Chapter 120 – Palace Maid (13)
[Chapter 6 – Section 6] I’m Very Disturbed
Yoon So-ra’s family had been a mess even before she was born.
The reason was the existence of Molang Fantasy, the world’s most popular virtual reality game—an unbelievable phenomenon that had maintained a 51% user market share for thirty consecutive years.
But she couldn’t blame it outright.
If that virtual reality game hadn’t existed, she wouldn’t have been born in the first place.
Why?
“Does that bastard never sleep? Every time I see him, his level’s gone up.”
“The strongest convenience store? I heard he’s a convenience store owner, but it looks like he just plays games all day and ignores the store.”
“We’re not much different ourselves.”
“Honey, don’t believe rumors. He’s probably some idle rich kid. With money, what can’t you do?”
“Even so, I don’t like that bastard being ranked above me.”
“I heard there’s going to be a massive update in Molang Fantasy at the end of this year. Our chance will come.”
“What chance? In a game where the players have gone stale to the point of turning into crude oil.”
Her parents met inside the virtual reality game Molang Fantasy.
At first, they were nothing more than rivals. Then, after teaming up and fighting together several times, they gradually confirmed their feelings for each other…
And eventually got married in real life—not in the game.
“Um…”
Yoon So-ra quietly parted her lips.
“What?”
“Yes?”
Even parents who practically lived inside a virtual reality game still had to eat and relieve themselves, so once or twice a day, for about twenty minutes, they returned to reality.
“The aptitude test results came out.”
“I see.”
“So?”
Parents who showed no interest even in the aptitude test results that would decide their daughter’s life.
All that filled their minds was eating nutrients quickly, changing diapers, and returning to Molang Fantasy.
“They say I’m suited to be a doctor. As for the specific specialty—”
“You don’t need to explain. Do whatever you want.”
“We respect your opinion.”
Deciding it was about time to log back into Molang Fantasy, her parents brushed off their daughter’s words and stood up.
“Honey. Did you feed the kid?”
“Of course. Raising it is breaking my back.”
“Hoho! You’ll be repaid for it later. Don’t exaggerate.”
“Exaggerating? Then stop ‘raising’ it with words and actually do something.”
To communicate with her parents, Yoon So-ra had studied Molang Fantasy as well.
The “kid” they were talking about—
A baby dragon that had hatched from an egg obtained as loot after hunting a powerful dragon.
“……”
Yoon So-ra stared blankly at the dining table left behind.
Cooking and washing dishes were always her responsibility.
Her position—pushed aside by electronic signals from a virtual reality game—felt more miserable than that of an adopted child she hadn’t even been born to.
“I wonder if the materials we put up at the auction sold.”
“Hehe. I hope so. There’s a weapon I really want to refine.”
“You’re crossing the line. My outfit comes first.”
“Ahem! Of course I know.”
After ruining a hunt because they suddenly needed to urinate at a critical moment, her parents had started wearing diapers like babies.
They had even been happy on the day the parents (her grandparents) who raised her passed away—saying that thanks to the inheritance, they could buy better equipment for their virtual reality avatars.
Compared to that, this was nothing. She couldn’t even cry anymore.
I should give up…
There was no way they’d pay her medical school tuition. If they had money, they’d spend it on feed for the baby dragon they were raising in the virtual reality game.
Yoon So-ra gave up on P’s aptitude path and started working part-time.
***
From the moment they legally received their P aptitude test results, citizens of almost every country on Earth were recognized as independent adults.
Independence.
Yoon So-ra’s dream.
If there was one small blessing in her misfortune, it was that thanks to the looks and body management(?) she’d inherited from the parents who had only given birth to her, finding a part-time job wasn’t difficult.
“You’re very polite and hardworking.”
The café owner near the university smiled warmly as she praised her.
“Thank you.”
“Pretty kids who know how to take care of themselves tend to be diligent and work better, but So-ra seems especially so.”
