Chapter 95: Cheos Beonjjae Gobaeg (The First Confession)

"So let me guess, you've come here to blame others for your failures right? Myself, my brother and even your son who you yourself have used as a puppet from the moment you watched him from his mother's arms and raised him yourself. He was in your complete control all this time, so how is your downfall his fault? You even went so far as to snatch every little possession he had just to make him obey you so don't you dare blame anything onto him. And besides, thanks to his privileges with the King, his promotion guarantees that you shall be the undeniable suspect if anything happens to him at all."

In all my years I had never heard someone speak up for me in my entire life, not even her brother could have stood up for me as he was plighted with the same social issues as well. But yet here she was, defending me as if she was a lioness. She was bold, fearless and even angry when it came to me...and even though its as completely the wrong time I felt it...felt all of my complicated emotions about her finally fall into place...she was protecting me...fighting for me....despite everything I had put her though, she just wanted me to be safe...

"It's your fault! It is all your fault! You swayed my son...my son who was going to give me everything I had ever dreamed of..." "....so you wouldn't get your own hands dirty? How pathetic of you. You couldn't even achieve your own dreams by your own hands, you had to kidnap your own son, blame him for the loss of his own brother who loves him dearly, brainwash him and turn him into the senseless monster he almost became. And then you did the same with your supporters who right now, are all arrested and torn apart from their families thanks to you. So it's not me you need to worry about right now. Now begone!" She turned around and tried to pick me up and tend to me while my father just stood and watched in pure shock before new palace guards had arrived to take away the injured ones and temporarily hold my father, but she spoke to him one last time before he was taken away. "You know, all you had to do was to help my brother bury my father decently, but you turned him away because he became 'a traitor to our nation and you wanted nothing to do with him at all right'? Now look at what you have been reduced to, the same as him, and I will want to see who will bury you after you are hanged publicly...or drawn and quartered...maybe even boiled alive just like my father..." she was locked in her own pain now and there was nothing I could even try to do whilst the villagers had started to crowd around our home to see what was going on. "You are a complete failure of a man, who instead of looking at his brother's success and become inspired by it, you did everything but achieve your own success because you were too weak to achieve everything you have by legal means." And with that he was taken away when Yeon told to relay the message to the prince that she wanted him on the town square handcuffed in public and put on display for the world to ridicule him for at least a day.

We were both left alone in her room as she began making her way to her screen so she could get dressed for bed of all things. She indeed look exhausted...actually she looked completely worn out. I understood that she needed sleep but if I didn't get any answers now then I couldn't even breathe I peace without finding out just what the hell was going on...or stop being in denial about the fact that Yeon, the most innocent person in my life hadn't abandoned me yet had hidden who she really was, led a double life under my nose and had single handedly dragged my father down into his own personal hell while she not only spared me, but defended me and even now she was in my home as if she was unafraid of me when I had been forced to show my true colours to her. I remembered this as even now, I had looked very closely into the men that worshipped my father so I could hand in the proof and become my own man away from him just as I had left Yeon to sleep in the gibang.

Currently, my father's men were still being held for questioning since they managed to blame all of their deeds on my father, but even he was close to being acquitted so many times that I wasn't going to let the same thing happen again. And if I wanted to eradicate corruption and stick with it, I was going to start with my own father like I had been desperate to for so many years. And I knew very well the reason why may father's men were still jailed and not executed was because I knew the Inspector Generals were still being bribed by their families, who were all making illegal livings on the side thanks to my father. They all thought that I was the same loyal dog to him and they all were probably panicking enough in their own state to not realise that I was going to take my father and everyone around him that had taken for a joke down with him.

I already had access to their families and properties since my father had dragged to all of their homes so they could plan how to use me and twi to bring down the prince despite my warnings that it would never work. And I specifically remembered how every privy council member either looked down on me or made some sort of comment or remark about my irrelevancy. And now, as I made my way to each residence and falsely promised that I would take care of the heads of their households as long as they handed me all the relevant information I needed to destroy it myself, also ensuring them that I was willing to take on all responsibility if I was ever caught with such secret documents. The satisfaction I got when I finally handed over all the proof that I needed to the Emperor himself was well worth it and I savoured it as much as I could, epsirecllay when I was the one who got to publicly prosecute them as well as denounce them for more deeds of corruption that only I knew about. I also didn't hesitate to highlight the entitled acts of the families who were involved and other parties as well so they would actually learn from this. I wanted to send out the message that as long as I had breathe in me, corruption would cease to exist...

