Inside the walls of the Royal Palace, besides its complex politics and extravagant banquets, stories of hauntings by evil spirits are often another commonly discussed topic.

Evil spirits are often said to be born out of rage, blood and violence. Most spirits have suffered sudden and violent deaths, and so, they cannot move on to their afterlife or the next life like most other people. They stay in the places that they had suffered and died in their past lives. Or other cases, they haunt the people that caused them such pain and led to their demise. 

The Royal Palace, despite all of its glamour, has been witness to a number of deaths and tragedies in the past. As legend has it, around two hundred years ago, when King Munjong died from a plague, his 12-year-old son, Danjong, had to ascend the throne. The boy had already suffered from much tragedy in his life. His mother died only one day after giving birth to him. She lost so much blood that some of the court ladies that took care of her were still haunted by the sight of her on her birth bed. They begged the Head Court Lady to leave the Palace only a short time after the tragedy.

Soon after Danjong ascended the throne, more tragedies followed the young king like bees followed honey. His uncle, Sejo (the second son of King Sejong), led a revolt that resulted in the slaughter of the young king's supporters near Gyeongbokgung. So many people were killed that the soil became saturated with blood. To disperse the smell, great fires had to be built and a thick layer of ash covered the ground. 

Danjong, fearing for his life, abdicated the throne to his uncle who then banished the boy to Yeongwol in Gangwon province. Far removed from the capital and stripped of his title, the boy, now known only as a prince, may have felt safe but no distance could save him from his uncle's fears and ambitions. A few years later, Danjong's body was found in his home in Yeongwol. One of the prince's servants, seeking to garner favour with the king, took matters into his own hands, seized a bowstring and strangled the prince. 

But Sejo did not have his throne in peace for long. Not long after Danjong was dead, he was frequently visited by the vision of Danjong's mother who accused him of the murder of her only son and promised to take his son, 19-year-old Crown Prince Uigyeong. The king rushed to his son's chambers and found him dead ― the threat fulfilled. In anger, Sejo commanded that Hyeondeok's body be disinterred from her grave and her remains cast into the river.

Although Danjong's body was buried through the kindness and loyalty of a man named Om Heung-do, evil continued to haunt Yeongwol. The newly appointed magistrate of the district died the first night of his arrival; the subsequent six magistrates suffered the same fate. It was only after the eighth-appointed magistrate paid a visit to Danjong's grave was peace restored.

But this was only the beginning of the tale of ghosts haunting the Palace. In the years after Sejo died, people still continued to hear weeping from a woman, which many guessed came from the ghost of Hyeondeok, the mother of Danjong. Her weeps were grievous and harrowing, mourning the death of her own son at a very young age, and mourning her own death, for not one day did she get to see her own child. On some nights, servants could also hear Munjong's painful screams, as he suffered from the illness before his death. Other stories were also told of royal guards witnessing Danjong's supporters, all bloody and mutilated, wandering around the Palace as if not aware of their own demise. The common elements of these hauntings seemed to be two things: tragedy and guilt. And as hundreds of years have passed, tonight, another haunting would occur in one of the most glamorous palaces of Gyeongbokgung.

Amidst the dead silence of the Palace at midnight, suddenly, a shrill female voice is heard screaming throughout the residential palace, but strange enough, no eunuchs or court ladies can be seen rushing to the place where the voice continues to scream and call out for help.

"Ahhhhhhhh", the voice sounds shaken, as if its owner is shivering hard from the panic and guilt that she is currently feeling, "Get away! Get away from me!"

In front of her, a dark figure slowly approaches. The way that the person walks and their height indicates that it is a figure of a man. As the dark figure walks into the moonlight shining from the nearby window, the woman can see clearly the horrifying appearance of the man. On his face, blood covers almost every spot, except for his bright and lovely eyes. His clothes are ragged and covered in dirt and blood. He stares at her intensely while taking another step closer to her. His eyes suggest that this could not be a friendly visit, but one for blood and vengeance.

