The sun was only just peeking out at the horizon and remnants of grey mist still swirled around when Ju reached the practice grounds, his shoes wet with dew. The location of the face-off had changed thanks to his Uncle Baek Ah who convinced the King not to make a spectacle of his clashes with his own son.

Ju was grateful for the secrecy. For one, if his mother knew, he’d have a tough time explaining his motivations behind this duel to her. He knew that he’d have to face her wrath someday but he didn’t want that day to be today because today, he was on a different pursuit with a very simple objective – to stay alive.

He did some stretching exercises, warming up his muscles and loosening his joints before wearing his armor. Then he picked up his long sword and tried out different stances. He was making a few practice s and swings when King Gwangjong entered, followed by Baek Ah. He was dressed in all black and his hair fell in a cascade behind him, held together in a ponytail making him look much younger. In his hand, he held a short sword in a black and gold embroidered scabbard.

With a malevolent smile, King Gwangjong unsheathed the sword that gleamed when it caught the early morning rays. The duel started off slowly with the two opponents circling each other and testing the other with quick s and swings, observing which way the legs moved, how quickly the hands glided in place and how smooth the attacks and defenses were, all the while looking for weaknesses that could be exploited.

Ju noted with interest that the King was not wearing any armor and smiled in mild satisfaction knowing that he had expected this. His father’s choice of attire, weapon and hairstyle all pointed to the reason why he had accepted Ju’s challenge in the first place; those choices were meant to be a trap for Ju but they were also a physical manifestation of his father’s insecurities.

King Gwangjong was challenging Ju to get close enough to so much a graze his unprotected hide being shielded by nothing more than a short sword. At the same time, he also wanted to remind his son that even though he was well past his prime, pushing 50, he was still a force to be reckoned with; that he was so confident about effortlessly fending off a much younger opponent that he cannot be bothered with a suit of armor; that he was so skilled and so quick on his feet that he did not need a heavy sword to bludgeon an opponent in protective mail into submission and would rather cleave said opponent from head to toe with his sharp short sword.

King Gwangjong waited for the younger man to make an attacking move, prepared to quickly turn it into his worst nightmare and make him regret the moment he challenged the emperor of Goryeo for the rest of his sorry life. However, Ju refused to bite. He stayed back and conserved his strength, waiting for the volley of vicious attacks that his father was notorious for.

When the blitz finally came, it was so brutal and relentless that despite the years of preparation and the anticipation, Ju struggled to ward off the blows and stay on his feet. When the torrent of hits finally subsided, Ju sank down on his knees, bleeding profusely from the cuts and gashes that his opponent had managed to inflict through gaps in his armor. He glanced up to see the King gasping for breath and drained of all energy, but otherwise virtually unharmed.

King Gwangjong’s eyes went wide with surprise as his son propped himself up using his sword for support and stood on wobbly legs that threatened to give way at any moment. Based on the damage he had inflicted, he knew that the boy would not be able to wield his sword.

“Stay down and concede defeat so I don’t have to kill you. I have already committed enough fratricide to last a few lifetimes. I don’t want to add filicide to the list.”

Seeing his father’s growing alarm, Ju smiled even as he winced from the unbearable pain. Though his father’s voice was cold and harsh, he could detect traces of concern and that gave him hope. The loss of blood was making him dizzy and his vision blurry. He focused all his attention towards keeping himself from fainting. He had to keep going. This was far from over.

“I will see this to the end. I will not concede defeat”, he replied, hoping that his frail voice carried sufficient strength to convey his resolve.

King Gwangjong’s eyebrows shot up as he scoffed, “Is the crown so dear to you that you cannot bear to wait for it for a few more years? If you want to throw your life away over such folly, I’ll gladly oblige you.”

With that, he stormed forward and thumped Ju’s chest with a powerful of the hilt of his sword. Ju crashed to the ground in a heap, spitting blood and blinking his eyes, trying in vain to focus on what was happening around him.

“If you value your life, concede now”, Gwangjong warned through gritted teeth as he pointed the tip of his sword on his son’s neck.

Ju tried to control his shallow breathing. He urged his brain to concentrate, to focus on what his father had said just before the last attack. But in his weakened state, he was having trouble thinking while his lungs were struggling for air, his heart was racing and every inch of his body was screaming in pain.

Something told him that the key to his survival lay in making sense of what his father said. He was missing something. His father had said something about the crown. When the meaning of the words finally dawned on him, Ju gasped. By then, the King had taken his stance holding up his sword in front of his right shoulder, gripping the hilt with both his hands, as though preparing for an execution.

“Wait”, Ju screamed with all his strength. But instead of his voice, a mouthful of blood spilled out. The King however noticed the accompanying hand motion. He stopped and lowered his arms, a smirk forming on his face. He knelt down in front of his son and peered into his dark eyes filled with unbearable pain that was being overshadowed by a tinge of hope.