....if only I felt the same way about Yeon. Even though I would risk my life to put this country on the right track and do everything in my power to pull us from the dark ages...I was well aware that I had become a little hypocritical when it came to her. I didn't bother courting her traditionally, because... I felt like the minute she woke up under my roof that she had become my person without question. The minute she showed me the slightest care and affection she was already mine. I had her trust and loyalty and vice versa without doubt or hesitation...until now. She saved me, so why wasn't she taking any credit for it? Why was she determined to hide everything from me?

Before I had time to say anything or do anything to her to even begin to fathom just who this person was in front of me who I had always thought was meek, and after everything she had done...she had the absolute nerve to actually look me in my eyes so innocently and she told me she had to take me somewhere before she could even begin to explain herself to me so I could understand why she lied to me. And that if I did not then I would eventually perish in my own darkness and anger with no hope of help of survival for myself. And still, after what she did to me...for me...and what I was forced to do with her...she took my hands in her's as if they were the most precious things she had held in her entire life and kissed them, doing everything she could to persuade me. And once again, before she gave me time to reply, she was gone from my sight as she ran out of her quarters in the pouring rain without another word.

My world had started spinning, and she was responsible for it. I was far too confused, taken by surprise so much and was becoming rather numb quite quickly to just let her go anywhere out of my sight. I was on the verge of a breakdown, and she had all the means to prevent it. I tried to run after her but I almost got run over by a horse that Yeon was riding of all people...I hadn't the faintest idea that she even knew how to ride a horse and now here she was going at breakneck speed. And before knew remembered how, I was on my own horse, trying to catch up with her in case she suffered from accident. The harder and faster I ran after her, I suddenly found myself reaching out my hand to her as if she would stop what she was doing, turn around and see it. I had no idea of what I was doing but I felt as if we were the only two people left in the world and I still expected her to follow my instruction. But the farther she got the more I was beginning to realise that I was slowly loosing control over her...and it was sending me into a dark place very quickly.

We had been riding in the appalling weather for what seemed like hours before we made our stop in a place that was both familiar and unfamiliar to me. This place was a much nobler version of what was on the other side of the river with a lot more greenery. We only walked a few steps before we came to an abandoned mansion that was almost a replica of the one my father had made for himself. I was so stunned that I didn't know what to think, and Yeon had to take me by the hand and really pull me towards the home that hadn't been tended to in god knows how many years. She still kept avoiding my questions as she made her way to the front courtyard where she had let go of my hands and had started looking around for what I presumed were the keys. She found what she was looking for and as soon as we made our way inside, she started calling out for someone I didn't recognise, but I was too distracted with the smell of the place that was so familiar to me but I couldn't fully remember where I had inhaled such a rich scent before.

We were met with an elderly woman who seemed to came apart the moment she saw me, and she kept on calling me by my mother's name. I felt myself freeze in shock to the point where I couldn't even breathe properly whilst this women broke down into my arms. Yeon had to end up supporting the both of us as she tried to tear this elderly woman away from me who had her arms wrapped around my shoulders until she exhausted herself. She had to almost carry her to the nearest seat and kept a hold me whilst she pushed me to sit next to her.

I cried, I laughed, I threw things in anger and I punched holes into the wall when I hear about the injustice that my father did to the woman he made me hate my entire life, even though my mother killed herself the minute my father snatched me away from her grasp. She was a young noble woman who was already in love with another man when my so-called father tricked her into marriage, stole her wealth, ruined her family and forged her slave status as soon as they married to she could marry his main wife. And all of this happened whilst Yeon had a grim look on her face and still held onto me no matter how much I lashed out. The elderly woman took me to my mother's old bedroom and Yeon left me alone to explore everything I didn't know about the woman to chose to keep me growing in her belly and raised me to the best of her abilities despite being a noblewoman who didn't know how to do anything on her own.