The Love They Never Had

"By order of His Highness's oral decree; arrest the ex-Mistress Han and take her away for strict interrogation for the garments scandal! Once the culprit is convicted, she will be sentenced to death for committing such an act of murder of a babe that hasn't even taken his first breath yet!" "My Lord, i have already found the culprit and I am waiting on The Third highness's presence to hear my case out in the laundry area!" "Servant Han, you must not accuse just anyone to quit yourself of blame!' "How would I dare to do so in front of Their Majesties?" "You area already clung such a huge disturbance today already, I do hope that you know what you are doing, servant. If you fail to seek out the culprit today then you will have to take on double he punishment, do you accept this?" "Yes, I do, now please call upon them so that I may prove my innocence once and for all."

"Well? This had better be good servant Han, and keep it quick since I have other things to do." "Your Highness, I have already asked the Master Central Attendant for the evidence to look over it, and I have already found some clues that can clear my innocence." "Well?" "Before I explain it to you, I would like to ask your servants to examine the hands of these maids so as to not incriminate myself or have a chance to set anything up to prove my innocence. Because everyone in the Landry bureau is a suspect alongside myself since we deal with the garments here." "Servant Han! What sort of nonsense is this!" "And of course, the one who protests to this simple request is already the guilty one, because your hands have already betrayed you!" "That is impossible! Because I have no cracks on my nails at all!" "And how do you know what I am looking for since I haven't enticed cracks on nails yet? Well?" "I….just took a guess, what else can you expect to find when examining nails?" "How very clever of you, and there lies the issue in itself! You knew that I would check everyone's nails to prove my innocence, that is why you are the only lady out of 100 that has trimmed her nails just for today alone? Unless you can come up with another solution? You truly are so sharp-wilted that you are wasting your talents in becoming a maid alone, maybe you should have become a fortune teller instead."

"What are you talking about? How would I know anything?" "Because the servant who gave me the robe all noted who witnessed him doing so, and you were the only one who stood in his way and asked him what he was doing and where he was taking the robe. But it seemed to work out in my favour and it made the culprit panic, since they would naturally become the more curious party when it came to the evidence in question. I even made some loud commentary under the witness of my room-mates in my quarters about loose stitching caused by scratches on my robes which I know were not made by myself since I also have no cracks on my nails, and I haven't cut them either. I even loudly suggested that the culprit was nervous in making the poison or leaving it in my robes to frame me where she would surely overhear me. And due to every single person having nails that vary in strength and size, the cracks will also appear differently according to each person, mainly women who carry out domesticated chores. I also personally witnessed you having cracks on your nails just yesterday and now today they are all gone? Even an experienced coroner could have determined he strength and shape of the scratches on my work robes and the nails of the culprit at hand. And nobody can remain calm when their life is at stake of committing a crime."

"So, you knew the culprit would eavesdrop your conversation to find out information? And take precautions by cutting her nails?" "Your Highness, I just happened to find the time to groom myself yesterday, it doesn't prove anything at all! Isn't it a bit too far-fetch to accuse me of murder for griming myself according to palace standards?" "I have t agree with her, servant Han, it is to far-fetched without more solid proof."

"Very well, I knew that this would not be sufficient evidence, so I also discovered evidence on the poison pouch that was found on my robes." "What sort of evidence? I told you to make this quick, girl!" "The pouch itself has been made by the culprit, Your Highness; though the materials, stitching and common use of the material. Every one of my colleagues know that I am the worst sewer and embroidery girl here, and I would use common fabric to practise on, that is true. But this fabric is the same ones that are used to make our robes, and only the maker of our robes uses this fabric. Yesterday, the noble ladies sent over excess piles of their clothes, so they were only given to the maker of those robes, who also coincidently makes our robes, which is this lady next to me that I find suspicious of framing me for poisoning the shu brocade robes." "No! I do not…have that fabric anymore!" "Enough of this tedious business! Men! Search the entire bureau for that fabric! Quickly!"

"Wait! Please!" "What is it? What objections do you have now?" "Your Highness, forgive me, but I will be held responsible if anything happens to the expensive clothes that we still have to wash here…" "I shall take all responsibility for that, don't you worry, servant."

"Your Highness! We have found it exactly under hat servant's bed!" "And let me guess; it is silk yarn thread, which is thicker than most silk threads that we have in the palace and it is used t make repairs on the expensive clothes as well? Because nobody else in this bureau was entrusted to keep the silk yarn thread with them. Unless she herself wants to call this another coincidence?" "I have been framed! I have served here for so many years without an incident or punishment at all! How could I possibly harm anyone with it or cause a miscarriage! Please uphold justice for me!"

