At the moment, besides the school gatekeepers on their station, only the four of them stand by the Hwalgeori Academy stables, preparing to leave for the Port City in a few minutes. Yujin has already gone ahead and picked their horses—she’s the best at looking at horses’ conditions between the four of them, allegedly. Well, she seems pretty confident about it, so they just went ahead and left it up to her. Also, it turns out that they can only rent up to two horses since only Yujin and Yuri had access to the facilities as the officially enrolled students of Hwalgeori Academy. One of them had to share a ride with someone else. 

Finishing up with buckling the thick leather saddles on the horses, Dongmin, the , walks towards Yena, a calm smile on his face. He is significantly taller than Yena, further added on with the dark blue musketeer hat perched on top of his head. Dongmin is someone Yena can consider handsome, fitting as a fiance to someone of Yuri’s high station (his facial hair made him look a bit old though). His demeanor suggests that he has his manners followed down to a T.

Despite all that, there is just something about him that annoys Yena, and she can't pinpoint what it exactly is—maybe he's just not her type of guy? Not that she knows her exact type in a guy in general, she never had anything resembling a boyfriend before, and even in platonic terms, she made friends regardless of gender. She never thought about her type per se. 

But she didn’t like Dongmin somehow. Call it a gut feeling or whatever.

"Hello, pardon me for not introducing myself sooner," Dongmin says gently, placing a hand on his chest before bowing. "I'm Viscount Dongmin from the House of Lee. I am Yuri's betrothed."

Yena forces a beam on her face in reply. "Yena. Yuri's familiar," she replies curtly with a brief bow, which would probably come off a bit strange in Chatan. She's absolutely not doing that curtsy thing to him. Yena would stick with the Korean way, and he's dealing with it. "Viscount… You're personally picked by the princess?"

"It depends which princess you're talking about," he says, turning his body to his familiar before its head, still with a smile plastered on his face. "The first princess, Princess Doyeon, is the one who appointed me to make sure my Yuri is safe."

My Yuri? Gag. Yena swears that if nobody is with her right now, she would have loved to kick some nearby wall. It’s so damn annoying, frankly. It makes her insides crawl and her blood pulse for some odd reason that she cannot explain. It really isn’t new to her, having friends flaunt their significant others in front of her—but those times didn’t bother her as much as this one did.

Yuri's face becomes pink as she overhears their conversation from the side since she is just coincidentally coming up to them. She must have finished discussing with Yujin regarding the horses. "Oh… I forgot to introduce you. He's Sir Dongmin, my fiancé."

Dongmin then chuckles before gently picking Yuri up under her arms effortlessly, spinning her once with a gleeful smile on his face. "I've wanted to do this since earlier. You may have grown, but you're still as light as ever."

Yena feels her jaw involuntarily clench at the scene. As someone who wears her heart on her sleeve, it’s tough holding back certain expressions from seeping out into her face. Thankfully, she successfully keeps her aggravation within.

Yuri's face becomes beet red in embarrassment. "I'm not a child anymore! Don't carry me like that!"

Dongmin laughs. "My apologies. It has been a while since I saw you when you were still eleven, right before I went away to be trained," he says. "I'm just a bit sad lately. You've always clung to me back then, yet we have lost contact for years."

Yena wordlessly escapes the scene towards where Yujin is. She feels like she doesn't belong in the scene, and she should let them have their moment. Yujin, this whole time, has been occupying herself the horses’ manes and speaking to them as if the horses can understand the words she is uttering towards them lovingly.

"Ready to go? You know how to ride a horse, right?" Yujin asks before rubbing the head of the second horse. "Here, try befriending Biscuit. He's the one you'd be riding today," she tells her before her eyes naturally shift to the huge beast standing by Dongmin and Yuri. The griffin. “Yuri would obviously go on Viscount Dongmin's griffin. Lucky. I heard it's more comfortable over there than on horseback."

Yena's face becomes sour. "She'll ride with him huh…" she mumbles before placing a hand on the brown horse, Biscuit. "What say you, Biscuit-nim? Like me enough to ride with me the whole day?"

CHOMP. 

Yena‘s heart suddenly jumps. Thankfully, she has sufficient reflex to pull her hand back, narrowly making it just as Biscuit attempts to bite it earlier as if her hand was a horse treat in his eyes.

"Wah! Did you just try to eat me?” Yena asks in disbelief at the horse, who just neighs back at her. “Oh, it's on you little jerk!" she growls as she tries grabbing Hansol on her belt.

