Are you afraid it’ll become like that?

“Sungyeol, bring your new master a chair to sit down in.”

The younger nodded and walked over to the other side of the room, picking up one of the chairs (to Sunggyu’s surprise since Sungyeol looked so fragile to him) and sat it down near the prince. He gestured down to the seat, avoiding Sunggyu’s eyes as much as possible as it was considered rude to do so; slaves were at the bottom of the totem pole, they were in no place to look into their eyes and consider themselves even close to an equal of the future empire rulers.

Sunggyu still had a bewildered look on his face, as if he had never seen a slave before, and he hesitantly took a seat in the chair that Sungyeol brought over. Seconds later, two glasses of wine were presented in front of the two heirs. Woohyun took one and nodded at the young slave, almost looking proud of him, and then the slave turned towards Sunggyu, bending down a little so that Sunggyu wouldn’t have to reach too far to pick up the glass.

“I hope the wine is to your liking, Master Sunggyu,” the slave spoke.

Sunggyu almost coughed out the liquid, making Sungyeol immediately rush over to see what was going on. The prince only brought his arm out to give himself some space from the slave—wow, he was really handsome—because there was surely no way he’d be able to accept this gift from Woohyun. How could the younger even suggest that? Woohyun’s parents were the ones who had set up and reinforced the strict No Slave Trading policies! Sunggyu just really couldn’t figure Nam Woohyun out.

“I-um, don’t call me master, Sungyeol, p-please,” Sunggyu sputtered out.

Sungyeol nodded slowly before inquiring, “Then what shall I call you?”

Before Sunggyu could speak, Woohyun interrupted him.

“Oh come on, Prince Kim Sunggyu,” he teased, “Just let the kid call you ‘Master’; that’s all he’s ever been taught to do. You can’t let him call you by your first name anyway, right?”

Hearing out Woohyun’s point, the prince sighed, knowing that there was no other way out of this situation. He didn’t really want this man to be calling him ‘Master’; he wasn’t even comfortable having his maids and butlers at home call him that. However, seeing the look on the heir to Muhan’s face, he knew had had no other choice. Nam Woohyun seemed to always get what he wanted anyway.

“U-Um, honestly, I prefer ‘Prince’. It’s a little better than ‘Master’, I guess,” he conceded.

“Call him your prince, Sungyeol. Seems like our little Sunggyu likes that title better,” Woohyun commanded.

He caught his old friend fighting to roll his eyes, and he couldn’t help but smirk. Woohyun knew that Sungyeol was a stubborn person. He would be terrible at following orders, and he would fight back constantly while he was at Sunggyu’s home—but the prince didn’t need to know that at the moment.

Woohyun was simply happy to get his friend off his hands and into the hands of the sweet, little prince. He could tell that there was no way that Sunggyu would ever hit or injure Sungyeol. He just didn’t have it in him, and that was exactly why he had shoved the younger a little closer to the prince when he had showed off his slaves earlier, not that Sunggyu knew or even noticed.

He internally thanked Sungyeol for keeping his looks up, even disobediently “training” to be a slave. He didn’t know if it really bothered him that much or not, but he could tell that Sunggyu was taken by how the slave looked. One thing Woohyun knew was that, now, he couldn’t wait to get the two out of Muhan.

I’m sorry, Sungyeol, Woohyun thought to himself, I’m sorry that you have to go so far away.

While Woohyun was feeling apologetic for the younger, Sungyeol was holding every eye roll, face palm, and scoff in because he didn’t want to stay in that slave home anymore. He didn’t like it there, always having been told to follow orders and do this and do that, and he missed his family. He had heard from the other slaves—those whose masters had either died or gotten tired of them—that they were allowed once a month to go see their family—that is, if they were close by, so he hoped that Sunggyu lived somewhere near his family here in Muhan.

