“You’re not making any sense,” Seulhee said, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

“The target isn’t the king, it’s the king’s council,” Dongwoo clarified. He spoke in a patient tone while managing not to sound patronizing. “A large part of the council has become corrupt, making decisions that result in them lining their pockets with the money of the people, money they don’t deserve an ounce of, whether it’s by direct taxes or taking bribes, and so on.”

That explained the gradual but insidious tax increase that had eaten away at everyone’s purses. “When did this start?”

“A short while after the queen died,” Dongwoo replied. “They must have taken advantage of the king’s vulnerability during that time. We’re not entirely sure what happened. Either he stopped caring or the council has him under their control. Either way, we want to free the kingdom from the council’s hands and restore it to its former state, if not a better one.”

“So you and Sungyeol are a part of this conspiracy,” Seulhee stated, trying to get everything straight and verified.

“We are. Sungyeol is actually fairly important to the whole operation. I’m just one of many people he oversees.”

Seulhee had to pause and think about everything for a moment. All this time, Sungyeol had been knee-deep, maybe even waist-deep, in a conspiracy. Doing things that would determine the fate of the kingdom, that could possibly get him jailed or tortured or killed. It was a difficult idea for her to process and imagine. Despite all that had happened, in her mind, her friend was still the same happy-go-lucky, loudmouth village boy that she had been close companions with. She couldn’t see him as a spy.

But that explained the change in him, she supposed. Maybe. It was hard to sort out cause and effect. Had he become a part of the conspiracy because he had changed, or had he changed because he had become a part of the conspiracy?

Finally, she asked Dongwoo, “When did this conspiracy begin?”

“Well, the idea for it took form almost immediately after someone figured out what was going on with the council. More concrete work started maybe a month after the first tax increase, give or take. Then Sungyeol became involved three months ago. I did a few weeks after.”

So Sungyeol hadn’t been part of the conspiracy before he had begun to change. However, the time frame coincided with the time he had written her the letter to cut their ties. Whatever had warped his personality before then, the conspiracy must have sealed the deal, taking him past the point of no return.

“So where exactly do I fit into all of this?” Seulhee inquired. “What do you need a seventeen-year-old village girl with nothing to her name for? I don’t see what I could do for you that someone else couldn’t do, and a lot better than me.”

“Skill isn’t really the important thing here now. It’s about other factors. First of all, nearly all of the people directly involved in the conspiracy are men. We need a girl for the purpose.” He didn’t go on to say why, though. “Also, we need someone we can trust absolutely, with a doubt. Someone who can’t be won over to the other side.”

That simply begged another question. “Why should anyone trust me?”

“Sungyeol does,” Dongwoo said, quite simply. “Apparently, his judgment is good enough for the conspiracy. This means he doesn’t believe you could be bought or persuaded or threatened into working for the council.”

The first two, Seulhee could agree with. Although money was an issue for her family, she wouldn’t do horrible things just out of greed. Also, she would never ideologically agree with people who were emptying the coffers of the kingdom for their own personal gain. But as for the threatening…if her parents’ lives were at stake, what would she choose? Would she defend them? Or would she sacrifice them for the kingdom?

Seulhee had always viewed herself as a girl of conviction, a dreamer but ultimately a doer, a decisive person. However, there were always those extreme cases, those dilemmas, where she would be torn…

As if reading her mind, Dongwoo said, “The threatening part shouldn’t be an issue, however. You will have a different identity, and people won’t even know about your origins. The only people who will have any idea who you are will be a select few people who are unlikely to get questioned by the council, let alone be forced to reveal your identity. Also, among those people, most of them won’t know much about you except that you’re a village girl. Your real name, the village you came from, your parents’ names, all of those things will be a secret.”

At this point that meant there were two people, at the very least, whom her life depended on.

Dongwoo continued to explain some of the conspiracy along with the parameters of Seulhee’s involvement, up until they reached town, when they switched to talking about more mundane matters to avoid getting overheard.

He let her pick where they would spend the night, so she found a place that she had never been to before, reasoning that it would be harder for anyone to track her. Dongwoo paid the expenses, and Seulhee couldn’t help but feel guilty about it.

When they settled into their room—they were traveling under the pretense that they were lovers—she brought the matter up, but Dongwoo reassured her that it was fine. “We have funding, after all. This isn’t coming out of my own pocket, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Setting his belongings down, he walked over to touch the wall, uttering a few indistinct words. Seulhee had never seen anyone perform magic before. Sungyeol had never shown her any of what he had learned. When Dongwoo saw that Seulhee was eyeing him curiously, he said, “It’s a precaution; nobody will be able to hear what we say. Sungyeol was the one who taught me the spell. It’s pretty much the only one I know, but it’s very useful.”

Presented with this explanation, she shrugged off the magical display and asked a different question. “Do you know why Sungyeol joined the conspiracy? Did the people at the Royal Academy bully him into it?” On instinct, she distrusted the nobles, feeling that they must have somehow been responsible for the change in her friend.

“No, not at all. One of his friends invited him to join, so he did. Of course, he believes in the cause, too.”

So Sungyeol had friends among the nobles. She hadn’t expected that, thinking that they were probably too condescending to associate with the likes of him. “Then what about you? Why did you join?”

“Several reasons. First being my cousin, Jaesun. She was very loyal to the cause for personal reasons. I was with her when I found out about the conspiracy. Sungyeol invited me to a secret meeting, and I brought her along. She dove in head-first. I was a bit more skeptical about the whole thing, but in the end, Sungyeol convinced me to do it. He was a bit manipulative about it, but I think I’ve forgiven him for that…”

“Manipulative” was definitely not a word Seulhee would have used to describe her former best friend. Just how much had Sungyeol changed? She wasn’t even sure anymore. At this point, there was very little she was certain about, period.