Previously…

Being acknowledged as a part of Sakura’s disciple, Chaewon started her training alongside her new friends, Nako and Hitomi. While everything seems to be fine, a sudden uprising staged by a rioter who mesmerized by Sakura’s ability and kidnapped Eunbi to catch the heir’s attention. Didn’t waste any moment, 5 person squad is formed where Chaewon joins Sakura, Chaeyeon, Nako and Hitomi to rescue Eunbi. When they are about to succeed, Chaewon sensed some Dark Magic and a sudden explosion erupted…

***

“Oh .”

Chaewon can barely open her eyes as those faint footsteps are approaching her. She can feel some ringing within her mind as her whole body feels like tearing apart. However, she refused to lose her consciousness this time and pushed herself from the floor. She needs to find her squad and escape together with Eunbi.

“I thought you lot will be blown into smithereens.”

Hearing those words, Chaewon can ascertain that her friends somehow survived those deadly explosions. Sense of relief washed inside her but Chaewon knew that she couldn’t lower her guard just yet. This unknown enemy seems to not hesitate in killing anyone within a whim and that’s what makes Chaewon wary of him. Apart from that, she can see Dark Magic magicules leaking from his body, engulfing the man into a menacing shadow. Her jewel eyes seem to waver upon seeing this man and Chaewon knows that he is a formidable opponent, vastly differ from his scrawny look.

“Hmm? Ah, I see. Interesting.”

Her whole body flinched upon seeing those jagged, long nails reached towards her but being blocked by bright sparks a few inches from her nose. Her thundering heartbeats combined with her trembling teeth makes it difficult for Chaewon to stay calm and rational. She can feel some rustic taste within as she heaved her haggard breath when the man with a ragged hood drew distance from her.

“A barrier this strong in such a short period? As expected, he is the most perfect specimen for me!”

His words sent some sense into Chaewon’s brain as she realized that Sakura once again saved her life. She turns her head to her right and sees unscathed Nako and Hitomi lying together with Eunbi. As for Sakura and Chaeyeon, Chaewon finds them unconscious while standing firm, protecting the other four members from any harm which costs them their own body. Blood oozes from their ripped skins and even though those two kids already fainted, they still manage to maintain their barrier somehow.

“This level of barrier is easy for me to break, kids.”

To Chaewon’s surprise, the barrier which seemed sturdy from earlier slowly crumbled away as the mysterious man swung his punch at one spot continuously. Chaewon knows that she is the only one who can save all of them and she needs to make her own decision fast either to fight with this man or saving her own life and abandoning her friends. She is freezing on her spot as the man is marching closer towards her. Sure, it will be a cinch for Chaewon to escape by herself as it is the most easiest, logical solution to ensure that Duke Miyawaki will get ample information about Dark Magic usage in this place.

“I’m sorry…”

Uttering her apologize, Chaewon heaved her deep breath as she closed her eyes. Magic circle floats inside the barrier area which took the dangerous man by surprise. His attention is now diverted from Sakura to Chaewon who is coughing out blood due to forcing herself to cast a spell which is almost impossible for normal people to cast.

“You- What are you?”

“TELEPORT!”

Expending her last bits of mana, Chaewon forcefully teleports herself as well as the rest of her squad towards Miyawaki Residence. Yells and curses as well as magic is shot at them upon breakage of the barrier and Chaewon barely avoided all of that. She noticed a small, black orb rolling at her knees as she hastily scooped it with her gloves before shooting her most powerful spell towards the man’s chest before being dissipated into thin air.

Crashing herself onto something hard, Chaewon couldn’t clearly hear clamoring voices surrounding her. She can feel some warm touch picking her up before being rushed towards a more quaint place. Bits of words jumbled up inside her brains, gasps and thanks filled the air but Chaewon couldn’t hear anything else as her view turned pitch dark.

***

Something cold pierced Chaewon’s skin which forced her twitching those majestic eyes of hers. She groans in pain upon trying to move her arms but fails miserably.

