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VIII. TWO YEARS AGO (PT. 3)

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Was this heaven or hell?

Chaeri couldn’t tell as she walked slowly down the streets. If she didn’t have unwavering faith in Bang Sihyuk’s intuition, she almost would have questioned him for his reservations about this country. All of the townspeople she passed looked like they had no cares in the world with wide smiles dawning their faces. Laughs trickled through the air and visibly, Chaeri could see nothing wrong with the place.

Paradise Country.

Past the town, high up on the top of the hill stood the king’s palace. King Hyunsuk. When Chaeri approached the townspeople and tried to ask discrete questions regarding the royal family, they simply ignored her or hurried away. It seemed her poking around was making the townspeople antsy and that rang alarm bells in her mind.

People became anxious when they had things to hide.

She was dying to know the reason why Bang Sihyuk had ordered her to come here; he had undoubtedly found something. The fact that he had delayed her departure for a while to take extra precautions was enough for her to know this was a dangerous mission. If Chaeri could just uncover the secret this country was hiding, the rebel army would be one step closer to unmasking the Government’s dirty deeds.

If she failed, however…

The thought sent a chill up her spine. She was by herself with no partners, no allies. If she died, she would die alone and King Hyunsuk would show no mercy to her. She had heard from the Big Boss that every agent they had sent to Paradise Country had either died or cut communications to headquarters. No one knew their current whereabouts, which was why he was wary about sending more than one or two agents at a time, lest they catch King Hyunsuk’s attention.

Unfortunately for her, her Charm Speak was perfect for a covert mission and she had experience going solo.

In the few days she had been there, she realized a few things. First, it seemed everyone was afraid or nervous to speak about the royal family. They only showered the royal family in compliments but they couldn’t say anything else. Second, they all followed a strict curfew, with each and every one of them scurrying back into their homes by midnight on the dot.

This proved to be difficult for Chaeri as she had difficulty getting real information out of anyone in addition to the fact she didn’t have a home to return to. She took to sleepless nights wandering the town and avoiding the watchful eyes of the guards of the royal family.

On one of these nights, Chaeri came across something strange.

A bunch of people with collars around their necks were being herded by the royal family subordinates onto boats that waited at the port. Chaeri hid in the shadows, waiting for them to pass before she silently slinked into the alleyway from which they came.

It led to an underground passage way where, much to her horror, she found hundreds more collared people being abused and forced to work like slaves.

And then it hit her.

That’s exactly what they were. It seemed Bang Sihyuk’s suspicions were right. The royal family of Paradise Country ran a slave trade and King Hyunsuk was the ring leader.

What were those slaves carrying? They were passing crates to each other to be boarded on the ships and a few of the royal family elites would open each crate to examine the contents before nodding and ordering them to place it down. Chaeri scooted forward to get a better view and nearly recoiled back when she caught a glimpse of what was in the crates.

Weapons stacked on weapons were in each crate, placed on board to be