Sungyeol missed his family dearly. Despite being sold off by his parents, he knew why they had to do so, and they knew that Woohyun would continue to give them money to pay off their debt even though he could never put Sungyeol into work. He also had his younger brother, Sungjong, who he wanted to watch over and visit as well. His little brother was different from him. He was more obedient, smart, and determined; Sungjong wasn’t very much like Sungyeol, who loved all things BD time related almost as much as Myungsoo did. He completely accepted how things were now, and that was probably why his parents chose to sell him instead of Sungjong. Sungyeol was a stronger boy anyway, and he was close to Woohyun. Sungyeol had pretty much expected the easy treatment and high price he was given in Woohyun’s slave house. He was kind of surprised today, though, that he had given him away to some person as a gift.

Staring at Sunggyu as he had continued his conversation with Woohyun, Sungyeol wondered who the man was. He remembered Woohyun calling Sunggyu a prince, but being in that slave home for the past years hasn’t exactly let him in on what was on the news. Was there a new kingdom growing in Muhan? Before entering the slave home, Sungyeol had known the names of every single prince in Muhan. The small kingdoms all paid their dues to Woohyun’s family though. They kept everything else democratic though. These people just wanted the titles that royalty held.

However, he had not once ever heard of a prince named Kim Sunggyu—not one in Muhan at least. Though the last name did ring a bell in his head, he still couldn’t remember where he had heard it from. He felt that it was something important as he continued to stare at the prince, not realizing that Woohyun was in fact watching him do so.

He furrowed his eyebrows together as he silently reached over to refill Woohyun’s glass with more wine. Just being in the elder’s presence, he could feel that Sunggyu was an esteemed person, and the answer was on the tip of his tongue, but it just wouldn’t come to him.

Unfortunately, Sungyeol didn’t realize that he wasn’t going to be seeing his parents and brother for a very long time until it was too late.

“So, Sunggyu, isn’t it about time for you to head back to Sunhwan? You should head back without your parents. They’ll be suspicious seeing that you suddenly have someone following you and listening to your every word,” Woohyun said, knowing that Sungyeol was wondering who Sunggyu was.

The heir to Muhan had answered the slave’s question perfectly, without making Sunggyu question it at all. However, the younger’s outburst surprised everyone.

“Sunhwan?! I’m going all the way to Sunhwan?” he exclaimed.

Everything suddenly made sense to him and his eyes widened. He pointed at the Sunggyu, forgetting that he was a slave for a moment and screamed, “You’re the Prince of Sunhwan?!”

Woohyun immediately stood up, not having expected Sungyeol to react this badly to the news. He knew that Sungyeol missed his family and wanted to see them, but he didn’t know that he would take the news of not being able to see them regularly like this. He glanced back and smiled apologetically at Sunggyu, mouthing to him that he would take care of this and be right back.

“Please tell your parents that you will be heading home early. I’ll set up a jet for you right after I reinforce the rules to your new slave,” Woohyun remarked, glaring at Sungyeol as he grabbed at the arm of the suddenly sullen-looking man.

Sunggyu, still surprised by Sungyeol’s reaction, simply nodded, humming his acknowledgment of Woohyun words.

Once the two were out of the room, Sunggyu sat there silently, wondering if he should really call his parents. After a few minutes, he decided that he would just do what the younger wanted and proceed with this whole “gift” thing. Sighing, the prince took out his phone and texted his parents that he would be leaving early in Woohyun’s jet. He knew that they were probably still meeting with Woohyun’s parents, so he didn’t really want to disturb them by calling them in the middle of their discussion.

When the door to Woohyun’s room opened again, Sungyeol’s frown was gone, but Sunggyu could still see the sadness in his eyes. He suddenly felt guilty again for taking in Sungyeol as a slave, but he also knew that if he were to let him go as soon as he left Woohyun’s manor, the people of Muhan would recognize the younger and immediately report him back to Woohyun’s slave house.

Maybe he was just making excuses for himself, but when he saw Sungyeol glance up at him as he stood up from his chair, he felt that it was probably better for the younger that he had picked him.

Sunggyu could just sense that Woohyun didn’t give him an easy-to-handle slave.

Nevertheless, the Prince of Sunhwan knew that he could deal with Sungyeol. He wasn’t the prince for nothing, and he wasn’t going to let Sungyeol make his life more difficult than it already was.