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
Minho strode through the corridor confidently. Yuna’s bedroom door was shut tightly, and a maid had her ear against the thin paper sliding door. The maid was so focused on trying to hear what was happening inside, she didn’t realize that there were people standing right behind her. Minho waved his hand in the air to let his servant know that he wanted her out of the way.His servant silently nodded and proceeded to grab the girl by her sleeve. The maid shouted in surprise but was cut short by the servant’s swift movements. He hit the side of her neck and she passed out without a sound. Minho pointed at the sliding door. The servant didn’t even bother opening the door like a normal person.He smashed the door in and strolled in. Minho scowled at his servant for being so stupid. Why couldn’t his servants be smarter? What would happen if his soon to be wife was disappointed in him? Yuna might think that he’s a brute for barging into her room like this.Before entering her bedroom, he fix
Yuna was lost inside the darkness within the deepest recesses of her mind. She had no clue where she was. She inspected her surroundings to make sense of her surroundings. She couldn’t see anything, and nothing made sense to her. Wasn’t she sparring with Namjoo just now? How did she get here? Did she die?She didn’t believe that she was dead. Her first death wasn’t like this. She was sent towards the heavens to meet with God. She was in a peculiar place with no one and nothing around her. The darkness reminded her of how lonely the world really is. No matter how many people loved and cared about her, she could only feel how lonely it all is after death. One statement stuck with her - Everyone must die alone. The solitude engulfed her.There was nothing and no one around. The only thing she could feel was the burning sensation that kept tearing at her insides. Something within her was changing. It felt like something was ripping apart her body and putting it back together. She couldn’t
Yuna trembled in fear, “Please don’t eat me!” To her surprise, the phoenix didn’t come closer. The phoenix erupted with laughter, “I’m sorry to disappoint, but I don’t eat humans. It should be the other way around.” Yuna thought to herself, “Huh?” The phoenix explained, “I guess you don’t know yet. You’ve just taken the elixir of the phoenix which is made with my heart as a recipe.” Yuna panicked when she heard that she had consumed one of its organs. She denied fervently, “I didn’t eat your heart. There’s no way I could’ve taken that elixir.”The last thing Yuna remembered was sparring with Namjoo. She didn’t recall ever taking the elixir of the phoenix. She begged, “I didn’t eat your heart so please let me go. This is unfair! I don’t even know how I got here.” The phoenix’s wings spread out magnificently. Yuna curled up in fright at the sudden movement. Her shivering came to a halt when she felt the wings wrap around her body. The flames didn’t burn her like she expected.The wings
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