“You should not have restrained me! I would have torn that beast apart,” Chanyeol yelled as he kicked the weapon’s rack, venting his frustration.

Baekhyun had brought Chanyeol to the weapon’s room to calm themselves down after the Feast and perhaps to settle whatever unhappiness there was between them.

“And then what? Get yourself executed for hitting the Crown Prince and ing the Princess?” Baekhyun replied stonily.

Chanyeol threw a punch towards his fellow brother and Pride. A punch conveying anger.

Baekhyun staggered backwards upon receiving the punch in his mouth, before recovering himself and then delivered his own to Chanyeol. An equally hard punch packed with his pent-up feelings of betrayal.

Before long, the two Prides had engaged themselves in a serious fight, one they have not had since their childhood days. During that time, they bellowed out their displeasure with each other.

“How dare you lure me into the army and leave me behind!” Baekhyun shouted in rage as he charged at Chanyeol.

“I offered you to come along with us! You refused!” Chanyeol had braced himself for Baekhyun’s lunge and followed up with his own punch.

Their fist fight had been so intense that they had not noticed another watching them both.

“Should I be hitting you both for hiding all these secrets from me?” Kyungsoo suddenly interjected, his voice flat, the same could be said for his expression as he approached the two Prides.

There was silence for a moment, apart from their heavy pants, as both Baekhyun and Chanyeol broke away from each other and took in the situation. Kyungsoo then strode towards the weapons’ rack, and picked out a spear, not a blunted training spear, but one with a gleaming sharp spearhead. The spear-wielder got to enjoy a momentary look of surprise from his fellow Prides as he beckoned them to pick up their own preferred weapons.

“By the way Chanyeol, I kind of found out that you were preparing to flee the camp even without both of you guys saying anything,” Kyunsoo said.

The cognisant Pride then had the further satisfaction of seeing guilty looks upon both the Prides who had grown up together. When the two had made no move, Kyungsoo then went back to the rack, picked two equally sharp swords and tossed them to each one of them. 

“Shall we let the steels do the talking instead?” Kyungsoo asked, a rare sly smile spreading across his face.

The two other Prides clenched their jaws but knew this was an inevitable fight.

Let’s settle this once and for all.

**

Seulgi’s eyes never once left Joohyun as the Strategist as angry tears kept leaking out of Joohyun’s own eyes. Seulgi wanted to hold Strategist so badly but she was too ashamed because she too had merely watched the events unfold before her own eyes.

“This country will go to ruins with the beast on that throne,” Joohyun said bitterly.

Seulgi inhaled deeply as memories of Crown Prince Yifan committing atrocities invaded her mind. She could clearly picture their own Crown Prince doing the same, except it would probably be worst because at least Crown Prince Yifan had been a witty Strategist whilst Crown Prince Luhan was both brutal and incapable. The thought of putting someone like that on the throne was a scary thought for the General. She wanted to do something… but before she even formed a wisp of plan, her mind was snapped back to attention by her Strategist.

“Seulgi…” Joohyun began, “what are you thinking?”

Seulgi had no idea that the expression she had on at that time was pretty fearsome until she saw the worry in Joohyun’s eyes.

“Nothing, Joohyun,” Seulgi lied.

Much to her surprise, the Strategist did not press any further. “Okay, you will tell me when you are ready,” Joohyun merely said as she got up from the bed and attempted to leave the tent.

The General barred her from doing so with an outstretched arm. “I am not letting you go back to your tent alone. Not with that beast still in camp.”

Joohyun wiped the tears from her eyes and whipped her head around to give the General a sly smirk as she pushed the General’s arm aside, “who said I am going back to my tent?”

A look of puzzlement spelled across the General’s face. “Where are you…”

The Strategist realised that she was a little too tired to keep up with teasing her General, especially not after the dramatic events. Joohyun sighed, “to my father.”

“Is something wrong?” Seulgi asked concernedly.

