HAI!

...I still don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

BUT I HOPE IT SOUNDS ACCURATE ENOUGH! (Unedited)

~~~

It’s been barely two days since they arrived and so far some of his questions have been answered while his secret has already began to get even more difficult to hide. For instance, he finds that his voice comes off as a little masculine still and he sometimes forgets to soften it. However, some people just assume that the gruff huskiness within his tone comes from being a disgruntled grandmother.

So far he hasn’t corrected anyone who has referred to him as ‘old lady’ or ‘granny’. It’s not exactly a flattering title but it’s what his disguise seems to portray. Also it helped that slaves were required to keep their heads bowed, no eye contact with the men unless told to do so.

Other than the few girls he had spoken to in the carriage, he had yet to run into any other familiar faces. He knew Tae’s mother was working somewhere in the village but so far he had come up short in spotting her. The ones who actually knew his secret gave him curious looks whenever he wandered past as if they were wondering what he could possibly be experiencing while dressed like that.

From a young kitchen servant it had been official clarified that they were currently being held captive in Belmont, the private kingdom. The overlord had stuck the lavish village unexpectedly, overpowering it and its people quickly. The servant had not expanded on the details before running fearing that she had said too much. Jongwoon had gone to bed praying passionately for his village as well as his own safety. The thought that the overlord could take over Belmont with such ease left a cold chill at the base of is spine.  

He hasn’t showered for so long that the mere thought of running water was enough to make him drool.  The slaves were given a bathhouse to freshen up and the first time Jongwoon laid eyes on it he had ignored his stinky armpits and wept in joy.

The downside to using the bathhouse was that, because most of the slaves were women that meant the bathhouse was predominately occupied by females and he didn’t have the necessary body parts needed to blend in with a bunch of girls.

The first time he walked in there with Suzy at his side, he had gotten an eyeful of s of all sizes and…s…

He had quickly abandoned Suzy in favor of running towards the exit. His face must been as red as a tomato. Earlier on he had been considering using the bathhouse which was available for knights. However, even though it was available to males, he could not possibly sneak into the bathhouse without his presence arising suspicions. He wasn’t a knight or a part of the overlord’s army, therefore it would be stupid of him to think that no one would question why a stranger was using their private bathhouse. 

Later on that day he had gotten the opportunity to approach Gna, who had been on a break after a long day of sweeping up garbage. He had then told her of his crisis. By this point he had already mentally declared to himself that the female bathhouse was completely off limits. Jongwoon was not a ert!

After having a good laugh at Jongwoon’s dilemma, Gna had suggested that he sneak out of the dormitories and shower late at night while everyone slept.

Jongwoon had thought this over.

The ‘slave dorms’, as it was referred to, was basically a large building filled with cots for slave to sleep in. Every slave was assigned a number and that number was the bed they were given. Sneaking out of dorm would be rather difficult seeing as he was almost in the far corner of the room, completely opposite the exit doors. He’d have to grease his feet in order to glide past everyone without making a sound. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, he’d have to make it pass the guards who were posted outside the dorm door.

However, feeling confident, he kept the idea in mind, just in case an opportunity presented itself.

Until then…he’d just have to stay smelly.

Despite being ‘slaves’, the situation wasn’t as dire as he had expected. When he first heard the term ‘slave’, he had mentally prepared himself to be chained and bound and forced to wear rags. However, the overlord seemed to have a soft spot for the slaves he had acquired.

Due to the fact that this slave group was mostly consisted of submissive female the rules were a lot less stressful. They all worked endlessly on the tasks they were given, eating meals 3 times a day, once for breakfast, lunch and dinner and at the end of the day most of the rushed to wash up before taking their rest while others went straight to the dorms to sleep off the day’s labor.

