“Good morning everyone.” Jeno, being the head of the ‘secret cheese enthusiast’ club, was standing at the front of the small empty nook at the back of the castle’s archives. A skinny wooden stick picked from the dusty corner of the room on his left hand and a stub of white chalk on his right. “The topic of today’s small council meeting is ‘human resource development.” He used the chalk to write the abbreviation of their theme, H.R.D., on the blackened surface of the wall, his voice ending out in a quiet echo the moment his hand stopped on a pronounced dot.

“I’m sorry teach,” Jisung, sitting cross legged on the floor, raised his arm up and caused the shared blanket to be pulled away from Minhyung’s barely awake shoulders. There was a little kerfuffle between the two sole members of their tiny club, as they fought for the sole ownership of the blanket, before Jisung gave up on his grip and caused Minhyung to fall backward to the cold, hard floor. He then casually continued on with his question as if nothing's happened, “but what more development can we do to the little amount of human resources that we have?

“You can’t be bothered to learn about the logistics behind cheesemaking, Minhyung can’t be bothered to learn about the science behind cheesemaking, and I don’t have all the time in the world to learn everything about cheesemaking. Teach, tell me WHAT DEVELOPMENT SHOULD WE DO THEN, TEACH?”

To that sudden outburst of emotion, Jeno could only give Jisung a weirded out look accompanied by knitted brows and lips stretched out into a thin frown, “did you have enough sleep last night?”

“Evidently not,” Minhyung, now back in an upright position, spelled out his answer in one drawn out yawn.

It was quickly chased away when Jisung firmly shoved him on his arm, “sneaking into a royal bedchamber and sleeping on the Prince’s bed is illegal you know.”

“You’re just upset you have to say goodbye to those gold coins,” Minhyung drawled out his taunt while he made sure to lean in really close to Jisung. The sleepy smile on his face growing wider when he saw the youngest member of their dying club was getting more and more agitated.

“I should just report you to the guards, and you’ll be imprisoned, and I’ll do nothing but laugh at your face,-”

“Boys… boys, please,” sensing that he was the only person awake and sane enough at the otherwise beautiful morning (not that they could enjoy it as the archives has no windows), Jeno had no other choice but to step in between the two bickering children, literally, and used his feet to put a bit of distance in between the two before they decided to upgrade their measly blanket kerfuffle into a full-blown fist fight. Not that the two were the types of people who will resort to physical brawl in the moment of heated argument, as they’re honestly more likely to exact revenge by making each other's job a living hell by putting mean pranks all over the castle’s archive, but Jeno could never be too careful when it comes to his two friends.

He remembered the time when the two of them were locked in a silent war of increasingly escalating pranks, which started because Jisung accidentally knocked a bottle of Minhyung’s expensive ink and ended with Jisung almost blowing out the entirety of the castle’s east wing with his homemade explosives. He remembered how the three of them had to then sneak off to a secluded place at the nearby forest to manually (and safely) detonate the explosives. The thing let out a fire column almost five times the height of a fully grown adult and Jeno also remembered how they spent the next minute laughing out their pent up nervousness as the earth literally rained down on them.

(Several reasons behind why the two of them haven’t been detained by Lumina’s royal guard are because one, they’re good at erasing their involvements in any chaos they’ve caused in the castle and two, Jeno worked his off to distract all the law enforcement's attention away from the real culprits and blamed everything on say… a malicious prophecy or something.)

After gaining such vital information in regards of their cheese-restoration project, Jeno couldn’t afford to see his club members losing their focus from the thing that mattered most. Which was to find a sustainable solution in creating delicious, affordable, Grasslands grade cheese.

“Oh! Oh!” Jisung’s arm once again shot up to the air, but this time it was because he remembered something important. One second he was sulking and the next he was bouncing excitedly on the floor, clapping his hands in excitement as if he was a kid on his nameday, “how was Ports and Piglets??? Was it good?”

“Didn’t get to try anything.”

Jisung paused for a little while, head tilted to the side as he was trying to make sense of Jeno’s words. And when it did come to him, the realisation caused his arm to slowly slither back down to his side, “oh… did the police finally raid the place?”

“They did.” Jeno nodded solemnly.

Minhyung too, nodded alongside him, also very solemnly, “oh, I’m glad you didn’t get caught.”

