"…I am no defending myself for an act that never took place between us! Of course such a sin should come with harsh punishment, but even you know yourself that I have had no interactions with your nephew apart from he first month of my stay as his guardian! This is obviously a frame up since my husband's arrest and you cannot hide your true intent of…" "My Lady, I am simply carrying out an order from The Crown Prince, so watch your words lest you slander me unjustly!" "But you are no longer an Inspector General, so what right do you have to…" "It exactly due to my previous experience that The Crown Prince has entrusted this matter to me, and because of my loose ties to your family that I can hardly loosen myself from no matter what I do." "So as an ex Inspector General, you are not taking into account the fact that if someone has committed thievery, they usually keep the item close to their bodies instead of leaving it in some haphazard place where anyone can stumble upon it…." "…my nephew lives alone in his quarters and was not expecting a new maid to stumble in and find such an intimate item of clothing on his…" "…so how do you know the item belongs to me at all?" "Because like you said you were the only female to come into close contact with him before me wife dlid under my roof, the other clan members have never taken a single step into his residence at all, not even once." "How can you still not think for my sake at all? Not even once! After everything that I have done for you!" "Oh? Please tell me what it is that you have done for me? Schemed with The Mistress Han to harm my wife? You were her spy when you met my wife before she sent you as a spy into my household 'to look after me.' And you were the one that sent her that poisoned soup, was it not? Actually, I do have to thank you for that one since we were able to use it against The Senior Scholar after all, so I will do you one small favour and hold you under house arrest for only a short while before The Royal Family shortly disposes of you, but that is all that I can do. Do not forget that we have to take The Crown Prince's reputation and word into account above everything else and let us be honest here; nobody had benefited from being associated with you at all. You even drove your own family to their deaths, so why even bother fighting for your life at all?"
"Is family support even that important! Why couldn't you just take me for face value as you did your own wife!" "Are you kidding me? I would have died a long time ago if I didn't have The Seo name protecting me even if I didn't protect them in return during our youths. And now the power and status that they have in their own right will protect the lineage that I shall create together with my wife, in spite of my father's crime and the selfish misdeeds of The Nam Clan." "So that is all you care about?" "I wouldn't be alive without it, so what do you think? And what about you? Would you really have any interest in me at all without my power and wealth? Well? All marriages are based on an exchange of personal advantages; a man has to protect and provide for his family, a woman seeks protection and provisions whilst raising her man's family and overall protection from both sides of the family are expected, so I really do not understand everyone's fascination and endless commentary with my own marriage." "Well let us hope that all of your hard work does not rest on her birthing a useless girl just like the rest of The Nam Clan!" "My daughter will be a Seo, so it is impossible for her to become useless even if she wants to be, and even if I do have a daughter, she will become my heart's solace indeed of a tool to use like your parents did you, so what other insults do you have lined up for me?" "You bastard!" "I maybe a bastard, but you are a liar in the making, which I am sure I can add onto your current charges…" "What lies have I told? Are you really so obsessed with taking your family down that you will just make up anything now and believe it?" "Believe it or not, that is my wife's speciality; to connect random points together and make it work on any victim of my choice." "Any victim of your choice? Are you serious? I do not think that even you can magic some excuse out of thin air." "Is that so? Then how about this? The Princess is missing a pair of twin locks made from gold that was gifted to her by her mother, and in your husband's most recent fight against her, he gifted it to you out of spite. All you have to do is to return it to her and I can drop this charge and lessen your sentence."
"I…have no idea where my servants put it! You have to ask them for…and anyways, why are you asking about it if it was gifted to me? That makes it mine now! Or do you not understand the concept of gift giving My Lord?" "And do you not understand that your husband is now divorced from his main wife, so there is nobody supporting you in the palace at all? The Princess is waiting for her belongings now to end her nightmare, so get on with it girl?" "It is dark now and we cannot see clearly without the candles that you took from us…." "So I shall return them to you, and I will assemble more servants to help you search for them." "No! How can you let unknown servants pilfer my items?" "What items? Everything that you own is spent from the silver of the main wife? You know what, I do not have all day to wait as I have an extremely pregnant wife waiting for me at home. I should just take charge of your quarters and look for myself…" "I sold them! A long time ago! Before my husband could even support me and I needed to feed myself! I couldn't waste away to wait for him to feed me could I? I was living on hard times back then, so I had two sell my entire dowry…" "So you lied to me?" "What married woman can proudly admit to stooping so low? Do you think that your wife could admit to the same thing?" "Of course she wouldn't, because she didn't take in any dowry at all. I refused it since I could support us both to the ends of our days even if I didn't work at all." "So what? I didn't lie or trick anyone! I told you what happened and you still have not shown any proof of my adultery charge, so what happens now?" "What do you think happens now? I need to find out about what else you lied about so I can determine your charges." "What other charges can you possibly find on me?" "When we first met properly, you told me that you were illiterate, isn't that right?" "Yes, I…." "Very well, so. I can reclaim all that I promised you when I took you on as my concubine, including some of my personal assets…" "No! I cannot loose that as well!" "Loose what?" "You know what! You're newly acquired embroidery shops, the pawn shop that your father invested in…" "So you can also read?" "No! I heard about it from…" "Let me ask you one last time, is there anything else that you have lied about?" "Nothing else?" "Servants! Bring him in!" "Now what are you up to….brother? What are you…" "And here I was thinking that your entire family perished for you under my aunt and her family, but you were hiding your adopted brother all along? With the help of The Mistress Han, I am sure…" "My Lord Nam…." "You have deceived your husband, The Royal Family that we wedded into and even my own clan…" "No! It wasn't my fault! I was deceived….he, my brother was the one who deceived me also! I really had no idea that he was alive all along! You can even take me in as a maid once again! And I promise you that I shall never interfere in your family matters ever again!" "Servants! Take the boy to my home where he shall start his work as a servant! And as for this concubine here, shift her over to the cold palace along with her husband!" "No! My brother cannot be trusted! He has never worked a day in his life, so how can he become a damned lowly servant! My Lord Nam! Please save me! I am still useful as you know it! My husband! You have no idea what he did to me to force me into marriage! And then to come here and suffer under his wife….!" "You suffered for this brother of yours and to break up my marriage, and now you yourself shall suffer the consequences of your actions at long last! The Nam Clan did not accept you due to your lowly background, so let us see what they do with an adopted orphan boy under their rule now in your stead."
"Lord Nam? Your wife has sent your nephew to you as well as his servants who were witnesses to the crime…" "What crime! What happened! Nothing went on between us! I can even put my own life on the line for this false charge!" "Vey well, on your own head be it. Call in my nephew and his servants so that we can write down his confession." "Let us see exactly what false confession that you can draw out of this now, Lord Nam!!
"…I saw her servant sneaking around, so I took it upon my own initiative and I fund some letters addressed to the concubine that were stuffed under his pillow….and rather graphic ones at that. That is also where I found a rather small pile of intimate lingerie that I know for sure does not belong to any other woman from The Nam Clan." "What? How was I supposed to know about all of this if I never received such letters in the first place? I am innocent!" "There is already clear evidence that you seduced him under my roof and were not faithful to your husband at all! Here, give these evidences to The Crown Prince to seal her punishment." "Lord Nam, he has already given you full authority to handle this case on your own due to your previous experience, including distributing all punishments." "My Lord! You cannot frame me like this! Please!" "In that case…let us take her to The Cold Palace along with her husband and sister in law, and I shall punish my nephew at home myself. And as for The Senior Scholar…it is time to bring him in myself now I think, and then I am done here in the palace."