Your aunt assisted in the murder of Seo Geom's wife, How else do you think the mother died from her second childbirth and not the first one? The doctor who examined her never came back to check on her again, and she was sent many nourishing meals without having the means to check them over even once. Just like how she indulged her own daughter to have an open affair with The Prince just to out=do your own wife, nephew, that is how this sham of a marriage came into fruition at all…what on earth did she mean by that? And why did she have to say it right in front of The Crown Prince of all people? What the hell was going on? Why didn't I know about any of this at all? I knew that my father and my wife's father ran in the same circles when he was alive, but my father never mentioned his name again when he died! What the…no, this simply wasn't possible! I already owed Seo Geom's children so much and especially my wife…I did everything that I possibly could and then some to simply get my wife to sit still and marry me! The embroidery business that I invested in to give to her, sacrificing her to brothels that I would never forgive myself for, taking her to the damned palace that almost cost her life, what more did I have to do to keep her! What more did I owe her? I married her in front of her brother who was generous enough to ignore our relationship before that and not beat the everlasting crap out of me for taking his sister away from him twice! She was pregnant for goodness sake! No, she couldn't possibly hear of this, not after how long it took to get her pregnant in the first place! And with twins as well! I was sick of the palace, sick of my scheming, sick of keeping secrets from my wife and now her very life depended on it! I was so close to getting away from it all and because of my damned family…now what do I do? Do I lie to my wife for the rest of my life? And start a family based upon lies just like my own father did? No, this could not be happening right now!
"My Lord Nam! The Crown Prince has requested your presence tonight after you have arrested your aunt in her quarters. Please follow these instructions and return to the palace promptly!" God=damned it! I could not even have a moment of peace alone with my wife to gather my thoughts! How the hell was I going to survive tonight without her! I barely had any time to eat and sleep at all and suddenly I was starting to feel hot and dizzy to the point where I could barely keep my eyes open anymore…where were you when I need you the most, wife?
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"…You bitch! This is all your fault! All of it!" "Servants? What is going on? What has happened?" "You framed me! Do you not think that I can tell the difference between red agate and carnelian? Do you think that I do not know about…" "Speaking of that bracelet aunt, it was discovered that one of your trained servants have similar calligraphy style to me to accuse me writing those nonsensical letters and about the bracelet, how would you know if 'the unique bracelet' had either red agate and carnelian in them? Didn't you acquire them just to accuse me of your suspicions? And yet you go on about it as if though you have had it closely examined, why is that? Unless the reason is that you have secretly made 'the unique bracelet' yourself and that is why you know so much to the point of defaming a monk of The Buddhist Temple that even some Royal Family Members still frequent! And believe me you, they have already filed their complaints against you! And by doing this, you have deceived the nation, including The Emperor himself when he heard about this!" "You bitch! You are showing your rue colours after being married, just like your mother! You only pretended to be gentle and submissive before us, didn't you! You ruined my family whilst growing one of your own!" "Madame Nam, she is to be confined to some quarters here away from her parents where they cannot shield her until The Lord Nam returns tonight from his meeting with The Crown Prince." "He will most likely be gone all day you say?" "That is more than likely Madame." "Very well…very well, then I must take up this opportunity to tie up loose ends myself without my husband here to stop me, and it must be done before my children make their way into the world. Call for The Mistress Han to accompany my aunt here in her quavers under confinement along with all of her belongings."
