The Love They Never Had: The Chase

Chapter 205: Living Nightmares 3 (Sal-Aissneun Agmong)

"...Your Highness, the Young Mistress Seo must have caught a glimpse of my disaster relief plan and must have gotten the idea in her head that she would be rewarded if she came up with her own...." "If she wants the reward to come up with her own plan, then why is she speaking on the behalf of the young Master Nam? And why is she persistently insisting that you were he one who stole her rough draft of her work? What witnesses do you have?" "I have my maids and..." "These maids are biased, we cannot rely on their testimony as evidence, although we do have a few of them waiting outside." "They can wait whilst we deal with this issue at hand." "Your Highness, i do have evidence to show to you to prove myself. Here, these are the notes taken down during my discussion...." "The discussion that you had with the Young Master Nam? The man that you serve?" "Well...I..." "It seems that you went against the Master's that you have served for your entire life for fame and glory? Did you really think that we would release you from your bonds of slavery if a mere servant involved himself in the political decisions of his betters? Even if you had come up with this plan, of course your Masters would take credit for it." I had to admit that I was completely dumbfounded at that point, to the point where i almost collapsed in front of the Emperor himself right there and then. All of this time, I had plans to reunite with my father after taking down my other brother to rejoin my rightful place by his side. I wanted to help him in his plans and now come to find out that my weakling of a half-brother might have been right abut this damned Confucius and how complex and unfair these rules were.
"Call upon the Seo siblings and let us get this over with, for these are important plans and we need to commence with these as soon as possible!" i couldn't believe that Yeon of all people was doing this to me despite what her so-called 'childhood friend' was doing to her! He kept her as a hostage! He was flirting with her whilst he had another woman on the side! He was intentionally making both of them jealous of each other! And he....he stalked Yeon! He calls out for her in his sleep and then goes off with another woman without a second thought! He didn't know how to value anything, he didn't know the difference between right and wrong and he didn't know what love was! he wasn't in love with Yeon like i was, he was just...simply infatuated with her because....she had some degree of sentimental value to him. He was holding onto her and making her believe that there was something between them just so he could reconnect with her brother. And as for Yeon....she was pretty. More than pretty in fact, she looked like everything these noble women were trying to become, so I suppose that it was possible that he was also swayed by her looks a little. But what on earth had he done to cast such a spell on her like this for her to turn against me completely when i was more than ready to elope with her right here and now? I was doing this all for her! So we could set up our futures together and climb up the social ranks! This task alone could elevate the status of her brother by mere association and change their lives completely. So why was she so set against me now?

"Your Highness, since both reports are identical, then Dal should both point out the issues in the official system without too much detail first before i do, and then we can tell who is telling the truth." "I shall allow it, well? Servant? What issues are there with your plan or is it perfect like you think it is?" "I...Your Highness I...the previous disaster relief plans have caused such riots and..." "And what is the reason for such chaotic outcomes?" "Well...it is because of...I mean..." "It is because of you, Your Highness. But I wonder if Dal shares the same opinion as me?" "Seo Yeon! How dare you slander the Emperor! Do you have any idea of what an atrocious crime that is! How can i possibly share your opinion with you!" "And why not? Are you saying that flattering the Emperor is more important than this disaster relief plan, Dal? That the lives of the people are nothing? If that is so, then why bother having a kingdom at all if you can just kill everyone at will?" "No! i didn't mean that! I just..." "What did you mean then? Can you elaborate then, Dal?" I really couldn't believe that she was doing this to me, i was getting so emotional that I could barely think to pull a sentence together, never mind talking right now and to the Emperor of all people.
"Your Highness, advise when most needed is least heeded, but it will do you the most good. And a person is great when he can be tolerant and forgiving to many, and i believe that Your Highness is tolerable enough to her painful but loyal advice." "Very well Seo Yeon, I shall allow it but tread carefully with your words."
"Your Highness, I may not have been highly educated, but I do know that a poor official system can bring great calamity to a kingdom. And as the ruler of a nation, shouldn't you be held responsible for that? Your people are exploited by the officials of your system and someone needs to be held responsible for all of this. And as a member of the privy council, Nam-Jeon himself must have been aware ion these issues, and he has said nothing about it, hasn't he? That is because he is slowly taking over the use behind your backs and is carrying out unauthorised orders in your name with his 'Nam' army and..."