“Are you ready to concede now?”

“You’re wrong. I’m not fighting for the throne”, he gasped before a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him.

The smirk on the King’s face disappeared and was replaced by concern. His hands shot out to hold up the boy whose head fell sideways as his eyes became unfocused.

“What…”

“There’s someone else I want to marry” Ju replied, rudely interrupting the King and not giving him a chance to ask the question. He had to hurry; he was running out of time. King Gwangjong stared incredulously at his son who was fighting an uphill battle with himself to stay conscious.

“You put yourself through all this for a girl?”, he thundered. “You are the future King of Goryeo. Do you have any inkling of how valuable your life is? The future of an entire country and its people depends on you. To keep the throne, a King should be willing to throw away everything else.”

“She’s not someone I can throw away, not even for the throne.” As he said that, Ju’s voice was so weak that it was hardly a whisper and yet it carried a conviction that was hard to ignore. “My life as a King or even a Prince would have no meaning without……” Having used up the last of his strength, he collapsed in his father’s arms without finishing his final declaration.

Gwangjong turned his gaze to Prince Baek Ah who had rushed over and was trying to revive the unconscious crown prince.

“Did you know about this?”

Baek Ah nodded, keeping his eyes averted, refusing to meet the King’s gaze.

“Is it one of the Hwangbo sisters?”

“No, not at all”, Baek Ah denied vehemently, taken aback by just how much the King was unaware of what was happening under his very nose. It had always been a mystery to him as to how his brother could be so perceptive when it came to people and politics and be completely blind when it came to matters of the heart.

“It’s Soel”, Baek Ah volunteered in a small voice, not wanting to drag the discussion out for too long and enrage the King any more than he needed to. He sprinkled some water from his pouch on Ju’s face trying to revive him but to no avail.

“Our Soel?” King Gwangjong’s mouth stayed open as the news sunk in. “Did Jung know?”

Baek Ah nodded assent. King Gwangjong’s eyes flared with suppressed rage.

“You all knew and kept it from me? How could you let it go on? How dare he..”

At that, he turned to Ju with a murderous glare that quickly dissipated at the sight of the bloodied boy who lay unconscious in his arms.

“She’s not someone I can throw away”

The words echoed in Gwangjong’s mind – the same words he remembered from a long time ago; words that he had spoken to his own father in a different life time when he was Prince Wang So who would gladly leave everything behind to be with his Hae Soo.

His face softened as he gently gathered his son and stood up. If his son was anything like him, he’d willingly bleed to death for the girl he loved and for some inexplicable reason, Gwangjong couldn’t allow that; the Wang So in him wouldn’t let him.

“I concede”, King Gwangjong said to no one in particular as he proceeded to carry his son towards the palace.

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The sun was sinking in the horizon when Ju opened his bleary eyes and blinked in confusion. 13^th prince Baek Ah rushed to his side. “Are you alright?” he asked more by force of habit than in hopes of getting a lucid answer. Ju tried to nod his head but the movement caused a wave of pain and dizziness that forced him to close his eyes and squirm.

“Stay very still. If you make things any worse than they already are, I will kill you myself. You were dead to the world for two days and I was scared that we lost you. What were you thinking?” he exploded even as he rushed about re-arranging the pillows and sheets on the bed to improve comfort and limit movement.

Once he was satisfied with the arrangement and sufficiently calm, Baek Ah sat on a chair beside the bed and eyed his nephew who was alternately smiling at his uncle’s ministrations and wincing as he tested his extremities for feeling and movement.

“So this was your brilliant plan? To get yourself sliced and diced to within an inch of your life? I should have known when you boxed yourself into a corner with that insane challenge to either concede or die. I can’t believe I trusted you enough to let you go through with this. What if hyungnim had brought down his sword on your worthless neck before you managed to stop him?”

“He wouldn’t have” Ju said with confidence. “Because I had it on good authority from a reliable source that my father cares about me and would never kill me. I had to box myself into a corner and limit my options so that I could in turn limit the King’s options. Once I make it clear that I would not concede no matter what the cost, he would have to choose between killing me and conceding the fight.” Ju gave his uncle a sneaky smile, elated that he was still alive.

Baek Ah shook his head and gave an exasperated sigh. “You should stop trusting the instincts of your reliable source or you will get yourself killed. She has the same perilous habit as her mother, of looking at the world through rose-tinged glasses.”

Ju ignored his uncle’s warning and took a look at his surroundings. He realized that he was neither in his room nor in his mother’s palace. Maybe, he was in Uncle Baek Ah’s room though the decorations and ts he saw around him were a little too grand to suit his uncle’s more elegant taste.

“So, what happens now that I fainted without conceding or dying? Do we have another go at it?” Ju asked hopefully.

“You just returned to the world of the living and you already want to have another go at me?”

Ju looked up in alarm just as Baek Ah stood up to greet the King who strode casually into the room.