Original subtitles

I greet Your Imperial Majesty.

-Your Imperial Majesty. -Your Imperial Majesty.

Your Imperial Majesty.

I regret to inform you

that Her Imperial Majesty has ordered me not to let anyone--

My apologies, Your Imperial Majesty.

Be grateful that His Imperial Majesty cannot speak.

I would have killed you if he told me to.

Yang.

What?

His Imperial Majesty went to the library?

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

He is in the library with Concubine Ki.

If His Imperial Majesty insists on bringing Concubine Ki out--

Lead the way. I will put a stop to this.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

Yang, are you okay?

I lost consciousness for a bit.

Stand up now.

Leave with me.

I only have a few more left.

I will leave after finishing this.

You have starved for three days straight.

You could die this way.

Yang,

how can I help you with this?

Tell me.

If I can be of help, I will do anything--

What can you do for me?

Are you going to read the Instructions for Women for me?

Or are you going to write it for me as I read it to you?

If that is not the case,

are you going to use your authority to deal with those people?

You are even trying to give up what is left of your authority

all because you are scared.

Your Imperial Majesty,

there is nothing left that you can do for me.

I, as well,

have nothing left that I will do for you.

So please...

leave me to be here.

Your Imperial Majesty,

what are you doing in there?

Concubine Ki went against the rules of the Inner Court

and made a fool out of me.

She is subject to disciplinary action.

How could you interfere with the Inner Court's business?

This is completely unacceptable.

Come out now

and retain your dignity, Your Imperial Majesty.

Do you not hear me, Your Imperial Majesty?

Your Imperial Majesty.

Golta.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

I was going to give up everything for Yang,

but I was wrong.

Your Imperial Majesty.

I am going to start studying again today.

Your Ladyship.

-Your Ladyship. -Your Ladyship.

I have completed writing down all 100 copies

of Instructions for Women.

After this,

do you realize how strict the Inner Court's rules are?

It is all thanks

to your immense and immeasurable grace,

Your Imperial Majesty.

I will be kind to you

and continue to show you how great my grace can be.

Therefore,

do not challenge my authority ever again.

"Clouds soar up to end in rain."

"Clouds soar up to end in rain."

Your Imperial Majesty.

Your Imperial Majesty, Concubine Ki just left the library

and safely returned to her chamber.

Do not let Yang know that I am studying

how to read and write.

Why not?

I want to show her that I can do it.

And through this,

I want to make Yang happier.

Understood.

But...

until when do you plan on pretending to be mute?

When Yeoncheol announces my abdication,

I will say it myself that it is impossible.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

Please do so.

"Clouds soar up to end in rain."

Seung-nyang, where are you?

I miss you.

So you have someone you love.

Now flip the cards.

It appears you love this person very much.

However,

the woman you love is like a rare and precious jewel.

She will stand out wherever she is.

If you want to be with her,

you must leave this place

and go far away with her.

This is complete nonsense. Let us leave.

I will find out what is going on and return right away.

Until then,

take care of yourselves.

Your Majesty.

I have returned.

Any word on Mu-song?

Eunuch Bang is receiving help from the headman of the village.

We will hear from him soon.

Enough.

Tell us.

Who are you serving?

You have until today to tell us.

I will ask you again.

Who are you serving?

The one I serve is...

Go on.

It is your mom.

I should just kill you.

If you insist on not telling us,

we will strip all of your flesh down to the very bone

before you even die.

If you do not want to die pitifully,

tell us now.

What is going on?

I guess I am in the wrong place.

Where am I supposed to throw away this dirty water?

Get out of here.

Yes. I will leave.

Headman.

You idiot, why did you get here so late?

Whatever. Please give me some.

I could not eat anything on my way here.

I am getting dizzy and I can feel my ribs coming out of my body.

Are you seriously taking a slave's food?

Goodness. Here.

Did you look into it?

You are looking for

the handsome guy with a big nose, right?

Yes, that is right. Did you see him?

Right now,

he is being tortured by those men.

If you do not save him now, he will probably die.

Mu-song...

My dear friend Mu-song...

Hey, are you not going to give me back my rice?

I am so hungry.

We cannot just sit here and ponder.

We need to just barge in.

