Third person's POV

'As you said, you think of Mina as a family member, so I will ask you a favour... Let's not bring the national law into this, let's treat whatever happened tonight as... a family matter.' Chaeyoung finally revealed her thought,

Mina instantly raises her head to look at Chaeyoung. She really thought this time, she has pushed the Queen to her limit, and therefore the Queen must be super angry and won't forgive her. But after what Chaeyoung just said, Mina knows that she's forever in the Queen's protection,

Meanwhile, Sana is staring at Chaeyoung with her broken heart which just got crushed even more now. She did not expect this sudden turn of situation at all, she didn't expect the Queen would go to this extent to save Mina, 'Your Majesty, you want to treat this serious crime as a family matter? You... don't  even question if that assassin and Consort Mina had planned something together? I meant... they are the Myouis, they think of you as their enemy.' Sana tries her best to hold in her emotions while asking Chaeyoung,

The Queen looks at her Treasure while answering Sana's question, 'I don't have to question anything, I trust my Mina completely.' Chaeyoung has never doubted Mina's love and loyalty for her, no matter what the girl did.

Sana tries hard to swallow the bitter taste in her mouth after seeing how Chaeyoung is protecting Mina at all cost. She quickly has a look around, all the Consorts and Concubines who are here, are indeed in the royal family. But then there are other people too, 'Your Majesty, even if I turn a blind eye and agree to treat this as a family matter. But how about Vice Chief Dahyun, Vice Minister JeongYeon and Head Court Lady Nayeon? They aren't in the royal family.' She argues,

'Head Court Lady Nayeon is like my older sister, while Vice Chief Dahyun and Vice Minister JeongYeon are my closest friends, I think of them as my family.' The Queen replied,

Consort Sana looks at Dahyun, she's hoping with the love the Vice Chief has for her, at least she will be on her side. But Dahyun quickly avoids the eye contact, she loves Sana but that doesn't mean she supports the Consort getting someone killed,

'Yes, Your Majesty. Whatever happened tonight will stay with us. No one will ever know about it.' Nayeon, JeongYeon and Dahyun all speak at once,

Chaeyoung smiles a smile of relief, she turns to Sana, 'Sana, everyone has agreed to keep this matter between all of us here, so I will place Mina's safety in your hands now. If anyone outside of us here know about this, I... will have to hold you responsible.' The Queen threatens in order to seal the deal,

Sana bites her teeth real hard to hold in her anger, 'Damn it! I should have asked a few Councillors or Ministers to come.' She thought to herself, feelings so unfair that everyone here has her cornered. However, she doesn't accept her defeat just yet, eventhough she can't get Mina killed, but certainly she won't let the girl get out of this unscratched, 'Your Majesty, I agree to treat this as a family matter. However, just like a Kingdom has its law, a family also has its rules, moreover it's a royal family's rules, so it should be strictly followed...'

Chaeyoung's body tenses up, as she knows where Sana is going with this,

And the Consort just continues, 'As a wife, I believe Consort Mina was being disrespectful and disobedient towards you by lying and disregarding your words. Your Majesty, she broke the royal family's rules, and therefore, she should be held accountable to set an example for others.'

The Queen looks at her Treasure, and more than ever, she wishes she's not a Queen, she wishes she's not someone who has to do the right thing to be a good example for everyone to follow. Chaeyoung holds her hands into fists to stay strong, 'Certainly, disrespectful and disobedient behaviours are unacceptable in the royal family.' In front of all these people, the Queen needs to at least be fair after having shamelessly demanded everyone to keep Mina's wrong doing to themselves,

'Head Court Lady, bring me... a cane.' She commands,

Everyone is having their heads down, they certainly understand that Chaeyoung has no other choices. Therefore, they don't even dare to plead the Queen for Mina's sake,