The women who were rude and stubborn usually ended up doing harsher jobs than the others who remained quiet and obedient. Most of the women from his village seem to have fiery tongues and do not know when to hold their tongues.  Jongwoon suspects that it's probably a good thing the Overlord seems to be absent from the village at the moment. There seems to be only one authoritive figure in the castle at the moment and although Jongwoon hasn't exactly seen him face to face, he knows that the Overlord's son is still within the castle walls.

Jongwoon keeps his mouth shut most of the time, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention. With Suzy at his side, mopping and sweeping with her tiny hands, he willingly goes along with his duties. 

The head of the cleaning staff, Mr. Lovelace, was a long time servant of the overlord. He was polite, calm and spoke with a thick French accent. He showed Jongwoon and Suzy the basics of what they were required to do and also answered a few questions they had had.

Lovelace informed Jongwoon that the guards were not allowed to interfere with the female slaves. This was a rule by the overlord himself but Jongwoon was just happy to be rid of any fears that the guards might try to ually assault the women against their will.

“Oh? Well, those girls are…specially selected” is all Lovelace says when Jongwoon inquires about the half- girl who had gone into the tavern. 

It had been Lovelace who had informed Jongwoon of the presence of the Overlord's son. Lovelace was actually a very interesting and genuinely kind male. The man even brought little bits of pastry from the kitchen for both Suzy and Jongwoon to enjoy.

Jongwoon had been suspicious of the other man’s motives and had foolishly questioned why he was being so nice to them. After the words had left his mouth he had cringed inwardly, worried that Lovelace might react angrily at being spoken to so directly by a slave.

Lovelace hadn’t been angered whatsoever and had actually laughed a little.

He had then shrugged and explained, “We’re not all big, scary s around here”

Yesung immediately grew to respect Lovelace. The other man did not demand that they keep their head bowed but preferred that they look him in the eye while they spoke. He treated Suzy like an Uncle would treat his favorite niece. The slave women did not have any other clothing with them other than the ones on their back and it was Lovelace who provided Yesung and Suzy with two large kimonos that he had snuck out of the tavern.

“No one ever wears any of these, so I figured I might as well give them to people who actually need them. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to take more though. But if too much goes missing at one time…” he trails off and Yesung quietly fills in the blanks. He sincerely appreciated Lovelace’s offer and Suzy, whose new kimono swallowed her tiny body in its length, wasn’t bothered by it and focused solely on thanking Lovelace, her face bright and bubbly.

Another two days passed before Jongwoon realized his small group of friends was avoiding him.

While the two of them worked on tidying up the long hallway in the main dining hall Suzy had pinched her nostrils and moved a little farther away from him.

“What?”

She waved him off, “You smell like a gutted pig that was left out in the sun to rotten”

Jongwoon tried to casually sniff at his armpits and slightly staggered at the scent that assaulted his nose. God, he reeked!

This was getting ridiculous. Just because he had been reduced to a mere slave in a matter of days didn’t mean he had to smell like one.

That’s it, tonight; he was going to the bathhouse.

He had promised himself he would never enter the female bathhouse, not wanting to abuse his disguise by spying on unknowingly females like a some peeping tom, but the situation and his stench was getting unbearable.

‘I’ll just go when it was less crowded. Find a nice quiet corner…’

“Oh great Zeus, what died!?” Lovelace exclaimed as he approached the two. The other man slowed his steps and looked around the area, inspecting it for the source of the smell. The taller man had left the two of them in order to assist the Overlord's son. Jongwoon had barely glimpsed the son's shadow before the boy was moving into another room.

Lovelace glanced back at Jongwoon and Suzy, his nose scrunched up, “You smell that right? I mean, it’s not…” Lovelace lifted his arm and unashamedly tucked his nose under his pits and inhaled deeply. “Well it’s not me, so…” he glared at Suzy, his eyes lit with suspicion, “Who did you kill and where did you hide the body? This is why I never trust little girls. Evil” he hissed at her.

Suzy rolled her eyes, a smile curving on her lips.

Lovelace smirked at her before turning his attention to Jongwoon.

