Sungmin stays in the mountains for another month until one day, Doctor Shin finally announces that his injuries are completely healed.

Needless to say, Sungmin is over the moon about the news.

For the past month, his daily activities include only eating, sleeping, taking medicine, sometimes taking a walk in the forest or the orchard (but no apple-picking, Kyuhyun was very clear about that), and on occasions, he also gets to observe that children practising martial arts (Kyuhyun is also clear about Sungmin not practising martial arts himself, or showing children his moves). If he does not die from his injuries, Sungmin thinks he is about to die from boredom first.

After a few days of preparation, Sungmin and Kyuhyun, along with fifty very strong-looking guards, head for Yangjae forest.

Yangjae and Bukhansan are on opposite sides of Hanyang, so they estimate that it will take about one day to get to Yangjae from Bukhansan. Kyuhyun has prepared two horses for Sungmin and himself, and the guards have been instructed by him to travel in pairs to avoid attention.

Sitting on the horse with fur as dark as Joseon at midnight, Sungmin feels annoyed at the outfit and disguise that Kyuhyun had picked for him. As he was still officially missing after the attack in Yangjae, Sungmin does not argue the fact that he needs to disguise himself when leaving Bukhansan. But the disguise that Kyuhyun had done for him is outrageous! Right now, Sungmin is wearing pieces of ragged clothes, painted-on beards, his usually neat hair bun let down, making him look like one of the many poor beggars on the side of the streets in Hanyang. When Sungmin expresses his clear annoyance with Kyuhyun, he only gets an extremely satisfied smile and a brief explanation which sounds more like an excuse: "The best disguises have to make you look the opposite of how you normally look. So if normally you look like a young master in his early twenties, your disguise should look like a middle-aged homeless man.". And Sungmin was speechless with this logic.

After half a day riding on their horses, they stop at a tavern in a small town on the outskirts of Hanyang to rest and have something to eat. At their entrance, the waiter throws Sungmin the weirdest look, as if asking him about his business being with someone who obviously looks like a big character. Kyuhyun seems to notice this but takes it to mean differently, so he stands in between Sungmin and the waiter to stop the waiter from staring at Sungmin.

When they are finally seated by the waiter, Sungmin sees that next to their table, two young girls keep glancing over to their table and whispering something into each other's ears, sometimes even giggling and blushing. But as soon as Sungmin looks over and smiles at them, their attitudes completely change. They immediately look away and throw him dirty as if they had just been harassed by a ert. This in no doubt has to do with his disguise, so Sungmin turns to Kyuhyun: "Ya, Kyuhyun, have you noticed that the waiter and the two girls over there have thrown me really weird looks? I think I look hideous in this disguise!"

But Kyuhyun seems even more pleased with his masterpiece: "Good. That means no one can recognise you.", and gives him a satisfied grin.

They quickly order their food, and Sungmin briefly remembers all the times that they had snuck out of the dormitory together to go to the tavern when they were younger. All those memories seem like a lifetime ago, and neither of them was the people that they were then.

Yet, some things can still stay the same, as Sungmin uses his chopsticks to pick up a piece of his favourite food on the plate on the table. Before Sungmin could put the food into his mouth, Kyuhyun took the chopsticks that were carrying the food from him and put one end of a silver stick onto the food.

"Test for poison?", Sungmin asks in surprise.

"Yeah, prevention is better than cure," Kyuhyun replies casually.

After Kyuhyun finishes testing all the dishes on the table, he picks Sungmin's favourite food and puts them in the other's bowl. "In the Palace", Kyuhyun speaks up again after a moment of hesitation, "your food has been tampered with more than twice."

This revelation bewilders Sungmin. He looks into Kyuhyun's eyes, but discovers no trace of a joke. "Really?", for the moment, Sungmin does not know what else to say.

Kyuhyun nods his head in reply: "Jaesung informed me."

