The Love They Never Had

"Mistress? Are you quite alright?" "Never mind myself and my loneliness, it is bound to come in waves and in strides." "But you are not alone here, you have the support of Seo Yeon and Nam Seon-Ho. You should try to visit her more often to make use of your connections…" "it was my so-called husband who ruined my new title in less than a week after conferment. And I should't get too in-between the couple, they celery have a lot of issues to sort out yet and I still need to update her on how exactly I got to where I was with Seon-Ho's help, especially after she gave me many gifts." "And what about the task that he entrusted you with?" "I was lucky to ave served in the palace after all it seems, despite my so-called husband abandoning me. He has sent word to The Emperor to send new guards to the infected areas as the first batch of men are already ill, and the larger populace is falling victim to this damned plague. We have also been asked to bring Moon-Bok back to his family as soon as possible." "What about The Emperor? What is he doing about the plague?" "He is indulging himself in beauty and riches like always, The Third and Fifth Prince are on there way to be deposed and no other Royal wants to risk their lives in the plague. Only The Young Master Nam is doing something about this at all, so we much show him our support." "Is that them already? What are they doing back here so early? Invite The Young Mistress Seo and Young Master Nam back into my quarters for a meeting, so we can figure out what to do next."

"…I have's revived word that the most infected town has been sealed up with no physicians at all. They have all withdrawn on the orders of The Third Prince most likely when his own wife prevented him from making this achievement in treating the plague himself to win over his father once again." "What about Moon-Bok, my love?" "He has already handed over the right medicinal herbs over to The Emperor. Some of them anyways, whilst The Emperor is busy indulging himself in pleasures of the flesh to distract himself rom something that he cannot control, just like he always does." "So, Moon-Bok?" "He has already made up the real thing after finding the physician before anyone could kill him off. He will hand it over to Chief Park and Jeong-Beom to hand in so they can formally cut off ties with The Prince. Your brother has already threatened him with your absence." "So if The Third Prince does not find me due to his wife's dealings, them my brother can freely walk away without any trouble?" "Exactly."

"And what about the plague?" "The guards who are supposed to be helping the citizens are actually guarding them from escaping and infecting others." "But if you, my brother and his friends defy the guards, then The Third Prince will kill you all if the plague doesn't, just to hide this secret of his, just like he always does!" "I only have one chance to defy him since it will be a big blow to him to loose your brother, but with these guards here I really do not know where to start…"

"How about this? We need to make room for people to start receiving treatment, and do it in the places that The Third Prince cannot go against, such as his noble contact's residences? Who wouldn't want to grab the chance to be praised by The Emperor himself over a mere Prince?" "And then?" "Then…you can sanitise every item touched by flame and keep biting water before drinking it all? Burn all infected corpses immediately and let all and any orphans be fostered by surviving relatives or neighbours. The government will have to provide temporary relief, such as food and clothing…" "I shall take care of that to do my part and force open the granaries if I have to." "And what if we can try to get taxes waive for next year if we help more people than anyone else has? And stop an uprising now that the guards are bring drawn out?" "Plagues have caused more issues than war since ancient times; and this one could potentially bring about the end of The Goreyo Dynasty." "And then what?" "This will be the end of The Third Prince and his wife, and as soon as his wife is on the brink of loosing everything, that is when I will bring The Lady Min in to suffer the same fate as them. I will also need both of you to show up at the palace to hand in your testimonies. And after that, we marry and become one before my family clan depends upon Hwi to bring me to them. And then we can all experience normal lives for as long as we possibly can."

"What if The Third Prince starts ordering people to be buried alive?" "It wouldn't surprise me at all, it would instigate a rebellion to make up for what his own wife made him miss out on. Anyways, let us disperse for the night and set out first thing in the mooring; the sooner we get this all over with, the sooner we can all return home."

