Chapter thirty-four:Does he have a heart?

Some people believe that quick death is the best thing you can give to them rather than torture or subjection to slow and painful death.

Believe it or not nobody likes to be subjected to torture, if you are going to kill me why don't you do it quickly and get over with it.

A wailing voice can be heard down the hall, a full grown man cries even if he is pricked by a needle talk more of a twelve years old girl that has never experienced pain before.

It is said that cry of anguish touches the deepest part of someone's soul and can make you relent on punishing the person, but a certain someone sat down peacefully while enjoying the heart-wrenching pain being inflicted on the poor soul ,the cries of sorrow is like a song of joy for him, even the guards carrying out the punishment couldn't help but flinch whenever she lets out the pitiful wail, a cry of anguish and despair.

At the furthest part of the cell, the young master being locked there suddenly flinched as if he's being poked with a sword on his chest. Subconsciously, he heard a silent wail that sounded familiar , he doesn't know why but he became restless and fidgety .

"It couldn't be her... right" he asked a rhetorical question that will not be answered by anyone.

He stood up from his squatting position and went closer to the cage imprisoning him, he stretched his neck out with the intention to catch a glimpse of what was going on at the last corner of the building.

Immediately he glanced over, he saw the solemn faces of the guards guarding the area and caught on their discussion of such a pretty girl being wasted.

"The prime minister is very wicked" one of the guards exclaimed.

"Shh! ... someone will hear you , you better don't comment on anything, and make sure you look nonchalant or else you pay them with your head"the other guard reminded his fellow guard while lowering his voice but the young master heard it all .

What do they mean? he kept asking himself."It couldn't be that the young girl they are referring to is his girl" , he kept convincing himself , but on another thought , the word 'prime minister' floated in his mind , why was he here ? and why was he personally interrogating a girl?.

In order to satisfy his curiosity, he begged the guards to tell him why he wasn't being released and why his companion is not there yet with the report. The guard nearest to him looked at him with a pitiful face and sighed.

Feeling apprehensive, he brought out the money tied to his waist and offered it to them in exchange of some kind of information about what was going on. The greediest one among them collected the money pouch and opened it , seeing the bars of gold and silver coins he nudged his companion and they both gasped in awe.

The other one told him that he should just give up as they have been given strict orders not to divulge any information to him .

Seeing that money is not really working on them , he signaled the one closest to him to come closer, the guard knowing that with him in a cage no danger would come to him strode towards him and brought his ears closer to his mouth.

He whispered something to him and the guard opened his eyes wide and kowtowed on the ground before him , nodding with satisfaction now ,he ordered him to give him the information he needed but the man broke into a wild laughter while using the sleeves of his uniform to dab at the corner of his eyes the tears escaping from there.

Dumbfounded, he couldn't believe that the guard would mock him to the extent of doubting what he told him.

Getting hold of himself now, he looked disdainfully at the boy locked up behind bars and almost smacked him on the face for telling such an ambiguous and obvious lie.

"What crown prince?...You bastard, why will the crown prince leave the cozy palace and come out without his guards fighting in the streets with gangsters? I know that you are from a well high-ranking noble family from your dressing and the way the superiors allowed you to stay comfortably here without any interrogation, yet an innocent girl is suffering in your stead ,but using the title of the crown prince to lie ... do you really want to die?"

He disregarded the manner in which he spoke to him despite him being told he was the crown prince and asked him what he meant by"an innocent girl is suffering in his stead"

"Yes you fool, your girlfriend is being interrogated right now and she has been made to take the blame of the incident, in fact prime minister Choi is about to cripple her right now if she refuses to admit to the crime" the guard spoke angrily and forgot that they have been told not to mention the incident to the lad.

Realizing his mistake now , he abruptly covered his mouth with his hands in order to stop more words from escaping while the young master slumped on the ground looking dead.

The guards panicked and ran frantically to open the lock on the cell while the other one ran to inform the prime minister on the latest development.

The unsuspecting guard ran inside and became a victim of hostage by the assumedly unconscious prisoner. He grabbed his neck immediately he came closer to inspect his pulse and disarmed him.He bellowed to him "Stay still or die by my hands"

The prime minister received the news and stood up almost immediately while running towards the cell holding the prisoners , when he reached there ,he regretted acting on impulse, who knew he was acting dead?

The guard whose neck is being held tightly by the prisoner almost sighed in relief but on seeing the complicated looks on the face of the prime minister, he suspected that maybe the young lad had told the truth about his identity and he confirmed it with the next action the prime minister exhibited.

"Greetings your highness... this humble servant greets the crown prince of the nation" he curtsied.

The two guards almost fainted due to shock, the one that laughed at him earlier on when he revealed his identity and the one whose neck is almost being strangled by the crown prince started trembling due to fright.

