***
After the news about the Zhang and Wu Families scandals erupted, everybody thought that it would be the end of it.
But Chaeyoung was just getting started. The reason she had dealt with the Zhang and Wu Families first was that she wanted the Kim Family to tremble in fear. She wanted them to regret and spend their nights, thinking about when Chaeyoung would come after them.
And just like what she expected, the Kim Family was in a panic, as they constantly waited for a scandal about their family to be exposed. By then, everyone in the Kim Family already knew that they had offended Jennie Kim's Boss.
"We shouldn't have agreed to their words." Mother Kim said as she stroke Krystal's hair. "Now everyone in the family is waiting for the time when Jennie's Boss will strike against our family."
Krystal did not say anything, as a single tear fell down her cheeks. Only she knew the true reason she had volunteered to be the one, who would have the accident. Only she knew that it was just an excuse for her to stay in the hospital and abort her and Kai's child.
"It's okay Krystal... you did not know a thing. You should not get affected by this and recuperate well." Mother Kim said.
"How is Kai?" Krystal asked.
"That man is plagued with scandals right now. Did you know that he was also seeing another artist? Jennie's Boss has exposed all of his affairs with dates and..."
"What?" Krystal asked. "What do you mean other affairs?"
"Aiaya... Krystal... Don't get angry. I thought you were not serious with Kai? You said so yourself. You should not let this news affect you." Mother Kim sighed. "That man was even sleeping with his mother's young secretary. They have some pictures together in a hotel's elevator. They were kissing. How disgusting..."
Her mother's words seemed to echo inside her head, as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She would have never thought that Kai was cheating on her. That must have been the reason he did not want to reveal their relationship to anyone.
"Hey... why are you crying? Krystal? What is wrong?" Mother Kim tried to comfort Krystal, who was now in a mess. She could not believe that her childhood love was just fooling her.
However, not even an hour passed and a piece of big news almost made Mother Kim collapse on the spot.
A well-known paparazzi was rumored to found a relevant source, which reported about Krystal aborting her child and using the accident to cover it up. The paparazzi even presented medical proofs and some other things, which clearly showed that the accident was entirely set up by Krystal herself, to use it and get rid of the fetus.
The internet immediately exploded with curses towards both Krystal and Kai. How could they abort an innocent soul? Many people instantly called them killers and other mean things.
At that point, Jennie and her family were already able to leave Luxembourg succesfully, while Chaeyoung and Lisa were busy preparing for their face off with the king.
Their plan was already foolproof. Chaeyoung would secretly meet with the King on the next day. She would do her best to get more information about her father and possibly her mother too. In return, Chaeyoung would help the King protect the Lee Family's power in Luxembourg.
Of course, she was not aware that the Zhou Family was also planning a big move against the Lee Family.
A move that would push Chaeyoung to her destined place.
....
Carlisle gritted his teeth before glaring at Chaeyoung. He never would have thought that his father would embarrass him like that.
"Your Highness, Miss Long is not familiar with our customs. I believe we should excuse her for her actions." He heard the Prime Minister say.
"Please, go ahead." The Prime Minister added as he nodded towards Chaeyoung. "Tell us more about this project."
"Actually, Miss Park wanted me to present this to the King..." she said, her gaze glued to Gideon. "Alone."
"Well... if that's the case... we can completely cancel this partnership! A lot of people want this opportunity that we have gave you!" The Crown Prince blurted out.
"Miss Long, why don't you tell us the reason she wanted you to speak with the King alone?" Secretary Jia chimed in. As the Secretary of Defense, his most important responsibility was to make everyone, especially the King, safe. He couldn't make a gamble with a woman, even if she looked so harmless.
"We can create equipment, which can be used to spy people from afar. The technology will be five times more sophisticated than what you have right now." Chaeyoung answered. "But since the Crown Prince does not want to continue this collaboration, then I guess, this meeting is over," she said before getting up from her seat.
"Thank you for your time, gentlemen," she added before gathering her folders.
"Miss Long... please, don't mind the Crown Prince's words." Gideon said. "I apologize on his behalf. He is still immature. Please take a seat... I would like to hear more about this project."
"Father!" The Crown Prince protested, disbelief lacing his eyes. Did his father just call him immature in front of everyone? It was something that had never happened before!
In response, Gideon narrowed his eyes at him. "Yes? Do you want to apologize to Miss Long yourself?"