Meanwhile, the guilty girl is still staring at the floor, her eyes got teary, as she knows what she did indeed deserves a punishment, but having to face it, is never going to be easy. Mina takes a quick glance at Chaeyoung, hoping to see a glimpse of love in her eyes. Right now, Mina is just hoping that eventhough the Queen punishes her, but deep down inside, is still care and not very angry at her,

'Your Majesty, I will take the punishment instead! Please don't punish Her Highness!' JiHyo is bowing at the Queen nonstop, hoping to protect the Princess from the cane,

'Your Majesty... please...' Even Nayeon doesn't have the heart to see the Consort in pain,

'Head Court Lady, bring me a cane right now.' The Queen repeated, as long as Consort Sana and the other Consorts and Concubines are still here, she can't forgo the punishment,

'Yes... Your Majesty.' Nayeon has no other choice but to obey,

Not long after, she brought back a cane, then hesitantly hands it to Chaeyoung,

The Queen bites her lips real hard while holding the cane in her hand. She took a deep breath before standing up and walked over to her Treasure, 'Mina, come here with me.' She says while grabbing onto Mina's wrist, pulling the girl with her. Even though she's supposed to be really mad at the moment, but my God, Chaeyoung doesn't even have the heart to pull her wife too harshly. Instead, Chaeyoung pulls very gently while Mina is the one who is now obediently following her Queen,

Before walking past Head Court Lady, The Queen tells her, 'Head Court Lady, make sure everyone leaves before coming inside to see me.'

Nayeon creases her brows a little, as she's sure that there's no left over palace matters that she has to discuss with the Queen. But just thinking a little deeper, she quickly understood the signal Chaeyoung sent, the Queen actually told her to tell everyone to leave,

'It's quite late now, Your Highnesses. I think it's best if you all can return to your own palace to rest.' Nayeon says while bowing her head goodbye to everyone in the room,

With that, one by one, the Consorts and Concubines are starting to leave. Even Vice Minister JeongYeon and Vice Chief Dahyun are also leaving while sighing heavily, quite worried for Mina, as well as Chaeyoung, because they know their friend's heart must be hurting so bad, having to punish the one she loves the most.

Meanwhile, Chaeyoung pulls Mina into the girl's  bedroom. Once they are inside, Chaeyoung lets go of her wife's wrist. The Queen walks over to the bed, then she starts to repeatedly hit onto the blanket with the cane, 'Mina, why don't you ever listen to me? Huhm?' She scolds her Treasure loudly,

Standing all the way over here, Mina starts to cry even louder, as she has never seen Chaeyoung being this mad, not even when she was a slave. She keeps glancing at the Queen while wiping her own tears repeatedly, wanting to say sorry to her Queen, to calm down her anger, but her guilty self is too scared to utter a word.

On the other hand, Consort Sana who is still standing in the hall, smirking to herself hearing all the noises coming from the bedroom, because the sound of the cane hitting onto the blanket and the heart wrenching sound of crying from Mina, definitely sound like the Pure Consort is being punished harshly by the Queen,

'Consort Mina is being punished now just like how you wished. Are you happy now, Consort Sana? We are all in the royal family, we should protect each other, not pushing one another into corner like this.' Consort Tzuyu tells Sana with a very upset tone,

Consort Sana turned around to look at Tzuyu, 'Consort Mina was the one who pushed herself into the corner, don't you think so, Consort Tzuyu? I meant, I didn't tell her to lie to Her Majesty then sneaked to prison to see her sister. After what she did, and she's only getting a few hits by the cane, Her Majesty is really... too easy on her.' Sana scoffed before walking out of Mina's palace,

Consort Tzuyu sighs deeply, she looks at the closed bedroom door one more time, wanting to plead the Queen for Mina's sake, but at the same time, she knows that the Queen is just trying to make Mina learn the consequences of her actions, and therefore she knows she needs to let them be.

'JiHyo, take good care of Consort Mina afterwards.' She tells JiHyo before leaving.

