Somehow, the revelation wasn’t shocking. Yewon didn’t need much time to process it, for the possibility had been in her thoughts before and was at the top of her mind the moment she was waiting for Soonyoung to confirm it. The tears were already gathered at her eyes, and immediately after Soonyoung’s confirmation, they poured from her eyes in streams.

Soonyoung himself seemed like he was on the verge of crying too, but he held them in and instead began bombarding Yewon with questions. Who would have done it to him? Why would they have done it? Where can Soonyoung find them so that the authorities could sentence them to death…

Yewon was not in the right mental state to answer those questions, and she didn’t want to answer them either. Now, more than ever, she knew that those spies were capable of cold-blooded murder, and she did not want to put Soonyoung in the crossfire by revealing it to him.

She told him that she needed a moment alone and rushed out of his room without looking back.

With a lowered head, she dashed through the halls, wanting to get to her own room as soon as possible so she could mourn in peace. By the time she arrived, many people in the halls had noticed their princess’ distressed tears.

It was her fault, she thought. She was the one who encouraged Seokmin to run away. She was the one who assured him that he would be free if he ran away. She felt like she had single-handedly caused his death herself, and it drowned her in guilt that made her heart feel even heavier than it already did.

Seokmin did not deserve to die; he did not deserve the life he was forced to live. He was just a sick young man who was taken against his will to “serve” his country and then forced to live in a foreign land as someone he was not. He was not allowed to be himself; he was not allowed to make friends or to build relations. Instead, he was inculcated into this life of espionage in which all he was ever trained to do was follow orders, even if following those orders meant breaking his own moral code. And if he was to refuse to obey, he would be beaten and punished, and eventually, he was killed for it. He was truly a lonely person, dragged into the most unfortunate life, which lead to his most unfortunate death…

-

A week passed in which Yewon was always in low spirits.

The news of the kitchen boy’s death spread among the palace: that kitchen boy had snuck into Prince Soonyoung’s luggage, the story went. A street bandit who wanted to steal the Prince’s belongings found him there and choked him to death. By the time he was choked, the guards were able to stop the bandit before he could carry on with his theft.

Soonyoung corroborated that story, claiming that the kitchen boy was the reason their prince was able to come back alive. Because of this, the dead boy was honored as a hero among the people.

Haein helped Yewon through her time of mourning. She brought her food when Yewon did not have the life to go to meal. She tried to maintain Yewon’s routine life so she wouldn’t sink too much into despair over this death. She tried to uplift her with stories and bring her novels that Wonwoo had recommended for her.

Wonwoo was also going through a difficult time. Jinye’s wealthy merchant father flat-out refused provide him with the funds to carry through with his defensive military campaign, probably because Wonwoo had broken his daughter’s heart. Because of the lack of funds, many soldiers were lost and Galacia was regaining the upper hand in the war.

Haein told Yewon about this with gritted teeth: “It’s crazy,” Haein said, “her father is basically letting Solen lose the war. Even if a father’s heart is soft for his daughter… it just doesn’t make any sense that he would allow this to happen...”

-

The war, which Solen was rapidly starting to lose, along with Seokmin’s death, made for a very gloomy atmosphere among Seungcheol and Yewon. Seungcheol stopped coming to her bed for many days. In fact, Seungcheol barely spoke to her at all for the days following the announcement of Seokmin’s death. He didn’t even express his condolences or attempt to give her solace. He just kept silent.

“I think he just doesn’t know what to say to you, your highness,” Haein told her when Yewon expressed her concern about that. “It’s understandable. No one knows what to say to comfort a person whose friend has died…”

“Not saying anything makes it seem like he doesn’t care at all,” Yewon replied bitterly.

“I’m sure he doesn’t mean to come off that way,” Haein defended him. “If you want my advice, make him know that you want his attention. He probably thinks that you don’t want anything to do with him when you’re recovering from someone’s death.”

