When people were mourning around Prince Jian's body, a black shadow made its way from his nostril, and in a fraction of seconds, people encountered the most unnatural phenomena of their lives.

Prince Jian woke up.

The people around him couldn't believe their eyes even Ruyi and the King were in a state of utter shock. Deep down they were happy to see him alive but the question arises here, how? How did he come back to life when he had been declared dead by the physicians?

Silence creeped around the room. The King gestured to the physician to check him. He reluctantly read Prince Jian's pulse and to his surprise everything seemed fine. In fact there were no signs of illness, he was cured.

"Your Majesty! It's indeed a miracle. The Crown Prince has not only come back to life but has also defeated his illness. He just needs some rest." The royal physician informed the King.

The Queen looked at his son alive and her expression was priceless. She ran to his son and hugged him happily. "My son! I knew it, I knew you would come back to your mother."

"If you all don't mind, I wish to take some rest," said Prince with a lackluster voice.

"Why not son, whatever you need," The King ordered everyone to leave.

"Good night son, take proper rest. We'll see you tomorrow," said the King and left the room with the Queen.

Before, Ruyi could say anything to him, he had already closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. She became suspicious of his sudden change in his behaviour. But soon dropped that thought assuming that tiredness might be the reason.

Ruyi soon fell asleep while glaring at Jian. After a long time she was now able to sleep well like a child.

Twilight fades away and the majestic sunrise with orange red glow seeping over the horizon. Upon waking, Ruyi burrowed herself into the soft quilt. Rubbing up the remainders of last night's sleep, she gazed out at the horizon and admired the vivid light extended across the orange sky.

"The morning is beautiful," she said turning around to face the Prince only to see that he wasn't in bed.

"He is always a morning person, he must be waiting for me at breakfast." Ruyi sat up, dragged her feet off the bed, stretched her arms above her head and yawned.

At the dining hall, Prince Jian threw away the crockeries. "What the hell have you served me?"

The court ladies were shivering in fear looking at Prince's rude behaviour. Prince had never mistreated any of their staff, therefore the two ladies looked at each other widening their eyes in bewilderment. One of them managed to utter something.

"Accept our apologies for failing you. Crown Prince, but you always like to have chrysanthemum tea every morning."

"From today onwards, don't serve me this stinking liquid. Bring me some fresh meat as soon as possible." Prince Jian said with a grim expression.

The two ladies fasten their pace and exit the hall to bring meat for the Prince.

The next moment, the dining table was decorated with different kinds of meat and other meals. The Prince started to gulp down everything without a pause to breathe and took another swinging bite of chicken.

The Emperor and Empress entered the hall with a wide smile on their faces but the smiles faded away the moment they saw Prince Jian eating meat. The couple looked anxious and nervous. They stepped closer and grabbed their seats but the Prince was so engrossed in eating that he could hardly see them.

Ruyi also came to the hall and greeted the couple. She sat down at the dining table confused about Jian's ignorance. She sat down right opposite of Jian. She was even dressed beautifully with gold jewels and velvet material after a long time.

Unaware of the people Jian kept stuffing his mouth with roasted chicken and sliced a chunk of pork. It seemed like he had totally forgotten his eating manners at that moment. The King kept staring at him hoarding food in his mouth. He was eating like a caveman, taking a massive bite of meat rather than eating it.

To lessen the tension from the air the Empress approached Prince Jian.

"Son, it seems you are really hungry. Why don't you taste some other dishes? You never ate meat at this time in fact you have always avoided eating meat."

Prince Jian ate so noisily, slurping his soup like some animal. Then, showing no signs of embarrassment he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and walked away, leaving everyone in a state of being jerked.

The whole scene was quite unbelievable. Jian had never behaved like this, his act was so out of character. They just stared at him leaving with their mouths open.

Ruyi stopped eating and stepped outside, her face was dominated by a profound dejection.

"Tell me, did you again go to seek help from Mi-sook? Did you beg her for our son's life?" The Emperor asked, but somewhere he was praying that his thought came out as false.

Empress Isuel was in a state of abeyance. After looking at Jian's condition she could no longer hide the secret. After much calculation she finally confessed. The truth slipped out.

"Yes. I begged Mi-sook and she returned my son." The Queen said looking at the ground.

The King had never expected her to do such a filthy act, he felt like a thousand knives had pierced through his heart.

He started to throw and kick things. Slamming his fist on the table as he looked at her wife. She was shivering in fear looking at his red eyes, no matter what happened he was never angry at her but this time she had crossed all the limits.

