Repercussion

"did you recognize them?", I asked them

"yes they worked for the physician, and they need to buy something for him", he added.

"check their room", I ordered Rang Min.

"OK Your Highness", he said and went into all the rooms

"nothing is in the rooms your highness", he said as he returned empty-handed.

"What happened, is something wrong?", another one asked.

"We need to send a message to the leader to let them know that we lost some peddlers"_one of them said.

"Now we won't have enough men for the jog to carry the copper", another replied.

"we will have to continue the journey, we can't go back empty-handed", Rang Min suggested.

They agree with him as he is right

"but it will be good to know what went wrong with them", one insisted.

I signaled to Kang Yun to not tell them what happened and he caught my signal.

"We have to move now", I said to them

I can't just point a finger at him without a single piece of evidence. We continue the journey without them.

The journey was hell as the poison was still in our blood, we got weak easily but there was no harm again on the road.

We returned after 5 days with enough copper more than the village expected. We are a few minutes from getting to the village gate.

"how do you trade your coppers for coins", I asked them.

Our currency is

Ten yang= one coin

50coins= 1silver

30silver= 1gold bar

It's only the royal house and the Kim family that have the right to store up Gold bars.

"We give it to some of our villagers that lived in Hanyang and Pyongyang. They trade it and we go after weeks to collect the silver", one of them explained.

"what did you do with the silver after getting it", I asked again.

"I don't know, that's the little I know", he replied to me.

"We trade with coins in China and not silver, maybe they exchanged coins after", I asked facing another peddler.

"We don't know, we only get the copper and that is all. If you have another question, you can ask the leader directly", he said angrily.

I look at him for some minutes, he seems suspicious. He never talked throughout the journey and every time I asked him something we met, he looked at me like we were sworn enemies.

"or is he part of the assassins", I thought.

"welcome back", a young boy ran towards us.

He ran to his father.

"they are here", a more mature person said and we are met by more men to help us carry the loads as we enter the gate.

Our horses are tired from the journey and from carrying the loads and our feet are sore too. We couldn't ride the horses back because they had to help us carry the loads back.

Before I could return to my room, I heard a loud noise.

Kang Yun attacked the physician immediately after he found him. I ran to them to separate them but they were too tight.

"This is not the time for this", I whisper to Kang Yun's ear but he doesn't listen.

"I command you to stop", I ordered him and he stopped immediately.

"We are just settling down, we have to be strong before we can take him on", I whispered again into his ear.

"why are you always around where there is trouble", I hear Seo Hwa's voice from behind. I feel very disappointed in myself.

"I don't know what is wrong, they just attacked me from behind", Gu Won(the physician) finally speaks. He looked at me with a wicked smile.

He knew why we attacked him but I don't expect him to be stupid to accept it just because we confronted him.

"I am sorry Seo.... Sorry leader, my bodyguard didn't know how to tame his anger whenever he is angry", I explained

"I will see to it that he is punished accordingly", I plead.

"I will leave you to it because you just arrived from a journey and you need rest" " she said.

"but he injured me", Gu Won said childishly.

"let it go, he will be questioned when he has rested enough, it might be the stress from the journey", she explained to him and left us immediately.

"thank your God that you returned alive, if not for the incompetent fools, your body would still be rotting somewhere on the Chinese border now", he whispered to us and giggled.

Rang Min rushed at me again but I held him to stand down.

"if you attack him again, there will be no excuse, look around people are watching us", I said as I pointed beside us. A lot of people have gathered around us weirdly looking at us.

"I am the crown prince here, not you", he said and laughed as he departed.

"If we are going to bring him down, we need evidence against him not by using our fists", I said to him.

Kang Yun stormed into his room and Rang Min followed him to calm him down.

**Seo Hwa POV**

Ever since Yi San left for the journey, I have never been myself. I dream every night of him being attacked by some men dressed in black, I will never let him go again or we must go together.

I missed him every night and day, I worried about him, the roads were dangerous, and I prayed to Buddha every day to keep him safe. But when he was back he went straight to cause a fight instead of finding me first or what we had before he left was just a joke to him.

He entered my room after an hour.

"I thought I meant something to you but I can see now that I am not", I said angrily.

"what happened, why would you say that", he asked concerned.

"why don't you come to find me first, I pray every day that you return safely but you went after Gu Won first", I cried out silently.

"I didn't go after Gu Won, I went to stop Kang Yun from attacking him", he explained.

He explained everything that happened to me and how he suspected Gu Won was the physician who made the same kind of poison.

"He always talks bad about you since you left but I never knew he would go to this extent", I said.

"I will take care of him soon, don't worry about me", he said to calm him down.

"why won't I worry about you, you are part of my life now and I don't want to lose you because of a jealous fight", I said as she held my hand.

I moved my head close to hers and We kissed so passionately, I didn't want to let go.

"your hand is cold and your face is pale, what is wrong?", he asked concerned. She hardly speaks up.

"I am alright, maybe it's just a fever", I assured him.

"Don't worry, I will be fine, I have to check the copper now with the elders, they must be waiting for me now at the meeting hall", I said and stood up to leave.

** Yi San **

She fell before she got to the door and the guards rushed in.

"the leader has fainted, call the physician", one of them screamed and the other guard rushed to call him.

We moved her to the bed.

"what happened", one of them asked me.

"she was about to go meeting when she just fainted", I tried to explain. It must be the stress she has been going through.

The physician arrived.

"Arrest this man and put him in the dungeons", he commands immediately before checking Seo Hwa.

"please at least let me know what happened to her", I pleaded but no one answered me.

I was arrested and moved to the dungeons.