[Dara's POV]

"Y-your t-that..." my voice choked "...old lady"

"Hi darling, did you miss me?" she said with her old voice, her voice maybe a little cracky but she obviously meant it as a threat. She started moving towards me which is caused me to take a step back.

I was trembling terrible inside; the thunder was becoming worse and worse and the sky was getting darker as if the sun had disappeared. The old lady seems like she was gonna kill me sooner or later. "P-please spare me" I stuttered.

"Tell me a good reason why I should spare you young lady" she stopped at her tracks and watched me carefully.

Just by looking at her gives me chills all over my body. I didn't want to look pathetic at all but it seems like my body was not corresponding the way I wanted it to be. "B-because I'm a... I'm a…" I tried so hard thinking of a reason but my mind was blank and the only thing that popped out in my head is "... Princess" 

The old lady shook her head side to side "Bad answer Sandara Park... Tsk... Tsk... Tsk"

Her knowing my name got my attention "How did you know my name?"

"Have you forgotten that you are the princess of Joseon? It is not surprising for everyone to know you are a princess" 

When she said that I was a princess, it gave me a little confidence and gave me a reminder of on who I was. That's right, a princess never gets scared, they are brave and strong. I stood up straight and crossed my arms. I lifted my head up high as I looked at her like how I usually look at my servants "Since you know that I am the princess" I said it with authority "You should start treating me like one"

But then the old lady snorted back which made me frown and confuse. "We don't need people like you, types like you just make life worse than it is. So you shall need to be taught a lesson"

I rolled my eyes "And how will you do that old la-" I was cut off by the black smoke appearing at her toes. Her wrinkly skin was blowing away in the air as it was replaced by a young and fresh skin. The smoke was starting from her toes and making its way up.

My eyes widened and my jaws dropped in shock as I watch her old wrinkly face turn into a young beautiful lady 'Is this even possible?!' I thought. When the smoke was finally gone and she completely transformed into another person. "W-who are yo-nonono... W-what are you?!" I took a couple of steps back until I felt the wall behind me. 'This has got to be a dream or a nightmare, I need to wake up now!' I blinked a couple of times but she was still there in front of me smirking while I'm still in the same place trembling more than ever.

"I'm Han Byul... an ancient witch who has lived for thousands of years. I have witnessed all the good and bad things happened in Joseon but never once I had interfered with their politics. Humans disgusts me, they kill and steal just for the sake of power. So I hid away from humans. There’s was a lot of times where the human’s found me and asked for help to win the war but when I refused to help, they had tried to kill me. But never have I once killed a human and I just left them alone… but after seeing how you treated me today like filthy rubbish thrown in the road, I gotta say it really pissed me off. Even just by looking at you irritates me. You are in one hell of a lucky day, I am going to teach you valuable lessons" Han Byul smirked as she steps closer to me.

"ANDWAE!!! SOMEONE HELP!!!" I shouted.

"No one is going to help you dear, this place is far from anywhere. Isn't that what you wanted in the first palce? Run away somewhere they won't see you so you can escape this arrange marriage"

I gasped. 'How did she know about the arrange marriage? I'm pretty sure that this meeting was only known between the royal family and our few descendants'

"Too late for regrets now…." 

she was finally in front of me, my fist was all curled up and every of my muscle was tense. When I saw her slowly putting her hands in my shoulder, I squeeze my eyes as I ready myself for any pain coming.

“Hold on princess because this is going to be a bumpy ride…” she wickedly whispered in my ear.

As soon she went in contact with my shoulder, everything went... Poof.

The table was gone, the light was gone, the house was gone, and the lightning was gone. Everything turned into dust with just one touch.

=====

Not long after... Chaerin came back with guards behind her back. She was looking through the forest to find the house but there was nothing… she was pretty sure it was in here somewhere she's standing on but there are no signs of houses anywhere.

"Mama?! MAMA?! Where are you?" all of them were shouting at the top of their voice. Some didn't want the princess to be found if truth to be told, the princess was nothing but a brat and useless to this country. However, if the princess is not found at all... Their heads would be cut off almost immediately.

Soon they left the place unknowingly where the old antique house was once located.

=====

I opened my eyes but I could not see a thing, it was all empty and dark. An odd feeling came to me as I realise that my body wasn't standing on a particular surface. I was floating in the air. 

