Yeosang POV
The ship tilts to one side which makes us all stumble and crash into each other. What is happening? I thought we are back on our path. Just a few seconds later the ship turns back to normal.
"Is Hongjoong playing tricks on us again? What was that?", Jongho questions.
I suddenly hear someone scream but it is too muffled to make out who it is and what he is saying. Two minutes later San comes down. He is ghostly pale and has a few small cuts on his hands and face.
"We need your help! Hongjoong is unconscious.", he shouts.
We hurry onto the deck where Seonghwa is kneeling on the ground with Hongjoong's head in his lap while simultaneously holding on to the wheel and keeping the ship stable.
Mingi immediately takes over from him and Yunho climbs up the main mast and helps him to navigate through the passage. Jongho lifts up Hongjoong and brings him to his bed. Wooyoung makes sure that he lays comfortable and tucks him in while Seonghwa gets the first aid kit.
I look at San. He still looks very pale and exhausted.
"San, sit down, you don't look so good.", I say and point to the chair at Hongjoong's desk. He lets himself fall onto chair. Seonghwa comes back and starts treating his wounds. I decide to also treat San's wounds. I should make myself useful. He looks at me a bit confused and then starts whining because it hurts.
"I will go down and start making dinner. Jongho can you help me?", Wooyoung asks.
"Sure."
The two leave. I put bandages around San's hands.
"Isn't that a bit much?", he asks.
"You have quite a lot of scratches and it prevents dirt from getting in there again.", I explain.
"You should rest a bit. You seem very exhausted.", Seonghwa says.
San nods and we go down into the bedroom. He sleeps while I read.
Then I notice that I didn't panic when I treated his hands. I was so focused on helping out that I didn't think about the blood.
2 days later
It's already late in the afternoon when Yunho tells us to come up onto the deck. Hongjoong is already there. He looks way better than he did yesterday. I walk to the bow of the ship. It's a bit difficult to see but the path seems to be ending. We look over the railing together while we wait for the ship to leave the wind barrier. Ten minutes later the vision starts to clear and the wind becomes a soft breeze. It is also starting to get hotter and brighter again. On each side of our ship fly by the last two big clouds. In front of us is the bright blue sky. We finally made it to the other side!
As soon as the ship is out of the clouds, I get blinded by the sun. I cover my eyes with my hand. I should have brought a hat.
"Woah! WE MADE IT!", Mingi shouts.
I get shoved backwards and squeezed into a group hug.
"Where do we go from here though?", I ask.
"Let's look at the map together and see where the next island is later.", Hongjoong says.
The others enjoy the view while I sprint down to get a hat for Wooyoung and me. After putting it on I can finally open my eyes again without feeling like I am going blind immediately. I finally can see what they have been seeing. The sky looks exactly like everywhere else but when I turn around I can see the wall of clouds getting smaller and smaller every second. It is kind of weird thinking that we are now somewhere where almost no one has ever been before. I wonder if there are also people on this side that don't know that there are people on our side.
After eating dinner, Hongjoong discusses our route with us. Apparently he already told Jongho to sail towards the southeast to an island with a ruin on it. He then wants to check out the ruin on the island that is incomplete on the map and see what else is on that island before moving on to the other ruins farther northwards. Fortunately the islands are close to each other, so we should only take two to three weeks for the route. But what if we don't find anything here? What are we going to do then?
3 days later
I get up and start packing a few things that we might need when we explore the ruin. As I take the lunch that Yunho and Wooyoung made, I feel the ship stop. A few minutes later I meet with the others on the deck. To my right I can see the island that we parked at. On the island is small volcano but otherwise not much vegetation. The ruin is at the foot of it.
We get on land and start walking towards it. As we get closer I get to see more of the architecture. It doesn't look like anything that I have seen before. The whole building is built out of dark brown stone. The ground floor is T-shaped top of it is a small room and big pillars that hold the much bigger rectangular third floor. The same thing repeats for the fourth and fifth floor.
"Wow, these ruins look completely different from the ones that we have been in.", Jongho exclaims.
"Which also means that we have no idea what danger lies in front of us. We should be careful.", Mingi says.
We enter through the big golden door that has fallen out of its socket and is lying on the floor. The inside is full of sand and very dusty. On the floor are the remains of a carpet. On the walls are big empty candle holders and I can faintly see paint on the walls. In the middle stands a disintegrating desk. At the back of the room are two doors. The room seems to be completely empty otherwise.
"That's kind of lame. I thought it would look at least look as cool as the outside.", San utters.
We go through one of the doors. In the next room is a spiral staircase that leads upwards and two doors that lead to the smaller rooms at the side.
The two room are full of furniture that is in similar condition to the desk.
