Eunho stood on the platform and explained, “The sparring matches will not be like the normal sparring practices. I would like to watch each and every one of you fight to see who is stronger. It will become easier for me to determine everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. I believe that all of you will be able to learn something from today's matches by observing others' sparring techniques.” Yuna agreed with Eunho. It would be helpful for her to watch the experienced soldier’s spar. She was interested in learning how people fought. Although she was able to learn moves with her picture-perfect memory from the kung-fu movies, she didn’t know any moves that could be applied to real fights. It occurred to Yuna that most of those moves were not applicable to real fights because they were all done for the purpose of creating a movie. Some of those moves were fake. The only moves she could rely on were ones that real martial artists performed. An example would be
Yuna’s palms were sweaty, and the musky scent permeated the entire courtyard. Namjoo stood before her with a look of determination. She wasn’t expecting her to be such a strong opponent, but that was a mistake on her part. The fight to determine ranks within the soldiers had begun.At first, Yuna thought that this would be a simple sparring match, but she overlooked the fact that soldiers in this era were prideful. The rankings weren’t formal, and they weren’t given titles. A win could determine how much power someone had within the army. The soldiers that lost were bound to bow down to those that have defeated them. This only applied to their comrade-in-arms, not enemies. Yuna observed the countless soldiers that sparred and learned that this match wasn’t as simple as she thought it would be. It didn’t look like a simple match when these men were ripping at each other’s throats to win the fight. Some came out of the fight with broken bones and torn flesh. Yuna cou
After his encounter with Haemi, Minho decided that it would be best if his servants escorted her back to his palace. She was reluctant at first, but he successfully convinced her that she needed treatment. It was difficult trying to get her back to the palace, but luckily for him, he was good at controlling women. The only woman he wasn’t confident in convincing was Yuna. He decided it was best for Haemi to be out of sight. He didn’t want Yuna discovering his newly made relationship with Haemi. It wasn’t the right time. He wasn’t successful in obtaining her heart. Once he had her in the palm of his hand, he could do anything he wanted. She wouldn’t be able to say anything once she became his wife.He could easily take in a concubine, especially since all Emperors had multiple wives. It is the emperor’s duty to have as many sons as possible. There’s always a risk of not having an heir to the throne. Yuna would not be able to keep him for herself. He was glad that th
Eunho placed Yuna lightly on the bed. His guilt grew like a mountain whenever he saw her unconscious figure on the bed. This was the third time she fainted. Her body was weaker than most. He also noticed that she was extremely thin and pale unlike most kids. In comparison to Yuna, he was taller and much more muscular. She almost looked malnourished. He wondered how she could be when she came from such a wealthy background. He pulled out the elixir of the phoenix from his pouch. The Elixir of the Phoenix was an ancient artifact that had collected dust in the underground tomb of the first Emperor of Guwon. The tomb was long forgotten even by the royal family. He was only able to find information about the tomb on accident in his previous life. Eunho made sure to go to the ancient underground tomb to obtain all sorts of treasures. The Elixir of the Phoenix is known to cure all illnesses. Legend states that consuming even a droplet of the elixir will prolong life and
Eunho wasn’t a doctor, but he could tell something was wrong. Her pulse was irregular and there were signs of poisoning. How could he have not noticed this for so long? Even after she turned 16, she looked small and thin. He couldn’t think of any poison that could cause her to stunt her growth and make her look malnourished.She didn’t seem to have any other symptoms. The only thing he could think of was that she didn’t have much endurance and stamina. He only thought that it was normal since most females aren’t as active. He wondered why someone would poison Yuna without the intent to kill. Yuna lived till the age of 19. The poison would have killed her way before if the culprit was planning to have Yuna assassinated.It didn’t make sense to him. There would be no reason to cripple her martial arts because females hardly practiced martial arts. He wondered what the reason could be. The only two people that would want to harm Yuna was either Prince Minho or her cousin Haemi.
