Soonyoung was to leave the palace in a week.

Ever since she found out about his problems, Yewon had been steering clear of him. Now that his departure was nearing, she tried to spend more time with him, understanding that it may be a long time until she saw him again.

He still kept his distance though. He stopped coming to meals, and the excuse he gave was that he wanted to learn to be alone. Yewon was the only one who knew the true reason, and she had to listen to the others speculate why he was acting this way.

Seungcheol seemed completely clueless about what happened between the two of them. It was a secret that began to haunt Yewon a lot, especially since Seungcheol had started to be more honest with her. He refrained from secrecy, and she felt like she needed to do that too.

She thought a lot about whether or not she should tell him. She deeply wanted to be honest with him, but at the same time, she couldn’t see what benefit telling him would actually bring at this point.

She decided that if she were going to tell him, she would do it when Soonyoung was not in the palace and out of contact. At least then, if Seungcheol were to get angry, he would not have Soonyoung to take that anger out on.

-

She heard a knock on her door one morning. Expecting it to be Haein, she let them in. She was pleasantly surprised and greatly relieved when she saw Seokmin standing at the door.

He looked very different. Much skinnier, much sadder, and that cheerful bright light in his eyes was no longer there.

As soon as the door closed behind him, tears began to form in his eyes and he collapsed on the floor in defeat.

Yewon drew closer to him. “Where have you been, Seokmin?” she asked him as she knelt down on the floor beside him.

“They beat me. I was recovering,” Seokmin answered with stutter in his voice. Yewon expected that, but hearing it with such clarity made her heart ache. She felt helpless as she watched him cry. How she wished could do something for him.

“They want me to do evil things,” Seokmin whispered to her in a hoarse voice. “I can’t do this anymore, your highness. I can’t live like this anymore. I want to quit.”

“What are they asking you to do?” she asked him, suddenly afraid.

“To kill people,” he revealed.

“Which people?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Well, you won’t do it, right?”

“No. But if I don’t, they’ll kill me. So I’m going to kill myself instead,” Seokmin mumbled as his breathing got louder. “I can’t live like this anymore, your highness. I just can’t.”

Yewon felt her a chill down her spine as he said those words. Seokmin sounded so serious about it, so eager to end his life, and Yewon felt a huge burden on her shoulder to try and stop him from doing it.

“Run away, Seokmin. Don’t kill yourself. Just leave and never come back.”

“They’ll find me, your highness. Wherever I go, they’ll find me and they’ll kill me.”

“You need to at least try,” Yewon pushed. “You can’t just give up on your life like that. If they find you, let them kill you. But please don’t kill yourself…”

Seokmin began to breathe loudly again, and Yewon held his hand until it passed. And it did, but Seokmin had tears in his eyes by the end of it.

“Your highness, I don’t know what to do anymore,” he told her as the tears strolled down his cheek.

It was then that the idea hit her, one that naturally revealed itself when she began to think up solutions for her friend. It all came together so perfectly as if it were fated to happen: “Prince Soonyoung is leaving the palace to an undisclosed location in a few more days. Go with him.”

-

Although Yewon was nervous being alone with Soonyoung given his state of mind, she knew she had to catch him alone for Seokmin’s sake.

He was packing when she came to his room, and when he saw her, he looked startled.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Soonyoung said as fixed his eyes on her chest.

“Look at the floor,” Yewon asked him, and Soonyoung tore his eyes from her chest to the floor. “And stay five meters away from me. I have something important to tell you, and I need you to listen to me.”

“It’s hard to listen to someone you really want to push against the wall and ,” Soonyoung told her, “but I’ll try. If you see me getting hot and bothered, please leave.”

“I will,” Yewon assured him. “Anyways, I’ll make it quick: Seokmin is being abused. He wants to run away. I want to ask you to take him with you to wherever you’re going.”

Soonyoung made eye contact with her again, finally looking disinterested in having with her and more willing to listen to what she has to say.

“Abused?” he asked, looking concerned.

“Yes.”

“Is he okay?”

“He wants to kill himself.”

Soonyoung looked deeply saddened by that. He nodded and said: “Okay, I will take him with me.”

Yewon let out a sigh of relief at how easy it was. She bowed and thanked him sincerely. “One more thing,” she said, “No one can know that he went with you. He would have to sneak into your carriage somehow.”

“So it’s that serious?”

Yewon nodded.

“Is he by any chance associated with something political?” Soonyoung asked. “I have a feeling that there’s a lot more than family abuse behind this all.”