“That’s really nice of you to say that,-”

“Because then they would’ve rang the castle’s bells if you got caught.” He added those words and it immediately undermined the previously nice sounding words he gave to Jeno, “and I would have to pay up to this little rat right here. So yeah! Thankyou for not getting caught!”

This time, it wasn’t only Jisung who looked at him with a gaze heavily laced in sourness. Jeno also looked at Minhyung in a sense of disbelief, both arms perched on his waist and he was just this close from berating him for his severe scrooge-like behaviour when the word ‘rat’ caused him to remember what he really wanted to discuss in the first place.

Jeno, however humble he might think he is, would often succumb to the more theatrical portion of his innate personality. When one of your direct ancestor is called ‘the Pompous Fool of the South’, sometimes you just can’t help but to let all the flair out in one go. “Ports and Piglets is ancient history, I,-” he paused in the middle of his sentence, very dramatically too, I might add. With a smug smile and his lithe fingers hovering over his chest and his nose pointed up to the ceiling, Jeno milked the moment so much that Jisung started to yell at him to get on with it.

And he did, after he gave Jisung a sharp glare from just a peek underneath his thick lashes. A peek reserved to shut little kids up. And of course, it worked,

“I, me! I, Lee Jeno, found ourselves… A NEW MEMBER FOR OUR CLUB.”

Jeno was hoping for an applause. Some cheerings or a little hoot, at the very least. Something to show that his club members are just enthusiastic as he was to the promise of change! Discovery! Excitement! Adventure! And thus, when his revelation was met only with two pairs of squinted and confused eyes, Jeno found himself deflating just as quick as a pig bladder ball pierced by a sharp object.

“Why aren’t you excited…”

“More than not being excited,” Minhyun finally opened his mouth after he took one long breath, long enough to set right whatever words were jumbled up in his mind, “I guess we’re just… puzzled?”

“Yeah, how did you find this ‘new member’?” Jisung topped Minhyung’s words with his own, capping it off with a term that was blanketed in his dainty fingers forming some quotation marks.

“It’s kind of a long story,”

“Well… we’re listening.”

Jeno honestly didn’t anticipate the possibility of this happening. The fact that his friends didn’t just lap up his revelation with open arms and instead asked him for some clarifications caused Jeno to wonder.

Where should he start?

Should I start from the moment when I ran away from the tavern? Should I tell them about how I regrettably had to ignore and let the poor waiter get captured by the cheese police (because he couldn’t run as quick as me, so in the bear attack rule, the waiter was no better than dead meat)? Should I start from the water-out-the-window accident? Should I start from when the cheeseboy found out about my identity? How about his mother, should I tell them about that? Or should I…,-

“Jeno.”

“Huh? What?”

He didn’t realise that he’d entered a realm of semi-unconsciousness while he was contemplating over how to start his cheese-laden adventure from the night before, not until Jisung threw a particularly gigantic dust bunny at his forehead and he jolted awake.

“Tell us the story!” Kids being kids, Jeno could see the shine of excitement almost frothing over Jisung’s wide, unblinking eyes. And they just reminded him of the ones owned by the cheeseboy. Bright and glistening in wonder and deep hunger of wanting to know more. The way he would lean in, as far as he could without breaking their bubbles of personal barrier, while he was listening intently to Jeno’s marvelous tales of eating real cheese at the Grasslands. He even had to remind his cheeseboy to close his mouth because if not he would’ve drooled all over himself. His? Because he found him, is Renjun his? Or will he be owned collectively, under the name of the club? ‘How does taking a protege work?’ He wondered, ‘is he even a protege if his mentors are just going to be books?

Are proteges even owned? Jisung’s mentor doesn’t seem to ever refer to him like he’s an… expendable thing? But the stable boys do get tossed around like hays sometimes. How did people treat cheesemaker apprentices back in the day?’

“Jeno!”

“What?!”

“Stop daydreaming and tell us the story!” There was another dust bunny, somehow bigger than the one before, hitting him right on his nose, and all the dust so close to his sheltered lungs forced out of him three potent sneezes.

“Three times the charm,” Minhyung said in between his held back laughter, extending his graces by lending Jeno one of his finely embroidered handkerchief.

