“it’s going to be fun.”, he whispered to himself as he stepped out of the shadow with an innocent smile that was shown his dimple.

“General Zhang.”, Luhan’s jaw harden and his lips were pressed a line when he saw the sleepy face of general.

Dagger fell on the green grass with a thud when Luhan’s hand was no longer keeping it up, he should be careful of using his energy.

“my king, seem like you don’t expect to see me here.”, he said, took a big step forward, still smiling, “as I don’t expect to see you here with no good protection with our future queen.”, he bowed politely, nodding in her direction.

“w-why are you here general? shouldn’t you be on the war?”, her voice shaking each syllable, she knew a man a little.

He was known as one of the best General and a smart one at that despite his young age. He wasn’t a son of one of those selfish highborn but still an ambitious man who didn't know when to stop. A lovely insane who gets everything he wants if he puts his minds on it. Just like her farther, dangerous and gifted.

“so you do want me to be on the war?”, the new man said still had his innocent smile on which made her more nervous because she couldn’t read it.

‘yes.’, was the real answer but, “no, I just worried about the war without you.”, was what she said, managed to voice it out without a flinch this time.

“How thoughtful of you, but don’t worry I ordered my man better than this.”, he said this time with an ironic smirk and sparkling eyes.

“dose my father send you here?”, she asked with doubt, he was working for her father -with her father-but why should he do when he already had Hyukjea spying around?

But otherwise, how had he know they camped there?

He smiled, “no. Before you asking and second-guessing me. I was going to the castle but preferred to do a little hunting around when I saw a deer. I wanted to hunt it but in the second it’s already been hunted then I fallow the hunter to see it’s our lovely warrior Do.”

“Why do you leave your post to come here?”, Luhan’s cold voice made her jump as he still standing between her and general expressionless. She just noticed that the king didn't move in front of her.

She heard that they’re friends, yet it didn’t seem like that at all.

“I want to talk to you about something.”, he shifted his gaze to look at her, adding slightly, “alone.”

Kyungsoo apparently just counted as “alone.”, so it was just her standing out of the tent by herself, wondering what they were talking about.

“do you have any idea Browny?”, she sighed, patting a mare of her horse as she rubbed his head on her hand as well, “I hope they talk about that ing sword, I don’t want to ask about it.”

She recalled things she knew about the sword one more time. Not all the sword she saw was golden but it had something more special than just be made from gold, though it would caught the bandits eyes.

The picture of the tree had been craved in its golden blade with silver and sight of the four hexagons as the heart of the tree that all the people believed they were stones, one stand for power, one for extortion the power, one for death and one for immortal life.

Luhan had been given the sword by his father. Hopefully, Luhan was around when his father died rather than her father.

Yet there wasn’t something special the sword was capable of, at least hadn’t written in the books yet.

Suddenly she felt the weight of something on her shoulder and within a second she felt the sharp edge of the sword pressed against the side of . She couldn’t see the face of the attacker although it just took a second for her to figure out that she knew the man, somewhere. 

“isn’t it dangerous for a lady like you to wondering around alone?”, the sweet voice of him rang into her ears.

She was capable of fighting just if she would have a sword, but even from the way he held the sword firmly in his hand, she could guess he was more skillful than her.

“what do you want?”, she asked, trying not to sound too scared and she was successful.

“I don’t think you can give it to me.”, he said calmly and thoughtfully.

“then why do you pressed your sword against my throat? Go and get what you want from the one who can actually give it to you.”, she literally snapped, turning to see the attacker's face.

“no sudden move.”, he threatened as he pressed the sword harder, “you can’t give it to us but we can get it through you.”

Us?

“I’m afraid you’re wrong. I’m not his wife nor someone he cares about.”, she played it cool, although her heartbeat was now getting harder and in .

Does he really not care?

“let’s give it a try then.”, he chuckled, “call them out. And don’t wait for Hyukjea he’s busy right now.”

Damn, he obviously knew it, although on any other occasion it would be a good thing knowing he’s busy.

Yet, it wasn’t time for dying today, so she did as she was uttered, “my king could you please came out a bit?”, she almost whispered to herself.

“louder.”

“my king could you please came out for a while?”, she asked clearly, and sweetly, maybe the king was smart enough to understand something was wrong from her voice tone.

“right now, I’m in the middle of something.”, he yelled angrily and made her flinched although the sword was still pressed on .

“again.”

“but king I’m in the middle of something too.”, she stopped to take a deep breath, “something you want to know.”

“I don’t want.”, he yelled.

“ag-“

“Hey you bastard just came out of your ing tent and see someone pressed a damn sword on my throat.”, she yelled in anger, couldn’t keep it anymore.

King and his two obedience came out of the tent, with a rather shocked expression, it may be because they heard the cursing of the young lady or because she was actually in danger.

“thank you, your majesty.”, she said bitterly, rolling her eyes at them.

Kyungsoo’s expression turned from shock to serious when he saw the attackers face, which she couldn’t see.

“Kim Kai.”, Kyungsoo draws his sword that was always with him, waving the steel skilfully through the air in order to warn the attacker that he was still the best warrior among them, although it’d been a long time.

“long time no see warrior Do.”, a new voice called.

She still couldn’t move her head because of the sword threatening her head but she still saw the handsome young boy, not so tall but still with a board shoulder, leaning confidently on the tree.

