Just as Jin-Ri was about to take a sip from her cup, Young-Sik suddenly swatted it from her grasp. "Your Highness? What's the deal? I was thirsty!" Jin-Ri huffed, irritation bubbling up as she suspected he was just playing a trick on her.
"The water… it's the cause of the illness. Have you drank directly from the well?" Young-Sik inquired, gripping her shoulders firmly, his expression serious and urgent.
Jin-Ri quickly shook her head, "N…no, Your Highness," she stammered, anxiety creeping into her voice as she feared she might have made a mistake.
As Jin-Ri's voice echoed the word "no," a blissful happiness surged through him like a warm breeze. In a burst of relief, he pulled his court maiden into a heartfelt embrace, leaving her momentarily stunned. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she stood rigid as if enchanted. When Young-Sik finally lets her go and says, "Let's go," she can only respond with a flurry of nervous nods.
As they made their way back to the campsite, she accidentally kicked over one of the buckets, causing its contents to splash onto the ground.
Young-Sik suddenly stopped in his tracks, eyeing the spilled water with suspicion. The prince crouched down for a closer look, then turned his gaze to the remaining bucket. "It's faint… but I can sense it. I'm certain of it," he declared.
Jin-Ri, puzzled by his behavior, asked anxiously, "Your Highness, is something wrong? Are you alright?"
Rather than responding verbally, the prince stood and approached the well with purpose. He bent over the edge, gripping it with both hands and lowered his head as far as he could to peer into the water below. With his eyes shut tight, he focused intently. After a moment, he opened his eyes and exclaimed as he emerged from the well, "I knew it! But how did it get in?"
"Get in? What got into what?" Jin-Ri inquired, puzzled by the prince's cryptic words and actions.
"Human excrement," he stated matter-of-factly as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Poo? Human poo? In the water?" Jin-Ri's expression turned to one of utter revulsion, struggling to comprehend the prince's shocking revelation.
"Yes," he nodded, his eyes darting around the well, searching for something.
The mere thought of almost drinking water mixed with such a disgusting thing made Jin-Ri feel queasy. "How did you even know that?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, feeling faint at the horrifying realization.
With a playful tap on his nose, the prince replied, "I could smell it." Young-Sik's attention shifted to the forsaken house in the distance.
"Really? You could smell it? Are you sure you're not a wolf, Your Highness?" she teased, though she was genuinely impressed by his keen abilities.
"It's all part of my training," Young-Sik explained, stepping closer to the abandoned structure. "My master, General Shin, trained me to enhance my senses through constant practice. He would hide a piece of meat in the forest, blindfold me, and I had to locate it using only my sense of smell, hearing, and touch before the wild animals got to it, or I wouldn't eat."
"Your Highness, if you could detect the scent, why didn't you recognize it sooner?" she inquired, puzzled as to why Young-Sik hadn't picked up on it earlier, as it might have prevented many tragedies.
"When we first arrived, the stench of human excrement was so strong that it overwhelmed my sense of smell," he explained, pointing to the various human remnants littering the village. "Plus, when I spoke with Physician Kang near the well, I had my protective coverings on, which dulled my senses, limiting my ability to detect anything," he added, as they paused in front of the house.
"Why can you smell it now?" She contemplated what had shifted that enabled the prince to sense the dreadful stench in the water.
Young-Sik shrugged, slightly perplexed, yet he tried to articulate his thoughts to his court maiden. "I'm not exactly sure, but it feels like a lucky set of circumstances. I'm well-rested; fewer flies around usually carry the scent, and this is the first time I've been able to closely examine the well. Honestly, I just don't know." With that, he opened the doors and entered the house.
"Why are we in here you Highness?" She wondered what could be so interesting about this place
Young-Sik unexpectedly posted a question to his court maiden "Do you know why rich people are rich?"
"Uh…They have lots of gold and silver?" Jin-Ri answered, but the answer just added to her mountain of confusion
Young-Sik glanced at Jin-Ri "Exactly" He replied with a smile. The prince then explained as they went through a hallway leading to the back "These people were rich because of their gold and silver, they have anything they want, they can do whatever they want…and they can build anything they want" Young-Sik opened the door to what looked like a private toilet.
"Wow…they must have been loaded. So what does it have to do with the sickness" She asked the prince, still confused and unable to connect the dots
Young-Sik looked at his court maiden, his face a picture of bewilderment and ridicule "You still don't get it?" Young-Sik sighed and led the two of them outside of the house.
"This area was once part of an intricate system of canals. A century ago, when this section became obsolete, Haan village was established right above it. The illness that has struck this village is the very first case recorded in all of Chiongsun." The prince then turned his attention to the large house. "It seems that the wealthy individual inadvertently spread the disease throughout the village after contracting it from foreigners who arrived by sea. I believe this illness is transmitted through water contaminated with the waste of an infected person. The waste from that house has likely leaked into the reservoir, following the paths of the old canal system."
Jin-Ri's eyes and mouth were wide open astonished by the prince, finally cracking the mystery of the Haan plague "Wow…You're amazing" she lovingly blurted out
"I know…one of the burdens of being me," Young-Sik said nonchalantly as if he was really burdened by the fact that he was astonishing
Jin-Ri expression of admiration melted to that of annoyance, her eyes rolling "Mental note to self: never compliment this irritating and charming goblin" she thought in her mind "So what now Your Highness?" she asked out loud
"How long did you boil the water for the ox bone soup?" Young-Sik asked her with urgency as he formulated a way to combat the sickness in his mind.
