#jinchul is extremely suspicious of alcohol and is extremely well versed in poisoning and killing methods of high society

[hanakihan]

I’m still not over jinchul interacting with kyung hye (I literally brainrotted over it), jinchul definitely being respectful to previous empress while kyung hye being genuinely nice to him without demanding anything back

jinchul just walking around palace trying to familiarize himself with layout of it until he notices a group of palace girls escorting someone. he’s not announcing his presence and just silently observes, finally noticing woman’s face when she slightly turns. she’s frail and ill looking but nonetheless beautiful and gentle and oh, current ruling emperor absolutely took his beauty after his mother. jicnhul notices how she walks with support of her ladies in waiting, how she struggles with keeping herself going straight. and will all that in mind it’s weird to see such thick makeup on her, it contrasts with her relatively simple robes.

next time they see each other properly is when he and jinwoo encounter her in one of palace gardens, she still looks ill but at least she walks on her own without support of her maids. and yet again jinchul notices too thick layer of makeup for someone in such condition. jinwoo introduces them to each other and after a small pleasant exchange jinchul notices that it’s not common for ill people to wear such makeup even if she’s the former empress. even more, some maids looked nervous when they approached former empress and kept stealing glances at her, as if to see if she’ll say something unnecessary.

jinwoo tells jinchul about his mother’s unknown illness that keeps eating her health away, and apparently even royal doctor (and on top of that jinwoo’s best healing summon) can’t fix whatever is wrong - even after treatment she gets better only to get worse after couple of days. apparently when passing them by, jinchul informs jinwoo of slight medical alcohol smell, yet something doesn’t click. jinchul is no doctor but he knows that medical alcohol is used to treat skin and high temperature in most cases and both aren’t the cases in kyung hye’s case according to royal doctor and jinah.

jinwoo says that jinah multiple times inspected what medicine their mother receives and what is used to clean her after episodes. jinah, jinchul and royal doctor hold an investigation because apparently some sort of medicine is circulating in palace and has found it’s way to previous empress.

jinchul has his suspicions with slight alcoholic smell. while royal doctor informs that it isn’t his prescription, there’s no harm in rubbing it on skin since it’s cleans away dirt and other stuff. while jinchul agrees with that point, he and jinah deem it an unnecessary addition from maids that still prefer to keep their empress looking properly groomed and mostly to cover scent of illness.

one day jinchul visits bedridden kyung hye after one of her episodes, asking her about her medical routine. he’s extremely interested in schedule of rubbing alcohol on skin since it’s the suspicious thing here. he asks if she knows where maids store it, and she points to medical cabinet where other medicine is kept. for time being he asks her to refuse rubbing alcohol especially considering it’s now what doctor prescribed for some days.

after that her condition slightly improves and stays so without any detour. jinchul, who had taken a bottle of that alcohol asked jinah and doctor’s assistance in trying to understand if it’s an actual alcohol or poisonous one. with help of jongin and his expertise in fire truth came out and jinchul asked jinwoo to get rid of all alcohol in palace for time being. just as he went to check on kyung hye later he saw her maids rubbing alcohol on barely conscious empress and in fit of anger confronts them. turns out head maid brought this supposedly good cosmetic alcohol to keep empress’ appearance despite her illness and to mask awful stench of illness and they proceeded to do so because after jinchul’s advice she refused procedure and now everything became worse. jinchul is furious and grabs that bottle, forcing maid’s mouth open and threatening to spill it all into it.

‘do you even realize that what you brought is an actual poison? do you realize that you slowly was rubbing it into her skin keeping her constantly poisoned? what do you think will happen if I’ll spill it all in one go? in best case you’ll go blind, in worst you’ll die in less that a hour.’

after that he just kicks all of them out and asks other servants to bring royal doctor and jinah here as fast as they can while he starts to work on countermeasures.

who would’ve thought someone will be dumb enough in this palace to almost fall for same stupid poisoning trick. there’s been so many cases of nobles dying in agony at celebrations and meetings after drinking alcohol and he’s not having a kind woman dying on him especially when he knows what to do.