"Well? What do you think?" "These herbs for this dish are indeed beneficial to one's health and is a great supplement for stamina. However, there is an added poisonous herb, just as I had suspected, which is the horsetail grass indeed." "And what do you have to say for yourself, Lady Min?" "Your Highness! I only the recipe from my sister's team of physicians! After she suffered from her own bad health after she lost her first baby all the years ago! But the ingredients I used were always checked thrice over, I can assure you! And there was never any mention of the horsetail grass! You can search my quarters if you wish, I simply do not have anything to hide! My conscious is clear!" "The men can search all they like, but I have already made up my mind about you, girl." "What…do you mean?" "The death of several Royal Advisors, minting the coins and now this? How desperate are you to get back at me for our past!" "Our past? What do you…how could I possibly ask so immorally? What reason do I have to want to poison you at all?"
"You are right sister, it is not him that you want to harm by myself, otherwise what possible reason do you have to use my team of physicians instead of forming your own team?" "What do you mean, wife? What exactly is going on here?" "Your Highness, I know that you do not wish to see me at this timeout I have a matter of great urgency to report." "Men! Allow her inside, but keep her as close to the door as possible!" "Honey! How can you possibly allow your wife anywhere near me…!" "I have just found out that I am being poisoned, and yet all that you care about is yourself, even in this moment! Is this really how selfish you are, Jae?" "What? How can you…I didn't mean to…"
"Show me what it is that you have to report back to me?" "I have here in my hands, a voodoo doll with both of our birthdates on them." "What the hell is this now? Witchcraft? How dare you freely use this in the palace of all places! Have you both lost your minds!" "Husband, this is wha my sister wishes for you to assume about me, but I have just found tic sucked under my bed as soon as my sister left my quarters and I knew she was going to blame me for your illness as well if your symptoms get any worse. I beg you My Lord and my husband, please seek out justice for me, for I can't fall into the sin of using witchcraft when I am a victim, just like yourself." "No! Sister! What on earth are you implying! You were the one who summoned me to your quarters when I was still grounded, how on earth could I have predicted that?" "So why has horsetail grass been located in your quarters when I too was placed under house arrest, sister? I believe that even The Mistress Han experienced the same symptoms only a few weeks ago?" "I…i suppose that I did…" "Do you see now?" "But if I was possessed, then surely a physician would have been able to detect it…" "My own team of physicians were not able to detect anything either, remember? But who knows exactly who these girls will hurt next, just to get at each other, no, enough is enough now and I will depose this entire family before you all drag me down into your madness with you!" "Husband! It isn't like hat! I just uncovered my sister's plot to harm you, so why am I being treated like this now!" "It has come to this, and you sill haven't come to your senses!" "Husband! My own sister is trying to frame me before your very eyes, how can you not see that!" "I do not even see my brother-in-law that often, how could I have poisoned him? For what reason? Mistress Han isn't the only woman that he has taken in after me, so why would I harm him now? After all of this time?" "I am sure that you can find the scraps of the herbs around her quarters if only you looked there close enough!" "Sister!" "Or the antidote for that matter."
"will you really go this far to frame me, sister? And what if this didn't work? What other stunt were you willing to pull just to get me as far away from your husband as possible? How could you turn out to become this despicable!"
"It is clear that even after your ill findings recently, you just want to drag our entire family down with you, without even giving me a second thought! Haven't you embrasured me enough, sister? Your Highness, I have already suffered from her shamelessly, please bring me justice, even if it is for the very last time or I shall run and smash my head against the wall instead!" "Don't you even think about pulling that old trick again! Proving your innocence by taking your life is something only my baby brothers can come up with! Your atrocious maid must have come up with this, so I will be sure to punish her as well! Men! Drag all of these mad women away from me, so that I may yet find peace in my own residence!"
"No! My love! What have I done to deserve this! Will you really willingly throw me away after we have just lost our baby!" "Han Hui-Jae, listen to me and do it well. I only took you in after you failed to seduce Nam Seon-Ho because I didn't want you anywhere near Seo Hwi so that you could bring him to ruin! He is not a person of greed unlike yourself and I wish for him to stay that way! And it was me who put him on the death list, even when he returned from Liadong because I knew your selfish ambitions would have destroy him one day! And now that you are infertile, what can you possibly have to offer me now? It goes against Confucius laws for a Royal Prince to take a kisaeng into my harem and make her a concubine." "But..but I…I did so much for you…" "Like what? Collaborating with my wife to kidnap the sister of my right-hand man into a brothel? Forcing her to become a prostitute just like you were about to become if The Lady Min didn't sell you to me because she saw how close you were getting to Nam Seon-Ho? But you couldn't even successfully carry that out, since Seo Yeon made more money than anyone ever has in a century without selling herself even once! She gave advice and even charged more money for good cleaning services. And I will do everything that I can to bring her by my side to become a better future Empress than any of you women could become! Now get lost" "Your Highness! An urgent report has come in from the capital! A please has been set upon us!"
