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[Final Episode]
You need to
give up the crown.
I cannot do that.
Do you not know
any nation would brand you a traitor now?
It's slander.
Then why...
Why did you foster a rebel army?
I did not foster them.
Even so,
it's all the same.
Just by establishing that academy
and promising unworthy commoners
that you would give them a higher purpose,
you will lose your own worth
as crown prince.
However,
you still should not be branded a traitor for this.
If you are,
you will not be able to inherit the crown
to your son, San.
Listen to me carefully
from now on.
Your only crime was establishing a rebellious academy.
You'll take the responsibility for that
and resign
as crown prince voluntarily.
All the other crimes were
committed by Na Chul Joo.
He trained that rebel army
and corrupted the academy students into rebels.
All of it was Na Chul Joo's doing.
I cannot do that, father.
Think wisely.
This is the only...
It's the only way to protect
your son San
and even your own life.
[The crown prince descendant's academy]
Can you tell the meaning of it?
It means that when a man must do something,
the superior man considers whether his behavior is righteous or not first,
and the lowly man considers whether his behavior is beneficial or not first.
That's right.
Please read the next phrase.
The crown prince
shouldn't be branded as a traitor.
If so, this boy will be a traitor too.
Don't you think so?
I need you to take charge of this matter.
You need to convince the prince to resign voluntarily.
But Your Majesty...
Don't talk back! Just execute my order.
It is the only way
for all of us to survive.
Resign as crown prince voluntarily.
This is the only way to protect your son San
and even your own life.
That's the only way.
[A letter of Resignation]
A letter of resignation?
If you ask to resign in this situation,
what am I supposed to do?
Do you truly not know
what I am thinking?
I do know, Your Majesty.
I know why you decided to abandon your son.
I know why you made such a decision as king.
I think I do know, Your Majesty.
However,
the mind of a son who can't obey his own father
and the precious dream at the center of that mind...
I also understand those.
That's why I can't fully server either
your or His Highness' will, Your Majesty.
Don't try to escape.
It's been twenty years since my *Chulsa.
[*Chulsa: Becoming a government official]
I have spent most of that time
serving His Highness,
so I can't...
I can never accept your order
to abandon my master.
Your Highness.
Please
be healthy and strong.
[Letter of resignation]
What a fool.
What would you like to do now, Your Majesty?
I have to do it myself.
From start to finish,
I have to do it all
with my own hands.
First of all,
take care of the crown prince's
right hand men.
Father!
Why did you come back to the city?
It's dangerous here.
I know.
That's why I came back.
Criminal Min Woo Seob, we're here to arrest you.
Criminal?
What crime did he commit?
He's been in communication with a traitor for two years.
A traitor?
Arrest him!
What are you doing?
Get off me!
Father!
Jo Jae Ho. Jang Won Ki.
Come out.
Minister Jo Jae Ho and Eunuch Jang
were sent into exile?
Min Woo Seob was also arrested
on charges of secret communication with a traitor.
Where are you going?
Step aside.
What difference can you make even if you go now?
Do you also want them to suffer charges
of failing to serve the crown prince properly?
Push for your own deposition.
Put the blame
on others as much as you can
and find a way to end this with your resignation.
If you make your decision,
I will follow you.
Even if you ask me to be a sinner
who would spend the rest of their life
in exile,
only being able
to look up and see the sky
until the end of time...
If that kind of life as a sinner is your destiny,
I will gladly bear it
with you.
Just...
not our child.
Our son, San...
He shouldn't be in danger.
Princess...
I can
completely give up my dream
of becoming this nation's mother
and the wife of a king.
I will,
but
my dream to be
the mother of the next king of this nation...
Please do not ask me to give that up.
If you...
If you ask me to do so, I will...
I will never forgive you again.
You haven't received
any word from the crown prince yet?
No, Your Majesty.
Then I have to begin
the process of deposition forcibly.
Depose the crown prince?
No way, Your Majesty!
What is going on here?
Who let this traitor into my palace?
Please, Your Majesty.
You shouldn't kill my son
and abandon the crown prince.
You...
You took care of that traitorous academy yourself
for the last two years?
Yes, Your Majesty.
So...
So please, if someone has to die for this,
please let it be me.
Please take my life instead
and let me...
Please let me save my son's life, Your Majesty.
Leave.
Your Majesty!
Leave and live your life.
Your Majesty.
I won't punish you for treason,
so live
with the sin
of failing to raise your child properly.
I want you to live with that harshly.
Live with it!
No, Your Majesty!
