♣♧♣ Chapter 1 ♣♧♣ 17th of January 1799   It was long after sunset, long after the sounds of crickets had taken over the eerie silence, when the click-clack sounds of horse hoofs making contact with the ground disturbed the usual evening sounds. The horse made a stop at the edge of the forest, and its rider gracefully slid off.   In front of them was a path that led to deep into the forest; in the distance, a light could be seen. That light marked their ending point. That light was where they had been heading to for the past 3 months. It was pretty much a miracle that they had made it here on this exact date.   Slowly, the man followed the path towards the light ahead of him, making sure to keep his horse at the reins so it wouldn’t stride off.   The light ahead of him got bigger and bigger, and slowly, the contours of a house could be distinguished. The man hastily made his way. Even though he was nearing his ending point, he couldn’t feel relieved just yet. Traveling during times of war had made it clear that even the parts that seemed save and clear could suddenly turn into a hell hole. You must always be alert when traveling during times like these, that was one thing that he had learned.   But even though the man was as alert as he could be, he completely missed out on another man following him. The moment that the unknown follower made his move, he accidently stepped on a branch, which made the unaware man turn around while simultaneously reaching for his gun. But he was too late. He ended up staring into the loop of a gun, and knew that grabbing his own gun now would only make his attacker more furious.   “Who are you?” The stranger asked, lowering his gun slightly so that the traveler could finally see his attacker.   The man holding the gun looked intimidating, though, it was the age of him that made the traveler feel more comfortable. The man was obviously in his early twenties, and that had to mean that this was the man the traveler had came for. He was in no way part of the Eastern army, and therefore he was no threat.   “I have come to meet with your parents,” he answered, not losing eye contact with the other.   “Who are you?” the attacker repeated, putting extra emphasis on the question and threateningly moving the gun even nearer to the other man’s face.   “I am a messenger of the Western empire, and I demand to speak to your parents,” the traveler countered, and he turned around to sooth his horse, as it was seemingly feeling restless due to the sudden extra company.   “You have no business here, go home.”   The messenger didn’t listen, though. He continued walking towards the house in the distance, and the man holding the gun was slightly taken aback. It’s true that he had never encountered other people before, other than his parents, but he had figured that people would be just as scared of him as animals were.   On the other hand, whenever he hunted down an animal, he would instantly shoot, and never take a second to negotiate with it. Maybe he had made a mistake by asking this man what his purposes were.   “I will shoot,” he said as his final attempt to sound intimidating, but the traveler just laughed it off.   “Youngwoon, isn’t it?” he asked, still moving towards the house and never averting his gaze from it, “You have guts, boy. Which is good, because you are going to need it.”   Youngwoon scratched the back of his head with his gun before putting it back into his holster carefully. The man seemed to be no immediate threat. If he indeed had come here to harm him or his parents, the man stood no chance. After all, Youngwoon’s father was probably the best hunter on the entire planet, killing a man wouldn’t be a problem for him. And if the man would make a move on Youngwoon, he stood no chance as well. Youngwoon was trained by his father; before the man could even touch his gun, Youngwoon would have taken him down already.   Therefore, Youngwoon ran after the man, and followed him towards his own home, making sure the so called messenger wouldn’t make any misfortunate move.   ♣♧♣♧♣ “Jongwoon, did you feed the animals yet?” The voice of a woman echoed over the farm area.   “Yes, mom!”   “And did you water-“   “YES, MOM!”   It had been a day like any other. Jongwoon had just finished his usual round of animal-feeding, filling the water trunks, watering the decorative plants and checking on Munti, their pregnant cat. He was just on his way towards the henhouse to check for eggs, when his mom started to ask him the obvious questions.   In the corner of his eyes he spotted his best friend, Sungmin, walking his way with a large grin present on his lips.   “Twenty-four years old, and your mom is still checking on you?” he remarked, ending up hugging Jongwoon as a hello.   “Only because last month I forgot to feed one cow, which, in my defense, isn’t that odd if you consider that we have 368 cows to feed,” Jongwoon argued, not hugging Sungmin back to show that he was being deadly serious.   