After four hours of public shaming, Sungmin is taken back to the abandoned prison. Then, he is strapped into a chair, and the guards start to whip him. He bites his tongue to avoid screaming in pain. A few whips are nothing to him. He has endured much worse pain than this.

"I believe your father is gonna get the message now."

Choi Oongshik stands in front of him with a new announcement paper in his hands. This one has Sungmin's name on it.

"Clock is ticking," he reads aloud from the paper, "otherwise, I will start treating him like a real prisoner."

Sungmin scoffs at the older man.

"I told you. We have an understanding. I promised him, and he promised me. He will not surrender his life if I'm ever caught."

Choi Oongshik studies his expression another time. After he hands his subordinate the paper, he turns to Sungmin and gives him another malicious smile.

"Then, maybe I will find him through you."

Sungmin does not have time to process his meaning when two guards bring out two long and large rods and place them crisscrossed between his legs. He immediately knows what the other had meant.

"Lee Youngwoon's treasured son certainly has never seen leg-twisting in real life, have you?"

Leg-twisting is one of the most common methods of torture in Hanyang where two rods are placed crisscrossed between the prisoner's legs to crush his legbones. 

Choi Oongshik looks at Sungmin deviously, "Today, I'll let you experience it yourself, unless you tell me where your father and Jun Taekyung are hiding."

Sungmin scoffs for a second time, perfectly hiding his fear of the torture method.

"My father has hundreds of hide-out spots, and a different hide-out spot is selected randomly every week, so he will never be found by our enemies. Even if one of us is ever caught, we will not be able to tell where the next hide-out spot will be because it's all random. I cannot tell you even if I want to."

Sungmin gives him a calm smile.

For a second, Choi Oongshik is taken aback. But he quickly composes himself, and gives a signal to the guards.

"Then I guess we'll see if you're telling the truth."

As Choi Oongshik finishes speaking, the guards start pushing on the rods between his legs. Sungmin immediately feels extreme pressure on his legs. Seeing his expression change, Choi Oongshik smiles contently.

"Leg-twisting is especially used on prisoners who committed treason. Have you ever seen a person who underwent leg-twisting, Sungmin? Surely, they all turn into cripples after all of their legbones are broken."

"I am not a traitor!" Sungmin tries to rebut amidst the increasing pressure and pain.

"You are the definition of a traitor, Lee Sungmin. Lying to the King. Destroying his harem. Interfering in Royal Court's business. Each offence is a felony on its own. The Palace has been in complete chaos ever since you entered."

Sungmins looks at him with hatred.

Contently, Choi Oongshik stuffs a piece of cloth in Sungmin's mouth, "This is so you don't bite on your tongue."

The pressure on his legs has started to become unendurable, and Sungmin screams out in pain.

"So? You want to start talking now?" Choi Oongshik asks contently.

But Sungmin only throws him another hateful look. The older man gives the two guards another look, and they increase their push on the rods.

"Daegam," behind Choi Oongshik, Hongdae looks at Sungmin with concern, "will that kill him?"

Choi Oongshik turns to him and furrows his eyebrows.

"What? You're worried about him now?"

Hongdae looks down to the ground.

"Do you think I don't know what you did with him the night before I got here?"

Choi Oongshik smirks at him and reverts his gaze to the red marks on Sungmin's neck and chest.

"But don't worry. I brought a royal physician here with me to take care of him. If he's dead, he'll be of no value to me. I won't let him die before I get what I want. After that, you can have him."

He turns to reassure Hongdae, and the other returns his devious smile.

The rest of the night is filled with cold sweat and Sungmin's screams.

Outside the prison, a slim figure dressed in pure white clothes listens to the screams in fear and worry.

~~~~~

Leeteuk slowly jumps onto the prison walls and sneaks into the abandoned prison. He followed the prisoner's all the way from Hanyang to this place when he saw Sungmin at the public shaming. 

A quick jump from the top of the wall into the yard makes Leeteuk wince in pain. From his stomach, blood starts to soak into his white clothes. The stab wounds that Lee Youngwoon left him with are still fresh from two weeks ago.

Slowly, he finds his way towards the screaming and the lights. His hands grip the sword tightly.

Suddenly, Sungmin's screams stop. A normal person might think that it is a good sign. But for a trained professional killer like Leeteuk, he knows what it means. It is more likely to be bad news than good news.

The prison is heavily guarded by hundreds of guards. The screams seem to originate from a dungeon at the end of the complex. Leeteuk waits until there is a shift transition to sneak into the dungeon. From afar, he can see Sungmin strapped into a chair, unconscious, his head tilted to one side, his face and body covered in open and bleeding wounds.

As he is about to enter, a sharp arrow shoots at him with incredible speed. He quickly avoids it, but from behind him, more than fifty men equipped with the sharpest swords and spears approach. On the top of a nearby building, he can also see a troop of archers aiming at him.

"What do you think you're doing, Jungsu?"

From behind the men, Choi Oongshik slowly walks towards him.

Leeteuk slightly bows at him.

"Daegam, please let him go."

Choi Oongshik gives him a solemn look.

"I'll deal with you later. I knew spending all those years with Lee Youngwoon made you softer! You lied to me all those years, Jungsu. And now you have the audacity to ask me to let him go?"

"I am willing to trade my life for his, daegam."

Choi Oongshik scoffs at him.

"Your life is mine, Jungsu. I can take it whenever, however I want. You are in no position to trade."

"Please, daegam. I will do whatever you want me to."

"Then tell me where Lee Youngwoon and Jun Taekyung are. All those years at their mansion, they must have confided in you."

Leeteuk looks at him defiantly. The sword in his hands shines coldly.

"Did you forget who you are and the promise you made to me?" Choi Oongshik's voice echoes throughout the dark dungeon. His eyes are filled with an evil darkness.

"I have never forgotten that for one second in my life, daegam. But today, for the first time in my life, I cannot do what you want me to. For the first time in my life, I will have to disobey you."

Leeteuk pulls his sword out of its cover.

"Fine, if you want to die this way."

Then, Choi Oongshik turns to give a signal to the troops. All their weapons immediately turn towards Leeteuk.

Leeteuk raises his sword and charges towards the crowd. If this is the last battle that he will ever fight, at least he will fight for the people he loves.

