It did not take long for Lee Yeong to stride toward the Queen's residence with Eunuch Jang and Seon Yeo following closely behind him, while the servants who saw the furious expression on his face immediately stepped away from his path and the guards outside the residence opened the gate before he even needed to order them.
Lee Yeong entered the courtyard expecting to find Yeon Joo still kneeling on the stone ground, but the place where she had been punished was already empty, leaving only faint marks in the dust and several frightened attendants standing nearby.
"Where is she?" Lee Yeong asked, his voice quiet enough to make everyone in the courtyard more afraid than if he had shouted.
The Queen, who had only just returned from the morning court, followed his gaze toward the empty courtyard before looking at her senior attendant with visible confusion.
"She was there when I left."
Lee Yeong slowly turned toward her.
"I can see that she is no longer there, so I suggest you stop telling me where she was and start explaining where she is now."
The Queen's expression tightened before she looked toward the women standing behind her.
"Where is Sukbin?"
The senior attendant immediately lowered her head, while two younger attendants fell to their knees because they had been ordered to remain nearby while Yeon Joo served her punishment.
"Your Majesty, Sukbin Mama was still kneeling when the Queen left for the royal court," one of them answered nervously.
"Then where did she go?" the Queen asked.
The attendants exchanged frightened looks before lowering their heads even further.
"We do not know."
Lee Yeong walked toward them with such a cold expression that neither woman dared to breathe properly.
"You were ordered to watch her, yet now you are telling me that she disappeared in front of you without either of you noticing?"
The first attendant bowed until her forehead touched the ground.
"Please forgive us, Jeonha. Sukbin Mama complained that she was thirsty, so we brought her some water, but shortly afterward a kitchen servant came and said there was a problem with the Queen's morning meal."
"And both of you left her alone?" Lee Yeong asked.
"We believed the guards at the gate would remain with her."
Lee Yeong turned toward the guards standing near the entrance.
"Did Yeon Joo leave through this gate?"
The guards immediately knelt.
"No, Jeonha. Sukbin Mama did not pass through the main gate."
Seon Yeo walked toward the place where Yeon Joo had been kneeling and crouched down, studying the marks beside the stone path before running his fingers across a thin line in the dirt.
"Jeonha, there are dragging marks leading toward the side of the residence."
The Queen looked toward him with surprise.
"I did not order anyone to move her."
Lee Yeong turned back toward the Queen, and the anger in his eyes became even colder.
"You ordered your attendants to drag her from my chamber after she refused your summons, you punished her without my permission, and now she has disappeared from inside your residence."
"I ordered her to kneel because she disobeyed the rules of the inner palace, but I did not order anyone to take her away."
"You expect me to believe that?"
The Queen lifted her chin, although uncertainty had already appeared in her expression.
"I have no reason to lie to you."
"You have many reasons, and until I know which one of them caused this, I will trust no one inside this residence."
Lee Yeong turned toward Seon Yeo.
"Close every gate in the palace, search every residence, kitchen, storage room, servants' quarter and carriage, and make sure no one leaves until Yeon Joo is found."
Seon Yeo immediately bowed.
"Yes, Jeonha."
Lee Yeong then looked toward Eunuch Jang.
"Take every attendant and guard from the Queen's residence for questioning, and do not stop until someone explains who brought the water, who called the attendants away, who opened the side entrance and who changed the guard schedule."
The Queen's senior attendant raised her head in alarm.
"Jeonha, we only followed Her Majesty's instructions."
"Then you will have no difficulty repeating every instruction you received."
The palace guards entered the courtyard and began taking the attendants away one by one, while some of the women cried and others continued pleading that they knew nothing about Yeon Joo's disappearance.
The Queen stepped forward when she saw her people being removed.
"You cannot interrogate every woman in my residence as though they are criminals."
Lee Yeong looked at her without any warmth.
"They are the last people who saw Yeon Joo, and until she is found, every one of them is a possible witness or accomplice."
"They belong to the inner palace."
"They belong to Joseon, and Joseon belongs to me."
The Queen's face became red with humiliation.
"You are dishonouring me because of one disobedient concubine."
Lee Yeong stepped closer, and when he spoke, his voice became so low that the Queen could no longer pretend she did not understand his warning.
"She is not merely one of my concubines."
The Queen became silent, but Lee Yeong did not allow her time to recover.
He turned toward the captain of the guards.
"The Queen will remain inside her chamber until Yeon Joo is found, and no visitors, letters, servants or messages are permitted to enter or leave without my direct approval."
The Queen stared at him in disbelief.
"You are confining me inside my own residence?"
"I am preventing anyone in this residence from hiding information or sending warnings to people outside the palace."
"You cannot cut the Queen of Joseon away from her own family."
"I already have."
"Jeonha, I truly do not know where she is."
"Then you should pray that the investigation proves it."
The Queen's hands tightened at her sides as the guards moved toward her, but the fury in Lee Yeong's face stopped her from resisting.
Before entering her chamber, she looked back at him once more.
"I only ordered her punishment. I did not take her."
Lee Yeong gave no answer.
The chamber doors closed behind the Queen, and two of his loyal guards immediately took their places outside, making it clear that no one would be permitted to enter or leave.
When the courtyard finally became quiet, Lee Yeong remained standing where Yeon Joo had last been seen, while Eunuch Jang waited several steps behind him and Seon Yeo's men searched every path around the residence.
There was no blood, no torn fabric and no clear sign that Yeon Joo had fought against whoever had taken her, which made the emptiness of the courtyard feel even more frightening.
"Jeonha, the interrogation will begin immediately," Eunuch Jang said carefully.
Lee Yeong did not answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the place where Yeon Joo had been kneeling, but in his mind, he was no longer standing inside the Queen's courtyard.
He remembered the first time she had disappeared from him, when the blue light had swallowed her before his eyes and left his chamber colder than any winter night he had ever endured, while every person around him insisted that she could not have vanished into another world.
He remembered the empty bed, the untouched food, the nights filled with wine and the unbearable silence that followed every time he called her name and received no answer.
That same feeling returned now, pressing against his chest with such force that he could barely breathe.
Lee Yeong slowly closed his eyes, but the memory of Yeon Joo disappearing only became clearer.
He had promised himself that he would never feel this helpless again, yet as he stood inside the empty courtyard with no clue where she had gone, the fear inside him was exactly the same as before.
Yeon Joo had disappeared again.
Only this time, Lee Yeong did not know whether the necklace had taken her back to the future—
or whether someone inside his own palace had taken her somewhere far more dangerous.