The palace hummed with the quiet hustle of the servants rising and preparing for their tasks for that morning. The grounds surrounding the grand structure were relatively quiet as well, save for the sounds of high pitched clashing of metal on metal. A young man, no older than twenty, stood proudly facing his opponent, grinning widely at the way panic slowly etched itself onto his opponent's features. He could already smell victory as he easily dodged a sloppy swing done on his opponent's part, and already made his move on the ill-prepared man that was practically admitting defeat already. He slammed his shoulder into his opponent's body, throwing him off balance when suddenly their battle screeched to a halt with the sudden booming voice of the one particular servant who could get away with interrupting their fight.

"PRINCE DONGWOO, THAT'S WHERE YOU ENDED UP! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!" 

The young man turned toward the owner of said voice, already with an exaggerated pout on his face. "Come on, Baro! I was about to win!!" Dongwoo whined like a young child before he reluctantly put his sword away.

Baro just sighed heavily, not in the mood to put up with Dongwoo's antics that morning when he was already running late for a conference with his father. As the eldest son, it was Dongwoo's place to take over the kingdom, after all. He walked up to the prince and took him by the ear with a frown, triggering an embarrassing yelp to come from the prince's mouth. "Now let's go, you've caused enough trouble for one morning," he complained, not appreciating the wild goose chase Dongwoo had set him on when he hadn't found him in his room.

"Ow ow ow, I get it!" Dongwoo complained as he jerkily followed Baro's lead by his ear, almost feeling tears start to form and swallowing it down as best as he could. 

"You say that, but no matter how many times this happens you still do the same things! You can't be running off to fight the knights all the time." Baro chastised, releasing his ear finally so he could cross his arms over his chest.

Dongwoo was half tempted to make a run for it, but he reluctantly followed his angry servant to save himself from any more lectures (at least for now.) Baro lead him through the courtyard, as doing so cut their path from the knights training field to the King's throne room in half, where Dongwoo spotted his youngest brother sitting in the shadows, as usual. He was hunched over a piece of parchment in his lap, charcoal in hand as he drew yet another portrait of his own servant, Sungyeol, who was currently chasing a butterfly around with his arms out in hopes of catching it. Dongwoo envied them. His brothers Myungsoo and Woohyun didn't have nearly as many responsibilities as he did, but that was the way things worked. The eldest son is to become King while the other princes would be eventually married to noble women or princesses of kingdoms far away. 

"Hey Myungsoo~!" Dongwoo called out to his brother, who jumped, having apparently not noticed him coming across the courtyard. Even from this distance, he could see the dirty look Myungsoo sent him. "How's your drawing?"

"It's ruined now, thanks for asking, hyung." Myungsoo bit out, meaning that he blamed Dongwoo for the smear of charcoal that completely took out half of Sungyeol's face. 

"Aw, it's just one picture, you've got like hundreds of pictures of Sungyeol anyways~" Dongwoo shrugged nonchalantly.

"I happened to like this one." His youngest brother snapped with a pout as he crumpled up the parchment. 

Dongwoo rolled his eyes. "What was so special-gak! What the hell, Baro?!" He exclaimed, whining at having been hit upside the head.

"We're late for a conference with your father, or don't you remember that?" Baro reminded him harshly as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Okay okay," Dongwoo whined, pouting. "See you later~" he called to his brother as he followed Baro out of the courtyard. 

Dongwoo sighed heavily, his urge to fight another knight weighing at the back of his mind. He thumbed at the handle of his blade and traced the patterns etched into the smooth leather. He desperately longed for someone worth fighting, someone that could challenge him, but he figured that that would never happen. Well, at least not when he had been sword fighting since he learned to walk. 

They turned down a long hallway that lead to the grand entrance to the castle when Dongwoo thought he'd heard giggling and soft whispering. He stopped and looked around the otherwise quiet hall. Then he saw it. A single foot that poked out from beneath a curtain. With a glance back at Baro who hadn't noticed he'd stopped following him, he snuck up to the curtain and listened to the conversation for a few minutes.

"Did you get a haircut? It looks lovely on you, you know." His brother's voice said in a smooth, cool and almost sensual voice, causing the woman he was with to giggle. 

"You're such a charmer, your highness~" The girl sighed.

