"How the hell did Nam Seon-Ho lead a damned impeachment against my servant! My servant, of all people! Not against me, A Royal Prince under heaven, but my damned eunuch! Who gave him the damned power to order The Ministry of Justice to seize all of his damed money! That was my money and provisions! Do any of you understand the gravity of the situation! The people in court that I haven't managed to win over yet are looking down on my servant that they all feared only days ago and that I 'abuse my power' to dill my own pockets just as I began to go ahead with my plans of power! I have barely even begun and I am already looking my subordinates! Well! SOMEBODY ANSWER ME! HOW DID HE FIND OUT WHEN HE KNOWS MY FATHER HATES CORRUPTION MOST OF ALL!" "Your Highness, the only person to have contact with Nam Seon-Ho in the palace is…" "Well? Who is it!" "The Third Noble Princess Consort…before and after her confinement." "The Third Noble Princess Consort…the most jealous woman in the palace actually had the nerve to collaborate with her husband's enemy? For what?" "Your Highness, it looks like she was the one who was behind the fall of The Fifth Prince and Nam Seon-Ho's ex-servant…" "Well well well, she really has earned her ferocious reputation after all, hasn't she? She did everything in her power to bring down her husband's enemies including his own brothers, even after making a pact with me….so what? She wants to provoke me into making mistakes and turn my own father against me? Just when I finally have his approval for something for the very first time in my life? So she just won't stop causing trouble for me, will she? She has been against me all along to bring me down to raise up her husband, and she will turn my own father against me…"
"Your Highness, it is only the smaller members of your subordinates that are being investigated for now…" "Small investigations turn into big impeachments someday or another, who knows that better than a Prince?" "Everyone under your control is rebuking this, but they will eventually investigate your knowledge of his crimes." "This is only a matte of formality, and I have my father's support for once like i said." "The more your subordinates cover up for him, the more that you will not be able to escape this, Your Highness."
"My brother, my dear younger brother did always call me a sentimental fool; because the reason of his success is that he has no emotional ties to anyone who works for him, only talents that he picks up, including Seo Hwi and his little band of friends. And now his ex-friend is making the entire kingdom think that I am forming some kind of faction to shield one another, which is why not even my father can stop this investigation, which is why we have been unable to meet ever since this happened…shortly after my brother was confined for the first time…no, no I am simply overthinking things. Who dares to impeach the most feared Prince that we have right now?" "Your Highness, it would help if you refrained yourself from mentioning your servant ever again from now on to avoid public anger." "What if I can get someone else to speak for me? Like Seo Hwi?" "He is under the protection of the entire kingdom and your father will never cross that line due to his father's service to the kingdom." "So I will have to use someone for me to gain favour right now, maybe like a pregnant concubine?" "Your Highness, I have just heard of some news that might be of interest to you." "What is it now?" "It has been announced that The Noble Third Princess Consort is pregnant. She is expecting an Imperial Heir and for that reason alone, she will be pulled outside of the cold palace until she gives birth." "She cares an Imperial Heir of the Royal Family after almost a decade, and yet she has been having strange illicit meetings with her husband's enemy? She knows that may father will never again accept a daughter-in-law of such misconduct, so she is simply buying time to pull me down and rise to her own power once again…how interesting." "There is one las thing; her first decree since getting out of the cold palace is to announce the marriage of her only surviving sister to Nam Seon-Ho." "You don't say; so she wants to keep her lover as close to her as possible? By sharing him with her own sister? Princess Consort, you have just entered a trap of your own making, since I will never let myself be dragged down alone. And you, you have done an outstanding job of letting me know all of this so swiftly, who knew that the brother of The Companion Cho was just as talented as his sister?" "Thank you, Your Highness."
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"So, The Third Princess Consort is pregnant, and her first wish is to marry me to her damned sister?" "You will be expected to come into the palace for an answer and to give thanks to your graces." "Like hell I will, what other news do you have for me?" "Concerning The Second Prince; the missteps of his eunuch's sins are actually quite small compared to other matters…" "I can only imagine; go on? What is The Second Prince doing to recover his losses?" "He is currently seeking exorbitant profits through business through his past lovers by falsifying documents to take over ownership of salt pools, which is still 'only one hear of a bull's back' compared to what he has done privately over the years, including writing up some sort of a book in his father's tone and harassing him to sign off on it, but his illness has brought him time on that." "He isn't the most patient Prince, he will end up signing that book himself, which is a crime of deceiving The Emperor." "You are correct about that, because it is on it's way to being published." "And what does the preface say?" 'For any officials under a monarch, it is easy to seek merit, but it is hard to achieve it and even harder to maintain it until the end. And if erred, favour shall become misfortune.' "These words appear to be common feelings of men to reflect on, but it also takes away the merciful image of The Emperor, which he will not be happy about. This arrogant behaviour of his alone is an audacious act of rebellion against his own father. He must be loosing his mind after being thwarted so quickly and is making all kinds of mistakes…just like Yeon in the brothel, that must be why she stayed for so long…" "Young Master?" "Never mind, it isn't like he contributed to governance at all, so it should be easy to rid us of him, or he will do it himself by the looks of things. Very well, you are dismissed until I call for you again, who knew that the brother of The Companion Cho was just as talented as his sister?" "Thank you, Young Master."