Seokmin’s associations were an important secret, and if anyone found out, Seokmin would be in deep trouble. But Yewon found that the only way for Soonyoung to understand the gravity of the situation was if he knew that there was indeed politics behind it all. She trusted that Soonyoung would keep the secret if not doing so compromised Seokmin’s life. She could tell that he cared for him a lot.

“He is associated with something bigger,” Yewon admitted. “Please don’t ask any further.”

“I won’t,” Soonyoung replied. “But only because I trust you.”

“Thank you.”

“And it won’t be a problem. I can hoard him in with my belongings onto the carriage, so no one will see him or know he went with me. Just send him to my room the night before I travel, and I’ll make all the arrangements.”

-

Seokmin did go to Soonyoung’s room that night as planned. She figured that the plan had worked and that Seokmin was successfully loaded into the carriage when Soonyoung gave her a subtle reassuring look the following morning before heading off on his travel.

The entire royal family was there at the gateway to see Soonyoung off. Even Wonwoo, in his weak condition, was carried to witness Soonyoung leave for good.

Soonyoung was a truly popular among everyone in the palace. Women especially seemed to love him. The servants loved him. The officials loved him. Saying goodbye to him was difficult for a lot of people in the palace.

Yewon watched as Soonyoung tearfully acknowledged every single person who came to bid him farewell. He gave every servant their due, as if status did not exist. He hugged and kissed the servants as if they were not servants, as if he were their equal. Seeing this, Yewon understood why Seokmin was so fond of him.

After he finished with the servants and the palace officials, he turned to his family. He wrapped his arms around Wonwoo, thanking him for all his help in arranging his escape. He kissed Yulhee’s crying face and promised he would see her again one day. He shook Seungcheol’s hand and wished him strength and prosperity in his reign.

When he turned to her, he took a deep breath and bowed, telling her that he would miss her. He wished her well, and quickly turned to finally say goodbye to his parents.

“You will be back soon, right?” the King asked Soonyoung.

“I hope so,” Soonyoung said, but Yewon knew that he was just saying that, and that he was actually not planning a return any time soon.

“Oh please, let us just write to you,” his mother nearly begged.

Soonyoung kissed his mother’s forehead and apologized, reiterating that he didn’t want anyone to know where he was, and so he had to cut contact with them.

With that, he ascended onto the carriage and went on his way, and Yewon wondered when and if she would ever see him again.

-

Days later, Galacia launched an attack on Solenese forces. This signified the rekindling of the war since the last battle, and was Galacia’s way of telling Solen that they intended to fight them until the end.

This had cast a wave of desolation over the country. Their prospects were dim, as to fight in the war would be to exhaust all of Solen’s power.

Seungcheol was so stressed that he barely saw her in the time when he was deciding on Solen’s next course of action. As the country mobilized, all Yewon could do was pray and feel regretful and hopeless about why it had come to this.

One night, Seungcheol came to her room. She was surprised when she realized that the reason for his visit was something far different than what she had in mind.

“I want to ask for your advice,” he told her.

“Okay,” she replied softly, trying to hide her surprise that he came to her for advice.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said, his voice wavering at the end of it. “I don’t know what the best course of action is anymore. I can’t make a decision.” Yewon could see that there was a wetness in his eyes; he was near tears and his body was stiff and trembling. He was beyond stressed and wanted to make the right decision so badly. He wanted to make up for all of his past mistakes, to save his country from the collapse it was now heading towards.

Yewon could only imagine the pressure that he felt in that moment, how much worse it was that he had to appear strong and resolute in front of his people. He could not show weakness or show signs of breaking down, but Yewon knew that it was exactly what he wanted to do in front of her right now.

Filled with so much stress to the point it came unbearable for him, he was coming to her for some kind of relief, and Yewon was more than willing to give it to him, to take at least some of the pressure away.

“Princess, I want you to make the decision for me. You always knew what to do before, but I never listened to you. Now, I choose to concede to whatever decision you make because I know it will be made with the benefit of Solen in mind. So please decide on my behalf. What should I do?”

Yewon could feel the burden of what he was asking her to do. It was hard to have the fate of an entire country on your shoulders, the kind of pressure that no one would ever want. But Yewon accepted the burden happily, wanting nothing more than to make it a little bit easier for him.

After he told her all the possible courses of action and the potentials benefits and limitations of each, one of the options stood out to her as the right one.

“I think Solen should surrender,” she told him.

A/N: I am on a roll with these chapters!