Against her will, Yasmina was dragged to the palace to ‘serve’ the tyrant emperor, resulting in her being banished to the concubine palace after finishing ‘serving’ the king once, just like the rest of the women in the concubine palace.
When she arrived at the concubine palace, she was immediately greeted by a dark-looking soup. She was asked to drink a soup. Yasmina asked why and she was told that it was a contraceptive drink, in case she got pregnant. Yasmina then instantly knew the reason why the emperor had only 13 children despite having this many people in his harem.
She didn’t want to drink the nasty-looking soup but had no choice, because if she were to reject the soup, they would forcibly chug it down her throat. Reluctantly, Yasmina drank the soup and was then brought to the place she was going to stay in.
Yasmina first thought that she would be sent back to the restaurant but it seems like the emperor takes them as one of his ‘things’. The room she stayed in was shabby but it wasn’t much different from the place she had back in her hometown so she didn’t really mind it. All that was important is that she had a place to sleep in. It was already a luxury that she did not need to share her own space with somebody else.
Life in the concubine's palace was actually more comfortable than what Yasmina first expected because she did not have the favor of the emperor. The woman in the concubine palace had to actually do the chores themselves, be it cleaning, doing the laundry, cooking, etcetera.
Yasmina even met with others who had similar cases to her. They all resented the emperor but could not do anything about it. She got close to these ladies who were all beautiful but were forced to do manual labor. The four of them do manual labor together in the concubine palace and talked about their lives outside the palace before they met the repulsive emperor.
They had their laughs and gossips. Yasmina began to slowly get accustomed to life in the concubine palace. It was messy, but none of those related to her or her friends. She slowly accepted her new situation.
Everything was peaceful until—one of Yasmina’s friends bumped into the emperor who came visiting in the garden of the concubine palace with one of his favored concubines while she was carrying the laundry. Her friend, who could not properly see what was in front of her due to the pile of clothes, clashed with the emperor. The emperor was enraged and asked the servants to drag her friend to get struck fifty times.
When Yasmina heard this, she quickly went to the scene and saw her friend with a bloodied back and had already long passed out, while the emperor with his favored concubine watched on the sidelines, finding it entertaining. Even though she had no power to defend her friend, it was not in her to just let her friend who helped her get through the concubine palace just to watch her unjustly suffer like this.
Without second thoughts, Yasmina strode toward the emperor who was soon stopped by the guards. The emperor then asked what she was doing. Yasmina kneeled and begged him to pardon her friend, even sprinkling some words of praise that he is a benevolent emperor.
The emperor got interested in the boldness of Yasmina shown and due to this unforeseen event and unfortunate interest, Yasmina's life turned around. The emperor freed her friend but now she got the attention and interest of the tyrant emperor. This was where the beginning of Yasmina's hell started.
Having the attention of the emperor could be counted as a blessing to others, but in Yasmina’s eyes, it was only the start of a nightmare. The emperor who enjoyed the little event that occurred in the garden started calling for her in the main palace and asked her to ‘serve’ him again. Subsequently, after ‘service’ she would always get fed the disgusting contraceptive soup.
At first, she would drink the soup; however, after a month of taking the soup straight, her abdomen began to hurt. Her mind panicked for she knew that the soup was starting to show detrimental effects on her body after taking it without any break. She began to stop taking the soup in fear that it would cost some irreversible damage to her body—perhaps it had already did. She managed to trick the servants who would serve her the soup, then dumped the soup in the potted plant or the sink in the bathroom if she has the time.
She was scared that she would get pregnant but she thought that taking the soup for a month straight had already done damage to her, that it had already crossed off the possibility of her conceiving a child. The first time she threw the soup, she was scared of people finding out, but as time progressed of her doing this, she was getting used to it and even had creative antics just to prevent herself from taking the soup. There are times when she had to take it, to stop the servants from getting suspicious, but later, she would force herself to vomit everything out in the toilet.
This went on for a year. Yasmina’s rank had already risen in the concubine palace. She had now people attending her and was brought to a bigger and more extravagant room as per the emperor’s command. Although her rank in the concubine palace went up, the people’s attitude toward her went down. Having a position without any strong backing could only result in disaster.
Her place had gotten bigger, but the treatment got worse. She would even be served spoiled food and was even dragged around by her own personal maids. She was only a country bumpkin after all. She had no knowledge of the palace affairs and the play that came with it. Even her friend whom she saved that day, avoided her for fear that she would also become targeted by the other concubine’s schemes who had actual power. All Yasmina had was an empty rank and the volatile attention of the emperor that could vanish in a snap of a finger.
Essentially, she was alone. She had no friends to rely on. She had already lost contact with her family back home ever since she was brought to the palace. The emperor was even starting to get bored with her. Only meeting from once a week to now once every 3 months. Hence, the treatment in the concubine palace only got worse. Before, at least the attendees would actually clean the place as the emperor would occasionally visit her place. But now that the emperor had not stepped on her palace for almost a year and would only summon her to his palace chambers, the attendees became lax and did not do their job.
Humanity was sometimes scary. They are able to adapt to almost any situation—this includes Yasmina too. She had learned to adapt to her situation. She learned who not to upset, she learned how to sneak into the kitchen to get some leftovers, for she could not continue to eat spoiled food after all. She learned to just grit her teeth when getting hit on by the other concubines instead of fighting back. She learned to cower from the strong instead of fighting and getting herself into more trouble.
It continued this way, but no place in hell was ever peaceful. Every day was hard for her but not to the point that it became too unbearable that she thought she could not continue to live on. She knew that the other concubines wanted to just secretly kill her but can’t because even if she had now lost the favor of the emperor, the emperor was still keen on the idea of them being his ‘things’. So killing her would basically destroy the emperor’s ‘item’.
Although everyone in the concubine palace hated the emperor, he still had the highest position in the empire. One word from him could either raise them to the heavens or bring them to the deepest parts of hell, and Yasmina experienced both.
Yasmina had already lost the interest of the emperor. The other concubines who first saw her as a threat now began to shift their attention to the new concubine who had the emperor’s attention.
Everything was steadily going uphill. That was when—Yasmina found out that she was already 4 months pregnant.