"Lee Soui... Lee Sungmin! What... what do you want!?"

 "Jang Sugui", Sungmin calls her in the most eerie voice that she has ever heard, "Why did you kill me?"

"What? No! No! No! I didn't! I didn't! I didn't!", Jang Sugui covers her ears with her hands and shuts her eyes, as if doing so can shut the other person in her room completely.

"Jang Sugui", Sungmin takes another step towards her, "Why did you kill me?". This time, as soon as Sungmin opens his mouth, blood starts coming out. Sungmin starts to undress his shirt and points to his shoulder and chest, where there are multiple bleeding wounds, blood spurting out of the wounds as if they were just fresh from this very moment.

Having never seen so much blood in her entire life, Jang Sugui could not help but feel a sense of nausea and shock. Her eyes widen in horror, and keeps mumbling incoherent words. Tears start streaming down her face, she does not know out of fear or guilt. Finally, after a few tries at speaking, she succeeds at putting a few words together.

"No... It... It wasn't me..."

"It was you!", Sungmin's voice is filled with rage. His eyes glare at Jang Sugui, and in a second, he is already in front of her, grabbing her hands so that she could no longer hide her face behind her palms. "Today, I have to take your life! And your daughter!"

"No! Not my daughter!", Jang Sugui cries unstoppably, "It wasn't me! I swear! I swear! It was Park Bin!"

"You are lying!", Sungmin's voice is once again rough and enraged.

"No! I swear! I swear! It was all her plan! To use the Yangjae bandits. To bribe all the guards beforehand. It was her plan all along! I just tagged along with it! But you were too difficult to deal with. 50 men could not even take you down, so she had to stab you herself! It was her who stabbed you! Not me! Not me! Not me..."

Only when Jang Sugui utters those final words does she realize that the door to her room has been open without her knowledge. At the entrance, a tall man wearing a dragon-patterned robe stands solemnly. It is no one other than the King himself. Next to him, two eunuchs turn on the lights in their hands as well as the rest of the lights in the hall and her room. Only then can she see clearly the ghost in front of her. He is indeed covered in blood and wearing filthy ragged clothes, but he is no ghost. As she can clearly see and feel, he is a real human being with normal breathing. Jang Sugui widens her eyes in shock, mumbling indistinctly.

"What..."

"Jang Sugui, you confessed.", Sungmin's attitude changes completely from before. He gives her a casual smile and stands up to wipe all the blood from his face.

At the entrance of the room, the King remains silent, but his eyes say more than anyone could at this moment.

After moments of shock, Jang Sugui quickly gathers herself. She crawls to the entrance where the King is standing and grabs the corner of his robe, which is quickly fended off by him. Then, she kneels and bows to the ground, showing him her deepest remorse, but to no avail. The King seems to not even look at her. He orders the two eunuchs to take her to the Royal Prison awaiting interrogation.

"Jeonha! Jeonha!", Jang Sugui still does not give up, "It wasn't me, jeonha! It was Park Bin! Just ask her! Ask Park Bin!"

But the screams and cries of Jang Sugui quickly disappear into the night, returning the quiet and peace back to the palace and to the room, where Sungmin still stands in his position trying to wipe the blood and dirt off his face. Without Sungmin's knowledge, the other person in the room slowly approaches him and pulls something out of the sleeve of his robe. Only then does Sungmin turn to look at him. The King uses a white handkerchief and gently wipes his face with it. Smiling at the King, Sungmin could not help letting out a sigh of relief.

Everything has gone according to his plan. The initial step in their plan has always been to go after Jang Sugui. She was the weakest link in their whole operation, not only because of her rank and backgrounds, but also because of her impulsiveness and carelessness. Jang Sugui can always say the most ridiculous things in front of the most important people, as if she never knows to consider the consequences of her words and actions. This is why Sungmin and Kyuhyun decide to trap her into confessing to her own involvement in his attack.

