Original subtitles

The Queen must be deposed!

Will you depose the Queen?

Aiding a criminal of high treason is not a light crime.

Very well.

It's for the best.

It's in her interest as well.

This is a hard place to be even for an iron-willed woman like me.

It wasn't easy keeping my sanity watching my brothers die one by one.

Do it.

Tell them to depose her and throw her out of the palace.

But I do feel sorry for you, my dear husband.

You'll have to put even more blood on that heinous sword of yours.

And when we get a new Queen to replace her, you'll have to slaughter yet more

in-laws to stop their abuse of power whether they abuse their power or not.

I asked them to come.

May we go to the Hall of Ease for a moment?

We cannot allow this to continue.

We will not forgive those who are bearing down on you riding on the

coattails of former King's authority.

Please let us help you, Your Majesty.

General Choi.

Yes, Your Majesty.

You're the de facto leader of the military.

Are you with your men on this?

Royal subjects are supposed to serve

the King, not intimidate him.

You wish to find a way to protect the King?

Go back home.

I'm asking you to come with me.

I'm an offender living in exile.

If you request reinstatement, abdicated King will not object.

Then I will end up serving the abdicated King.

Yes, I know.

And...

The new King was my political enemy once.

Why would you want

him to have another enemy to contend with?

Abdicated King needs a good man who will give him honest council.

We need someone who will break the abdicated King

and those bullying the young King on the coattails of his father's authority.

But His Eminence is already raising such someone.

The new King.

Do you think the former King is trying to teach his son to be wary

of aids by killing Gang Sangin and Shim On?

Quite the contrary.

He's teaching him to be wary of his enemy.

You'll see.

He will soon be looking for a way to eliminate everyone

that urged him to Kill Shim On.

Park Eun, Yu Jeonghyun, and maybe even his right-hand man Jo Malseng.

He is trying to teach his son that the sword, not virtue, is the quickest

way to remove political enemy and capture control.

Then isn't that all the more reason why you should go back and help the new King?

I don't really want to.

I'm finally starting to enjoy my life. Why would I go back into that hellhole?

My lord.

Don't waste your strength. Go home.

Are you offering to be my swords?

If this is your loyalty to me, I will gladly accept.

Secretary Yi.

Who do you think is my biggest political enemy?

What brings you to my chambers at this late hour?

Are you scrambling to find a way to save one of your closest aides?

No, I came to tell you that I finally have a deeper understanding of you.

The King who was honest with his desire for power.

The King who knew power can't be shared not even between a father and a son,

so banished his own father, the Great Ancestor King Taejo, to Hamheung...

I finally understand you, Father.

My King.

Now it s time for you to give me an advice.

If I were to brandish my sword where should I aim?

Are you trying to say you are going to aim your sword at me?

Is that your advice?

Do you think you can defeat me?

How about you?

Do you believe you defeated the late King Taejo.

Tell me why you're here.

I will give up my father-in-law Prime Minister Shim On.

But...

He will have to be the last.

I can't give up my wife either.

She tried to get political asylum to a criminal of high treason.

She is the mother of my son.

If you depose the Queen for treason,

legitimacy of Joseon's royal house will be on the chopping block again.

Officials will oppose fiercely.

I'm sure you didn't start this without a contingency plan.

Would you follow my plan?

You must first give me your word that there will be no more killings.

For some reason I feel like I've been played with by my son.

Your Eminence...

He can negotiate quite well.

He's grown.

Do you still want to be the sword that slays my political enemy?

Then you don't deserve to be soldiers.

A soldiers sword belongs in the military and it should be aimed at foreign enemies.

Your Majesty...

I do not want to use the precious swords that protect my people

to slay my political enemies.

Royal Inspector's Office

Your sword... Use your sword.

Park Eun, Yu Jeonghyun, kill them all.

Just arrest all of your political enemies and cut them to shreds!

That's what your father is trying to teach you

not how to rule your aides but how to suppress your political enemies.

That's what the former King's alter ego Hwang Hee told me.

Your Majesty.

This is the only chance you have of saving your most dedicated servant.

