CH 19.2

Meanwhile, the empress looked at those, who were having the same thought and talking together.

Since there were a lot of people who served the same husband, the concubines being jealous and envious of each other was something that existed along with history. However, the current imperial family had fewer concubines compared to before, and no one had a bad personality except for Yeonbin. In addition, thanks to the emperor taking good care of the concubines evenly, there had never been a big problem.

On top of that, as Yeonbin irked and had a quarrel with other concubines every day, the concubines that naturally had the same enemy had no choice but to get closer with each other than their predecessors.

Then, the empress said,

“How can we completely guess someone’s heart? It is a good thing if Yeonbin starts to protect his dignity as a concubine and sincerely serves his Majesty, so help Yeonbin and don’t uselessly make things difficult.” 

“Your Majesty, when did we ever step up and caused the scene first? Everything was inevitable because Yeonbin picked a fight first.”

Sukbi whined with a coy look. She glanced at Jeongbin sitting in front of her, drawing her consent, and Jeongbin quickly said, “That’s right, Your Majesty.” The empress then continued to speak.

“How can I not know that? However, since Yeonbin has said that he wants to change, as the members of the same internal palace, you all should lead Yeonbin well.”

When the empress asserted once again, the concubines, who could no longer refute, stood up from their seats and kneeled to the empress, saying, “I will keep that in mind, Your Majesty.”

While they were saying that, suddenly,

“Your Majesty, Yeonbin has arrived.”

Along with a somewhat flustered voice of the eunuch, Yeonbin, Yeon Hwawoon, the protagonist of the rumor that was making the imperial palace noisy, appeared.

***

“Yeonbin, are you feeling better now?”

The first one to break the silence and open their mouth was the empress. There was still a subtle awkwardness between the concubines sitting on both her sides and with no doubt, the source was Yeonbin.

Originally, Yeonbin was famous for his liking to dress up, so he dressed up in a splendid manner not to fall behind any other women in this imperial palace, including the empress, who did not like to be extravagant.

However, what about Yeonbin’s look in front of their eyes now? Not to mention the light blue clothes, Yeonbin’s appearance with minimal decoration on his hair was so pleasantly simple yet elegant, which they had never imagined before.

Jeongbin, who was sitting right next to him, glanced at Yeonbin. It was not that she didn’t know he had great beauty even though he was a man, but today’s Yeonbin had an elegant atmosphere enough to make even those, who used to feel displeased with him, look back on him.

It was not simply a matter of his attire, but Yeonbin, who sat in a straight position with his eyes down neatly, had an unfamiliar atmosphere as if he were a completely different person from what they knew before, so Jeongbin couldn’t control her gaze on him.

What had changed was not limited to his appearance. What about the behavior Yeonbin just did in front of them?

As soon as he entered the room, he politely greeted the empress and asked for forgiveness for only being able to give his morning greeting now. He was so polite without any superfluousness that even the empress forgot to accept his greeting for a while and just stared at him blankly. 

He didn’t only do that to the empress. Yeonbin kneeled and greeted Sukbi and Jeongbin, who he used to growl at whenever they bumped into each other, so it was natural that everyone was speechless and shocked right now. 

Regardless if he knew about the awkward atmosphere surrounding himself or not, Yeonbin slowly opened his mouth to answer the empress’ question. 

“Thanks to your consideration, I’m almost completely better now, Your Majesty. Thank you for worrying about me.”

“…I tried to visit you right away after hearing about the accident, but since I thought it would be better for you to rest comfortably, I didn’t bother to go. If you are perhaps upset with that, forgive me.”

“I’m upset? That is impossible, Your Majesty. That accident was my fault, anyway. There’s no need for you to be weighed down, Empress.”

Whenever Yeonbin said a word, the empress flusteredly held her breath, so there was no need to mention other concubines. Ahjin, standing behind Yeonbin, was busy looking around and pinched her thigh so that the corners of her mouth would not seem to go up without her knowing. 

“I see… I’m glad you think so. Seeing that you still look pale, you don’t seem to have fully recovered. Take good care of your body so His Majesty doesn’t worry more about you.”

“Oh my, Your Majesty. What is there for His Majesty to worry about?”

Following the empress, it was Sukbi who opened her mouth. Sukbi was also surprised by Yeonbin’s unexpected appearance, but she couldn’t miss this good opportunity to laugh at him to her heart’s content.

The empress, who noticed what Sukbi’s intention was, quickly tried to stop her by calling her name, but Sukbi, who was a bit faster, parted her lips with a very happy face

“If His Majesty truly worried about Yeonbin’s condition, then there was no way he would make him kneel on the ground and insult him yesterday.”

Soon, pft, ridiculing laugh flew out. He desperately said he would change and that he wanted to be reborn as the emperor’s person, but all he received back from the emperor was severe distrust, so it was such great humiliation.

“Isn’t that true, Yeonbin?”