Dongwoo yanked open the curtains, causing both of them to jump, a tiny maid in Woohyun's arms. "I FOUND YOU!" He shouted, pointing at the couple. The tiny maid turned bright red and pushed against Woohyun's chest to free herself so she could escape the embarrassing situation unfolding in front of her.

"Jieun, wait!" Woohyun called reaching for her hand but she was already out of his range. He frowned and let out a long sigh, turning to his brother with a glare on his face. "You ruined the mood, Hyung." he grumbled, crossing his arms. 

"Is it wrong to want to say hello to my little brother?" Dongwoo asked, grinning at Woohyun's disappointment. "You were just leading her on anyways, you know you never take a girl to bed." He said knowingly. Woohyun had a reputation around the castle for being smooth and charming, easily able to woo any woman he chooses. However the girls don't get much more than a kiss or two before he moves on.

"That's not the point!" Woohyun hissed. "I was having fun!"

"Sorry, sorry~" Dongwoo chirped, not sorry in the least. It saved that poor maid the heartache that comes with falling for Woohyun. 

"Yeah, right." Woohyun answered with a pout, causing Dongwoo to laugh. 

The laughter was short-lived though when Dongwoo's shirt was yanked back and he choked, coughing as he was face-to-face with a very serious and very angry Baro. "Baro! I was wondering where you went!" Dongwoo said light-heartedly, receiving a cold expression.

"Ha! Looks like you're in trouble, hyung!" Woohyun teased, starting to laugh.

"WOOHYUN, THERE YOU ARE!" Shouted a servant from down the hallway, causing all three men to turn to face the direction in which the voice came. There at the end of the hall stood Sunggyu, Woohyun's personal servant and the one in charge of making sure Woohyun goes to all of his lessons. 

", gotta run!" Woohyun said with a wave before he took off in the opposite direction, only serving to further infuriate his servant.

Sunggyu ran after him, rushing by Dongwoo and Baro whilst shouting, "Get back here!!"

--

Baro led Dongwoo to the king's throne room without any further interruptions. They entered the large and spacious hall and walked up the long carpet which stretched down the center of the room, to the king's throne, which was up on a platform with stairs on each side. The king sat in his throne, he was a serious man with cold, sharp eyes and a full beard. He seemingly showed little to no emotions and acted as though that were true. Truthfully, Dongwoo didn't like his father too much, he was cold and serious and everything that Dongwoo wasn't.

"It's about time." The king said roughly, causing Dongwoo to flinch. 

"I'm terribly sorry for the delay, your majesty," Baro said, bowing lowly and pushing Dongwoo into a bow alongside him.

"Relax, Baro. I know it isn't your fault." The king sighed, his beard in his large hand. "Dongwoo, I'm getting reports that you've been interfering with the knights in the training fields again." He narrowed his eyes at the young man standing in front of him as they stood up straight. "And if I remember correctly, your duties don't involve challenging the knights to battles all day."

"But father, I need to fight, what if our kingdom is attacked? Shouldn't I be ready for battle?" Dongwoo asked, smiling nervously as he argued his case. 

"That's what our knights are for." The king sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You need to focus on what you need to do, you're the heir to the throne, after all. We can't have the next king be incompetent."

The words hurt Dongwoo, but he couldn't very well argue with the points he was making. "I never asked for the position.." He muttered, clenching his fists.

"That's irrelevant. You have to take things more seriously, you have obligations and responsibilities that require your attention now. You can't be a kid for the rest of your life, I'm not going to live forever, you know." His father stressed, his brow furrowing. 

He was obviously getting impatient and so was Dongwoo. His father never took how he felt into account, and it frustrated him beyond belief. He never asked to be a prince and to take over the kingdom. Dongwoo would rather be born poor so he could become a knight, but that's not the cards he was dealt. He was a prince. He was the firstborn prince. He had no choice. "Why don't you hand the thrown over to Woohyun?" He asked bitterly, having brought this up on more than occasion. "He'd be a better king than I would!"

"Enough!" The king snapped, glaring hard at his eldest son. "I don't want to hear it, I've been grooming you into king material since you were old enough to hold your head up, I am not throwing away 20 years of work because you're being immature!"

