Part 7: Gyeollon 
(Conclusion)- Chapter 83: Gungjeon (The Palace)

The air that surrounded a palace of bloodshed was rather cool, which took me my surprise. And it was placed in the beautiful Songak mountains, where only women of noble blood were permitted to enter as far as I knew. I had been shaking in fear from the moment I was ushered into the prince's carriage without even having a chance to pack my belongings for the long stay. But seeing as I was going to the temple, it seemed fruitless to bring anything at all, although I always carried small dairies on me hidden in the cuff of my sleeve. I was not usually a nervous person, but I felt my anxiety shooting through the roof of this marriage without my brother, whom I really needed in this moment. He did such a good job of raising me that I barely thought of my parents at all. And now that he wasn't by my side and constantly lecturing me about some nonsense or another, they were all that I could think about.

I remembered that the very first reason why I hated the palace was because it kept taking my father away from us for work, even though it was necessary to support us. I remember hating it so much that I always clung onto my poor father whenever a eunuch came by for my father's summons. I would alway burst into tears whenever I saw any official from the palace near our home and my father had no choice but to sleep in my bed with me before going there. Myself and Hwi wouldn't see our father for days or even weeks on end sometimes and I absolutely hated it. I was a daddy's girl who couldn't live without him...and then it was the palace officials who arrested my father and threw him into a boiling cauldron in front of the entire village, which developed my epileptic condition that completely ruined my life.

My father with his small beard, his sharp black eyes, his tall stature, his big hands that comforted me every time I saw him and his rough cheeks that always touched mine as soon as I was in his arms with my face tucked into his neck. My father with a firm tone of voice, his musky scent and a smile just for me. Father, I miss you every single day and I would trade everything I possibly have to bring you back to life so you can help Hwi, who has always needed you, even when you think he didn't. Just because you were gone for so long doesn't mean that he didn't miss you as much as I did and even cried himself to sleep every time you weren't home. We love you and miss you so much, and we have both never needed you more than we have in this moment. I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm angry and I am all alone. What do I do? What should I do now?

We finally arrived to the palace and Hwi was the one who showed me the way to the temple were I was going to be staying. I kept trying to ask Hwi questions about what I was going to be put through, but he had been acting off with me for a while now and I had no idea why. He wouldn't't look at me at all until I threatened to run away right there and then.

"You are so damned reckless baby sister, just like our father." "At least it worked. I have you back and nothing can tear us apart now." "You are still a part of the Nam's until they decide on a good disaster relief plan, that is why you have to stay here alone." "And what about you?" "I have some clean up work to do with the men that have followed me from the army. I need to stay at the hideout until the prince calls for me..." "But Brother..." "And under no circumstances are you allowed to see Seon-Ho again! I mean it Yeon; I am grateful for how he looked after you and that is why i even asked the prince to show him some mercy, but that is all I will do for him until he grovels at my feet and beg me for forgiveness. I will have someone personally watch over you, and i will not introduce them to you because i know how easily you can wrap any stranger around your finger." A part of me wanted to keep arguing for Seon-Ho's sake, but hearing those words coming-out of his mouth made me realise that I really shouldn't see him until he repaired his friendship with my brother. I had pampered him for so long and hopefully, he had learnt something after everything that i had helped him out with. And if he didn't make that attempt...I knew exactly where we stood, along with the news of my betrayal that he was bound to hear in the dungeons.

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My life as I knew it was over before i even got the recognition that i deserved. I thrown into the exact same dungeon cell as my so-called brother who was waiting for me with a sinister look on his face. And this was only after I received the news that His Majesty himself halted the brilliant plan that he praised only a few minutes ago. And he did it with the notion that i was still the Nam's servant instead of Nam-Jeon's youngest illegitimate son. I was supposed to claim my on independence and be recognised as a Nam, and now i was the laughing stock of the entire kingdom; the slave who brought his own family to ruin. And i knew that Nam-Jeon would need to prove that the disaster relief plan that o had presented would be effective in a state of panic when he recovered. It may work for a short time, but if Yeon's concerns were real...then he would ultimately end up paying the price before he even got to know who i was...

"Well well well, what do we have here? My...little brother?" I had my back turned towards him from the moment that i was thrown into this dungeon because I didn't have the nerve to face him. I might have been the brains behind the operation, but I had always been the errand boy for everyone in that household since i was brought in, so I never had the time to train myself physically, I didn't know how to fight because i was always protected by the Nam name and legacy. And now it was nothing more than my death warrant as i had no-one to help me get out of here. The only person that I had, the only person that i had ever wanted to myself, she was the one who put me in here in the first place.