Just then, Yena feels someone gently slap her hand holding the hilt of the dagger. "No killing horses, Yena."

It's Yuri, now having finished with her little catching-up moment with her old man of a fiancé—Yes, Yena still thinks that Dongmin’s mustache makes him look like he’s fifty. 

"It tried to make a meal out of my hand!" Yena points accusingly at the horse.

"It's because you're scaring him," Yuri chuckles lightly before Biscuit's mane. "See? He's a good boy."

Yena huffs, completely letting go of Hansol yet still not reverting from her defensive stance. She then looks Biscuit in the eye, narrowing her gaze. "You win this time. I'm watching you."

Biscuit seems to huff at her too, making her eyebrows twitch in annoyance.

"Yuri, aren't you getting on?" Dongmin calls from atop the griffin, looking badass as he sits there, his hat fluttering against the wind. Yena hates to admit it, but she wants to ride an amazing beast of a familiar like that one day too.

Yuri shakes her head at him. "Sorry, I'd ride with Yena this time. If I leave them alone, one of them might get eaten," she says casually, climbing up gracefully on Biscuit.

Yena follows suit, sitting behind Yuri with a pout on her face. "You think I'd have it in me to eat a horse? I'm the only one in danger of being eaten here."

Biscuit seems to say something angrily with a neigh as Yena holds the reins attached to the bridle. Due to the animal refusing to get controlled by Yena, it takes her a while to adjust.

"Can you two settle down? We have a long journey ahead of us!" Yuri scolds them.

Yujin, ahead by a few meters, slows down a bit before turning her horse to the side with relative ease to look back at them. "Keep up the pace, you two. It might take us longer to get to the Port City at this rate."

"Can't we get Yujin's horse instead?" Yena groans as Biscuit now steadily follows behind Yujin's black horse after a few more moments of struggle.

"Stop whining like a child. Biscuit is a wonderful horse,” Yuri says, running her fingers through his mane. Biscuit whines happily at Yuri's touch—with a hint of smugness most probably aimed at Yena.

"Hey, if you need me to slice some horsemeat, don't hesitate to," Hansol says from her belt. "Horse is mocking you. It needs to know its place."

"Don't fuel the fight, Hansol," Yuri huffs.

"Domesticated horses who dare insult its rider becomes an ingredient in the night's hotpot when we camp. Don't worry. My former master says it's delicious. Just like beef."

Yena blinks, her lips twitching up. "Really? Beef hotpot…" she mumbles, the thought of it almost making her drool. 

Beef hotpot would sound heavenly right now, especially with them slowly approaching the autumn season and the nights are steadily growing colder by the day.

Yuri sighs deeply. "See? This is what I meant when I said one of you would get eaten at some point if we leave you two alone."

★彡

It has been almost two hours since they departed from Hwalgeori Academy, and they have passed through many gates that lead to different villages within Hwalgeori. The traffic of carriages and horses is thankfully not heavy as they managed to weave through at a decent speed.

After a few more minutes, the lush greenery is starting to thin out as they approach the barren plains that connect Hwalgeori City to the Port City of Chunho. The traffic has significantly lessened as well, with only merchants crossing with them on the plains. According to Dongmin, it would take at least a day to cross the huge plains before they reach the Port City of Chunho. Many farms are situated on either side of the roads, growing vegetables that Yena hasn’t seen before.

However, an hour in and the scenery is starting to get repetitive, so Yena can't stay silent anymore. Any more, and she'd die of boredom.

"So when did you get engaged with the Viscount?" Yena asks as she sees the griffin in her peripheral vision, leading them through the plains.

"Huh?" Yuri's shoulders jolt against Yena. "Oh… my engagement. It was a long time ago."

Yena hums. "Hm… like. three years ago, or something?"

Yuri shakes her head. "No, my parents set us up when I was around six."

Yena's jaw drops. "When you were what?!" she asks. Yena almost drops the reins, making Biscuit walk in a slightly curved direction than intended. "Oh, , sorry, wait! Rough terrain." She scrambles to get ahold of the reins once more.

"Hey! Be careful when you're riding!" Yuri scolds her, helping her steady Biscuit while holding the other rein.

"S-Sorry," Yena says, finally gaining back her control. "Just didn't expect that plot twist. I mean… six? All I worried about at that age is if I will be able to outclimb every other child in our neighborho