As if contemplating if she should tell the General, the Strategist finally drew out another long tired breath before she revealed her suspicions to Seulgi. “My father might be sick. I cannot be certain yet but there is this nagging suspicion that he might be…”

Seulgi’s eyes narrowed, “why do you say so…?”

Joohyun pursed her lips before saying again, “well… the tonics that he has been taking…”

“You snooped on the Lord Commander?” Seulgi said immediately.

Joohyun winced at the sound of that but nodded her head. The Strategist had expected Seulgi to give her a look of disgust or a reproachful glare but she only felt the warmth of Seulgi’s body against her own.

“Let’s go, we will find out from the Lord Commander, together,” Seulgi had said determinedly and interlaced her own hand with the Strategist’s.

If there was one thing Joohyun wished for, it was for her to end this war quickly, lay down her responsibilities and get away from all of these atrocities with Seulgi and her father.

This was not very much different from Seulgi’s wish, except that the General had something more… brutal in her mind. Crown Prince Luhan needs to be removed, permanently.

**

With both his hands on his hips, Prince Sehun could not stop pacing around his tent in an attempt to quell his anger. Meanwhile, Princess Seungwan sat composedly at the table, tapping a finger on their desk.  

“Seungwan, this cannot go on… he cannot be the King…” Prince Sehun finally broke the silence.

“I know, you know too,” The Princess said.

There was another pause of silence between the two.

“But?” Prince Sehun asked.

“Our Father does not know,” The Princess said in a hushed voice.

The Prince squeezed his eyes shut and took in a breath so deep that his chest had puffed out significantly. “I hate to say this, but is it time we do something about this?”

The Princess stopped tapping her finger and instead brought her hand up to her cheek, where she had been slapped. “What do you think, brother? Do you want to do something?”

Prince Sehun looked to his sister and they held each other’s gazes. The Prince could tell there was something on the Princess’s mind, something that he reckoned must have been there for a very long time. Then the Princess looked away, as if she were guilty of something.

“Seungwan, is there something I should know?” The Prince asked with his eyes narrowed suspiciously.  

Nodding her head gravely, the Princess breathed in deeply before she confessed about her plans of elopement to her brother.

Never would the Princess have expected to see such understanding in her brother’s eyes but there was sadness in them too. Princess Seungwan felt so ashamed for her selfishness. And for the first time ever since they were kids, the Princess started crying uncontrollably before her brother.

“Hey… why are you crying? Sister, it is completely unlike you to cry. You were the toughest amongst us, even though… even though you were born a female. Such political burdens should never have fallen on your shoulders.”

How could the Prince not blame her at all? The Princess sobbed harder at her brother’s words and soon realised that she was enveloped in the Prince’s arms.

Sehun… you will be all alone after we are gone… don’t you know that?

**

Another three months went by. Crown Prince Luhan had, as expected, returned to the palace and left the rest to prepare for the war. Jongin, who was supposed to have joined the Fourth Prince’s Royal Guards have decided to delay his time and join after the war with Qi’An.

The Princess and Lieutenant Colonel Chanyeol too, seemed to not be able to lay down their burdens so quickly and have joined this great battle. Despite so, besides official meetings, Princess Seungwan was rarely seen outside her tent and had become less lively. Even Joohyun had complained that the Princess had refused to meet her on multiple occasions and had only allowed her lover in her tent. Seulgi reckoned it must have been because of the feast with the Crown Prince.

As for their band of brothers, it was still complete but it would not remain so after this war. As Lieutenant Colonels of the three different companies, they each had different roles with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo leading their companies out in the frontline battle.

The Main Troop, which was led by the Lord Commander would engage the main force in a head-on clash of power while the Elite Troop would provide additional support and enter the battle unexpectedly from both sides, Crimson and Indigo each taking a side. The Silver company, thanks to the brilliance of Baekhyun, had come up with a mobile projectile launcher which must be manned. That invention was modified from the initial drawings from Wei’Ya but Wei’Ya had not even managed to produce a single machine because Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo had seen to it that these drawings were destroyed in their country.

Unfortunately, Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s relationship seeme