Taehyung and Taeil grew up to be best friends. They were now twelve years old. Taeil was still calm and shy. He was well mannered but could become angry in the blink of an eye. The boy was very gentle with everyone and therefore seemed very personable. He talked a little more than before, but his eating habits did not change the slightest. He ate very little but was perfectly healthy. His body did not need more than people expected him to.

Taehyung was the complete opposite. He ate more than necessary. His appetite grew over the years greater. The boy talked incessantly, often caused trouble and gave funny reports. He was a bit exhausting of a person and way too relaxed when it concerned his education. Rather, he had a dream to leave Gongju one day and explore the world out there. He wanted to experience adventure, have fun in life. Both boys were slim yet well built. They were playful, always lively, and up for every kind of nonsense, whereby Taehyung mostly had to persuade Taeil to join him.

Today their world should change. They were in their room and dressed up. They no longer lived in the palace. The new king had sent them off the day after the cremation of king Lee Byunghun. They now lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of the village. Lee Seung-gi and Suzy still took care of them, of course. The two guards had come much closer in the four years but did not enter into a relationship. None of them wanted to take the first step. They lived together and were like a small family. Seung-gi, Suzy, Taehyung and Taeil.

“What do you think awaits us?”, Taehyung asked his roommate.

“Hm. I do not know.”, Taeil considered, “Hopefully not a celebration or feast…”

Taehyung's mouth watered. He looked at Taeil all dreamily and chewed on his own sleeve.

“Mhhm, a feast.”, he raved with a drool in the corner of his lips.

Taeil smiled briefly and sat on the bed.

“If that is the case you can have my plate.”, he offered and shook his hands, “I really do not want to eat again.”

Taehyung grinned at him. He was all too happy to accept this offer!

“Where do we have to go today?”, Taeil asked after a while.

Taehyung also sat on the bed and thought about it shortly.

“To the palace. We will not be the only ones there”, he replied thoughtfully, “It is for some sort of new chapter for our lives as the students of king Changmin.”

Taeil nodded. He noticed that something bothered his friend. After a certain time, Taehyung finally broke the silence.

“Would you like to take your bandage off today?”, he asked all curious.

Taeil shook his head. His cheeks flushed.

“Why not? I have never seen your right eye...”, Taehyung whispered offended.

In all the four years they spent together his friend kept his right eye covered with bandages. Whatever the reason was, Seung-gi and Suzy always warned Taeil about it.

“I am sorry, I am not allowed to”, the boy defended himself in a sad mood and sat down next to his friend.

Taehyung put his arm around his shoulders and did not bother about it any longer. He always tried to get a glimpse of the covered eye, but he would rather let it go than push Taeil into doing it.

“Hey, do not put your head down! It is not your fault. It cannot be helped”, Taehyung consoled his friend.

Taeil smiled briefly, then stood up and turned right in front of him. He looked meaningfully into his eyes. Taehyung became nervous. Why did he look at him like this? He felt uncomfortable.

“In my family, my tribe, it is common that the fathers bequeath something to their sons.”, Taeil started to explain, “For me it would be my pupilless purple left eye and my bandaged right eye. The covered one is... strange.”

Taehyung propped himself up on his forearms and tilted his head. The blanket rustled under his body.

“How much stranger could it be? What is stranger than a pupilless purple iris?”, he asked nosy.

Taeil took one of the two chairs, twirled it and set it right in front of his friend. He sat on it so that the rest was between the two boys. He put his arms on the rest and his chin on them. The boy thought about it. Maybe he could show his eye to his friend. Taehyung was his best friend; it would not hurt him to share its appearance. Would it?

“Do you really want to see it?”, Taeil asked him after a few seconds of giving it a thought.

Taehyung looked at him in surprise. He straightened up immediately, pulled his legs to his body and sat comfortably with a pillow in his arms on the bed.

“Yes, of course!”, he shouted excitedly.

He hid his face briefly in the pillow and looked up again. He became nervous. A lot.

