaging the household’s reputation. Even so, she never neglected your food and drink.
Yesterday she even brought food to you herself—yet you dared lay hands on Yu-a!”
Hearing these words, Go Gyeong-seong immediately looked at him with the same expression she had given Yu Geum-yeon the day before—as though regarding a monster.
Like seeks like, indeed.
No further explanation was needed now.
Go Gyeong-seong simply closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. She did not wish to reveal any fragile or wounded appearance.
Everything already felt meaningless. Why he had sought to destroy her family and herself no longer even mattered.
All she could hear was the sound of her heart shattering into pieces.
When she kept her eyes closed and stubbornly refused to open her mouth, On Mu-ae suppressed the urge to strangle her to death on the spot.
“Go Gyeong-seong, out of regard for the past affection between us I had been deliberating whether to send you to prison for beheading. It was that affection that kept you alive until now!
Yet what is this behavior of yours? Do you truly mean to sever even the last shred of grace and duty that remained between us?”
Go Gyeong-seong slowly opened her eyes and looked at him without expression. It was neither a smile nor tears—only a strange look.
“Sever grace and duty?”
Her voice sank low.
“The grace and duty between us were already severed long ago. When you brought Yu Geum-yeon here. When you and Yu Geum-yeon rolled together on the bed.
No—from the very first time you were together with Yu Geum-yeon, we were already… finished… were we not?”
On Mu-ae’s face hardened at once. The memory of that night months earlier with Yu Geum-yeon—something he could not bear to look back on—left him speechless for a while.
Go Gyeong-seong gazed at him with a faint smile.
“Why? Because Yu Geum-yeon miscarried?
That’s right. I pushed her… I killed the child that had not even been born yet…”
On Mu-ae glared at her, eyes bloodshot with rage.
“You…”
“You who trampled my family, drove my parents and kin to their deaths, and shattered everything that was mine…!”
Her voice rose higher and higher.
“Yu Geum-yeon was nothing more than a mere concubine to me—what does it matter that I killed that child! I regret nothing!
If you want revenge, come! Kill me this instant!
Come on…!”
The voice that had been shouting at him suddenly stopped.
On Mu-ae had seized her throat and begun to squeeze hard.
“Ugh…!”
Even as she felt the agony of being choked, Go Gyeong-seong glared with bloodshot eyes at the man throttling her.
Breath was cut off. Her windpipe constricted; air ceased.
Her lungs burned as though on fire. Instinctively her hands rose to grasp his arms, yet she lacked the strength to push him away.
So this… is how I die…
She had thought she had already resigned herself to everything, yet the moment he truly began to strangle her she understood what true despair was. The heart she had believed already dead still ached.
Her chest felt as though it were being torn apart.
Glaring at him, she forced out each character in a cracked, laborious voice.
“On… Mu… ae…”