"But this fabric isn't the only indictor of her involvement; I especially asked some Imperial Guards to investigate this suspect for me with the temporary authority that you handed over to me and I just found even more clues. Such as; suddenly purchasing many assets in her hometown and lending her family more money than she should have." "Very well, send her away! Have her and her family flogged to death for such a hideous crime! Go! And as for you, servant Han; should I praise you for being intelligent and well-spoken? Or reprimand you for being cunning and crafty?" "When dealing with extreme means, extreme measures should be taken in return, Your Highness. Does this mean that this matter is finally closed and I can anticipate a promotion myself soon?" "Han Hui-Jae, you really never fail to disappoint me, you know. Men! Grab this girl and drag her to the dungeons for strict interrogation!"

"What! No! What are you doing! I just proved my innocence…!" "Yes you did, you proved everything except for one tiny detail. I never handed you over temporary authority to order around the Imperial Guards to go digging into people's backgrounds. I would never in my life give that power to a servant, no matter who they were before that." "What are you talking about? You were the one who sent me a note with this jade pass to ask them for help!" "Then you have been tricked, because I wrote no such note and I certainly could never conspire with a servant to mess with The Royal Imperial Guard system that I myself perfected and implicated." "But if I was set up then surely I am still innocent?" "You can be, as long as you tell me where this incident with the Imperial Guard took place, who you used and when?" "I did it two days ago at noon. Well? Can I go now?" "There are no Imperial Guards star tined anywhere near you at noon two days ago, since they were all helping distribute medical herbs to the palace residents, every single one of them." "No! Your wife's servant, she can testify for me!" "Very well, let us get this over with…"

"Two days ago at noon?' "Don't you remember handing me off instructions from your Mistress herself about which flowers to pick for the sachets? Think about it carefully, how can you lie about something like that? If you dare to tell me any lies, then you are committing treason!" "Servant Han, what n earth is going on with you? Why are you threatening me into giving you a false alibi? If you continue to lie for the rest f your life, then Buddha will strike you down with lightening! I was the one leading the Imperial Guards to distribute the medical herbs to each and every resident, they all saw me! How desperate do you have to be to come up with such a weak and pathetic lie like that?" "We met in the Imperial Garden at noon! Why are you lying!"

"The Imperial Garden? The one almost halfway across the palace? Laundry maids don't even get breaks around noon, and I was doing my work, so how could we have met at all? Unless you have the power t produce doppelgängers now? Do you really dare to lie in front of His Highness? It was his orders that we were following to distribute the medical herbs at that specific time anyways! He knows that I am not lying!" "Because I found the corpse of a dead maid in the well outside of The Fifth Prince's official residence and I took her clothes! That as how I was able to meet you remember? You even scolded me about wearing such robes that didn't suit my laundry role at all! Why are you still lying! I even fit in with the new batch of maids and blended in with them to see you!" "Well, what a huge disturbance this is turning out to be! You are n longer in your brothel where you can do as you please, Han Hui-Jae! What was the need to even change your robes that caused this terrible miscarriage amongst my people!"

"But I am innocent, I am telling you!" "Your Highness, I did do as servant Han is proclaiming, but it was done after her shift." "Han Hui-Jae, how dare you deceive me over and over again!" "it isn't so, Your Highness!" "Men! Call on the Imperial Guard that servant Han supposedly met with!" "Your Highness, such a man came forward this morning and already gave us a statement; the servant Han supposedly broke into his private quarters in an attempt to seduce and elope with this guard. He was so frightened the consequences that he came clean as soon as it happened." "No! This isn't true!" "Do you think that you can toy with me as you wish, just because I let you stay in the palace!" "No! This is misunderstanding!" "…for the sake of you once carrying an Imperial Heir, I shall only keep you in the dungeons for a year at first before administrating physical punishment. And to think you are the cause of the Princess's miscarriage…" "wait, what did you say? The Princess? Which Princess? What are you talking about?" "My illegitimate sister who was wed into a noble family in he village were Seo Hwi resides. He was unable to accept such expensive gift for his wife, so my sister saw the opportunity to take it from them. She is the one who miscarried, why? Did you think it was Kim Hyeon who miscarried instead? And why would you think that at all? Just like the mild you used to send them the Glinting Satin material, the dead one who was found in the well? Killing two birds with one stone? Hui-Jae, even as a servant, how does everything come back to you? How powerful are you here?"