More people and more actions, more emotions and more interactions are shown, which makes the story goes into an exciting yet thrilling journey. Definitely more people are going to get killed, so why not join the forces and get together to solve the case? For example, Seong Sam-Moon and Kang Chae-Yoon would probably make the best partner in playing detectives, with both of them having equal amounts of curiosity.

EPISODE 8

   

Without wasting more time, Chae-Yoon and Yoon Pyeong duel with each other, the former with a dagger and the latter with his sword. They are almost equally skilled, but Chae-Yoon manages to kick him down. He is ready to knock him down and arrests him but the arrival of palace guards interrupts their attentions. Grabbing his golden chance, Pyeong leaps away and leaves the book and Chae-Yoon goes after him. He finds Cho-Tak and to stop Chae-Yoon, he stabs the already injured guy before escaping. Cho-Tak tells his buddy to go after the culprit but Chae-Yoon chooses to save him.

   

They meet the troop of guards lead by Moo-Hyul. Chae-Yoon then shows the way to the place where he thought the source of the earlier scream should be, but Pyeong has already took the dead body of Scholar Jang away. Sejong is also informed about the news, and the whole court is still unsure whether Scholar Jang is still alive or not.

   

Cho-Tak is saved from any harm thanks to Ga Ri-On. Chae-Yoon goes to meet him, but Park Po’s word about low life and stuffs pisses him off. He warns him that there isn’t such thing as low life. Officer Jeong enters the room, bringing news that has caused a huge commotion inside the palace. At the main pavilion, everyone including Sejong is watching a boat in the lake, being pulled towards the building. A corpse is inside the boat, and it is Scholar Jang’s dead body. Everyone is shocked and So-Yi collapses upon seeing his face. Beneath the body, a message is written on a large piece of paper:

 

“A flower is just a flower. It cannot be a root.”

   

Sam-Moon also collapses to the ground in utter shock, and the message leaves Sejong deep in thought. Sejong thinks whether this is all Jeong Ki-Joon’s doing. He returns to his quarters and takes a nap, a surprise to Moo-Hyul, Minister Jeong, and Prince Gwangpyeong. Sejong is anxious about the things happening and thinking about them makes his chest hurts. He remembers about Minister Jo and Taejong’s words to him about a king that needs to be ruthless. Sejong says he’ll never be like his ruthless father.

So-Yi is still shocked about the scene. Minister Jo and Minister Lee are thinking about the message left by the murderer and Minister Jo realizes about the signs that Mil-Bon has been delivering to them.

   

Outside the Jip-Hyun Jeon, Sam-Moon tells Paeng-Nyeon about his temporary leave from the hall. He also tells him about the tattoo and wishes to get to the bottom of this issue. At the same time, So-Yi is leaving the place and despite her fellow court ladies’ resistance, she leaves to the place where Scholar Jang was killed to look for the documents. Park Po accidentally sees her leaving and decides to follow her.

   

At his home, Minister Lee meets Minister Jang to ask him about his view on the message. He admits that he was once a member of Mil-Bon, or one of the Roots. He tells Minister Jang about Jeong Ki-Joon’s order to him to be a remarkable person in the palace before he is given the next order. Minister Jang thinks it’s a joke, but Minister Lee says it’s been such a long time ago and the order never really came to him. However, the current situation makes he think about the order and that is probably a sign for him to take his action.

   

Dam-Daek asks about the details from last night’s happenings to Pyeong. When Scholar Shim asks about his wound, he doesn’t admit it’s Chae-Yoon’s doing. He then orders a man to ask around for Lee Bang-Ji. Sam-Moon meets the old man and comes clean about his confession to Chae-Yoon.

Ga Ri-On finds an acupuncture needle inside Scholar Jang’s head, but the real cause of his death is a poison. Chae-Yoon leaves the mortuary and suddenly, someone is following him He tries to escape, but he’s the one who’s being caught by the person.

   

That person turns out to be Sam-Moon. He tries to make Chae-Yoon talks about the investigation, but in the end, he’s the one who’s being interrogated by Chae-Yoon. Chae-Yoon finds the tattoo on his arm and confirms his suspicion about the missing of the corpses before. Sam-Moon refuses to say anything and Chae-Yoon gives him an offer: translate the paper that Yoon-Pil left, so that he’ll give him the book that had been taken away from Scholar Jang. He agrees, and both of them leave. Park Po tells Chae-Yoon about So-Yi, who has departed to the mountain.

   

Sejong is furious and orders for a sudden Kyeongyeon (King’s meeting with the scholars and minister) to be held. Minister Jo realizes Sejong has started to take his action. Members of Kyeongyeon are nervous waiting for Sejong to announce for the topic for the discussion but their nervousness disappear all of a sudden. They are going to discuss about the tax law, much to Minister Jo’s disappointment. Sejong decides that there are more important things need to be discussed. He then talks about the truth behind the surveys conducted by the local officials, which turn out to be mostly fabricated. He orders for a new survey despite the oppositions from the ministers and appoints a scholar, Nam Sa-Chul as the person in charge.