All this time, Sungmin only knows about Jongwoon as placed in the Palace by his father to protect him. He had never expected that besides Jongwoon, there were four other servants put in the Palace by Kyuhyun, who had been watching over him day and night without his knowledge. 

"Was there anything else?", Sungmin asks seriously.

Kyuhyun looks at him and thinks carefully about an answer: "Remember the week that you went on the Eastern inspection two years ago? There was a group of assassins targeting specifically at you."

Sungmin still remembers that week as clearly as day in his mind. And there he thought that the trip was just as uneventful as another day in the Palace.

As if being able to read Sungmin's mind, Kyuhyun continues: "The Palace is a dangerous place, but there are even more dangers for a member of the Royal Family once you step out of that place. That is why most assassinations take place outside of the Palace. I know you are not afraid and you think you can take on any of them, but there is only one of you, but too many of them, and they would not stop at anything to get exactly what they want, which, in this case, is to see you dead, Sungmin."

Sungmin finds himself stunned at the revelations, but detects something else from Kyuhyun's tone: "So you think it was Jang Sugui and Park Bin again?"

Kyuhyun only nods his head. In his eyes, a glint of hatred glimmers.

Suddenly, Sungmin recalls the puzzle about where Kyuhyun went on the week that he was on the Eastern inspection, and he realises that the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together: "Kyuhyun, were you there? On the Eastern inspection? That's why you know about the assassins?"

But Kyuhyun refuses to answer his questions, which prompts Sungmin to ask again: "That's where you went when you left the mountains two years ago, isn't it, Kyuhyun?". Sungmin's voice is more serious this time.

Kyuhyun quickly stands up from the table and changes the subject: "Finish your food quickly, Sungmin. We have to get there before it gets dark."

Although Sungmin did not get the answer that he wanted, he feels like Kyuhyun's silence and reaction have spoken enough for him, and so he does not push Kyuhyun anymore. For the time being, this is enough reassurance for him.

After leaving the tavern, they continue their journey to Yangjae. When they get to the town on the edge of the forest, the sun is already setting. They rejoin the troops of guards that have travelled ahead of them. Kyuhyun decides to rent a whole inn in town so that they could enter the forest first thing in the morning. 

Sitting at a table watching Kyuhyun giving out instructions to the troops of guards, Sungmin could not help feeling somewhat proud, even though it is not his own success, nor does he have anything to do with Kyuhyun's success. When Kyuhyun is finished, he walks to Sungmin's table and sits down in front of him.

"Kyuhyun ah", Sungmin turns to Kyuhyun, "everyone seems very loyal to you."

Kyuhyun slightly nods his head and replies gently: "Most of the guards here are orphans, or come from poor families who cannot afford to go public schools in Hanyang, so they have no chance of taking the state exam. I recruited and trained them myself, so they are somewhat loyal to me. They all volunteered on this mission."

Sungmin turns to look at the guards again. They all look different in terms of height, build and age, but there is one thing that most of them have in common. Most of them possess dark-toned skin, which indicates that they have all done manual work at some point in their lives to make ends meet. 

Sungmin smiles softly at Kyuhyun: "You have done well, Kyuhyun ah", and Kyuhyun feels like his heart has skipped another beat.

Kyuhyun quickly clears his throat and is about to change the subject when Sungmin pulls out a map and puts it on the table. When he opens the map, it turns out to be an incredibly detailed map of Yangjae and surrounding areas, which was collected and sent to Sungmin by his father.

"This is the area where most robberies and murders in Yangjae occurred", Sungmin points to the middle of the map, "which is also the heart of the forest. This means that most attacks happened when the victims were at least one hour into the forest."

Kyuhyun nods at Sungmin's description.

