29. A day before the wedding
The King's New ConcubineThe head seamstress looked at the King's messenger with an exasperated expression on her face, this is a bit too much and is pushing all the expertise that she has in her nearly fifty years of experience as the royal seamstress. She knew that the King has a very stubborn attitude but this is too much!
"The King is aware that the dress might not look its best since we are all fighting against time right?" She delicately asks as she looked around the room and looked at the stacked fabrics wondering which one to use.
It is the color red that is usually picked when a concubine with the King's favor is chosen to wed him, like the Queen's dress but clearly a much cheaper copy of it. The Queen's wedding dress has all the finest details and the most expensive fabric while the concubines will need to settle for the normal fabrics.
"The King ordered for you to assemble the greatest seamstress among the land to help you with your task, everyone should work on the dress night and day for it to be finished fast."
"May I know who is the next Royal Consort?"
"The Park Clan's only daughter Lady Park."
The royal seamstress looked surprised, the Park Clan has a pristine reputation, and the head of the family now who is the Prime Minister of Justice has been one of the most popular political characters of the generation, known for his wisdom, fine judgment, and a caring heart. The only thing the Park family is notorious for is the fact that the family seems to only produces sons, and having a daughter in the family is very very rare indeed. Now this messenger is telling him that they have a daughter that has been well hidden from the public and the palace is unbelievable. But of course, the Clan with such prominence will be the one to dupe the palace. It is public knowledge that all daughters in the land whether she is from a well-off family or not should be given or included on the list so that the palace would have a wide variety of women to choose from and Park Clan withhold their daughter's name means they clearly is not interested to marry her into the royal family.
"If she is from the Park clan then clearly I will need finer fabrics than the one I have in here. If it is true that the King really favors her then he will assume that we are making the best." she delicately asked, how can she get the royal fabrics when The Queen holds all the fabrics for the palace royalty. He knew the Queen will throw a royal fit and she might lose some favor in her eyes because of this.
The messenger nods his head in understanding, the whole palace knew that the Queen opposes this marriage and all are walking on thin lines since the King and the Queen have some silent battle going on because of this wedding.
"Lady Park sends her servant to help you."
Xiumin comes forward with an enthusiastic smile on his face.
"Hello Master, I am Xiumin from the kitchens, Lady Park has borrowed me for a while since she is short-staffed. I am here to lend a hand." he respectfully bowed down to the royal seamstress.
The seamstress felt relieved, the servant will take the brunt of the Queen's anger once he went there to collect some fabric. She pities the smaller man but better him than her she thought. She makes him go forward, leaning toward the man she put a comforting hand on his shoulders.
"I am deeply sorry to ask you this but I need help in procuring some fabric from the Queen's storage place. We need permission from her to get the fabrics we need for Lady Park's wedding dress. I will write a note explaining everything, you just need to give it to the Queen's servant and they will relay the information to the Queen, wait there for her permission. We can't take anything out of the storage place if the Queen won't give her consent." she urgently whispers.
Xiumin has a fixed smile on his face thinking this will be a difficult task that he thought.
"And if she doesn't give me permission?"
"Then you need to wait there, send someone to inform us, and then we will tell the King about it." the elderly woman gently said while Xiumin is resign for the worst. This is it, they just need to put Lady Park up there in order for their lives to be better. He needs to succeed. Make that freaking dress or die trying.
"I understand."
Thus Xiumin finds himself staring dumbly at the Queen's ladies in waiting. One went closer to him to whisper urgently.
"The Queen is feeling unwell, she said she wanted to accompany you in procuring the fabric. She wanted us to inform you that you might have to wait until she feels better before going to the storage place."
The man closes his eyes and sighed. This is what he is worried about, the Queen will make things difficult out of spite. And now he is stuck here waiting.
"Xiumin, Lady Park calls for you."
Xiumin spins around in surprise after hearing Shi Xun's voice. What is the man doing here? And why is he lying? Lady Park won't send for him to relay any messages, if the Lady wants something from him then he is sure Sulli will be the one here.
"Hmmm? Right now? But the royal seamstress asked for my help and I am now following her instruction to wait for the Queen."
"One of the priestesses has come to read the daughter of heaven's palm. This is more important, we cannot anger the heaven now can we?" Shi Xun loudly said looking pointedly at the Queen's ladies who suddenly talk to themselves, some had fear on their faces, after being reminded about the rumor that Lady Park was
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