“Citizens of the town Ileun, heed the words of the king, King Nam Jaewon III!” Byunghun watched as a tense silence fell over the square, eyes turning up to look up at him. He gulped and pulled out a scroll from his side, letting it unfurl with a flick of his armored wrist. “By order of King Jaewon III, for anyone who can give information pertaining to the whereabouts of the former king, Cho Kyuhyun I, shall receive a reward of one hundred thousand sim!”

A murmur went through the crowd, people turning to each other with grim faces and tight lips. Byunghun rolled up the scroll and stored it back in his bag, grabbing the reins of his horse with his free hand, preparing to turn away, only to stop in his tracks when the crowd opened up and a young girl ran up to him.

She stared up at him with huge, glittering eyes, pigtail bouncing with her every move. “Hey mister!” Byunghun felt his heart melt at the child’s absolutely adorable voice and he turned to look at her, his attention completely transfixed on the girl. “Mister, what about the king consort?”

Byunghun felt his heart stop; this is exactly why he was in a hurry to get out: the town would not take this news very well.

As soon as the soldier opened his mouth, Kyuhyun’s reaction was instantaneous. A fierce snarl formed on his face and he stormed towards the soldier speaking, only to be held back by a panicking Sungmin. Leeteuk huffed and yanked the hood of Kyuhyun's cloak that had fallen off back over his head so that he couldn’t be recognized.

“You keep quiet, or else there’ll be trouble for all of us!” Leeteuk hissed. The conversation he had just had with Saeun came rushing back to him and he pressed his lips together, still scowling up at Byunghun. Sungmin sighed with relief, but still wrapped his arm around Kyuhyun’s side in case he tried to make a run for it.

Kyuhyun scoffed when he heard the reward for his location. “Only a hundred thousand? The Nams must have hit some hard times; that wouldn’t even cover the cost of my pinky toe!” Leeteuk discreetly whacked him with his staff, forcing out a pained groan from the younger.

“Why isn’t he mentioning anything about Ryeowook?” Sungmin whispered.

“They’ll probably tell Taeyeon or me via staff, they can’t risk Ileun breaking out into chaos while their soldiers are still in the area.” Leeteuk replied. Kyuhyun scowled; he didn’t drill hours and hours of training into those soldiers for them to shy away from relaying one itty bitty piece of information.

“Kyuhyun-hyung!”

The three men turned around to see a soaking wet Henry with a falcon on his arm, panting heavily. “Henry, what happened? Why are you all wet?” Henry gasped and leaned on Amber, who had caught up with him a while ago. Kyuhyun frowned. “Amber? Did you all go swimming or something? I thought we were going to do that this weekend!”

“That’s besides the point, Your Majesty,” Amber grunted, trying to support Henry, who had all but given up on standing by himself. “You need to get inside! They could notice you at any moment!” Kyuhyun was more hesitant to push her away, but still gently unlatched himself from the woman's grip.

Leeteuk suddenly laughed. “That’s Taeyeon!” He pointed at the little girl standing in front of Byunghun. “She only uses that form when she wants information! Sadly, she’s never used it on me, which is a pity because she is a very cute toddler!”

Henry suddenly blanched and grabbed Kyuhyun's arm, trying to drag him away from the crowd. "Henry, get off of me!" He snapped.

"Mister, what about the king consort?" Taeyeon's now childlike voice rang out over the crowd and Kyuhyun immediately whirled around to stare at Byunghun, searching desperately for anything that would give him a sign as to the condition of his husband.

Kyuhyun watched with bated breath as he saw Byunghun visibly struggle on his words. He could feel Sungmin and Henry's grip on him tighten and Henry began to try and pull him away, but Kyuhyun was rooted to the ground, eyes fixed on the man on the horse.

Byunghun opened his mouth, and what he said would change Kyuhyun's life forever.