"I..." the Crown Prince was speechless. How could his father do this to him? Of course, these thoughts were all just inside of his head. On the outside, he was able to compose himself immediately. "Ehem... I... I apologize, Miss Long. I didn't mean to say those things." Although these words were a lie, the Crown Prince still showed remorse on his face.
Initially, he thought that his father was doing this just because he wanted to obtain the device, which Chaeyoung had created. If he got to know that Gideon had done this because he suspected that Long Die in front of them was Chaeyoung, he would have instantly regretted his decision.
Chaeyoung ignored the Prince's words and took back her seat. "I understand. After all, a twenty-five-year-old man can still be considered immature," she said without glancing at the Crown Prince. Her words instantly made the latter burst in anger.
"You...." Carlisle pointed his finger towards Chaeyoung, his eyes full of rage. This woman was intentionally provoking him! "Do you know what is the punishment for making fun of a Prince?"
"Prince? What prince?" This was the first time Chaeyoung took a look at him, her gaze provoking, her lips curled into a smirk "I thought you were nothing but an immature son of the King."
"Carlisle... go outside." Gideon interrupted the tension inside the room. This time, he had already confirmed his suspicions. After all, only Chaeyoung would have the guts to provoke a prince like a fool beside him.
"Father! Are you siding with this woman? She just disrespected me! Are you not going to say anything about this?"
"I said, go outside!" He bellowed, surprising everyone inside the room. Then, he let out a series of coughs.
"Your Highness... Are you alright?" the Prime Minister asked before looking at Carlisle. "Please... go outside, Crown Prince. We don't want to cause more stress to the King."
Seeing Gideon coughing terribly, Carlisle could only grit his teeth before storming out of the room. Gideon's coughs reminded him of the fact that he would get the throne very soon. He should just endure a little more.
With these in mind, he decided to leave for now and inform his mother about all that had happened there. He couldn't wait for the moment when he would imprison that Long Die for disrespecting him.
....
After Carlisle left, everyone waited for Gideon's further instructions. Both the Prime Minister and Secretary Jia stared at Chaeyoung then at Gideon.
"Your Highness?" Secretary Jia asked, still waiting for Gideon's words.
"Go. You two... Leave us." He said while clutching his chest. "Don't let anyone disturb us. No one is allowed to come inside this room until I say so."
"Not even the Queen?" the Prime Minister asked.
"Not even the Queen." Gideon acknowledged.
Both the Prime Minister and Secretary Jia nodded before leaving.
After the duo left, Gideon's exhausted expression instantly changed. The tiredness in his eyes was now gone, replaced by alertness and relief.
"Chaeyoung?" He asked.
She nodded. "Glad you recognized me."
"Not everyone has the guts to offend the Crown Prince," he said before sighing. "I told you not to come here."
"I know."
"But you still came..." he stated. "Why? Are you not afraid?"
Chaeyoung narrowed her eyes at Gideon. "I will help you defeat the Zhou Family."
"What do you want in return?"
"Information," she answered without batting an eye.
"About what?"
"You already know what kind of information I want," she said, her voice calm and collected. As if she was not talking to a King but someone equal to her.
"Your father is not here," he answered, before roaming his eyes around the room. "The Prime Minister is someone from the Queen's side. Did you disable the recorder's he had installed in this room?"
"I did." Chaeyoung checked her phone before looking at Gideon again. "We have at least five minutes before your Queen reaches this place."
"Speak now. Before I have changed my mind," she added.
"How did you know that?" He furrowed his brows. He couldn't help but wonder if Chaeyoung had hacked into the security system of the palace.
"Irrelevant," she answered. "Speak."
Gideon let out a long sigh before gathering his thoughts. After he came back from seeing Chaeyoung, he realized his mistake of not telling her anything. Now that she was here, Gideon did not even hesitate in his decision.
"Your father, Mason Lee is the King... and I... I am his right-hand man... pretending to be him." He answered. "However, your father... he... left two weeks ago when he realized, there was a possibility that your mother was still alive."
Chaeyoung raised an eyebrow at Gideon's words. "Two weeks ago?" Now, she couldn't help but think that it was also the reason Claire left.
He nodded. "I know it's crazy... I know your mother is already dead... However, he insisted that she was still alive and was taken captive by some dangerous people."
"Tell me more about my mother," she said.
"Claire, Rose, she goes by a lot of names," he instantly answered. He already knew that this question was coming and he had already made up his mind to tell Chaeyoung the truth this time.
"We only know that she was working for the military at that time. However, I know that she is more than that. Even your father didn't tell me her real identity. Yet, he told me a lot of things about your mother... after... after she left him."
