Wooyoung POV
"Just go around and ask a few people about the treasure of Aninliggat. If you find out anything then tell me please.", Hongjoong says. Who should I talk to? I look around a see a woman staring at us. I unbutton my shirt a little bit further and smile at her. She smiles back and signals me to come over. Well nobody said anything about not having a little bit of fun while asking for the treasure. Plus I have been kind of tense and sleeping bad the last days, so why not do a little bit of flirting and de-stress for a while? "Hey, I am Wooyoung. I saw that you were looking at us."
"Good evening. Yes you are an interesting group.", she says with a smile.
"Don't you want to tell me your name?", I ask.
"Why? It's not like we're going to see each other again after today."
"I would still like to get to know you but if you really don't want to tell me then that's fine."
"So where are you from?", she asks. "Ehm... I'm... from an island that's ehh... not far from here. Ehh.. I don't think you would know the name of it. Yeah, and you?", I lie. That was very unconvincing. I hope she doesn't ask about it further. "I'm from the Nekra Kingdom. You look quite pale for someone from here."
I freeze and feel a shiver run down my spine at the mention of this name.
She didn't recognize us did she?
1 month earlier
I wake up early from a nightmare again. Careful to not wake up the other valets, I sneak to the window. The sky is as dark as ever. Only the very faint red glow of the sun announces the beginning of another day. Hopefully I will soon see it in it's full glory. Maybe I will see something else than the blood red soil, the dark brown grass, purple water and black leafless trees of the Nekra Kingdom then. My heart pounds fast as I think about what could lie beyond these dark islands.
But enough daydreaming, time to bring these dreams to reality.
I get ready and eat my breakfast. After that it is time to wake up Yeosang.
I cautiously enter the room then sprint towards the bed and jump on it. Yeosang slightly opens his eyes but closes then immediately again. I put my arms around him and shake his body back and forth. "Rise and shine your majesty!"
"Just a few more minutes...", Yeosang mumbles.
"Sorry but I am not keen on loosing any fingers on my last day here." I give him a kiss on the forehead and walk to the window and open it to bring some fresh air into room. Yeosang sits up straight and looks at me with a grumpy face. "Don't kiss me!", he protest. I climb back onto the bed, making a kissy face and kissing noises while I get closer and closer to his face. "Ahhh, stay away."
Yeosang pushes me away and gets out of bed. I giggle. Oh how I love to tease him.
While he washes himself, I organize his clothes for the day. Then I help him get dressed and do his hair. Meanwhile we talk about our plan.
"So let's go over the plan again. You're going to wait until everyone starts dancing and then excuse yourself from the party to go to the toilet. I am going to keep an eye on you and when I see you leave, I will come up with some excuse to leave and go to the servant bedrooms where you are going to meet me. If I'm not there and don't arrive within 10 minutes, then I probably failed to get away from the party and we are going to try it again later in the evening. When we're in my bedroom you're going to put on my uniform and we will leave through the trapdoor in the wine cellar. At last we are going to the harbor and sneak onto one of the guest's boats. Is everything clear?", I say.
"One question... Where are the servant's bedrooms?"
I explain Yeosang the way from the ballroom to my bedroom before he has to go to his lessons.
While Yeosang is away I have to help the others with the party preparations. Time goes by quickly while I am working. Of course it wouldn't be a normal work day without getting screamed at by either my older co-workers or the king himself. I really can't wait to get out of here. The faint red glow of the sun starts to dim and it is getting even darker than it already is. I eat a small meal with the other servants and change into my uniform for formal events before I have to get Yeosang ready for the party. I help him into the clothes I picked out for him this morning, help him pick out his accessories, style his hair and finish everything off with a little bit of perfume. "Don't forget about the plan.", I say before we separate again. I have to serve at the party so I go to the kitchen to get a tray with snacks. Me and the other servants wait at the side of the room while the king holds his speech. Then Yeosang has the honor to start the first dance and it is time for me to serve everyone. I go from group to group asking them if they want something to eat. While I'm serving I notice a woman who is conversing with the queen has lost her ring. I pick it up while I am still balancing the snacks. "Ma'am I think you have lost this. May I put it back on your finger?"
"Oh yes. Thank you.", the older lady says. I put the ring back on her hand and go back to serving. "What a handsome and charming servant. You have to be careful with him otherwise he might steal the girls away from your son.", I hear her say as I walk away. I also make sure to keep an eye on Yeosang so I don't miss it when he leaves.