"Nam army? Is that what he's calling my men? The Nam army? How hateful of him! And since i am reforming the official system, I will have to discipline his entire clan. But as for Nam-Jeon himself, he shall be relived from his post and be whipped 100 times, and we shall see if any other officials will dare to defy the law. And since this servant is fond of copying other's work, then he cam copy this disaster relief strategy 100 times as a penalty and another 100 times lest he forgets his place again. Nam-Jeon clearly indulges his own servant above his son and lets him act wantonly without restraint. He shall also be held responsible for this. And as for Seo Yeon, she has fortunately educated herself well under her brother's care and this will cunt towards his redeeming faults against the Royal Family. And as for those others who have exploited my will in my name, they have let my people down and shaken their faith in me, therefore it is only just that they shall be killed. What other strategies do you have, Seo Yeon? Or Seo Hwi for that matter?"
"Your Highness...I think it is best that you establish the personal evaluation system and list the disaster relief results as an evaluation item for annual promotion of recruiting new officers in all regions. This shall hopefully force more care for the disaster victims and this shall be effective if Your Highness sends out censors to punish the corrupted officials. We must allow the victims to right to report crimes that have been admitted against them. And once the reports are verified, the officials should be punished according to the law, and anyone who intercepts these reports like Nam-Jeon has shall be regarded as accomplices and should be punished by law." "Is that so, Seo Hwi?" "Amongst those corrupted officials; some are unscrupulously s whilst others covet in small amount so it will be harder to detect them. We should all work hard to distinguish the difference and punish them accordingly. For example; tbsp who covet more than 100 pieces of silver shall have to face the death penalty. However, there are far too many corrupted officials and we cannot kill all of them at once and there aren't many officials to replace them either."

"So what do you suggest that we do?" "Lower the civil exam standards to recruit more talent as are sanctions are imposed." "Well well, it looks like your father has also taught you quite well yourself. Very well servant, so do you still claim that the Seo's have stolen your own plans, even though you could not answer a single question that I threw your way?" "Your Highness I...seem to have made a mistake...." A mistake. i had never in my entire life made any mistakes, to get to here i had been only hours before this, mistakes could cost me my entire life. Nam Seon-Ho on the other hand made mistakes every single day and here he was, adored by the people that he almost killed so many times. But why? Why couldn't it be me instead? Why couldn't I have a great friend like Seo Hwi and a woman who loved me like Seo Yeon did to Seon-Ho?
"...you claim that the Seo's have deceived me, which is a capital crime, and yet all i see before me are your own deception, and you have no backers here to speak out on your behalf. And the fact that people are rioting against the Nam army, well...let us hear from the maids who are brought here as w witness before i make my final ruling against this case and decide exactly who deserves to be awarded and who shall be punished deservedly under the law of this nation and under the laws of Confucius."

Those fucking useless maids, it was them that also cost me everything that i had worked hard for. I should have known that they were all still loyal to my half-brother, who sought to rule them in order to usurp his father's power in the Nam household in case he caught onto his plans of destruction. It barely took me any effort at all to get my hands on these women, including one in particular and now I knew why. That bastard half-brother of mine must have set me up when i was the least guarded...so this was indeed the first mistake that I had ever made in my life, or the second now. I needed servants on my side so i can anticipate my enemies moves and now it had backfired on me completely. And now it was too late for me to do anything about it at all.
"Master Dal! Please save me! Do not let them do anything to me, or our child in my belly!"