At the end of the tunnel sat a pile of grass. I stood up and dusted myself off before looking around. I couldn't see any soldiers but I decided I would have to keep to my plan anyway.

Walking away from the tunnel to keep the soldiers from finding out about the cave, I sat by a tree and grasped my ankle. Though there was no evident bruise or bump, I hoped the soldiers were courteous enough to not inspect a lady's bare ankle.

I heard a man yell my name and I took that as my cue to yell back.

"Help!" I wiped some more dirt on my dress and forced out a couple of tears. My hair was already in a mess from running around the night before and my arms had been previously scratched by a few branches. I looked roughed up. "Help me!" I yelled again.

"Princess, where are you?" I heard a shout coming from the denser forest.

"I don't know! I'm over here! Please help!"

All at once, I saw a bunch of soldiers in red appear from the trees. They rushed towards me and I pushed back my uneasiness along with the lump at the back of my throat. I had a job to do and I wouldn’t let my fear make me choke.

"Princess, are you all right?"

I shook my head as more tears fell out. I didn't know if I was pretending to cry or not anymore. Their red uniforms meant they were the enemy and now that I sat unguarded in front of them, they could easily take me away. "I've twisted my ankle. I can't move."

"We'll get you to a medic as fast as we can." More soldiers appeared as one of them tried to lift me up.

"No, don't touch me!" I slapped their hands away. "Don't you have a doctor with you?"

"No, Your Highness, we do not."

I growled, hoping I looked frustrated. These were soldiers that had gone out to the front lines to fight for their kingdom but I prayed that they were still afraid of a bratty princess. "Well then, I'm not moving!"

 

A few of them looked at me with irritation while others rubbed their foreheads with their rough palms. At least some of them were trying to think of a solution.

"Jeez," one of the smaller soldiers crossed his arms. "This is a feisty one."

Another soldier piped up with a scruffy voice. "We're not even getting paid for this. We should be rewarded for having to deal with somebody like her."

The small soldier raised a corner of his mouth in what seemed like a smile but it sure didn't suit his scrawny face. "Then how about we reward ourselves?" He reached for one of the ribbons of my dress and pulled, untying the knot.

"What are you doing?" I shrieked as my hands clutched at the only thing that was keeping my dress in one piece. I tried scampering away but as I moved to the side, I realized that the soldiers had formed a ring around me. While I had hoped they wouldn't inspect my bare ankle, I should've been more concerned about them inspecting all of me.

"Making you feel better of course." The other soldiers laughed as the man ran his grimy fingers along my side. How could they all join in on this? Just a few seconds ago, half of them were actually trying to think of a proper plan. Now they were all acting like pigs. "Who needs a doctor when you have a—"

Something darted past my eyes and I didn't even have time to blink as the man beside me began to choke. His hands clutched his throat and his eyes bulged out as he was gasping for air. Soon, he was gurgling and grabbing onto his comrades who looked on with horror. Something had shot him in the neck. After a long second, he fell and laid flat on the ground.

The man was dead.

 

Another dart flew by and then another.

I didn't even have time to look to the source before all the men around me were struggling and collapsing one by one. I sat still as stone, unsure of what to make of the situation. These soldiers had been trained to survive in the worst conditions and yet all of them were laying crumpled by my feet. I had just watched ten men die in front of me.

A figure seemed to fall straight from the sky and land gracefully in ahead of me. A wave of relief washed over me as I saw that it was Jongin. But then my hackles went up and I wondered if I should've been more afraid. This man had just killed a whole team in mere seconds.

I tried taking a different perspective though. There was nobody else to trust in this situation; the rest of the people around me were dead and we were in the middle of nowhere. I stood up, shaking a little, as he came around behind me.

I gasped when he grabbed the ends of the ribbon and pulled them so tight that it rivaled with the strength of my maid. "I'm sorry you had to see that," he murmured as he tied the knot. His voice held a hint of guilt but I could already tell that death was something he was used to. He pulled out my father's letter and indicated that he was going to keep it for me in his bag.