"Young Master Nam! I assume that you are finally free to check up on your fiancé after ignoring me for weeks now?" "Lady Min, greetings to you, but you were not spoken to and I have a few more meetings to set up…" "But this is unacceptable! Look at what you have faced because of that girl. I…I should really break off this engagement after everything you have put met through only for her sake!" "Really? Ok, if that is how you feel…" "Are you being serious right now? I am your only hope for a better future! How dare you let me go so easily!" "This entire marriage is up to you since you were the one who made this happen without even consulting me or asking me if I even wanted to marry you. So you tell me, why should I fight for you to stay in a marriage that I do not want?" "Because in this entire village, I am the only woman who looks at you for a lot more than you are worth. You are nothing but an illegitimate bastard who is worth nothing and only I give a damn about you enough to want to help you better yourself in the palace and reap the rewards of it. Your father has promised me that the results of his plan will be great for all of us. To have control over the royal family would put us on equal footing with them and…" "Yes yes, we will all be richer than we already are and trample on people even more." "You had better put in more effort into this marriage before I send Yeon back to her brother, plan or not. And you will never take on any concubines and forget about having lovers since my family runs half of this village. So get your act together, and do not forget to buy me a present and gift it to me in front of everyone so they will know exactly who is your priority."
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I was in tears throughout the whole speech; how dare she dress him so casually and with such little respect? How dare she order his around as if he was one of her slaves? Why was everyone treating him like dirt just because he was illegitimate? There were a lot of legends in our country that came from the same background as he did so I knew Seon-Ho had the potential to go so far and do so much, so why was I the only one who could recognise that? I was being mentally tortured by how everyone around us was treating him, but it finally made me understand why Seon-Ho was so…impulsive and downright stubborn. I guess that for right now at least I really was the only thing that he had for himself, so it was no wonder why he was temporarily acting out his emotions onto myself. And if it made him happy, then I guess would play along for now until they day came when he would throw me away and go after what he truly wanted. But he was still taking care of me and I knew that he was still secretly helping my brother, even though Hwi may not be as generous with Seon-Ho in return on my account until we married. Seon-Ho was just going through too much despite what he was doing to me, but I had already made the decision to help out both men whenever I could, so was going to help him.
"Seon-Ho? Seon-Ho! Come inside right now?" "Why?" "Because I'm asking you to!" "I want to go to sleep Yeonna." I could hear defeat in his voice and I could not stand it, I needed to help him plan something, anything to get his mind off of what he was going through, no matter how much it was killing me either. I had to help him focus on his work so we can both figure out a solutions because…because I didn't want him to marry anyone apart from myself, no matter how unsure I was about his intentions sill. He was my man and I wanted him for myself, especially since I had posed this punishment on the both of us by not letting him touch me in bed at all. And I knew that I should have really left Seon-Ho alone with his new fiancé but she was just such a witch and I knew that she would only m make him even more miserable than his father had. "I've made something especially for you, I want you to have it before you fall asleep. Please? For my sake? You have a busy week ahead and I want you to be prepared to face everything." "You are such a goddamned brat, you have no idea." He mumbled before he stormed in way inside and then stopped at the sight of me trying to find something to cover myself with as I had just woken up from a long night at the brothel to reunite with the ihwaru girls.
"Why are you doing that?" "What?" "Covering yourself with your arms like that?" "Well why do you think, genius?" "You aren't fully naked you know. Drop your arms." "Have you lost your mind?" "If you don't cover your arms I will walk out of here and burn all of your clothes and never send you knew ones." "Seon-Ho!" "What? You know that I always mean every word that I say." He did not even give me a chance to say or do anything before he marched over to me and literally ripped my arms from my chest. The mere look he gave me suddenly made me blush out of nowhere, but I wasn't the only one apparently when I had the nerve to look up at him again. He swallowed very heavily before his eyes finally met mine and his face went just as mine felt before he finally let me go. "If you do not want me to leave anytime soon then stop covering yourself up. You…are really beautiful Yeonnie. And it was my mistake for not realising it sooner." He whispered before I just instinctively threw my arms around him as I always did with my father whenever he came home. I…had never been called beautiful before, not with the epilepsy I had to live with for so many years and no one, absolutely no-one looked at me the way Seon-Ho did and made me tremble like that. My hug seemed to have taken him by surprise, but he warmed up to it quickly when he held me in return for a while before asking m gently what it was I wanted with him despite the tears that were quietly spilling from his eyes.
"I…I want to talk to you…about…" "Yes?" "About your work." The silence between us was filled with so much tension as I could tell how disappointed he was with my answer that he really was about to walk out of my room if I hadn't have blocked the door with my body. "What are you doing?" "I told you I wanted to talk to you." "About work? You really think that I want to think about that when I come home. Don't you know…" "No, I do not know anything because you never talk about your life; your new work, your hobbies, your goals, nothing." I know that he wasn't expecting this as I felt this 6 ft tall shake under my arms. "Is it…is it important to know?" "Of course it is important to know!" "But…why?" "You…! Do you really have so little confidence in yourself?" "I am not important, you are." He replied quietly with a traumatised look on his face and a small smile to cover it up. "You said that you will not marry anyway, so why do you want to know everything about me anyways? Isn't it just a waste of time?" He replied bitterly before trying to leave again before I threw myself at his back to try and stop him again. "You know that I have my reasons and I do not wish to burden you with a marriage that will make you the subject of ridicule." "And as I have told you, I am aware of your disorder but even that isn't enough to keep me away from you." "Seon-Ho…" "Enough now, I want to rest now. I will visit you tomorrow after my work in the palace." We had kissed before, and it was alway short and forced. But this was our first real and deep kiss, and it was so sweet that I could not help myself but to pray silently that Seon-Ho would never stop…loving me like he did. "Goodnight my love." I couldn't believe that I was the one who said that first but it was too late to take back. It seemed to have given him hope as he held me once again silently before returning to my chambers as I sought out his sister-in-law.