Let us think about Seung-nyang later.

We need to save Mu-song first.

If we delay any longer, he could be a dead man, Your Majesty.

-Your Majesty. -Your Majesty.

We will fight them head-on.

We will hit their base now.

What?

Right now?

In this broad daylight?

Should we not wait until the sun sets?

Even if we kill him ten times over,

he will not talk.

I have no problem killing that guy.

It is someone else that is concerning me.

The one who shot the fire arrow.

Seeing how they got the gunpowder in the barrel,

there is no doubt that someone has infiltrated our group.

Are you saying we have a traitor among us?

If that is not the case,

there is no explanation for it.

Master.

There is someone looking for you, Master.

Who is it?

He says he is Wang Yu from Goryeo.

Wang Yu? I do not know him.

If you do not know him, I will have him leave.

Wait.

If it is Wang Yu from Goryeo...

He was the King of Goryeo and lost his throne.

He stopped my counterfeit operation once.

If he is here,

does that mean he knows

what we did in Goryeo?

I am the leader of this group.

You said you were Wang Yu, right?

Are you Heuk Su?

I am fully aware of your reputation.

But what brings you here?

I am here to get one of my men back.

One of your men?

Then the people who stole the chao were--

To be exact, they were counterfeit.

Wang Yu...

He is making a big mistake.

If we leave him be, he will be killed.

Will you save him again?

Showing compassion one time is enough.

You are playing with fire to save one of your men.

You are very brave. I will give you that.

I do not wish to talk to you any longer.

Return him to me now.

Come in.

I suppose the King of Goryeo has ten lives at his disposal.

Do you think you can kill me?

This is a place where even human lives are traded off.

You killed our men and stole our counterfeit bills.

Do you think I would just let you go?

You will not be able to kill me.

I guess you just cannot wait to die.

Kill them all.

Wait.

Do you know who you are dealing with?

What are you doing? Kill them.

He is...

Grand Councillor Yeoncheol's...

nephew-in-law.

What?

Grand Councillor Yeoncheol?

I dare you

to touch even a single strand of hair on his head, you idiots.

Do so, and this place will become a sea of fire.

I was mistaken. Please forgive me,

Wang Yu.

I can see you catch on very quickly.

Return his man to him now.

-Yes. -Yes.

Well,

now that we are done with the introductions,

let us get straight to the point.

I heard you were given a hard time by the Empress.

Thanks to her, I have had many thoughts recently.

As long as Your Ladyship are in the Imperial Palace,

the Empress will do all kinds of heinous deeds to you.

That is why

I plan to make the first attack this time.

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote

that one should induce the enemy to make mistakes.

Are you saying

you will make her commit a crime?

I will make her do something vile.

And to pay for her crime,

she will have to give up the Empress's seal.

The Empress's seal

is the very thing that gives her authority and prestige.

I will make her lose

that malicious power.

It is not wise to face it head-on.

If you wish to be victorious, you must prepare more--

You can prepare for a fight, but you can never be prepared to win.

That is how you put up a fight.

Only when you are furious and dying to fight

is when a warrior gives their all.

But Uncle--

Whatever you do in here, you have to take a risk.

If you start a fight, you must come out victorious.

There is absolutely no excuse for defeat.

Once I raise

my arrow to its bow,

I will not put it back down.

With the position Her Ladyship is in,

the slightest slip could bring disastrous results.

If we doubted her skills, we would not have used her to begin with.

We have already chosen her. We might as well believe in her.

Did you see that?

I can tell from Yang's face that she despises me.

It is not too late to tell her that you are studying.

Once I memorize the Thousand Character Classic,

I will tell her then.

Are you not being too cold to the Emperor?

My cold attitude will be

good for His Imperial Majesty.

I will patiently wait instead of being hasty.

Your Ladyship.

All of the Imperial Concubines have gone to the Empress's palace just now.

Why the Empress's palace?

The Imperial Concubines are offering gifts from their families.

Gifts?

This is silk from Concubine Oh.

How beautiful.

I am glad to hear that you are pleased with it, Your Imperial Majesty.

This will be

perfect to use for Maha's diapers.

This is from Concubine Bu.

It is celadon.

Celadon?

This precious piece is perfect

to be used

as Maha's chamber pot.