"N-no, I'm okay." I tried to push my words out confidently but I was shaking heavily now. Even though the men in red uniform were my enemy, I wasn't ready to watch them die like that.

Jongin pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the tears that were now coming out on their own. I hadn't even noticed them. We stepped around the dead bodies and I squeezed his hand to keep from throwing up my measly breakfast.

"Can you run?" he asked tentatively.

I suddenly felt the weight of my blue dress bearing down on me and wondered how much easier running would be without wearing it. "Can we run to the village so I can change out of this thing?"

He nodded and took off his brown cloak that I had used as a blanket. "But you're going to have to dump the dress before we get to the village or else everybody will recognize you. Word spreads fast and the soldiers will be ready to look for you."

 

I was about to ask if they would be on the lookout for him too since he had just killed their men. But I decided it was better to drop the subject. I did not want to dwell on death, especially not the death of my enemies. People die everyday, right?

 

I sighed, knowing it’d be easier to take the dress off now rather than later. At least I’d be able to run without this weighing me down.

I took his cloak and instructed him to turn around as I stepped behind a big tree. A minute later, I was comfortably wrapped in the brown cloth. I pulled the hood up and stepped out, carrying my dress.

 

When Jongin turned around, I looked down to make sure that I had all parts of my body covered. It was embarrassing to wear nothing but this rag but it would have to make do for now.

"We'll have to burn that." He held out his hand to take the dress but I held back for a moment. It seemed a shame to just throw this expensive garment away but for my safety, I knew burning it would be the best choice.

I pursed my lips but handed over the dress anyway. "Take it," I muttered and, with superhuman speed, Jongin was up to the cave again. In a second, he had a fire going and I saw the smoke as my dress was shred to pieces and burned.

I wasn't even going to ask wear he learned all those skills.

I wrapped the brown cloak closer around me and met with Jongin when he came down.

"When we get to the town, keep covered. You don't want anybody recognizing you." He patted my head as we began to walk.

"But these people have never seen me before. I come from the west."

We started to speed up as the trees began getting sparser. "You never know who you'll run into," he advised while holding a crooked branch out of the way for me.

With my hands holding onto the cloak, Jongin had to keep an arm around me to guide me instead of holding my hand. But at least we were going faster than last night. The sun guided us around the ditches that were invisible in the dark. Neither of us were tripping along the ground anymore and we covered the forest by the time the sun was right above us.

I was leaning against a tree when the nausea set in. My body had felt fine when we had been moving but now the exhaustion was catching up to me. Pair that with little food and the recent sight of Lord Death, and I was ready to vomit onto Jongin's chest as he stood in front of me.

"Hey, stop thinking about that," he whispered as he gently tapped the side of my head. I could barely stand up straight and my head lolled to the side just from his light touch.

"Stop—" I tried to speak but my throat was too parched and I was afraid if I said another word, my meager breakfast would come up.

Stop reading my mind.

"Fine, but stop replaying that scene in your head. It's over now." He pulled out a jug of water and handed it to me. "Don't let it haunt you. My job involves killing and I really did try to kill that lot in the quickest and cleanest way I could."

I swallowed half the water in the jug and dabbed my mouth with the cloak. "What did you kill them with anyway?" I didn't know if I really wanted to find out or if I was just talking to keep conscious.

He shrugged nonchalantly, as if he was just recounting what he had had for breakfast. "Poison darts."

I nodded as if I understood but I was more concentrated in trying to push myself up. I hadn't seen darts in his arsenal that he'd laid out in the cave but this guy was full of secrets anyway.

As I took a step to the side, I realized my muscles were already starting to freeze up. I took a deep breath and stiffly walked forward. It took a while before Jongin caught up but soon we were on the road that led straight to the village square.

 

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exams are over, yippee!! if anybody else had exams, i hope you all did well!