YUJIN's eyes suddenly opened as her body automatically sat up from lying. She looked around only to see Minjoo lying beside her, peacefully sleeping. She suddenly felt pain from her shoulder. It seemed like the wound inflicted by Jiwoo hasn’t completely healed yet. Vampire inflicted wounds are really hard to heal.

“Yujin?” She was surprised with that call from Minjoo. The girl was awakened when she heard groans from the aching lycan. “Is there something wrong? Do your wounds still hurt?”

“Sunbae…” Yujin gasped for some air. “Didn’t you feel the earthquake?”

Minjoo was still rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. She was obviously clueless of what the lycan was talking about. “I kinda felt the bed shake maybe because you moved but apart from that I didn’t feel anything.”

Yujin looked even more troubled. She looked outside only to see how the sky was filled with grey clouds.

“Is something wrong?” Minjoo pushed herself to sit up even though she’s still feeling a little sleepy. She wasn’t able to sleep properly due to the scent of Yujin’s blood.

“I don’t know. I can feel a very strong force and it’s not that far from us but I don’t think that it’s dangerous either.” Yujin looked back to Minjoo and forced a smile. “Don’t you think they succeeded with the marking?”

Minjoo smiled back at the lycan. “I hope so. I believe Seulgi-nim is capable of receiving the ambrosia. The human girl from last night even managed to take it even if she’s just an ordinary one.”

“Yeah…” Yujin then lowered her head. Minjoo could feel the sadness in her eyes even though she’s smiling. “With this, Seulgi-nim will be able to control her power without losing her life. I believe she will be the most powerful leader this world will have.”

Minjoo remembered the conversations she overheard in the plane. She was already aware of Seulgi’s abilities to copy and cancel other shamans’ abilities but she didn’t know that using that cracked power will result in premature death as it uses the life force of the shaman using it.

She knows that Yujin is a half shaman and a half lycan. It would be normal for her to know a thing or two about the shaman kingdom but the young lycan seems to know more than the shamans that they are with. Even Sooyoung and Yerim were astounded when she started explaining how the marking would help Seulgi control her powers without endangering her life.

Seulgi and Irene who were also listening to her explanations were clearly amazed as well. Her theory somehow matched some of the things that Sakura told Irene before tragedy struck at the airport. Seulgi just looked intently at the young lycan before telling her that they should speak once the marking is over.

“Yujin…” Minjoo called once again. The other girl’s eyes were then fixed to the tower where the marking was held. “Just who on earth are you?”

The lycan princess slowly turned to Minjoo but she couldn’t look straight into her eyes. “I told you, Sunbae… I am a honhyeol.”

“I know… I am also informed that your mother was one of the grandma's of the Alpha and that you were not as young as you look… and that your father is a shaman.” Minjoo bit her lower lip, her fingers clenched the bed sheet. “Who on earth is your father, Yujin?”

The lycan reached out to Minjoo and gently caressed her face. For some reason she’s not aware of, Minjoo didn’t dislike it. She even closed her eyes for a moment to savour the moment.

“Sunbae… After all of this, promise me that you’ll come to the ball with me. Please be my partner at the party.” Yujin gulped, this time she used all the courage that she had to look at Minjoo’s face. “You know what I mean… by asking you to be my partner. I’ve been feeling like this towards you for quite a long time now…”

“Yujin—“

Minjoo gasped a bit when Yujin pulled her hand away. “Sorry, that’s a bit rude of me to suddenly ask that, right? I know I acted stupid in our first meeting and even managed to convince Wonyoung to fool around with me. I just really wanted to leave an impression on you. Sorry about all my childish stunts…”

“Why are you suddenly speaking like this?” Minjoo worriedly asked. “You’re making me worried.”

Yujin took a deep breath. “The situation is getting out of hand now. I know that Prince Euigeon attacked us but I can sense that he’s under some sort of spell. I just can’t confirm it. I believe that the real enemy is lurking in the shadows, using the Prince as a marionette.”

Yujin’s fists balled. “I will try my best to help Seulgi-nim defeat the real enemy. I will try my best to bring back peace to the land. I will give my all if that’s what it takes to atone to the sins of my father.”

Minjoo grabbed Yujin’s hands. The lycan’s words are really stressing her out. “Yujin-ah…”

“Minjoo…” Yujin held Minjoo’s hands as she pivoted closer to the vampire. “You know well that my real name isn’t Yujin, right?”

The girl gave her a nod. “Y-You guys have lycan names, right?”

“Yes…” The lycan then proceed to plant a soft kiss on Minjoo’s hand. “My real name is…"
 

TAKING a stroll in the castle grounds, Jisoo found herself standing in front of the Vampire King’s huge portrait. It was a painting that was painted by the human, Leonardo da Vinci. The King took favour of his works and personally commissioned him his portrait. Many years have passed and it is the King’s favourite portrait of him.

Jisoo admired the said painting. The Vampire King back then had long, red locks but his trademark mischievous smile has already been there ever since.

