"Yeon? Are you awake now?" "What happened? Why do I feel so ill? I haven't had it this bad so far in my pregnancy HwaWol?" "You are under a lot of stress, so you just fainted for now and Jeong Beom caught you just in time. But I suspect that you and the other lady might go into early labour." "But how?" "I went over both of your prenatal herbs and medicines, and someone has somewhat tampered with the prescriptions to make you both misuse them." "How long was I asleep for?" "An entire day." "Did you carry out the investigation?" "Do you remember the family that you had issues with? that girl who was obsessed with your brother? We found the rest of her relatives here and we managed to find some rather expensive jewellery on them that definitely surpasses their rank. Not even you or myself dare to possess such high quality jewels, not even for my own daughter would I have those kinds of jewels in my possession!" "I do not understand, what is the point of holding onto such precious jewellery when they could have sold it to live better lives? Why stay here in this village that essentially lacks everything, despite the amount of respect they have here? What did they say when they saw it?" "Honestly, they all looked pretty shocked and denied knowing anything about it, but we have kept them under house arrest so far." "Were they truly shocked?" "We all know how to read people from our line of work, so I fully believe them, but at the same time, how can you smuggle all of that in a place like this unnoticed?" "They pride themselves on the collective respect that they have from this village, they would surely not do anything to taint that…" "What are you thinking, Yeon?" "We have been infiltrated, and somebody is trying to drive us all apart from each other so we disband and give up…" "…and move back to the kingdom where we are all sitting targets, isn't that right, Yeon?" "I had just managed t convince my husband to move here full time away from the kingdom and we shall not move back there until my children are old enough to figure things out on their own." "So what do we do?" "We shall set a trap; we shall react how The Third Prince expects me to react but on much smaller scale since we also have to pacify the other villagers here. We shall exile them into the farthest corner of the village and order people to keep their distance." "And what shall we do to the ones who disobey this command?" "We shall keep them detained somewhere, but we can figure out all of that later on. This just had to happen just as my brother and husband leave this village…someone has to be watching us." "If that is the case Yeon, then we need to put on a show about your health and keep you on bedrest until those babies came out, because I can tell that they are quite determined to already." "No, they cannot come before my husband comes home…very well, we shall put on a show and I am leaving Jeong Beom as the Step Village Chief in my brother absence since you have the experience from serving The Third Prince for so long."
Soon enough, we got to see the true colours of some of the villagers as soon as we exiled the family. Most of them did indeed stick to our laws as we imposed a temporary curfew to carry out a full investigation, but there were a few girls from one particular family that kept approaching Jeong Beom rather seductively, which made him rather uncomfortable. My brother's men that he found in the Liadong War were well into old age now and were old enough to become grandfathers, and due to Jeong Boom loosing his wife and dauhgter decades ago from common tragedies that occur with the lowborn caste, he had no intentions on settling down with anyone. Everyone knew this, and yet that did not stop these sisters that we barely knew from approaching him and serving him food randomly as if to curry favour with him or something in a way that nobody dared to do the same thing for my brother since everyone knew of his devotion to his wife and his family. "You are rather well=adorned today, however, your pink dress and shoes do look a little gaudy with that green flower in your hair. And where has your sister gone? Don't you usually come in pairs?" "She is not feeling well today, so she…" "is that so? Well why don't we visit her together then? I should on the account that you both have looked after me so well these past few days…" "Oh no really! She illness maybe infectious, so…" "then why hasn't she called upon MoonBok to treat her?" "Well…" "Forgive me Master, but we have just had a report come in, stating that we have caught at least 2 individuals sneaking around the exiled family without permission, which goes against the Village Cheif's words." "Is that so? Very well then, I shall just go and see who is brave enough to defy their words." "Master! Wait! i thought that you were going to go visit my sister…" "Madame, nothing is currently more important than catching criminal at present! I must leave right away to see to this ungrateful creature who has defied our words and thrown our laws back into our faces!"
