In the 33rd regnal year of Mundeok, there was a beautiful spring in Anju. The East Royal Garden, the King’s pet project, bloomed wildly with azaleas, cherry blossoms, gerberas, sago bushes, and many other such flowers, meticulously planted and cultivated by Mundeok. Many citizens of the city, across the classes and ages, went to admire the flowers, which heralded a peaceful planting season and good tidings for the year. Amongst them was a large royal procession of palace attendants, court ladies, and the royal household, coming to look at Mundeok’s labours. 

Hearing about the eye-watering sight in Anju, many others flocked to the capital from the surrounding provinces to visit the Royal Gardens, which were a significant tourist destination in their time, And if they had not come to visit the Gardens, it was to see the King in the royal procession from afar, as he was planning to tour his three gardens, each of which were as large as a town and had been raised from entire forests which had been cleared for them. 

Therefore, Anju and its environs were teeming with an overabundance of people, so numerous that they seemed like a sea. The royal guards were out in full force, keeping close to the procession as it began its journey from the walls of the royal palace and entered the clogged streets of Anju. At the head of the procession, aside from the Royal Gardener, was General Lee Jinki, having been bestowed the honour of leading this procession by the King himself as he had just returned from a successful expedition to suppress the Datars of the Aran Bend. 

Behind Jinki were a column of the court ladies, those on the left carrying baskets full of assorted petals, and those on the right bearing long poles with colourful streamers. Following behind were not the royal guards yet, but the soldiers of the royal monasteries, who carried the royal banners, regalia, and insignia, for it was arranged so that the monasteries could affirm their loyalty to the King after the persecution of the Pure Realm followers. These men and women — for the monastic warrior orders did not discriminate — were clad in long flowing robes of the royal monks, but also carried on their belts short clubs to signify their martial abilities. And behind the monks and around the carriages of the royal households were the royal guards, clad in armour and bearing spears, arquebuses, and swords to ward off an attempt on the King’s life, the likelihood of which only grew the further they got from the palace. 

For it was true. People were here to take the King’s life today. 

As the royal procession passed through the streets, all the people surrounding it were made to bow in respect of the royal household. It was in the midst of the crowd just outside the Gate of Triumphant Peace that Son Seungwan and her followers lay in wait, bowing low and reaching for their hidden weapons as the procession began briskly marching past them. 

Yet, as the royal carriages drew close, Seungwan suddenly caught sight of another whose posture was identical to hers: bowing low, hand deep inside her robe to obviously reach for something. The woman on the other side of the street had also noticed her, and both of them stared at each other in confusion, for both of them did not expect another simultaneous assassination plot today. 

“Who is that?” asked Youngjae, Joohyun’s second-in-command, to her. 

“I don’t know,” said Joohyun. 

It was not likely that Joohyun would have known about Seungwan, becau