Edit: I changed the order of the chapters since it was pointed out that it's more impactful that way (and i agree! thanks a lot Rin!), so the newest chapter i wrote is the chapter before this one.

Hansol cracks her purplish eyes open, the acute light from the bracelet wrapped around Yena's wrist finally dwindling. Through the black strands of her fringe, she sees another figure, and her thin eyebrows slowly crease.

Who?

Knees planted on the wild grass, blouse ed halfway down her torso revealing a pair of pink underwear dotted with hearts, the stranger stares up at her, frozen in a daze. Her lengthy obsidian hair hangs past her unmoving shoulders, the uneven breeze displacing it every few seconds that pass.

Just as Hansol parts her lips to ask the stranger about her identity, the girl screams, folding her slender body in an attempt to hide her exposed skin. 

I probably should tell her that I can still see her underwear, but who cares. “Calm down, I won’t even care if you’re or whatever. Jeez,” Hansol says with a snort, amethyst eyes devoid of interest. “If you're done freaking out, can you move? I’m trying to save my friend here if you can’t already tell.”

The girl snaps her head up at her, revealing her face. She is drop-dead gorgeous. Her dark grey eyes reveal decreasing wariness, further proved with a soft sigh of relief through her light pink lips.

"That voice… A girl. Thank the Founder."

Oh. Her words prompt Hansol to look down on her torso. Dongmin's white linen dress shirt a size or two larger than hers hid her curves - okay, perhaps even decent-fitting clothes might hide her figure since she isn't the most… blessed. 

The huge shirt is tucked under long satin pants held up only with a pair of suspenders, the left pant leg pooling down on the ground - the right side is torn carelessly, now tied around Yena's wounds, revealing the oversized boot, design screaming men's shoes. The fact that her hair is short now is like a cherry on top.

Hansol can't exactly blame the lady for the misconception. However, seeing perplexity is always interesting. She doesn’t want to pass it up.

“Are you sure about that?” 

The pure image of bewilderment marring the girl’s face is enough to make pulling her leg worth it. With an amused snort, Hansol kneels back near the lifeless body of her partner.

Her lack of time with Yena, three days, give or take, isn’t enough to make her feel emotional. Disappointment, however, settles in the bottom of her guts.

With the past four generations of mano sinistra familiars she served, Hansol has seen them age, enjoyed countless travels by their side, fallen in love, and some even had families. Besides her first master, the other three died of old age, and all of them ended on a satisfying note. 

She probably should miss them, yet living a whole millennium numbed her sense of time. Her last master's passing didn't feel that long ago.

Seeing Yena so lifeless doesn’t feel right. Quite an anti-climactic ending for her career as a weapon. Hansol has always pictured the day where her curse will be lifted - she will part with her master, preferably at natural death with a string of emotional words to each other as their last conversation.

Needless to say, this kind of ending is unacceptable.

“Hey,” she calls the beautiful stranger, facing away from Yena.

The girl stops trying to button up her blouse with her shaky fingers, flustered beyond normal human functions. She faces back at Hansol, all caution back in her gaze.

“Wh-What?” she stutters, voice cracking.

“You appeared when this lit up,” Hansol says, lifting Yena’s lifeless arm to show her the bracelet - three dull lavender gems encased in silver.

The girl's dark grey eyes shine in recognition, jaw dropping. “Yena?! Oh, Founder…"

What a small world we live in. “You know the young miss? That makes things easier then,” Hansol says, facing her properly with a smile on her lips. A smile for business. It’s the only useful thing to come out of a smile anyway. “Fill me in for a minute. I want a name to match your face, how you even know the young miss, and what you’re doing here.”

“I’m… Minju. First Daughter of the House of Kim,” Minju says with as much dignity she can muster while trying to hide her body, knees hugged against her chest, hiding half of her face. 

Hansol scoffs inwardly. She thought she had expressed her disinterest in Minju's exposed body enough. Apparently not.

“I’m an acquaintance of Yena, I guess. We spoke a few times. As to why I am here, it's because of that bracelet.”

Hansol presses her lips into a thin line the next few seconds, digesting the information before nodding, looking at Minju once more in the eye. 

“Okay. Minju. Acquaintance. Teleported here somehow with a bracelet, got it,” she summarizes. “No, scratch that. I don’t get it. Care to explain the logic behind the bracelet?”

“One second!” Minju protests as if something finally breaks within her mentally.  “Can we hold off the questioning before I’m dressed decently? No matter how feminine you are, speaking to a boy in this state is–"

“You know I was just messing with you, right? I’m a girl. Wanna see?" Hansol asks, ing her first button.

Minju's face shades into a dark pink almost immediately when the words fly out of Hansol's mouth. "What?! Stop right this instant!"

"That was also a joke," Hansol says with a lopsided smile, removing her fingers from her clothes, receiving a glare from Minju. "Well, half. I've lived without clothes for almost a thousand years. I'd show you if you really want proof."

"No, thank you!"

“However, Lady Kim, you're oddly carefree talking about clothes right now. Yena is dying just in case you haven’t noticed.'

Minju huffs, her eyebrow twitching as she breathes through closed teeth. “First, what makes you think that messing with me the moment you meet me is appropriate in any way?” she scolds. However, almost immediately, she sighs. "Whatever. Yena is fine, so rest easy."

Hansol quirks an eyebrow. “Her heart stopped, how is that fine?”

“If the heart of the wearer of that bracelet stops, as long as her body isn’t disintegrated, it will restore her body in mint condition and revive her. She will breathe again in a few minutes. She will be asleep for some time though."

Hansol blinks, looking at the bracelet, impressed. "A high-grade magical item. Sounds rare."

"It is. It's unique to the Kim Family, forged only to give us a second life. It takes the mana of ten high-class mages to craft it."

"And the young miss has it. Why is that?"

"Yena dueled Yujin, I was among the audience. Long story short, one of the golems almost injured– no maybe even would have killed me and Yena saved me. As Father instructed, we are to give her a bracelet as thanks. A life for a life. Our family has always had a deep sense of gratitude."

Hansol sighs, releasing pent-up breath from her lungs. "…Thanks," she says, almost too sincerely that Minju looks at her in surprise. 

The flash of Hansol's genuine grateful expression flies by in less than a second like a mere passing mask and her expression reverts into the steel-like yet childishly cunning expression.

"You see, the young miss is a brash girl but really, she's a good person. I wasn't ready to have her die on me just yet."

At that, Minju tears her gaze from Hansol, settling on the unconscious figure of Yena, a hint of worry lingering in her onyx eyes. "Honestly, I didn’t think it would come in handy this soon.”

Hansol hums in understanding. No one would expect someone this young to face a near-death experience anytime soon, herself included. Making sure that Yena is breathing again with a quick check of her heartbeat, she rela