"My Lord, I have The Chung Family Confession her sin my hands from both The Master and Concubine Chung…although there seems to have been something that we have overlooked…" "Which is?" "The Concubine Chung has confessed through torture that she was not responsible for the death of your female servant, although she has confessed that she is behind her sister and her family's mysterious illness that has them bed-bound for these past 2 or 3 months now." "Shit! I completely forgot about them! I…left them in my fiancé's care but I…had let locked up here with me instead. How could I make such a mistake! How are they now? Tell me!" "My Lord…I am afraid that it is too late for them…." "NO! NO, I…it is my fault…those children…I should have taken better care of them…" "My Lord, in this case I have discovered something that is linked between The Chung and The Seo Family…" "What do you mean? What is it?" "The Chung Family seems to have their connections to Seo Geom before their passing…" "Which explains why my wife was sympathetic to the main wife that she married iff and not so much for the younger one I am assuming?" "My Lord, how did you know?" "That is because that is just who my wife is; everything she does is for her family even more so for her late father as soon as she broke away from me after my father's demise. Why else would she continue to recklessly show off her wit, her intellect and other skills like this? She wants her family's reputation intact and restored, but no though exploiting myself or her brother. She simply wants revenge for her parents, and having close ties to the palace helps that. There is no other reason why she would ever set foot in the palace that she always stayed clear of in her childhood." "My Lord?" "I was rather ambitious as a child, working here always gave me an escape from my father's tyranny and envisioning that gave me a moment's peace. So I always dragged my best friend here to see the place when we can, but his sister…she never wanted to come here at all. It was the only time that sweet- natured girl threw a tantrum of any sort, she always hated the palace since it took her father away from her as a child and even more so after his death." "So you sending her away?" "Seo Yeon has faced many trials and tribulations unharmed, but this place drains her both mentally and physically. She is exhausted and after our wedding, she will have little reason to come back here again other than accompanying myself sometimes. Anyways, what other things has the concubine confessed to?"
"Well, there are additional charges to be made, such as; receiving bribes to vouch for court officials, defaming other concubines with fake pregnancies and other deliberate attempts to harm them, and not just ones in her own household." "I knew something was off when my sister in law got close to The Third Prince and some of his concubines starting falling ill." "It seems as though The Concubine Chung had the power to retrieve some previously infected utensils and sent them over to some favourite concubines so they could be infected and therefore removed from the palace." "What else? Is there more that she has confessed to?" "Her crimes are too numerous to be counted, the ones I have listed are all the main crimes so far that can easily have The Master Chung put away for treason." "Is that so?" "My Lord?" "I can put The Master Chung and his family away…or I can have The Third Prince face no other choice but to do it himself, as I have already take down the rest of his men. It was because of him that I almost lost my only friend and was almost faced with the choice of killing him myself. So what better revenge than to have him carry out the same punishment and to it to the extent where he has to take away the life of his oldest friend himself? That will serve as some form of justice for myself and The Seo's for our past actions. So I will present this to The Emperor and make sure he passes on the decree himself. And as for us, we will punish anyone that we find suspicious, anyone who lacks morality and virtue at the very least. We shall spare nobody who can plead on their family's behalf."
"What about The Widow Nam?" "I shall have one of my men's wives deal with her on my behalf, I shall not have Yeon deal with her anymore. Her betrayal has cut her quite deeply, even if she doesn't say anything about it. She was imperious and she harmed a lot of people…including her own sister I believe, and I will make her pay for that dearly." "My Lord?" "Her sister, my most faithful servant…she had asked for my permission to marry, and I was in the process of setting up her wedding for her in exchange for her loyal services to me."
**************************
"It was her! The brothel girl! She was the one who found hm after the war unconscious, she was the one who brought him to The Fifth Prince's residence in a bad state, and she was the one who force fed him op…" the very last conversation that I had with Dae Jung gave me no answers, but a clue that Hui Jae was involved in what had happened to my man and why he had changed so much. Han Hui Jae, why can't we be rid of you? I should have gotten rid of you from the moment you approached my man under his father's roof and started taking credit for everything that I was doing for him instead. What had she done to him to change him so drastically? What power did she have over him to make him change his personality completely? Was it…did she still have a hold over him on account of their old feelings for each other? Did he still think about her? Even when he was with me? Did he chase me halfway across the kingdom to just prove some sort of point to her? That he had really moved on from her? Was that why he was exploiting me so much? In his work, in his private life…is that why he felt so free to sleep with me this much even before our marriage? Because I was such an easy target for him? Because I had always been in love with him and I had never stopped, not even for a single moment. He knew I would never leave him, so why bother treating me with any sort of respect in the first place like other cutting couples who didn't even touch each other until the wedding night…
"Do you have any news about The Lord Nam and his plans for his own sister=in=law? Servant?" "The Lord Nam will punish both The Chung family and The Widow Nam personally, and he assures us that you will never have to see either women again." "Do you know what her punishment shall be?" "I do not think The Lord Nam will grant her any severe punishment like granting suicide options…" "Of course not, because for somebody like her, the death of her new social life in the palace will be more painful than any suicide option that he can present to her." "Her honorary titles that she gained in the palace will be stripped from her, and she will most likely to be relocated to the cold palace." "So he will no longer absolve her from her crimes anymore and let her get away with anything due to her poor condition as a helpless single mother how deserving of sympathy and forgiveness she is. She thought she would earn merits if she turned onto The Concubine Chung, not knowing that The Concubine Park would beat her to it. And without the help and power of The Concubine Chung, she is nothing but a tiger with broken claws and left going around in circles until she pulls my husband down with her."
I was quite for the rest of the journey as I had my husband's nephew sleeping on my lap, but I still couldn't stop thinking about that woman and my man together behind my back. We had just barely left the palace and I absolutely hated doubting the only man who ever loved me like this, but what choice did I have? When he chased me everywhere, he refused to let me out of his sight, but after his changes, he was so contempt with leaving me on my own, just like he did when we were both housed together in The Fifth Prince's residence…what was going on? And how do I found out the truth behind it all? If he really loves me deep down, I will accept him in all of his ways, I will even help him in the palace if that made him happy enough. But if he was eventually planning on leaving me once I eventually got pregnant with our blood mixed like he planned, then what do I do? Do I leave him and move on with my life? Or do I follow him in life as my husband? Do I have to eventually let go of him and live broken heart for the rest of my life? How could I raise my family in his absence? How could I be a loving and doting mother without a loving and doting husband to support me? Will he really leave me? Will he support me at all? Will he stay with me? Will he start going to brothels after marriage? Will he keep me away from my brother so that I have nobody to confide in at all? Will he always send more than 10 servants at my side at all times so that they can spy on me for him? Will he…ever look at me the same way as he used to when he found me in the other village? Will he ever touch me the same gentle way as he did the first time? Will he ever keep me company out of love and compassion instead of exploitation? Will he ever hold me again like he used to? How on earth can I accept this marriage if I cannot fix him first? And how can I fix him if I have no knowledge of what is wrong with him in the first place?
"Servant, please turn the carriage around, there is something that I need to do in the palace for The Lord Nam before I go anywhere. And as for the boy, please drop him off to my brother's home for me before you return back for me." "My Lady? I am afraid that I cannot allow that…" "You will let me off now or I shall escape from here on my own. Do not fret, as I shall not blame you in front of him." "But My Lady…" "Servant, we all serve The Lord Nam here, so please let me do my job before I leave the palace as he wishes it to be."