Captain Gi and Lady Hu ran after the couple to subdue the prince. It took all three of them to stop Young-Sik from marching out of the Go estate.
"What is written on it?" Captain Gi asked as he strained to hold the prince back.
With clenched fists, Young-Sik answered Kwan's question, "She killed my father! Used my brother, her son, to get rid of the people who knew about her deed."
Lady Hu asked in shock, "How could that happen? What does the document say exactly?"
"Yong, please let's all go back inside, so you can calm down, please," Jin-Ri implored. Young-Sik calmed down, and the four went back inside.
Once inside the house, Young-Sik stated the Minister's deduction, "According to my master, my father was killed by poisoning, and this was his finding when they were saying he died of a heart attack. The poison was probably added to my father's food the night he died by the dowager Queen."
"Her Majesty? But how?" Lady Hu asked, wanting to make sense of the information that they had unraveled.
"Initially, they said my father died of a heart attack, but recently they claimed it was poisoning orchestrated by my three masters. She said it was arsenic that killed my father, but according to my master, the symptoms of arsenic and what my father exhibited did not match. Also, the smell of almonds can be detected from my father's nose and mouth. Arsenic does not give off an almond smell, but cyanide does." Young-Sik explained, "That was also what I thought when they showed me the so-called arsenic-tainted spoon."
"Let's say it is true; how can we use it to charge the Queen? They have the arsenic-tainted spoon, don't they?" Captain Gi asked skeptically
Young-Sik shook his head. "You don't get it. The dowager Queen had to make a piece of fake evidence to accuse my masters. But this medical report will prove that she fabricated her evidence."
"Which means, she diverted the blame away from her," Jin-Ri interjected
"Your Highness, you must not do anything foolish that will jeopardize your standing," Lady Hu reminded the prince
"Mun-he is right, Your Highness. We must be patient. We already have a piece of the puzzle. If we act rashly now, we won't know if anyone else is involved in this," Captain Gi reasoned to the prince.
Young-Sik glanced at Jin-Ri, looking for her guidance. "I share their viewpoint, Yong. Acting on mere circumstantial evidence will lead us nowhere; we won't catch any of them. Even more troubling is the fact that they'll become cautious of our strategies. We must secure more substantial evidence and catch them off guard, ensuring they have no time to react," she said, explaining her view to Young-Sik.
The prince lowered his sword, listened to their opinions, and knew they were right. Acting brashly now will just cost them dearly. Placing his sword back into its sheath, he gave his instructions. "Lady Hu, I will entrust these documents under your care." He instructed his friend, "Captain Gi, check on the other soldiers if they made some progress. For now, let's hide the things we discovered from the house, and then let's get some rest."
The three nodded in agreement to the prince's instructions. After sealing off the Go prayer room, they left the estate to part ways temporarily. Captain Gi went to check on the other soldiers, Lady Hu went back to the Cherry Blossom and hid away the documents, and Young-Sik with Jin-Ri returned to the palace.
Several days have passed since the discovery of the autopsy documents, Prince Young-Sik was teaching Jin-Ri how to hold a sword. "How long before we stop? It's heavy!" Jin-Ri asked, complaining about the weight of the wooden sword she was swinging around.
Young-Sik grinned as he watched Jin-Ri clumsily swing the sword against an imaginary opponent. "Come on, not like that! Do what I thought you," he instructed her
"Your Highness, let's be honest, I'm about as coordinated with a sword as a cat in a dog kennel." Jin-Ri swung the wooden sword with gusto, only to have it slip from her hands and soar through the air. The momentum nearly sent her tumbling, but Young-Sik was there to catch her just in time.
"Easy there! You might end up hurting yourself," Young-Sik cautioned, holding her close.
"I'm meant for stirring pots, not swinging swords," she said, finding her balance again. "You can let go of me now," she added, a hint of shyness creeping into her voice.
"What if I don't want to? What if I enjoy this moment a little too much?" Young-Sik replied, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
With a soft smile, Jin-Ri answered, "Well, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to hold on a bit longer."
The two stared into each other's eyes, their hearts thumping loudly in sync with each other. "A prince should not fraternize with his servant," A voice called out; the two lovers turned around only to see Queen Ji-Hye coming closer to them, followed by her entourage.
Young-Sik and Jin-Ri bowed to the Queen and said in unison, "Your Majesty."
