"We have managed to interpret some of The Princess's letters due to my father's men still working in the palace, and it looks like she wants to persecute this so-called mistress in the place harem for the death of a servant that she sent to her? The one who was found in the well as your brother reported to us?" "As we suspected, she was deliberately killed then?" "I have Bo-Geom;s autopsy right here in my hand as well husband, they found bruises on her neck and forehead...all because she dared to get Dae-Jung's attention? Is she not aware of his womanising nature?" "She must be deaf, dumb and blind in order to hold onto the so-called power that he holds onto in the palace, no matter how little it is, wife." "She punished some lower Attendant to rub more than 20 ink sticks in a single night for her service to her husband, and some Noble Lady Jung by learning household management in the dark in her residence. That should have been Kim's chore, and yet she is doing her best to put off every single service to His Lordship...maybe it is about time that I end her rebellion phase and show her the true nature of her parents?" "What will you do wife?" "The only thing I can do; have her meet face to face with Hyuk who will clear any misunderstandings between them once and for all. And if that doesn't work, then she will loose in the harem fight one way or another without us having to do anything at all. What news from the palace?" "Feed me some lunch and I will tell you, you must eat yourself wife and do not fret over this so much. Our brothers ate doing everything in their power to help us, and I need you to sire me a healthy child in the meantime." "Very well husband."
For all the power and might that my husband held in the kingdom now, he was still as soft as his father was with his own wife. When he come home, he expected his wife's undivided attention until the children came home and I did not expect any less with my own husband. It must have been hard for him, since he was still grieving his losses, he was back at work in the palace and he was looking after me more than I was myself in my fragile condition, whereas I could think of nothing other than getting my parents revenge and set my twin sisters to have a secure and stable life for themselves.
"Do you remember wife? This is the very first dish that you cooked for me when you first came into this home as an unmarried maiden. You in such a rush to make it specifically for me that you banned anyone from entering the kitchens until everything you made was perfect for us." "What could I say husband, I was already suspicious about why I was allowed to live with you after what happened in front of the market place right in front of my own mother as well..." "I made up my mind on that day to keep you as close to me as possible until I could convince our parents to let us marry." "They were all still traumatised by my own parent's relationship to reject our request." "Husband, let us get this matter over with as soon as possible, so that we can focus on our own marriage and family." "Rebellions are occurring in some provinces, threatening our stability right here in the heart of the kingdom." "Right when The Third Prince is the most viable candidate to take over his father's throne? After he killed each and every one of his brothers?" "He may not have any brothers left, but he still has cousins that threaten his throne at any time." "Who do you think they will send to pacify the situation over there?" "Most likely anyone related to this Mistress Jeong so that they can title her as Princess Consort as use her as a puppet. We hear that she had a cousin herself in the army that The Third Prince is looking into hiring as his own man to take over his private armies and..." "Would that not anger Dae-Jung? He was just given second honours and now he will have someone take overs privilege once again?" "I really do not like that cunning look that you have in your eyes, I really do hope that you do not pass that onto our child." "How do you expect them to be successful without my father's sense of cunning and manipulation? We can fool ourselves into thinking that they will have easy lives, but that does not change the fact that they have 2 very different grandfathers on very different sides of history. It will be a miracle if my own sisters can get away with the scrutiny, let alone our children." "Children? Plural?" "Didn't you say that you want me to bare you sons? And so I shall, as many as I can husband." "Give me a girl as sweet as you were as well in the mix, I need a little princess to keep me grounded." "Just one girl husband, just one."