“I’ve worked hard since I was young.”
She’d grown up in an environment where she couldn’t survive without being diligent.
People often said they envied her slim figure, but it didn’t make her happy at all. To her, it was proof that her family situation had been so harsh she’d never even had the chance to gain weight.
“Is that so? You must have had a good family upbringing.”
“…You could say that.”
Could a family environment really be called “good” when she would have starved the entire weekend—without school lunches—if she didn’t take care of feeding herself?
Instead of answering, she brushed it off with a smile.
“Work here for a long time, okay? More customers are coming just to see you, So-ra. Is your aptitude really ‘doctor’?”
“Haha… you saw it yourself.”
The café owner had examined Yoon So-ra’s P aptitude test results more carefully than her own parents ever had.
“I’m really jealous. These days, aptitude alone isn’t enough to compete. They even say a handsome silver medalist makes more money than an Olympic gold medalist.”
Athletic brands hire athletes as models for sportswear, but if you’re ugly, you get a brief spotlight—and then it’s pension money and done!
By the same logic—
“Patients would rather be treated by a pretty doctor too, wouldn’t they?”
“…Yes. That’s true. When you come to my hospital later, I’ll give you a discount.”
“Oh my! Even if it’s just words, that makes me happy~”
“……”
Just as the café owner said, not all aptitudes were equal.
To survive competition among people with similar talents, you needed something more than aptitude alone to succeed in this era.
However—
If you can’t even make use of your most basic aptitude, being pretty doesn’t matter…
An aptitude test result of “doctor” was only a minimum condition—it wasn’t a medical license. Medical knowledge and experience weren’t granted by aptitude, but had to be acquired through study.
Tap.
“Your iced Americano—two cups.”
Yoon So-ra forced herself to calm her troubled mind and focus on her work.
“I’ll just take one.”
“Excuse me?”
The customer left one cup behind and said something unexpected.
“One of these is on me—for the person who’s been cleansing my eyes since this morning.”
“Uh… thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
She finally looked at the customer’s face—one she hadn’t paid any attention to before.
A simple tactic.
The beautiful former employee who’d quit after graduating university had taught her this: keep a reasonable distance from customers who showed excessive interest, but respond with enough sincerity to avoid offending them.
“So-ra.”
“Yes?”
“From now on, just say you’ll accept the sentiment. If you indulge customers like that, misunderstandings only make things more troublesome.”
“What if that still doesn’t work?”
She cared about this café—the place that had let her touch money for the first time—and didn’t want to cause trouble.
“Say it’s company policy. Important enough that breaking it means termination.”
“Ah…”
“Your predecessor was very good at handling things like this. Her aptitude was acting.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Oh! Speaking of which, let me tell you something interesting.”
“What is it?”
“This.”
“You’re watching the historical drama Palace Maid Deok-chun every week.”
Yoon So-ra recognized the program instantly the moment she saw the café owner’s smartphone.
“Your predecessor appears in it.”
“What?! Really?”
“She’s not the lead, but it’s a project she did while attending university. P’s aptitude test puts more weight on acting ability than appearance—but reality is different.”
“What role does she play?”
“A nine-tailed fox.”
“That… kind of suits her.”
Recalling her predecessor’s fox-like face that seemed to enchant men, Yoon So-ra immediately agreed.
“Hoho! That’s why I watch so intently every time she’s on screen.”
“I can see why.”
After all, until recently, the part-timer she’d had working right beside her was now appearing weekly on a major public broadcast…
It wasn’t free, but having helped pay for that actress’s tuition and allowance, even just a little, the café owner must have felt proud.
“So-ra, you can watch it too when you have time.”
“Yes. I definitely will.”
The café owner’s suggestion—but for Yoon So-ra, it was practically a required assignment. If she wanted to keep working long-term at this café, where the job was manageable and the hourly pay was good, she had to maintain a good relationship with her employer.
