between us

{10} locked up

"you are not fully trained for a true fight" the crown prince said. he drew a boundary behind him with the wooden stick he held. "if you can push me over this line, i will leave"

uk stepped ahead but was stopped by jiyoon. she gestured him to be careful. he nodded and moved towards the prince.

"i am sure you expected me to grovel in humiliation. going against you would be an act of stupidity. however someone sees this as an act of vigor. so i shall try"

uk was the first to attack. the prince dodged it single-handedly. he dropped when the prince attacked him. despite being hurt over and over, uk put up a good fight. his gate of energy now being open, was a great help. uk was way resistant than before. uk was aware that being hit surges his energy more, so he tried to be beaten by the prince. as uk fell on the ground, the prince mockingly smirked at him. now uk was continuously getting hurt. jiyoon was so focused on them that she did not even notice that mudeok was gone. his highness managed to throw the stick from uk's hands. as he was about to hit him, mudeok came running to them, with chamber pot water with her.

"step away, this is chamber pot water!" she shouted.

both the mages did as told and unknowingly, his highness had stepped past the boundary. shocked would be an understatement to describe jiyoon's expression.

"what did you just do?!" crown prince snapped at her. "who is she?!"

"i serve this young master" she carefully said.

"how dare a maid intervene!"

"my apologies, your highness. my maid was impudent" uk said.

the prince looked at his sleeves which was stained. "what is this?" eunuch oh came closer to examine it. "this is disgusting!"

jiyoon joined the conversation. "you should return home and get changed, your royal highness"

"what?"

"you stepped over the line" she said. "you may have stepped back to avoid the filthy water, but you still lost. please keep your word and let uk have his father's sword" the prince was so shocked he did not even bother to know who jiyoon was.

"as you can see, i am afraid i can not see you out since i am heavily injured" maid kim and jiyoon muffled their laughs.

meanwhile, danggu, yul and choyeon entered the household. they were just as shocked to see what was going on. danggu came closer to jiyoon and asked her what was going on. she was about to answer but the crown prince beat her to it.

"alright, i will let you have that sword. however, i must punish this maid for her recklessness. i will not forgive her for tainting my clothes" he said.

jiyoon understood what he was planning. since she did not have her sword with her, she morphed her energy into a sword and ran to mudeok. as the prince was about to hit mudeok, two swords dodged the attack. it was jiyoon and jang uk. he somehow managed to unsheathe his father's sword. everyone could not believe it. danggu pinched himself to see if it was reality. choyeon rubbed her eyes to see more clearly.

"jang uk, how did you-" jiyoon was in disbelief. she moved away as uk planned to fight back his highness. with an effortless stroke, the crown prince's sword broke.

"i- i unsheathed this sword?" he questioned himself.

"jang uk!" the crown prince yelled. "i thought you did not know how to use spells, but you had been deceiving us all this time"