Eunuch Sang!
What are you waiting for?
Get him out of here immediately!
No, Your Majesty!
- Take him out quickly! - Your Majesty!
Spare my son's life
and take my life instead, Your Majesty!
Please spare my son's life, Your Majesty!
Your Majesty!
Min Baek Sang...
committed suicide.
Although you told me
to live with the burden of my son's death...
You ordered me to do so,
but I have not the confidence to do it.
It is natural
for a father to die before his son.
How could you ask me to go against the laws of nature?
Please
accept the life of a father instead,
and please...
Please spare my son.
If you're a commoner,
being a father is very convenient.
You can die
for your children at any time.
However,
I am a father
who was born into the Royal Family
and then became king.
What can I do for my son
and how can I do it?
Min Woo Seob.
Come out.
Tell him
to hold a proper funeral.
If it's necessary,
I will summon him again
for his crime after he finishes
his three years of mourning.
So...
How is Min Woo Seob now?
For now,
he has been released.
You pitiful man...
If it's too hard
or if it puts you in danger,
no one would blame you
even if you disregard them for once.
But you couldn't do that even to the end...
That's why you and the crown prince
are in serious trouble.
I'm sorry, father...
However...
Just let me tell you...
It's because you and the crown prince are this pitiful...
It's because of your tearfully pathetic youthfulness...
That's...
That's why I'm even more proud of you.
You've been drinking since this afternoon.
Why are you doing this?
I've lost a friend.
I should have a farewell drink for him.
I don't know about anyone else,
but Min Baek Sang and I went through a lot together.
We said we would overcome this crisis together,
so why...
Why did he end up like this?
He got involved with the crown prince
and meddled with his lunacy.
Now he's dead for all of it.
Why did he have
to leave us like this
and make me a heartless man
who can't even go to his funeral?
Chief State Councillor.
I will break down
the crown prince's rebellious dreams.
No.
I think I should
eliminate the crown prince.
That way,
he can't ruin another man with his mad dreams
and the crown of Joseon will not fall to a madman!
I will ruin him.
How will you punish the crown prince?
Why are you putting it off after confining him?
Deposition.
I will depose the crown prince soon.
No, Your Majesty!
Deposition?
What will happen afterward?
The same as what happened
to the deposed Kwanghae.
I'll *Wiriahnchi him.
[*Wiriahnchi: Confining an exiled sinner to a house fenced with thorny vines]
For the rest of his life,
I will make sure he never sees
the outside world again.
This palace's high walls couldn't even stop the crown prince.
He went right over them to try
and make a nation favorable to commoners.
That being the case,
how could a weak fence in a place of a exile stop him?
Wherever the crown prince goes,
they have hope!
The mad buds of rebellion will bloom
over and over in his footsteps.
It will throw this nation into uncontrollable confusion.
The buds of rebellion should be cut immediately, Your Majesty.
So...
What do you want from me?
Do you want
me to violate moral law?
Do you mean
to ask me
to kill my own son?
We do not ask that you violate moral law, but we do
ask you to fulfill your duty as a king.
Abandoning the crown prince is a way
to correct order of the nation.
The buds of rebellion should be cut immediately, Your Majesty!
Please abandon the crown prince, Your Majesty!
You should punish him severely on charges of treason.
Your Majesty!
You should punish the crown prince for treason!
- Please, Your Majesty! - Please, Your Majesty!
Punish him as a traitor!
- Please, Your Majesty! - Please, Your Majesty!
- Punish him as a traitor! - Punish him as a traitor!
Please take the crown prince's life, Your Majesty!
If you don't cut
the buds of rebellion, they will eventually ruin Joseon!
Please take the crown prince's life, Your Majesty!
- Punish him as a traitor! - Punish him as a traitor!
Deposition isn't enough?
Do they...
Do they have to take the crown prince's life?
What about the crown prince descendant?
What will happen to the crown prince descendant?
What will you do with the crown prince descendant
after we take care of prince?
A traitor's son is also a traitor.
Of course he should be deposed too,
and expelled from the palace with his mother.
Your Majesty.
I need to tell you something.
Go away.
I don't want to hear anything now.
I cannot do that, Your Majesty.
You can't?
Is this because of the Old Learning Faction?
What then?
Do you want to kill the crown prince too?
Yes, Your Majesty.
Do you want to die?
Even the father of a commoner can save
his child's life if he's willing.
I am
the king.
I am the king of all Joseon!
So why...
Why can't I take care
of my child's life as I wish?