“Well... Well then let me just...”, Taeil whispered still not confident about it and carefully touched the covers.

He slowly removed the bandage. His eye underneath was closed. As he wanted to open it and Taehyung stared curiously at it, someone suddenly kicked open the door of the room. Taehyung fell back on the bed in shock while Taeil immediately grabbed his bandage and got off the chair.

“What the hell?!”, Seung-gi scolded the boys.

After the death of his grandfather, Seung-gi became very sad, quiet, and sentimental, but after the last few years he had long since become the same guard, if not stricter.

“Taeil! Are you crazy ?!”, he scolded the boy further.

The boy sat back on the chair, all ashamed. He clung his pants to his thighs and fixed his gaze on the floor.

“How did you know?”, Taehyung asked in surprise, “Did you eavesdrop on us?”

Seung-gi glared at him.

“No...? Alright, yes, I was listening! The walls are thin in this house!”, he replied irritably, “Taeil, how could you? I gave you a thorough explanation of how dangerous it is!”

Taehyung glimpsed at his friend with a questionable look. Taeil looked depressed. His expression indicated that he was about to cry.

“What is so dangerous about it?”, Taehyung asked curiously and tried to gain the guard's attention, to make him stop scolding his friend.

“You do not need to know.”, Seung-gi replied a little bugged and went on, “Do not do that ever again, Taeil! Do you hear me?”

The boy nodded in fear and shame. His eyes were filled with tears. Seung-gi sighed, patted him on the shoulder and then left the room irritably. Taehyung got up and went to the door. It was so unfair. They always excluded him. They never revealed the secret of the eye to him. Suddenly Taeil grabbed his arm and turned him around. He wiped away his own tears and shrugged.

“I am sorry, V. I would like to show you, but I am not allowed to…”, he apologized again.

“Just tell me why you cannot show it to me then.”, Taehyung ordered a little bit offended, “Let me have a part in this secret of yours. We are best friends, are we not?”

Taeil nodded, peeked out the door and locked it then. He pulled Taehyung onto the bed with him and sat down across him. He took a deep breath and looked his friend straight in the eye. Again, Taehyung felt uncomfortable.

“My right eye has no pupil either, but six cracks in the iris. Apparently, I could manipulate people with the use of it.”, Taeil explained nervously, “I don't believe this nonsense, but to be honest, I do not want to risk it either. I do not know how to control it, if it is true...They told me that it is a degenerated form of the original eye.”

Taehyung stared at him with his mouth open. Was Taeil kidding him? It was not funny at all. What a lame excuse it was.

“Hey, Taeil. If you do not want to tell me, you do not have to come up with such a stupid nonsense. It is fine if you cannot tell me either. I understand”, Taehyung assured and stood up.

“No seriously! I am not lying! I never lie to you, V! It is the truth, I mean, that is what Lee Seung-gi and Suzy keep telling me again and again. I know it sounds very idiotic. I mean, I do not believe it myself either!”, Taeil defended himself.

“Umm yeah… I think we should go now”, Taehyung suggested, walked away and unlocked the door.

“Wait…”, Taeil pleaded, “I am really not lying to you. Please, believe me…”

Taehyung smiled at him, grabbed his arm, and made him leave the room together.

“Yeah, I trust you. Do not worry about that. But it is crazy.”, he said to ease his friend’s mind, “Well let's go now, otherwise we will get in trouble.”

Of course, he did not believe a word Taeil had said. It was a stupid excuse. Taeil looked at him with a slight smile and then together they hurried to the palace that was in the center of Gongju.

King Shim Changmin, Lee Seung-gi, officer Suzy, a royal medical chief, two young nurses and other guards and fighters were already standing in the huge entrance hall where Taehyung once had met the late king Lee Byunghun for the first time. Nothing much had changed here since then. The golden ornamental patterns on the red walls were still very vibrant. The four golden pillars were still supporting the ceiling. The hall still appeared very big with its round ground plan. The eighteen glass cases were still there. But some of them were empty now. Only a few still contained a red pillow with an object on it, that either looked like a sharp crystal or like a bracelet.