There were veins forming on Minho’s forehead as the time spent waiting grew excruciatingly long. He could not wait any longer. He roared at the guards, “What the h*ll is taking so long? I was here for an hour and the guard hasn’t come back! Since the other guard isn’t back yet, I’m assuming that he has decided to betray you. I guess that means your life has no meaning to your friend.”Minho shouted at his personal servant, “Bring my sword, right now!” The servant bowed, “Understood, your majesty.” The servant went to the palanquin and brought out his sword. Minho snatched the sword from his hands and promptly took the scabbard off. The sword swiftly landed on the guard’s neck. He felt the cold sharp blade cut a layer of his skin. A tiny bit of blood dripped down his neck. He shivered in fright at the man that held his life in his hands. He could not die. He still had so much he had to do in life. The guard frantically begged, “Please, spare me. I have a wife and kids. If I die, who
Sun’s eyes grew wide with shock. How was he here? Anger boiled inside her when she saw the man that had murdered her entire family and every single friend she ever had. Her hands were clenched, and her face grew red with fury. His smug look when walking into Yuna’s bedroom made her want to tear him apart.Tears formed in her eyes when she remembered the faces of everyone she cared about. She wasn’t able to say goodbye to any of them. Sun had no special attachment to her country because no one was willing to help her when her family was murdered. She was appalled by the disgusting truth about her country. Nothing mattered to them more than money and their own lives.The royal family was filled with cowards that were willing to sacrifice their own citizens to save their own necks. Sun’s family was extremely loyal to the royal family. Her father carried the position of grand duke. He had the highest position in regard to every noble in the land. Her family was prosperous, and they had a
Warning: This chapter has some violence. Please read at your own discretion.Minhoo observed the Ezraen girl before him and only thought of one thing; make her life a living h*ll. He was discontent with the slave traders. The girl looked unharmed. Her clothes and hair still resembled nobility. None of them had listened to anything he had commanded. He wanted them to rough up the girl and make sure she knew that her life was going to become worse than a beggars. If none of them were willing, he would gladly make her regret ever being born.He especially disliked that she was the daughter of that b*st*rd Jonathon. He despised Jonathon with a passion. He recalled the incident that made his blood burn with anger and humiliation. Minho ordered his servants to capture every last Ezraen in the city. To him, they seemed to be similar to rats. They hid in dark corners and lived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They were so week and easy to destroy.He especially enjoyed l
Eunho was curious about what had happened to Yuna over the years, but his curiosity would have to wait until he finished explaining their plan. He continued, “After discovering that you were poisoned, I generally investigated who could have been behind the poisoning. It was discovered that there was a maid that abused you when you were just an infant. That maid was executed by your father during that time. So we weren’t able to discover who had poisoned you at that time.” Eunho sighed, “We were stuck and had no leads as to who would have poisoned you. It wasn’t until we investigated your personal kitchen.” Yuna didn’t expect that the culprit would be poisoning food in her kitchen. She never had maids around her so that might be the reason why they were sneaking into her kitchen. Eunho explained, “We found traces of poison inside the food in your personal kitchen. It wasn’t too hard to find out which maid had access to your kitchen. You should already guess who it is.” Yuna knew wh
The Ezraen boy’s face grew dark, “She was taken out of the prison cell not too long ago because of me.” Yuna asked, “What do you mean?” He didn’t want to tell her that it was his fault, but he knew more than anyone that he was at fault here. He explained, “She died while giving me her meals…” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was she hearing things? She was too late? Her eyes instantly filled with tears. She lost her footing and cried, “This can’t be happening. My sister is dead? I’m too late…” If only she had arrived a few days earlier, she could’ve saved her sister. She couldn’t even blame the poor prisoner boy. It wasn’t his fault. She stared down at her trembling hands. What had she done? Sun wasn’t supposed to die here… By not marrying Minho, she changed fate… Sun was no longer there. Tears kept streaming down her face. She cried, “I’m sorry Sun… I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I was too late.” She beat her own chest in anger and sadness. “It’s all my fault. I sho
There was a girl named Sun that was in the prison cell in front of Jake’s cell. He didn’t know how long she was imprisoned for. He first arrived in prison a month ago. For most of his life, he was hiding in the streets from the Guwon citizens. Every Ezraen knew how dangerous it was to be caught by a Guwon. It meant either living life as a slave or a prisoner. Unfortunately, he was caught stealing bread from a stall. Any crime committed by an Ezraen was amplified a hundred times.His initial thought was that he would be executed immediately, but that wasn’t the case. He was imprisoned for a few weeks and it seemed that he wasn’t important enough for anyone to remember his crime. They had forgotten about him. He wanted to escape prison, but when he thought about it, it wasn’t too bad. He was at least fed every day in prison and he was able to meet Sun.Unlike the rest of the prisoners, Sun would always find a way to brush her hair and stay clean. The first thing he noticed about her was
