The general just lightly shook her head upon the crown princess’ antiques for the umpteenth time and followed her steps from behind.

“Your Highness, before we go, however, can I just talk to my lieutenant generals first? It will not be for long,” General Kang requested as they walked back towards the crown princess’ chambers to set their trip.

“Yeah, sure, off you go, Seul. Just meet me back at my chambers when you’re done,” Crown Princess Bae answered back, prompting the supreme general to give a quick bow before running towards the generals’ battle room swiftly.

Shortly after, the general entered the room to find her other three lieutenant generals chatting and laughing at each other’s stories.

“It’s really nice of you to finally join us, Seul,” Lieutenant General Son said after she realized that the supreme general had entered the room.

“I can’t be here for long. Her Royal Highness just asked me to accompany her to go out to the streets for a stroll and she requested me to not use any horses or have any soldiers chaperoning us. I know this may be too much but can you three please keep an eye on our backs during our trip? Just make sure that you guys aren’t seen by Her Royal Highness,” General Kang asked with a hint of a plead in her tone.

“Yeah sure thing, Seul unnie. We’ll follow you two from behind like shadows,” Lieutenant General Park Sooyoung said reassuringly at the worried general, which was re-encouraged by the nods from the other two lieutenant generals.

This prompted a relieved smile to be painted on the supreme general’s face as she gratefully thanked the three’s willingness to ‘sacrifice’ their free time. After finishing her business with the other three lieutenant generals, the supreme general paced her way towards her house to get change into simpler and more comfortable commoner hanbok. She, then, returned back to the crown princess’ chambers, where she knew the latter would be anxiously waiting for her.

The supreme general knocked at the white painted doors, prompting the royalty inhabiting said room to question, “Who is it?”

“It is General Kang, Your Royal Highness. May I come in?” the supreme general asked permission from the outside of the chamber doors.

“Just wait outside, Seul. I’m almost done with everything. Let’s go as soon as possible,” Crown Princess Bae informed from inside the room, causing the supreme general to just stand at ease near the chamber’s massive doors.

Soon after, the crown princess exited her chambers with her Head of Royal Maid going out first. The crown princess had changed into simpler and more modest hanbok in order to hide her royalty status.

“General Kang and I will be out and about for the whole day, Yerim-ah, so if anyone wants to meet me, just say that I’m busy for the day. We’ll get going now. Bye,” Crown Princess Bae commanded at her personal assistant before walking towards the castle’s main gate with the general following closely behind her.

The two began their journey to the markets located at the heart of the kingdom’s main city and tasted several new dishes that were apparently sold there. They also bought plenty of ‘junk foods’ for their consumption during the trip. They walked through the streets of the city’s residence complexes, greeting everyone a ‘good morning’ whenever they saw a passerby and giving money and foods that they bought upon looking at beggars or poor kids. The general never ceased to put a smile on her face after seeing the crown princess’ caring actions.

After extremely long hours of non-stop walking, the two decided to head towards their most favorite go-to place of all times, a place where they can have their honest talk about their feelings and thoughts.

“Race to the top,” Crown Princess Bae hastily proposed with a smirk as she rushed towards their special spot, which was located on the top of the Blue Hill.

The supreme general just shook her head again after seeing the crown princess’ seemingly weird antiques before rushing towards the hill herself. When a thought finally showed up on her brain, the general halted her steps and whistled for the three lieutenant generals following them, prompting the three soldiers to come out of their hiding and faced the general.

“You guys can go home now. I think I got everything under control right now,” the supreme general commanded, which undoubtedly raised the attention and suspicion from her three most trusted soldiers.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What is going on, Seul unnie? Why are you suddenly throwing us out of your shadows?” Lieutenant General Park Jihyo spoke up after a too-long moment of silence.

“No, nothing is going on. Your work here is done, guys. Just go back to the castle please and keep this hidden from anyone,” General Kang quickly responded, making the three soldiers questioned her sudden act even more.

“Yeah as if any one of us will believe that, Seul. What are you hiding from us?” Lieutenant General Son sarcastically continued.

“Guys, please just return back to the castle. If I leave Her Royal Highness out of my sight for too long, something might happen to her. I really need to go now, so please just head back and don’t tell anyone about this,” General Kang frustratingly uttered in a rather pleading tone.

“Are you perhaps, by any chance, going to try to do something illegal with Her Royal Highness?” Lieutenant General Park Sooyoung popped the question after coming up with a presumed conclusion.

The supreme general’s face showed clear signs of flustering for a short moment before clearing and commanding in her usual authoritative tone, “You three are to return back to the castle as of this moment. That is an order, lieutenant generals. Now, scram back to your posts or I’ll have you all locked up as soon as I return.”

Knowing that they shouldn’t push the supreme general again, the three subordinates, although reluctant, began their journey back to the castle grounds with heavy steps. After making sure that she wouldn’t be followed anymore, General Kang decided to run after the crown princess, who was about to reach the top of the Blue Hill and towards their usual spot, a bench right underneath the only cherry blossom tree located in the entire land. The supreme general ran in her full throttle speed, worried that something might happen with the crown princess if she left her out of her sight for a long period of time. Luckily, by the time the general reached their special place, the crown princess happened to just arrive there about two minutes beforehand.

“Gee, Seul. What took you so long to run up here? Are you slacking off on your training these days? Where is that ‘I’m the best supreme general of the entire Elysium and nothing’s going to stop or defeat me’ Kang Seulgi that I always know?” Crown Princess Bae asked jokingly whilst still catching her breath, not knowing the conversation that the general just had with her three subordinates.

“Nah, I can assure you I am not slacking off on my training. It is just that since I know I am way faster than you, Your Royal Highness, I decided to give you a 5-minute head start in this race. You know, just to even things up,” General Kang answered smugly, trying to hide the real reason why she arrived late.

The crown princess squinted her eyes at the general’s words, sensing an odd feeling from the general’s words. However, she decided to just shake those thoughts away and asked the general to sit right next to her on the bench.

“It’s been a really long while since we’ve last sat here, isn’t it right, Seul?” the crown princess asked the supreme general whilst looking at the seemingly orange-colored sky, noting that the sun was about to set soon.

Unbeknownst