Now that everyone has left, and right away, Head Court Lady runs into Mina's bedroom, 'Your Majesty, everyone has left.' She reports to the Queen,

Chaeyoung stops hitting the blanket immediately. She throws the cane onto the floor before sitting down onto the bed,

Meanwhile, Mina is still crying uncontrollably as if she got hit harshly by the cane eventhough that cane has never even touched her,

Seeing Nayeon ran into the room, JiHyo also stood up and followed right behind. She ran in to see the Queen is sitting on the bed while the Pure Consort is standing all the way over here with tears still streaming down her face, 'Your Highness, are you alright? Oh God, it must hurt a lot.' JiHyo asks while furiously checking on Mina from head to toe,

Mina slowly shakes her head, replying to JiHyo but her eyes keep glancing at Chaeyoung. My God, she wants to run over to tell the Queen how much she is sorry for what she did, but she's just so scared right now that her feet don't seem to move at all,

After calming herself down, Chaeyoung looked for her Treasure who is still sobbing hard with her fingers are nervously fidgeting nonstop. The Queen sighs defeatedly, knowing that she is and forever will be a sucker for her Treasure, no matter what mistake the girl made, Chaeyoung somehow will always be on Mina's side. Because of her fallen heart for the innocent Princess, Chaeyoung has already accepted the fact that even teaching her wife a lesson is a super duper hard thing to do now, 'Mina, come here to me.' The Queen says while patting on the spot right next to her,

The guilty girl startled at the sudden call, she hesitated for a short moment before slowly walking over while repeatedly wiping her own tears with her hands. Mina sat down right on the spot where Chaeyoung patted on earlier. Still unable to look at Chaeyoung, Mina proceeds to raise both of her hands up with her palms are straight open, waiting to be caned, as that is what she thought The Queen called her over for,

And my God, Chaeyoung's heart turned all mushy as of that instant. She called her Treasure over to hug her, not to cane her, 'No Mina, not this.' She tells her,

But with the thought of Chaeyoung is being very angry at her right now, Mina doesn't even dare to think that the Queen wants to hug her, 'Not... not this?' The Pure Consort asks in her tiny voice while withdrawing her hands, 'Then... then...' Mina pouts her lips sadly, she then innocently proceeds to lie down flat on her stomach, thinking that if not caning on the palms then it must be a caning on the bottom,

The Queen just can't help but chuckle softly to herself. Seeing how Mina has realised her mistake and is clearly very sorry at the moment, Chaeyoung's little bit of anger is long gone. She reaches her hand out and gently caresses her Treasure's hair, 'If you are already so so naughty, then you shouldn't be allowed to be this adorable.' The Queen is half scolding, half babying her girl,

Mina raises her head to take a quick glance at Chaeyoung, her lips are still pouting sadly, her eyes are still teary, as she's not sure if the Queen is still upset at her or not, because she is receiving mixed signals at the moment,

Chaeyoung smiles warmly at her wife, 'Not this neither, Mina.' She reassured her Treasure that there won't be any caning,

'What I wanted is this.' Chaeyoung says while placing her hand under Mina's chin, gently lifts her face up, and then she places an adoring kiss on her wife's forehead. After that, in a swift movement, The Queen pulls Mina up and sits the girl down onto her lap, babying her Treasure in her warm embrace with so much love,

Being in Chaeyoung's loving arms instead of being punished for what she did, Mina certainly can feel the immeasurable amount of love and care the Queen is giving her. She can't stop her tears while hiding her face so deep into the crook of Chaeyoung's neck, crying all the fear away,

The Queen has her hand on the back of her Treasure's head in such a protective manner. Chaeyoung certainly would risk everything  for Mina, but at the same time, she wants her beloved wife to be aware that she's not happy with how the girl is recklessly putting herself in danger like what she did today, 'Your naughtiness and your recklessness are out of control, do you know that, Mina? We have to fix them somehow, but... how? What should we do? Huhm, you naughty girl?'