Hot tears of betrayal were beginning to burn into my skin as i had no choice but to expose my true self and my motives for a battle of survival of the fittest in the dungeons of the palace that we have both strived hard to work for. "You will address me as brother from now on. And Chun-Ae really was my...our sister. i have no idea why you will not believe me..." "Father...he certainly treated the three of us well after Min-Ho's death, so you maybe my siblings after all." "Look i know that we..." "...but that has nothing to do with me at all. Nothing that involves my father involves me, not after my arrest. And he made that clear when he let me rot in here for more than an hour." "But..." "But nothing! I am the one he tortured, neglected, starved in more ways that one and isolated for my entire life! i am the one who grew up with his mother who killed herself outside of my quarters! I was the one who had to wake up at the crack of dawn ever single day for over a decade for training, studying, little food and hardly any interactions with anyone! So i do not care about my father's never ending seeds, i am in this alone and i always have been! You were the one who proved that to me when you dared to chase Yeon..."

"Yeon? Yeon! Yeon! Yeon! It is all about Yeon! That was all you cared about! That is why you lost focus at work! And that is why you came up with such a crappy plan that ruined our entire family!" "Me! Am i the problem! Did I do this! I know that you had me arrested you scumbag! You have ruined all of father's efforts when you stole a woman's unfinished work and presented it without thinking of the under-developed plots! You brought his family shame when you stepped out on your own and tried to cut ties with our family and..." "What happened last night?" "What do you mean?" "What happened between yourself and Yeon? What did you do to her to make her betray me? What did you do to her? What did you say to her? What made her come into the palace with her brother and confess to everything! Not just the plan, but her being a hostage and our father making her brother carry out his dirty work against the third prince! Did you do it? Were you the one who made her regain her memories!"

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I had been wallowing here for hours, trying to understand how i ended up here and for what reason. Who else apart from Dal could have betrayed me and turned me into the third prince? But now Dal was thrown into the dungeons and from the looks of it, he genuinely feared for his life in this place. He was the sort of person who would run away from a fight the very first chance that he got. But now he was stuck here with me and he had no way out, but what was the nonsense that was coming out of his mouth? Yeon was in the palace? She confessed to all of my father's wrongdoings? To who? The third prince? The emperor himself? And what about me? What about my part in this? She was in the palace, but she hadn't come to see me? She had regained her memories? She was with her brother...Hwi would now do everything in his power to keep her away from me. Yeon...everything i did, I did it for you and your brother...please, please do not hate me. Do not give up on me. Do not keep away from me. Do not hide yourself from me...Yeon....what about wha happened last night? When we kissed? Yes I shouldn't have lost my temper like that, but you did still kiss me back. Yes you did...Yeon....will i ever see you again?

"It isn't my fault! It isn't my fault! I didn't kill Min-Ho! I didn't set up my best friend to fail! It was my father! My father has done this! It was all my father's fault! It isn't mine! I have done nothing! So why do I get blamed for everything! Why!"

I completely lost my mind in fear and panic; to the point where I had even beaten up Dal into a bloody pulp before i started shouting and screaming at anyone who would listen. I had just lost the only person that i had, and there was nothing that I could do about it because I was stuck in this dungeon. I was beyond numb and lost, so the guards had no choice but to start my interrogation right there and then when i was at my most vulnerable stage and i was taken away by a total of 6 men who had to throw themselves at me to stop me from killing my own brother once again. At least that was until Dal confessed to the crime that he had committed in anger, the crime that had started my life in anguish from childhood. Dal, I am going to kill you one way or another. Hwi, i can only give you a short amount of time before I come for you as well. And as for you Seo Yeon, do not think that I cannot find you wherever he finds you.

A little while later, I was still sitting in my jail cell when Hui-Jee of all people surprised me with a visit, but I could tell that she wasn't exactly happy to see me so I already knew that someone had sent her to bail me out. "Who sent you here?" "I hope that you have learnt your lesson because I have another surprise waiting for you outside." "Why did you come?" "Because I have another message for you; are you going to rely on your father to bail you out forever?" That statement really hit home for me; I knew that it was time for me to stop relying on him as much as I did no matter how I felt about him, what he had done to me or what he had made me to just to keep himself on top of his enemies. And by accepting her bail, it would tell him that I was ready to leave him, but I knew that once I did that, he would do everything in his power to kill me, even if I was his son. My illegitimacy gave him all the reasons in the world to kill me if he wanted how, that was how the damned law worked...no wonder the Seo's always worked hard to avoid the law, and here I was trying so hard to work on it that I had never really truly considered how badly it work against me in the current situation that my father had placed us all in.