Trusting people became a hard game for her.
Eunkyung didn't want to confront Jisung just yet but she's already showing her disinterest in talking to the guy. That just made her hurt twice. Ignoring her best friend for years was the last thing she would do. He surely had helped her ever since she started living here but the thing he did was unforgivable.
A loud thud caught her attention. The king figure walked into the room with his crown placed proudly on top of his head. Eunkyung's eyes averted to her sister, Princess Eunji who was pursing her lips while collecting the fallen book on the floor.
"What is she doing..." Eunhee muttered with a sigh. The older hurriedly went back to her seat which was in front of Eunkyung, embarrassed at the unwanted attention. Eyes were sticked on her for a few seconds before the king spoke up.
"Ju Haknyeon,"
"Your Majesty," said guy in a beret stood up and bowed. "Our team has investigated the murder area and collected data from the villagers. None of them saw what happened but we found a trail of blood going into the forest."
Eunkyung perked up at the mention.
"It led us to an old house. According to the villagers no one lives there for a long time even the hunters, but everything inside was clean when an abandoned house should be covered with webs and dust."
"Are you sure no one visits the house when they hunt?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It's located one and a half mile from the residents and hidden with bushes. However, the trail stopped there. It seems like the murderer had left after cleaning their wound in the house." Haknyeon slid a paper on the table and began to read the next report, "The hunter, Suk Wonsik, had a bloody knife in his hand when he was found. We believed he used it as a defense from the murderer but ended up being killed.
"A few patrols were done discreetly over the weekend at the abandoned house yet we found nothing but the murder might strikes again so we ordered the villagers not to go outside the borders, even to the riverside and waterfalls. Supplies will be provided from outside until it is all settled down."
An abandoned house...
"Don't bother thinking of going," Eunhee whispered which startled her. She sighed internally.
Since when my family are mind readers?
"Outsiders are not allowed to come except for tradings and selling. We limited it just to the shore to make sure no one escapes for the meantime." the man continued. "As for the royal family, we advice you not to go anywhere without any companion. The murderer is still out there. The risk of them attacking is low but it's just for precaution. All night classes are cancelled too, we will inform this to the teachers."
"So Han won't be out at night..." Eunkyung muttered to herself. Haknyeon bowed as he finished telling the reports and sat down. The rest of the meeting was a blur. She could only catch some words and after an hour, they were dismissed.
"Eunji, what was that?" Eunsoo, the first princess asked as soon as they stepped out from the meeting room. Both Eunhee and Eunkyung turned to them.
Eunji held up a rather thick, old book. The papers had already turned into yellow-ish brown and dots were seen on the cover. On the top side of the cover was carved with a gold arch and a times new roman font was written under it.
The History of Eirene Kingdom
"I found it in the library, it looks interesting because father doesn't really tell us much about the history." Eunji shrugged while flipping the pages.
"How did you drop the book?" Eunsoo asked again with a firm tone. Eunji sheepishly grinned. "If father was there on his seat it could have been a disrespect."
"I know, I'm sorry, okay? I was just shocked. Did you know the former ancestors of this kingdom? It didn't come from our bloodline."
"What?" Eunkyung had her eyebrows furrowed at the sudden information. The four sisters exchanged glances before they had a silent agreement to go to the library. Once the door was closed, the girls rushed to one of the furthest tables from the door.
Eunji flipped the page where she put a bookmark within it. "It says here the former ruler was King Cho Hunseo, in about three generations above us."
"How did it become..." Eunhee's words trailed off with her eyebrows furrowed. "....Min?"
"An illness," she simplified before explaining. "After King Hunseo's death, this kingdom was ruled by his son, King Cho Junsu and his wife, the queen. They had a son but at the age of seventeen, he had an illness and he was the only heir in King Junsu's family. The relationship between other royal family members was not good either and in fact, they hoped for the boy to meet his death soon so the crown will be given to their son – as in, King Junsu's twenty year old nephew.
"King Junsu knew how bad would it be if the kingdom falls into his brother's hands so he decided to marry a widow who had a son named Min Guinhi."
"He's allowed to marry a widow?" Eunkyung interrupted.
"That's the thing, not only she wasn't a royal family, but also a widow. Her husband died in a war ten years before. This caused a huge feud between the royals. King Junsu wanted to protect the people as much as he can so he did the last thing he wanted to — to kill other family members."
