Prologue

Goong

"The law clearly states that a woman can not inherit the throne!" The elder sitting at the head of the table authoritatively declared this in the emergency meeting of the Royal Council. The meeting was called upon by him after the announcement by the Palace that the King is vacating his seat in favor of his only son, Lee Shin Hwang Teaja. However, surprisingly the Crown Prince also wanted to vacate the position and have given it to his sister, Hea-myung Gong-ju, as there was no other male heir.

The parliament has approved the said move by the royal family. However, since the law states that no female must seat on the throne, Hea-myung's appointment is only temporary. She was given the title as Regent Queen and Shin's title was retained until a new Crown Prince was chosen by the royal family.

"But the problem is Shin, he gave up the position. How do we convince him to remain in his original position as Crown Prince?" One of the elders asked with a worried voice.

"How about allowing the Crown Princess to be back in the Palace?" A suggestion that was met with murmurs of agreement from the rest of the council.

But the elder head of the council disagreed with the suggestion. He thinks that the Teaja would see right through that plan, as he is smart enough on his own. He instead suggested that a spy should be used to get information on him, on how to convince him to take back the Crown Prince position. This suggestion was met with agreement by the whole council.

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After a month of being the Regent Queen, Hea-myung finally met with the Royal Council. The issue that was discussed intensively was the throne and who should be the lawful person to fill in the said throne. The atmosphere was full of tension. Some members were apprehensive and doubtful on the purpose of this meeting. Hea-myung herself felt that the council might not agree with her. However she is giving off a confident and calm air, which the council found worthy of their respect and attention.

"Thank you for giving your time for this sudden meeting. I think we all know as to why we are all here. I have a suggestion to make to the Royal Council, pushing this suggestion to the parliament for approval would be greatly appreciated." Hae-myung paused and looked at the serious faces of the elders. She took a deep breath before continuing.

She knows that what she have to suggest would be improbable and should only happen once in the history of the royal family. Thanks to Shin's sharp memory, they were able to come up with this solution. Hae-myung knows that Shin's resistance in accepting the throne is out of his love for Chae-gyung. He wanted his wife to be free of the restricting and albeit boring life in the Palace. Although his sense of responsibility keeps him away from his beloved wife, he already have plans on how to make them to be together again.

"In the history of the Royal Family, there has been a time when there was no Crown Prince to inherit the throne. The King then ordered to look for a cousin's son, whom they have trained to become the next King. I now suggest the same thing. There is a Royal cousin that we found out, and he is living among the ordinary citizens. Currently we are still searching to his whereabouts. But rest assured that this Crown-prince-to-be has lawful rights to the throne."

"Yes, I do remember that the former King has a cousin who chose to be live as a commoner with his wife. But I never knew that his son's name was in the Royal Family's registry." This was not surprising to Hae-myung, as some of the council's members are very familiar with the all the members of the royal family.

"I do remember him. He indeed have a son. But didn't he die a long time ago, with his wife. I didn't know that his son survived."

"Yes, that is really fortunate." A surprising comment from the head of the council caused Hea-myung much joy inside.

Althought the approval of the council was for formality only, none the less Hea-myung was happy about the outcome. After establishing the agreement of the Royal Council, plans for instating the Crown-prince-to-be were discussed in detail. Hea-myung didn't expect that this would be easy. The real challenge would be when the crown-prince-to-be entered the palace. When the meeting has ajourned, she immediately called Shin about the news.

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"Make sure that you follow Lee Shin wherever he goes. Observe him carefully, and know about his little habbits and behavior. Write all your obsrvation in a notebook, and report it to me as quickly as possible. I assume that what I ask is not that hard, after all you are his bodyguard. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

The younger man left quietly after receiving an envelop. Inside the envelop was the promised reward, and the rest would follow upon completion of the assignment. The smile upon the old man's face was satisfactory, he didn't want to resort into this. However, to ensure a stronger Royal Family, one must do what was necessary.