"Oh my goodness! what should I do now?... l mocked the crown prince and called him a bastard" he repeatedly cried in his heart.

The crown prince seeing and confirming that the prime minister was indeed involved was seething in anger and almost ran towards him for a slap for hurting his woman.

He released the person in his tight captivity and made to walk towards the prime minister and demand an explanation but the guard knelt down before him and started kowtowing.

"My Lord, my master ...your highness...l was wrong... plea.. please...spare my family...my wife just gave birth and my mother is ailing...if you must punish someone please punish me and leave my family alone"

The guard kept repeating those sentences and kowtowing till his forehead became muddied with his own blood. He knows that disrespecting the crown prince is treason tantamount to extermination of your whole generation down to the fifth generation. He cursed himself that didn't follow his instincts to stay away from this young man that looked calm despite being confined in jail .

The crown prince just spared him a glance and moved towards the prime minister, he has a lot of things to deal with, and the guard being disrespectful to him is the least of his problems.

He remembered that while they were being transported and later separated, he promised Yoona to make it up to her for allowing her enter the four walls of jail house , he also remembered that she had shown him her best smile while promising him to write the best report that will bring him out immediately.

A streak of tears escaped down his cheeks and threatened to betray his emotions when he also remembered the faint wail of anguish he heard some minutes ago ,and also the information he received that the victim of a very bad situation was turned into an assailant and was being punished for a crime she knows nothing about.

"Prime minister Choi! can you please tell me what you are doing here and why you are interrogating an innocent girl" he roared.

"Your highness, why do you people keep saying that she's innocent...as far as I know, she's the most wicked witch l have ever come across...do you know that I tortured her for hours and didn't elicit any sound from her , just silent whimpers and tears but immediately l told her I will send you to the tribunal to be charged with murder, she started crying and screaming"

The crown prince didn't know how to react to him, he rushed him and grabbed his collar but the prime minister remained unfazed and continued from where he stopped while smiling.

"Your highness, do you even that her screaming wasn't that loud until l threatened to burn her face with iron rod , she cried so hard that I was almost startled... now do you believe me when I say she's a witch, a witch that is relying on her fox face to seduce our next monarch...how dare her show her evil face to you and seduce you in order to gain the seat of the next Phoenix?"

He didn't even mind that the crown prince was choking him, the only thing he is thinking of is how to separate her from him in order to make his daughter's path to the throne smooth.

"How dare you minister Choi?...she doesn't even know that I am the crown prince!"

"Exactly why it should remain that way, do you think the empress will allow the daughter of a slave to be her daughter-in-law?"

He looked at the crown prince's face hoping to see an element of surprise on his face but was disappointed, he tightened the grip on his robe and released it immediately while smiling.

"Your highness, you already knew her identity yet you wanted to make her the crown princess... did you really think it through? or did you really think that your marriage will be decided by you alone?...we also make contributions to it and whoever we disapprove of will never be allowed inside the harem no where the person stands in your heart"

The tightened grip on his collar released with the crown prince running towards the interrogation hall but the prime minister signaled Tae hee to block his path, immediately he raised his hands to slap the bitch in his way , he heard the sinister voice of the prime minister.

"Your highness, if you want to save the girl...you just have to listen to my instructions, but if you refuse to abide ,she dies immediately you step into that hall... if you doubt me take one more step towards her and I will make sure to bury her alongside her family members... Tae hee! clear the path for the crown prince, l want him to make his decision on his own!"

The already raised hands meant to slap her hung in the air trembling, he turned slowly towards him and with the most heartbroken voice ever heard , he pleaded with the prime minister to spare her life.

"Prime minister Choi, spare her ... OK?... I will do whatever you tell me but please... spare her , she's innocent"

His voice trailed off at the last sentence and he slumped on the cold and dirty ground crying, he disregarded his status and let out a howl full of helplessness, he cried out so pitifully like a wolf that lost his mate .

If you have a heart, with such a heartbreaking scene unfolding before you, you will give up on whatever you planned to do ,but prime minister Choi doesn't have a heart because if he did , he wouldn't have touched the girl in the first place.

Looking at the defeated state of the crown prince and his moans , his heart hardened that the crown prince was crying over the girl, this means that the crown prince has given his heart to her and is planning to make her the crown princess sincerely.

With this thought in his mind, he swore that he would separate them no matter what and that he will handicap the girl to make sure that she doesn't even enter his harem as a concubine in the future.

He murmured to himself that if the girl didn't have the crown prince in her heart, he would have spared her and personally make her his concubine because with a face like hers, that's the only favor he can offer.

"Your highness, forgive this servant for his audacity, but exactly this thing you are doing now is what is driving me to kill the girl" he murmured to himself.

The crown prince looked up from the ground from where he was staying and saw the unmoved state of the prime minister, he had only question in mind...

"Does he even have a heart...?"