"No way..." Eunhee muttered with a small gasp while Eunsoo just read quietly.
"I haven't read the rest of it yet. I was cut off there."
"Is this the only book in the library?" Eunkyung asked as she looked around to see the brownish books arranged neatly in each shelves.
"I only found one. If you want to read it then maybe you can find at other libraries." Eunji replied.
"That's why father sent Yoongi away from here," Eunsoo muttered. "It's a tradition for the next heir because the Cho family is still revenging on us."
"Could it be the murderer?" Eunhee asked, and everyone fell silent at the question. "I mean... we don't know who's the Cho family."
"Father must know, right?" Eunsoo asked back. "He must have asked his men to look after the family, if not he won't be sending Yoongi at random places."
"So he knows the murderer?" Eunkyung leaned forward, a bit nervous to know the answer.
However, the first sister shook her head. "We don't know if the murderer is related to the family or not. It's an assumption."
The girl slumped back into her seat with disappointment. But then when she look up, all of her sisters' eyes glued on her. "W-what...?"
"Don't you dare going out." Eunhee warned her. Eunkyung sighed.
"If... Seungmin comes with me?"
"Not at night."
Maybe she won't find the culprit soon.
༆
"I surely need to apologise." Eunkyung muttered to herself while taking out a book from the shelf. The library was less crowded today, and she thought it was a perfect opportunity to search for the book without anyone seeing. "Weird, why people seem do not know anything about this? The school didn't teach anything."
Examining the book, she sighed. It's not the one she was looking for. Eunkyung peeked her head outside the aisle and could see people started to walk in. She raised her hood to cover her head and put the book back in place.
Don't they have historical books here?
Going here alone was risky for the princess. She didn't want anyone outside the castle knows about the newly found information. Seungmin might already knew, but she decided not to say anything. For years she thought her family was the original ancestors, but turns out it was not. This fact bugged her for a few days that she couldn't even pay attention in the class.
What if the family comes and takes down the crown...?
A distinct whisper could be heard from the next aisle. Eunkyung took that as a sign to leave. She tried not to look suspicious while exiting the library but yeah, totally not suspicious with the dark emerald green hood on.
To the next library.
It took her fifteen minutes of walk. People around obviously noticed the figure in a hood walking around in the daylight. The princess silently cursed herself for choosing to do this in the morning.
Upon arriving to the next library, she let out the loudest sigh when seeing the signboard. It was closed.
"It's obvious you're not from here when you expect this library to open today." an unfamiliar voice spoke behind her. Eunkyung jumped at the sudden unwelcomed greeting. She took a few steps back to get a better view from the gap between her hood. A man who was a few feet taller than her turned his head to her as he shoved his hand in the pockets of his outfit. "Do you wish to search for some books?"
The princess hesitantly nodded as she tore her gaze away. If the man was from the same kingdom then he could easily recognise her so she chose not to speak.
"You might want to go to the other library. This one is closed on Sunday."
Ugh, if only Eunji finished that book faster. She's so slow.
The girl nodded curtly before turning around and walked away.
"The nearest one here is fifteen minutes walk. Are you sure you want to walk there?"
Eunkyung halted in her steps. She shut her eyes and mentally cursed the man for blocking her way to return to the castle as soon as possible. The fists clutched on the fabric tighter to make sure the hood won't fall off.
She turned slightly to him and shook her head, rejecting the offer.
"Seeing you coming here with that cloak on, you seem in rush," the man's footsteps was heard nearing the girl. Eunkyung instinctively took step forward away from him as she glanced back occasionally. Her heartbeat increased when realising there was no one in the area, just small shops, a few trees and decorative plants in front of a bouquet shop.
The library was located at the end of the road where the other side was the entrance to the forest, which made it worse if the unknown man chased her into there and get lost in the woods once again.
"You're sure you don't need a ride?"
"I'm fine with it, mister. Thank you for the offer but I have something more important to do." she finally spoke up.
The corner of the man's lips curled up into a sly smile. Eunkyung looked up to him and shivers ran down her spine. Being alone with a weird stranger when she's disguised as a normal citizen scared her, especially when the murder case is still going on.
Wait a minute.