But what has gotten into all of you?

Why are you giving me gifts?

Actually,

we have a request for you, Your Imperial Majesty.

What is it?

It is about the tonic that you give us every morning.

We were hoping that it could be discontinued.

-Please, Your Imperial Majesty. -Please, Your Imperial Majesty.

Why you little...

You dare to try and buy my favor through this rubbish?

Your Imperial Majesty, all we want is--

I do not need any of this. Take it back.

I think we have stirred up unnecessary trouble.

I think so too.

All we did was make Her Imperial Majesty furious.

Well, there is...

another way.

Court Lady Yeon makes the tonic.

If we can get Court Lady Yeon on our side and have her switch it--

You all are truly naive.

Did you think your little presents would

sway Her Imperial Majesty's feelings?

None of this concerns you.

I have something to tell you.

I do not have anything that I need to hear from you.

It appears that they think you stole His Imperial Majesty from them.

They bad-mouth you whenever they are together, Your Ladyship.

Watch their every move.

Yes, Your Ladyship.

Please take care of me, Court Lady Yeon.

I heard if you drink that tonic for a long time,

you could become infertile from it.

Is it not your job to serve the tonics?

Just switch it with something that is good for us.

Her Imperial Majesty will not know.

Well, that is true.

If you help us,

I will give you another one that is exactly like it.

Really?

If Her Imperial Majesty finds out, I will never hear the end of it.

They want me to switch the tonics?

They have got to be kidding me.

You have made a huge mistake.

How could you

even think about bribing a senior court lady?

Court Lady Yeon

is very well aware of who is above her.

She would never risk her life and switch the tonic

just because she made a promise

to some Imperial Concubines.

Court Lady Yeon has already accepted our bribes.

Of course she would never refuse.

Even if something goes wrong later on,

as long as she reveals that some Imperial Concubines bribed her,

Court Lady Yeon will only receive an even bigger reward.

I can guarantee

that you all will get kicked out of the Palace for sure.

That is how things work in the Palace.

It is a place where one mistake

can make you lose everything.

Then,

how do you propose we go about this?

You must know something.

You must know how to go about this.

Please tell me what we should do.

What do you think you are doing?

Just now,

I have showed you how to do it.

What is that in your hands?

The Eagle House has sent it for Her Imperial Majesty.

The Eagle House? What do they want?

This is a letter from someone named Heuk Su.

What does it say?

It appears that they want to present items that the Inner Court needs.

Seeing as it is for Her Imperial Majesty not the Empress Dowager,

it appears that they are very quick in understanding the trends.

I will deliver it to Her Imperial Majesty. Give it here.

Yes, General.

Why is Heuk Su, of all the masters of the Eagle House,

approaching Her Imperial Majesty?

Heuk Su was the one who sold Concubine Ki as a slave.

I guess she wants to deal with him as well.

Although we do not know what will happen for sure,

I am looking forward

to Concubine Ki's plans.

These are all items that came from the West?

Yes.

The Eagle House is spread out all the way to the Ilkhanate.

Is it okay for me to keep all of this?

Heuk Su, the man who sent this,

is keeping a very close relationship with Father.

I see. That is great.

Your Imperial Majesty,

there is trouble at the Imperial Concubines' palace.

Trouble?

The Imperial Concubines are fighting with each other.

Who is fighting with who?

Did you just hit me?

Who was the one to hit me first?

I am the daughter of the governor of Unnam Province.

I am completely different from a Goryeo tribute woman like you.

You and I are both concubines of the fifth rank.

What is so great about being born into a good family?

You really are begging for a fight.

The same goes to all of you.

Scorn me again

for being a tribute woman from Goryeo,

and I will snap your wrists like twigs.

What is all the commotion?

Have you all lost your mind?

How dare you fight in a place like this?

This is not fair, Your Imperial Majesty.

I did not start the fight--

Shut up.

We will hold an evening assembly, so be aware of that.

Court Lady Yeon, do not forget to prepare the tonics.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

But that wench Ki will probably not drink the tonic again tonight.

That is what I am hoping for.

Pardon?

If she rejects my tonic,

I will twist her legs so hard that she will be crippled.

She even got into a fight.