It has been 3 years since the disappearance of Yuna. Why was everything so different from the past? Did his involvement with Yuna change everything? Eunho had no clue what he had done to change things. Even in this life he couldn’t protect her. He looked at his reflection in the lake and saw his worn out self. He had no appetite and all he could think of was Yuna.He had an entire army backing him and he was not short of fame nor fortune, but he still didn’t have enough power to protect the one person he cared about the most. During the 3 years that Yuna was missing, he searched everywhere. He even searched for her in the palace, but wasn’t able to find her. It was extremely difficult to get into the palace.The palace was enormous and it contained many different buildings with courtyards. He barely had the chance to enter the palace during those 3 years. He frequented the palace when there was war, but now it was a peaceful time. He couldn’t visit the palace as much as a general. He
With the help of Ara, it didn’t take that long to get to the palace dungeon. Ara said, “If my brother has chosen to imprison anyone, it should be in this dungeon. Let me handle everything from here. I’m sure that Sun is imprisoned there.” As Yuna and Ara approached the dungeon, they noticed a guard dozing off at the entrance. Both of them snuck into the dungeon swiftly without alarming the sleeping guard.As soon as they entered the dungeon, there was a heavy stench that almost made Yuna vomit. The smell was obviously coming from the rotting corpses and the prisoners that weren’t able to wash for months. The prison cells were never cleaned. As she walked past the prisoners, she couldn’t recognize a single face. She wasn’t shocked to find that the majority of the prisoners were Ezraen. Both the Emperor and Minho shared the same hatred for Ezraens.Yuna called out, “Sun, are you there?” She made sure not to shout too loudly. She was afraid that being too loud might alarm the guard sleep
Princess Ara panicked, "You can't. He'll hurt you." Yuna knew what Ara was worried about, but she needed to find out more about the Dark Lord. She explained, "I'll dress up as a maid. He doesn't know who I am. Everything will be okay. Just trust me." Princess Ara suddenly began crying, "It's not what you think. He's a lot more scarier than you think. He sacrifices people for a god that no one has ever heard of. Miyon citizens have this religion that worships the King as the vessel to the Dark Lord (god). This is the reason he is called the Dark Lord. The sacrifices make him grow stronger. I witnessed him grow stronger once someone is sacrificed. It was the most horrible thing anyone could witness." Ara began shivering and she seemed lost in her thoughts. She seemed terrified by the things in her memories. Yuna shook her out of her nightmarish thoughts, "Princess, don't be scared. No normal human can grow stronger from murdering someone. He probably just fooled you." Ara looked at Yu
Princess Ara couldn't see Yuna's face, but she could picture a brave girl standing before her. She admired Yuna ever since she saved her from almost getting married off early. All because of Yuna, she was able to avoid getting married for this long. She smiled, "I admire you. I wouldn't be able to do the same things as you."Yuna asked, "What do you mean?" Princess Ara explained, "The way you answered Father's test questions were remarkable. I couldn't believe such efficient methods could be used to solve those problems. I believe that you're the only one that can help me. I haven't married yet, but it doesn't mean I'll remain unmarried. It's only a matter of time before I get married to the Dark Lord."Yuna had never heard anyone call themselves the Dark Lord. Why did it sound similar to a demon lord in a fantasy rpg game? She wondered if maybe she was going crazy. Is this world similar to a game? She asked, "Who's the Dark Lord?" Ara sighed, "He's my fiancee. I was arranged to marry
Yuna shivered as soon as she stepped outside. It was dark out and the lanterns lit up the walkway. She hid in the shadows behind buildings. There were a few guards keeping watch at night. It would be difficult for her to make it past the guards without getting caught. She picked up a stone and tossed it as far as she could. Luckily for her, the guards heard the sound and rushed towards the stone. She made her way around the building and into the garden. She made sure to not step on any branches to alert the guards. The trees and bushes were a great cover. She was easily able to maneuver through the garden without getting caught.She made her way towards Minho's quarters. If Minho were to kidnap someone the prison cell should be near his courtyard. She remembers being locked up in there during her first life. She made her way through the garden towards his courtyard. It was a good thing she remembered the exact layout of Minho's residence, else she would have been lost.While walking
Yuna had no clue how she ended up in this situation. She dreamt that she was chasing a chicken leg when she suddenly felt someone’s breath on her face. She instantly woke up to find a handsome face inches away from hers. His face reflected under the moonlight was extremely mesmerizing. His long eyelashes and seductive lips made her gulp. If only she had met a handsome man like this in the modern world… She shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts. How in the world did she end up in this situation? The last thing she remembered was eating tons of delicious food. Was she drugged? She grew suspicious of the innocently sleeping man next to her. Despite his handsome appearance, he was sly like a fox. It would be a terrible idea to fall for such a man. His scheming is even better than the palace ladies. She began shivering thinking about what he could’ve done to her while she was asleep. She looked down and noticed that her outer hanbok was removed. Th