"…but how could anyone defy your orders? Maybe it is just a false claim, we should really visit my sister instead…" "My Lady, can you even comprehend the gravity if the situation this entire village is facing right now? If not, you can simply return home instead of following me around like this and becoming an obstacle to my duties!" "An obstacle? Is that really all I am to you? After everything that I have done for you..!" "Unhinged women folk! No wonder we still have separate roles in this village!" "But master…" "Away with you! Leave! I shall obtain a warrant from the Village Chief to expel you and your family if possible if you keep on hindering my path like this!" it was such a simple and yet effective trap that managed to work on the other girl when we saw her rifling through the original home of the family in question, only to find her fists full of some really precious pearls that looked awfully similar to me and Jeong Bemo for that matter, since he was used to gifting various woman around the kingdom on his previous master's behalf. Everyone from their household was arrested but we still kept an eye on the previous family that we sent off into exile. "You and your families are both ordered into further exile which requires you to leave our village once and for all. If we see any of you come back for any reason at all, then I shall make my husband entomb you in the palace dungeons itself with no identity tag whatsoever. And as for your funds, your can surely survive on the jewels that you sold your family for. You shall have to carry out your own chores together and watch out for your own temperamental moods yourselves without any assurance from us and…." "This isn't fair! We have no medical knowledge, so how can you link what happened to yourself to us exactly!" "Who else would harm us like this without payment in return? As you refuse to tell us where you got your hands on so much precious jewels, did you really not think that we would rad your home for more evidence? Who gave you those aphrodisiac pills that we uncovered under your bed? Or who gave you enough silvers to buy such potent ones? Your girls are not yet married, nor are you engaged, so what is really going on here?"
"Isn't it all obvious! This is all related to HwoaWol's affair!" "Have you lost your mind! How dare you frame your superiors about such a baseless sin!" "A baseless sin! She used to be a well=known kisaeng in the kingdom that you shield us from! Who else would possess such filth to seduce such an old and rich man like MoonBok! Wasn't he already 20 years older than her when they first met!" "And how exactly did you know about that! We have never divulged our pasts to anyone here in the village, so how exactly are you so well informed about us all? Who told you?"
"I…I mean we….found plenty of evidence in her home when we looked for her and her husband to seek medical attention for my sister! We saw the pills in her home and we are simply curious about them, so we took them home with us, just in case her children got a hold of them! There are plenty of young men that she interacts with here in the village, despite her marital status, and yet she…" "You mean her husband's apprentices that she works with on a daily basis for the wellbeing of this entire village?" "Our brother is one of those apprentices! And we hear him chant her name in his sleep all of the time! What a great name she has that is so unforgettable upon it's first hearing!" "How dare you slander a married woman like that! And a mother also!" "But he has listed every single days of their meetings together! He cherishes that piece of paper more than he does us since he met her!" "If curse he would cherish his work schedule, isn't his work with her the only income that your family has!" "How easily you explain it away to cover up your friend's sins! Then how else do you explain him treasuring the boots that she sewed fr him specifically in winter time?" "Are you referring to the winter shoes that the embroidery house made specifically for the medical apprentices as a reward for their hard work? Just because she handed them out, it does not mean that she specifically made them! HwaWol has always struggled in making shoes, so the embroidery house always does it for her!" "I…" "My Lady! There is now an assassin in the village! He is holding onto the little girl who was attacked by the dog! Please hurry!"
Jeong Beom rushed over there just in time for the masked assassin to put his knife against the girl's throat and do nothing else for now. But what struck me the most in that moment was the strange statements that the sisters kept throwing out to the assassin, it was as if they already know him. They kept telling him that he was dead either way, so he should just give up now. And the fact that they already identified the assassin was a man that confirmed my suspicions about this family, so we eventually subdued the entire family along with the assassin by the efforts of the ageing Jeong Beom and we simply could not take anymore risks to anyone else in the village, so we had no choice but to execute the entire family, including the poor brother whom we knew was innocent, but we could not put an entire village at risk for one small family. I couldn't bare to even look at the situation that we were faced with, never mind watching the execution take place. And as if I wasn't facing enough stress, my girls working under me during my pregnancy managed to find something quite dangerous that was placed in my home that was surely a means to my own end. I was trying my hardest not to have a mental breakdown to avoid affecting my unborn children more than they already were, but I knew that if my husband and brother didn't come home soon, then I was going to loose my mind along with the village full of people that my father assisted from wars even decades after his death, and I could not let that happen, not under any circumstances. My husband…he may have been possessive over me and I wasn't always in agreement with his choices, but my sister=in=law was right, I had no idea how to function without my husband or his endless protection, no matter how suffocating it was sometimes.