It was not bad at all. With Felix next to us, the atmosphere seemed to lighten up a bit and Seungmin was not annoying me.
I shot my last arrow while Winter galloped around. It did not hit the bullseye, but I still got full points. The students clapped and some cheered. I smiled, commanding Winter to go to the entrance gate. Felix was waiting there. His grin reached to his ears with two fists balled up next to him.
"You were great!"
"Thanks Felix." I chuckled. The smile never left his face, guess he did not get tired at all.
Seungmin came with his horse. He had his turn before mine. I insisted for him to go first so the other day's incident would not happen again. At least he apologised. "You're not going down?"
"I'm thinking of taking a walk."
"It's dangerous," he lent out his arm but I shook my head. "If anything happens I'm the one who's going to take responsibility, Your Highness."
Did he really need to remind me I'm a princess :(
I stared at his hand blankly, waiting for him to drop it. But the moment never comes.
Felix, who just watched us whistled. He wriggled his eyebrows to Seungmin. The other guy furrowed his eyebrows and gave a disgusted look.
"Felix Lee!"
"Oops, that's my name. Gotta go!" he spoke with his heavy English accent. I'm not sure which accent was that but it sounded attractive. It suited him. Felix got onto his horse and gave me a salute.
I smiled.
That guy, he was a cheerful one.
I then remembered Seungmin. I looked down at him. He was showing a bored look with his hand still extended to me. "Come down, you're not going anywhere."
"If you come along?"
"You want me to?"
Do I? If he comes along then it would be less dangerous for me. But that also meant I probably have to deal with his annoying remarks.
I shook my head after ten seconds of thinking. "No. You're annoying." I took his hand and carefully got on my feet. The shoes made soft thump sounds on the ground. I fixed my clothes and looked up.
Only to be met with Seungmin's blank look in the most dangerous gap ever.
My breath stopped, not expecting this at all. He suddenly inched closer. He pulled my hand towards him and let out a small sigh.
"Do you really think I'm annoying?" he asked, sounding a bit frail. My eyebrows knitted for a second. His question and voice confused me for a while. Also, that look.
The dim eyes look. It looked gentle yet sad.
"Bullseye!"
I flinched when hearing that. His grip loosen.
"You've been annoying me since that day and earlier." I replied, trying so hard not to stutter at the first word like other main characters always do in fan fictions. However it sounded like I was shivering.
Winter is months away. Obviously I stuttered.
"I apologised, didn't I?"
He did.
"Actually, that doesn't matter," he let go of my hand and leaned back to his proper position. "I'm asking because the King and the Queen put their trust in me to look after you. I cannot do that if you are uncomfortable."
"Also, if you think you can suggest Jisung, he is not in the same archery class." he added, which crushed down my hope. Looks like I have no choice, do I?
Seungmin stared at me with a small smile. Was he pitying me?
I could not be free after this. Moreover when there was some person who wanted to get rid of me the other day. We have not told anyone yet, might as well keep it as a secret or else I would not be here.
"What are you looking at." I muttered, more like a statement when he did not remove his eyes from me yet. This felt weird.
He did not reply. Instead, he left. Leaving me with his horse and Winter. I puffed my cheeks and stroked Winter's neck. She ignored me, going to Seungmin's horse instead.
I never know what its name. It had a brown-beige color, like milky chocolate shade. It was quite rare to see this color when most of the horses here were black, gray and chestnut also white. White belongs to the royal family, my family.
Winter touched her nose with the other but he backed away. I lightly giggled, that hurts. The male horse stomped his feet. I quickly held onto him. "Don't run, your owner will get mad."
He neighed, and Winter replied. I scoffed playfully.
"Alright, get on," Seungmin suddenly appeared. I raised a brow. "Archer Kim gave us permission. If we got lost then they know."
"You asked him?"
"Or do you want to stay here for another hour?"
I quickly shook my head and got onto Winter. He imitated my actions and lightly whipped the lead line. The students probably noticed us leaving. "Where do you want to go?" Seungmin asked after we entered the woods where we came from earlier.
"The village."
He whipped his head towards me. "The village?"
"The village." I repeated, not detaching my eyes from the yellowish road. It was not yellow, but the fallen yellow leaves made it looked like the road was yellow. I was pretty sure underneath them was black and gray pebbles.
"Is it allowed?"
I tilted my head lightly to the side, still examining the road. "Why wouldn't I be allowed to visit there?"
"Because a royal family needs a royal guard to go there."
I hummed, "But your family works for the royal, that basically means you are a..." I paused, trying to find the correct phrase while looking at him.
My eyes studied his outfits and appearance.
"I am what?" he spoke up after a long silence.
