July, Gui Le territory.

The sun blazed high in the sky, so fierce that the trees on both sides of the road seemed to have bowed down in shame.

Four or five travellers, who could no longer stand the scorching heat, were huddled under the shade of the tree, desperately trying to cool themselves. Because of this, the old man with a small tea booth by the unpaved road had a few more customers than usual.

“A cup of tea.” A traveller carefully took out his wallet and fished out a few coins, placing it on the table, while fanning himself vigorously.

“Here, a cup of tea for you to soothe your liver and cool the heat.” The old man brought the tea and smiled at him. “It’s a hot day. Where are you headed to, Mister?”

“Yes, this demon of a day is indeed hot enough to toast one to death.” Just one sip of tea seemed to appease his dry, depleted throat. He seemed slightly happier and said, “I’m just hurrying to deliver stock to the border. Sigh, ever since Dong Lin started messing with the border, it’s been hard for us traders to earn a living. Luckily the Marquess of Choi is pushing that Lee-What’s-His-Name away. Otherwise, I would’ve never known when to go there.”

“Yeah, the Marquess of Choi is amazing!”

“I know who you’re talking about, he’s the brother of the King of Dong Lin. He’s strong too.”

The nearby people laughed. “Who cares about strength? He still got forced back home when he opposed the Marquess of Choi, eh?” He drained the remaining content of his cup and placed a few more coins on the table. “Another cup please, Sir!”

Hearing that, the tea seller nodded. “I heard that he’s never lost a battle – totally worth his title of being Gui Le’s strongest commander.”

Suddenly a voice interrupted, “You dare mention the Marquess of Choi? He’s currently labelled as the traitor of Gui Le.”

This struck the tea drinkers crowd like lightning. Their mouths dazedly dropped open.

The tea seller broke the silence. “What are you saying? The Marquess of Choi…”

“Do all of you not know?” The newcomer sat down and used his sleeves to fan himself. “I just came out of the city yesterday. Apparently he attempted to assassinate the King and has now escaped out of the capital city. At the moment, the King has commanded everyone to capture him. I heard that the reward is pretty good too.”

“But didn’t he just stabilise the borderline situation and was returning to the capital to collect his rewards?”

“Heh, isn’t it strange. On the very night he was returning to the capital, he tried to assassinate the King. Guess what weapon he used?” The newcomer was dramatising the news, as most of them had their attention on him.

“Must be a precious sword,” someone guessed.

“Don’t listen to this nonsense,” others argued, “There’s no way I’d believe that the Marquess of Choi would betray us. He’s Gui Le’s most loyal official, there’s no way he’d break the law.”

The newcomer saw the others’ suspicious looks and his beard. “He used the Precious Heimo Sword, which was personally bestowed to him by the King. And you know, any damage inflicted by that precious sword, no matter how small, will leave a nasty black scar which will never fade.”

“But…”

In the midst of their debating, they suddenly heard hooves approaching.

A carriage, probably an ordinary merchant’s, had arrived; its curtains tightly drawn. The driver was a man with huge muscles. He threw down two coins, yelling, “Ye old man! Gimme some tea!”

“Coming!”

“This damn day is too hot!”

“That’s right, that’s right. Feel free to cool down under the tree before going on your way. We’re discussing about the Marquess of Choi.”

“Tch. I’m only interested in business, not some royalty or political creep.” He gulped down the rest of his cup noisily and brought out a huge water container. “Fill that up, I gotta go now.”

The seller hurriedly filled the water container.

The man grabbed the container, got on the horse which neighed once, before moving forward.

Inside the horse carriage, Pingting finally opened her eyes, against the endless bumps of the unpaved road.

It was a humid day and sweat was dripping down her neck. Her eyes were narrowed, as they tried to adjust to the light.

Her head was really sore and pangs of dizziness rose, like waves threatening to consume her.

Where am I? Donghae looked at herself absentmindedly, then around her, and seemed to be fullyawaken now.

The memory of a scene, full of fire and cries of battle and fighting returned to her.

“Donghae, wait outside the city. We’ll go in to save Father.”

“Then…Master, we’ll meet again on the cliff at dawn.”

Where was the Duke? Master? And what about that mischievous, always-causing-trouble, Minho?

She remembered that after making the promise, she had set out for the cliff. In her most recent memory, she was definitely already at the cliff. And all of sudden, the back of her head throbbed painfully once before her eyes fade to black…

“You awake?” The curtains were pushed aside, revealing a peering man’s face, “You should’a woken ages ago. Any longer, and I would’a beaten ya to death.”

Are these people human trafficking troupe? Donghae studied them carefully.

Could it be that I’ve been caught by human traffickers when Master needs me the most? The number of times Donghae had left the Residence alone throughout her life was scarce and during this exact moment where she was urgently needed, she JUST had to be caught by the human traffickers.

“Okay, I’m gonna ask ya somethin’.” The man sat inside the carriage and took out the gag in Donghae’s mouth. They must have had placed it in to stop her from screaming for help in case she woke up along the journey. He gave her an intimidating glare, “If you dun’ tell meh the truth, I’ll feed ya to the wolves.”

Donghae nearly laughed at this child-like threat. Why would she be scared? She’d been serving the Marquess of Choi, Siwon, since small and she was the only woman who could follow him on his outings. Although she was young, she’d already seen a lot of battles.

Donghae didn’t wait for the man to ask his question, asking one of her own instead. “Did you capture me in the city?”

The man looked surprised at her relaxed expression and chuckled, not angrily. “Yeah.”

“How long did I sleep for?”

“Two days and a half.”

Donghae went pale when she heard this, stunned in shock.

If she had been sleeping for the last two days, then the king’s soldiers would have begun searching around the capital, making it very difficult for her Master and the others to stay at the agreed place, near the cliffs. Her heart sped up as she asked, “Where are you taking me?”

“To the…” the man suddenly stopped, realising something was wrong. “Eh? Yer know I’m the one askin’ questions ere, right?” He gave her a ferocious expression. “Say, which rich family have you escaped from, runaway wife? Where’s your home?”

Runaway wife?

Donghae hesitated, lowering her head and studied herself.

Although she was only a servant of her residence, her Master had always cherished her and so she’d gotten things that were even more expensive than the ladies of normal households. Her clothes looked expensive and she had been riding away from the city at an odd hour so the trafficker had naturally thought that she had run away from her husband.

No wonder the trafficker hadn’t thrown her out in the last two days, he had probably seen some value in her.

Donghae shook her head and laughed, “I’m just a maid, not a runaway wife from a wealthy family.”

“Tch, since when did servants get silk clothes?”