“Look out!”

“Don’t open your eyes!”

Yerin wasn’t sure how the situation ended up turning out like this, but the rolling storm of her emotions was far from being over. First she had to deal with her brother being a conniving trying to kidnap her best friend slash cousin to force her into an unwanted marriage, which was terrible enough in itself. Then even that took an unexpected turn a few minutes ago, when the cavalry came to the rescue in the form of the two travellers they had encountered a few days ago en route to the sacred Temple. 

The hope she felt when she saw the dashing figures of their would be rescuers was hardly tempered by the fact that they were also women, despite being dressed in masculine garb for their travels. Truth be told, she and Eunha had also both been cloaked and dressed as simply as possible to avoid attention during their escape from the provincial capital. These were difficult times, despite the kingdom being nominally at peace, and bandits were not uncommon. Discretion was the better part of valor for women on the road.

It didn’t take much for the two adventurers to make short work of the buffoons her idiot brother had hired as guards, and just when Yerin thought that the worst was going to be over, it turned out that her brother had a last resort quite literally up his sleeve.

When she saw that familiar looking bottle and all that it implied, she had cried out for someone to stop him. Eunha was still trapped in his hold, her poor cousin unaware of the imminent threat, and Yerin was a little too far to run to her aid. 

Technically, so were the two adventurers, but the taller one was apparently capable of moving a lot faster than anyone expected, managing to speed across the forest clearing upon hearing Yerin’s desperate cry for help. Yerin’s heart was at as she ran over to Eunha first to check on her poor cousin, even as their savior wrestled her brother to the ground, trying to get the apparently dangerous bottle away from him.

Eunha was unscathed, thankfully, and just as Yerin turned around to check on the fight, she heard the shorter of their two rescuers yell out:

“Yuju, look out, he’s got a knife!”

Yerin’s heart almost stopped when she heard that, and even Eunha struggled to her feet, stumbling forward to see what was going on. 

Yuju, as it turned out, was more than capable of handling even unexpected surprises like that, even though she did suffer a jarring gash across her forearm as she fended off Juhyuk’s (Yerin’s brother) desperate attack, knocking the wind out of the pampered young man as she jammed an elbow into his chest. The bottle he was holding flew out of his hand as a result, the precious vial rolling unseen through the grassy clearing even as SinB sprinted to the action to aid her best friend.

This meant a couple of things. One, that the vial was currently out of immediate view. Two, it was also directly in the path of the charging SinB.

These two factors, put together, could only lead to the inevitable result that left Yerin nursing the biggest headache she ever had to deal with in her life, and that’s even with counting the whole “run away from home to avoid an arranged marriage” idea Eunha had come up with. 

The vial was crushed under SinB’s heel. Normally, not a huge problem. However, even Yerin had underestimated the volume of the fumes such a tiny bottle could hold, but then again, considering the nature of the contents, perhaps normal estimates could not be held to. SinB coughed instinctively, squinting and shielding her eyes even as noxious fumes puffed into existence, emanating from the crushed container. 

Yerin reacted quickly, pulling Eunha back and closing her eyes, holding her breath after yelling out a warning. Yuju and Juhyuk were too close to the fumes, but Juhyuk of all people knew what the fumes could do, while Yuju most definitely didn’t. The acrid scent of the fumes scorched the clearing around them, obscuring the ones closest to the shattered source, and fortunately, it did not linger for too long. 

Yuju choked on the noxious fumes for the few seconds it burst into existence around her, but it didn’t stop her from punching the living daylights out of Juhyuk in the process, knocking him out in exchange for the slash he left on her arm. Ironically, this actually saved them some trouble later, not that they didn’t already have enough on their hands to deal with by then. 

The tall mercenary did hear Yerin’s warning to not open her eyes, and obediently followed it, trusting the pretty stranger they had run into on the road less than a week ago. Yerin had been sharp and clever and definitely left an impression on her with the way the young woman had dealt with that cheating conman of a merchant trying to bilk her and SinB while they had been restocking on rations, and the four young women had travelled together since their meeting at the last town for safety’s sake, only parting ways before the Temple.