Newcomer smirked, the smirk that suited his face, looking sideway at the king to make sure the thing they were looking for was there, with a king.

Then it hit Jieun, he was him, the boy she made to buy the hairpin for her in bazaar yesterday, Baekhyun.

“I miss you, to be honest.”, this time was for Baekhyun’s action, his gaze on Kyungsoo, arrogance waving in his voice.

“I don’t.”, the bitter answer came out so fast and short, although he had missed him, it wasn’t the right time for old friends meeting. 

“you hurt me.”, he teased with another smirk, “but You’re right, we should move on the main point.”

“there should be another one too.”, Jieun whispered to herself although Kai heard it clearly due to how close he was standing near her.

It made her feel a fool and stupid, though it wasn’t her fault bumping into them but still something wasn’t right, how could they know about the trip? There were just four- five if she counted Hyukjea- people knowing about the trip and three of them were here plus it didn’t seem like Byun would ask her father about it.

“what do you mean? How do you know?”, Kai asked quietly, looking at her from behind. He yet didn’t see the girl’s face. Could it be?

“put your swords down, we’re three.”, Kyungsoo reasoned, looking straight at Baekhyun like his eyes going to scorch through his skin, he knew who’s the boss here. Not Kai.

Losing his chain of thought, Kai tried to focus again, “hyung, we’re not risking ourselves coming here to go back empty-handed.”, he pressed a sword slightly on her skin.

She could felt that her skin had been cut lightly but it burned like fire that her eyes started to watering. It took her so much effort not to yell in pain.

“king would you please give me the sword?”, Baekhyun asked and Jieun gazed unconsciously fixed on the golden metal she'd avoided for a day, “you know I’m not playing around, the idea of killing her is really tempting for me. Give me the sword then I vanish into thin air.”

“why do you want to kill her Byun?”, the general asked, blinking innocently, “I bet she doesn’t even remember Byun.”, small chuckle passed his lips.

She wanted to yell, ‘hey I do remember Byun Baekbom.’, but due to the situation it was the best thing to pretend she didn’t, she decided. 

On the other hand, she might not remember what happens to Byun's years ago, but Baekhyun still remembered what happened to his family clearly, The days still showing themselves in his nightmare.

Couldn’t forget what happened to his mom, to her unborn child, to his little brother, to his father and it made him angry that the only daughter of the man who caused all this, lived a peaceful life without any rough when his little brother couldn’t make it.

“never it should be on hands of you that don’t deserve it.”, the king said through gritted teeth, he absolutely hated this Byun as much as he used to love his father.

“Really?”, he asked with an angry smirk on his face, “Kai, kill her if they don’t give me the sword!”, he called out and Jieun flinched at the loudness of his voice.

It took her a second to realize what he just said “what?”, Jieun and the youngest yelled at the same time.

It took everything in her to grip her hand around the boy’s wrist -when he was still shocked- and twisted it so hard that his grip loosed around the sword and she got the almost heavy metal with both her hands.

“AHHH.”, he screamed like a girl but before she could do anything else, Kai’s grip tighten around her waist and hold her back from running.

Kai couldn’t think properly about what he had to do next when the only thing his mind register as an answer was to teleport to Chanyeol. His hand still on her waist, he closed his eyes before warning about the same thing to her, “close your eyes.”

It'd been proven to him after years of training that closing your eyes is really helping you to get over the dizzy feeling the teleporting get you, it’s actually the main reason why he can’t teleport for the long-distance or many times in a day. Every power have their limits.

It didn’t seem like Jieun really lesson to him when both of them losing their balance because of her dizziness and fell down on the hard ground, without any grass but still in the forest, “what the hell are you doing here Kai?”

She still couldn’t see properly because of the heaviness in her head but she recognized the handsome, tall boy from the bazaar appeared suddenly in front of them.

She looked around again, no sign of where they used to be, instead, some black unfamiliar dust that were dancing gracefully trough inexistent water now surrounded them although they disappeared in a blink of an eye.

“Luhan?”, was the first thing she felt wanted to say but soon she realized that the sword was still in her hand, “where are we?”, she pointed the sword in Kai’s direction, still feeling dizzy.

“I don’t get it in my hand if I were you, you might hurt yourself.”, another boy said before finding his way from the fire he’d been sat next to toward them.

“Stay back.”, she warned before getting up on her foot.

“Baekhyun tell me to kill her, and he was serious hyung, he’s gone insane.”, Kai said and looked at Chanyeol, ignoring her presence.

“where are we?”, she asked, a new wave of panic that she was not in the same place as before hit here.

“go to Baekhyun, now.”, another ignorance, this time came from the taller boy, “I handle this one.”, he said pointing at her.

Pop.

Kai disappeared suddenly but leaving again the black dust that were dancing in the air right where he was a few second ago, did he died? Turned into dust?

She never saw anything like this before.

“you better put it down, I don’t want to hurt you.”, he said calmly, taking her by surprise.

“no you can’t, I know how to fight with the sword.”, she said angrily, her sword still threatening him.

“of course you do but I’m not fighting with sword.”, he smirk and looked straight at the sword.

“ah.”, she yelled in pain before letting go of the sword to fell on the ground with a loud thud. It was hot, like a real magma in her hand but it didn’t burn.

“I’m sorry.”

It was the last word she heard before strangely cold powder hit her face and made her wanted to sleep really badly.