"So the local investigators went into the forest several times to examine the scene about a few months ago. The first time, they were disoriented by the fog and it took them two days to get out of the forest, and when they were out, they did not remember a thing that happened in there. Now we know there is poison in the fog, which can make people disoriented and lose track of time. I guess they have different kinds of poison which they use for different targets since the poison that they used on me was different from the one they used on the investigators. I guess they could not just kill the investigators, as it would attract more attention from the court." Sungmin stops for a moment to see whether Kyuhyun can keep up with all the information, and when he receives a reassuring nod from Kyuhyun, he continues: "The second time the investigators went into the forest, they were more prepared. They had more weapons, armoury and masks to protect from any kind of spraying weapon. This time, they saw men wearing dark clothes in the forest and carrying weapons. These men could not have been commoners, so the investigators split into two troops to try and corner the men. But when the troops were circled back to each other, they had completely lost track of the men. These men disappeared in broad daylight with the investigators on both ends of the forest, so the investigators were completely clueless. They got out of the forest and have not had any more leads since."

Kyuhyun stays silent for a while after Sungmin finishes his narration of the case. His eyes are focused on the map, his brows furrowed in deep concentration.

"So, what do you think?", Sungmin asks, patiently looking at Kyuhyun.

"There must be caves in the forest. Or a valley deep in the mountains. Just like Bukhansan." Kyuhyun replies after careful consideration.

"Exactly what I think as well", Sungmin smiles, "the location of my attack was also nearby. That could not be a coincidence. So tomorrow should we start from where the investigators started last time, and trace back to where they lost the bandits? That way we can target a specific area and save time."

Kyuhyun nods in agreement. After another while of studying the map, they decide that the plan is their most optimal option at the moment, and decide to go with it when they enter the forest in the morning. Just when Sungmin is about to return to his room, Kyuhyun takes from a large bag next to their table a long and shiny object that Sungmin can instantly recognise.

"My sword", Sungmin takes the object from Kyuhyun. His eyes are full of nostalgia and his hands caress the shiny blade for a long moment. 

"Your father sent it", Kyuhyun looks at Sungmin fiddling with the sword, and suddenly he can see as clearly as day in front of his eyes the memories of Sungmin proudly holding his sword as if it was the most valuable thing in the world. Sungmin used to be inseparable from his sword. For the first few years when he had just begun to practise swordsmanship, he even slept with his sword in his bed. But when Sungmin entered the Palace, he had to leave his sword and all those memories behind. Now that he can use his sword again, he has felt like at least a piece of him has been preserved through all this time, instead of being swallowed whole by that Palace.

"Don't sleep with your sword, Sungmin", Kyuhyun teases him, but his tone is light and gentle as if he had not meant any of those words. Half of him had secretly expected that, just like some things that never change, Sungmin would go to sleep with his sword in his hands tonight, and that would bring more joy to him than anything else in this world.

When the next morning rolls around, Sungmin, Kyuhyun, along with fifty guards of the Children of the Mountains leave the inn and head for Yangjae forest. 

This time, they have brought antidotes for the poison prescribed by Doctor Shin and have taken some in advance. Everyone is wearing masks so that they will not inhale the poison in the fog. They are also equipped with different kinds of weapons and armoury. Everyone is ready for a heroic battle with the blood-hungry bandits.  

But the search goes on all morning without them finding any trace of the bandits or a lair anywhere in the mountains. There was no cave or mountain near the place of attack, so there was no way that the attackers could retreat so quickly after every attack. 

After a morning of searching for the bandits in vain, at the moment, the group can do nothing else other than wander around the forest. Suddenly, Sungmin notices that his horse seems to be staggering as if it is walking on softer and more slippery ground than the usually solid ground of Yangjae. Sungmin immediately steps off the horse to examine the ground and finds that the grass that the horse has stepped on seems to be covering something in the ground.

"Could it be?", Kyuhyun quickly comes to his side and helps him dig out the layers of grass, and appears before their eyes is no other than what they have been searching for all morning.

The lair of the Yangjae bandits has been treacherously hiding underneath them this whole time!