~~~~~

Back at Bukhansan, Lee Youngwoon and Kyuhyun are preparing an army for the battle to save Sungmin. After one of Lee Youngwoon's intelligence details notified him of Sungmin's public shaming, they rushed to the site to find it empty. But the area definitely has signs that a public shaming had taken place, and the locals told them that the prisoner had been escorted somewhere else.

Today, Choi Oongshik gave them another message.

"The clock is ticking. Otherwise, I will start treating him like a real prisoner."

They know that Choi Oongshik will start torturing Sungmin until they give in.

As they sit in the Headquarter discussing the next step, Sol rushes into the room.

"Master, outside the gate... there's a man... He's all bloody..."

Sol's voice is shaken. She had never seen so much blood in her life. Lee Youngwoon and Kyuhyun immediately rush outside. 

"Lee...Leeteuk?"

Lee Youngwoon looks at the bloody man in front of him with mixed feelings. The last time that they saw each other, he stabbed Leeteuk twice in his stomach and burned down his house. He did not think they would be meeting again like this.

Leeteuk kneels on the ground using his sword to prop himself up as he no longer has any strength to stand up. His clothes are soaked in blood. His usual white clothes almost turn to a crimson red. On his body, open wounds are bleeding through his clothes. After a long minute passes without an answer from Leeteuk, they now see that his throat has been slit, and his windpipe is injured from the wound. 

Leeteuk pulls out a white handkerchief. On it, a simple map is drawn in blood. In a swift second, he grabs Lee Youngwoon's hand and scribbles onto his palm.

"Sungmin?" Lee Youngwoon reads aloud.

Leeteuk nods and continues scribbling.

"Abandoned prison."

Lee Youngwoon and Kyuhyun widen their eyes.

"You found Sungmin?"

Leeteuk nods again.

They immediately feel their hearts racing.

"Quick."

Leeteuk scribbles one last time before he falls down on the ground. Everything starts to go dark around him, and all of his strength is out of his body. But he refuses to let go of Lee Youngwoon's hand.

"I'm sorry."

A tear slips out of Leeteuk's eyes. After a second, he also feels something wet drop onto his hand. Lee Youngwoon is the first one who has ever cried for him.

"I never wanted to lie to you, and you were the only one..."

But Leeteuk cannot finish the final words of his life before he takes his last breath.

On the ground, Kyuhyun tries to find his pulse. He turns to Lee Youngwoon and shakes his head.

Lee Youngwoon gently touches Leeteuk's face. His face is cold and bony. In Lee Youngwoon's eyes, any hint of hatred and doubt is completely gone. He whispers softly into the other's ears.

"Park Jungsu, if there is another life, I hope you will live as a free man. No Master, no debt, no pain, no obligation. Leeteuk, in another life, let's meet again, and have tea and a chat together under the patio like we always do. You owe me that much."

Another tear rolls down his cheek. In the span of two weeks, he has had to say goodbye to three of his closest confidantes.

"Kyuhyun," he turns to the other after a long minute of consideration, "take your army and follow the map Leeteuk gave us. Take Donghae as well."

"You're not coming with me, seonsaengnim?"

"We need a backup plan in case Sungmin is not there like last time."

In his eyes, dark clouds start to form. Kyuhyun can no longer read what he means.

In a quick movement, Lee Youngwoon picks up Leeteuk's body and carries him deep into the woods. He digs a grave for him and puts up a headstone written "Leeteuk".

"You will always be Leeteuk to me."

Then, without hesitation, he heads to the capital.