"Your mother and father met in the West. Both of them were working with their own respective disguises. We never show our faces to anyone... but the people closest to us. At that time Mason was in a dilemma. He loved the simple Claire, yet, he couldn't reveal his identity to her."
"It was either he leaves his future throne or leaves Claire."
"And he chose the throne." Chaeyoung stated.
"You are wrong." Gideon easily objected. "He chose her."
"At that time, he was not aware of her true identity."
"He was so in love then, he chose to abandon his family and chose to be with her."
"However... we don't know what has happened. We don't know why, but she suddenly pretended to die from an explosion, organized by Mason's enemies. We don't know if she was already aware of your father's identity or she deliberately did it to make Mason annihilate lots of people for her."
"By the time we realized her identity... it was already late, Mason has killed the ones responsible for the explosion. In his anger... he... came back to the family and ascended to the throne instead of me."
"You?" Chaeyoung asked.
"Yes... I was supposed to be the one, sitting on this throne... I was the one, who married the Queen. When... When she started poisoning me... Mason seized the throne from me...We were good friends... we... I considered him as my brother..."
"Okay... this is confusing. So... Mason was originally the heir... Yet he abandoned the Lee Family for my mother... Because of that... you were the one who became the King. However, my mother left him and in his anger, he switched places with you?"
Gideon nodded.
"Ummm... it doesn't make any sense... Why would he do that?" she asked, confused.
"Your Grandmother's family. He wanted to... He wanted to know everything about the Vercello family. He thought that Claire had run away because of your maternal family."
Chaeyoung let out a sigh after she heard Gideon's words. Why did it seem like her parents love story was too dramatic and complicated?
"He wanted to at least match the power of the Vercello Family," he added. "That's why the Lee Family continuously increased its power when Mason started leading us. We were able to spread our influence so much that it eventually threatened the Zhou Family. This prompted them to plot over and over to overthrow us. But they never succeeded. The reason is, while Mason attended the Cabinet meetings, I attended the meeting with the Queen and her sons. Meanwhile, they continued feeding me poison... but Mason stayed safe."
"Still not making any sense... But please continue...we don't have much time." She said.
"We didn't know Claire's reasons for leaving. So, we assumed that it had something to do with your Maternal Family. That was the reason your father wanted the throne. So he could have the power to rival the Vercello Family. With the current speed of our family's growth, we can now be considered an equal rival of the Vercello Family."
"How did you know that she is from the Vercello Family?"
He shrugged. "Only your father can answer that question."
"Tell me... Did my father know about my existence from the beginning?" She asked. She wanted to know more about her mother, yet... she was running out of time.
"No, and yes," he answered.
"Explain," she said.
"It took us a lot of time to find Claire because of the Zhou Family. They were... They wanted to change the leadership for a very long time for now. So no. When your mother left, he did not know. But yes, he eventually found out after years of tracking her. When we discovered your existence... we decided neither approach you nor your mother, so you could live in peace."
"However, an accident happened when you were fifteen, prompting your father to believe that the Queen knew about your existence. At that point... We thought that your mother indeed died."
"We always thought that she died... until your father discovered some signs of her existence again..."
"Don't get me wrong... I stopped your father. I did not approve of his obsessive behavior towards your mother's death. However, he insisted on leaving and giving the throne back to me. At that point... we were already making efforts to reach out to you."
"But you always refused," he added and made a pause when Chaeyoung looked at her phone.
"We have two more minutes. Another question, since you know that the Queen was poisoning you after you married her, then why did you not do anything?"
"What can I do?" He smiled, melancholy lacing his face. "If I don't take the poison, they will use another method to hurt the King."
"So you keep on taking this poison instead of my father?"
He nodded. "It's the only thing that I can do to repay your father for saving my life once."
Chaeyoung did not say anything as she stared at Gideon. She couldn't help but wonder why were his eyes saying a different thing than his words. Every time he mentioned Mason, his eyes were showing extreme sadness, even Chaeyoung could feel it from afar.
"The Queen thinks that I am Mason," he said.
"She knows that there are two of you?"
"Not exactly. But she saw him once and thought he was me... She thought my name was another secret." He scoffed. "That woman became obsessed with Mason. She has tried to seduce him, but it backfired when he called out your mother's name."
"How do you know that?"
"Well... he told me." He hesitated. "To secure his own room, he installed a video recorder inside. Just to know if people, especially the..."