Dongwoo's chest tightened, his breath halting in his throat as his anger boiled up from the pit of his stomach. He clenched his fists even tighter, to the point that his knuckles turned white and his nails dug into his palms. "I-"

"Not another word! Go study the history of the kingdom with your teacher, immediately!" The king ordered, shifting his eyes toward Baro, who'd been silent through all the arguing. "And you make sure he gets there. I don't need him interfering with our new knight's training."

"Yes, your grace." Baro said with another bow, pushing Dongwoo yet again in an attempt to make him bow, despite the fact that Dongwoo was so angry he wasn't going to budge. 

Did Dongwoo hear him right? That's what this was really about? A new knight? He had to meet him, he had to challenge him. Who knew what this newcomer had in store for him, he might actually be a challenge. Dongwoo his heels and started toward the door to the throne room, he had an objective now. Nobody was going to stop him.

As if  Baro could read his mind, he took hold of Dongwoo's shirt just as they exited the room, effectively choking him, causing him to cough and grunt. "And just where do you think you're going?"

"Didn't you hear my father? I have some studying to do." He said with a grin, turning to start down the corridor. 

"Your classroom is that way." Baro said blandly, taking hold of Dongwoo's arm. "Do you think I'm an idiot? That's the way to the training field."

"But you heard him! There's a new knight! I absolutely have to fight him!" Dongwoo exclaimed with a triumphant smile. 

"Not a chance." Baro argued, not letting go of Dongwoo's wrist as he dragged him off toward his classroom. "I'm not letting you do anything until your obligations are done for the day." He grumbled. Dongwoo was starting to give him a headache.

"Uggghhh let gooooo~" Dongwoo whined.

--

After hours upon hours of trying to escape Baro's clutches, Dongwoo was finally free! He immediately ran down the hallways with a wide grin spreading across his face as he grew closer to his destination. He leapt through an open window, landing on his feet despite the angry shouts of a maid that he cut off in doing so. "Sorry~" He called back, not sorry in the least, as he ran toward the field filled with knights that had gathered into a wide circle. 

Dongwoo slowed his pace, confused. Usually the knights were each in their own separate training so it was unusual for them to all be concentrated in one area on the field. He started toward the crowd and pushed his way through it, coming out on the other side only to see a battle between two knights. One he recognized and the other he didn't. He looked to his side and saw his friend Ravi several feet to his right and made his way over.

"Hey, is that the new knight?" Dongwoo asked, startling Ravi who'd been so enthralled by the duel between the two knights.

"Y-yeah.. That's Hoya." Ravi said with a mildly terrified grin. "He's good, the best I've ever seen." He said, returning his eyes to the dueling pair. "He blew me away like I was dust in the wind."

Dongwoo's eyes widened and he turned back to watch Hoya verse the other knight, the entire time smiling like an idiot. He was going to fight him. "Good, it's about time that I had a challenge."

"Dongwoo, I really think you should reconsider, he's not like the others, he's been dueling all afternoon and he doesn't even look tired." Ravi warned him, which only seemed to further excite Dongwoo, who'd started to bounce on his heels in anticipation. 

"You know I've never lost, Ravi~" Dongwoo chirped, not once taking his eyes off the way the swords clashed and sparks literally began to fly from the scrape of metal on metal. The knight versing Hoya was beginning to panic, backing away slowly with more frantic movements of his sword in an attempt to deflect his blows. Eventually the sword flew from his hand and clattered to the ground, with Hoya standing proudly over his opponent, his sword pointed at his chest. 

"FINALLY!!" Dongwoo exclaimed happily, striding toward Hoya with a smirk on his face. The knights around them start to murmur amongst themselves, and Dongwoo couldn't be happier to have an audience there to witness his victory over this new knight.

Hoya turned to see the prince walking toward him and sighed, wiping sweat from his brow with a frown. "And who're you?"

"I'm Prince Dongwoo, and I challenge you!" Dongwoo said proudly, walking over to the knight's fallen sword, lifting it and tossing it into the air, catching it by the handle and pointed it at Hoya with a grin. "I'm also undefeated so this should be fun~"

HELLO EVERYONE!!!! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

We're so sorry for being gone for so long. Kurisuchin and I have been working really hard to give you a new and better story! We hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to comment, it's what fuels us to write more! ୧ʕ•̀ᴥ•́ʔ୨

signing off for now, allie-san ♡〜٩( ˃́▿˂̀ )۶〜♡