Chapter 125: An Ending Without Answers

“So, you were deceived by that man.”

“That is correct.”

“Your servant was also shocked that the Minister brought nothing during the Founding Festival.”

“I beg for Your Majesty’s understanding.”

“Very well, I shall believe those words.”

“However… did you also know that he is the Noble Consort’s biological grandfather?”

A horrified gasp escaped Yak-hong’s lips.

At the small sound that burst out, Gangcheon knew the truth without needing to hear a single word more.

“So you did know.”

“Then why have you been feigning ignorance all this time?”

“I was deeply disheartened to find you had hidden such a fact from Me.”

“Did I not cherish you and send the Consort to you as an adopted son, since you had no children of your own? Is that not so?”

Of course, it wasn’t that he cherished the man; he had simply provided for him for the Consort’s sake.

What the actual facts were didn’t matter much right now.

What was important was how he spoke to coax the man.

Jeong Yak-hong bowed his body repeatedly and sobbed quietly.

“Your… your servant simply feared that if the truth were known, the Noble Consort would fall out of Your Majesty’s favor.”

“Is he not a person burdened with many worries due to his lowly birth?”

“Since when have you known?”

“I learned of it before the Noble Consort entered the palace, while he was staying at my private residence.”

If it was during the time Sirak stayed at his house to prepare for entering the court after leaving the gisaeng house, it meant the man had known from the very beginning.

Gangcheon looked down coldly at the back of his head and asked quietly.

“Do you know how the Consort lived before he came to Hanseong?”

“Your servant does not know well.”

“I only heard that he was raised in a gisaeng house.”

“I only worried about how difficult it must have been for him to grow up in such a place.”

“I did not dare ask for details, fearing it might cause him pain.”

Yak-hong said that the son he gained late in life was precious to him, even if they shared no blood.

He said that if Sirak wanted something, he would grant it without even considering the implications.

“I never dreamed the Minister of Rites was plotting treason.”

“When Your Majesty began seeking out the Empress recently, the Minister of Rites did contact the Consort’s Palace through me.”

“However, your servant knew nothing of the contents and merely acted as a messenger for the notes.”

He answered desperately, claiming he thought they were simply discussing ways to win back the Emperor’s heart.

He was a useless human regardless.

Gangcheon felt like beheading him right then and there.

However, he nodded as if understanding the man’s heart and coaxed him gently.

He secured a promise that Yak-hong would testify about the circumstances of handing over the black bamboo during the Minister of Rites’ interrogation.

Yak-hong feared harm would come to the Consort, but when Gangcheon whispered that no such thing would happen, he believed him implicitly.

Because he was so easy to manipulate, the Consort and the Minister of Rites must have used him at their whim.

“Stay here until the interrogation of the Minister of Rites is finished.”

“I shall tell the jailer to provide for your convenience.”

“Your Majesty’s grace is boundless.”

“I shall send word to your residence that you have gone to the provinces for a short time. To the Consort as well.”

Yak-hong, silent for a moment, pressed his forehead to the ground.

“Your servant shall trust only in Your Majesty’s promise.”

Gangcheon bared his teeth in a smile where the man could not see.

Was there any reason to spare a man so easily swayed?

He intended to lump him in with the rest and kill him once the Minister of Rites’ interrogation was over.

As he left the cell, Gangcheon’s eyes flashed with a sharp light.

He desperately wanted to hear the truth from Sirak, whatever his schemes might be.

Veins bulged on his clenched hands as he suppressed the urge to go and interrogate the Consort immediately.

‘I must endure for now.’

He would seek him out after the Minister of Rites and his kin were all purged.

Until then, it was more important to keep people’s mouths shut so that word of the foster father’s presence here did not leak.

****

However, once the interrogation began, the Minister of Rites changed his tune as if he had never resisted.

He confessed to all his crimes and claimed he had acted alone.

“Prisoner Yun Hyeon-pyeong. Do you admit to plotting treason and attempting to assassinate His Imperial Majesty?”

At the Minister of Justice’s question, the Minister of Rites, kneeling on the stone floor of the interrogation ground, nodded quietly.

“I only wished to avenge the late Emperor and the Crown Prince, who died sudden deaths, and all those killed by the current Emperor.”

“If you call it treason, then so be it, but is the current Emperor not unfit to sit upon the throne?”

