"I see that our beloved nephew has still kept some of his old bad habits, despite him being a rising star in the palace in his past life. No mater what chaos this bastard creates, he cannot be shielded and embraced anymore. He needs to regain his honour in the palace and at home by first marrying his well connected concubine instead of these whores from the brothel coming to us and begging us for marriage based on his personal relationships with them…" "Excuse me? What did you just say? Who do I have relationships with?" "So there you are; you do not bother to greet your elders, but you can interrupt our conversations like this? Dd you lean nothing from your father at all? You should be grateful that he even accepted you into his noble life in the first place…" "ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM FIRST IF MY WOMAN DIDN'T GET TO HIM FIRST!!" "Why you little…how dare you be so disrespectful? Your father would be rolling around in his grave if he even heard you curse at him like this! And now what? You wish to rid yourself of responsibilities as well?" "What responsibilities are you talking about when you openly force yourself in my home? How many days have you stayed here without my permission? Well? Tell me?" "You arrogant self destructive little toad! This entire clan's luck has turned on it's head after you took in that Seo girl; the sooner you rid yourself of that jinx, the sooner that we can reclaim what is ours, including you staying by The Emperor's side as you once did and for longer than your father could at that." I couldn't believe my what my ears were hearing; the entirely of my uncle's wife clan has descended upon me without warning and they acted as if time had stood still since my father's death almost a decade ago! They didn't acknowledge any of my achievements in that time period and just criticised my failure, and they were completely unaware that the woman that they were all worshipping was more than likely responsible for it! It was such a bizarre and overwhelming situation to be faced with, so much so that I felt myself double over in pain as if I was suffering from my opium withdrawal symptoms all over again.
"Look, your seal is all over this brothel's documents for many whores that you have visited and made false promises to; and they are all far better than some epileptic…" "Don't you dare! Do not even think of insulting her in my presence!" "Penniless, orphan brothel girl to be your damned wife and the future mother of The Nam children!" "The Nam children? There will be no damned 'Nam Children'…!" "Why? Are you impotent? It can happen when you whore around too much, but there are many different cures for that and…" "First of all, I am not fucking impotent and number 2, I haven't whored around with any women at all! That document clearly has a Nam seal on it, but I do not own such a thing since I disregarded my clan name a decade ago, so this so called evidence is futile! Now get the fuck out of my home, all of you, including that whore who ran out of here! How dare she show her face to me now like this! This home already has a hostess and it isn't her! And where is that damned useless concubine of mine! The one who almost killed me entire family with her cooking! I want her expelled from this household and she shall never cross paths with me again, that goddamned jinx!" "My Lord, please calm down…" "Calm down? CALM DOWN! WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO IN MY OWN HOUSEHOLD THAT I MANAGE AND PAY FOR! GET OUT, ALL OF YOU…" "But the brothel is threatening to sue us if you do not go through with these purchases for concubines! You should have started having children as early as you could with as many women as possible, so why did you wait for so long!" "But I…." "Come now, we can forgive this mistake if yours if you just fill up your home with more women to breed with, and…" "I am not a damned animal to breed with just anyone!" "And what about the money that we need to house them? Where shall that come from, Mistress Han?" "How. Dare you address her in my own home…" "Nephew! We are giving you face despite the sins that you have committed against us, who are you to raise your voice to us now? You ungrateful bastard, you should be thanking us for acknowledging you at all!" "You…!" "And you will need a brand new education, since the one you have clearly goes against Confucius rules about familial piety. How can one incompetent man make all of us suffer so?"
