It was almost noon and the Hwarang men had been finally called to return to the main courtyard. Unfortunately, no one had caught a deer but at least some of the Hwarang bodyguards have brought the animals that the Hwarangs have managed to catch including the wild boar that Yeowool had shot down in order to save Chunhwa.

Chunhwa, Yeowool, and Hansung entered the main courtyard. The female teacher stops and turned around to face the two Hwarang men behind her— her eyes on Yeowool.

“Thank you for saving me earlier.” she tells him with a small smile, “I really appreciate that.”

“I’d say you’re welcome. Although in all honesty, I had been eyeing that wild boar from the start anyway.” he says with a shrug.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hansung asks her, eyebrows furrowed a little. “Yeowool hyung and I noticed that you seem to be limping a little bit.”

The older Hwarang nods in agreement, “I think we should bring you to Miss Ahro to at least have it checked and prevent it from getting worse.”

Chunhwa shook her head, touched at their concern. “I’m okay, do not worry.” she reassures them.

“It was just a little bit strained from the shock of falling in the ground. I’ll just give it a rest.”

“Are you sure?” Yeowool asks her. She nods.

“Yes, there is nothing to fuss about.”

Hansung, easy to be reassured grinned in relief. “Alright I hope you get well soon, noona!”

“N-noona?” Chunhwa echoes, looking shocked but nowhere displeased at what he had called her. Yeowool slapped Hansung on the arm in alarm.

“Yah! Seok Hansung!” he scolds.

“Ah, why!?” the younger whines at him frowning childishly, “Is it bad to call her noona?”

“Not really actually.” she shook her head but still a little surprised at the boldness of the young Hwarang. “But why did you call me noona?”

Hansung grins at her, “Because you are really cool and you also saved my life so...” he trails off, looking shy all of a sudden.

Chunhwa couldn’t help but chuckle at him.

“Alright, I will give you the exemption to call me ‘noona’ but on one condition.”

The two Hwarangs looked at her, one surprised and one curious about what her condition is all about.

“You shall attend each sparring training that we will have starting tomorrow.”

“Okay!” Hansung suddenly says, looking determined. Yeowool turned to him in surprise.

“Unbelievable.” the older Hwarang says and Chunhwa smiles at the younger.

“That’s settled then, I shall expect to see you at the training tomorrow.” she nods in satisfaction. “Well, I think I should go and take some rest. Thank you again Master Hansung and Master Yeowool.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Chunhwa.” Yeowool smiles softly at her.

Just as Chunhwa turns away from the two, an arrow out of nowhere flew inside the Hwarang House— the arrow landing in the main courtyard’s podium. At the same time, a scroll rolls down and the words written on the scroll in bold, red ink made her unable to breathe for a few seconds.

‘The King is within Hwarang’

Everyone who were in the main courtyard started to look around, curious as to where the arrow came from. They started to gather in the middle, Yeowool and Hansung making their way to join them as well but Chunhwa stayed frozen in her spot— looking at the words written on the scroll with a stunned expression.

“’The King is within Hwarang’.” Yeowool reads out loud before looking at Banryu who was beside him. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“That’s impossible. The king is among us?” Banryu turns to Yeowool as well— his eyebrows furrowed in disbelief.

Sooho looked up at the scroll, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and at the same time, curiosity. Hansung who was standing beside him appeared to have the same expression as well as he bites into his lower lip.

“That makes no sense.” one Hwarang says, looking up at the scroll and then to his friend beside him.

“Why not?” the Hwarang beside them asks, his arms crossed in front of his chest with a speculating look.

“Make way!” Master Wi Hwa hollers as he made his way in the middle of the main courtyard together with the Assistant Chief Instructor and the Hwarang General behind him.

The Hwarang men parted to let the Chief Instructor pass and he stopped, looking up at the words written on the scroll hanging on the podium as well.

“’The King is within Hwarang’.” Master Wi Hwa reads out loud.

Jidwi’s face paled in shock, looking up at the scroll with his mouth agape as he started to feel different kinds of emotions. Master Wi Hwa made his way up the podium and tears the word ‘King’ down from the scroll, throwing it to the ground where the Hwarang men stood.

“If this is a joke, I will forgive it just once.” he tells them, his voice booming out in the entire courtyard. “However, if there is a motive behind this, I will not forgive it next time.”

He gave everyone a hard look. “Do you understand!?”

The Hwarang men looked at each other and to the ripped piece of scroll that was on the ground.

“Y-yes, Master.”

The Chief Instructor turned around and walked away while the Assistant Chief Instructor stepped forward.

“There is nothing to see here, so go! Now!”