“I have committed no crime by seeking to kill a man without merit.”

The Minister of Justice sighed.

His following voice was extremely stern and grave.

“How dare you discuss the Emperor’s fitness. Are you, a prisoner, fit to judge?”

“The prisoner’s crimes are as follows: First, doubting the legitimacy of the Emperor bestowed by heaven.”

“Second, plotting treason based on unverified suspicions.”

“Third, daring to harm the Emperor and the Empress due to your own delusions.”

“Furthermore, joining hands with barbarian remnants while plotting treason shall be your fourth crime.”

“As a subject and citizen of Yeoran, how could you conspire with barbarians?”

“Had you considered the people who suffered under barbarian invasions throughout the long history of Yeoran, you would not and could not have done such a thing. Does the prisoner have any objection to the bench’s words?”

As a result of interrogating the captured assassins all night, it was revealed they were remnants of the barbarians.

They were likely the forces Gangcheon had failed to finish off due to the lack of time before returning to the capital to end the war.

Had things become this tangled because he had removed the previous Emperor in such haste?

Gangcheon clicked his tongue softly while watching the interrogation.

The Minister of Rites confessed his crimes with total candor.

Since there were no rebuttals and he claimed to have had no accomplices, the witnesses he had prepared became useless.

Moreover, clarifying the connection with the Noble Consort became awkward.

‘Should I arrange for the two to meet separately?’

It might be easier to handle it quietly that way.

However, things seemed to keep tangling in directions he did not desire.

‘This is not good.’

Gangcheon fell into thought, lightly tapping the armrest of the dragon throne.

What should he do about the future?

What should he do after asking Sirak about his true intentions for coming to him?

If the man replied with more lies, Gangcheon felt he would be extremely angry.

If he confessed to conspiring with the Minister of Rites to pull him down, it would be the same.

Furthermore, Gangcheon had lost all trust in Sirak.

How could he trust a man whose every word from beginning to end had been a lie?

Gangcheon had already discarded any feelings he had for Sirak.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

He felt like his chest would burst at his own foolishness for cherishing a person with such an agenda.

Granted, how could he have known when the man had set out to deceive him?

But the more he admitted he had been fooled, the more his mood soured.

He had neglected the Empress to hold such a man in his arms, which made it even worse.

Recalling Haeryeong shivering with rage made a boulder seem to grow in his chest.

‘What must I do now to soothe the Empress’s heart?’

Gangcheon sighed deeply, clicking his tongue internally.

In any case, the current dilemma was what to do with Sirak.

His heart wanted to implicate him with the Minister of Rites and have him executed, but the Empress’s reaction was a concern.

Unless it was proven beyond doubt that he participated in the treason, the Empress he knew would surely oppose the execution, arguing it was too harsh.

‘Should I settle for confining him in the Cold Palace? But his behavior is far too insolent for that.’

Gangcheon sighed again.

If not for the Empress, he would have finished this transgression with an execution and forgotten it.

‘Should I just ask the Empress for his opinion instead of agonizing like this?’

But the thought of seeking out a man who acted as though he loathed being seen made his stomach feel heavy again.

Nothing went as he wished.

Gangcheon thought of the Empress with an irritated expression.

The Empress was the one thing he could least control.

‘Just how can I soothe his anger? How can I handle a man who won’t even reply to my letters sent with irises?’

****

News of the interrogation of the Minister of Rites, who had been arrested for treason, reached the Empress’s Palace.

Since Su-yong had failed to answer his summons for two days, Haeryeong heard of the situation through the other court ladies.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the palace was in such an uproar that rumors reached him even while he stayed still.

Thus, while Haeryeong stayed confined to treat his injury, he managed to grasp the general situation.

He heard that after the interrogation ended abruptly with the Minister’s confession, the Emperor had finished a long meeting with his officials and confirmed the punishments for the man and his kin.

Since it was treason, execution was a certainty.

He wasn’t particularly curious about that.

What Haeryeong wondered was what the relationship between the Noble Consort and the Minister of Rites truly was.

Judging by the fact that the Consort’s name did not come up at the interrogation grounds, perhaps the Emperor had noticed their relationship early on.

‘Is the current arrest of the Minister of Rites meant to destroy the evidence of the Consort’s connection to him?’

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