The moon was peeking to the world beneath it behind the dark black cloud that night. It was silent and cold night at the countryside of Silla where a small inn was placed. The village was empty that midnight, only two guards were seen taking turns to guard the princess inside the small inn. One tall guard was standing, he moved up and down the ground around the small cottage while his partner was sleeping.

Minho, that’s how everyone called him as, was the strongest in Hwarang house. Unlike the other Hwarang soldiers, he voluntarily joined the Hwarang. Intelligent-wise, he might not be the brightest, but he’s very strong. Legend has it that he’s able to win a spar in 5 consecutive rows before The King told him to change with other Hwarang. It’s quite ironic because his main reason joining Hwarang was so that he could become a politician like his father and not a soldier.

Minho looked to the other Hwarang sleeping next to him. His head was rolled down to his chest wrapped with his two strong and muscular hands. His name was Kim Jonghyun, better known as the dwarf of Hwarang due to his height. Other than his look, Jonghyun was chosen to be a Hwarang because of his speed and artistry.

“Help!” Minho heard a female voice from the village, and as a warrior, his instinct was triggered. He tapped on Jonghyun’s shoulder and led the sleepy boy to the source of the voice. The two tore the village that’s now started to light up and pouring men out of their houses. The two ran to the centre of the village where an old lady was sitting helplessly on the ground. There was a mark on her neck, showing that she’d just been choked.

Minho gently asked the old lady where the man went and handed her to her son shouting from the crowd. That’s when Jonghyun spotted men with black suit running on the roof towards The Princess’ inn. He quickly grabbed the collar of Minho’s robe and pointed dragged him along. “Minho, the Princess! It was a trap you daft!” He yelled to the younger boy when he roared why he harshly dragged him.

The word ‘Princess’ was like an automatic trigger for Minho because right now he’s running faster than Jonghyun. He broke into the inn and straight to the Princess’ room while Jonghyun handled the other black-suited men outside the inn just to found a man with similar black suit pointing his sword towards The Princess’ neck. He quickly catapulted himself between the man and the princess with his sword attacking the man’s sword. The sword flipped three times and fell to the ground.

He quickly cornered the black-suited man to the wall with his sword crossing on his neck. “Who are you working for?” He pressed his sword on the masked man’s neck. A little more and scarlet liquid will start to drip from the man’s throat. “Tell me you bastard!” He barked right in front of the man’s face. He could feel the man’s breath on his face.

Suddenly he felt a stinging pain on his arm holding the sword and realised that the masked man had stabbed him with a dagger. He felt really painful but determined to still halt the man from running away. The man then stabbed him on the back, near the joints of his arms. And this time he couldn’t handle it. His sword fell to the floor as his other hand tried the best to press on the wound to stop bleeding.

He looked up to the man, thinking that he’s going to try to leave and was prepared to block him. But to his surprise, the man used the same dagger he used to stab Minho and sunk it straight into the throbbing vein of his throat. “No!” Minho roared, just in time where Jonghyun came in. There was blood all over his face when he barged in and found the man was in the middle of dying.

“You check the Princess. I’ll scan him through.” Jonghyun snapped to the taller boy and squatted next to the fresh corpse. He took the mask off to see if he could recognise his face, just to see an unfamiliar face revealed before his eyes. Scoffed, his hands begun to wander on the man’s body to find emblems or anything can be used to track the mastermind.

At the other corner of the room, Minho kneeled in front of the princess. “Princess, are you okay? Did you get hurt?” He checked on the princess’ neck which the assaulter sword was pointed at and found a thin scarlet mark across her fair neck. “I should get something for that. You’re wounded.” Minho tried to stand up but the delicate arm of the princess stopped him.

“Minho, you’re injured.” She tugged his arm to make him stay and looked for a fabric nearby. She asked the guard to give her his injured arm and gently but the fabric as a band to prevent further bleeding. “You’re badly injured. You’re inches away from losing your arm.”

“But our mission is to protect you.”

“And you did, you both did. I’m okay, just merely scratched, but it’ll dry on its own within hours.” The royal lady tied the fabric around his arms. She turned to her other guard who was still busy searching the dead body. “Jonghyun, are you injured anywhere?”

“I’m fine Your Highness.” He smiled warmly to the girl. Jonghyun dove back to the dead body and found a pendant with Baekje mark carved on the surface. So the Baekje government felt betrayed by Silla’s action of teaming up with Goguryeo to conquer the Han River that was once belonged to Baekje. He stood up in front of the younger people in the room and looked Minho in the eye. “We must go. It’s not safe.”

“In the middle of the night?”

“Do we look like we have other choice? They might fail this time, but I think they’ll come back with loads more to assassinate the princess. It’s risky to linger around here tonight. Besides, I need to tell our king about this.” Jonghyun flashed the pendant before he rolled it on his hand and slip it inside his robe. “Clever Baekje, they figured out that there’s no male available in the palace.”

Minho stood up while lending his hand to the princess. He told her to stay with him while Jonghyun get the entourage and their carriage to leave immediately. He dashed through the inn that’s now quite noisy due to the battle he just had with five black-suited assassins. He went to a room with two men inside looking confused, and asked them to get ready immediately.

He went to the horse stall to get their horses and tied two of them to the royal carriage. He then took his own and Minho’s horse to the front door of the inn. Minho helped the princess into her carriage and strictly asked the entourage to keep a sharp eye even though it’s in the middle of the night. It will take them approximately three hours to reach the palace.

“You can ride with that arm?” Jonghyun asked his fellow Hwarang after seeing the fabric tied on his arm drenched in red.

“Who are we kidding? I’m Choi Minho, the ace of the Hwarang House!”

“You prick.” Jonghyun sneered to the younger boy as he led them south. Heading straight to the palace in the capital where everyone was sleeping soundly without knowing a threat that’s coming their way.