For as long as Jongwoon can remember, him and Sungmin have always been friends. Even though they have an age difference of almost 1,5 years, it had never stopped them from being best friends. But that’s probably because Sungmin is a little more adult-like for his age, and Jongwoon is definitely behind on his own.   Sungmin released Jongwoon and ruffled through his hair.   “Aren’t you cute,” he said, while Jongwoon tried to slap Sungmin’s arms away.   “You sleeping over?” Jongwoon asked, as both of them started to make way towards the henhouse to collect some of the hopefully present eggs.   “Yeap, if that’s okay with you,” Sungmin replied.   “Naturally,” came Jongwoon’s reply.   Sungmin resides in the nearest town; he is part of a market vendor family. Sungmin’s parents and Jongwoon’s parents have always been business partners, and that is probably how Sungmin and Jongwoon had met in their early years. However, as the town isn’t that close by, Sungmin would often sleep at Jongwoon’s if he came over. One could almost consider them as brothers.   The chickens turned out to have done a good job; there were quite some eggs to collect. Though, grabbing those eggs wasn’t the easiest job. Luckily, they were two. Sungmin distracted the chickens, while Jongwoon grabbed the eggs and made a run for it when the chicken noticed that Sungmin was just a decoy.   After 45 minutes of grabbing, running, and being pecked, the two of them ran towards the gate, opened it, ran outside, and closed it. Three angry chickens stood on the other side of the fence, still trying to attack both Jongwoon and Sungmin, when suddenly the ground started to shake violently and the chickens retreated towards their nests.   “Earthquake?” Sungmin asked, staring at Jongwoon a little startled. It’s not that they aren’t used to earthquakes, but this one certainly did feel different.   Roaring sounds could be heard from far away, but suddenly, the roaring sounds turned into more distinguishing sounds and came nearer.   Horses.   A whole group of horse-mounted men appeared on top of the hill. They took a stand and looked around for a little before their eyes spotted Jongwoon and Sungmin. ‘Hyaa!’ some of the men shouted and the horses made way towards the two astonished men standing immobilized next to the chicken pen.   The group stopped at an acceptable distance, except for one who only stopped when he was at a mere 1 meter distance; he was most likely the group’s leader. Two guns were visibly hanging from the man’s belt, and both Jongwoon and Sungmin gulped, fear completely taking over, making them unable to run away and warn anyone.   The man said nothing for a few minutes. He just stared from Jongwoon, to Sungmin, and back to Jongwoon, before his eyes rested on Jongwoon’s necklace. The necklace itself being new, but the pendant as old as Jongwoon, and maybe even older. He’d had it ever since he was little, and his parents always told him to never forget to put it on. Why, Jongwoon didn’t know. To him, it was just an ugly old dirty thing with no particular meaning, but for his parents it was important, and so he never skipped a day wearing it.   “ us to your parents,” the horse-mounted man suddenly demanded with a very authoritative voice, on which Jongwoon could only nod in response to.   “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Sungmin whispered to Jongwoon, as they walked in front of the horse-mounted men, who followed shortly behind them.   “No, but what else can we do?” Jongwoon answered tensely, before speeding up his pace, only to get it over with faster.   After all, the only weapons Jongwoon’s family had, were inside the house. And inside the house is where his parents are. Meeting the man’s demand is really the only chance they have.   ♣♧♣♧♣ “Is he still wearing the pendant?” Youngwoon could hear the messenger say from inside the other room.   He couldn’t help but eavesdropping on the conversation his parents were having with the man.   When Youngwoon returned home with the stranger, his parents facial expression turned straight into horror. His mom started to tear up, while his dad seemed tense as never before. They had sent Youngwoon away to his room, while they had welcomed the man inside. It was something Youngwoon had never expected to see. Fear. His parents seemed scared, and to him, they had always seem as people who had no fear for anything whatsoever.   Youngwoon once again placed his hands on the wooden door and leaned in to hear anything of the conversation. But strangely enough, the sounds had faded. To ensure he didn’t miss anything of the seemingly important conversation, he placed his ear on the wooden surface.   A chair could be heard moving backwards and footsteps came closer. But before Youngwoon could react, a loud ‘bang’ sounded and the door shook violently. Youngwoon grabbed his head as the painful sound still echoed in his ears.   “Youngwoon, go to your room!” his father yelled, and Youngwoon wonderingly stared at the door, which seemed to be talking.   “Now!” his father’s voice added, and Youngwoon hurriedly ran upstairs to his room.   For hours, Youngwoon remained alone in his room, awaiting the moment the front door would open and the stranger would leave. It was long after midnight, and long