Eunkyung stopped walking backwards as her eyes trailed down the stranger's outfits. She examined his shoes who seemingly had been stepped into mud just by seeing chocolate dirt sticking around it. His brown coat looked shabby – which at first she thought it was normal. But seeing how it was bigger than the man helped her connect some dots.
Is he the...
༆
"Ahhh we're almost done." Seungmin stretched out his arms upwards after putting down the brush on an unused paper. He cracked his knuckles and tilted his head to both side, front and back, emitting bone cracking noises.
Minju chuckled at that as she continued finishing off her part of the painting that day. They could have finished it in one go but they had planned to take a stroll as a break after days of working on it. There's not so much left to do anyway.
After a few minutes, Minju put aside her brush while huffing a small "done". Seungmin looked over with a smile played on his face. "Let's go!"
"Now?" she widened her eyes in surprise. "At least give me a few minutes to put this in my room and relax for a while."
Seungmin just nodded with a shy grin while cleaning the rounded table. Minju then carefully picked up the painting and went to the stairs that were attached outside next to the wall of the building where it headed to the balcony at the second floor and a small rooftop at the third floor. It was a rather big house, considering the lower level was a shop that sold scents and a fashion boutique. Her family was well-known in the neighborhood as the people always go to her mother's shop to buy dresses for events. The boutique would be full especially when the royal hold an occasional event or party.
The family is wealthy.
Seungmin watched as people went in and out from the boutique. Some bought dresses, some bought scented candles and soaps. He could see the interior of the shop from the outside and knew where Minju got her attitude from.
The interior was pink. Most of the furniture inside was covered by velvet pink and if you open the door, soft music would greet you with a melodic voice of welcome greeting. The aroma of british rose spreading was just even, not to the point it irritates one's nose.
To make it short, it was elegant and sophisticated, yet soft.
That's what he would describe Minju.
Shortly after, the girl came in a rose gold casual dress and her hair was let down, replacing her painter look. "Let's go."
"I thought you wanted to rest for awhile?" Seungmin questioned as he got up and approached her.
"I've rested enough." Minju pointed to her house with a smile. Seungmin just chuckled and nodded. With that, they left to the town.
It was near noon by the time they arrived. People started flooding in as per usual on a weekend. Loud chatters surrounded them with children's gleeful laughter greeted the ears. Some of them ran around and bumped onto Seungmin, but the guy just smiled and patted their head, not caring if they spoiled his outfits.
After all, they were just kids.
"They are cute." Minju said when another boy accidentally hit Seungmin on the hip. The guy nodded. "I wish I have younger siblings."
"Me too," Seungmin agreed. "Both of us are the only child?"
"Seems like it." they stopped in front of a wooden craft store. Minju picked a circle craft which had sunset paintings on it. It was turned into a keychain. "Isn't it kind of boring for being the only child?"
Seungmin hummed, "Not really. I don't stay in the house all the time."
"Oh yeah, you have classes. I forgot about that," she stifled a laugh and pick another painting. "My mother doesn't let me to go outside alone, especially when the king suddenly tightened the security even at the beach."
"Maybe the king is finding someone to capture, who knows? It is still dangerous for girls to go out there alone anyway." Seungmin's eyes caught a strutting deer figure and he was about to reach for it but Minju's words cut him off.
"I need to find someone to accompany me everywhere then." she turned to him. "Should I find someone like you? An archer?"
"An archer cannot do anything without a bow and an arrow."
"Hmm, a sword fighter then?"
"A sword fighter even cannot do anything without a sword."
"Ah... so if anything happens now you cannot do anything?" she sighed and shook her head in disappointment.
Seungmin just shrugged and they left the store without buying anything. There was a fountain in the middle of the circle. Birds could be seen perching at the border as if the water didn't bother them. The sound of the water splashing added a lively and calming atmosphere.
That's it, calming until he heard a yelling and someone bumped harshly on his shoulder.
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aaaahhhh finally an update😭 i'm sooo so so sorry for not updating that often. i seriously want to finish this story and already have drafts for different chapters but i'm just having a hard time to arrange the storyline (i alr planned it out but sometimes new ideas come and all huwaaa).
and my final is less than one month so i'm TRYING to not write anything here but somehow fail. i procrastinate A LOT OF FUCKING TIMES and chan will be disappointed i swear.
i hope you enjoyed! this story will be a loooong one so i'm really happy if there's people staying :'D
and happy new year loves! <3