Chapter 25 – [1805]

King Minho wore a gentle smile as he observed his Queen pouring him his drink. The lass was more beautiful than ever. Her flawless skin and youth reminded him of when they first got married. It may not have been out of love, but there were no denying her endless beauty that drew him closer to her. As Yoomi set the teacup down on a wooden platter, the ruler reached a hand over to caressed the back of her hand. The touch brought a glowy smile onto her face as she look to him for further leads, but something distracted him, a thought. The same thought he has been rewinding and replaying for the last few years, “Have you paid the prince any visits ever since he turned eighteen, my queen?” he asked, a move that made her turn away.

“Your majesty, you know how I feel about that child,” She replied humbly.

“How do you feel about him?” Minho asked softly. Ever since their marriage, Minho could never get himself to yell or force Yoomi. Something about her had always kept him calm, thus after every officials meeting he would see her to ease and comfort his troubled mind and health.

“I have not enough room for him in my heart, I cannot adore him as I do you, even when he’s your firstborn,” Yoomi said pleasantly, yet, sternly.

Minho kept his smile as he leaned toward her, grabbing and burying her hand into both of his, “Even if you don't have space for him in your heart, I only ask that you make room for him in your arms,” Minho then pulled Yoomi closer before he shut his eyes and gently rest his forehead against the side of her head, all so he could whisper into her ear, “my prince Youngtae grew up without his mother. You may not be aware but I’ve caught him looking your way at times. When you were with Junseung, Youngtae saw how happy Junseung was. So, even if you cannot hold him dear, please, all I ask is for you to accept him. If you accept him, Junseung will too,”

Yoomi looked down at the untouched cup of tea below her. As she considered her husband’s desperate plea, she could feel his head moving down her hair and ornaments until it rested on her shoulder. There he wrapped his arms around her and fell asleep. Slowly Yoomi placed a hand over the King’s hand and it gently. “Since you ask, I will think about it your majesty,” Yoomi breathed.

In a spacious one person bedroom, brightly lit by the evening’s sunlight brought in through an opened window, Chuho wandered its emptiness with a hand enveloped over his now bandaged-injured arm. Meanwhile his overseer, Yeong, was seated in a corner observing his every move from head to toe, “If you don’t mind me asking,” Yeong started, surprising the pacing boy, “what was the reason you and your friend were being chased by that group?”

Chuho use the moment of silence after Yeong’s question to take a seat under the window, where he could easily see the questioner across from him, comfortably criss crossed under the shadow of the wall and roof. There Chuho uttered a sharp groan as he settled down, feeling the pins and needles shooting up and down in his whole right arm. Then he noticed the gaze from Yeong and was reminded of the other's question, the younger cleared his throat before answering, “Before I answer your question, let me ask you something first,” Chuho proposed. Yeong who saw no harm in that allowed the boy to proceed with a nod. “Earlier you were carrying a sword. I’ve seen enough swords and knives to tell whether they’re real or not, but somehow you were able to scare those scums with a plaything. I want to know how you did it,”

A small smile crossed Yeong’s face as he respond, “My father has always taught me that you must see and read the owner of the material, not the material itself. That the strength lies in the wrist, not in the hand,” Yeong’s words put an amazed yet confused expression on Chuho’s dirt-smeared face.

“See and read the owner of the material? Strength lies in the wrist but not in the hand?” Chuho repeated after, “What exactly does that mean?”

The older boy wasted no time before explaining, “A man, whether he wields a sword or a brush, if he carries himself well and asserted authority when the time and place is right, then he will have the upperhand in every situation,” Chuho waved a hand to cut him off.

“So you’re saying since you looked rich and powerful in that outfit that you’re wearing it was what scared off those old bastards? Not the fact that you had a fake sword to that loudmouth Gwakjin’s neck?”

Yeong raised an eyebrow but kept a calm voice, “You’re familiar with this group?”

Chuho blinked, a little too fast before stuttering, “Y-you can say that..,” Yeong quickly grew to accept that the younger’s stuttering was the answer to his previous question.

“I won’t ask what your relationship is with them, but until the doctor arrives to check on your friend, please stay here and rest for the time being,” Yeong insist as he stood from his spot, causing Chuho to worry.

“Arrives? Isn’t that pretty woman from earlier the doctor?” Chuho asked, eyes wide open.

Yeong scoffed a smile, “No, she’s the doctor’s daughter,”

Chuho’s jaw dropped as he perceived the news, “No wonder, I thought she looked too young to be a family doctor,” the older took it that the younger was talking to himself and thus maneuvered to leave, but his plan was delayed when Chuho look to him for more questions. “By any chance, is she married?”

Once the words left his lips, Chuho thought he saw a glint of coldness in Yeong’s eyes but the lad kept a calm, yet hesitant tone, “W-why do you want to know..?”

