GRAND HALL

"What are you talking about? Arsenic? The queen used arsenic on the queen dowager?" Yeoning asks again as he tries to sit up by himself but his wife to be helps him up. "Thank you." He murmurs to her.

"We are not so sure about that yet, but we have our calculations that it might be true." Suk-bin says to him as she pours a glass of tea for him. "Drink up."

He looks at his mom for a moment or two before he hurriedly gulps down the tea and bangs the cup on the table. "The royal family has to do with a lot of filth." He says with a cursing tone.

"Do not use such words!" Suk-bin cautions and exhales sharply. "I won't sit back and do nothing when there is possibly a lot I can do."

"What plans do you have now?" He asks.

"The entire southern ministers are going to the grand hall again, to ask his majesty for the opportunity to investigate your poison case."

"Hae you forgotten it was all a plan?" He asks whispering. "I didn't even consume the slightest form of poison."

"Our main aim is to investigate the queen dowager's death case as well as the queen too." OkJung finally speaks up. "We are going to use you to kick the queen out."

Yeoning shakes his head. "I can assure you it's not going to be easy, the nation will split into two, and who will suffer the most? The people!" He made a lot of emphasis when he made mention of the word "people."

"That is why we are going to make sure she pays for only her crimes, if we get enough evidence that she did murder the queen dowager with arsenic, then it will be easy taking her out."

"Are the ministers also aware of what she did?" He asks again.

"I don't think so." OkJung replies and pours him another cup of tea. "If the ministers were aware, I am sure she wouldn't have done it herself, the misters would have done and taken care of it perfectly."

"Why are you here in the first place?" He asks as if he is just noticing her presence. "Gwang Jae is looking for you, what if someone recognizes you?"

"Oh!" She exclaims with a smile and smirks. "I forgot to mention it earlier on."

"What is that?" Suk-bin and her son asks at the same time.

"You remember the man I broke his leg that day?"

"What about him?"

"I saw him in the place today with two security officers and he seemed to recognize me because one of the officers followed me."

"Are you sure of what you are saying?"

"Yes." She nods. "But I am sure he doesn't know where I was headed, because I gave him a tough time until he couldn't find me anymore."

"We need to do something about these people very fast." Yeoning whispers to his mom.

"Ok Jung, I will send a few men to escort you back home, we can't afford to let them know who you are this early." Suk-bin says clinching her fists.

"Thank you, your majesty." She bows.

**************

"So you want to investigate the prince's poison case yourselves?" The king asks again paying less attention to the ministers as he plays the chess game.

"Your majesty! The Royal prince's life was threatened, how can we not want to investigate the case ourselves? We have to shed light to everything that seems dark and unclear." Lord Shim starts off just as planned before meeting with the king.

"We are not particularly accusing the queen, but we have our predictions and calculations that her people might have something to do with it." Lord Kang adds.

With a frown, the king tosses the chess game a bit away from him. "So what do you want now? There have been a lot of problems in the palace for a while now, choosing to investigate the queen will do nothing but cause more problems," he pauses and continues "even for Suk-bin. The northern ministers won't take it lightly with you if you still find nothing on the queen even after investigating her."

"Your majesty, i had a few words with the physician before coming to see you and he confirmed it that the prince was poisoned with arsenic." Lord Kang persists.

"Arsenic?!" The king asks with his loudest voice ever.

"Yes." He nods and lowers his voice. "Do you still remember what killed the deceased queen dowager?"

The king quickly buries his head in both palms. He quickly thinks about it, who could have done that? He had never thought of the queen killing his mother, not after how close they were and the things they had done together. Anyone could easily think the queen dowager birthed the queen and the king was the in law. He gently raises his head and whispers. "What do you want?"

The ministers exchange short glances and smirks, trying their best to make it unobvious to the king.

"We want you to give us the right to use the tribunal." Lord Shim replies.

"To erase all doubts, you can order Lord Jang to work with us." Lord Kang asks.

"Why lord Jang of all people?"

"He is the only one you can trust wholeheartedly after Jawon your majesty. With him on our side, you can be rest assured that we wouldn't do anything funny."

Somehow, the king feels a bit rest assured that Lord Jang will be working with them. He is so sure Lord Jang won't give rooms for any false actions.