"You used me to make your wife jealous enough to finally devote herself to you over nearly a decade now?" "You heard me; grooming her as I did wasn't nearly enough to possess her, but it was a good start and well worth the practice…" "Practice? You…have been sleeping with that child since you could…you chased her, you pursued her…you practically stalked her to make her yours…and you did it all so publicly so that you knew it would infuriate me and…you even pushed me into The Third Prince's arms because you knew he was my hope to get you back…" "Yes, but you forgot one thing about that; The Third Prince does not share his concubines, and what do you think he will do to that old man after he finds out about your affair with his man? That is the only form of consolation that I am willing to give you, and no more." "You will still live here with the reputation of ripping apart a noble family's face, and nobody here will trust you or forgive you for it." "And your legendary instigations will no be forgotten either; didn't you always wish to take my wife's place? Then you will take her place in The Emperor's Court as the mastermind of the downfall of my father's clan in return for me ensuring the death of your rapist and you know deep down that this is your insurance to keep you alive because you know too much about palace secrets." "You have The Emperor in your front and The Seo popularity in the back to support you, wih your endless promotions and endless temper tantrums, so how can you leave a path for survival for anyone else? Your existence has caused chaos from the beginning and you shamelessly used this to your advantage, didn't you?" "The more chaos there is, the more easier it is to make my move, and I have my wife to thank for teaching me that." "You fake imperial edicts to get what you wanted abduct you're enemies from high places and decimate them all. You make you're enemies the palace's enemies and I have to commend you for that. Now it all makes sense; even if you weren't obsessed wih your wife, you were always going to marry your best friend's sister because you're survival in this Confucius world relies on each other, given your quarter noble status."
"Your son is useless in literature or combat skills aunt, and your actions will prove to be the end of him in return for your various insults to me over the years. Your endless planning for him has been for naught, and your home of illustriousness and nobility has absolutely nothing to prove for themselves at all. Your clan's existence has caused The Emperor much discomfort, so much so that it caused havoc to his peace of mind. You will at most be beheaded aunt and as for you Mistress Han, your punishment will be short lived if you know what to do." "Forgive me for the interruption Lord Nam, but his concubine is kneeling outside and putting on a show fee all of your neighbours to see." "I almost forgot all about her; let me wrap this up altogether before we leave for the palace." I barely made it outside of the yangban before I heard the endless wailings of the concubine my aunt tried to force upon me about her husband's violent death and how she expected me of all people to support her now. To be honest, I should have seen this coming, but I barely had any news about her after she became my aunt's father's concubine, and I was planning on eventually freeing her from her contract. But as soon as I saw how determined she was to ruin me, I had a much better plan in mind about what to do with her now so that I had no more burdens to weigh me down before I left all of this toxicity behind me.
"…I will let everyone know about how he doesn't care for his family at all! My husband was murdered by his own family, and his last standing relative wants nothing to do with me! I beg him to come outside and see me! Please! I have no-one else to support me! I was schemed to be with him and I need justice!" "And ow do you plan on getting that when you are out here causing a scene to defame me, Madame? I am simply carrying out orders on behalf of The Emperor and if you are not happy about that, then you can take it up with him, can't you, concubine?"
"My Lord, you cannot just leave me destitute like this!" "This case it's now closed and you are free to do a you please, so we have no further ties to each other. I am giving you a chance to lead once and for all, so take it whilst you can." "You must be desperate to suck up to him if you shall leave me destitute like this!" "Then go to the censorate for justice like everybody else does! I even heard that you had a miscarriage recently, so why are you defaming me like this? Who are you working for exactly? Tell me and I may spare your life!" "So you will force me to death like this! I will se how your wife can still hold her position with you after this!" "So this is about my wife, is it?" "She should have let me your woman instead of that old man's! I would have been far happier with you than him!" "Believe me girl, I would have made your life a living hell since I will never accept any concubines, not in this life!" As soon as I walked away from her however, she was soon almost torn to pieces by a mob who apparently had many grievances due to her husband's past actions due to his corruptive political past in the palace alongside my father's. I sighed to myself, remembering to give the girl a chance to walk away on her own. But she was only a few years older than BoGeom herself and i just couldn't leave her on her own without giving her a fair chance at survival. I needed as many spies as i could get during my absence anyway, so I might as well make the most of my opportunities when I still had them.
