everyone rushed into the nurse's room where the real king is resting. jaemin, looking slightly dishevelled, came in somewhat later as he went pretty far away from the base to find the "missing" princess. thank god she's here in this room. he was honestly feeling awful since he didn't thoroughly think of yuri's feelings and selfishly expresses his.

i'll settle this later. the most important thing right now is that the king is awake.

"father, are you feeling better?" jeno asked the king impatiently. he just missed being with his father, after years of believing that he turned into an evil, selfish person. yuri just stood at the other side of the bed, looking at her father's more energetic face. she didn't have many memories with him, but she could tell what a loving and protective father he is from jeno's stories. the king reached his hands out and gestured them for a hug that he misses for years. yuri almost forgot that jeno got his strength genes from her father and was choking for air during the embrace.

"ouh god, i'm sorry, yuri." he immediately released his embrace, leaving yuri coughing slightly and breathing some more air. meanwhile, jeno still stayed with the hug since the king's strength didn't really affect him that much. the other princes, the guards and taehee realise where jeno and yuri got their clumsy genes from.

"alright, jeno. stop being a baby. let me sit properly so that i can speak to all of you."

"i'm not a baby." jeno pouted and proceed on to help his father sit at his comfortable position.

"now, that i am out of that prison and the poison slowly leaving out of my system, we need to start thinking of ways to defeat the imposter. we have no time to waste." everyone nodded in agreement.

"before that, is it alright if i get to know all of you first? it's awkward that all of you know me, but i know nothing from all of you. except for taehee, seungcheol and my two children of course." the other princes (especially jaemin, since his future father-in-l... nevermind) and the other guards neatened themselves up and started to introduce themselves.
 

"i'm lee mark, prince of hessonite. if required, i have the power of telekinesis that you can make use of."

"nice to meet you, your highness. i'm lee donghyuck, prince of topaz. i have the power to release light, aka photokinesis. i'm also mark lee's partner. he's terrible at directions, and only i could help him with it. other than that, i als-" jeno gestured donghyuck to stop before he goes on even more.

"sorry." he whispered and nudged renjun to continue.

"i'm the prince of aquamarine's huang renjun. my powers are releasing repression and empathy. with jeno, i'm able to do psychic reflection."

"oh! you are the one that jeno keeps talking about when he was younger. i see where this is going."

"no! father! no!" before his father could say even more things, he asked wonwoo and mingyu to continue.

"i'm mingyu, and this is wonwoo. we are just guards from your palace, your highness."

"i'm park jisung, prince of ruby! i can receive a vision about the future of something or someone with or without touching them! cool right! and this is zhong chenle, my partner!"

"yeah, he's right! i'm the prince of peridot. i have nature enhancement and geokinesis. but with jisung, i could obtain sensing, while he, enhance his intuition with me."

while everyone was introducing themselves, jaemin was busy fixing his hair and even his clothes for the king. he only stopped when he felt everyone's eyes are on him.

"let me guess, na jaemin from the diamond kingdom?"

"yes. i guess you know me already."

"of course. it's just i wasn't sure if it was you since your hair isn't the pink colour that it used to be when you were younger. i can't believe you survived the raid from the imposter."

"both jeno and seungcheol hyung saved me from the raid. also, i changed my hair colour for yu- for fun. haha. " chenle and donghyuck are at the side, fake coughing.

"ouh, and my powers are augmentation and channelling, your highness."
 

"thank you, everyone. before we dwell into it, i need to tell you guys about what i know about the black flowers that almost poisoned me to death. i believe all of you are smart people and already found out at least what these flowers could do when consumed by people who do not have any royal blood, right?"

"yes, and all of that is thanks to taehee." yuri mentioned.

"incredible. now, what i know about this flower is that, compared to other dark coloured flowers, this flower seems to release more pollens than others and it harms us, but won't kill us. the effect of the pollen is just paralysing me when directly consumed into the body. because of the amount of pollen it produces, everyday, the guards will constantly come and forced me to consume it with the food they provided me with. because of how potent the flower is, for years, i was unable to move and could only listen what the guards are talking about. once in a while, the imposter will come down and mock me, but i didn't care. because i know one day, my children will grow strong and get the kingdom back. and i was right." all three of them hugged again.

"i know this might sound terrible, but if the imposter could already paralyse you, why didn't he... kill you? since his intention was to get the kingdom by himself?" mark was so close to slapping donghyuck's back for saying that but luckily for him, the king is very understanding.

"well, he didn't only want the kingdom." 

"what? what do you mean?" jeno asked.

"he... he wanted your mother too." jaemin continued that king's sentence. the king nodded.

"but that still didn't answer the question as to why the king wasn't killed." chenle's more confused than ever. the king sighed, not because of chenle, but because of what actually happened.