Raise your sword and destroy your political adversaries.

It seems I released you from disciplinary confinement prematurely.

Your Majesty...

Don't stop.

No, I hope I didn't wake you from your sleep.

You look very tired.

You told me the other day that I should try to be more like Liu Bei.

Man who knows how to enjoy politics like a game...

Your Majesty...

You also said he learned early on in his life that one can't have it all.

I doubt it was a game for him either.

Deciding what to acquire and what to give up...

It couldn't have been easy as a game.

It has to have been painful for him every time he had to make a choice...

Your Majesty...

Stay away from sweets.

Don't forget to eat your vegetables.

You must eat variety of foods.

You mustn't be lazy with your studies or give the servants a hard time.

Jeongso...

You're going to take my place now.

Take care of your brothers.

Mother...

It might be harder for you to forget me since you're older than your brothers,

but you must try.

Forget you? Are you going somewhere, Mother?

Promise me that you'll be a big girl.

That you won't pine for me, you'll take care of your brothers

and you'll grow up to be a kind and virtuous princess.

Mother...

You must be healthy and strong.

Yi Sun.

Yes, Your Highness.

You can take the children back to their rooms now.

How could you do this?

If you care about the children, you can't do this.

You heard me.

Just tell them I acted alone and you knew nothing of what I've done.

Send me back behind bars and let me take the blame.

You'd put me to such shame?

Everyone has turned their back on me including my own husband.

But you're the only one who stuck with me to the end.

If i had failed to protect you, it would've been my eternal regret.

Your Highness...

Take care of my children.

My steps will be lighter when I leave the palace knowing they have you.

Your Highness...

It's way past bed time. Take the children to their rooms.

Father, where is Mother going?

She looks so sad.

She will be just fine.

Your father is the most powerful man in this country.

So he will make sure nothing happens to her.

Are you sure?

Is she right, Father?

You shouldn't have come.

I had to come.

I will not have you deposed.

Do you know how cruel those words are?

I might have to say many more cruel words in the future.

Concubines?

And not just a few of them but eight concubines all at once?

I'll have them set up an agency to deal with

the rites so you can conduct the selection personally.

A beast with a human face...

I'm tired of telling you to have decency.

Prestige of the Royal house must be preserved,

so choose from only the noblest families.

Stop!

Please stop.

How will you bear the consequences of all of this evil?

Depose the Queen instead.

The King and the Queen were a happy couple.

The Queen is about to lose her father

and you're telling the poor child to share her husband with other women as well?

You are not new to politics. I can't believe you'd say something so naive.

The Queen is not just our third son Doe's wife anymore.

She's the mother of our people and the mother of the future King.

Your Eminence?

It's not a good thing for a King to love only one woman.

Because then all of his power will be in her skirt.

Would you believe me if I told you that I did this to protect you?

I don't want to believe you.

Escort Han.

Yes, Your Highness.

I'm going to have to transfer you to the Queen's hall soon.

Your Highness...

Watch her closely so she doesn't do anything hasty.

Do you understand?

Open up the cell.

I gave you an order.

But we're not authorized to...

May I help you?

Please tell these guards to open the cell.

With all due respect, this is no place for the Queen.

Have you forgotten?

You're the one who said I am not the mother of this country.

Your Grace...

You have children as well.

What child in the world could see her father in such condition and turn her back?

I married young and had no chance to do my daughterly duties to my father.

This may be our final moment together so please let me stay

by my father's side for a while.

I beg you.

Father...

Father...

Why, I wonder.

Why do I feel sorrier for you than for that man lying on the jail cell floor?

For the past decade, you've always been at the center King Tejong's

gory slaughter of his in-laws and political adversaries.

Has it been bearable?

How about you?

Did you volunteered for this because you thought it would be bearable?

It's not bearable and it never was.

But it's a job that has to be done, and you just do it.

Were you afraid of the former King?

I'm sure many in the court believe that I was.

He is undefeatable after all.

I never start a fight I can't win.

But fear of the King was not the only reason.

"Did I have to kill them?" "Was I right to kill them?"