"Well? what do you have to say for yourself now, since you came running back into my home after trying to defame me like that in front if everyone!" "Your aunt forced me to miscarry my child when she found out about my pregnancy! Then my husband shunned me for it! What did you expect me to do?" "it is understandable for her to loose her sense of awareness after loosing he children, but you cannot slander her without proof you know." "My beauty is haggard and my miscarriage will lessen my life, I know this, but since I have made it this far to stay by your side, I have no choice but to confess then, do I?" "Confess to what exactly? Servants! Arrest my aunt and bring in the Mistress Han and my wife! Tell her to bring over her special gift as well. Wee, concubine? What do you have to say for yourself?" "I will confess to this families crimes, you will take me in and provide for me." "Very well, but you will not sty by my side, but someone who is far wealthier and more powerful than myself. What do you think about that?" "I want you!" 'And I want nobody else by my side! If you stay with me, I can assure you that I will not treat you kindly at all and I already have enough evidence from my clan to endure that they all perish! Servants! Take her out of here!"
"Your aunt! She was the one who sold all of your servants when one of them refused to marry her's to spy on you and your household since you separated from them! She also released poisonous snakes into your courtyard on the day that you disappeared for 3 days, so they already disappeared by the time that you arrived. And as for this fire that she started today, she intended to burn your pregnant wife to death. And she may have contracted some pregnancy pain that was caused by her tampering with her medicines." I was going to kill her, plain and simple. I was going to make sure everyone hanged for trying to harm my wife like this. "And that isn't even the worst of it! The Mistress Han gave me this jade bracelet that had great basil seeds in them!"
"What are you talking about now girl? What great basil seeds?" "Look at t his bracelet that she gifted me! Smell it even and then you will be able to tell if I am lying or not!" "So that is what she has been upto, is it? But does the intention come from herself or her new master? What grudge could she possibly have against The Nam Clan when she was the one who summoned them all here herself? She always portrays herself as a good woman in front of them and the one worthy of my courtship so why…I mean she hardly leaves this home and she has always relied on their support…" "Whatever the reason is husband, you can certainly use it against your enemy for good, so that we can move on from this mess. Disloyalty cannot always be predicted and we need to move fast in order to make the charge stick to our enemies." "Wife? What is the issue? Why are you rushing things like this? This is completely unlike you…" "I have recently acquired all of the answer to our problems which I shall not divulge here in public. Let us hurry husband, for we do not have much time left!" "Seo Yeon! How dare you plagiarise such theories here out in the open like this! Are you not afford that I could repeat them all in the palace! You dare to openly plot around The Third Prince like this!" "As usual, you are completely unchanged, Mistress Han, you insist on being unreasonable until the end and then you insist on following me around everywhere claiming your undying devotion to me every time you undermine me like this. You have certainly bought your own end upon yourself." "If only you had shown me a little dedication as you professed to me from the start, then we both wouldn't be here today, would we sir?" "Not a single thing in your life have you devoted to anyone but yourself, so why would I waste time like that?"
"I shall put this to an end for you husband, by marking your new spies with these precious carnelian earrings. What is the reason for that sour look on your face for? Didn't you both sell your souls in pursuit of wealth and riches in this lifetime? So I am giving it to you now? What is the problem exactly?" "But these are thrice as thick as normal earrings! Do you mean to maim us instead?" "I wish to simply return the favour of your hospitality towards me all of those years ago, that is all." "In my current situation, I could not possibly wear something so luxurious…" "But I insist, and so will everyone else if I pleaded to you publicly, Mistress Han. Besides, carnelian is not relay as precious as agate stones, but you should probably know more about this topic than myself from your kisaeng days, isn't that right? But then again, it would only be you who thinks of this as precious, so much so that you would use it to reach the sky in a single bound instead of knowing your place. You can simply take this as a lesson from your junior, of your ego will allow you. You are bring married off to cover a rather large debt after all." "So you should not address your senior with such disrespect then!" "I think you are forgetting that both mistresses and concubines are merely servants to the main wife, as determined by Confucius laws. And speaking of those laws, I am personally punishing the servants and letting them leave our services for letting you run amok in my marital home to begin with, and I sincerely hope that our paths never cross again." "I have compromised you for the very last time wife for allowing this wench to live; I can assure you that it shall never happen again." "I can bear it as long as you really do send her away this time and that I really do never have to see her again, husband. I will no longer suffer the aires of arrogance that these desperate noble people put up with."