"Princess, please forgive me for my tardiness to the morning assembly..." "Do not worry about it, everyone makes mistake sometimes-" "Your Highness is far too kind; but I fear that your indulgence will spoil the Noble Lady Jung sooner rather than later." "Indeed Mistress Jeong, from now on, can we all be excused from paying respects to Your Highness for absolutely no reason at all?" "Calm down, Attendant crazy," "Forgive me Your Highness, but my lady does have a reason to be late; she dirtied her dress just as we approached your residence, so we had to retreat and change her outfit entirely with less than 5 minutes to spare..." "But she was late after al, therefore she has to take responsibility for it, does she not, Your Highness." "She has always been well-behaved before this, why don't you just let her off this once and just move on for goodness sake. You do not need to over-exaggerate every little thing that happens here in my brother's harem." "You are the head of her place, Consort Kim, so you are also to be held accountable for her mistakes. So what would you suggest as a suitable punishment for her?" "Mistress..." "The law requires a 30 time fogging for disrespect to The Empress, but I suppose that the punishment can be reduced for a first time offence. The Noble Lady here should instead forfeit her monthly stipend for the next 2 months as well as Consort Kim who chooses to cover her crime instead of handing out the appropriate punishment. What do you think, Princess?" "Princess, please forgive Consort Kimfor my shortcoming as she is an innocent party. I shall willingly take on this punishment according to Mistress Jeong and I shall carry it out with complaint." "I agree that a lenient penalty is enough for now, but the New Year will commence in 2 months time, so the forfeit shall be carried out for 1 month only." "Thank you, Your Highness." "You may rise; there is no important news to distribute today, so I shall leave you all in peace until tomorrow morning. I hope to hear no more over-reactions by then, since there are many here who have turned up late consecutively to these morning assemblies." "That is because you are far too lenient by nature; but fret not as I have a mind to handle household tasks from now on once I can get my hand on the book so that you will have less burdens to weigh your shoulders down, Princess. We all have to strict in a place like this to balance out for permissiveness." "It should be done to set out examples for these concubines to follow and take the lead in being punctual." "His Lordships always to tell me to sleep in for a bit, and I cannot go against this orders, can I?" "You can if you wish to lead a prominent life in the future based on hard work and discipline, Mistress Jeong."
I had to restrain myself enormously and wait for The Princess and a few of the senior ladies from the previous rulers to leave before I held everyone back in the assembly hall to dole out my own punishments whilst I still could get away with it. "Attendant Nam! Just how did you think to come here with all of those accessories on your head! Do you not know your rank in the harem? Must I remind you of it!" "Mistress?" "Servants! Strip her of her clothes immediately and put her onto the floor! Right now!" "Mistress, I have not heard anything about it..." "Shut up! How dare you talk back to me when you are the one who is clearly in the wrong here! Servants...bring me a whip." "Mistress!" I had to slap her across the face a few times to prevent her form making such a fuss, but I had to admit that seeing her so flustered to the point of stumbling over herself did give me a sense of satisfaction that was fuelling my adrenaline after such a long time. I did not mind punishing my competition in the Ihwaru brothel back in my days, and now I was up against some dainty women who had probably never have had to fight fr anything in her entire life, so this was going to be an easy ride, but it would not be like this forever.
"I was already made aware of your disorderly behaviour from your first day here in the palace before anyone else here had a chance to settle in, but that is no excuse to be as arrogant as you are now, especially for your rank in the harem!" As I stated before, I had punished a lot of women in my time for trying to take away what was mine. But what I was not expecting from another dainty woman like her was that she did not utter a single sound as I whipped her back into a pool of blood onto the floor. But I couldn't let anyone here in the palace watch me become flustered as well, not over my dead body.
"My word here in the harem is law and discipline, and whoever dares to go against my order will be sternly punished!" I then striated handing out indirect punishments for those who had already slept with my husband as I still had to take his position and harem into consideration for the politicians that were backing their female relatives in order to establish my authority in the harem whilst it still counted without an official title. And I knew it work because I was dealing with a bunch of noble woman who would rather suffer in silence then use up their energy to write to their families to complain about anything for an experimental harem of all things. Just like Seo Yeon, it seemed like the universe was going out if its way to help me in my circumstances until I was pregnant and titled. Or that was what I thought, until I had the almost crippled Attendant Nam waiting for e outside of my residence the very next morning with The Princess of all people with the servants that I had sent to sabotage her in the first place so that I could punish her accordingly for it. I had never seen such a thing before; she clearly came from a good family, but instead of complaining to them to fight on her behalf....was she really going to fight me herself and challenge my authority in front of the only person in power here, The Princess? Really?
