Missing Crown Prince (세자가 사라졌다)

[This drama is fiction. Characters, places, organizations, and events have no connection to historical facts. Child actors and animals were filmed according to production guidelines.]

[First Hours: First section when dividing the time from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. into five sections (7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.)]

Does your chest still feel stuffy, Your Highness?

It improved a lot after I took the medicine you gave me, Royal Physician.

But I have been feeling stuffy again since this evening.

It might be due to the unruly weather.

So please ease your heart, Your Highness.

I will do that.

Is anything else bothering you?

Thanks to you, I am at peace.

Thank you for your grace, Your Highness.

I will now take my leave and brew a decoction for your consumption.

Your Majesty.

May I ask what brought you outside?

I came to get some air because I felt uneasy for some reason.

More importantly, how is Queen Dowager doing?

Her heart rate is a bit fast but not bad enough to warrant concerns.

That is fortunate.

Your Majesty!

What is the matter?

I am ashamed to report to you that a heinous group has broken into the palace.

Is it an emergency?

They have been ambushed,

and some of the Royal Guards on duty have colluded with the heinous group.

Please retreat to the indoors quickly.

Kill them. The Royal Guards will flood in soon!

I will see you in hell.

Let us go.

The soldiers will arrive soon!

If you seek to live, drop your swords and confess your crimes!

I did not plan to go back alive in the first place, Joong Young!

Who are you?

You are...

He was the ousted king's Chief Royal Guard.

I heard the ousted king died on his way to escape.

The heavens sent us back to kill you lot who stole the throne

and you, the child of the rebel!

Shut your mouth.

The ousted king you served banished his mother and murdered his younger brother.

He was a tyrant and a foolish king who sucked the

lives out of his people, drowned in womanizing. Do you not know that?

You better shut your mouth!

Regardless of what you say, you are rebels who stole the throne.

You will now meet your punishments, so die now.

Your Majesty!

Royal Physician is injured. Hurry up and bring a physician!

Your Majesty, what about you-

I am fine. Bring a physician! Hurry!

Your Majesty, please do not worry about me.

Crown Prince... Send someone to the Eastern Palace quickly.

Please make sure the Crown Prince is safe.

Chief Royal Guard, go to the Eastern Palace and see if the Crown Prince is safe.

Your Highness! Your Highness!

- Where is Crown Prince? - What is the matter?

Is the Crown Prince inside?

Y-Yes, however-

Your Highness! Your Highness!

His Highness is sleeping.

So, please go back for now.

Your Highness! Your Highness the Crown Prince!

He is comfortably sleeping, so please come back in the morning.

You are the Crown Prince's bodyguard, are you not?

Why are you here?

Where is His Highness?

Confess the truth right now!

Aigoo, well...

t-the thing is...

A young scholar who came to the countryside to take the state exam,

had a drink with his friend

and started wandering Gurigae* in the middle of the night.

Four strong men came out from nowhere and beat him up.

- How scary. - After that,

they shoved this young scholar into a sack and said,

"We will beat you to death if you say one more word!"

Oh, my. How scary!

They threatened him like so.

They are such cruel bastards.

As they ran off with the young scholar on their backs,

the young scholar was too shocked to know where they were going.

Aigoo, he was definitely kidnapped.

- Seriously, keep your mouth shut! - Be quiet!

All right. Focus here, everyone.

They ran for a long time and finally freed him from the sack.

When he came out, there was a huge tile-roofed house!

He went inside the room, and there awaited a beauty only wearing her undergarments!

The rest of the story is here.

- So come buy one if you want to hear the rest. - Huh? What did you say?

Come and buy one.

Boy, he's a good salesman.

Give me 100 books.

Come to the pavilion in Namsangol during the third hours*.

By the way,

what happened to that young scholar?

Did he sleep with that beauty?

He did, right?

Yes. Yes, he did.

Why?

Come this way.

Wait here for a moment.

Say hello.

This is His Majesty's hidden prince

who was imprisoned unfairly after losing the throne to traitors.

It is His Excellency Hae Seong.

I heard you are from Jeolla-do.

- Yes, Your Excellency. - Welcome.

You probably heard the details from General.

Allow me to get straight to the point.

If you supply military funds for me to put together an army,

you will enjoy wealth and prosperity the moment I get the throne back.

How much for the military funds...

Would 1,000 nyang do?

1,000 nyang?

What is wrong? Is it too little?

It is not little, but the more, the better.

If so, how is 10,000 nyang?

What took you so long?

You are royal servants who will go down in history.

It is an honor, Your Excellency.

Where is the money, by the way?

Do you have it now?

It is at our lodging.

Let us go now. Where is your lodging?

Maybe not today. How about I bring it tomorrow?

No.

I need to save my imprisoned father as soon as possible.

With that money, I can form an army immediately,

eradicate the traitors who took the throne, and-

What are you doing?

- Hyungnim. - What?

This bastard called my father a traitor.

How could I hold back as his son?

Geez, that temper of his.

You cannot just punch him like that.

You should have coaxed him and gotten information.

These bastards could not have overturned the throne.

Can you not just tell?

They are just swindlers who steal money from naive rich people from the countryside.

Am I wrong?

Who are you?

I am this country, Joseon's...

crown prince.

Wow, he was the crown prince. Crown Prince...

- I have never seen one. - Why is he so handsome?

You bastards. Bow down at me immediately.

You dared to pretend to be a royal and bring up a conspiracy.

You deserve to die a hundred times.

What will we do? What will we do?

But we still n-need to fight.

- We are dead anyway. - I will go along with it.

We will attack on the count of three.

One, two...

Aigoo, aigoo...

You have got to be kidding me.

Please stop, stop...

Hey, start fighting.

No, no. You go first.

D-Do something.

Okay.

You actually punched him? Did you?

Gosh, Do Seong. I am dying, Do Seong.

You are better at fighting than I thought.

Wow, what would have happened if we actually fought?

You would have died. I did not hit you.

It is the Crown Prince's face. I did not hit it. All I did was push it.

- He hit you. - But I did not.

Send them to the Police Bureau.

Yes.

- Your Highness, please be underestimating. - Understanding. Not underestimating.

- Please be understanding. - Seriously.

What are you doing? Take them away.

- Yes, sir. - Your Highness!

We deserve to die-

I do not want to die.

I am just saying that.

- What if they actually kill us? - They will not.

You said they were definitely traitors.

But we still caught the swindlers.

Yes. I am proud of you, little brother.

Yes, I made a mistake this time.

Rumors say they are hiding in the slum outside of the Southern Gate.

We should look for them there.

I said it was a mistake.

I did not say anything.

Let us get going now.

Will you go to the palace looking like that?

What is wrong with how I look?

Goodness.

Are you out of your mind?

I know you enjoy arts and leisure, but still...

We cannot go to a courtesan house now.

We came here because of the situation.

I brought us here for a reason.

So do not complain and follow me.

Do you mean it?

- Yes. - Must we do this?

Is this really the only way, little brother?

Yes, this is the only way, Hyungnim.

But still, I am not a clown. How could I wear makeup?

Will you go back to the palace looking like that, then?

Father and Mother will faint if they see you like that.