Joshua tried to calm his heart down. The two of them were walking towards the throne room from the garden. Joshua would say that he was surprised the castle had underground passages but he wasn’t. He was simply surprised that there was one to the damn garden.

Feeling a hand interlock with his, he turned to the side and looked at Jeonghan.

“Calm down Joshua.” He flashed a comforting smile. Well it looked like one. It just didn’t comfort Joshua at all. “You’ve done this before I’m sure.”

“I have,” Joshua said, trying to tug his hand away. He kept getting fluttery feelings in his stomach, that was not butterflies thank you very much. It was probably his nerves. “I rarely have to beat the person behind the evil plan with someone else though. I’m not sure if I can watch over you too.”

Jeonghan simply chuckled. “No need to worry about me. I can hold my own. You didn’t see books in the library about me?”

Joshua snorted. “I found snippets of journals on how you were a giant flirt and a playboy. Hardly anything on your prowess on the sword fighting field.”

Jeonghan pulled an indignant face. Clearly, he wasn’t happy on being painted as playboy, even if Joshua could tell he was one. “I’m good at it,” he said, “I won’t hold you back.”

“I hope so,” Joshua said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let you get hurt after I woke you up.”

Joshua dodged a weird black magic ball aimed at him. Hiding behind a piece of rock, he winced as he saw Jeonghan struggling a bit with the magicked armor suit that he was fighting.

Why wasn’t the wand working at full potential? Did it need something extra that Jeonghan didn’t know of? Joshua ducked as a piece of the rock he was hiding behind flew away. . He needed to figure this out fast.

Almost frantically he ran his fingers down it, trying to feel for any indentations that were empty. His eyes lit up as he hit the bottom. There. A perfect size for the pendant. He slid it in place, feeling the wand vibrate with power.

“Come out detective,” Hana purred, “I need to kill you so I can become Jeonghan’s fiancé.”

Joshua smirked, standing up. “Here’s the funny thing,” holding the wand up, he braced himself, “I was never his fiancé. He lied to you. But that doesn’t matter now. Bye bye Hana. I hope you find some peace in the afterlife.”

The wand finished powering up, firing a rainbow ball of all things, at Hana. She tried to negate it with her own magic but it smashed through her own little ball, hitting her directly.

For one second, Joshua could’ve sworn he saw the image of the Goddess Roselia before the rainbow ball hit Hana. He blinked; Hana exploding into nothing but colors.

He heard a huge clank to the side. The suited armor fell, the magic that controlled it gone with Hana.

“Isn’t that a pretty sight,” Jeonghan murmured.

“A bit morbid though,” Joshua remarked, wand held loosely in his hand.

“But necessary,” a voice called out.

“Goddess,” Jeonghan said in a reverent tone. He kneeled on one knee.

“No need for that crown prince,” she said. “May I?” She held out her hand towards Joshua, smiling at him.

“Oh. Yea,” Joshua replied, scrambling, “I have no use for the wand.”

She took it from him, moving to large hole in the walls that overlooked the kingdom. With one wave, the thorns that were plaguing the town and the kingdom started to disinergrate.

“Good job detective. Thank you for saving the kingdom.” She smiled a motherly sort of smile at Joshua.

He blushed, being praised by the local gods and goddesses were always sort of weird for him. “It’s no big deal. Just doing my job.”

“The kingdom is ruined,” she said, turning away from Joshua to look at Jeonghan. “What shall you do Jeonghan?”

Jeonghan smiled at her. “I thought I’d go with the detective. A new beginning. There’s nothing left here anyhow,” he said. It was tinged with sadness, no doubt for his dead family, the way his kingdom fell.

Joshua stared at him. It was brave, strong of him even to get up so quickly and move on. It had been almost a hundred of years since he fell asleep and he woke up to this sort of life, no one from his past to help him.

“Your future is bright. Filled with adventure and love.” She gave him sweet smile. “Good luck.” She turned to Joshua. “I’ll take care of the rest of the cleanup, no need to worry detective. Take care. Your future will be fun as well.” Walking away from the two of them, she shimmered, disappearing to take care of the rest of the thorned vines.

Sighing, Joshua dusted off his jeans. He held out a hand to Jeonghan. “Come on then. Time to go home.”

Jeonghan laced his fingers with Joshua’s, smiling a bit at the blush that rose to his Joshua’s cheeks. Home. His old home was destroyed. But maybe if he was lucky, Joshua would let him make his new home with him.  “Yes. Home.”

so the beginging arc is now done! there will be more but it'll be more on developing their relationship and on their life