It seems like someone took the furniture from the main hall and put it in here. Since there is nothing down here, we go up the stairs. We go through the door on the second floor and land in the remains of a kitchen.
There isn't really something of interest here beside some residues of crystals in a weird stove like thing.
"The furniture here looks also very different to what we have seen until now.", Yunho comments.
"I wonder how old this building is. Everything is in a very bad condition or has almost completely turned to dust.", Hongjoong says. We decide to take a short break to eat our lunch before we go further up.
On the third floor is a corridor that connects four smaller rooms. Some of the furniture was moved into the corridor. The rest was pushed against the walls. Otherwise here also isn't anything that is helpful for us.
"It's very odd that the furniture was moved out of the way like this.", Seonghwa states.
"Ah, I think I know why. Maybe the volcano broke out. There was maybe a village or something like that which was destroyed and they fled here because it was safer. So they had to make space for a lot of people.", Wooyoung explains.
"Yeah, they probably fled. But I don't know if it was because of the volcano. Why would they flee to a building that is directly next to it. And wouldn't it get destroyed first?", Jongho says.
"But from what would they flee if it wasn't from the volcano?", I ask.
It gets quiet as the others think about it.
"Let's move on. Maybe we will find something that tells us what happened.", San exclaims and goes up the stairs.
The fourth floor is smaller again. The furniture in this room hasn't been pushed to the side. There are remains of what seems to once have been a bed. We search through the room but find nothing besides dust and sand.
Mingi suddenly starts screaming at the top of his lungs and hides behind Jongho who looks at something with big eyes.
The rest of us walk over to them. There is a spider in the size of the palm of my hand in a rotten drawer.
Besides Yunho the rest of us also panic and hide on the other side of the room.
"Why is it so big!!!", San screams.
"Is it moving or is it dead?", Wooyoung who hides behind me ask.
"It is definitely alive.", Jongho states.
Yunho carefully closes the drawer slowly and Hongjoong motions us to go to the stairs.
"Eww, it was so hairy and it's eyes were so big.", Seonghwa whines.
"That was probably the ugliest and creepiest spider I have ever seen.", I add.
"Wait until we get to Tongcheok. There are a lot of creepy insects.", Hongjoong utters.
The last floor is one big room. There are a lot of remains of shelves. In the middle of the room someone pushed the furniture a bit aside to leave a big circular space. The floor has a few smaller holes there which edges look a bit charred.
In the middle of it lies something. It is too damaged to make out what exactly it is. Seonghwa picks it up and turns it around. It immediately crumbles into pieces but for the brief moment it held together it looked like a book.
"Is it just me or are these holes weirdly equally spaced?", Mingi remarks.
"You mean somebody made them on purpose?", I ask.
"Maybe candles?", San comments.
"Candles?", Wooyoung repeats.
"Why would someone put candles in a circle?", Seonghwa questions.
"You know like a creepy ritual. You and your friends put candles in a circle. You make some pattern on the floor with sand or ash or salt or something. One person stands in the middle with a book, the others stand behind the candles. And then you say some spooky things and something magical happens.", San tells.
We giggle about his story.
"You read too many books.", Hongjoong says.
"He only reads children's books.", I remind him.
"You really have an amazing imagination.", Jongho comments.
"It seemed logical to me.", San mumbles and pouts.
"The candles could be right though. Maybe some people just sat together to talk here.", Yunho speculates.
"Either way we haven't found anything here.", Jongho states.
"Yeah, unfortunately there is nothing here. Let's go back.", the captain says.
We go down the very long staircase and through the door, back into the first room. We walk towards the door but Mingi accidentally kicks something out of the sand against the wall. The whitish thing shatters into smaller pieces. We go to inspect it. The dirty white pieces are a very dry and hard material that became fragile probably because of its age. It is a part of a bone there is no doubt. I have seen them so many times.
"What is that?", San asks.
"It's a part of a bone.", Wooyoung replies.
"But not a human bone or is it?", Seonghwa asks. Wooyoung shrugs.
"It is impossible to find out from a small shard unless a scientist from Kroos Republic would analyze it for us.", Hongjoong explains.
"Wait, the sand and dust that we touched and walked over might have contained dust and and shards of human bones?", Mingi asks.
"Yeah. It seems so."
"I feel kind of bad now.", San says.
"Why? They are long dead.", Wooyoung says.
"It just feels like we disturbed their peace and disrespected them.", Jongho explains.
The thought of walking over dead bodies makes me uncomfortable and makes me remember bad memories again.
"Let's just get out here.", I utter.
2 years ago
I go into the throne room where the general and my father wait for me.
"Are you excited son? I hope you will fight mercilessly and be a good support to our general. Leave no one alive. Don't disappoint me. I hope you will come back and be more of a man than you are now."