I'm not completely without regrets,

but I believe it had to be done in order to

bring order to this government in shortest time possible.

And this time?

Did you accept this job for the same reason this time?

I'm not young scholar but an old politician.

And sometimes in politics,

you must do what needs to be done instead of what's right.

Do you see me, Father?

Guards. Guards!

Father.

Take the Queen out of here at once!

Father.

It's an order! Get her out at once!

Don't, Father.

You can yell at me all you want, but please let me stay by your side.

You're the Queen of this state.

I will not have you tend to a prisoner.

I'm not the Queen anymore.

Is the King... going to depose you?

No, it's me.

I don't think I can bear to live with him after this, Father.

Is it my lack of virtue?

Did I raise my daughter to be a wife

who doesn't understand her husband of ten years?

The King is my son just as much as you are my daughter if not more.

I raised him with my heart with deep affection.

That son is going to forsake ou.

If he doesn't forsake me, I would take my own life.

Father!

This is not by his choice.

Many others would die if he tried to protect me,

and that cannot be allowed to happen, so he is making a very painful decision.

Your husband, the new King of this state, is a profound thinker.

I don't know what you mean. I don't want to know.

Stop being a child and go back to your chambers.

No, let me stay with you.

How about your son?

You're a mother. How could you leave your children?

Father!

Ignore everything else and think of your son.

Just focus on raising him well and go forward.

He is a remarkable boy.

He has the King's intelligence and your prudence and virtue.

In the future, he will rise to the throne as the fifth King of Joseon.

And you have the duty to raise him

to be even wiser and more compassionate than your husband.

Father...

I know.

I know it's going to be painful to see me go.

You'll have to endure so much cruel pain and agony...

But you must endure it and go forward without looking back.

Kings and Queens do not look back.

Don't blame yourself for what is happening to me.

Just look to the future and go forward.

Only then...

Only then... I can rest in peace.

Would you do that for this old man?

Your Highness...

Can I endure it?

I don't know if I can make it in this cruel world.

Let me be your strength.

My parents named me Yi Sun (Two goodness)

to have at least two devotions in my life.

I already gave my first devotion to my mother,

so I let me give you the second devotion.

Yi Sun.

Yes, Your Highness.

You are a good woman.

My son, I will go to my son.

Prisoner Shim On, your heinous crime is punishable by drawing and quartering,

but in consideration of your devoted past services to this state,

this tribunal grants you compassion to take your own life.

And he became a courageous young man like you, Hyang.

- Do you understand? - Yes.

- My lord! - My lady!

Lady Ahn...

You are the Queen's mother now,

so please take care of her.

Forgive us, my lord...

for failing to protect you...

No, I am the one who feels contrite.

We said we'd cross the heavy seas together, but here I am jumping ship...

My lord...

This is where my service to the King will end,

but you must stay with him to the end.

Prime Minister Shim On,

executed by poisoning, December 23, 1418.

Grant the Queen title of Gongbi and give her a grand inaugural.

Newly chosen concubines and their maidservants, Your Highness.

I hereby declare Lady Shim of Chungsong Gongbi and take her as my Queen,

and I order that she be honored.

Bean County, Choongchung Province

Bean County, Choongchung Province...

It's the location of a large shipyard where warships ire being built.

They will have to give up the conquest

if we attack and destroy all the ships.

There is a large explosives storehouse near the port.

Steal the explosives, and

destroying the warships will not be difficult.

Is it gambling debt?

Are you giving us this information

to pay off your gambling debt again?

I don't know about my father,

but I can't live as a Joseonese.

Tahirano Mouko,

you're a proud son of Tsushima.

Do not fall back! Attack!

Retreat! Retreat swiftly!

Japanese pirates attacked Bean County?

I declare war and ordered them to surrender,

and they launch a preemptive attack?

Assemble the warriors at once.

If the enemy we ordered to surrender has made a preemptive move, what's next?

No, call everyone. The Supreme Council, Six Ministries, everyone.

I have an important announcement.

Are we to launch an immediate attack on Tsushima?