There is no better opportunity than this.

And even if she tries,

the Empress Dowager will not be able to take that wench's side this time.

Prepare it well.

What an evil little wench.

Do not let this go.

Tell your father and have her punished.

What are you doing here?

Concubine Ki would like to apologize for earlier,

so she has sent dried persimmons.

We do not want them. Take them away.

She will kill me if I do not deliver them.

Why that little...

She only apologizes now? How shameless of her.

How can you even eat that?

I have not eaten all day.

Are you still feeding that tonic to the Imperial Concubines?

It is Her Imperial Majesty's orders.

She is very persistent on stopping them from conceiving.

How superficial.

Why is your makeup so thick?

My apologies.

From now on,

you girls are not allowed to draw your eyebrows.

Why are you not answering?

-Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. -Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

You fought in front of your attendants...

My apologies, Your Imperial Majesty.

How dare you not reflect on your vulgar actions?

I have not done anything wrong.

You are truly rude.

Do you think His Imperial Majesty can protect you in this Inner Court?

Up until now, I have protected myself on my own.

Is that so?

Well then,

you can try protecting that body of yours now.

Are you not supposed to have gotten used to this by now?

Drink your tonics.

Do not drink it.

The moment you refuse to drink it,

you are as good as dead.

Do not drink it.

You shrewd little...

Your Ladyship!

Please open your eyes, Your Ladyship.

Your Ladyship.

What is happening to her?

What is going on?

Concubine Oh drank the tonic and...

Does anyone have a silver hairpin?

It is poison.

She drank poison.

Poison?

What is going on, Empress?

That is not possible.

Hurry and call

the imperial physician.

Please help her.

Collect the bowl that Concubine Oh drank from.

I will take care of this matter myself.

I will have the supervising court lady and the investigator

get to the bottom of this.

Just be aware of that.

How did this happen?

I am asking you how this happened.

I do not know about any of this.

You moron.

What did you do to the tonics?

Calm down, Your Imperial Majesty.

What?

Concubine Oh drank poisoned tonic?

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

The Imperial Palace has gone wild.

What about Yang? Is she okay?

Before she could drink it, Concubine Oh had already fainted.

Your Highness.

How could this happen?

The Empress

has finally made a grave mistake.

Do you think she poisoned--

Who else could it be?

Go and tell everyone.

Everyone will know of the Empress's crime.

Yes, Your Highness.

Father.

Did you do it?

I swear to the heavens that I did not do this.

Even Court Lady Yeon, who is in charge of the tonics, has no idea.

Your Imperial Majesty,

you have fallen into a trap.

Do you know who set the trap?

Who else would dare to plot something like this?

The Empress Dowager?

Yes. There is no doubt that it is her.

Father.

The provincial governors have arrived just now.

The provincial governors already know?

So you want a fight?

What do we do, Father?

Be calm, Your Imperial Majesty.

There is no evidence that makes you innocent,

but there is no confirmation that it was you.

Stay dignified until the end.

If you end up being cornered,

I will be sure to step in.

How is she?

Thankfully, it was not lethal poison,

and she only consumed a very small amount of it.

By the way,

do you happen to know what she had for her last meal?

She said she did not eat all day.

Wait a minute.

She had a dried persimmon from Concubine Ki.

That is right.

Anyway, her life is not in danger.

Do not worry.

What are you doing here?

Her Highness has ordered that everyone come to the Emperor's palace.

Your Imperial Majesty, the investigator has arrived.

I greet Your Imperial Majesty.

We are all waiting on your results.

You may begin.

Is that amount enough for you to distinguish whether there is poison?

Yes, it is enough.

Are the results out?

Yes, Your Highness.

Tell us.

In this tonic,

there is no poison.

Are you sure?

None of the silver beads that react to poison has changed colors.

Is that enough to clear up your doubts about me?

I have never said

that I doubted you, Empress.

Sure.

Your Imperial Majesty, although this is a matter of the Inner Court,

the provincial governors are all watching us.

You must find the culprit as soon as possible.

That is true.

From here on out, I will be taking over this case.

Chief Eunuch Dok-man,

make sure no one leaves or enters the Pavilion of Women

and replace the supervising court ladies on the case.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

What happened?