"Yes, father."
"General, please take good care of him. I hope you will be a good role model for him and don't forget to punish him hard when he doesn't obey or misbehaves. Don't come back unless you conquered the island."
"Of course, my king."
We leave the castle and walk to the harbor where the warships are waiting for us. We go on board of the biggest one. It is packed full with soldiers. The general shows me the way to my room then disappears.
On the inside Wooyoung is waiting for me.
"Why are you here?"
"A prince can't travel without his valet. And the king wanted it that way, I am supposed to help you in and out of your amor and stuff."
"It's going to be brutal. I don't want you to see this. I don't want you to see me like this."
"One more reason why I should stick close to you. I have to make sure that you don't go insane."
After a little bit over one week of sailing we reach the island. It is right at the border of Waerglunt and the Nekra Kingdom. Waerglunt send two ships to defend the island but we quickly kill their crews and destroy them. Me and the general are supposed to lead the attack on the island next.
Wooyoung helps me to put on my armor before I go onto the deck to meet the general. The general holds a short speech before we leave the ship.
On the island we come across a small army. Ours is three times bigger than theirs so they are no match for us. My hands tremble a bit as I kill Waerglunt's soldiers. I don't want this. I don't want to be here. But I know I don't have a choice if I want to survive. I just need to keep telling myself that one day I will be able to turn things around and bring the Nekra Kingdom on the right path again. After we brutally killed the soldiers, it is now time to brutally murder everyone else on this island. Just how father wants it.
The general suggests that we split up. I will take some soldier and kill everyone on the right side of the village and he will kill everyone on the left with the remaining soldiers.
"Take the pretty woman and children that could be useful with you and kill the rest.", the general commands.
Me and my group storm into the village I tell the soldiers to search the houses. I try to hold back my tears from thinking of what will happen now. I just watch how everyone else murders people, kidnappes children between the age of five to ten and abuses women. I wish this was just a bad dream that I could wake up from but this is the reality. I catch how some soldiers look at me angrily and realize that I should probably participate if don't want more bad things to happen. I grab a middle-aged woman that is trying to flee and bring her towards the soldiers that gather all the kidnapped people.
"Your majesty, only the pretty women. She is too old.", the soldier says.
"I think women are the prettiest in their fourtys.", I try to argue.
"I see you like older women but unless you want to take her as your prostitute she won't be of much use."
"I understand.", I say nonchalant while pushing my sword between her ribs. The soldiers smile at me. I wish I could have saved her but at least the soldiers won't be suspicious of me so quickly now.
I run a bit outside of the village under the excuse of searching for people who might be hiding there. Unfortunately some soldiers follow me. I wanted to be alone to get over what I just did but it seems like I will get no pause. We find some teenage boys, slightly younger than me, armed with kitchen knifes who think that they can fight us.
"I will kill you Nekra scumbag!", one of them screams at me and swings his knife around. He is still so young but I know that I have no choice. If I don't kill him than someone else will and either Wooyoung, someone else or I will have to suffer too. I dodge his attacks easily.
"This is for my mom and dad!", he screams before attacking again. I let him hit my arm lightly before I put my sword through his abdomen.
"You protected your family well, now go back to them.", I whisper in his ear before I pull my sword out and he fall limply to the floor.
We walk further and find two children that we immediately enslave.
Otherwise we don't find anyone else.
We go back to village where the situation is horrible. And by that I mean fathers army is pretty much done here. I watch as the soldiers walk over the dead bodies as if they weren't there. The smell of blood lies in the air and the grass is stained red.
The general holds a long victory speech in front the ship that I completely block out because I keep replaying the events that just happened in my head. I feel incredibly guilty and dirty. I feel like I want to scratch away my skin until I bleed. Like I deserve all the pain in the world. I wish that I could rebel so badly but I know that my father would kill me, Wooyoung, half of our servants and every second child in the main city in his rage. I feel a tear roll down my face. I look down and pretend to pat away sweat. Hopefully no one saw that.
After the speech I am finally allowed to go back to my room.
"You're back! And you're alive!", Wooyoung exclaims and immediately starts taking off my bloody armor.
"I wish I had died. Well it kind of feels like I died... I feel so numb. I can't believe what just happened was real."
"Yes, I went onto the deck, so I saw some of the things that happened."
I tell Wooyoung everything that I experienced while I cry into his shoulder.
Now
"Everything okay Sangie? You look depressed.", Wooyoung asks me.
"I just thought of the past for a second."
"Oh don't think about too much though. In the future just don't think back further than a year. I want to see you happy."
I nod. I didn't even notice that we reached the ship. The captain sets course towards the next island while I go down into the bedroom. I am kind of tired, I think I will have a quick nap before dinner.