That was the very last look that I received from my husband was when he cast me out with his main wife and her sister before everyone in the palace was rushed by the imperials guards to stay isolated in our own quarters, which meant that the place and the capital were officially on lockdown. And none of us had any hope of breaking out of here, not unless we wanted to become fugitives or become victims of the plague, which also meant The Third Prince will have become far too busy to officially depose his wife or her family. So I was left here in the mercy of her family now that The Third Prince had officially abandoned me and my dreams of becoming the future Empress.
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"Your Highness, The Emperor has temporarily revived your duties to help combat the plague in the palace that will eventually spread out soon." "Very well, have you distributed mugwort to each palace of residence to dispel of this disease? Each place must be thoroughly cleansed and everyone should be taking baths at least twice a day until this problem has been defeated. And in addition, the Imperial Infirmary must prepare medicinal herbs for the maids in every palace to make sachets for everyone. Give this work to The Mistress Han to keep her occupied now that she has nothing to live for, and as for my sister….do we have any cases of the plague entering the palace as of yet? Any victims?" "Only a single maid and we are currently burning everything that she used last…" "No! Don't! Keep at least one item and bring them to her quarters for good use and as for The Mistress Han, well she is no longer a mistress, so it would be entirely pointless to have a full residence to herself. We can use her room to treat the poor victims instead, so make space for her in the servant quarters and relinquish all of her luxury gifts. And after she had made all of those patches, she can personally escort my husband's old physician Moon-Bok here into the palace for assistance."
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"Just what exactly is going on here! Why are you taking away all of my things!" "As ordered by The Third Princess Consort who has regained her duties in this awful time by the order of The Emperor himself, you have lost your title and privileges and therefore no liner deserve to live in such an ornate room according to your kisaeng rank!" "What! I have never been a kisaeng in my entire life!" "…and therefore, you will have to move to Her Highness's servant quarters in order to help the maids make mugwort satchels for everyone residing in the palace." "What! That must be over 1000 people! And I have no domestic skills at all!" "Then you will have to learn, won't you? And as for these decorations here, we can sell them for money for herbs should the Imperial Infirmy should ever need it for more herbs, which I can bet that they will." "Does my favour count for nothing at all!" "What favour? And what do you have to show for it? Are you with child or not?" "I helped The Third Prince with many tasks, and no this wife dares to tread upon me like this! I must see him!" "He is already away to deal with this plague with his father as it is his only hope to be reunited with him, and his Princess Consort will get rid of any obstacle that stands in his way of achieving that. And right now, you are ordered to kneel outside the servant's quarters until the place is cleaned thoroughly." "What! On a scorching hot day like this! I just lost my baby and I need bedrest!" "I agree that it is much cooler inside, but we were in the middle of a plague right now and nothing can be done until every 4 walls are cleansed, unless you would like to bring the plague upon us yourself?" "No! I didn't mean that! I just…" "How dare you scheme to impede on The Princess Consort! Even The Emperor himself intends to reinstate The Third Princess Consort title and authority as soon as this plague business is over!" "Do not fool yourself, The Third Prince himself only visited her to gain information about Seo Yeon and nothing more! He doesn't trust her at all!"
Instead of my cries of helping being heard like they usually were, these servants that I paid good money for to spy on The Third Princess Consort herself seemed hell-bent on biting the hand that fed them now that my favour was well and truly over and in only a matter of a few months. And now I had to contend with a pair of extremely jealous sisters that would surely want to kill me first before they got at each other. And these damned servants, I did them a favour by letting them serve me and now look at them! I never thought that they would be planted moles to sell me out! And who else could have achieved this apart from The Third Princess Consort herself! I wonder what rumours had began to spread about me outside of the palace? Was I a notorious slut? A social climber? A kisaeng who betrayed the entire brothel that she grew up with for fame and fortune? I had betrayed my sisterhood, betrayed my best friend when I almost killed her husband, I had betrayed my one true love by targeting his precious sister and now I had no-one left in my corner at all.