Before Sungmin returns to the Palace, he had not intended to trap Jang Sugui using ghosts and spirits. However, the day he got back to Hanyang, he heard an interesting rumour from patrons in a market near the Palace. As the rumour goes, for the last two months, ever since she and Park Bin got back from Yangjae forest, Jang Sugui has had nightmares every night. Some nights, she is not able to sleep and only lies in her room crying all night. Some nights, she sleepwalks and runs around her own residence in a panicked and terrified state. All these signs indicate to Sungmin that either Jang Sugui has been intoxicated by a very strange poison ever since she returned to the Palace, or she has been living in guilt and fear due to the events that occurred in the forest. So Sungmin decided to ask the King to keep his return to the Palace a secret and plans a trap like tonight.

"Jeonha", Sungmin turns to the King again, "when I returned to Yangjae last week, I met a man who we all thought had died years ago. I asked him a lot of questions, and he told me the truth about Jun Kihong's crime fifteen years ago. I think Minister Jun's case has to be reopened, and that man has to be taken into custody and interrogated, so that the real truth about what happened fifteen years ago can finally come to light."

Hearing Jun Kihong's name, the King's face suddenly turns as white as a sheet. The handkerchief that he is using to wipe Sungmin's face drops to the floor. He looks at Sungmin for a moment as if searching for the right words to say, but there seems to be no right words for what he wants to say, so he can only be honest and say it straight to Sungmin.

"I can't do that, Sungmin", the King speaks sternly.

Sungmin's eyes widen in surprise. He had always thought that this would be an easy thing to do, but now that he thinks about it, the King is indeed in a delicate position in this situation. The previous case on Jun Kihong was ruled by his father, the previous King. If he opened the case after all those years, what would people think of this? Plus, fifteen years ago, State Councillor Park, Minister Park and Minister Kim were all involved in the case. Now they are the three most powerful officials in the Court, it would be even more difficult to reopen the case that gained them their promotion.

But Sungmin does not give up. He simply could not. Not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because of Kyuhyun. So he kneels down in front of the King and bows his head to the floor.

"Jeonha, I know I should not have put you in this situation. But it is the right thing to do. What if Jun Kihong had been wrongly convicted and executed fifteen years ago? What if the people that framed him had all been living well and rising to high ranks in the Court? What if the truth came out later, what would people say of you as a King?"

"Stop!", the King interrupts him, his voice colder than Sungmin has ever heard. Since the first day that he met him, the King has always been either indifferent or gentle towards Sungmin. Never once has he heard the King raise his voice to him to anyone else in the Palace. This gives Sungmin a bad feeling, and he immediately looks up at the King.

His eyes are still fixed on Sungmin, his brows furrowed intensely. When the King speaks again, Sungmin can clearly feel his voice has become dryer with every word: "Don't ever speak of this to me again, Lee Sungmin! And don't get involved in this anymore. You are only a concubine. Your place is not to investigate government officials. Do you know the people whom you are suggesting to investigate? They built Joseon, Sungmin! And State Councillor Park is the Queen's father! Do you think you can challenge them without any consequences?"

"Jeonha..."

Not letting Sungmin finish, the King sighs and continues with his speech: "I told you you were too naive. You are too ideal. Sometimes, the things we do may not be the right thing for a few people, but it is the right thing for everyone else. What would Joseon be without the Parks and the Kims, Sungmin? Have you ever thought of that?"

"Jeonha..."

"I am not reopening Jun Kihong's case and I am not investigating State Councillor Park, Minister Park and Mninster Kim, Sungmin. Just leave it at that, and never speak of it to me again!"

As soon as he speaks the last word, the King turns around and leaves the room as silently as when he came, leaving Sungmin behind in Jang Sugui's haunted room. Dumbfounded. In shock. But mainly disappointed.