To hear the usually kind-hearted crown princess said those words to the only friend she had ever had was completely shocking to all of the soldiers there, including the three lieutenant generals.

The newly appointed General Son hastily strode forward to where the frozen stature of the now-private ranked soldier was standing and defended the latter, “Is this a joke, Your Highnesses? I believe it is too much of a punishment just because General, I mean Private Kang, unknowingly woke the two of you up.”

“Do you want to join the club, General Son? Do you want to also be demoted…” the crown princess questioned the newly appointed general in the same strict tone, but was immediately cut off by the private who bowed down deeply in a kneeling position right in front of the two royalties’ feet and said sadly, “Your Highnesses, please do not punish General Son for what she had not done. I wilfully accept the terms to Your Highnesses’ punishment and once again, I am terribly sorry for the ruckus and discomfort that I have caused for Your Highnesses.”

The royal princess, in turn, commanded, “Good, good. Now, get those tents ready now, private, because the two of us are extremely tired right now. General Son, a word,” after every single person in that plot remained mum for too long.

After saying the last command, the two royalties walked away from the camping site towards a distance quite far from where the site was. The whole battalion was still in utter shock and confusion when the two royal siblings began walking away. The newly appointed general, then, weakly approached the ‘disgraced’ general, who was still bowing, and helped her up.

“Are you alright, Seul?” General Son asked restlessly after seeing the private’s disappointed and dejected expression.

The private, then, cleared once and stood up straight before answering, “I am alright, ma’am. Thank you for asking.”

“Seul, look. I…” General Son continued with unease clearly depicted on her tone, but the private cut her off and asked, “Permission to speak freely, ma’am?”

General Son sadly nodded and whispered, “Gosh, Seul. You don’t even have to ask any permission to talk to me,” but Private Kang ignored the statement and also uttered in a quieter voice, “Ma’am, I am in a perfectly fine condition now, but I just need some time to take a breath and soak it all in. Please do not keep Her Highnesses waiting, considering how irritable their conditions may be right now.”

General Son, again, just gave the ‘disgraced’ general another pity and sympathetic look before commanding, “You’re dismissed, private,” prompting Private Kang to stand straight and salute at the newly appointed general.

Private Kang, then, returned back towards her previous position afterwards, while General Son marched slowly and sadly towards where the two royalties were standing.

General Son gave the two royal siblings a short bow before asking, “What do you need, Your Highnesses?”, expecting to get another snarky and strict comment from either one of the two royalties.

However, the royal princess’ answer shocked the newly appointed general as the younger royalty replied back, “Did we go too far with the prank, Seungwan unnie?”

General Son immediately semi-shouted, “What?!”, but was quickly muffled by her own hands in order to hide the real truth of the previous situation to the other soldiers around them.

“Why would you even do that, Your Highnesses? Besides, why won’t you tell us that it is a joke when I asked if that was a joke?” General Son asked questioningly and with hints of anger, still completely not understanding the ulterior motive of the two royalties.

“Well, when we were woken up by the general’s loud command and saw that the two of you being humiliated like that, we decided to teach Seulgi a lesson whilst having fun for ourselves with the prank. I thought it’s just going to be a short one, but Seulgi’s take on the whole situation kind of screw our position up. I thought she’s going to fight us more, but apparently she doesn’t. Besides, when we’re about to back down in the end, it seemed like Seulgi had soaked it all in and I don’t know how to tell everyone that it’s a joke. I don’t know if you realized this, Seungwan-ah, but the whole battalion was looking at us and backing down at that time will make us look like immoral people,” the crown princess explained whilst scratching the nape of her neck in frustration.

“Gosh, Joohyun unnie and I got soaked in our roles too much that we forgot that it was supposed to be a prank. Nonetheless, the bigger question here is ‘How are we going to reverse this situation now, Wan-ie unnie?’,” the royal princess questioned the general worriedly, almost to the verge of breaking her walls down and shedding tears.

“I really have no idea right now, Your Highnesses, but let’s just talk this through again when the situation’s all cleared up a bit,” General Son recommended, earning the nods of the two royal siblings, before continuing, “If it is alright with you both, I will like to read Lieutenant General Park Sooyoung in on this situation, considering that she might be our best bet to find a solution to this entire situation. I will also like to read Lieutenant General Park Jihyo in on this situation so that whatever plan we have next will not be screwed up.”

“Yeah, just do whatever it takes to reverse the damage that we’ve done, Wan-ah. Also, please don’t tell Seulgi yet that it’s a prank because we want to be the ones to tell that directly to her. I’m really sorry if we put you in this tough situation,” the crown princess uttered apologetically, in which the newly appointed general only replied with, “The person that you should be saying the apology to is Kang Seulgi, Your Royal Highness, not me,” before bowing at the two royalties, who returned back to their carriage in remorse and guilt.

“So how did it go, Seungwan unnie?” Lieutenant General Park Sooyoung asked curiously after General Son had returned.

Private Kang squirmed in discomfort and unease after hearing the lieutenant general’s question, which undoubtedly didn’t go unnoticed by General Son, prompting her to order, “Private Kang, take a five-minute break now before continuing your tasks. The generals and I can handle this right now. Off you go now.”

Private Kang was about to open in rebuttal, but General Son immediately cut her off by continuing in a firmer tone, “That’s an order, private. Now off you go,” prompting the former to just salute at her three ‘superiors’ and walked towards the most western corner of the camping plot.

“We need to talk privately about this. Can you ask someone to continue our work here while we talk?” General Son immediately stated after Private Kang was out of hearing’s reach.

Lieutenant General Park Jihyo instantly called upon Sergeant Kim, who was working on a tent used for the soldiers’ barrack, and ordered her to resume the work on the royal siblings’ tents. After making sure that all was set, Lieutenant General Park Jihyo, alongside General Son and Lieutenant General Park Sooyoung, strutted towards the other end of the camping plot to discuss the bizarre matter at hand.

“So, what the hell just happened, Seungwan unnie? Care to share some of your knowledge right now?” Lieutenant General Park Jihyo asked indignantly.

General Son took a deep breath before breaking the news to the other two lieutenant generals, “It’s a prank. This whole thing is a prank to just lightly humiliate Seulgi. The royalties didn’t think it would go this far.”

“What?!” the two lieutenant generals shouted in unison.