They let Sanggyun rest for a while, and he finally calmed down enough to travel. Xero assured the younger man that he would be protected, and stayed close to him as they traveled. Hansol had been thinking about their decision to stay away from the castle, and even though something was wrong, the longer he stayed away, the more nervous he became. He was convinced that someone was working from inside of the guard to get to the sword, but he had a new idea about how to handle this. He had been stalling on seeing his father again, but now it seemed like it would be too dangerous to stay away from the castle, if someone was after them. If they were attacked again, he wanted either the protection of the guard, or to take the guards in for suspicion, depending on how things happened. Hansol was convinced that the attacker had assumed that Sanggyun was carrying the Crimson Sword and that was the reason he had been attacked. After thinking about it for a while, he figured that it would be safe to return home. 

He approached Sehyuk about it, and noticed that his friend still wasn’t very happy with him. “Hey, I think it would be a good idea to go ahead and go home,” Hansol frowned when he noticed that Sehyuk was staring at him with an untrusting expression. He knew that his friend still didn’t really trust them at all, and he hoped that trying to regain his trust wouldn’t be a mistake. “Atom is still pretty rattled, but he should be okay. We’ll be careful.” 

Sehyuk snorted, glancing at him from cleaning his sword. “I thought you wanted to stall. You should make up your mind, prince.” He spit out the last word as if it had a bad taste. “You change your mind every day…Besides, are you sure you can trust me not to take the sword? Nakta’s not going to knock me out again?” The leader didn’t bother keeping the bitterness out of his tone.

Hansol sighed. “I’m sorry, Sehyuk. We HAD to do that, since you were acting so…strange. I’m sorry that Nakta went a bit overboard on it. And yes, I think it would be better to return home now. If someone wants to attack us, they can go ahead and do it at the castle. That way, my father will see it.”

Sehyuk shook his head, his mind still on the accusations against him. “Hansol, it wasn’t only Nakta. It was you, too,” he slipped his sword back into its sheath, shaking his head again. “We’ll go home and face your ing father. Then maybe you’ll see that I wasn’t working with anyone. I don’t remember attacking you or asking about the sword, at all. I don’t know what was going on.” 

Hansol smiled, nodding. “I believe you. That’s one reason we need to get home now. This isn’t safe for any of us, and safety is the most important thing to me. Let’s just go home, give the sword back to my father and see how things go, okay?” 

Sehyuk sighed. “Okay. Thank you for trusting me.” 

Hansol hugged him briefly. “You’re welcome.”  

They decided to travel through the city as they drew closer to the castle, since there were too many dangers in the woods. Riding all day, they reached the castle that evening. Hansol glanced at Sehyuk when they got to the gate, nervous. 

The prince smil