"Incompetent? If anyone is incompetent, it is the family who discarded the halfbreed and illegitimate Nam boy, only to ambush him years later when your clan has fallen and all hope is lost. If that isn't the opposite of familial piety, then I wonder what is?" I practically collapsed straight onto my knees as soon as I heard her voice and crawled up into a ball on the floor. I was overwhelmed, I was angry, I was humiliated, ashamed and it felt like I was facing a team of my own father's clones. I had lost my ability to remain cool, calm and collected and even unbothered in the face of my enemies as Yeon did. Each and every single one of my aunt's clan looked like they had arrived from the previous century with their unsmiling and hardened faces, their clean cut silk clothes and their smell of hard musk and mothballs. I had entered my own personal hell in the home that cunt of a woman decorated lavishly to her taste, and it was more than clear to me now that everyone just wanted to control me as my father did and once again use me as a puppet for their dirty works, just like I was forced to go up against my own best friend and I almost lost him for good…
"And who is this unruly maid? And an old one at that; she doesn't look like she understands simple house rules either. As her name and status is yet unknown, why don't you throw her out of here, nephew!" "And why would I kick my own wife out of her property, aunt?" "Excuse me? What did you just say? Nephew, you might have forgotten that an illustrious clan such as ours have different rules and etiquette to these commoners that you keep bringing in here, but your elders certainly haven't forgotten. Does this woman even have a conferred title at all, like the concubine that you already have here? I did not think so…" "Madame Nam, are you saying that my conferments from His Majesty The Emperor are useless? Because I still have those titles and rewards packed up in my trunks, the trunks that my father Seo Geom left being for his orphaned children. Or would you rather show your ingratitude to The Emperor himself? Can anyone in this room even get as close to him as I can? And yet you all plot against me like this? Your own nephew's wife? You are all the ones who are behaving badly, are you even fit enough to be in The Lord Nam's presence at all?" "You…! With such a high and might attitude, how do you hope to serve him at all, concubine!" "Concubine? I think that if you refer to my latest conferment deed, I am now The Madame Nam of this household, of The Nam household, and I do not recollect myself nor my husband inviting any of you over here at all."
"You lowly scum of a woman! Your father's identity does not hide the crime he was charged with, or your orphanage or your disability for that matter!" "My father's (paternal) village was used to raise horses for The Royal Family, as was he himself to train The Royal Family. It is his teachings that The Princes use in the battlefield to defend our lands, and it is their horses that carry them to help fulfil their royal duties to the people of this land. They definitely did not rely on baseless arrogance and sorrow mindedness that you yourself cannot get through The Emperor himself?" "But we…" "Even the high ranking officials that serve The Royal Family themselves all still use the guidelines of debates that my father came up with and similar to that, his untainted blood flows through my veins that will help strengthen this family. Yes, my father was framed for a crime that he unjustly paid for, but nobody speaks ill of him even after his death, so who is a fallen clan such as yours to criticise his offspring? If there were no lowly guests from anywhere, then how would you be able to identify a strong nation? Well? I am waiting for your explanation and your apology towards my husband?" "But we…" "And where is the concubine? Bring her to me."
"Seo Yeon! Don't you are act like you cannot see me? How dare you just enter my home like this!" "Servants! The concubine is to be flogged 40 times daily for 2 weeks for her mishap with our food and letting strangers into my home without my permission! And since nobody here wants to leave, then myself and The Lord Nam will recreate ourselves onto a different property in the meantime, so please proceed to pack everything that he owns and send it through carriages. And whilst my husband prepares a new property for us to move into long-term, we relinquish the rights to this home, so that the delusional so called mistress here can lord over whatever she wants to, but I shall be taking my husband with me." "What? No! Just what on earth do you think you are doing! You cannot just take what belongs to me once again!" "My Lady, I have no idea who you are since apparently everybody needs a conferment tittle amongst this family to be acknowledged, but since you decorated this place to your taste, then it is yours, which means you will have to manage it from now on with your own money. The servants will come with us since they all belong to my husband and who knows, you may even have good luck in teaching his concubine here to be a future hostess, just as you yourself claim to be. Since this home means so much for you, then you are most welcome to have it all for yourself, without us disturbing you in the slightest." "Young Mistress! Quickly! The Lord Nam has collapsed into the carriage, he needs medical assistance as soon as possible!" "Quickly! Summon Moonbok here to treat him! And bring him to my chambers!" "Your chambers! Butt you just granted them to me…" "Mistress Han! How do you even think to become a hostess of a yangban such as this one if you do not put others above yourself! I recognise that it must be hard for you to do so, but it wouldn't hurt you to at least try, isn't that right?"