"May your anger dissipate Your Highness! May your anger dissipate Your Highness!" "I have given you every single chance to act with decorum and grace, and you have thrown it back in my face each and every time! I shall not tolerate it anymore! Servants1 hold her down and force this medicine down her throat, or I shall kill you all!" "Release me! Let go of me! How dare you do this to me!" "You will never throw back a token of my gratitude in my face ever again!" I almost froze from fear for the very first time of my life as The Princess made her way to me with a cup of god only knows what with her minions pushing me down onto the floor. Had I calculated this wrongly? What mistake did I make? Was I overly confident in myself to think that I could carry this out and pull it off flawlessly like I used to? No, I had to find a way to escape to save myself and my children, and I was almost on the verge of nausea when thankfully my deceased parents must have sensed my distress and sent MoonBok and his wife after me when they could no longer find me in the crowd outside. They practically burst their way through the door with Jeong Beam and his army of men and The prince's mother must have followed the commotion and was simply applied by the sight of her useless daughter forcing me into doing something that she wasn't supposed to. Jeong Boom was well into old age now, but that didn't stop him from scooping me upon his arms and setting me aside before holding down the Princess instead whilst HwaWol tended to me and MoonBok went onto inspect the medicine that The Princess was trying to poison me with.
"What on earth is going on here! Daughter! Just what is that you have in your hand! And why is this madame kneeling on the floor? Have you all utterly lost your minds!" "Mother! This isn't what it look like! I was just helping The Madame Nam since she felt so ill." "Doctor! What exactly is in this drink that you were forcing upon The Madame Nam!" "My Lady! I was just…following the orders of your daughter…" "Cinnabar! My Lady! Your daughter was going to poison the pregnant wife of the man who is the right-hand man of The Emperor and The Crown Prince himself! And the grandchild of Seo Geom! How can this be! What wrong has this woman done to the kingdom to deserve such harsh treatment like this! After everything she and her family have done for this nation!"
"Impudent servant! If I say this is a prenatal topic for her, then that is exactly what this is! Who are you to go against me otherwise! You lowlife scum!" "My Lady1 I insist that justice be given to my man's sister here!" "Are you deliberately accusing me of harming her! After I have already spoken for myself!" "My Lady! I have heard that the son of The Senior Scholar passed away only this morning due to the same poison being spread all over his medicine and that of his mother! Can there really be such a coincidence!" "No! It wasn't me! How dare you slander em after my good intentions! How dare you defame me like this! And according to the rules of the ancestors, I must have his head for this! If he is not punished correctly, then I fear that everyone else shall copy him and the upheaval will spread rampantly and morale will crumble altogether! The lower-ranked offending the higher is a crime that goes against Confucius altogether!" "Shut up you shameful creature! Haven't you embarrassed me enough today! Your father barely let me hang onto my life by a thread and now you'll this kind of stunt against his favourite subjects! Have you utterly lost your mind! No, I simply cannot spend the rest of my life covering up for you and your messes anymore! Jeong Beom! I assume you came here with a full report of the events of today and this morning with the other family who has suffered such tragedy!" "Yes My Lady, The Lord Nam has lent me his office of Inspector Generals to assist me with this investigation, which only took a few hours to conclude." "Then tell all of us here so that I can make a sound judgement about my daughter."
"Very well My Lady; the results of my collective investigation with MoonBok here shows me that The Princess here must have paid a visit to the family on her morning out of the palace along with the nobleman's wife and my friend's little sister over here. I have it on record that The Princess's close servants here are living a rather lavish life in their hometowns along with their families, so who knows how many dirty deeds they have done for her to have treated her servants with such…luxury rewards, much like how she was trying to make The Madame Nam here take one of her Shu Brocade outfits just now…" "You lowly bastard! How did you know about that!" "There are records of you pulling the outfit from your wardrobe and even badmouthing The Madame Nam here for taking the dress even though you have just presented her with this just now! There is even records of your servants asking The Imperial Physicians for it and they have refused you many times."