After the third dance I see Yeosang whisper something to his father and disappear into a hallway. That's my sign but how do I get away from this party? In this moment two party guests take snacks from my tray which leaves only one snack that I have to get rid off before I need to go back to the kitchen to get new ones.
I look around. Who looks hungry? A group of young girls is whispering and giggling in a corner. Perfect. I approach them with a flirty smile.
"Hungry?", I ask them.
"Depends on what is served.", one of the girls says and winks at me. "Bacon-wrapped dates.", I answer. "That's boring!", she says.
"If you eat the last one for me I will tell you how you can win the heart of the prince.", I say.
"And how do you know the prince?" "I'm his valet. I know all of his secrets."
"Oh really? Has he a toned body from fighting?", another girl says with big eyes.
"Secret informations are only available if you eat the last snack.", I emphasize again. The first girl takes the snack from my tray. Yes, it worked! "So what does the prince like and does he look hot naked?"
"Well, first of all he looks like the most perfect statue you can imagine." The girls screech as soon as the words leave my mouth. "Second, if you want to win his heart speak about food especially chicken or about flying."
"That is good to know."
With a now empty tray I have an excuse to leave the party. I leave in the direction of the kitchen but leave the tray on a dresser on the way there and head towards my bedroom instead. Yeosang is already waiting for me there. "Sorry I was held back by some horny teenage girls.", I explain. Yeosang laughs at my words. "Horny teenage girls?", Yeosang asks.
"They wanted to know what you look like naked.", I reply and wiggle my eyebrows. Yeosangs cheeks turns pink and he looks shyly to the ground. "You didn't tell them anything, did you?"
"Ah, of course not.", I lie as I pull my other uniform out of the closet. "Here put that on."
I make sure no one comes into the room while Yeosang changes. "You know I really love it when my best friend tells strangers about my naked body.", Yeosang states.
"Haha really? " I give him a cheeky smile and he smiles back. "Really." He puts his arm around my shoulder then hits the back of my head. I guess I deserve it, haha. "Where should I put my clothes?"
"We will hide them in the wine cellar. I don't want them to find them here otherwise they might punish the other valets.", I tell him. I quickly adjust his hair to cover his birth mark before we leave. We sneak into the wine cellar and hide Yeosang's clothes in a dark corner. One last time we climb up the ladder and escape the castle through the trapdoor.
It is pitch black outside since, unlike the sun which is able to at least give a very faint red light, the moonlight is not strong enough to get through the thick clouds and mist. We sneak through the dimly lit city until we reach the harbor. As expected there are a lot of guards who patrol in front of the ships but the ships themselves are almost empty.
Then I spot a smaller ship at the back of the harbor. Only one guard patrols there. It probably belongs to a merchant outside of the Nekra Kingdom. From the other servants in the castle I heard that it is extremely rare that merchants from outside the kingdom come here and if they do it is only because they need to restock on crystals and the Nekra Kingdom was the nearest place to do so. We are very lucky that they are staying here over night.
I don't see any light on the ship which means that they are already asleep. This is even better than hiding on one of the guest's ships. "Yeosang, do you see the small ship at the end of the harbor?", I whisper.
"Do you want to go on that one? We need to go through the whole harbor to get there. Shouldn't we take one that is closer to our position."
"Yeah, but it doesn't belong to one of the guests. It is very unlikely that they would recognize us if they find us. So even if they detect us they will probably just let us sail with them.", I say.
"Or they will think we are thieves and report us to the guards."
"But there is at least a higher chance that they won't."
Yeosang becomes quiet and looks at the harbor while being deep in his thoughts. After a minute he finally comes to a decision. "We will go to the smaller ship."
"There are a lot of bigger crates and barrels maybe we can hide behind them."
We make sure the guards aren't facing us as we go down the stairs to the harbor and hide behind the first crate.
A few guards pass by before we can move on to our next hiding spot. I suddenly feel like I have to sneeze but I try to hold it back. A guard walks towards the large crate that we are currently hiding behind and positions himself right in front of it with his back facing the crate. Carefully we run towards a small boat with a hole in it that is leaning against a wall and hide under it. I feel like I can no longer hold back my sneeze. "Achoo!"
"Where did that come from?", I hear one guard say. I peak through the hole in the boat and see three guards walk in our direction. Me and Yeosang try to hide in the shade of the boat as good as we can. I hear the footsteps getting louder then they stop. "Guys, I don't see anything. It was probably just a bird or something."
"You think so?"
"Who on this goddamn island would be so dumb to sneak into a harbor full of guards and risk getting killed."
"You're right."