“Don’t move, shrimp. You tore all of your muscles if you didn’t realize it yet.”

On cue, Chaewon can feel her body screams as pain suddenly decides to pay her a surprise visit.

“Ack!”

“You reckless kid, how can you decide to pull that stunt?”

Squirming on her bed, Chaewon painfully turned her head to her left and was astonished seeing Sakura being bandaged like a mummy and using crutches to move around. Well, Chaewon thought this much of bandage is expected on Sakura judging from those grave injuries both he and Chaeyeon sustained.

“Teleportation? Really? Where did you learn that?”

She wants to answer that question but due to her aching body which surpassed her threshold limit, Chaewon can only grunt in return. A heavy sigh escapes Sakura’s mouth as the young heir looks gloomier than when Eunbi rejected his offer to go on a friendly date in town not too long ago.

“You sure surpassed my expectation, right? Gosh, Minjoo sure had great eyes.”

She couldn’t fathom Sakura’s words but the young master's next words sure made Chaewon baffled.

“Then Kim Chaewon, I promise under my name that you will become stronger than you wish you were. I, Miyawaki Sakura will do anything to help you from today onwards till the day I die.”

“You… Serious?”

With much difficulty, Chaewon mustered her remaining will to question Sakura.

“Of course, you show more than enough results already and I’m sure that you will be useful in the future if you’re stronger, right?”

Sure, she is overwhelmed by Sakura’s trust as her feat is purely out of luck. Chaewon learned about the ancient teleportation spell while racking her brain back in Baron Kim’s mansion. She had been mulling over those spells which will be useful if it can be used effectively but so far, she never succeeded in casting the spell. Well, she did use it once before to transport both Nako and Hitomi to Sakura’s room during their hide and seek game but that one spell is different from this teleportation thing. For the hide and seek, Chaewon utilized her wind spell to send the girls away while cloaking them with her light spell to blend Nako and Hitomi from being detected by those intruders.

Things are different for the teleportation spell that she recently casted. One, they all aren't in Miyawaki Residence and two, transporting huge masses tend to cost a lot of mana. What Chaewon did can be considered as creating a new spell which can change the world once the correct step to cast it is found. So far, Chaewon had been doing a lot of reading and had little chance to test out her knowledge. She only utilized all of those theories when she is in a pinch and squeezed in a life or death situation.

“So, Chaewon. How about you and me test out those spells that you had in mind later?”

She is about to agree but then, Chaewon accidentally activates her jewel eyes and sees some greyish hue hovering around Sakura. She knows that there must be something weighing this young heir’s mind for him to be in a state of deep confusion, desperation and sadness.

“Young master, is Eunbi unnie fine?”

Chaewon didn’t need to be a genius to guess what kind of situation put Sakura in such a devastated state. She isn’t dumb to see how much Sakura treasured Eunbi and based on Sakura’s action to rush over and save Eunbi from before, Chaewon knows that Eunbi hold a special place in the young Miyawaki’s heart.

“Sheesh, are you able to tell that too? How troublesome.”

“What’s wrong? You seem… Hopeless.”

“I am. Eunbi had been drugged with some unknown materials. So far, we can confirm that she lost most of her memories again.”

“Again?”

The young maid knows that there’s more than meets the eyes when Sakura took a long, deep breath before those pair of hazelnut chocolate eyes fixed its gaze on Chaewon.

“Yes, again. I had removed her memories once before.”

“Why is that?”

“She… Need it. I do it to protect her from falling into deeper misery.”

“Young master, you know that I can handle most of the angst story out there, right? So please, tell me the reason behind it.”

“If you insist,” Sakura shrugged before continuing his words, “Eunbi sees her own mother being brutally killed by Klaun Land soldiers and being cooped up in her room all along, refusing to speak nor eat at all.”

“Wait, isn’t that land already long gone?”

She sure had that piece of information stored inside that brilliant brain of hers from her past reading. Klaun Land, a savage bunch of people who killed the Ai clan which is supposed to be apart from their bloodline too. Suddenly, something popped inside her head when she reminisced about her faint reading.

