.ninety two.
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"You know she was very excited to marry you. She did not want to marry your brother, the tenth prince. But I did nothing to stop that wedding because of his majesty. Had I known this would happen...I wouldn't have let her marry him."
-
Everything fell silent when it was all finished in the courtyard under a blinding sunlight that had quickly turned into a cloudy day. It was almost as if the skies were mourning the loss of the prince and the general's daughter, having been witness to it all too. So stood off to the side with tears in his eyes, his sword hanging limply in his hold by his side. Eun had fallen to the ground by his wife's side, his hand reaching for hers with his final dying breaths, but falling just inches short of hers. With bloodied hands he had tried to reach for her, and Hae Soo only watched them through her sobs, her small body fallen into a heap on the floor in defeat. The soldiers that had been holding both Jung and Baek-ah had finally let the two princes go.
Just as the fourteenth prince hurried to Minji's side and dropped to his knees beside her lifeless body, General Park stumbled into the courtyard with the clear intent of stopping his majesty from doing the unthinkable. Jung had sent for him with one of the servants, Chae Ryung. But she hadn't gotten to the general fast enough and by the time he arrived it was too late. His heart broke into a million pieces at the sight before him.
There she was, his youngest daughter, his Hak Soon. Her eyes closed and would never open again. There was a big gash across her chest from where all the blood was coming from, and there was already a big pool of it on the floor around her. Inches away was the tenth prince with arrows in his arm and abdomen, as well as a gash across his chest. The latter had most likely been the thing that killed him, the general thought. But just then it was as though the wind had been knocked out of him. His entire world crumbled as he cut across the courtyard to where Prince Jung was already kneeling, tears streaming down his face as he cradled the twenty one year old Hak Soon in his arms.
The general was a mix of emotions at the moment. He was devastated to lose his daughter and her husband, but he was confused to find the rest were missing. Han, Soon Deok, the children. They were all gone and he could only assume they had not been found yet. Perhaps Eun and Hak Soon had turned themselves in to buy the others some time.
Jung glanced at the general and moved out of the way. General Park soon took the prince's place and cradled Hak Soon in his arms. Yo only watched with satisfaction from the balcony, allowing them to mourn the two for even a moment. It was the only chance they would ever get, if he had anything to say about it. The tears streamed down his face and fell both onto his metal military suit and Hak Soon's face. He could feel her dead weight and she was already growing cold to the touch. There really were no hopes. She was really dead.
Soon Baek-ah, along with Hajin, and Jung sat around him to mourn the two people lost that day. With a shaking voice, her father began to speak. "It feels like an eternity ago that I sat with my two daughters at breakfast one day." He said to the three people listening, and it was like he was talking to his daughter as well. "I was to arrange for Soon Deok to marry since she would soon turn eighteen, but the opportunity presented itself for Hak Soon first." He paused again as he looked to Wang Jung, but everyone knew exactly what he meant. When the king had asked him if Eun had someone in mind to marry, he had picked Park Hak Soon. To Jung, he said, "You know she was very excited to marry you. She did not want to marry your brother, the tenth prince. But I did nothing to stop that wedding because of his majesty. Had I known this would happen...I wouldn't have let her marry him."
