That morning, the mist had yet to lift. Areum stood in the quiet backyard of the palace kitchen. The air felt heavy, as if the sky itself was holding back a secret ready to burst at any moment.
In her hand, a piece of red cloth — a fragment from her recurring dreams. The pattern was strange, as though it came from a time that wasn't hers. Do Kyung had not fully regained consciousness since the attack that night, but his words echoed endlessly in Areum's mind.
"You are no one… and yet everything."
Footsteps startled her. Yu Jin rushed in, her face full of worry.
> "There's a letter… from Lord Baek," she said, handing over a small scroll bearing the noble family's crest.
Areum slowly unrolled it. The handwriting was fine and cold:
> "If you truly bear the blood of that forbidden woman, then your blood shall end what she once began."
In Lord Baek's pavilion, the night before…
"She's beginning to remember," said a man in a black turban to Lord Baek.
"Good," Baek replied, sipping wine from a jade cup. "The more she remembers, the closer she comes to her downfall. That legacy should never exist."
"If she's the granddaughter of Seol Hwa…"
"…then her blood is the key," Baek continued. "The key to the throne… or to all our ruin."
Areum searched for answers in the ancient manuscripts Do Kyung had left her — documents about Seol Hwa, a mysterious woman who had once appeared in the palace over a hundred years ago, known as the "foreign-blooded woman" who disrupted the politics of her time.
In one nearly crumbling note, it read:
> "Seol Hwa — a woman from a distant time, bearer of culinary knowledge unknown to the people, and beloved by King Ji Won. Banished out of fear of her influence, but secretly, she bore a child of foreign blood."
Areum's heart raced.
> "That was my grandmother…?" she whispered.
Wang Joon entered the hidden room without warning. He looked at Areum, who seemed lost in thought.
> "I know Lord Baek has made his move. You're no longer safe in this palace."
Areum turned to him, her eyes glassy.
> "I'm just a cook…"
> "You're not 'just' anything. You're a lost legacy. And now they fear what you might change."
Wang Joon stepped closer, his voice low.
> "If you truly carry Seol Hwa's blood, then you're not only from the future… you're here to finish what she couldn't."
Areum held back tears. Inside her, the storm of past and future collided into a destiny she herself could barely grasp.
At the end, Lord Baek planned his next move. He sent a new message:
> "If Areum does not surrender herself before the full moon, the entire kitchen pavilion will be burned… along with everyone she loves."
Now, Areum had little choice. She had to act — not as a cook… but as the heir who holds the key to history.