You had a golden opportunity to get the Empress.

How did you use the poison?

Even if the tonic was poisoned,

it is not conclusive enough to accuse the Empress for the crime.

The Eagle House sent the Empress some items, did they not?

Within the Imperial Palace,

who would dare to search the Empress's chamber?

"Kick them when they are down."

Once your enemy is stuck in a well,

you can drop a boulder on them.

Then what is the method that you are thinking of?

I will sacrifice myself to fool the enemy.

Your Ladyship, are you saying

that you are going to sacrifice yourself?

There is no doubt that the Empress will peg me as the culprit.

If I can become the bait,

I will be able to steal her seal.

Is that true?

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

The only thing Concubine Oh ate was the dried persimmon from Concubine Ki.

Since there was no poison in the tonic,

that must mean the dried persimmon was poisoned.

There is no doubt.

Is there any left over?

Actually...

What is wrong?

The court ladies ate the rest of the dried persimmons.

What happened to the court ladies?

They are just fine.

What? They are just fine?

Then that must mean there was no poison in the dried persimmons either.

"Anyone can become a criminal

even without committing a crime."

Pardon?

That is what my father said.

Is it not an advantage for us that the dried persimmons are gone?

So you will...

I am going to frame that wench Ki.

That wench Ki and Concubine Oh were fighting that day.

There were many witnesses there too.

All she had was a dried persimmon that the wench Ki gave her,

and she almost died from poison?

There is no evidence more convincing than this.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

We must make sure to have that wench Ki takes responsibility for it.

Spread the rumor around the Palace.

Once people start to believe it,

the rumor becomes the truth.

There was poison in the dried persimmons?

Where else would it have come from?

When they were fighting,

Concubine Ki looked like she wanted to kill Concubine Oh.

I heard there was always bad tension between the two of them.

But how could she poison--

Your Imperial Majesty.

His Imperial Majesty is very angry.

How dare you go around running your mouth?

-Apologies, Your Imperial Majesty. -Apologies, Your Imperial Majesty.

They will make Yang the culprit at this rate.

Keep a close eye on the situation

and report to me about Yang regularly.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.

-I am sure it was her. -I am sure.

-That tribute woman. -I told you.

-That little wench. -I can't believe her.

All right.

Why did you want to see me?

There have been

rumors going around these days. Are you aware of them?

That you tried to kill Concubine Oh?

Do not bother with the rumors.

I do not believe them.

The rumors are not false.

They are not false?

Concubine Oh consuming the poison

was a plan that I devised.

What are you saying right now?

I fed her...

the poison.

Your Highness, Deputy Minister Chang has arrived.

Your Highness.

Your Highness?

Your Highness?

Did something happen with Concubine Ki just now?

Why...

Why are you laughing, Your Highness?

Welcome.

Let me introduce you two. This is the master of the Eagle House.

My name is Heuk Su.

I am Yeon Bisu.

He is an important customer, so be sure to take care of him.

The drinks are ready. Please enjoy.

Escort them.

Is it true that he is working with us now?

Things are getting complicated.

I would like to apologize once more for the trouble

our counterfeit money brought to Goryeo.

But thanks to you,

I am now able to work with the Eagle House.

Even our leader

is very happy to be working together.

When can I meet the Leader?

You will not be able to meet the Leader.

I heard none of the members of the Eagle House

has ever seen the Leader in person.

Is that true?

I, as well, have never met the Leader.

Well then, let us drink and enjoy ourselves.

Master,

Master Heuk Su is here.

Bring him in.

Are you done drinking with him?

Yes.

Why did you let Wang Yu into the Eagle House?

I will explain the full story later.

The Leader has given you a secret order.

He wants me...

to kill Wang Yu.

Wang Yu knows too many of our secrets.

This is not an unexpected order.

Well then,

I will be on my way.

The lights in Wang Yu's chamber have just gone off.

Wang Yu,

if we are ill-fated,

we must end it here.

Do not hold it against me.

It appears that the Empress has set her mind

to accuse Concubine Ki of the crime.

Once the morning assembly is over,

we will see who falls.

After this morning assembly,

you will be arrested as the criminal

who poisoned Concubine Oh.

Drink.

Subtitle translation by James Park