Under the reign of King Kim Junhyeok, the main court of the Kingdom of Korea’s palace is usually known to be very quiet and solemn. Magic, without argument, was the greatest authority known throughout the land; and because the King was the most powerful magician the Kingdom had ever seen, his word was law and his actions a tradition. Quite the contrary to initial worries about a ruler powerful enough to be a dictator, the King’s politics were fair and wise.   The combination of a great ruler along with one of the most plentiful years of harvest recorded in history, the Kingdom of Korea offered its citizens what resembled to be heaven on earth. Most people of most classes were more or less happy and satisfied with their lives, and as if to reflect that, criminal activities were almost unheard of.   Amidst this peace and harmony, there was one particular topic of debate that many weren’t able to have their ends meet, and it was the appointment of the Crown Prince.   King Kim Junhyeok bore only two sons, one from the late First Queen and the other from the current Second Queen. His firstborn, Kim Junmyeon, was already famous in the Kingdom for his excellence at the young age of sixteen; he was said to have mastered so much from various categories, such as academics, martial arts as well as visual arts, and to have been partaking in politics already. Equipped with handsome physical features along with the best of manners and a great personality, Prince Junmyeon was almost perfect—except the fact that he had the greatest flaw any prince could have.   Magic.   To be precise, Prince Junmyeon’s flaw was his lack of magic. His case was something that had never occurred before. Magic was typically inherited through bloodlines and ancestry; for the household of the Kims, who had monopolized the Kingdom for three hundred years, it was deemed impossible to produce a male offspring that was without a single drop of magic. The capacity of magic and potential in utilizing it were the two most important characteristics in determining the rulers of the Kingdom, and for this, Prince Junmyeon was disqualified.   On the other hand, King Kim Junhyeok’s second-born Kim Jongin, two years younger than his brother, was blessed with more than enough of these two criteria. Though not as much as his father, Prince Jongin showed great capacity of his possession of magic and was adept at using it. With the Second Prince’s potential, there would have been no arguments if he were to be named the Crown Prince and later the King, but he, too, possessed his own flaws. Kim Jongin was infamous for being cruel, merciless, arrogant, and reckless. So far, he had shown far more interest in womanizing and entertainment than bettering the Kingdom, and for that, Prince Jongin was also disqualified.   The appointment of the Crown Prince is done in a ritual with the national treasure—the Holy Mirror—six months before the National Festival, once every ten years. The Appointment was originally a date for any citizen of the Kingdom to stand before the mirror and test himself whether he was a candidate for the throne, but because nobody outpowered magical potential of a member of the Kim household in three centuries, it transformed into a simple tradition for naming a prince as the next heir. The King had already once postponed the event of year 480; the next one was to be held five years later on year 490 to settle the issue of an heir once and for all.     Year 485, Spring.     The fine morning sun shines brightly on the palace. As always, Prince Junmyeon can be found sitting and drinking tea in the back garden; almost everyone residing in the palace knows that tea with books or the occasional board game at the garden’s porch is the prince’s favorite hobby, and that while he is enjoying his free time, he is to be left undisturbed with the number of servants and sources of distractions kept at an absolute minimum.   With a bow, a lean figure steps forward to deliver a message, the tone of his voice low yet firm and solemn—it is the prince’s bodyguard, Oh Sehun. Sehun is one of the very few people that are allowed to enter Junmyeon’s privacy. To Junmyeon, Sehun was a loyal subject, a friend, a brother, and his most trusted; as the right-hand of the prince, the bodyguard shadowed his master everywhere he went and protected him at all costs. “Your Highness, Sir Park Chanyeol is requesting to see you.”   Other than Sehun, Knight Park Chanyeol is the only person Junmyeon would entrust his life with. The two had practically grown up together in the palace with only one another to lean on, and as the rightful heir of the aristocratic Park household, Chanyeol had always provided Junmyeon with the politi