Everyone started to walk away from the main courtyard one by one but Ahro, Jidwi, and Sunwoo remained standing in the middle of the courtyard, looking down at the ripped piece of scroll on the ground. Chunhwa also remained from where she was standing as she stares at the ripped pieced of scroll on the floor from afar— her hand found its way to clench in her stomach that was starting to make her feel awful once again.

‘Are you really here, Sam Maekjong?’

“’The King is within Hwarang’. Is the King within Hwarang?” the Hwarang, Juhyung says in a deep thought and he turns to his friends.

“Do you think it is true?”

“What is it? Did you not get the news?” one of his friends who were standing and leaning on the pillar inside the lecture room looks down on him.

“Yah, it is impossible.” his other friend who was sitting across him says, looking at the two of them.

“Even the Chief Instructor said that it was a joke.”

“Why is it impossible?” the one leaning on the pillar asks him. “If the King cannot show himself, he could be here.”

He looked down at his friends and the two seemed to agree with his theory.

“Then,” Juhyung looks up at him, “Who do you think is the King?”

“I bet it is either Jidwi or Sunwoo.” Hansung says over his meal, looking at the chopsticks that he was holding each on both of his hands.

Sooho looked up at him with a small frown, “Why do you always eat here? Go to your group.”

The younger Hwarang seemed to ignore what he had just said as he placed his hands down, still griping on the chopsticks and looked at Sooho with a serious expression.

“We all grew up in the capital.” he says, capturing Banryu’s attention— who turned his head towards him.

“We watched each other grow up.” Hansung continues, looking at his companions at the table. He looks at Sooho once again, “However, not those two.”

“Enough nonsense.” Banryu made a gesture as if to hit him with his elbow. Yeowool on the other hand seemed to be in a deep thought after hearing the youngest Hwarang’s words.

“Jidwi is the Chief Instructor’s nephew, and Sunwoo is Master Ahnji’s son.” Sooho explains to him.

“Well, that’s true.” Hansung then agrees with a nod, suddenly forgetting about his speculations about the two Hwarang men in their subject of talk.

“No, I think Hansung is right.” Yeowool suddenly says and the three turned to look at him, the youngest Hwarang looking at him with adoration for agreeing at his theory.

“It is true we do not know anything about them. If one of them is the King,” he paused, looking at Banryu and Sooho who stopped chewing the food inside their mouth.

“I think I might know who it is.”

“What did I say? Because we are being idle, the Baekje people continue to provoke us!” one of the ministry officials on Minister Park Youngshil’s side tells everyone as they all gather at the throne room the next day.

The Queen Regent sat on the throne, paying attention and listening to what they are saying.

“The damages are twice as much as last time. We lost over a hundred cows and horses.” the ministry official beside the one who just spoke said, looking at everyone and then discreetly at the Queen.

“This is because—“

“They look down on us.” Queen Ji Soo cuts him off as she looks at the ministry official with a suggestive look. The ministry official immediately shut his mouth and everyone looked up to pay attention to their Queen.

“The Queen won’t step down, and the King is faceless. I know you want to blame me and the King.”

Minister Kim Seub looks down at that, as well as everyone in the room.

“That’s enough.” Minister Youngshil says all of a sudden, and everyone turned their eyes on him.

“The Queen is preoccupied with something else that is why.” he continues and the Queen’s lips pulled into a light frown as she snapped her eyes towards the ministry official.

“What do you mean, huh?” the ministry official beside him asks incredulously as he turned to the older man. “What is more important than this—“

“Is it true that the King is within Hwarang?” he cuts off, addressing his question towards the Queen.

If the Queen looked completely shocked at what Minister Youngshil had said, she did not clearly showed it very much but still gave way when her eyes widened a little. The room erupted into different kinds of reactions as they started to turn and whisper into each other.

“What is this about?”

“What?”

“The King?”

“He is a Hwarang?”

“The King is within Hwarang?”

Minister Seub looked shocked as well and he turned towards the Queen. The Regent was looking a little bit uneasy at the situation that suddenly erupted inside the room and one of the ministers on Minister Youngshil’s side turned towards her.

“If he is not, please tell us so, Your Highness.” he says, his eyebrows furrowed. “We heard and have seen that the late Lord Guhae’s granddaughter is back in Silla and everyone knows that Lady Heo Chunhwa and His Majesty fled out of Silla together many years ago.”

“If Lady Heo Chunhwa is back once again in the capital, it also means that she has come back with the King!”

“Is it true, Your Highness?” another ministry official on Minister Youngshil’s side asks her.

Minister Youngshil observed the Queen, waiting for her to say something. Queen Ji Soo looked at everyone in the room who was waiting for her to speak and she exhaled.