I hear them walk back to their positions. We quickly sneak towards the next barrels. That was close but we are almost there. After a few minutes of waiting for the right moment we can run over to the last crate.
Now we only need to get past the last guard. He is patrolling up and down the dock in front of the ship. "We need to get past him somehow. But it is quite a long way from here to the ship. If we sneak there we won't be able to make it before he turns around again.", I say.
"Well all the training I did, it wasn't for nothing. We will just run there and I will knock him out.", Yeosang states.
We do as he said and run towards the ship. The guard turns around but before he can do anything, he is knocked out by Yeosang. "How do we get on the ship now?", Yeosang asks. That is a good question. Normally when you want to enter or exit a ship there is a ramp that the captain can put at the side of the ship but since we are sneaking onto the ship in the middle of the night it isn't there of course. Then I have an idea. The ship is tied to the dock with a thick rope. We could use it to climb onto the ship. I motion Yeosang to follow me and grab the rope. I take a deep breath and try not to think of the endless sky that is under us. I hold on to the rope and move hand over hand towards the ship and make it safely to the other side. I help Yeosang who is directly behind me onto the ship. We both sit down for a moment and exhale deeply. We made it! Now we just need to hide somewhere on the ship. Maybe in a storage room? We go through the hatch in the main deck and end up, to my surprise, in a corridor. It seems like this boat is structured like a small house. Does this merchant live here all year long?
We sneak towards the door at the end of the corridor. Something tells me that this might be the storage room. I open the door. The small room has two shelves in it. On the shelves are boxes with tags on them. There are jewelry, machine parts, clothes, porcelain and so on. There is an object standing on the ground with a blanket over it. I wonder what it is. "There isn't any space to hide in here. We should try somewhere else.", Yeosang whispers.
We try the door left to the storage room next. It leads to a kitchen which connects to a tiny food storage. Again there is no place to hide. We go to the room on the opposite side. Just as I want to open the door I hear someone snore from the inside. "It's a bedroom. There is someone in there.", I whisper to Yeosang.
The next door we open leads to a small bathroom which also does not provide many hiding spaces. The last room is an engine room. There is of course the motor of the boat but also has a small cabinet which stores crystals. "I doubt that they come here often, so maybe here is a good place to hide.", I say to Yeosang. We squeeze ourselves in a dark corner under the ship engine and try to sleep.
I wake up to the sound of the engine getting started. "Ahh it's so loud!", Yeosang exclaims. We climb out of our hiding spot under the engine and move behind the cabinet instead because I don't want to become deaf yet. It is still pretty loud here but definitely more bearable. Through the wall I can hear a man singing very loudly in the bathroom. His voice has a sweet tone to it. He sings in a strange dialect but from what I can understand it is a song about fishermen. Then the singing suddenly stops and a few seconds later the door opens. I hold in my breath and pray that he doesn't find us. The man that walks in is of average height and very skinny. His extremely sharp features make him look alomost like a cat. He is also the most tanned man I have ever seen. Well, it probably doesn't mean much because everyone in the Nekra Kingdom is as white as paper due to the lack of sunshine but he still is a little a bit tanner than the kings friends. He opens the door of the cabinet and takes out a crystal. Then turns around. He didn't see us? But then he turns around again and looks at us with big eyes. "Whoe ar yu?", he says.
"What?", I ask because I couldn't understand him.
"Who are you?", he repeats.
"I'm Wooyoung and this is my best friend Yeosang. We just want to get away from here. Please don't report us to the guards.", I beg. The man stares at me with big eyes for another half minute before he just wordlessly leaves the room. I hear the bathroom door close, so I guess he won't report us. After an hour I hear footsteps in front of the door. "What do you mean there are two men in suits in here? Are they armed?", I hear someone say. The door opens and a small man with a cute face enters. Behind him are the guy from earlier and a tall, also a bit tan, man with a goofy smile and very small eyes. The small guy is frowning at us and speaks with a stern voice. "Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?"
Yeosang stands up and bows to him. I do the same. "I'm Wooyoung and this is Yeosang.", I say.
"Sir, we are sorry that we sneaked onto your ship like this but we are really desperate to leave these islands behind us. We would like to ask you to bring us to the next town outside of the Nekra Kingdom. We would also pay you with either the jewelry that we have or by working off our debt.", Yeosang explains in a princely manner.
"And why are dressed as servants of the Nekra family? What tells me that you aren't thieves that are trying to escape after stealing from the king?"