Are you saying
I should take my child's life with my own hands.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Is that how human beings should live?
Unless you want to lose both of them,
you have no choice, Your Majesty.
If you want to save the crown prince descendant...
The... The crown prince descendant?
The Old Learning Faction plans to take down
the crown prince descendant too?
If the prince is a traitor,
his son must also be.
How can you be sure that they
will kill both of them?
If you lose both of them,
both of the crown prince
and the crown prince descendant...
What will you do then?
They'll try to kill me
and depose the crown prince descendant?
Will you let them do it?
If you lose everything like this...
If you lose everything including your life,
what will happen to the world you dreamed of?
What will happen to the promise you made to the people?
Na Chul Joo said
that now is the time to change the world.
What do you mean?
[*Myeong Sa: The rebel group established by Na Chul Joo]
The members of *Myeong Sa came back to the city.
Follow me.
We will begin
by eliminating the leading members
of the Old Learning Faction, Hong Gye Hee and Kim Sang Ro.
At the same time,
you need to take over Palace Gyeonghee.
The matter of His Majesty's life
is completely up to you.
Whether you take his life
or dethrone and confine him
is your decision to make.
Make up your mind, Your Highness.
Now is the time for us to make the world
you and your citizens have dreamed of.
Can I...
Can I have some time to consider it?
Of course you can.
However,
just do not forget that we do not
have much time left.
A tiger roaring deep within the mountain
has made a strong wind.
If I had known
that being king is such a cruel job...
If I had known such things
would happen to me earlier,
then I never would have wanted the crown.
The crown prince...
About the crown prince...
I'll do as you requested.
But the crown prince descendant...
Don't touch him.
I cannot do that, Your Majesty.
The crown prince descendant has
lived closely with his father all this time.
The entire nation knows how close they are.
How can you be sure that the crown prince descendant does not
also have buds of rebellion blooming in his mind?
Those buds...
I will clip them with my own hands.
I am afraid that is impossible, Your Majesty.
It that's true,
I'll cut your throat instead.
Your Majesty.
This is the most I can concede.
Take the crown prince's life
and hand his crown to the crown prince descendant.
But...
I will take him as my heir,
but he will be adopted
to my eldest son, Hyojang Seja,
who died a long time ago.
Then I will pass the crown to him.
The fact that
the crown prince is the father
of the crown prince descendant
will be erased from the Royal Family tree.
That is all
I will concede to you.
If you ask for any more,
we will have a war.
It will be a war
that will not stop
before either you or I
are dead.
Yes, Your Majesty.
I will persuade the retainers.
You've been improved so much.
I still have a long way to go to be like father.
What will happen to father?
What will happen to him?
What are you saying?
The court people are saying that he can't be king anymore.
Who says such a disgraceful thing to you?
Is it not true?
Never.
Your father
is a great man.
You know that
better than anyone else, don't you?
You father will become a good king.
A great king, even.
I knew it.
I knew it, mother.
A great cause is righteous.
I don't care about the means to achieve it.
Making the world equal is a great cause.
This cause is righteous.
It is not a big deal to kill your political enemies
and seize the crown with their blood.
Are you afraid?
What are you afraid of?
There is no such thing.
There is nothing for me to be afraid of.
Are you ashamed?
Do you think that you'll be ashamed of yourself later
for choosing an improper way to take the crown?
If so, Your Highness,
simply tell yourself that time
that you had to survive.
You had to survive
because you have things to do,
and
you're doing those things right now.
At the same time,
you need to take over Palace Gyeonghee.
The matter of life and death of His Majesty
is completely up to you.
Whether you take his life or dethrone and confine him
is your decision to make.
Did you call for me, father?
You look like you're slowly wasting away.
Yes.
This must not be easy for you to bear.
Time is amazing.
The day you were born
feels like just yesterday.
The first day you could
properly sit down
even though
you could barely stand up...
The first day you spoke...
The first day you wrote a letter properly
after whining to hold a brush...
All the these amazing and thrilling first moments
of your life
are still fresh in my memory.
Sun.
A father thinks
that he knows his child
better than anything
and that there's nothing
that he cannot understand
about his own child, no matter what.
That's why I was so confident,
but...
I think I was too arrogant.
Where did it go wrong?
You and I...
How did we
end up like this?
Father.
Instead...
Instead, it would
have been better if you weren't born as my son.
You should have been born as the son of a commoner.
If you had...
If you had, it would have been much better.
Why did you have to be born as my son?
Were you
looking for me?
I need you to answer me honestly.