Queen Ji-Hye approached the couple with an air of haughty authority, her eyes narrowing as she assessed them with palpable disdain. "Prince Young-Sik, I trust you are fully aware of the royal family's edict?" she inquired, her tone dripping with incredulity. "It is utterly preposterous that a prince of your standing would even entertain the idea of consorting with a woman of such lowly birth. Do you not feel a modicum of shame?"
Turning her disdainful gaze upon Jin-Ri, she continued, "And you... What a scandalous little creature you are, daring to hover around the prince. You are merely his servant, nothing more! I suggest you learn your place before I am compelled to remind you of your true standing!" The Queen declared, as Jin-Ri steadied herself with a deep breath, her eyes still locked onto the Queen's imperious figure.
Jin-Ri noticed Prince Young-Sik's hands rolled up into fists, trembling in what she was sure was anger. The prince was about to take a menacing step towards the Queen, but he felt a pair of hands stop him from taking another step. He looked behind him and saw Jin-Ri discreetly holding onto him. He immediately understood what she meant, and his hand unfurled.
Young-Sik moved towards the Queen, and when close enough, he whispered to Ji-Hye. Jin-Ri wondered what the prince told the Queen, but somehow her admonishing demeanor went down a couple of levels.
Ji-Hye cleared her throat and raised her head. "You are no ordinary prince; you are the son of a King. Show more respect for your status and stop fraternizing with your servant." The Queen walked away from the pair and stopped a short distance to give them another glare before leaving.
Once the Queen is out of sight, Jin-Ri lets out her pent-up frustration: "Aish...what a horrible person!" She voiced out while exaggeratingly mimicking how the Queen walked.
Young-Sik laughed heartily, seeing what Jin-Ri was doing. "What a snob, if you weren't the Queen, I would have..." She took off her shoe and threw it in the direction where the Queen went. Realizing she was only wearing one shoe, she skipped toward Young-Sik and extended her shoeless foot for him to see.
Leaning over the nearby weapons table, the prince smirked, "What? You threw it away, you get it," Young-Sik told her with a silly grin.
Jin-Ri's face scrunched at Young-Sik's reaction. "What a heartless man, couldn't even be bothered to get her woman's shoe. Fine, I'll get it myself, I just hope I don't slip and fall, breaking my back or worse, my head!"
Young-Sik shook his head and quickly went to fetch Jin-Ri's shoe. After retrieving said shoe, he returned and knelt before Jin-Ri. "What did you tell the Queen? I saw you whisper something to her."
Young-Sik puts on her footwear. "I told her that I knew what her servant did to you, I told her that if any of her servants or anyone, for that matter, harms you, I will skin them alive, and put lemon juice on their flayed bodies."
"Lemon juice? What are you planning to marinate them before you barbecue them?" She joked, her eyebrows shooting up.
"She got the idea that if she ever tried to harm you again, it would be painful for her." Young-Sik reached out his hand to Jin-Ri. "It's getting dark; let's go back," he said to the court maiden. She took his hand, and together they walked back with the prince.
When the two arrived at the prince's residence, Young-Sik noticed an arrow stuck on one of the residence's posts. "Yong look, the arrow has something attached to it."
The prince, ever so careful, scanned his surroundings as he neared the arrow, yanking the note from it. He unfolded the small piece of parchment. Jin-Ri could feel the atmosphere shift as Young-Sik's fury erupted, his teeth clenched, and his fists balled up in anger.
"Yong?" Jin-Ri worriedly asked. She knew that Young-Sik was enraged, but she could not tell how much. She gently took the parchment from Young-Sik, and when she read its contents, she finally understood why he was furious.
"There is your substantial evidence." With his sword at hand, the prince walked away, his steps heavy and fast. When Jin-Ri realizes the path Young-Sik took will take him straight to the Dowager Queen's residence, she immediately follows the prince, fearing that his anger has clouded his judgment and is no longer in control of his mind and emotions.
As she turned a corner, Jin-Ri was startled by some guards running away, terrified of something or someone. She got hold of one of the running guards. "Hey...hey...what's going on? Why are you running away?" she asked the distressed guard.
With a shaky hand, the guard pointed towards the royal training area, his voice quaking. "T-the prince... he's lost it! He's rampaging in there!" Without another word, he shoved Jin-Ri aside and sprinted off. As she approached the entrance, the sounds of chaos filled the air—objects crashing and Young-Sik's furious grunts pierced through the noise. Gathering her courage, she pushed the door open and beheld the prince wildly swinging his sword at anything within range of his blade.