"Are you telling me that he does not sleep with the Queen?"
"Of course! The Kings never sleep with their wives. That's the reason only people from the Lee Family become heirs and not the Crown Prince." He answered. "That's the reason, in the history of this country, a Crown Prince never become the King."
"Not even once," he added.
"Last thing... can you tell me the reason you wanted me to come here? I'm sure it's not just because you wanted me to help you with the Zhou Family."
"I want you to succeed the throne for your father," he answered directly. "I don't have much time and I'm not sure when your father will come back. I can't let a civil war happen, not now, when I am weak. I need you to become the Queen."
Chaeyoung deadpanned at Gideon's words. What? Queen? Was this man crazy?
"I'm sorry. I think I heard the wrong thing..." she said. "Did you say 'the Queen'?"
He nodded. "You are right. I want you to succeed the throne. I plan on changing the leadership and make you the first Queen in the history of this country. I will change the laws."
"A war is coming... and I want you to be here, with me. Be the next Queen." He added.
"I'm sorry ... but how is that possible?" She asked. "I might be a Lee, but... I am a nobody."
"A nobody?" He scoffed. "Who told you that?"
She shrugged. "I can't be a Queen, choose another person to lead this country."
"I am not a leader. I would help you defeat them, but promise me that you will find someone else," she added.
"I can't do that. You are the heir. The legitimate one." He emphasized. "Did you see the Crown Prince? Do you think someone like that can lead this country? Moreover, he is not a Lee."
"So you know?"
"Of course... the Queen thought that she has fooled everyone by sleeping with me when she thought I was drunk. What she did not know was that it was all planned by Mason beforehand. He wanted to trick her into thinking that she has fooled us."
Chaeyoung stared at Gideon while toying with her hair. She was used to doubting the existence of blind loyalty. In her reasoning, no one would be able to become so loyal to the point of giving their lives for their ideals. Those people, who said that they were loyal, had their own reasons, their own objectives. Yet, what this man in front of her was showing was the exact sign of blind loyalty.
This man, would drink poison and do whatever it took to fulfill his duty. For Chaeyoung, that was utter foolishness. However, she also knew that Gideon must have been brought up that way. He must have been trained to serve and protect his King. Chaeyoung would call him foolish, but Gideon would call this fealty, an extreme faithfulness. He would call this his mission.
"I am not a Queen." She reiterated. "Find someone else... from the main Lee Family..."
"That is another thing that I wanted to talk with you... the Elders want to see you and maybe discuss some important things with you."
Chaeyoung did not answer him, instead, she looked at her phone and clenched her jaws. "She is here. This conversation is not over. They are planning something for the next Cabinet Meeting. I am letting you know that because I am planning to act at that time as well." She declared before getting up and gathering her things.
Gideon just stared at Chaeyoung, speechless at the conviction of her words. Then, he turned his gaze to the door, where voices could be heard, outside of the room. From the voices, he could say that the Queen was indeed here, creating ruckus outside of the meeting room. Once again, he wondered how did Chaeyoung gain access to that information.
He let out a sigh before looking at Chaeyoung. "Let's talk about collaboration. Are you planning to impress everyone during the meeting?"
"If I was not... I will not be here," she smirked at him.
"Tell me about that device," he stated.
"I will create something that would be added to your military drones. It's not a device but a program, which will enhance the capacity of its carrier to spy on their enemies. If I install that program on your drones, it will instantly boost your ability in surveillance and reconnaissance. I will tell you in a little secret, this is going to be a revolutionary project for this country... not even the West can rival this technology."
Gideon leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving Chaeyoung. "You are indeed your father's daughter."
With his words, Chaeyoung lifted her chin, as her lips curled into a smile. "The Zhou Family wanted to cause trouble in my life. With this creation, I will show them that I am not someone to be trifled with. I don't care about leading this country. All I want is to know the true identities of my parents."
"Assure me, once I defeat the Zhou Family, you will tell me everything that you know about my parents." She added. She knew that Gideon was still hiding some information from her.
The latter stared at her, clearly considering her offer.
"If you dare to lie to me, and I will make sure to wipe out the whole Lee Family together with the Zhou Family," she said, her eyes narrowed, lips curled into a chilly smile.
With her words, Gideon slowly nodded. "I will. I promise."
And right after he finished his words, the door was abruptly opened. Revealing a woman in her fifties, her hair was in a perfect updo, her brows furrowed as she pointed her finger at Chaeyoung.
"Arrest that woman!"
...