He shouted venomously at her, "Have you gone mad? How could you forget she is a shaman, they are preachers of devil, dark arts and negative energies. Nobody in this world can bring a dead man back to life, it's impossible. That lady has performed black magic and we don't know who is using our son's body. She made a fool out of you. Our son is no more in this world." The King was on the verge of crying while explaining to his wife.

"You are right. He is not my son, my son is no more in this world. I had become blind in my love that I never even gave it a second thought. It's all my fault," said the Queen sobbing in pain.

"It was all your wrong doings that led us to this stage. You have murdered three innocent people just to hide the truth, how could you expect that it won't come back to you. A curse never leaves a person until it is fulfilled. The curse of the person is the pain of his agony that is bound to harm its culprit."

"I warned you the day you had called that shaman for help but you didn't give any heed to my words," the King growled.

"Now only one person can help us get rid of this lady. Lord Yong," said King and left the hall.

The Queen was crying, her heart settled low at the cavity of her chest. The grief and guilt in her heart spread through her body like a poison burning in her veins. The harsh reality exposed to her like a slap that eventually made her realise her sin. She walked to her room with heavy footsteps and flopped down on her bed.

She closed her eyes and allowed her to drown into the memory of that fateful night.

One lady and her son were standing in front of her. The lady was clueless what was happening or why they were summoned by the Queen until she saw her daughter. Min-shi, that poor girl was begging to not to drag their family and to spare their lives.

Mi-sook ordered to kill the two. Horrified by the order, the lady started begging for their lives, her little son whose tooth was yet to come, hid behind her mother shivering in fear looking at the sword near their neck. All of a sudden, the loud groaning stopped and in no time the ground was flooded with the blood of innocents. They were killed.

Everything was silent until Mi-sook was engulfed by a pair of slender arms and she was choking, she could have died of asphyxiation but a sharp stab from behind loosened Min-shi's grip. She looked at the Queen with eyes that were enough to melt one's heart as it was oozing out the saga of an immense grief, unbearable pain and deception. She died yearning, crying and cursing.

The Queen then thought about the birth of her twins.

The girl child was so beautiful but she reminded the Queen of Min-shi. The poor baby girl was also killed.

She opened her eyes in disgust and realised that she had done a gruesome crime that would not be forgiven at any cost.

"I made that poor girl a scapegoat and killed her and her family too. I have also murdered my own child to save the other one and now I don't have any of my children. They are both gone. I'm a murderer, I have no right to live," she blabbers as she took a knife.

The very moment the King arrived and threw the knife from her hand.

"What the hell were you doing?" asked King in a concerned voice.

"Please let me die. I'm a monster, I'm a murderer. People like me must not live. The wailing of those innocent lives are still echoing in my ears. Every time I look at my hands it appears to be drenched and stained in the blood of those pitiable souls. That bloodshed was so barbaric and unfair. There is nothing I can do, I have committed a grave sin for which there is no forgiveness. I even killed my own daughter, how much pain that new born baby would have endured while burning. Not even an enemy would do such a heinous crime against an infant but I did it to my own child. I won't be able to hold this guilt throughout my life." The Queen vaulted on the ground, scratching the floor with her nails in vixation, creating a huge pool of tears. Her lungs rummaged for oxygen, and her sobbing had the same force of someone drowning. Little did she know that the guilt had made a permanent residence in her brain and in her heart.

The King felt sharp pangs in his heart seeing his Queen like this. He knew that her deeds will never be forgiven in the eyes of the almighty. All he could do was placate her and let the flux of her tears flow like a river. He could hear her silent screaming and suffocation with each breath. He started running his fingers through her hair, time to time, in an attempt to calm the silent war within her mind.

"Life is too short to live with regrets. So, stop recalling your past as you could never fix what happened in the past but you can surely move on and work for the people of this country. It might lessen the guilt when you show compassion to the people out there. You need to believe in redemption, for this you need to leave your deeds of the past in the past and move on. Remember one thing, killing yourself is not any solution, you can't run away from your sins. Instead, start working for a great cause. Blessings of our people might reduce your crime in the eyes of God," the King calmed his Queen by dispensing words of wisdom.

"You're right." The Queen replied, wiping her tears.

"Our daughter is alive," the King revealed.

The Queen's dull face suddenly starts shining after hearing those words. She couldn't believe her ears.

"Tell me, you are not lying", asked the Queen on the brink of shattering.

"I'm not lying, she is alive. Lord Yong and I saved her that night. I requested him to take care of my daughter and look for something to lift the curse so that I could save both my children. It seems our Jian was fated to die early. On the other hand, Si-ri is working to lift the curse as Lord Yong decoded the remedy," answered the King.

The Queen couldn't help but her tears overflowed with happiness. She couldn't utter a single word other than "Si-ri".

The King asked her to take some rest and walked away from the chamber to meet Lord Yong.