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"Why are we helping that puppet King find the cause of death of his mother?" Minister Seo asked as he walked along the corridor with Minister Kim, back to their office quarters.

"Because we are helpful," Minister Kim replied, laughing. Minister Seo can clearly hear the sarcasm in his laughter, but he remained silent and said nothing. After laughing to his content, Minister Kim looked at Minister Seo with a hopeless gaze. "Do you really think we are really helping that foolish King?"

Minister Seo spoke nothing. 

Minister Kim looked at him helplessly. Why did the Prime Minister even let you stick close to him? He shakes his head a few times. At times like this, he is not sure whether he should call Minister Seo dumb or naive. Minister Kim let out a sigh before explaining to him. "We are going to let the King be the scapegoat. Everyone will be blaming him instead of us, get it?" 

Minister Seo looked at Minister Kim. He seems to get it, but at the same time don't. Rolling his eyes, Minister Kim explained with more details. "Our plan is to first accuse that young shaman of poisoning the late Queen Dowager. Then we get the King to personally sentence her to death."

"Young shaman? But it's the head shaman whom we instructed to poison the late Queen Dowager." Minister Seo raised both his eyebrows.

"Blame that young shaman for finding out about our plan!" Minister Kim exclaimed. "But anyway, that's the interesting part. After killing her, we will reveal that the one who actually poisoned the late Queen Dowager is the head shaman." Minister Kim then laughed out loudly.

"Everyone will be blaming that foolish King for being too emotional and killing the wrong person! Doesn't this sound interesting?" He continued his loud laughter.

"How is this interesting? We are killing people, and some are even innocent!" Minister Seo exclaimed. 

"You fool!" Minister Kim stopped laughing and said. "How did you even come this far with that naive thinking? Of course, we needed some sacrifices to achieve our aim. As long as we achieved our aim, who cares who died?"

Minister Seo knitted his eyebrow together. This is not what he wants. Though he supported Prime Minister Heo, he had never approved his way of randomly killing innocent people.

"Don't look at me like that." Minister Kim commented casually. "We are all involved in this together. Don't act as if you are not part of this." They arrived at their office quarters. Minister Kim walked towards his desk, while Minister Seo stood by the door in a daze.

"Does that head shaman know about this plan?" Minister Seo asked softly after a long silence.

"Of course not." Minister Kim picked up the book before him. "God knows what she will do if she finds out that she is going to die for this plan.

**********

Minister Seo glanced at the King. His eyes focused on the King for a moment. If only you were a good King. If you were a good King, I wouldn't have gone against you.

"Why is the Queen attending this court meeting?" A minister from the Soron faction questioned. A few other ministers demanded to know the answer as well. "The Queen should only be in charge of the internal court matters. She should not be here, Your Majesty!" One minister said loudly.

Joy fixed her eyes on those ministers who opposed her presence in the court. It's obvious that gender equality doesn't exist in Joseon yet, she thought. But the feminist part of her is unable to hold herself back from this kind of discrimination.