"my queen, my poor lee joohyun. she almost killed herself when the imposter wanted to kill me. she promised the imposter that she would stay with him so long as he doesn't kill me. from what i heard from the guards, there were instances where the queen keep wanting to visit me or escape with me but to no avail. so the imposter resorted to hypnotizing her for years. but just in case she suddenly gets back to her senses, he still decided not to kill me but just kept me paralyzed in that basement."

"god, this is more confusing than i thought it would." jisung groaned.

"one more thing, a few days before you guys came, i heard from the guards that they finally caught someone that almost killed the "king". is it you, yuri?" yuri was quiet the whole time, trying to absorb the stories that her father just told them. but she, killing the "king"? 

"i don't think i'm capable of doing that."

"wait, you have yet to tell us what caused you to be dragged into the dungeon." jaemin exclaimed. surprisingly, yuri nodded in agreement. he thought maybe all of these things made her temporarily forgot what happened between him and her. that's a relief.

"i-i didn't know what i did, but he talked about how we are a complete family, but jeno wasn't even there. not only that, he asked me to get-" yuri hesitated and unconsciously worried about what jaemin's reaction would be when she says this.

"get what?" taehee asked.

"g-get married. but either with renjun, jisung, mark, donghyuck and chenle."

"what?!" everyone replied in harmony.

before the others could question anything, yuri continued.

"yeah, so i said no. he got angry and i guess i felt frustrated too. one way or another, his real face started to appear out of nowhere, and mother seemed less doll-like. she even hugged me, it's as though her hypnotism at that moment was temporarily gone. however, before i was dragged away, i could hear his thoughts saying this, 

she needs to be kept. she's my only weakness. but i could take advantage of it.

that's pretty much it. this was what has been bothering me throughout the time i had in the basement. i don't get it at all."

"so, not only you have clairaudience, but you could deflect other people's powers?" renjun said.

"deflect other people's powers? what does that even mean?"

"it's actually a rare ability that only special people with royal blood could do. both on royals and on those who have powers from the dark flowers they consume." the king spoke in amazement.

"not only that, you have 3 abilities now. that pretty much confirms you have a partner. who is it?" he continued and smiled at yuri, hoping that she could tell everyone what's up. obviously, yuri was taken aback by what her father just said and didn't know what she's supposed to reply.

"p-partner? i-i don't have any? m-maybe i'm the very exceptional one with 3 abilities at once?"

"nah, there's no such thing. maybe mr. jaemin here could explain what's happening?" donghyuck, being the joker he is, decides to bring up jaemin's name out of nowhere.

"h-hey, don't bring me into this. i-i have nothing to do with this." he stuttered and started to look around, avoiding everyone's eyes, especially jeno and the king. meanwhile, the king knew something was up between his daughter and jaemin but didn't want to bring it up yet to not make the situation more unsettling.

"alright, now i want everyone to take a break before going back to training. if i saw anyone of you train during your break, i would command jeno to body throw you. also, bring back taehee to the castle. it will be more suspicious if she disappeared for quite a long time after we escaped."

"yes, your highness!" everyone bowed and left the room, but the king grabbed yuri's arm before she could leave.

"you, stay."

____________________________________________

jeonghan's mind is stuck.

as much as he wanted to save the queen, he had no idea how. sometimes, he just wished one of the princes, or maybe taehee came to help at least. yes, he finally found out the woman's name, unfortunately, not directly from her, but from the princess herself. the only thing that he had done was convincing his father that he would take care of the queen while he's gone.

"hmm, might be good idea. after the princess and the imposter escaping this palace, i wouldn't want my queen to be kidnapped. plus it took you too long to find the long lost prince of emerald, i might as well do it myself."

ouch, but he still manages to be close to the queen anyway. as always, the queen was so in trance that it's impossible for him to wake her back to reality. the only people who could do that is his father, and the princess. but the more he looked into the queen's eyes, the more he felt sorry about the whole situation since he's been following his father's orders without thinking it through. he approached the queen who was quietly sitting on the bed and sat beside her.

"i know that you might not hear me at all but i guess the current situation had left me no choice. i have no friends that i could interact with anyway." jeonghan let out a small laugh, thinking how ridiculous it is that he's speaking to the queen, the hypnotized queen.

"firstly, i'm sorry. this whole thing started out because of me. if i didn't trick the king into consuming the food poisoned with the pollen during kingdom day 18 years ago, my father wouldn't successfully infiltrate the castle. i'm sorry i let my selfishness and desperation to get my father's attention led to the downfall of your family. not only yours, but the diamond family too. but right now, i don't know who to apologize to when the whole diamond family is gone." he sighed before continuing on.

"to tell you the truth, i don't know my father well. because... he's not even my biological father." at that moment, jeonghan forgot that the queen isn't able to react to his secret.