***
“Deok-sun, wash this together too.”
“Yes, unni.”
Yoon So-ra liked Deok-sun—the partner of the frustrating heroine Deok-chun, who hesitated instead of choosing the Crown Prince in the historical drama Palace Maid Deok-chun—far more than Deok-chun herself.
While Deok-chun’s parents had died from an epidemic, Deok-sun’s parents belonged to a wealthy noble family.
It was the typical power-seeking pattern of sending a daughter to the palace as a maid in hopes of making her the Crown Princess—but that didn’t mean her parents didn’t cherish her.
On the contrary—
They cherish her too much, if anything.
They genuinely believed that their precious daughter—so beloved she wouldn’t feel pain even if placed in their eyes—was the only one qualified to become the mother of the nation.
And in fact, according to something the café owner had casually mentioned—she occasionally spoke on the phone with the former employee who appeared as the Nine-Tailed Fox in Palace Maid Deok-chun—Deok-sun was supposedly going to be paired with the Crown Prince.
Thump! Thump!
“Deok-sun is so lucky.”
“Why?”
An older palace maid, beating laundry beside her with a washing paddle, sighed.
“Do you really not know? His Highness looked at you—standing beside Deok-chun—with such deep eyes.”
“Did he?”
She already knew. Working at the café had made her accustomed to men’s gazes; she was always aware of them.
The position of the lawful wife would be yielded to Deok-chun.
It couldn’t be helped. If the Crown Prince remained bound to Deok-chun, her own turn would be delayed indefinitely.
Even if she received her parents’ love, Yoon So-ra didn’t want to grow old and die after working her whole life as a single woman. She was aiming to become the Crown Prince’s second wife—his concubine.
Still—
So this is how Deok-chun felt too…
Thump, thump.
Her heart wavered like a reed, emotion overtaking reason.
Kang Moon-soo.
A wandering swordsman from the Central Plains who had saved the lives of both the Crown Prince and Deok-chun.
He looked uncannily similar to the gallant man who had been running toward her to save her just before she died absurdly after being stabbed by a stalker—and before she opened her eyes in Deok-sun’s body.
Was this what they called love at first sight?
“Hoo…”
“Oh my! Don’t tell me—you’re troubled because of what I said?”
“That might be it.”
It might have been a spoiled complaint, but even if she lived lavishly as the Crown Prince’s concubine, she didn’t think she’d truly be happy.
Winter was fine thanks to ondol heating, but summers without air conditioning were dreadful! When she first encountered a traditional toilet, she suffered from constipation for days—and even now, she desperately missed flush toilets.
Above all—
I can’t love here either.
She was a palace maid. By status, she could love no one except a royal man.
She found herself ridiculous for wavering like Deok-chun. No—she was even worse, since she was nursing a one-sided love. She had no right to criticize Deok-chun.
Kiiik—
At the chilling sound, Yoon So-ra instinctively raised her head.
Right in front of her—
“Eek?! A blade monster!”
“Aah! Run!”
The palace maids, realizing the approach of a vicious-looking monster, dropped their laundry by the stream and fled.
Yoon So-ra followed them—
“Huh…?”
Sudden dizziness washed over her. Her whole body felt heavy as she staggered.
Kiiik!
Kiiik!
The monsters didn’t miss her vulnerability.
Ah… I’m dying by a blade again.
Squeeze!
As if trying to suppress the fear of approaching death and pain, Yoon So-ra tightly shut her eyes.
“……”
But even after several seconds passed, her body remained unharmed.
“Isn’t that timing a work of art, like it was planned?”
Flash!
Startled by the voice of the man she loved, Yoon So-ra opened her eyes—then realized a beat later.
“Timing…?”
A word that should never have existed in this era had slipped from his mouth.
“Are you unharmed?”
“H-how…?”
“You seem to be all right.”
After dealing with the monsters, Kang Moon-soo greeted her with a gallant smile.
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