Chuho wasn't sure if it was the look in the other's eyes, or his too calm tone that made intimidating in the moment. With a wide smile Chuho chuckled, “No, don’t get me wrong idea. I was just asking, it’s not that I like her or anything like that,” the volume of the bandit’s voice rise as he denied any wrong ideas Yeong was getting. When the standing didn't appear convinced, Chuho pused on, “I-I’m serious, I’m interested in someone else. I have another girl I like and she’s—”

To stop Chuho from blabbering on Yeong cut in to give the younger an answer, “She’s a damsel,” the taller one quietly left after his response. For a brief moment Chuho actually found the older’s action to be adorable as he instantly realize the reasons behind it. Chuho got up to look out the window when he saw Yeong leaving, and without any shame the lad hollered out the window.

“Hey!” Chuho’s call stopped the latter in his steps and forced him to look toward the bandit’s direction, “If you like her, what’s a better day than today when the sun is bright and lovely to tell her that you like her? Huh?” Chuho ended his short speech with a thumbs up before shutting the window. Unaware, Yeong felt warm and encouraged and hence expressed it was a growing smile. Then quietly he make his way to another hut that kept Denis. Once Chuho shut the window he shook his head and felt the goosebumps, “What is when the sun is bright and lovely?” he asked himself, surprised at what he had said, “his dramatic way of saying things must have rubbed onto me, ‘strength in the wrist not the hand’, what? His father taught him that? Well I hope I never meet his father, oh, the horror!”

Yeong came into the dark, yet, clean room when he noticed Denis was still unconscious, meanwhile a young lass was leaning over the foreigner and cleaning him with a soaked handkerchief. Sun Seohyun, Doctor Sun’s only child, is a year older than Yeong and was following in the footsteps of her father in becoming a family doctor. Though she had always voiced her thoughts of wanting to be a caretaker to both orphaned children and abandoned elderly, meanwhile at the same time open up a small place of her own to take care of the sick. As the pretty, pale lass wiped down Denis, she failed to hear Yeong enter. Until he stopped a few steps behind her and spoke, “How is he doing?” surprised but not stunned to hear him, she took a step back to dip the cloth into the bowl of water before squeezing and twisting it.

“I’ve cleaned and tend to his wounds, but he may be in a state of shock which is why he hasn’t fully woken,” she spoke, her voice tenderly soothing. “How about the other one? Did you take him to the resting room I’ve asked?”   

“I did,” Yeong answered shortly after.

With a thankful hum she proceed to question, “did you get to the bottom of what happened?” Without looking at him but working around him, she was quick in her movements and words.

“Have you ever heard of a man name Gwakjin..?” Yeong asked carefully, hoping he had remembered the name Chuho spilled correctly.

The lass let out a sigh, “I could have guessed that it was him who had done this to these boys, when I first saw this one,” Yeong knew she was referring to the unconscious blonde. As Yeong scanned the boy, nothing struck out to him as odd or strange enough for Seohyun to claim otherwise. “A foreigner with a Korean boy. Only a few foreigner resides here, most who stay behind are part of the trade market. Whether they are businessmen, buyers, or traders. But what is a non-Korean boy doing running around with one?” the lass finally left the cloth in the bowl and grabbed ahold around its edges, “I was convinced that they are part of a trade group, however, now I’m certain that they’re members of a bandit group,”

The term bandit left Yeong speechless. How Seohyun came to such conclusion left Yeong, as smart as he was, dumbfounded. Bandits she said. Yeong could barely wrap his mind around the boys being bandits. The idea to him could have come easily if they were grown men, but as teenage boys? “How can they be..?”

The lass flattened her eyes, her tone tied with irritation, “Commoners know Gwakjin is a leader of a group known as the Grey bandits. Gwakjin bullies children for money and food in the open but when it comes to children from rival groups, he's known to attack them. If my assumption is correct then you mustn’t let these boys return alone. That Gwakjin will find them even if he has to search the whole forest,”

Wootae loosen his fasten hands to allow the double knives to slipped out of his reach when he felt a sting over his shoulder, from a clean cut made by his father's sword. The man lowered his sword before staring into Wootae's unresponsive pupils, "Certain sword cuts will hurt, others will kill," the man began as he lowered his weapon onto his side, "from this moment onward you're an assassin ready for employment. An assassin ready–for–hire, a man who puts his life on the line to get rid of another for a shape of payment," the long pause allowed for Wootae to stood up straight and tall as he covered the injury with a hand. A gesture that enabled Inpyo to proceed after a brief wait, "a time will come when your target is a weapon master. As of now you may be ahead of the game compared to those close in your age, but you mustn't get cocky,"

The word cocky struck Wootae, briefly as odd. Was he being cocky? He wouldn't know. "The look in your eyes just now, when we exchanged moves. You seem to have thought you were at a level good enough to go against me. You have not. You have yet to possessed the strength of a man. You have yet to learn the ways of the assassins, the hard way," Inpyo stated in a flat voice. 

End of Chapter Twenty-Five.