After he blew the content of his blocked nose to the handkerchief (and after Minhyung denied his offer to return said kerchief back to him, ‘wash it first,’ he said, and Jeno started to think that maybe he’s becoming a bit too lax in regards of how far his friends are allowed to be chummy with him, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom), Jeno had gathered enough mental presence and determination to finally get on with his exciting tale.

But the moment he opened his mouth, the moment he said, “it all started when I sat down at the tavern,” he saw the frilly ends of one of his mother’s youngest lady in waiting swishing past the droopy stone book cases, and for the first time since his broken heirloom vase debacle, Jeno felt fear so strong he could feel all colours being drained from his face.

“Your Grace, the Queen requested you to join her for breakfast,” the lady’s soft voice was such a contrast to the sad, cold and dreary atmosphere of the archives and Jeno felt a partial sense of guilt for ever causing her to venture this deep into such a strange environment.

Although, it was apparent that Minhyung and Jisung did not catch the negative vibe emanating from Jeno, as they instead were shamelessly clamoring to their feet, clumsily trying to out-shine each other by displaying the best bow to the young lady, or at least the best that they could remember from the rare cases that Jeno was feeling bothered enough to teach them formal courtly mannerism.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the young lady did not seem to experience any certain amusement over the foolishness displayed before her, and only responded with a polite, but detached, curtsy.

“Thankyou for coming all the way here to inform me, my Lady, I will attend to that as soon as I finish my archival dealings.”

As soon as he finished his address, as soon as she knew she was not needed down in the archives, the young lady sharply her spot and ran. Ah, pardon, as ladies never ran, floated away. With the train of her pale gold dress trailing behind her, she was a sight not far different from how Jeno imagined a spectral haunting would move down the cramped corridors stacked to the top with dusty and musty books.

If Jeno saw a haunting, his two friends must’ve saw something else. Still a sort of apparition, but certainly not one based on horror tales. Because they were clinging to each other for dear life, cheeks flushed and eyes glazed over in a faraway look that could only be produced if ones were trapped deep inside their fantastical daydreams.

“Was that a goddess…” Minhyung’s mumble was what finally broke the silence between the three of them.

And soon after it was followed by Jeno’s exasperated sigh, “no, that’s just my mother’s newest lady in waiting.” He took Jisung’s annoying hand who already latched onto his arm and carefully placed it on top of a book lying at the reading table right beside them. In a way, he had to do that while avoiding the kid’s gaze, as Jeno knew for sure what was waiting for him if he ever dared look up. Teary, pleading, puppy eyes. “I’m not telling you who she is,- no, not because I’m afraid of what you’ll do to annoy her, I’m afraid of what she’ll do to destroy you.”

Because of course, being the youngest daughter of the most prolific vassal of the royal family, pursuing the hand of young lady Kim could be closely compared to offering oneself to a spot on the hanging post.

Jeno remembered when a clueless lesser lord from the Southern region dared to ask her for her hand to a dance during one of the many charity balls ran by his mother. The unfortunate lord was quickly cornered by the young lady Kim’s mother, her father the Lord Kim, her two older brothers, and even her older sister also rushed away from her own dance partner and joined the tiny mob at the back of the main hall.

The lord was never heard again ever since that day. Rumors said he was sent away, more like banished, to a two years worth of apprenticeship at the merchant vessel owned by the King’s only sister. And to that Jeno could only wish him the best of luck, because well… his aunt was more well known by her notorious nickname, the one-eyed crimson demon.

If they did that to a lesser lord (who was even quite well off, what with his father owning a sizable land, castle, and foot soldiers at the outer reach of the Kingdom), Jeno couldn’t even begin to imagine what will Lord Kim do to his two no-name friends if he ever found out, not even at the point of pursuing, more like what will he do to them if he ever even sensed that lesser people (his words, not Jeno’s) displayed any hint of romantic interest to his precious little Yerim.

“Meet me at the usual spot two hours before sundown. Jisung, bring the essential editions. Minhyung, bring your scribe tools.” Jeno might not be allowed to attend any war council, yet. Besides, Lumina hasn’t faced any oppositions that couldn’t be solved by careful delegation or small operations since… oh, since almost a decade ago? But, the way he pointed at his friends, his comrades, his underlings, fully conveyed the fiery drive and determination of the most seasoned war admiral. Ready to march for the battle. “I will catch you up with the details on our way there. I promise you, it’ll be good.”

But before that,

Admiral gotta have breakfast with mommy first.