And so Yewon took Haein’s advice and called for him that night, and he did come eventually. It was quite late when he arrived, and Yewon had already been lying in her bed preparing to sleep. He seemed hesitant as he entered, softly closing the door behind him. She sat up to face him.

“Say something,” she requested when she saw that he was not even greeting her.

Seungcheol hesitated. “What do you want me to say?”

Yewon shrugged; she wasn’t even sure what she wanted from him. All she knew was that she hated when he wasn’t speaking to her. “Anything,” she told him.

He took a few steps towards her and settled on her bedside and carefully constructed his sentence: “I’m sorry about your friend, and I’m sorry that I can’t do anything about it.”

“It’s been nearly a week,” she pointed out, “you should have said this on the very first day…”

 Seungcheol nodded. “I apologize,” he told her. “But I felt unworthy of saying anything to you regarding him, since I never supported your friendship and even threatened to dismiss him once. I was just afraid that anything I would say would appear insincere…”

It was true that Seungcheol had been nothing but hostile toward Seokmin and towards her relationship with him. She remembered how angry he got when she held Seokmin’s hand when he had breathing problems, and when he assumed that the letters that Seokmin had handed her were love letters…

…the letters.

She was thus abruptly slapped with the memory of Seokmin’s letters, the letters that he had asked her to deliver if he ever died: one to Prince Soonyoung, and the other to his family in Galacia. Somehow, they had completely escaped her memory before…

She was suddenly invigorated with the urge to find them, but quickly came to the realization that it was best to wait before looking for them in front of Seungcheol. If she did that, Seungcheol would get curious about them, and if Seokmin didn’t even want her to read the letters, he most certainly would not have wanted Seungcheol.

She bit back the urge to look for them, but she was anxious. And so, she tried to get Seungcheol to leave as soon as possible, although he looked prepared to stay for longer. She yawned and pretended to be tired and sleepy, until he finally decided to leave her and let her sleep. When he was gone, she immediately climbed out of her bed towards the drawers of her dresser where she remembered she had placed them. After a minute of searching, she found them there, still sealed and untouched.

She grabbed Soonyoung’s letter and quickly put on a shawl and a cloak and rushed out of her room to find him.

She did find him, but not in his room. He was outside in the hallways, his lips devouring Jinye’s, his hands touching every inch of her body.

“May I talk to you?” she called out, causing him to abruptly pull away from her. He frowned when he saw her.

“Now?” he asked bitterly.

“Yes. It’s important.”

“It can wait, princess,” he replied turning back to Jinye.

Jinye shook her head and put her head down, not letting Soonyoung kiss her again. “Please, my lord,” she told Soonyoung, “listen to what the princess has to say…”

Soonyoung groaned and turned to Yewon, “what?” he asked. One look at him, and Yewon knew that he was not in a condition to listen to her, and not even in a condition to be alone with her. He was aroused and flushed and sweating, and from the way he was swaying, she could tell he was drunk too.

“Never mind,” she said. “Sorry for interrupting.”

“No,” Jinye said with a guilty expression. “Please, your highness, say what you want to say…”

Yewon shook her head. “I can’t talk to him now. I’ll just leave you.”

“Is this about Seokmin?” Soonyoung asked. “The only time you ever want to talk to me is when it’s about him,” he mumbled drunkenly. “God knows that if I wasn’t friends with him, you wouldn’t even look twice at me because of the shameful things that happened…”

“Soonyoung!” Yewon nearly yelled at him. He seemed to drunk to understand why she was yelling at him.

Jinye, who was listening intently to their conversation, looked surprised. Her eyes widened and she pointed at the two of them and asked: “shameful things…?”

“Don’t listen to him,” Yewon denied quickly, trying to save the disaster that was on the verge of erupting. “He’s drunk and is making no sense right now...”

Jinye nodded, but she still looked staggered. “Okay,” she said softly to Yewon. “I believe you, your highness.”

But Yewon could tell from the way that Jinye muttered that she did not actually believe her at all.

A/N: I updated relatively early again i'm happy to be on a roll again ^^