He is not going to lose another of his loved ones.

~~~~~

The abandoned prison is five hours away from Bukhansan, which feels like a lifetime for Kyuhyun and Donghae. They were late to save Sungmin one time before. This time, there are higher stakes. As each second passes, Kyuhyun feels like there is a fire burning in his stomach.

He regrets letting Sungmin go to the village alone that day. He regrets underestimating their enemy. He regrets not coming earlier to the public shaming to save him. If only he could do it all over again.

Finally, they arrive at the prison as they follow Leeteuk's map. The prison is hidden deep within the woods, and there is a darkness surrounding it that can give both Kyuhyun and Donghae bad feelings.

They quickly knock out the guards at the gate. Kyuhyun suspects there will be many more guards inside the place. The troops that were able to defeat and kill Leeteuk like that are undoubtedly skilled and well-trained.

As they navigate their way within the complex, a small boy's figure suddenly catches Kyuhyun's eyes. The boy looks only around five or six years old. 

"Nauri," Hyunsung quickly runs towards Kyuhyun, his eyes lit up, "are you here to save Sungmin doryeonnim?"

Kyuhyun furrows his eyebrows as he tries to read the boy's intentions. His body is covered in open wounds and his face is bloody and dirty. He looks more like a slave within these walls than someone who wants to protect his place.

"I know where he is. Follow me."

Before Kyuhyun can say anything, the boy speaks up again. His voice is filled with hope and determination.

The boy leads Kyuhyun and Donghae to a dungeon at the end of the complex. On the way, Donghae leads their troops and fights the guards to make way for them. Choi Oongshik does not seem to be at the prison at the moment.

"Sungmin!"

"Sungmin!"

"Ahjussi!"

All three of them exclaim in shock as they see the state Sungmin is in in the dungeon. For a second, Kyuhyun feels as if his entire body is paralysed. His hands and legs start shaking with each step he takes. On a chair at the end of the dungeon, Sungmin is unconscious, all bloody and beaten up. His used-to-be-white clothes are now covered in a crimson red. 

"Kyuhyun, he is still breathing," Donghae turns to him after trying to find a pulse.

For a second, Kyuhyun dares not to lay his hand on Sungmin. He is afraid only a slight touch can make the other fall apart, like a fragile cherry blossom.

"Kyuhyun," Donghae suddenly turns to him, his eyes filled with fear and worry, "look at his legs."

Donghae grew up in a small village. His family had a lot of slaves, so he was more than familiar with this kind of torture. He has seen more than twenty slaves crippled from this treatment on the street and in his own family. 

Carefully, Kyuhyun takes off the ropes that tie Sungmin and carries him in his arms.

"Nauri!" He suddenly hears the boy's voice as he gets on the horse about to leave, "Please take me with you. Sungmin doryeonnim saved my life, I want to return his favour somehow."

Kyuhyun glances at the boy. His eyes are filled with hope and genuinity. Kyuhyun nods at one of his subordinates, and the guy grabs the boy and throws him onto his own horse.

Kyuhyun is about to leave when he feels a sharp object coming at him at full speed. But before he can pull out his sword, Donghae comes to his side and strikes the arrow off. From afar, Hongdae quickly approaches with more troops.

"Let's go!" Kyuhyun shouts out to Donghae and his troops.

Inside the woods, the enemy's troops start to get closer and closer, and Kyuhyun's troops start to get beaten down one by one. They are quickly outnumbered by the enemy's troops. If they are caught here and now, they will all die. And it might also affect the people back in Bukhansan. They need a distraction to help them get away safely.

At the edge of the woods, there is a bridge made from rope that passes a cliff. Without the bridge, it might take Hongdae a few more hours to get to the other side.

As Kyuhyun reaches the bridge, an arrow pierces through the air and stabs him in his shoulder. He winces in pain, but quickly pulls the arrow out of his body. As gets to the other side of the cliff safely, Donghae remains on the other side with the enemy.

"Come on, Donghae! What are you waiting for!"

But Donghae does not cross the bridge. He pulls out his sword and slashes the rope in one move.

"Donghae!"

Kyuhyun is stunned at his action.

"Go, Kyuhyun! Take Sungmin back!"

Immediately, Kyuhyun understands what he means. He wants to protest, but as he thinks more carefully, they do not have a better choice.

"If I don't come back," Donghae continues, his eyes suddenly filled with sadness and regret, but on his face, a smile softly appearing, "tell Hyukjae that I love him. I don't know why I didn't say it more often."

A tear slips out of Donghae's eyes.

Kyuhyun feels his nose burning at the other's words.

"I will."

"And tell Lee seonsaengnim and Sungmin that I am grateful to both of them. They treated me like I was their own family. They gave me a purpose in life. They made me the man that I am today."

Another tear rolls down Donghae's cheek, but he quickly wipes it away and turns his horse back to face the enemy.

"Now, go, Kyuhyun, I'll be the distraction that you need!"

Kyuhyun quickly turns his horse around and continues on his path back to Bukhansan.

Behind him, the sound of swords and arrows clashing together has never been more cold and lonely.