San...
Will he be safe?
Did my father find a way
to protect San?
I mean...
I mean if I can do this well...
San...
Will my son be safe?
Why can't you do it well?
I don't know.
I'm not good at it today.
Can you not concentrate?
Is it because of the rumor?
The rumor?
The rumor that you can't be a king.
Don't worry.
It's only a false rumor.
Who told you so?
Mother did.
Did she?
She said you're a great man,
so you'll become a great king for sure.
Cheer up, father.
Okay.
I will.
Nice!
See?
You can do it well when you concentrate.
You're right.
Did you call for me, Your Highness?
If...
If our plan succeeds and I survive,
I'll become a vindicatory father.
Your Highness...
I'll become a father
who makes the excuse that I had no choice
and that's why I had to put down my opponents.
I will be a heartless king to the people
who think of me as their father
because I will suppress them,
whenever they try to oppose to me too.
What are you thinking, Your Highness?
Deliver this to Na Chul Joo.
Our plan is over.
I can't achieve a great cause through the wrong measures.
Even if I survive because I have things I need to do,
I will eventually fail to accomplish them
because going through this measures
will change who we are.
Stopping our plan
isn't recognition of defeat.
We need more patience today
for the future ahead of us.
That's why
we must accept the reality of today.
So, please...
Please don't
take to despair now.
Gather everyone.
The day
will come soon,
so I want you to get ready.
[Eunuch palace residence]
You look nervous today.
I sent word to Royal Secretary Chae Je Gong,
but I have not heard back from him yet.
How come...
We can't lose the crown prince
this easily.
You're the best man
to correct this matter.
He needs to arrive as soon as possible.
Don't worry too much.
No matter how strong the prince's desire not to live is,
people who want to save him have already started to move.
What do you mean?
I asked you what you meant!
Who are you?
Ugh...
No...
No!
Why are you here?
I'm here to take your life, Your Majesty.
Why...
Are we enemies now?
I thought we could be
good friends to each other.
We will.
I'll follow you soon.
Why are you standing there like that?
Come here.
This is actually better.
It's much better this way.
Why are you hesitating?
Your father...
With that sword...
That...
is how you take power!
I will be gone,
and you will still be here.
A father
should die first!
Then my child...
My child will remain.
That is the natural law.
Now...
So...
Come here!
Take up your sword!
The sword...
Don't take it too hard, father.
Now...
Now is the time for me to leave.
If I harm you
and become king as they wish,
it would only be continuing the cycle.
We should
prevent the throne from being established on the blood of our enemies.
How hard and weary it is to make
a better future with hands that command slaughter...
You know that better
than anyone else, father.
This is a letter
your father left for you.
San.
Father will die soon,
so
I want you to take revenge for your father's death.
Father!
No, father!
Who let the crown prince descendant come in here?
- Take him away immediately! - Father!
No, father!
Father!
Get off me!
Father!
Get off me!
Father!
Get off me!
No, father!
Father!
Get off me!
Your tears...
Dry them up now.
Your father would be unhappy
to see you like this.
For now,
straighten up your shoulders
and behave like a future king.
You should send off your father honorably.
It's nice to come out
since it has been so long.
It's cold, grandfather.
You shouldn't stay out for too long.
Is this because it's winter?
The daylight
seems so short now.
Even though the light of day
is this short...
My tired life...
I don't know how long
it will continue.
Grandfather.
San.
You know...
Since the day your father died,
I've lived each day of my life
like it was doing homework.
This is the nation I protected
by
taking my son's life.
That is why I can't be reckless
with it even for a moment.
Soon...
You should take this homework from me.
San.
Yes, grandfather.
Who do you have
your meals with these days?
Grandfather.
Do you have a friend?
It's true that
a king shamelessly takes his meals sitting alone at the table,
but you should make friends
that you could eat with.
Yes.
The divine punishment
that is the loneliness
of a king's live can be born well
with a friend.
[The 22nd king of Joseon, Jeongjo]
San.
Father will die soon,
so
I want you to take revenge for your father's death.
The best way to avenge your father
is to establish an academy for everyone at the most beautiful place in the palace.
[Kyujangkak: Royal library]
[Park Je Ka]
[Jeong Yak Yong]
[Baek Dong Soo]
Also,
gather talented people indiscriminately
and give them the opportunity for impossible dreams.
That's...
[Chae Je Gong]
That is how
you can best avenge
the memory of your father.
[The 22nd king of Joseon, Jeongjo]
I am
Prince Sado's son.