The yangban that I was currently settled in was a modest one indeed and decorated with all sorts of luxury items that my children could put to good use. The tiled roof with lattice floors and covered windows were more than what myself and my brother could ever hope for whilst growing up in our straw home from all 4 seasons of change and it will serve a full family well one day with the male wing featured simply, giving them clarity and space to cover their work. And as for the female wing of this yangban were elaborately decorated with vibrant colours and patterned wood, but I missed the noise of my father's village and waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread and the musty smell of the earth after the rainfall that helped to grow our crops that we were trying to distribute to other villages. Everyone got along well there and the men all gathered tougher outside of my brother's residence to get to work to build and establish as many homes, schools, pharmacies and anything else the village desperately needed. Even the embroidery workshops at present that were the main source of income for the village needed some work and I should be there by my brother's side to help him with the village as his sister and my fathers daughter until his children were old enough to not need their mother constantly at their side and HwaWol was the busiest of all of us women already. I was growing to resent this politically corrupted village every single day that my belly grew. I should be comforted and pampered by the elder women of my fathers village instead of being suspicious of my servants, my husband's family, The Emperor and being insecure about The Mistress Han who was just still hanging around for no reason at all despite the fact that we knew that she was having an affair. I wanted to walk on the sparse amount of grass that we had barefoot to cure my swollen feet instead of taking medicine after medicine that was laced with only god knows what. I wanted to treat my bitter mouth to sweet persimmons that rarely grew around us in the summer season and I longed to catch up with everyone that was close to us. I never wanted to be parted from my nephews again and I had been neglecting my poor brother for far too long. I wanted my twins to grow up to be close to their cousins and uncles, I missed my sisters=in=laws dearly and I needed my brother and my husband to be as close as they were before I lost my memory almost a decade ago so we can have the strong familial bond that the descendant's of Seo Geom should have, unlike The Nam Clan that collapsed as soon as their weaknesses were exposed. My husband may never get rid of the competition that he has in his head with his deceased brother and father, but I already know how I was going raise my children in and what environment suited them the most, I just had t o execute this one plan of mine to get me away from this kingdom and into my brother's arms soon enough, even if it meant upsetting my husband. I loved him and respect him with everything in me, but we both went behind my brother's back for many years just to conceive these children of mine and I wasn't going to let those years of deception go to waste. So I dressed myself up as humbly as I could and I made the rare appearance of leaving my home as pregnant as I was to visit The Senior Scholar, fully aware that I was walking into a lion's den and I had no idea what the outcome of this visit would be, but I had a choice of facing this head on or driving myself crazy waiting for my husband's plan to work out.
The carriage ride was daunting in itself, so I stuck my head out of the window to take a look at this village one last time; the dirt upon the unpaved roads were full of the footprints of the straw shoes of the lowborn people that were most likely breaking apart under their feet like mine and my brother's, or the scented footprints of the noble folk who either forgot the struggles that they endured to become as wealthy as they are now or they were too oblivious or arrogant to care about how the other half of this nation worked or lived at all. My late father bless him, was an open minded person with a lot of ideas that went beyond the sword that he drew that gained him the legendary reputation that he has today. He never saw the difference in social classes, he couldn't understand why the rich wanted to liberate the poor so that we could all prosper as a nation, and despite knowing the basic differences between the sexes he could not understand why women were not utilised more in society. There were only 2 colours that I could see from my carriage window since wanted a little time to myself before I faced off with my husband's enemy as I was still overwhelmed but not entirely shocked that my husband's paternal family had something to do with the death of my beautiful mother. I had already suspected it due to my husband's father's small obsession with keeping my brother in his place as a lowborn and the same went with me when I was his hostage. He was always overplaying his achievements right in front of me and his son and I could never understand why before I was lucky enough to regain my memories again. But I was worried for the sake of my husband who I already knew was on a downward spiral behind my back as soon as he found out and he would most likely resort back to his controlling and possessive ways, but that was going to change. I wasn't a young and reckless woman anymore with nothing to loose; I was a pregnant wife and now was the time to rehabilitate his impulsive and reckless emotions before he harmed his family before it even came to fruition. I was unable to tend to his physical needs, but if anyone else could fulfil his emotional needs, it was going to be my brother and his sons and even my sister=in=law to some extent a say husband was slowly easing himself around her, which wasn't easy for him to do at all. My poor husband who had been raised to kill or be killed by his father who was willing to abandon him for his own goals but still had enough love for myself and my brother to always hold onto us, my poor husband who helped everyone around him for simply saying in his life and no betraying him or taking advantage of him, my poor husband who I would not let destroy himself until he felt love, acceptance and company wherever he was and whatever he was facing. If only he had a safe environment to grow up in and loving parens to raise him in, he would't have become an obsessive power seeking beast that everyone treated him as. He was still more feared in his office than respected as it would take him a while to wipe off the stench of The Nam Clan off of him, but if I had any hope in healing him, it needed to be away from the stench of corruption and power that masked this place and brainwashed people into believing that they had no hope in reforming themselves so they dug themselves deeper into their holes of hell that their egos, pride, greed and whatever other vices they had would not let them go.