"Chul? Hana? Would you mind if I joined you for lunch? I really am rather hungry..." "Of course not Bo-Geom, grab a seat and take your fill. I have made enough food to last us all a few days, I had better send some back to the village." "Speaking of the village, I have just heard from Hyuk in the palace that Geom will be dropping by with the twins from the village..." "What? Why? The twins are not old enough to come here and I am too far gone in my pregnancy to take care of them at their age..." "He is bringing along some women from the village to help out; there must be an emergency of some sort for him to deal with. In the meantime, Dae-Jung will more than likely have to deal with Hyuk in the meantime." "Oh brother, he head better amend his attitude when dealing with him. Very well, I will have to set up rooms for the children and find them tutors and..." Relax wife, they are still very much devastated by the passing of their parents and uncle, maybe just focus on settling them down for now." "What were you guys talking about before I got in?" "News from the palace; The Third Prince will have his son's mistress's bother step into his own duties to run his private army." "Are you talking about the brother who has been in charge of his battalion western territories? I have heard from my colleagues from the palace that he has made some small contribution in these wars, but he is rumoured to be quite blood-thirsty. They were. Prominent family at first, until The Mistress's Jeong's mother fell into the trap of prostitution after her second husband sold her to ihwaru, but I heard that she was moved around quite a bit. I also heard that The Mistress Jeong herself is trying to find someone to be her 'informant' in Ihwaru to try to buy the place for The Third Prince..." "Hwan forged Geom's papers to make him look like the brothel owner. For some demented or perverted reason, my brother would rather loose a limb than that brothel place...." "We all know why he would do that, only your brother is still aware of your little brother's...true nature." "Let us just focus on him adjusting to being this girl's right-hand man in Geom's absence. You know that he is not particularly articulate with the opposite sex, even at his big age..." "You cannot blame him entirely for that wife, you know that your mother was his entire world, and he watched your father treat her so...peculiarity..." "You can only blame him for being too respectful to women, but how will he treat one that he has no respect for at all? That is a cause of concern to me-" "He is your husband Bo-Geom, and nobody could say otherwise. He ignored your letters for years just so that you could find your way back to him in the village and it worked." "What if she wants to use him to get her way in the palace? She is a kisaeng, she will surely try that move..." "Hyuk willl never accept it, he is still angry at me for roping him into the whole situation of tricking Kim Yeong into our plans."
"So what is the plan now?' "We will expose this plan to Dae-Jung who is currently ignoring his mistress for his new harem. They will both play dangerous games with each other that will envelope them both. She has already made her move with Kim Yeong and until she knows that my brother has abandoned her by getting married, she will use her anger in the palace to vent, although we cannot say how much time that will take. But essentially, we will use her to disarm this experimental harem which will in turn ruin The Third Prince's own harem. Chief Park's men will cause as much havoc in the kingdom as possible to keep The Third Prince occupied as we do so and Hwan will tear his harem apart legally to destroy any clan who was involved in humiliating my father in his early years." "What a ruthless plan wife." "Would you believe me if I told you that it was Hwan's plan all along? I needed an excuse to destroy The Third Prince and he came up with a beautiful yet dangerous plan."
"Your cousin forgave his mistress for the death of that servant, saying that it was an act of devotion for him." "I have a soft spot for your brother Hwan, but he sounds like he has a lot in common with this cousin of yours, wife." "That is what I am thinking; only he can deal with this dunce cousin of mine, so we need to support whatever plan he has in mind." "Mistress Seo? The children have arrived..." "Quickly, bring them in and make them a plate of food. They will eat with us as will their maids whilst you unpack their things and get them settled in the top section of this home straight away." "Thank you husband." "Do not thank me, you know that we all adore the twins and I already agreed to take them in, although it should not be now. Where is my brother? Why did he bring them here? Is he stepping away from the village? What is going on?" "Master, your brother has sent you this latter and regrets to inform you that he cannot join your family for lunch as he has pressing matters to deal with that will affect both the brothel and the village and even the kingdom if he cannot get it under control in time." "What on earth..." "Husband? What it is? What does the letter say?" "It says here that The Third Prince's envoys have started making trade payments with counterfeit silver all along! Starting with inside the brothel that he wants so badly." "One of the Trade Ministers, Kim Ja-Chi has conspired with the envoys from the kingdom who has in charge of trade from the palace..." "Kim Ja-Chi? The cousin of Kim Yeong?" "No wonder your father was always suspicious about that family, were they not close with the family of Shin Saimdang? Her best friend growing up?" "Until she abandoned her to be friends with us, although we never told her to do that." "According to Geom, these counterfeits were all made in the same place..." "if we have uncovered this information, it is only a matter of time before someone else does, and the first person they will come for is Kim Ja-Chi. And when they do, payments will temporarily stop." "But he caught some of the new kisaengs selling this fake silver to their new patrons, as a way to pay off their debts quicker. He caught them saying that the value of silver will rise soon, by 3 times in fact." "Fake silver, building up his own private army, buying people's positions to fill up his unique harem of legitimate brides, he is still exploiting people for his own gain and The Seo's have no mercy on corrupt officials." "Confiscating the assets of corrupt officials will not be enough, and we need funds to provide for our own village army that have been trained by the best of the best from The Liadong War." "All of the wealthy merchants all have ties with The Third Prince at this point, to maintain his power across the kingdom. There are 10 provinces across this Josean Kingdom...and we to bring them all to our side..." "Eonni? Sachon? Can we come in?" "Come in girls and grab a plate to eat; you will live here from now on with your eonni, but we need to implement the rules that your patients came up with. You remember them telling you that this kingdom does not like twins?" "Y-yes, mother was telling me that..." "Leave that for now and eat up, wash up and take your nap, we will talk to you after that about the rules of this home."