The castle :

The king arranged for another meeting  , in knight Daniel’s room yet again .

They were all seated exchanging knowing looks before the king spoke up , fingers steepled  .

“ Having faced multiple consecutive attacks , one after the other with no time to properly recover is finally taking a toll on us . “

The other three nodded , expression solemn .

“ It had been greatly exhausting on our part , be it financially , physically or even mentally . the preparations and stand-by mode we are compelled to maintain is not going in our favor . I’m starting to doubt all of our enemies are involved in this . “

For the first time they witnessed their king massaging his forehead in distress .

Could .. Could Flavonia be in imminent danger this time ?

Was there only a threshold separating them from that danger ?

“ We have to be ready . However , we can’t risk exhausting our power for no reason . “ Jonghyun pointed out earning an approving nod from the king and the others .

They then started discussing more topics and finally the king dismissed Jonghyun and Changhyun .

That left two people .

The king swiftly abandoned the chair and crossed the room before gracefully sitting on the bed and signalled for the other to come .

Daniel moved back to his bed when the king urged him to .

He was a bit reluctant at first but slowly did as told . The second in command let the king hold him in his embrace , the action alone making him sigh in satisfaction .

“ For how long must we keep it a secret , my king ?  “ He mumbled playing with the ruffles in the king’s clothes .

“ Minsoo . “ The king gently corrected as he brushed his fingers through Daniel’s golden tresses .

“ You know you are allowed to have multiple partners after all .”  The younger said persistently making the king sigh deeply  .

“ I know and it’s not the fact that I’m worried about people frowning upon us . I can choose whoever I want , female or not . but I prefer to keep it a secret out of consideration for you . It has been this way even when the queen was still alive and she knew about us . I never once stopped loving her and neither you . “

The last words made Daniel cease his movement . Even though the queen knew about it . Even though she was okay with it , he couldn’t help but feel .. guilty when he thought about her .

“ People consider you my weakness because of your second in command position . I don’t want to risk you making any more enemies , namely the considerate amount of ladies seeking my attention . “

With that , The king successfully convinced knight Daniel that it was for the best to keep it a secret .

~ ♦ ~ 

Meanwhile somewhere a considerable distance away from the royal castle , there lived a group of knights occupying a small cottage .

Their leader had disappeared after a certain battle and no one knew a thing about his whereabouts .

Rumors found a fertile environment in such situation and went asive .

Some said he must have died , others suggested hum being alive and probably finding shelter somewhere in the desert , not willing to come back in his state ( stranded in a desert , obviously injured and having no food or water to make him last for a long travel . )

However , some said he could have been taken as a hostage and the captors must be waiting for the perfect chance to strike a deal oriented towards their own gains knowing that king Minsoo would probably go great lengths to save the man of steel .

However , the youngest of the group , Z , decided to put the blame on the king saying that their leader would have never ended up like that if it weren’t for the king and his war .

“ Z , you can’t say that . you know how much the king cares for our leader . Even now , he is still sending search parties in hopes of finding him . “ A tall guy with blonde hair chastised his friend before adding .

“ After all , we haven’t pledged undying loyalty to the king for no reason . “

“ But .. Jong ! “ Z protested but then stopped when Dae and Youngjae passed him the same reprimanding looks as they moved their thumbs towards the fifth guy who sat brooding in a corner , himchan .

Like seriously ? Could they not talk about the leader in front of himchan ? The poor guy is already bearing with too much . Not only his leader but also his lover could be dead .

“ Have you heard ? “ Jong sat down on a wooden chair urging the others to gather around him as he started sharpening his dagger .

The others rolled their eyes , half interested .

“ The prince .. “ He trailed off trying to build their curiosity .

“ What about him ? “ Z asked blankly .

“ Take a guess . “ The said teased but they were not gonna have it that way .

“ We are not in the mood now . Cut to the chase ! “ Dae said  absent-mindedly .

“ Well , the king has assigned a .. “ jong paused moving his head as if contemplating the best word .

“ bodyguard ..  “   

They gave him weird looks .

Was that the right word ?

“ Well , he has assigned someone to watch over the prince and accompany him . “

He said dismissing the best word issue .

They raised their eyebrows at that . The prince surely needn’t anyone remotely close to that . He was very much capable of protecting himself and possibly a group of 100 men along .

But then again , if jong decided to bring such issue up , there must be a good reason behind it since the guy rarely talks

Knowing that , Dae straightened up and questioned about the identity of the guard .

“ Someone we know ? “

Such position is highly thought of and thus the person assigned to it must be good enough and trustworthy .

So .. Knight Daniel ?

No .. He has a mountain of tasks to tend to as it is .

Then ..

One of the three knights ?

Z was already having a bad feeling as his head reeled back and forth with possibilities and different scenarios .

What if it was Changhyun ?

Dealing with the prince more than necessary is - without doubt - a major pain in the ** because of his cold demeanor . If the overly cheerful Changhyun got placed together with the ice prince .. Z gulped at the notion of it alone .

Jong finally took pity on them and revealed the identity of the man .

“ It’s Byunghun . Lee Byunghun . “

“ I have also heard that the prince left the castle for few days  and is  accompanied by his newly acquired bodyguard . “  He added trying to imagine how the prince and knight Byunghun would get along ..

“ How long has he been assigned ? “ Youngjae asked , finally participating in the conversation .

“ About few weeks or less . “  Jong responded trying his best to relay accurate information .

“ Wow ! he made it that far ?  “ Z exclaimed , truly astonished that someone managed to tolerate the prince’s cold nature .

“ Well , for someone as persistent as Byunghun , I expect no less “  Dae smirked before voicing his thoughts making the others nod in amusement .

                           word count : 1351 

                           updated 3 june 2016 

I know it has been months and months since I last updated , I honestly kinda lost interest for this but then suddenly I got inspired and found myself changing the direction of the story so here you are .