"I swear that we are not. Please! I don't want to go back. I don't want to die yet.", I say, my voice cracking due to being anxious, knowing that I will be executed if I can't convince him. The man's face suddenly softens. "Right, this is the Nekra Kingdom.", I hear him whisper.
"Alright, you can stay for now.", the man says.
"Thank you!"
"I'm Hongjoong and the captain of this ship. Welcome on board!"
Now
She isn't here to search for the prince or is she? "You're so quiet all of a sudden.", she says.
"I was just deep in my thoughts. I'm sorry.", I say.
"Tell me a bit about yourself.", the woman demands.
"I'm turning 21 in a few weeks and I'm a treasure hunter. We are currently searching for the treasure of Aninliggat. It is pretty fun. I also like dancing. I wish that they would play music here, so we could dance together."
"Your friends where are they from?", the mysterious woman suddenly asks.
"They are all from different places. Why are you asking?"
"The one at the bar seems familiar to me." I turn around and see Yeosang sitting at the bar. "Him? I don't know from where you should know him."
"Don't lie to me, Wooyoung Iperdienza."
A cold shiver runs down my spine. She knows! "You m-must confuse me with s-someone else.", I say but my voice is trembling.
"The king is searching for you and the prince. You can't escape the Nekra family." She takes out a knife and holds it against my throat. I scream in panic. "You and prince Yeosang will come with me now, otherwise the king will track you and your friends down and kill all of them.", she threatens me.
"Miss, put that knife down or I will report you to the guards.", I hear a deep voice say behind me.
"I won't ever go back!", I say sternly. She puts away her knife.
"We'll see about that.", she whispers in my ear before she leaves the bar.
I am still shocked at what happend. Yeosang runs over to me. "Are you okay?" I nod. The rest of the crew gathers around me to make sure that I am fine. So the king sent out spies to look for us. We should probably leave the city before she comes back and murders us in our sleep. "We need to leave the city. Now.", I state.
"Why? What exactly happened?", Hongjoong asks.
"I will tell you when we're back on the ship."
We leave the bar and go back to the ship.
It seems like I brought trouble to those who I swore to protect again.
Everyone sits down at the dining table and Hongjoong looks at me concerned. "So what happened at the bar?", he asks again.
"The woman I talked to was a spy from the Nekra Kingdom. She recognized me and Yeosang and wanted to arrest us for illegally leaving the Kingdom. She said if we didn't come with her, the king would send people to track us down and kill you.", I tell.
"So you're risking all of our lives to avoid landing in jail?", Seonghwa asks, seeming kind of angry.
"It's the Nekra Kingdom, Seonghwa. They don't put people into jail. They either just torture you, if you're lucky, or kill you. And since we were the ones who smuggled them out of the country, they probably would send people to kill us either way.", Jongho calmly explains.
"But aren't you just normal residents? Why do they take such a great intrest in you two?", San asks. They shouldn't probably know that Yeosang is the prince of the Nekra Kingdom yet. What should I tell them? "Well, we were servants at the castle. So it's a direct betrayal of the Nekra family. Plus we could have potentially picked up some of their plans. So of course they don't want people who know quiet a bit about them to run around outside of the Kingdom.", Yeosang lies. "Makes sense.", Yunho states.
"Does that mean that we're at risk of getting assassinated everywhere we go now?", Mingi asks.
"She doesn't know what our ship looks like and only saw you briefly. They also won't search on every small island for us. Probably only near the bigger cities. So it's probably not as bad as you think.", I clarify.
"We will definitely be extra protective of you from now on.", Mingi says and giggles, making me blush a little bit. "But where do we go now? We still don't know anything about the treasure of Aninliggat.", Hongjoong remarks and sighs.
"Well actually I found out something.", Yeosang says. We all look at him expectant.
"The bartender said to me that there is a clairvoyant who is very knowledgeable in Vretefokl."
"That's better than nothing. Besides, we are also pretty safe from the spies there. Since ships from the Nekra Kingdom aren't allowed to sail into the neutral zone.", Hongjoong states.
"We shouldn't stay another night here in Kroosborg though.", I say. "That means someone has to do a night shift.", Seonghwa states.
"I will do it.", Yunho exclaims.
"I will help you.", Seonghwa adds.
"One last thing...", Hongjoong says, "No matter what we are going through we will always stick together. We will always be there for each other and protect each other." He stands up and motions us to gather in a circle. We put our feet together and shout our motto:
"EIGHT MAKES ONE TEAM."
Author's Note:
Another super long chapter with a lot of back story about Wooyoung and Yeosang. I hope you liked it and are excited for the next chapter.