"Water? Bone soup? Uh…I don't remember, but by the time I was called, I lost about a quarter of the water" Jin-Ri stuttered as she tried to recall that particular event.
"That's it…that's how we prevent getting sick" Young-Sik exclaimed in triumph
"But…but how about those who already got the sickness?" Jin-Ri asked cautiously as she did not want to rain on the prince's parade.
The prince thought for a while, then his eyes brightened up "Stop all diarrhea medications and flush their system with clean water, it will be like cleaning the body from the inside" Young-Sik concluded "There is still a question I would like to know the answer to…that old man, he drank from the well without boiling he but never got sick"
"Old man? Old man Zombie?" Jin-Ri then thought about her harrowing yet funny and embarrassing run-in with that particular old man
"Yes, the same one…he said that he drank water straight from the well, He must be taking something or doing something to the water that prevents him from getting sick…I need to talk to him" Young-Sik started to make his toward the old man's house
Jin-Ri stood rooted at her spot something gnawing in her mind…something from when she was still a ten-year-old child "Papa…papa" A ten-year-old version of her shouted…running towards his father who was tending an herb garden
"Come back here you little brat…you're still sick…Hong Jin-Ri come back here this instant!" Her mother shouted at her while chasing her
Jin-Ri's father stood up and she quickly hid behind his legs "What's wrong my little 'Jinnie'?
"Mom…mom wants me to take her awful medicine again!" She told her father, who just chuckled and crouched in front of her
Her father ruffled her hair and smiled at her "Aww common my Jinnie, you know that it's good for you, you always get well when you drink…"
"APPLE CIDER VINEGAR" Jin-Ri blurted out, Young-Sik stopped to turn around "Apple cider vinegar! No wonder the stench from his house was so familiar, I hated it as a child" She shook her head as if she was shaking bad memories from her mind
The prince listened attentively to Jin-Ri "My mother used a concoction of apple cider vinegar, honey, and water that she told me to drink whenever I get sick"
In his glee, Young-Sik absentmindedly gave a tap on her bottom. "That's it! Let's go back to camp" he said before running back
Jin-Ri her eyes wide with shock, slowly looked at her bottom before "Hey come back here you perverted goblin! Who told you can touch a lady's behind like that!" Her incessant rants echoed back to their camp
Inside their tent, after Young-Sik explained how the sickness spread throughout the village, he laid out his plan to neutralize it. "As we all discovered boiling the water, for an extended period somewhat killed the source of sickness…so now before consuming water from the well, we will let it pass through several layers of sieve before boiling it"
He then turned to Captain Gi "Captain asks which of your soldiers have some knowledge with irrigation or toilet making and send them to the rich man's house. I want the toilet reservoir from that house drained, covered, blocked, or redirected to the fields…as long as it can no longer contaminate any source of water.
Finally, he turned to Jin-Ri "Miss Shameless, I would like you to teach the other court maidens how to make this apple cider honey solution the priority is Physician Kang and give them to the inflicted people, give them as many as they want as often as they want"
Jin-Ri nodded enthusiastically, but deep inside she scoffed at the prince "Stop calling me shameless you annoying goblin. I have a name you know and it's a pretty name"
Everyone bowed to the prince and went on to attend to their tasks, Jin-Ri was about to leave when she saw the prince steadily staring at the wooden cup filled with raw water from the well. "Your Highness, shall I throw that away for you?" She asked
"No, I intend to drink it" Young-Sik answered in a deadpan voice
"What?! Are you crazy? You just found out that it is the source of the plague, why for the sake of whatever would you want to drink it?" Jin-Ri blurted out after she was hit by a brick wall that is the prince's plan to infect himself.
"I have to be sure of our plan, everything I just said is speculation. I need a newly inflicted test subject to make sure that there are no other variables to consider" He said, he took the cup and placed it near his lips
Jin-Ri clung to Young-Sik's arm, her eyes wide with urgency. "No way! You're not drinking that water!" she exclaimed, her voice a mix of panic and fierce loyalty.
"Let go of me, you crazy cat! You're going to snap my arm in two!" Young-Sik protested, his tone half-amused, half-exasperated as he tried to shake her off.
But Jin-Ri was relentless, scrambling onto his back like a playful monkey, swatting at the cup he held. "Your Highness, if you really want to be sure about this treatment, let me be the guinea pig! I'll drink it instead!"
"I can't ask someone to do what I wouldn't do myself," Young-Sik replied, wrestling with her grip. "Alright, alright! I won't drink it. Let's just stick to our original plan," he finally conceded, setting the cup down with a dramatic flourish.
With a sigh of relief, Jin-Ri brushed off her clothes and said, "Thank you, your Highness, for finally coming to your senses. Now, let's get this plan rolling!"
Just as she turned her back, Young-Sik seized the cup of water and downed it in one swift motion. Realizing she'd been played, Jin-Ri spun around, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"You ridiculous little goblin! What have you done? You're not a real goblin, you're just a regular human!" In a fit of frustration, she stomped her foot like a petulant child, tugging at her hair. "Do you even understand, that I need to return with a prince, not a shriveled-up raisin?"
"Then you have no choice but to follow my instructions to a 'T' the moment I show symptoms, start giving me the cider and honey water and keep flushing my system with cooled boiled water and importantly never give me medications for diarrhea" With that he left the tent while giving Jin-Ri a tap on the soldier