A week had passes since the Princess had first awakened in her dark cell somewhere underground, under the place, where the Baekwoon Group members held their meetings. Her eyes had already adjusted to the lack of light provided only by a few burning torches on the walls behind the door of her cell. She really missed daylight but there was no way for her to get even the slightest glipmse of it. When she had gotten really tired of her situation one day, she asked the guards whether the Baekwoon Group just wants to let her rot in there but none of them answered. So she didn’t even have anyone to talk to. She remembered her wish from a week ago after seeing Byung-yeon stepping out of her cell. She wished never to see that treacherous bastard of a man again, however now she would welcome even his company. But since that day he hasn’t shown up. Nor did anyone else. 

As the days passed, she had gotten increasingly more confused and scared. She had thought someone would have come and tried to save her a long time ago. The whole country must've been looking for her at the moment. And still, no one came. It appeared they couldn’t find her, which was both a little surprising and definitely anxiety-inducing for her. But she was not ready to loose hope yet. She didn’t trust an entire army of soldiers the way she trusted her brother. She knew the Crown Prince would move heaven and earth for her and wouldn’t rest until he found her. 

Just when she was sitting in the corner of her cell, braiding her hair after she had unbraided it, which was the only way to keep her mind distracted, someone suddenly opened the door. 

The man didn’t step inside immediately though, he first handed one of the guards a small black object in his hand, while she could hear him saying:

,,Don’t tell anyone about what you’ll see.”

The guard nodded, taking from the man what she figured out to be money.

When the man stepped inside, she realised she knew his face. It was Choi Haneul, the man that stopped Byung-yeon from killing her. She wasn’t sure how to feel about his presence, maybe she wouldn’t even feel so threatened, he saved her life after all, had he not said the words he just said to the guard. They made her feel strangely on edge.

She stood up and looked at him.

,,What do you want?”

,,Your Highness,” he whispered after stepping uncomfortably close to her, ,,this nonsense of keeping you alive and unharmed only as a weapon agains the Crown Prince is taking too long. I don’t know why does our leader try to protect you but I’m not going to lose any more time.”

,,What...,” she started a question but didn’t manage to finish it, since he pressed his rough hand against and his dagger to .

,,I’m warning you, if you scream, you’ll be dead in a blink of an eye.”

She looked at him, terrified and completely taken aback by his sudden actions and threat. She could feel her heart beating faster than ever before.

,,Answer me and you’ll live. What does the Crown Prince know about the Baekwoon Group?” he whispered, his face only a few inches away from hers.

But then she realis