"Your Highness? To what do I owe the pleasure of you visit-" "I have already interrogated these servants yesterday in relation to a corporal punishment that took place against my own woman that I placed in my adopted brother's harem?" "You...put this person in the harem? For your brother?" "My brother should have at least 10 heirs at his age now, so myself and my father need all of the women that we can find to tend to his needs, especially when you have yet to show any signs of conceiving children, don't you think so, Mistress?" "Your Highness..." "But then I realised that servants usually do not make any moves on their own; their superior was the one who dictates their every move. But from the moment that they denied their wrong doings, I decided to punish them themselves, which of course lead to a confession from them." "A confession? Is that so? And who did they...." "That is why we have come to your chambers Mistress, if you would allow us inside..." "I do not know what it is that you expect from me..." "Mistress Jeong; I had committed an act of disobedience the last time that I was in your presence; but there is definite proof that I was framed for the incident now, so I leave the punishment in your hands to correct that wrong that was committed against the both of us, since you were also deceived by the servants that you feed yourself. These servants have been punished to the point where they are finally willing to confess to you, in front of The Princess, no less." "I have already forgotten about this incident, why would you bring it up again and spoil our moods like this, Attendant Nam? What do you have to say for yourself?" "These servants have clearly sown discord between us in the harem, between the women that must bare His Lordship as many children as we all possibly can for the sake of The Kingdom and The Royal Family. They have broken harmony within The Inner Court and is that not an unforgivable crime? If there is no clear distinction between rewards and punishments, then how can you expect anyone to follow you or even to respect you as leader at all?" "Is that so, Attendant Nam? And what do you wish for me to do about it?" "According to the law, she must be flogged up to 30 times to display your authority and acknowledge the Royal Laws that have been implemented for the harem court." "You...!" "Maybe I do not need to remind you of the grand entrance that you made in the palace; so much so that you recruited a large amount of brothel servants in the place that upset everyone, including my father and that is exactly why you remain as an untitled Mistresses here in the palace. He is still rather appalled at the half demolished quarters that you left in state to house them all? I sincerely advise that you start following the century old laws that have been put in place here in the palace if you wish to be The Mistress of your lover's harem before any noble women here beats you to it."
The Princess's thinly veiled threats were enough for to me to wake up and regain my senses; I had already damaged my husband's reputation greatly and that is how I found myself in this unusual position here in the harem. I could see now that were no more compromises to be made on my behalf, and I needed to do some serious damage control here to save myself before things got out of hand. I was not officially married to my husband due to lack of title and standing, and family was much more important in my case than the airs I was putting on as a future Princess Consort. If the family was not harmonious, then the ranks would soon become useless, prominent positions be damned. No more extravagance and waste, not until I had attained my gaols here in His lordship's harem. And as for this meddlesome girl, I was going to rise up to such a position that I would watch girls like her become mere tribute girls before she become a real threat to myself. So I issued the appropriate punishment to the servants, but I needed to acquire that Ihwaru brothel as soon as I could to bring The Third Prince onto my side. And if I could not do that, then I needed to create a scandal that only His Lordship could solve and make him gain the royal recognition that he deserved, with myself by his side so that I too could collect the reward that I desperately needed in this moment for the rest of my life.
"Mistress, please remain calm..." "Calm! That damned girl has scared off all of the servants that I have sent to serve her, a slowly as she is! She will have The Princess allocate her new servants that come from the same Goreyo background as her soon enough! I need a physician on my side to serve me personally and as quietly as possible! I need to render this girls just as useless as I apparently am in a way that nobody will suspect at all. And I need someone in the brothel for me to gain as much information as possible! And....I need to be put in touch with the head of The Hangu Faction as soon as possible! Get me a meeting with him and my useless uncle as soon as possible!"