   

Minister Jeong asks him the reason behind his action and Sejong comes clean about the real motive. He doesn’t want to put away the project that he has been working on although the murders are trying to hinder him from doing it. The ministers are afraid about their power that will probably be reduced as a result from the survey and urges the Prime Minister to prevent the survey from being conducted.

Scholar Nam Sa-Chul voices out his concern about the mission to Scholar Shim and he’s nervous about it. Scholar Shim tells him that he will receive a secret order direct from the King soon. Prince Gwangpyeong suspects his father is having ulterior motive of finding people who actually faithful to him but Sejong chides him. He is surprised to see So-Yi isn’t coming with his son.

   

So-Yi is alone, trying to find the book around the mountain and at the same time, Chae-Yoon is walking towards the mountain with Park Po. He suspects So-Yi is searching for the book in his hand and wants to see how she’s involved in the case. Moo-Hyul feels weird about Sejong’s sudden order to watch some officers’ movements and Prince Gwangpyeong feels his suspicion is right.

   

Chae-Yoon is observing So-Yi’s movement and he uses Scholar Jang’s book to see her reaction. So-Yi searches for the book frantically around the area and she finds the book. She is relieved and after looking at the content of the book once, she burns it. Park Po wants to catch her but Chae-Yoon doesn’t do anything, except looking intently at the lady, who’s crying in front of the fire.

   

Sejong gets to know about the ministers that are having a meeting to discuss about the King’s actions nowadays that they think odd. Scholar Shim expresses his strong opposition about the tax system and how it can affect the system established under Confucianism and afraid it can no longer lead their Joseon. Moo-Hyul goes to meet Sejong and advises him to control his anger. Sejong can’t hold his anymore and expresses his disappointment towards the officers, claiming that they are following the Confucius teachings while actually, they are afraid of losing their power inside the court. He asks Moo-Hyul what he has done wrong with tears in his eyes. He walks past Jip-Hyun Jeon and remembers Taejong’s question that doubted his intention of establishing such place.

   

He enters the hall alone and hears a voice from behind. He faces the younger version of himself, who starts teasing him about the words he said in front of Taejong. The older Sejong accuses the younger one for being the reason his people are dying, a result from his ignorance about the existence of Hidden Roots expressed by Taejong. The younger Sejong smirks and gives a piece of advice to him. It’s not too late to admit his defeat and apologize to Taejong, as he, Yi-Do, is weaker than Yi Bang-Won. The younger Sejong reminds him that this is his limit, but Sejong doesn’t want to accept it.

   

Chae-Yoon and Park Po follow So-Yi to the mortuary and observes her. She goes inside for a moment and leaves. Chae-Yoon asks Ga Ri-On her intention of coming there and finds out about the drugs that she bought to cure her insomnia. Park Po doesn’t believe it, but Chae-Yoon admits he’s also like her once, and he knows it’s not insomnia.

   

Inside the palace, So-Yi goes to Jip-Hyun Jeon to find Sejong but he’s already left. Unknown to her, Chae-Yoon is following her around and watches her intently. He watches her taking the drugs and when she wants to take another dose, he stops her, saying that it won’t be that effective to help her to sleep. He assumes she’s afraid to sleep and tells her to find another way.

  

Sejong appears in front of them and asks how he knows so much about the drugs. Chae-Yoon explains about his father’s death that made him scared to sleep. He’s afraid his father would come in his sleep and demands to know his reason for being killed. Sejong asks how he cures such thing and he replies: a revenge for his father. Chae-Yoon admits he’s not at ease at all after deciding to do so, but he’s desperate and lonely after his father’s death.

   

Sejong understands his resolution and walks away. Suddenly, he stops and turns to face Chae-Yoon. He smiles and tells him to continue walking on his path he decided upon, the revenge.

 

He says to himself,”And I’ll walk on my own path.”

[END of episode 8]

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. A quote that can describe Sejong’s condition right now. He’s at his most fragile state with so much things going on at the same time. It’s not a simple problem to deal with as he himself has his own goals, but with people going against him, he’s clearly on the dangerous side. He’s having conflicts, both internally and externally and that can probably bring himself down if it’s not dealt properly. I believe he’s a strong King, and with the assistance from his trusted people, he can rise and proves the people against him that he can be successful using his own ideology.

   

Chae-Yoon is looking at So-Yi with a different angle after he gets to know her better. He realizes they have something similar between them and I hope they are going to find about each other not from other, but from themselves. Truth for them is already enough for me.