"So how was my daughter able to obtain such a poison if she was refused?" "She simply threatened the entire office with their lives and even held them hostage until they agreed to give her what she wanted." "That isn't true! I know nothing about the incident! They were just too slow to answer my questions that day, so I punished them for only a few minutes! That was all!" "That never happened, and yet you coincidentally happened to punish them around the same time? Do you think we are all fools just because of your status as a damned Princess that has already embarrassed this family more than enough? The Royal Family? Only you could humiliate us like this over and over again!" "Mother! They are all clearly framing me! So why are you falling for it so easily! This just proves that you have never loved me!" "Shut up! You useless daughter of mine! I should have aborted you when I found out what sex you were! You stupid creature!" "Mother!" "Princess! Are you then accusing me of hurting myself simply to frame you! Why would I not come prepared with any weapon on my person then! I haven't even touched you in the slightest and you can have physician MoonBok here examine you for any bruises on your body, or are free to have another doctor examine you if that is what you wish for, despite your teams of servants all placing their hands on my body, and a heavily pregnant one at that! Is it because you are so self-assured of your title that nobody in The Royal Family cares about, so you took on this risk and feared loosing nothing at all? All acts of disobedience must be reported to the head of each palace first, so how dare you disobey your own mother on this account? Unless you simply do not care about her and her status at all? Nobody else can just claim authority on their own, no matter who they are!"
"Mother! Why are you letting her shout at me like this! Why aren't you doing anything to defend me!" "Enough! You shall transcribe sutras in your chambers until I am ready to see you again! Servants! Take her away! Drag her by her hair if you have to! MoonBok and his company are dismissed, as I have no choice but to inform The Emperor about this and make a decision about her myself." "My Lady, I thank you for the juice you have imposed on myself and my companions, especially after what I have just been through in my current condition. And as a token of my thanks, I would like to help you impose a light punishment on your daughter so you will not loose face in front of The Emperor, your son and the rets of The Royal Family." "Is that so? And what would you suggest, Madame Nam?" "A second marriage, but somewhere far away from the kingdom where she cannot always rely on her family to clean up her messes for her. There surely must be some marriage proposals that this family is receiving from different kingdoms, isn't that so?" "Well, I suppose it sounds like a good idea, but how on earth can I get His Majesty to agree after everything this brat has done?"
"You must go to him and actively list the benefits of this marriage and do so in front of the entire court and strengthen the fact that this marriage can benefit her brother The Crown Prince above everybody else! Or else you will risk loosing custody of your daughter and then your son in no time. Your daughter must also be aware of your own personal struggle as their parent; you need a strong backer in the case that your son becomes influenced to walk the wrong path and bring you harm as well. He is The Crown Prince after all and he is susceptible to these kinds of things, as we have all witnessed in the past. Everyone has their responsibility and role in this life no matter who they are and this may be the only way for her to grow up and become a Princess The Royal Family can be proud of instead of ashamed of all of their lives. God forbid if they keep her name out of the history books…" "No, you are right, I simply cannot let that happen at all. Very well, I shall go and see His Majesty about this tomorrow and you can leave after then to the arms of your loved ones. I have also prepared a special dish for you that I have mad myself, although your daughter took it form my hands before I could even present it to you. Make sure you take it off her hands and present it to His Majesty when you are making your argument, for he will surely understand the meaning of it when he lays his eyes upon it. You surely would not wish for all of your hard work to be in vain; working with what you cannot have before this and watching everyone around you surpass you at every stage of their lives. Is the shame and humiliation of a lower life worth your daughter doing everything she can to harm you as long as she gets her way ok with you?" "I see what you mean Madame Nam, but…" "To spare her of the gain of the state is the right thing to do to climb up in your position and continue in your family clan's glory."
"A woman born into a large clan, who doesn't do all for their sake? But I suppose I cannot expect an orphan such as yourself to understand the nature of this burden on our heads." "You are right My Lady, what do I know of women sacrificing themselves at every step to secure the ones we hold onto with fake smiles pained on our faces?" That was it; I was trying to be nice to this woman, but her and her daughters insults about myself and my mother would not go unpunished, no matter what I had to do to get it. I simply didn't care anymore as the world I had fought in to stay alive was now beginning to close in on me after all my years of survival and struggle and just when I needed it open the most for my family. This family I was willing to walk away from to grow my own, but now I could see that like my husband, it was rather difficult to walk away from a world that would always test you to always test you for your uses and then easily disregard you when they have something new in their sights. This Royal Family, I will end up making them pay one way or another, even if it meant that i had to indulge my husband in his dangerous obsessions.