So this is what she had up her sleeve? To expose her mother's injustices with her family matters to the Royal Family and bring down her cousins family? That was it? Why was I disappointed when she was safe? What exactly did I expect with this? "Your Highness, I can personally attest that Kim Aerum hasn't done anything at all! She…" "that is because you must have helped her." "What do you mean? What does this have to do with me?" "You have a rather unusual smell on the cuffs of your dress, Ae-Cha, which attracts venomous insects at night. Don't you remember? This was taught to us in school only last week." You…!" "It is the scent of the very expensive emerald honey that I gifted a servant in the Nam Manor a year ago. But how did a deal concubine's gift come to be in your hands, I wonder?" "No! It wasn't me! I wasn't the one who killed her! I didn't poison her!" "Poison? What on earth are you talking about? Who mentioned posion? Nam Seon-Ho?" She was getting me involved to help clear my name from what happened under my father's roof and I loved her for it even more. This is one of the reasons why I never gave up on her, every ounce of care and attention that I gave her, she always gave it back to me. This is why she was the only woman worth protecting for me, and I will always have her back as long as she had mine, despite my ambitions and scheming.
"Your Royal Highness! This seems to be a matter of consequence concerning a General Inspector…" "Which is exactly what I am in case you have forgotten, Miss Kim. My servant was supposedly injured by natural causes and there was no indication of poison anywhere in her death report…" "I heard that she died with so many grievances that she died begrudgingly. No wonder her ghost now lives onto tell the truth about her death…" "Her ghost? What ghost? What are you talking about? It wasn't me! I didn't do anything to her! She was a stupid girl who couldn't get the job done so I was told to…" "Shut up! Ae-Cha! What is wrong with you! You are not allowed to ramble in front of a Royal Prince!" "It wasn't me! I shall not go down for a crime that I did not commit! It was her! It wasn't my idea at all, I was forced to carry it out so I could marry…" "now what is going on with this ghost story? Has this woman utterly lost her mind!"
"Your Highness, she is a guest at my family home! Please allow me to take her home and calm her down of her recent onset hysteria! Servant! Quickly cover her mouth and take her away, immediately!"
"Hold on! Exactly what is going on here? You wouldn't be trying to hide evidence of a crime in front of a Prince and a General Inspector, are you? This mad woman clearly needs to be inspected by doctors and her statements should be investigated by myself! Would you not agree,Your Highness?" "But she,..has lost her mind and should not be seen in public! It will save her trouble to simply return to me and we have to act in an expedient matter and not disturb the Prince with such disturbing matters that happen at such a large social occasion." "Did you not hear her implicate herself in a murder involving my servant? We come from 2 different villages, how did you even become aware of my servants death in the first place?"
"Well, I happened to agree with the Inspector General Nam on this case. This person should be entrusted to his professional care and you should also be arrested along with your family for this music scandal. As a victim of that incident, Nam Seon-Ho must do what is necessary to investigate such a messy incident at my banquet of all places! I shall not her another word about this again from these girls today! Take your hand off of her mouth and arrest them all!"
"Jeong-Beom, Moon-Bok and Seo Hwi, i shall need your assistance in this case! Ae-Cha has lost her mind and has started to talk nonsense! We can ascertain that Kim Areum is trying to quiet her down to either muffle the disturbance or cover up a crime that happened in my own home many months ago…" Young Master! Please help me!she covered my mouth so I can't expose her crime, but I am innocent! Please believe me! I didn't kill anyone and I didn't mean to harm anyone!" "No! Please do not listen to her! It was Ae-Cha who did all of the dirty work!" They had both turned hysterical at this point just as everyone began to leave the banquet barely an hour after it had started . The Prince was angry at having his festivities ruined and I got to help Yeon in her plan that seemed to overlap mine this time. I could bring down Ae-Cha, now I needed to find a way to tie the other Young Master and the Third Prince's man into this so I could take down the corrupt senior scholar…
"Jeong-Beom, please arrest the Young Master had his friend here so I can take them in for questioning." "What! What on earth are you talking about! What do we have to do with this?" "I am wondering where this emerald honey has come from since it seems to tie into this current crime in this banquet and what happened in my household in the past. You three are quite close and I wonder who could have afforded to give this girl such an expensive gift." "Please save me! Her ghost has come back to haunt me! I wasn't ready for this, I didn't want to do this…" "Jeong-Beom!" "I am already on it, I will have everyone bought back to the palace soon…" "No." "No?" "The Prince wants to sort this out himself to prove himself to his father and it is better not to let the competing princes for the crown to be involved, or we will all be torn apart again. Let us keep this as local as possible for all of our sakes. And if the Third Prince does ask you any questions, then just put the stakes on me. Nothing can happen to any of us as long as we have Yeon on our side so she cannot be used against us."
"We should have plenty of space for everyone involved in this matter in the local prison. Hwi, drop off Yeon to wherever Hwa-Wol is and keep her by her side until this is over, this looks like this will be an all night job for us."
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My plans had utterly failed in the face of Seo Yeon once again. I was only a few feet away from the banquet and I could see exactly what was going on here. Ae-Cha's parents had managed to shut down the Ihwaru brothel due to my mistreatment of the girl, just as it was predicted to me comet before disaster occurred. The love of my life had lied to me about his death and he watched me repeatedly throw myself at his best friend over and over again in the same home that I was completely unaware of. My girls had left the brothel due to my mistakes and the fatter of my child wanted nothing to do with me at all. I had no support, nowhere to go, I had no money and nobody wanted to give me a second chance to make up for my mistakes. In the eyes of my loved ones, I was the scum of the earth who didn't deserve to breathe the same air as them.
I had lost everything, including my closest friendship with Hwa-Wol when I had no choice but to try to kill her husband in the same way that I killed Sung-Rok to keep my damaging secrets from being exposed to a group pf people who had abandoned me and forgotten me a long time ago. But I wasn't going to go down without a fight, not at all. I was going to regain everyone's trust…and then play them all against each other and make them just as crazy as they had turned me. Hwa-Wol traded me in for Yeon and Hwi and Seon-Ho schemed to catch me out into a fight for my life with very little regard to my own means of survival at all.
But this wasn't going to be possible without me gaining everyone's trust again, and what better way to do that by bringing up a ghost from the past to help the Young Master Nam with his current plans to reach the top so I could reap the rewards of such a life?