With heavy hurried steps, retired colonel Wu Yifan paced the spacious hallway in the direction of prince Joonmyeon's room, for the first time in a long time, by himself.

The two of them, while not sleeping in the same room, were assigned adjacent rooms as per the prince's request. They were always together, except today. Today he had a mission to report.

"My prince" he greeted with a bow "I have grave news" he introduced, worrying the other who urged him with a gesture to continue talking "This morning, elder Changpil has gathered the whole council in his study, behind closed doors" he summarized what had been told to him by the guard he'd bribed after the prince had assigned him to watch the elder's moves following yesterday's meeting.

"Treason!" the prince exclaimed, disbelieving that the man would dare call a council meeting without the king's presence, the clearest show of ill intent towards the monarch. Jongin had warned he'd make a move, but the brothers hadn't expected something of this scale, and so soon too "Watch them all closely, especially Changpol, and if he makes a single move, Jongin's orders were clear and King's orders are law" he spoke darkly with perhaps the angriest expression his loyal servant had seen on his handsome face "Off with his stupid head"

Joonmyeon had used one of Changpil’s own guards to spy on him for two weeks now with no concrete findings, but there is nothing stopping the wicked man from bribing the staff at the palace as well. Who knows how many of the elders have them? He no longer knows who can be trusted. And truthfully, the elderly advisors were the least of their worries, the farther down the hierarchy, the harder the subjects are to monitor and control, while the six elders could hardly hide their hostility as they interacted with the King often, ministers and other officials could be planning any number of plots behind their backs.

The days passed and tensions only grew thicker with the looming uncertainty. In the council room, the elders sat once more before the royal family in a heavy atmosphere, gazes met, and averted in distrust, feet tapped in impatience.

"The border general has already sent back his report" elder Daeming spoke first after the protocol greetings were executed "He informs that the intel they were able to gather in this short notice supports the theory that the Park are planning an attack".

A collective gasp was heard before the room filled with whispers, worried eyes glancing left and right.

"I told you, your majesty" elder Changpil spoke up, barely containing his enthusiasm at the prospect of having been right "Park Chanyeol isn’t a man to be trusted, and now he probably has heavy artillery stationed ready for an attack that we’re not prepared to defend from" he exposed with a hardly reigned grin across his face.

"Very well then, we will proceed as agreed" Jongin said simply, hiding his own doubts about the issue, not wanting to make it seem like he would withdraw support from his king, but a nagging inside him told him that there had to be a reason the Park weren’t already their allies. He was afraid that diplomacy would not solve this.

"I am traveling to their land to try the diplomatic route" Kyungsoo proposed, surprising the entire room.

"Since when does a king go by himself to foreign lands for this type of thing? We have experienced diplomats with better chances of making the best possible deal, your majesty" an elder proposed and while he was a supporter of Kyungsoo’s beliefs, he trusts the expert to do a better job and why shouldn’t he?

Jongin thinks the same, and he says so, but Kyungsoo is hell bent on going.

And it is three days later that the caravan reaches the border, when a day prior a letter had arrived notifying the general of its purpose and to refrain from any hostility as they passed through in their trek to the capital.

However, the caravan never did pass through. Not before an arrow took out one of the horses and made the others hysterical. The warriors on foot got on their guard expecting an ambush, but there was nothing but that sole archer attacking from afar, and several arrows fired in rapid succession into the tent. A pained scream was heard, and then the gurgling sounds of a man choking on his own blood, then silence.

An array of tortures best left undescribed were utilized on the man who pulled on that bow until he was only half-alive. He deserved to be congratulated for his resilience, for all that he endured, but in the end he cracked, they all do. There is no loyalty in a mercenary working for money, and so he confessed.

Whom do you work for? I don’t know, some man offered me big money to take down whoever was in that tent.

Where did you meet this man? He went to the bar frequently.

So, he was a citizen of the Kim kingdom? I think so.

Could you identify him if you saw him again? Yes, he didn’t hide his face, that idiot.

And so, under the orders of prince Joonmyeon, every elder and their servants were asked to parade before him. Some threw a hissy fit at being distrusted, but were dragged to it anyway.

The prisoner didn’t recognize any of the old men, but he did find one young servant boy, poor and loyal, a slave for one of those old men, one that truthfully, everyone already expected.

They just needed the proof to off him without stressing over the political implications, and there it was.

Elder Changpil was charged with the attempted murder of King Kim Kyungsoo, and you had to see the disbelief in his face when he heard “attempted”, but even funnier was the one he made when the man in the flesh walked into the room, unscathed.

"You didn’t actually believe a king would personally travel that distance for a meeting like this, did you?" the man that he had presumed dead, mocked with a smirk so unlike the kind and compassionate king who had insisted before him to lead the diplomatic efforts with Park.

And Kyungsoo may indeed be a kind leader, but not one that takes kindly towards traitors and murderers. It was Changpil's own fault that he just so happens to be both.

And so, it was off with his stupid head.