“Young master, why would those Klaun Land soldiers kill Eunbi unnie’s mom? Don’t tell me Eunbi unnie is one of Ai clan descendants?”

“You are amazing, you know that much even when I purposely leave out some important information?”

“No way.”

Chaewon closed her eyes as she tried recollecting as much information regarding the Ai clan as possible. Well, she knows that they possess tremendous talent in healing and have more mana pool than most people are. Other than that, she knows that the Ai clan is being cursed by both Wiz and Klaun’s predecessor during the Founding War, a battle between three brothers to inherit the throne.

“I don’t know what I should do, Chaewon.”

“Young master?”

The little girl is flustered upon seeing Sakura bursting into tears while looking so hopeless. Thanks to her jewel eyes, Chaewon can feel some aura in the form of agony mixed with insecurities flowing out from Sakura.

“I admit that she is my ultimate weakness, Chaewon. What should I do? I am not strong at all, how should I move forward afterwards?”

This is such a new sight for Chaewon, seeing the mischievous, prideful Miyawaki Sakura looks so vulnerable and weak, just like a normal 12 years old kid should be. More than anyone, Chaewon knows how much pressure they need to face as nobilities and worse, they have to act more than their age to protect themselves from being devoured by other nobles. Chaewon can definitely understand Sakura’s intention to protect Eunbi at all cost because she will do just the same for Minjoo. Heck, Chaewon is even willing to come into a whole new place just to seek for more strength so that she can shield Minjoo from any harm.

“You can go through this for sure, young master.”

Hesitantly, Chaewon reached out towards Sakura’s crown and patted the young heir’s head. Sakura surprisingly had such silky hair for a boy, Chaewon thought upon caressing those brownish hair.

“We are all stronger when we have something to protect, right?”

Sakura sniffles continued for a few minutes before the heir regained his composure. They both just silently face each other with solemn expression, knowing that they had no choice but to become stronger so that they can protect what is most important to them. Looking into Sakura’s mesmerizing orbs, Chaewon remembers that she had collected some peculiar orbs from the maniac man’s hideout and decides to inform Sakura about her findings.

“I had something to tell you about some black orbs as well as traces of Dark Magic on our last mission.”

“Dark Magic, huh?”

“Here, I thought you might find some clues with this.”

Handing over the orb which she carefully secured to Sakura, Chaewon can feel the young heir’s darkened gaze befall onto that round object.

“Thanks, Chaewon. You have been nothing short of amazing so far. I’ll let you undergo a more intense training regime once you recuperate.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Rest. I’ll meet with Duke Miyawaki first and discuss with him about this orb. Sleep well.”

With that, Sakura staggered away from Chaewon with his crutches click-clack echoes around the infirmary. Chaewon took Sakura’s advice and decided to shut her eyes and had a good rest, eager to recover as fast as she can to become a stronger version of herself. She can’t wait to train together with Nako and Hitomi who turn out to be such good friends to her. Before long, soft snores filled the room as Chaewon snooze away into her dreamland.

***

“UNNIE, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU LET HER INTO DANGER NOT ONCE BUT TWICE!”

A roaring voice can be heard from the other line of the telecommunication orb. Sakura squinted her eyes upon hearing Minjoo’s screams after being informed about Chaewon’s condition.

“Minjoo-yah, slow down your voice or you will expose me to the others.”

“What, you didn’t even tell her about your situation yet?”

“Not yet. Not when there are a lot of pests in here.”

“Geez, you are so unbelievable, unnie. How is she now? Did she wake up already? Did she break anything?”

Minjoo can hear a small sigh escaping her cousin’s lips but she couldn’t care about that at this moment. Her mind is buzzing about a certain small-faced girl with radiant eyes which often occupied Minjoo’s head days and night. She is beyond exuberant upon receiving Chaewon’s letter and a bit intrigued about the older girl’s day. The princess hasn’t written a reply for Chaewon yet as she thought of making a surprise visit to Miyawaki Residence but her plan is blown into dust when Sakura is informed about