“This person is my real father…” Jisoo told herself as a few memories of Jiwoo were left in her. She can’t recall any bad memories. Everything that flashes to her were all good memories of Jiwoo, most of them happened before his rebellion. She could even recall a bit of his memories while he was with Sakura.

“I hope I can meet him one day. I want to know more about him but…” Jisoo looked at her reflection on the nearby knight armour. “What am I exactly? Am I still a human or am I a vampire? I don’t feel any desire for blood now—”

“That's because you had a buffet of blood before coming here.”

Jisoo immediately turned towards the direction of that familiar voice. “L-Lisa?”

“The unnies are busy taking care of the kids. Follow me to the library, I will try my best to fill you in.” Lisa started walking when Jisoo immediately caught up with her.

“T-Thank you, Lisa.” Jisoo bowed her head. “I am also sorry for everything that happened.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. You don’t know anything.” Lisa monotonously answered. “Also, about me filling you up… Don’t mention it.” Lisa stayed focused on her way, remembering the human that got caught up in the phoenix’s flame, the human girl that earned her respect. “She entrusted me with all the details. I will fulfil one of her last wishes.”

DEAD worried about the marking, Sooyoung wasn’t able to sleep well. She was also tracking the happenings back in the shaman mansion. There was no good news about the Shaman King at all. It feels like they are doing an impossible mission of searching the vast astral realm.

What’s even more worrying is that the shaman protests are getting out of hand and worse, they are protests coming from the high ranking shamans who are afraid of what the negative can do against them. The first negative targeted the ranks and killed many prominent names during his reign. They are afraid that the same thing might happen now that another negative has come into light. They believe that the reason why Prince Euigeon is doing all of these things is because the King is either raising the negative into power or is being controlled by the negative herself. They are all demanding the negative to be executed.

Sooyoung took a deep breath. “It may seem harmless for now but I am afraid that some random upper rank shaman would take use of the situation to rise into power.”

“Unnie?” Sooyoung turned around to see Yerim carrying the baby girl phoenix who doesn’t drink blood. The baby was soundly sleeping in her arms. She gave the younger girl a warm smile.

“You carrying a baby is kind of cute.”

Yerim just shook her head before standing beside the older shaman. They both looked up at the tower where Seulgi and Irene were staying.

“When do you think they will finish?” Yerim asked, her voice trailing a bit. “It has been two days since they entered the tower. There was no news even from the attendants.”

“We’ll just have to wait and hope that everything is going out well.” Sooyoung still couldn’t believe that she’s standing at that very place, doing the very duty that they have been preparing for ever since they were examined. There were days when she thought that they were training for nothing since no one would take interest to a zero even though she’s a princess. For the record, that princess was even stripped off of her royalty because she was declared a zero.

“Who would’ve thought that this day would actually come?”

Sooyoung looked at Yerim once more, a bit surprised that they were actually thinking of the same thing. She sneered. “Aren’t you happy that we can now apply all those harsh training that we received from General Son?”

She was expecting Yerim to smile but the younger girl just kept looking at the sleeping baby. “No… Not at all. Not at the very least.” Yerim stressed. “Who would’ve thought that things could be this bloody? Innocent lives were taken.”

Sooyoung pressed her lips together. There were indeed a lot of casualties at that baseball match attack.

“How I wish that everything would just go back to the time where the three of us were just busy with our hustles. We were busy trying to survive but now it’s not just our lives that’s in our hands.” Yerim felt crying but she pushed the tears back. “I feel bad for Seulgi-unnie… She’s now carrying the world in her back yet the world wants her to be dead.”

The older girl took another deep breath. She hesitatingly placed her hand on Yerim’s shoulder which kind of surprised the younger girl.

“D-Don’t worry… Everything is going to be fine.” Sooyoung tried to assure Yerim but she just couldn’t look at her, partly embarrassed by what she’s doing. “Let’s trust Seulgi and the vampire princess… Peace will be back in this world…”

Now blushing, Yerim ran a simulation in her mind before finally getting the courage to tell Sooyoung what she’s been hiding for so long.

“Say, Sooyoung-unnie…” She shyly called, taking quick glances of the other girl whose cheeks were tainted with pink as well. “What do you think of starting a family after all of this?”

“Huh?” Sooyoung stiffened on the spot. She still couldn’t look at Yerim. “You aren’t even done with university…”

Yerim let out soft chuckles. “Do we still need it once we get back? We’ll probably be Seulgi-unnie’s bodyguards.”

The older girl wasn’t able to answer. She pressed her lips together before letting out a sigh. “Aren’t we skipping a lot of steps? I mean, from only being friends to starting our own family?”

Yerim looked up at the taller girl yet the latter still couldn’t look into the former’s eyes. “It’s been so long since I stopped looking at you as a friend. How about you, Unnie?”

Since she couldn’t use her hands, Yerim gave Sooyoung a tap by leaning her forehead towards the girl’s chest. “Just a younger sister, eh?”

Sooyoung wasn’t able to answer, having Yerim interpret her silence as a yes. The younger girl forced a smile to her before she