“But seriously, what is that smell. Smells like bigfoot’s or something”

Now it was Jongwoon’s turn to glare at Lovelace for using such inappropriate words around Suzy.

Lovelace moved forward quickly, then stopped dead in his tracks.

The air around them is quiet for a few seconds before Lovelace says,

“Yesung, why do you smell like big foot’s groin?”

Jongwoon scrubbed his palm over his face, trying to ignore Suzy’s giggles. He had had to come with a new name while under the overlord’s enslavement. Jongwoon didn’t exactly sound feminine and Gna had suggested he take on something different. Suzy had opted that he use the name ‘Yesung’ which used to be her pet turtle’s name. Jongwoon had not been picky and the name didn’t sound terrible and wasn’t overly feminine. This was how Kim Yesung was introduced to the Overlord’s camp.

“I-I’m a little shy of using the bathhouse” Yesung admits. It wasn’t exactly a lie.

“I can tell. But why are you shy though? Don’t all you girls have the same…equipment?”

Yesung raises an eyebrow. ‘Seriously, did he just say equipment? Did he suspect that all girls walk around with tools in their undergarments’

However, despite his annoyance at Lovelace’s choice of words, Yesung blushed bright red at the fact that they were technically talking about girls’ privates and thus images of what he had seen in the bathhouse came rushing back to him.

“I am self-self-conscious of my body, okay?”

At this Lovelace frowns.

“So you don’t bathe because you don’t want to be around the other women because you think they’re prettier than you?”

It was the closest thing Lovelace would get to the truth, therefore Yesung nodded.

The taller man rubs his chin briefly, and then gives Yesung a sign that meant he’d be back shortly.

When Lovelace was gone, Suzy turned to him and smiled cheerfully, “They’re not prettier than you”

Yesung rolls his eyes, “I thought you said I looked like an ajumma?”

The little girl grins, “Yes. You do, but you were prettier before you decided to disguise yourself”

A reply is on the tip of Yesung’s tongue when Lovelace strides down the hall towards them.

He immediately tosses whatever he had been holding at Yesung. The other barely manages to catch it and when he holds it up he sees that it’s a long white button down night shirt.

He gives Lovelace a confused look.

Lovelace scoffs and gestures at the shirt, “You can wear it to the bathhouse. It’s long and large enough to cover your body from all prying eyes and thin enough so that when wet you don’t start sinking”

Catching what Lovelace means, Yesung goes to clarify, “So I can just, what, put this on and take a soak in it?”

“Yeah. That way you would not be totally ”

Surprised and utterly grateful for Lovelace’s solution, Yesung bows honestly, muttering a heartfelt thank you. He moves to hug Lovelace but the other man practically runs in the opposite direction.

“No physical contact until you take a bath!” Lovelace yells over his shoulder.

Yesung shakes his head,

“At least I still have…”

Suzy is standing at the end of the hall; eyeing him warily as if afraid he might try to hug her too.

“Fine then!”

!!!

That evening Yesung wanders into the bathhouse at an intentional late hour. There are still a few young ladies scattered about the area but they don’t even spare Yesung a second glance when he enters. He tries not to stare at them, the bathhouse is lit with bright flames from candles and it paints a glow on their skins. He immediately starts blushing like a mad man, picking up his pace in order to get out their presence.

However, he does feel their curious glances once he begins to stride past them. Jongwoon assumes they were probably wondering why he smelt like he perfumed himself with skunk juice. He’s wearing nothing but the night shirt but it doesn’t cling to his body so he feels a tad bit confident about hiding his exposed privates. However, the shirt barely reaches his knee and thus presents another problem all together.

He keeps checking the hem to ensure it doesn’t ride up too far. Soon he has found an empty basin filled with enough water to wash up. Draping an old towel that he had gotten from Lovelace over a nearby bench, he presses one foot into the cool water and sighs contently.

!!!

The week passes quickly, and by then most of the new slaves have barely settled in, while others constantly voice their dislike of the place and beg to go home. Kim Yesung silently agrees with them. Despite Lovelace’s kind treatment and the lack of hostility he still finds himself homesick and the need to be with his family, back home in his village, with his own people, is strong.

Today began like any other day.

But it took a turn for what Yesung assumed would be the worst.