"You're a contemporary royal guard?" I scoffed with a light laugh. "Nevermind, you're not. You don't suit it." I whipped the lead line. Winter neighed before running. I heard Seungmin calls my name but I ignored it, and immediately took the way to the village instead.
Winter galloped down the hill. Cold breeze gently hit my cheeks and I giggled. Seungmin's horse was following closely behind. I knew it just by hearing his neigh and the footsteps. We passed by the herd of sheep and a small kid. The boy gasped when seeing me.
"It's the princess!"
He probably knew because of this white horse. I waved, and he jumped excitedly while waving back.
Cute. I wish I had a younger guy sibling.
Soon Seungmin caught up to us. Both horses made a loud noise and they galloped faster. They were practically competing with each other. It was entertaining.
There were a few small villages up here. Only seven families who were not royals lived up here in the mountain, but still at the lower peak. Their houses are located in this huge, green field. This was where I used to bring Winter during my first years arrival. I recognized some of the people. They were my friends.
Ah, memories.
"Further?" Seungmin asked, more like shouting because we left them behind. I shouted back a "yes".
Leaving the small village behind, we reached the steep area of the hills.
"Oh, Winter stop." I pulled the lead line. Winter halted abruptly and moved her head from left to right. I laughed. Reaching her cheek, I whispered, "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt you."
I looked to the front. We were still on the hill. Below us was the village. Everything looked so small from here. Even the haze from the firewood did not reach this high.
A small sigh escaped my lips. We were separated by the class difference. The royal lived up here while the lower class lived down there.
It was unfair.
Seungmin got down from his horse. "I thought you really meant it."
I nodded my head sadly. "I wanted to," I said while getting down from Winter. "But father would be mad. He never gets mad at anything I do.. yet. Maybe if he found out we left the class, he would."
I sat on the grass. Seungmin followed and we silently watched the villagers down there. The houses became small with different shades of browns, making them look like square chocolate bars.
We could see everything from above. At the corner of the village there was a horse stable. That was the only stable there. I used to go there.
And next to the stable was my old place.
Behind the house was the forest, and if you go deeper you will meet with the river. That was where I trained with my Sonia. It was my playground.
Meanwhile the Town Circle was in the middle of the village. It had a white fountain and was surrounded by higher buildings. The shops, library, the well for cloth washing and ceremonies or events were there. Back then my life was so mediated, I missed that.
"Would you survive if you lived down there?" I broke the silence, interrupted the windy breeze.
He hesitated to answer.
"If the people survive then I would too."
"Everyone is different, Seungmin. I'm asking about you." I looked at him with anticipation.
Silence engulfed us again. I shrugged and turned back to the village. "When you get too comfortable with life you'll lose the littlest thing about it. You won't know the existence of those people living down there. To add on it if you had never experienced being poor and tired,"
"I'll never know what I want in life."
I nodded, a bit surprised when he finished it.
"Because you're already comfortable with the life you're living right now."
"I am." he admitted.
"I feel bad for those villagers," I continued. "They're slowly forgotten. If that happens they might get replaced."
"Even if they are replaced they still will be the part of history."
The corner of my lips curled up at his remark.
"I don't want them to be a part of it. I want them to be the history," I pursed my lips. "Just like this Kingdom. If they are replaced then this Kingdom will get replaced too, yet no one is aware about this."
"They only care about the royals."
"They only care about their reputations."
"They only care about the name of this Kingdom, Eirene."
"But they never care about their justice," I pointed to the villagers. "Once a year, a huge crime happens and lots of people die, yet they never take action."
I heard Seungmin gasp lightly, "What?"
"They are being killed slowly."
Seungmin scooted closer to me, rather panicking as he made me look at him. "How did you know about this? Did the King and the Queen know?"
"Unless if the royal reporter who lived there came up here and told them, they would know."
"But the reporter..?"
"He died too, no one knows," I sighed. "I could not just tell my parents without evidence. If they know I go there once a month they would lock me up forever."
"Eunkyung, I mean, Your Highness," I noticed as his breath got heavier. "You sneak out once a month?"
I smiled, "Today was supposed to be the day, but since I'm grounded I decided not to add up the fuel."
He stared at me in disbelief. "Why..? How?"
"Yah Kim Seungmin," I removed his hands from my shoulders. He muttered sorry. "Did you know why I told you that? Grasp anything?"
He blinked his eyes twice.
Then he realised.
"You want me to live there as a royal reporter? Is that why you asked me if I could survive or not? Do you want me to—"
"Stop there. Not as a royal reporter but a mere villager," I clicked my tongue. "But I guess not, because you're supposed to look after me."
He nodded quickly. Scaredy cat. "But is that the only reason?"
I left his question hanging.
There's a lot more.
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thank you so much for 300 reads :'D