Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

Chapter 17

Ban-ryu helps Minister Park's assassins find Sun-woo in the Hwarang grounds, but luckily Su-ho, Yeo-wool, and Dan-se are there to help Sun-woo fend them off. They refuse when he tries to make them retreat to safety, and its a good thing, because Sun-woo suffers one of his attacks and slumps to the ground.

Meanwhile, Ji-dwi breaks into Minister Park's bedroom and steals his dragon-head bracelet back. He wakes Minister Park with a wicked dagger aimed at his face, and informs him that he is the rightful owner of the bracelet — the king.

Minister Park tries to get away, but Ji-dwi slams the dagger into his bed, shallowly slicing Minister Park's neck just enough to make his threat clear. Ji-dwi warns Minister Park that the next time he's here, it will be to kill him.

Queen Regent Jiso enters the throne room to see a black cloud envelop and dissolve the throne. She screams then wakes from her nightmare, and finds a flower by her bedside. It's Ji-dwi's signal to meet him in the throne room, and when she arrives, he's seated on the throne dressed in kingly scarlet.

In a strong voice, Ji-dwi tells his mother that it's time for him to become the true king of Silla. She sneers that he doesn't even know what that means, and reminds him that it's only through her perseverance that the throne still belongs to their family. Ji-dwi says that he knows, but it's not her name that will remain, "Because I, Jinheung, am the king of Silla."

The queen regent persists, arguing that he's king because of her. But Ji-dwi says that she was only using him as an excuse to feed her own greed. He invites her to resent him if she wishes, but in the end, all she'll have left is her resentment. He concludes that this is his country, his Silla.

Later, in her room, the queen regent has another nightmare... this time Ji-dwi is strangling her. She sits up gasping and calls her lady guard, Mo-young, and asks for Ji-gong. Mo-young informs her that Ji-gong is in the low-born village treating the plague victims.

In the morning, Yeo-wool and Su-ho are still watching over Sun-woo, who hasn't woken yet. Yeo-wool tells Su-ho about Sun-woo's tendency to pass out, which seems to be news to Su-ho (though he's seen it before when Sun-woo fainted on the archery field).

Things are looking very bleak at the low-born village, where most of the population is ill and Ji-gong and Woo-reuk are beginning to lose hope. There's no news from the palace regarding medicine, and it's starting to look like the entire village could die.

One very sick woman comes to Ji-gong, begging him to save her son even while dark blood gushes from her own mouth. He prepares a poisonous herb and feeds it to her, desperate for the small chance that she could survive and it could help. But the woman dies, and Ji-gong looks as if he's going a little bit mad.

In the city, Ah Ro tries her best to find medicinal herbs to help, but all of the merchants have been cleaned out. A cart goes by and she sees small dried star-shaped herbs falling from one of the bags it's carrying. She recognizes it as star anise, the very herb needed to combat the plague.

The cart makes its way to Minister Park's home, where he's stockpiling medicine to sell at a huge profit once the plague makes it into the city. He complains that it's taking too long for the city folk to become ill, and frowns when Ho Gong attributes the slow spread of the plague to Ji-gong's efforts in the village.

Hwi-kyung angrily confronts the queen regent about her plans to revive the Wonhwa, who were warriors and spiritual leaders. He reminds her what happened to its leaders Nam-mo and Joon-jung, and she says that they fought, and Joon-jung killed Nam-mo, then Nam-mo's followers killed Joon-jung. Hwi-kyung says that she seems to be remembering things incorrectly.

Hwi-kyung orders Queen Regent Jiso to step down and relinquish her family's claim to the throne, and to leave the Hwarang untouched. The queen regent screams that he's in no position to tell her what to do with her crown and her Hwarang, but he says that if she had left well enough alone, so would he. She's not sure what he means by that, but Hwi-kyung bellows that everything that will happen is her fault.