He had been in the middle of dusting some cobwebs off the walls in the dining area when a loud plop drew his and Lovelace’s attention. Suzy was on the other side of room and therefore did not hear when this happened. Both men looked down at the fallen object.

It was a bag of dried peas.

A bag of dried peas that was awfully familiar to Yesung.

When Lovelace looked at him with widened eyes, it was only then that the weight of the situation fell on Yesung.

“Did your left just fall out?”

Yesung’s hand flew to his chest. One was still sagging with the weight of the peas, pretending to be a woman’s , while the other was missing its stuffing and therefore flattened that side of his chest.

Before Yesung could reply, Lovelace seemed to put two and two together, because he let out a disbelieving grunt, “You’re a boy, aren’t you?”

Without waiting for Yesung to answer, the taller man’s hand flew to Yesung’s chest, poking at the fake ‘’ before reaching inside of the neck of Yesung’s shirt.

“Hey…you ca-“

Lovelace pulls out his hand, holding his prize out for Yesung to see. It was the other man of peas.

He was a dead man.

Jongwoon had known the risks of taking on this disguise but he had hoped against hope that he would actually pull it off.

He barely lasted a week…

His knees buckle a bit and it’s like the weight of the burden pushes down on him, causing his weak knees to give out completely.

“Leave him alone” he’s aware of Suzy coming to his defense.

Lovelace stoops until he’s eye level with Yesung, “Why? Why would you do something like this?”

Her baby brother was missing.

They had woken up late that day, extremely late. She had been unsure at first before realization had come over her.

By then he had already been gone.

But why?

Where could he have gone? Why would the overlord’s men take him if they had specifically requested females only?

As they searched the house for clues, it slowly became evident what Jongwoon had done.

‘You idiot!’ she curses mentally as she scans the mess on her night stand. She and Jessica’s closet had also been raided; clothes were left spewed all over the place.

A quick visit to Suho’s house confirmed her suspicion on how they all managed to sleep in so late.

‘That sneaky bastard’ Luna couldn’t help by roll her eyes. She had never thought her brother, the quiet artist, would be such a deviant little bugger. On one hand she admired his courage but on the other hand she wasn’t comfortable with the thought that her little brother was somewhere possibly getting molested or tortured. She did not want this to happen to him, or anyone in their village.

‘It should’ve been me’ she thought sorrowfully.

“He did what!?!” Suho had been strongly grieving over his mother’s sacrifice but then he had mourned the absence of his best friend who had put his own life in jeopardy for his family. Their mother cried herself to sleep that night, while she and Jessica slept beside her.

It was after a week had passed that news came that the King was recruiting men to fight in the upcoming war.

“He’s going to have a training camp for all men” GD explained, he was planning to go and train, promising sweetly to do his best to bring Jongwoon back to them.

As her boyfriend continued talking, Luna blocked him out. An idea was pulsating heavily in her mind, blocking out all sounds from the outside world.

So it was on the night of 7^th day, Luna stood in front of the bathroom mirror for a brief moment, taking in her features. With a deep breath she tilted her head to come side, gathering her hair tightly, then bought the sharp edge of a sword through the collected strands. The cut was quick and painless and when she shook her head and glanced back at the mirror, she grinned a little at the difference it made.

‘Maybe just a little more’ she thought.

She quickly dressed in GD’s amour and boots, shifting uncomfortable under the weight of the material.

Unlike her brother, Luna did not want her family to worry about her whereabouts and therefore left a letter.

As she mounted the only horse their family had, Luna paused for a second to stare at her family’s home before riding away towards Monte F’aire.

‘I’m coming Jongwoon. And I’m going kick your for playing hero and this Overlord’s for terrorizing my village and family’

~~~~

Well Luna is having her 'Mulan' moment.

 Crossdressing goes both ways. And no, this fic will possibly not feature more Mulan!Luna moments.

Note: There will be no dragons in this fic...unless I feel the need to insert one, because dragons are pretty popular in the medieval era :P

Alright that concludes the explanations. Next chapter summary: Pretty!Yesung, Kyuhyun, Amber and maybe Eunhae? Flirty!Siwon...? Basically in the next chapter, the kyusung fic begins lol