Chapter 34: Seon-Ho

It was an ordinary day at court when prince Bang-won made his way up to his father with bloody robes, exposing my father's plot with Hwi behind him as a witness. All I could do was laugh; this was a whole new level of intellect, even for him. He had actually collaborated with the prince my father tried to kill and staged their whole plot to arrest my father and get rid of him for good. But of course, my father was too flabbergasted to put the pieces together right now. Hwi gave me a look while making his way to the king and I knew what he was trying to tell me; so I distanced myself from my father as much as I could and kept my mouth shut.

After the deed was done my father was sentenced to prison awaiting trial. The king asked if I had any part in it but before I could say anything, Hwi spoke up for me and vouched for my innocence using words I knew that had come from Yeon. He also got the prince to vouch for me, much to our reluctance, but I wasn't planning to go down with my father.

I was still angry at Yeon for everything she hid from me. I tried my hardest to protect for her years but she suffered anyways! The things she had been through by herself...my blood began to boil just thinking about it. But when she blocked my view and asked me to trust her I swear I felt her own trust in me give me my life back. Since this whole mess started; when I was forced to betray my best and only friend in this world to keep him alive everyone avoided me and blamed me like I had the plague itself. It was only now that I was starting to realise...it was her...only her who stood by my side, saw things I had been hiding from her and her brother about my life since I had met them and understood everything. If anything; she should be furious at me, resent me the most as she was the most innocent victim in all of this! But here she was in front of me; asking me to let her protect me, something I hadn't been offered in years. All I could do was stay frozen on on the spot; wondering who the girl I grew up with for almost all my life actually was. Was she always like this? So...strong and sure of herself? Maybe I had misjudged how much of a toll her epilepsy had taken on her if she was indeed always like this. Her strong emotional ties to me had kept me going all along, all these years or I would have killed myself the minute I betrayed the only people to look at me as a human being despite being the illegitimate on of a concubine slave and a nobleman and loved me as one of their own. I had a hard time looking at her until she took a few more steps towards me in front of everyone to make sure I wasn't being affected by what I was seeing; she was standing so close to me our noses were almost touching. I felt her love and fierce protectiveness towards me; enveloping me in such a warm embrace that I felt all my hot-blooded anger and rage slowly dissipate from my body was if it had never existed in the first place. I felt so grateful towards her that I wanted to breakdown to her like a child crying and reaching for his mother's arms.

Despite all of this, when I was called upon to give my testimony I was at a loss for words. The man what ruined my life from the moment I was born and I wanted him long dead; to loose everything he held dear from him before his eventual pitiful death...but I had put up with ever mockery, every cruel and neglectful comment, lack of love, affection and equal opportunity, I wanted to torment him myself and make him meet his maker from my own hands. Granted, it would take a long time to achieve this and I understood that How was thirsty for revenge and rightfully so. Don't get me wrong; a part of me was truly relieved his sins were slowly coming to light and I would no longer have to deal with him on my own...but I also couldn't deny that a part of me felt cheated. I should have been the one to handle this problem myself in order to achieve my promise to my mother.... And to have this corrupt bastard prince be in-charge of this as well was almost humiliating...

That was all until Yeon stepped in and actually had the guts to ask permission from the Prince to give her testimony first...as well as some 'additional evidence' to my father's crimes. My head shot up at this, wondering what other horrors she had in store for me that I knew nothing about. I tried to brace myself for what was about to come...