"Very well, I bid you both goodnight." I saw them off before I decided to take one last walk in the middle of the night to clear my head and focus on the mission at hand that would allow me to choose my own fate with my own child before I started to hear some people whispering in corners about a maid that was found dead in the well of the palace right by the Third Princess Consort's residence.

"…her swollen dead body was pulled out of the well…" "So what did The Noble Princess Consort say about it?" "According to her, she was bullying her Master that morning…" "As if." "…ands must have lost her footing…" "in the morning? Who accidentally trips and falls into a well in the morning unless they are blind?" "A maid has to be comfortable with criticism, that is what they say, and they twisted their words entirely, so nothing has or can be done about it now." "Didn't they find any bruises on her? Something that can show the truth of what happened to that maid?" "They will surely say that she forgot her place by flirting with The Prince or whatever." I was truly shocked out of my mind when I heard all about this; so much so that I didn't may much heed to where I was heading, causing me to bump into a lantern that stood in the path of The Lady Min's carriage, who looked angrier than I had ever seen her. But it was when her horses were disturbed by the lantern that she truly lost her temper and before I eve had the chance to defend myself, I was thrown into the jailhouse for servants, even though I ranked higher than she did now with the decline of her family clan. And to make it all worse for me, she still had the power to control entire departments at will, until her sister was formally deposed that was. But this was a reminder of how miserable life was without holding a man's favour when I cried my heart out to let me be ruined with my baby. I could only hope that her reckless behaviour will pull her into her own makeshift grave along with her sister.

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"Please do not leave me on my own again." "After this, I shouldn't have a reason to part from you again, as I will never work for The Royal family again. I am only doing so to save our loved ones." "What if you get sick?" "I won't die without you." "Is that a promise? What if your employer kills you? The Third Princess Consort?" "I shall kill her first before she can harm anyone ever again. Here, come here, stop worrying so much and let us get ready or bed." My knees were about to buckle when I felt his lips so close to mine, my heart was beating out of my chest when I felt his big hands on my body and the sheer confidence in his drunken voice was making temptation harder than it already was to fight it. I was completely vulnerable when it came to him and I couldn't hide it as this jerk actually had there nerve to laugh at how red my face was getting. We were so totally lost in each other we forgot that The Lady Min was still around us somewhere and was probably getting angrier by the minute until she really did pull me off of him and threw me onto the floor before she tried to slap me before Seon-Ho got to her and threw her in return…and pulled me into his chest so tightly that I couldn't move.

She looked up at him in horror before she turned on me and tried to fight me again out of nowhere but this time I got to her before Seon-Ho snapped her in half and I slapped her to the ground myself. The look on her face was priceless as she went on a rant that was loud enough to wake up the entire neighbourhood about 'how I had changed him since the moment I came here', 'how I was the biggest distraction of his life' and 'was nothing more than an epileptic orphan who couldn't hope to gain a man never mind a husband like the young master.' She had hit at every single one of my insecurities and she knew it when I saw her grinning at me before I closed my eyes and I ordered both of them to leave my room immediately. Seon-Ho himself threw her out of my room but when I tried to close the door on him, he caught me and almost kicked the doors open himself. My heart trembled when I saw the look on his face; he wasn't going to leave my room tonight and he wasn't going to let me leave either.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I took you in, I took care of you, so can you not give me a couple of minutes of your time at least? It is not like you can go anywhere else right?" "I haven't said anything! What is wrong with you! Why does your mood keep changing every couple of minutes? How am I supposed to keep up?" "Don't give me excuses, nothing would have stopped you from coming to me before, so I wonder what the real reason is that you stay away from me now? Is it because you see me as a failure like everyone else in this world so you avoid me like I have a plague or something? I am not in control of my own self so the least you could do is…" "Is what? In case you haven't noticed you already have a woman who is willing to do everything to become your perfect little wife, so why are you here confronting me?" I should have seen it coming with how….unstable he was being right now, but before knew it, I had been pinned against the wall with my arms raised up above my head so I couldn't move. "Get off…get off of me! Get off…."