Chapter 132: Seon-Ho/ Seo Yeon

The rumours of my courting a prince's lady-in-waiting seemed to do the trick and soon we were the gossip of the Palace. I had swarms of maids following me everywhere I went to witness firsthand my interactions with her, which were frequent. I went out of my way to bump into her, to converse with her and praise her when I could which only embarrassed and annoyed her but I was having fun with it. I even went as far as to seek her out to carry some work errands for me which drove Chun-Ae crazy...'work errands' as in helping me with my work as well as getting intimate as much as we could behind closed doors. I swear we heard Chun-Ae follow us to my door most of the time. I was reprimanded by the Queen after I tried to throw her out of the palace but when witnesses came up to prove her disorderly behaviour towards me, she had no choice but to swallow her pride and punish her herself, but she was still kept by her side. And I knew she was giving my woman hell at work so I didn't mind catching her in the act and punishing her by getting her to carry out Yeon's work so I had more time with her. A few times I caught her myself following Yeon wherever she could and going to all sorts of lengths to get her punished. But I had someone follow her and record all of her actions so could use it later.

I had gained permission from the King to marry her in court as my main wife the minute he gave me my army promotion at long last. He wasn't too happy about it but he promised to also reinstate the Seo's birthrights to them the day she became my bride. I wasn't happy that I still had to take on this political marriage but if it was the only way I could marry Yeonnie...I still hadn't paid a visit to this family I was to marry into and I really didn't want too...I even took a firm stand against taking concubines from the palace, I knew it was his way of spying on my but he didn't put up much of a fight as he knew I could just as early turn his spies against him if I wished. We worked closely together despite everything that spoiled headstrong brat put me through. I achieved great merits through my work and it was easy to poison his mind against his own court, what King wasn't paranoid about the people he worked with, even his own family...and poisoning him against Bang-Won was proving easy with Hwi's help. He too wanted to take revenge after Yeon opened our eyes to the truth and it was easy for him to be back with the Prince, although we knew he was 10 times as paranoid as his father. He had Hwi watched thoroughly to my annoyance, and everyone else's. We could only communicate through letters as we had to still appear as enemies on opposing sides...as for my upcoming marriage...it looked like a chess game between us, with me and his sister as the King and Queen piece. The fact that 'I was only using his sister' was a fact that Yeon and I calculated that he would hang over Hwi's head to want to get his own revenge on me...which is what all 3 of us were counting on. The fact that he only had psychical contact with were his army men and his woman only ensured the Prince that he had regained control over him. The more his father relied on me the more he was loosing his iron composure. This surprised me; everyone with a clear pair of eyes could see how the King relied on his son's ruthlessness to carry out his dirty work the same way the Prince was relying on Hwi. It was ironic...I thought he was like me, and would resent his father...little did we knew that he was the jealous kind. He clearly loved his father...and I was going to do all I can to destroy that bond, the same exact way they tried to turn my only friend on me.

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Our wedding had already been set without me having much say, and of course, the army general just had to have a grand wedding despite me naturally hating being in any sort of light but it went with his position. He had me tend to him personally even before and after work. In fact we tended to each other; we both dressed together, we always ate together as an iron rule, I had to do all my work in his study and i couldn't leave the house freely without letting him know there I was, and couldn't leave in the evenings without him or else I had to send a servant in my stead. I know many people would find this behaviour overbearing...but his job was dangerous and it required him to travel a lot...and we were finally together. I understood him, he didn't want to be alone anymore than he had to. He almost followed me to every room I went in and always watched me with a lonely look in his eyes even if I was right next to him. He required a lot more attention and affection from me but again I didn't mind as long as he was finally mine. He had a lot of emotional issues that he wasn't dealing with but I did as much as I could to rid him of his demons before we were to marry; I sewed and and stitched every piece of clothing, essentially cutting down on our shopping expenses, cooked for him as much as I could and even helped him out with his work; summerizing scrolls with key points and options, organising and cleaning his study as I was the only person allowed in there as well dressing and adorning myself to suit his position. The men he had to mix with outside of the palace for meetings were all stuck up snobs who used to look down on him when he was treated as a bastard, but now they feared him and their wives...their wives were something else. They tried to shun me whoever they could but only after one meeting...I had no idea how Seon-Ho found out that they were trying to insult me but he showed up himself and started showering me with affection that made them pretty mad, as wives of political marriages themselves and we were still only engaged. I gave up trying to fight against him when I found out that he was my 'sponsor' who moved me into that small home and even put it in my name. I knew he wouldn't stop as long as I didn't.

But rumours and palace gossip proved too much for some people and the other family that Seon-Ho was to marry into made a surprise visit to the Palace to see him. This girl... Kang Nam-Kyu visited her distant cousin the Queen. My man was 'too busy' with me that he regrettably could not attend that meeting, something that the girl clearly wasn't used to. I had a made only a handful of friends in the palace so they reported back to us that the girl and her brother actually caused a scene in front of the Queen, embarrassing everyone in the room. Seon-Ho just rolled his eyes, clearly inexperienced with such abhorrent behaviour from a woman. Myself, on the other hand, had no choice but to witness this sort of behaviour first hand at the jobs I worked at whilst living with the Nam's, we both knew that she was going to make my life a living hell.

And sure enough we both heard someone stomping their way to Seon-Ho's study but he didn't even care. He still had me on his lap when she was outside the door. I had the feeling she wasn't the knocking type but it took me a while to wrestle from his grip before finally getting away from him just as she opened the door. Seon-Ho was just looking at me, smirking at my disposition before I placed myself at the door, curious about their mannerisms and their mindset.