Your Highness {NamJin}

three

"Your Majesty," Lihwa began once more, bowing towards Seokjin, "I saw Lady Seonbi giving a packet to the cook while I was in the kitchens today. I do not know what it was."

"What were you doing in the kitchens, Lihwa?" asked the servant's mistress, appearing innocent to the royals -- but not fooling Seonbi. She knew exactly what they were trying to do from the moment Lihwa's lady began to imply that she had tried to hurt Rinji.

"You had sent me for a drink of water, my lady," Lihwa said, bowing her head.

"You accuse Lady Seonbi of a serious crime, Lihwa," Namjoon said, looking at her in disbelief. "You're saying she paid the cook to make her food with shrimp oil with the knowledge of her allergy. She could be executed for such wrongdoing!"

At this, Rinji swayed, wobbling on her legs in order to stand up despite stern protests from everyone around her.

"Y-You kill my m-mother..." she coughed out, shaking her head, "y-you kill me. She d-did n-not do this."

"How can you be sure?" Lihwa's mistress said, squinting an eye at Rinji's mother. "She served your lunch. She gave a mysterious packet to the cook and brought back the plate made with shrimp oil, serving it to you. There is evidence against her, child."

"H-His D-Divine Grace always s-said to look b-beneath the surface..." she said, shaking her head once more. "C-Cook, what was in the packet my mother gave you?"

"A few gold coins. And actually, it wasn't given to me directly by Lady Seonbi, it somehow just ended up in my apron."

"That makes no sense!" Lihwa said, looking down on Rinji. "How could the gold magically appear in his apron?"

"You were the one who accused Lady Seonbi of paying the cook to hurt our child. You'd best be quiet," Taehyung cut in, silencing Lihwa.

"You were in the kitchens too!" Seonbi said, pulling Rinji back down into her lap. "You're just as much a suspect as I am!"

Rinji suddenly grabbed at her abdomen, groaning loudly. Hoseok continued to hold the bag up to her face, anticipating her regurgitation of the food so maliciously given to her in disappointment. The kings helped Hoseok, patting the princess' back and giving whatever moral support they could.

In one motion, Rinji bent face-down in the cloth sack, shielding all eyes from the ugly scene of her vomiting out her lunch.

Looking back up from the sack, Rinji caught sight of a brown, curved object tied to Lihwa's wrist by a piece of white cloth. Unable to stop herself, she grabbed at Lihwa's right sleeve, pulling the white cloth from her wrist and letting the brown bottle fall from her sleeve to the floor.

The bottle broke in pieces, shattering like Lihwa's heart and bleeding a thick, clear substance.

"What's this?" Seokjin asked, rubbing his fingers in the liquid, then holding up his coated digits to his nose.

"It smells of cooking oil. Why do you have this?"

"It was tied to her wrist and hidden by her sleeve," Rinji breathed, now frail with weakness. Seonbi had stared off into space long before, and was now dazed with worry and fear to the point of hysterics.

"I believe I know how the story truly occurred," Taehyung said, staring at Lihwa. "The servant Lihwa went into the kitchens and replaced the oil with shrimp oil, planting the gold to make it seem as if my lady paid the cook to give my child bad food."

"That's n-not all," Rinji said, panting hard. "It was Lihwa's mistress who sent my mother to get lunch. Meanwhile, Lihwa had to have taken this white cloth from the infirmary."