"I see that you are awake now" Someone talked and it echoed in my head. I jerked up and quickly looked around the room. I knew that voice, it sounded really familiar. It took me awhile to recall the events. I gasped "where are you?" I said with caution.

"Don't worry about me, my dear. You should be more worried about what's coming ahead of you" Han Byul laughed so evil until her laugh became faint in my ears.

"What is she talking about?" I frowned. But then I saw light coming straight on top of me, it was so bright that I had to cover my face with my hands. "AHHH!!" I started screaming and tears were falling in my eyes when my body felt like I was being in to that light. When the light finally covered the whole area, I closed my eyes once again praying that these are just a dream. I was falling, I could feel the air pass through me, colours were mixing with each other which is making me more dizzy than what I am now….

When it felt like everything stopped. I could tell I was lying down flat on a ground. I opened my eyes and just like what I thought, I was lying down flat in my belly. It seems like I lost all of my strength and could barely even get up. 

I checked myself whether there has been a change in me and there was nothing, everything was the same. I still had a wet hair and dirty clothes from the rain, a scratch in my arm which was bleeding a little bit and my skin felt normal. I felt relieve that nothing had been changed. But when I looked around... My jaws dropped and I started broking into cold sweat.

*HONK!*

I see this things making loud noise on the street and it was travelling fast, its making my eye and ear hurts. If I were to walk across the street and got hit by one of those things, I would clearly die. I think those things are even more dangerous than our war horse. And what was interesting was, they had different colours and shapes.

Whatever they are, they were scaring me. I started running away from all of them by running in the grass but it seems like it was following me, it was there everywhere.

I kept running and running until everything was quiet and you could not see one anymore. Then the houses got me interested, it was different from what we had... It was taller and bigger and it was made by some kind of different material. Since it was already dark and the neighbourhood was empty, chills were starting to get inside me. I hated being alone, usually I take my servants everywhere with me and not care about anything else while I just do my own thing but now I feel more insecure with my surroundings when they're gone. I hugged myself as I wonder around the empty street miserably.

Then another of those monstrous things stopped right in front of me and the light coming out from it really irritates my eyes. When the light went out, I heard a sound coming off the thing and then I saw someone coming out of that thing... It was a male human.

The nobleman... He mesmerized me, his eyes me in and his body was muscular. He was no doubt to be one of the handsome-est I've ever met. 'But what's that ink doing there in his body?' I wondered.

I shook my head to snap back to my dream or should I say reality 'Finally! Someone who looked somewhat similar to me' I happily thought in my head. But now that I look at him, he was wearing different clothes compared to mine, mine is elegant but his clothes are... Ripped and holes and has weird gibberish writings in them.

'What is he wearing? He is going to be killed right on the spot if he was in Joseon. Maybe I should warn him now. Wait... Where is this?' I made up my mind to finally talk to him but I stopped in my tracks when I saw him walking around sloppily. Then I can smell alcohol all the way from my spot, I could tell it was coming from him. My face crunched itself, I hate the smell of alcohol.

The man seemed to notice me, he stopped walking and his eyes went wide like he just saw a ghost beside me. "D-Dara? Is that you?" the man had tears forming in his eyes but he wiped it out. "What am I talking about... Dara is dead. I'm just probably hallucinating, again. ! I am so drunk. I need to go to sleep, my head is freaking aching so bad" the man walked past me and went to open the gate of his house.

I was pretty confused of what just happened. 'Did he just say Dara? But my name is Sandara, maybe it’s a short version of what our citizens named me. Since he knows my name, he clearly knows me. Maybe he could help' I smiled that I might be able to finally get back to my own home. I followed his house. It's a shame that he didn't have any servants to open and close the door for him, maybe he is not a chaebol.

His house was big, the gate was grey and it was huge and before we could even get to his actual door, we had to climb up the stairs. Then I saw one of the most magical houses I've ever seen... 

It seems like the man didn't bother to close his door and just went straight to his bedroom.

I saw him laying down flat on this thing that I don't know what it’s called but it sure looks comfortable to me.

Before the man closed his eyes, we once again shared one last eye contact before he closed his eyes smiling "Goodnight, My butterfly"