POWER DRUNK

The entire room grows silent for a moment as the queen speaks. "We need to crown my Son as the crown prince, if we do that we can strengthen ourselves again."

"Your majesty, at the moment I think all we should be worried about is how to rescue the queen dowager her majesty, we shouldn't be thinking on how to do anything else." A minister says daring to question the queen's authority.

"So? Won't you give me any support on crowing my son?"

"I am not saying that your majesty, but for now i guess we should focus on the queen dowager alone."

"We are done talking about the queen dowager, all we have left to discuss is how to crown my son." The queen pauses and smiles. "Since you are not in support of us crowning him now, you can leave."

The minister finds it very difficult to bear the insults of the queen asking him to leave such important meeting. He decides not to beg too, instead he stands and bows charging at the exit, but he was stopped by a man who holds a sword very close to his throat. "Who are you?" The minister asks already frightened and moves back into the meeting room.

"May I ask you where you were heading?" The man asks too.

The ministers exchange short glances as the situation surprised them too.

The queen smirks and clicks her tongue. "I am glad you made it on time Tae won."

"Pardon my manners of always coming late, queen your majesty." Tae Won apologizes but still hold the sword close to the minister's throat.

"I will ask you one more time." The queen says sternly and facing the minister who disagreed with her wish earlier. "Will you give me your support or not?"

"At this moment we shouldn't think of anything other thing than to rescue the queen dowager." The minister persists.

"Tae Won!" The queen calls loudly.

Without wasting any time, Tae Won slaughters the minister and returns the sword into its scabbard. The remaining ministers were scared to their bones that most of them almost peed in their pants except Lord Chun.

"Your majesty, who else do I need to slaughter?" Tae Won asks.

"I will have to ask them first." The queen smiles devilishly. "Who else is willing to go out?" The entire room is as silent as a grave yard, the queen smiles and nods. "Listen carefully to me, I am now in charge of this faction, I now give orders to you all and you must obey, is that clear?"

"Yes, your majesty." The entire ministers chorus.

"I will give no rooms for betrayals, back lash and slacking. I will protect you all as far as you remain loyal and truthful. Is that clear?"

"Yes, your majesty." The ministers chorus again.

The queen stands and picks up her hat. "Clean up that mess." She whispers pointing at the body laying dead on the floor. "Tae Won." She calls with smiles.

"Yes, your majesty." Tae Won replies with a bow.

"Let's go." She whispers and walks out, Tae Won follows her quietly.

The entire ministers exhales deeply, clears their throat and sighs of relief. Even lord Chun seems a little relieved of the tensed atmosphere.

"Are you sure we should still side with the queen? She seems too ruthless for a leader." A minister whispers to another.

"Do we have any choice? If we value our lives, we have to obey every of her single command and orders. She is in charge now." Another minister replies whispering too.

Lord Chun tries to put somethings together in his head, he has been trying his hardest to stop being a puppet and be a real man. But will it be possible? The queen is actually more dangerous than the queen dowager herself. "Has the queen actually been pretending all this while to be so gentle and naive?" Lord Chun asks himself in his mind. "The queen is power drunk too."

The queen steps out of the building, Tae Won and lady Sung follows her. She puts her hat on again and faces her subordinates. "Finally, I am in charge."

"Congratulations your majesty." They chorus all together.

"We can never save the Queen dowager from this mess, but it's an opportunity for me too, to rule the entire northern faction." She chuckles softly. "I am going to unleash my true color now."

"Your majesty, what are we going to do Suk-bin?" Lady Sung asks.

"I will deal with her soon, my first plan is to make sure that wedding with that girl doesn't work out, whether by water or blood." The queen whispers and faces Tae Won. "You are coming with me to the palace, aren't you?"

"I live by your word your majesty." Tae Won says and bows.

"That's right." The queen says and nods with smiles. "Let's go." She says and enters her palanquin, which is opened by her guards and they all leave the scene.

Behind the doors, Lord Chun is listening carefully to all the conversation the queen had with her underlings. "After all, the queen is like me too, she urge and thirsts to hold power." He whispers to himself.