20 Deep Repugnance (2)

"How could she!"

The grand concubine screamed on top of her lungs, her high-pitched voice filled the void of the room along with the sound of the shattered glass that collided on the ground.

Everything was working smoothly and she had acquired the attention of the king from the banquet. He was supposed to spend time with her, anybody else except that lower-ranked concubine.

Biting her nail on her forefinger, the image of the low concubine smirking at her before they left her alone on the courtyard yesterday flashed before in her mind, irritating her as it goes.

What had gotten to concubine Eun? How could she dare steal her standing from the king? She was a mere commoner who was supposedly quiet and hidden.

"Did it not work?" she whispered behind her breath, trembling as she remained biting her nail.

"Did it not work!" repeating the words and threw her hand, the grand concubine shifted her attention to the maidservant she was with inside her chambers.

"I-I don't know, Your Highness."

The grand concubine herself punished the helpless maidservant. Numbers of wounds and bruises were imprinted on her skin as she struggled to hide her naked body; it was almost difficult to distinguish her tone from the repeated torture traced on her.

"What do you mean, you don't know!"

"Y-Your Highness, I remembered giving her the prescription dosage. I-I don't know how she still managed to be alive."

Everything was working perfectly. The assassination of the annoying concubine was transparent, even the low ranker's brother did not know his sister was about to die while he was sleeping undisturbed.

"If she's alive then you failed on your task!" Grand concubine Jin rushed to the maidservant and roughly pulled her by her hair.

Screams and cries echoed through the storage room just behind the grand concubine's courtyard; the maidservant pleaded for her forgiveness as her master was dragging her hair.

"Y-Your Highness, please spare me. I will not fail again for the second time!" she wept as she spoke and asked for another chance to prove herself.

When the grand concubine stopped from pulling her hair, the maidservant pleaded once again, "I did mix her meal that night with poison. I even included her drink so I would not fail from my task. I promise you this, Your Highness. Please believe me."

She looked straight at the cold eyes of her master, her tears were pouring while she started clenching the hem of the grand concubine's dress.

"… Understood," was her master's response from her whimpers that made her stop from crying however, what followed this caused her complexion to turn pale. "Guards."

"No, Your Highness!"

'She has the audacity to grab my dress and dirty it?'

Grand concubine Jin kicked and shoved the person away from her as if she was dealing with filth. Before a second passed by, the guards who she called marched inside the storage room.

"Take her down the basement and let her die in starvation." Soon as the grand concubine professed her order, the guards dragged the maidservant by her arms and the poor woman started screaming.

"Ran," the grand concubine called the name of her court lady and she received a cloth on her hands. "Prepare me a warm bath. I need to clean and soak myself."

"Yes, Your Highness." The court lady left her alone in the storage room, wiping off the dirt from her hands when she pulled the hair of the imbecile maidservant.

How could such a low concubine manage to stay alive? Although the poison she got from Iseul would take five hours to be effective, it remained to be the deadliest poison ever to exist. There was no way concubine Eun would still be breathing after consuming it and there was no antidote for it.

Grand concubine Jin was happily waiting for her death to be announced before the banquet was held, but it brought her to a disappointment when she heard the news that the low ranker was alive and smiling even as she went around the residence with her court lady named Chun.

"Just you wait, Concubine Eun. I won't let you survive before the coronation day." Grand concubine Jin clutched the cloth in her hand while she claimed she would make the concubine' regret from surviving.