That was why she immediately decided to come after them on hearing that a troop of armed men had been asking about the other girls at the inn earlier. Yuju would have gone alone if SinB hadn’t returned in time after wandering off on her own again, but two were always better than one, and as confident as Yuju was in her own swordsmanship, she wasn’t sure she could take down a whole group of armed men on her own. 

As it turned out, things had gone better than expected since the guards were barely better than farmers waving about sharp implements, a waste of the good steel in their hands. Yuju and SinB had grown up on the border facing real warriors raiding their lands, and were hardly about to be intimidated by well dressed buffoons who didn’t even know how best to balance a sword in their hands. Still, surprise had paid a large part in their success, since even a sufficiently large mob could overwhelm the well trained. 

Yuju’s eyes itched terribly, and she scrunched her nose up, rubbing at her closed eyes gingerly as she collapsed awkwardly on her bum after climbing off the now unconscious Juhyuk. She could distinctly hear SinB muttering the curses she was most definitely not supposed to have learned from her father’s soldiers, but Yuju didn’t blame her. She felt like cursing too, but was still aware of Yerin and Eunha a few feet away from them, and didn’t want to be rude. These were ladies of quality, and despite her and SinB both also being female, Yuju could feel the difference between them, and didn’t want to appear uncouth. 

SinB had fewer qualms in general, since she wasn’t concerned about impressing anyone...at least, not until she heard the sound of hoofbeats incoming, paired with a familiar voice calling out their names. That stopped her from swearing like a sailor, and on instinct, turned towards the approaching voice calling her name, opening her eyes despite Yerin’s warning earlier.

Yerin was deeply relieved to see a troop of local militia guided by an acolyte from the Temple, the young woman in the white robes looking concerned as she jogged towards where SinB and Yuju were. Yuju was still rubbing at her eyes, sitting motionless on the ground, but SinB had gotten up to face the temple maiden in the meantime, and Yerin’s eyes widened when she saw that SinB was looking directly at the young woman.

Beside her, Eunha had also recovered from the shock, and was wandering over to check on both Yuju and her least favourite cousin -- honestly, she had not expected Juhyuk to go this far to kidnap her for marriage. Her dad was only a baron, and while he did possess extensive estates and businesses, Eunha never really thought that it would make her such a target following his sudden passing at the festival coup last autumn.

Eunha barely had time to grieve his passing before the first proposals started turning up at her doorstep. Which made sense, since she was the only heir to a rich estate and an open title. Anyone who successfully married her would gain access to a fortune. Her uncle, Yerin’s father, was helping to manage the estate now, but she knew that eventually, she would have to get married. She just didn’t want it to be so soon, and to someone she didn’t even know.

So when she found out that the Duke himself had proposed marriage through her uncle as well, Eunha decided she would rather go seek sanctuary at the Temple for the time being, her excuse being to mourn her father’s passing -- a legitimate excuse if she should say so herself -- and all offers of marriage would just have to wait until the year of mourning was past. Yerin offered to keep her company, and they had slipped out quietly as the weather began to warm up with the first blush of spring. It doesn’t really count as running away if they left a note, right?

Juhyuk was still out cold with a blackened eye courtesy of Yuju, and the skinny young woman was still on the ground with her face scrunched up like she was about to sneeze. Her sleeve was reddened from where her arm had been cut, and Eunha winced in sympathy, offering a hand to the taller girl to get up.

“I’ll be fine...a-choo!” Yuju waved her away blindly, trying to push herself upwards, before another great sneeze rocked her. Involuntarily, her eyes blinked open for a second as she took another breath, taking in the concerned face of the young heiress hunched over her. Suddenly, Eunha looked very...cute?

Yerin was just starting to try and pry SinB off the equally confused temple maiden when she heard her cousin yelp behind her, and when she turned around, she saw Yuju glomp onto Eunha while blabbering on about how adorable she was. Her eyes were also open, and Yerin groaned inwardly. 

This was going to be a problem, wasn’t it?