“Let me repeat.” she carefully starts, “His Majesty is not in Silla.”

Everyone looked at each other and the oldest ministry official narrowed his eyes at her answer.

“Yes, it is true that Lady Heo Chunhwa is back in the capital. However, it is because the Hwarang House needs someone like her in order to become stronger.”

“Not because she is back doesn’t mean that they are back together.” she adds, looking at the ministry officials.

Minister Youngshil frowned, displeased that the bait he had done for the King to show up and for the Queen to admit that he is here in the country did not effectively go well.

“If anyone tries to cause havoc with such a rumour, I shall not let it slide!” Queen Ji Soo says in a strong tone, looking at each and everyone in the room. Almost everyone bowed at her, acknowledging her words except one person.

Her eyes landed on Minister Youngshil who was looking up at her with a speculative look. She glared at him in return.

Chunhwa was motionlessly lying on her bed that night, staring at the ceiling of her room. The situation that had happened the other day had involuntarily gave her stress which also led her to experience her indigestions once again and made her easily get tired after her training with the Hwarang men.

Add to that was the rumour circulating around the Hwarang House that Sunwoo is the faceless King.

Princess Sookmyung had come to her the first thing after hearing about this rumour and had asked her if she thinks that the rumour was true. Chunhwa couldn’t find herself to tell her, however, that she had indeed seen the bracelet on Sunwoo’s wrist the very first time they crossed their paths and also because she was feeling unsure herself.

She did not want the princess to feel disappointed once proven that it was not really Sunwoo who is the faceless King.

But, will she even be disappointed? King or not, Chunhwa knows that the princess has her eyes on Sunwoo anyway.

She blinked once and finally closed her eyes, willing herself to succumb to sleep. However, before she could even drift off, she woke up to a pair of hands strangling her neck— trying to choke her.

She opened her eyes, her hands immediately coming up to stop the pair of bony and wrinkled hands that were on her neck— her eyes were wide and already tearing up while small, pained whimpers escaped her lips as she struggled for air.

Chunhwa looked up at the person who was strangling her, but she could not even make out the person’s face as her eyes were clouded by her tears.

“You.” the person says, their voice painfully familiar but she could not point out as to whom it belongs to, although she could definitely tell that the voice belonged to a man.

“You’re not supposed to be alive. I should have killed you together with your grandfather.”

“N-no.” she attempts to speak but all came out was a whimper as she started trashing in her bed but it was futile since the man was sitting on top of her. She could not even remove his hands that were on her neck as his hold on her was so strong and tight.

“Your grandfather was nothing but a hindrance to me, and in the future I know you will become a big hindrance as well.”

She did not know how or when did it happened, but suddenly, the man was already holding a dagger on his right hand and he raised it above her head while his other hand was still choking her.

“You should die.” she can hear the smirk on his voice and she whimpered once more.

“Say hello to your grandfather for me once you’ve joined him. Goodbye, Heo Chunhwa.”

The man raised the dagger on his hand higher, and then started to strike it down towards her. Chunhwa closed her eyes in complete fear and screamed.

“Lady Chunhwa!?”

“LADY CHUNHWA! I BEG YOU! PLEASE WAKE UP!!”

Chunhwa opened her eyes and abruptly sat up from her lying position. Her hands automatically reached up to touch her neck and realized that no one was strangling her.

She looked frantically around her room, looking for anyone and her eyes landed towards Damyi who was seating beside her, looking very pale and very worried.

“Lady Chunhwa, thank goodness. Thank goodness you woke up. You worried me to death!” her maid says, eyes tearing up.

Chunhwa looked at her with a dazed expression and then felt that her cheeks were wet— she reached her hand to touch her face and realized that she had been crying.

Damyi took her other hand in hers and rubbed them soothingly.

“It’s okay,” she whispers, “It’s okay, My Lady. It was just a nightmare.”

The young maiden looked at her, and a fresh batch of tears started to fall down from her eyes as she looked at her maid— looking frightened like a small child. Damyi pulled Chunhwa towards her in a very tight hug— her whole body still shaking in fear despite that what she had experienced was just a dream.

“I’m so scared, Damyi.” she chokes, “I was so scared. I thought it was happening again.”

Her maid squeezed her shoulder and rubbed her back, “It’s alright, My Lady.” she whispered soothingly.

“It’s has been a very long time since you have last dreamt about that memory. I’m here. It’s going to be okay.”

Author's Note:

Surprise, surpise~ I double updated! kkk. Please be sure
to read Chapter 12 first before reading this chapter.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

- flyingjunmyeons [20170527]