Taehyung and Taeil joined the other students. They stood in a row. They were all about the same age. They were trained and educated together because of king Shim Changmin’s command.

“Welcome to the palace, my dear students!”, king Changmin greeted them, still with a cane to support himself.

Everyone in the hall bowed respectfully.

“I am happy to see you all on time. I want to get this event done quickly, so let us start right away.”, he explained, pointing to one of the boys, “Kim Seokjin! Step up and look for the ancient amulet that may belong to you from today on!”

The boy stepped out of line and approached the king. He bowed again and trembled in excitement all over his body. Seokjin had pitch black hair and purple pupilless eyes, like Taeil. Perhaps these eyes were nothing extraordinary after all. Taehyung remembered the day when he had met Taeil in the palace standing next to the late king for the first time. He had seen his weird eye for the first time back then and was a little frightened by it. Taehyung chuckled at this thought of the past. His friend grinned too. He could imagine why his friend had to giggle.

“Shh! Please be quiet. You must be quiet, otherwise it might offend the king.”, Seung-gi whispered to the boys from their backs.

Taehyung and Taeil nodded apologetically. Seokjin went to one of the glass cases and stayed there for about two minutes. He went from one to the next and each time he put his hands up to the glass and closed his eyes in fear. Every time he stopped everyone would hold their breaths, except Taehyung and Taeil. Not only Seokjin was nervous, so was everyone else. Oh well, almost all. When he stopped at the eighth box and tried to raise his hands, the glass suddenly shattered into hundreds of pieces. The crystal in it shone very brightly. The white light hurt Seokjin's eyes very much. The boy was startled and made a big step back. He blinked like crazy because the glaring light irritated his eyes a lot. Taehyung and Taeil exchanged glances. They were confused about what just had happened. Nonsense. It was all nonsense! Perhaps, they were being held stupid by the king.

“The 'time'!”, cheered the king, “Kim Seokjin! You will be in charge of time. Take the crystal. It belongs to you now!”

Seokjin hesitated a long time and then did what king Shim Changmin had commanded. He put the crystal in his pocket and the light finally went out. The boy walked back to the other students. His hands shook, but he stayed calm.

“That is totally rubbish! Do you believe this crap?”, Taehyung whispered to the boy.

Seokjin smirked and shook his head. Naturally he did not believe in things like magic, sorcery, and other abnormal things. Guardians and fighters had definite skills, but they were the chosen ones, with a royal bloodline. These people trained for years to gain some sort of techniques and abilities. But these children? They were just kids who had been training for about four years. None of them had ever shown any kind of magical powers or breathtaking fighting skills.

Taeil focused on the next boy, who had to do the same as Seokjin. Jung Hoseok found what was meant for him straight away. A bracelet that was described with the ancient sign for 'earth'. Hoseok was now responsible for natural events. He attached the bracelet to his right wrist, so that the glare of it stopped. Taeil exchanged a serious look with Taehyung, then both giggled again.

“They are just kidding us, are they not? Seems like king Shim Changmin is bored again.”, whispered Taehyung.

Taeil laughed silently. The king often had fun with his students. He had fun mocking them now and then.

It was Chao Tzuyu 's turn now, the only girl in the group of students. She had beautiful black hair, reaching down to her hips. Tzuyu was very petite and shy. She was afraid of this event. It was very scary to her, but she also had to go through it. Girl or boy, in Gongju there was no distinction among children. A crystal lit up. Tzuyu took it with shaky hands and put it in her pocket. She owned the crystal for ‘air’ now.

“Let’s take a short break!”, king Shim Changmin interrupted the activity and abruptly disappeared from the entrance hall.

His officers accompanied him. Seokjin, Hoseok and Tzuyu observed their magical artifacts. The others also joined them.

“What does king Shim Changmin mean b