"i was just an orphan, going around stealing things to survive, but i met him as i ran into the forest. he saved me from the officers who were trying to catch me for stealing. i wanted to repay him, but his only wish was to be his son. of course, an orphan like would be intrigued to have a father figure in his life. i was so jealous of other people having a father-son relationship, how they often go out to eat or play together. he didn't treat me like i hoped he did but i always thought maybe i was being a bad son. that's why i never said no to the things he asked me to do, including the horrible things. there were times where i really wanted to quit, just run away from this terrible reality, but i can't escape this hell hole with him having those incredible powers." jeonghan held the queen's hands tightly, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. even if she can't hear him or accept his apology, he just wants to let it all out.

"i promise, i would stop him with all the knowledge i have, as much as i could."

knock. knock. knock.

jeonghan immediately wiped his tears and stood up, away from the queen. the door opened and a familiar figure entered the room and walked towards him. his eyes widened when he realised who it was.

"taehee?! what are you-" taehee closed his mouth pretty roughly and placed a finger on , gesturing him to keep quiet.

"i think you got it wrong, i'm taeri." she pointed outside the door. there are guards outside, shh. jeonghan nodded.

"the king appointed me to be the queen's maid-of-honour from now on."

"noted. you can proceed." taehee looked around in the room to find any rough paper and a pen for her to communicate with jeonghan. she scribbled as quickly as possible.

for now, both of us will take care of the queen. the rest is at the base, trying to find ways to save the queen and the kingdom.

taehee passed the pen for jeonghan to write.

in the meantime, i could give you guys more information about the black flowers. i know it quite well from him. do you have a way to send the message to them secretly?

taehee nodded.

great. we can do this!

seeing how jeonghan sincerely wants to help them, taehee, of course, appreciates his help. she mouthed to him 'thank you' before helping the queen to rest on the bed to sleep. jeonghan made sure the paper that they used is burned with the fire lit on the candle completely to remove any pieces of evidence.

____________________________________________

"alright, tell me, what's wrong? did jaemin do something bad to you?" was i being that obvious?  yuri fiddled with her fingers even more out of nervousness.

"n-no. he didn't."

"then why are both of you being overly cautious of each other?" fine, maybe her father knows about love way better than the others. so maybe there's no wrong asking him about it?

"i can't believe this is our first proper conversation with each other. but i guess i could share it with you since you know better."

"did jaemin expresses his love for you?"

"a-am i being that obvious?"

"yes, you did. you are exactly like your mother. you thought you could hide anything, but it's clearly shown from your face." yuri sighed.

"i-i actually don't know what to reply or what to do. it's the first time someone was being direct to me about their feelings and i guess i had my flight reaction to it... and... ran away?" the king facepalmed.

"i-i'm sorry, i really don't know what to do. firstly, he said he loves me, but i don't know what he meant. maybe his 'love' is different from my perception of 'love', you know. secondly, what is the outcome that is supposed to happen after that, like does that mean we become best best friends or what? lastly, am i supposed to reply to him or just listen to him?"

"slow down, my child. hmm, let me think this through. firstly, what do you think of him?"

"umm, he's the first friend i made after taehee and have been taking care of me a lot this whole time. i'm more aware that i'm clumsy and he's always there to save me. he also has this pink-fluffy hair that resembles a pink rose. an-"

"alright, maybe. i wasn't specific enough. what i meant is, how do you feel about him? do you think about him a lot? what happens, if he is not around you anymore?" that last question shot right to her chest. after she got to know jaemin, she realised how much she thinks about him, how much weaker she felt when he's not around her, how much she adores him. the things that he has done for her makes her want to return the favour, by taking care of him too. every time he's injured, she can't help but feel worried and desperately wanting to heal him. even during the time she was in the cell, the first thing she thought of was jaemin. but this feeling could mean she loves him as a family.

"do you imagine yourself being with him throughout your whole life? did you feel happy being around him? did he always bring you comfort whenever we are not with you?" yes. yes and yes.

"does that mean, i love him too?"

"if you agree to all of that, there's a high chance you are." yuri naturally pouted as she thinks deep into the questions she was bombarded by her father. the king can't help but pinch her cute cheeks.

"you are so cute. but let me continue, did jaemin asked you any question?" question? recalling back, she might've run away before jaemin finishes his speech for her.

"i guess i ran before he could do that. but what question is he suppose to ask?"

"hmm, something like 'would you take my hand on this journey together'?" yuri cringed. maybe jaemin isn't the kind who would say that.

"i'm joking, but he may ask something similar to that, or if he's more gentleman, he would've asked you to reply him next time so that you can think it through. just don't run away again if you see him if not, none of this will be solved. one more thing, you decide what you want the outcome to be, alright, make sure it's mutual."

"i understand... thank you, father." she embraced him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room. 

she needs some fresh air after that long talk with the king.