The royal palace was in a state of panic after the Crown Prince and the young master of the Underworld duchy hadn't returned, even hours after the tournament had concluded. Knowing how much they hated each other only made everyone more nervous at the prospect of what may have happened. Rumors and speculation spread like wildfire through both the palace and the capital. Some people believed that they organized a formal fight and were trying to kill each other, while others thought the crown prince had kidnapped Sir Dokja to finally off the heir himself.
"Listen here, you bastard. If you and you knights don't find my son in the next twenty-four hours, I will be sure to personally disavow you from your title and dismantle all of your lives by the time you wake up tomorrow"
Persephone's eyes bored onto the royal captain with the same maliciousness that a snake eyed its prey. She crowded into his space, emphasizing each of her words with a tap of her sharp nails on his armor. The royal guard looked pleadingly over at the duke, who had let his wife terrorize the poor man for the past few minutes. The rest of the captain's men stood behind him, not sure what to do and too scared to face the woman's wrath. Finally deciding to let the knight go from his misery, Hades gently took his wife's hands into his own and turned her to face him.
"My dear wife, please calm yourself—"
"How am I supposed to calm myself down when our son is still missing!!" She yelled out.
The duke sent Namwoon to go fetch his mother a glass of water, "I know, but nothing will happen if we get angry so let's calm down and think, ok?"
"Here's some water, Mother. Please sit for a moment, you'll burn marks into the floor with how long you've been pacing around" Namwoon said as he and Hades lowered Persephone into a plush seat.
The duke turned to the royal guards, "Both me and my personal guards will accompany you to find my son," he declared.
The heavy doors to the common room opened. "I'm afraid you can't do that, Your Grace," turning to see who would dare get between him and his son, Hades scowled as he saw the Archduke, the current queen's father, striding into the room.
"What do you mean, I can't?" Hades growled out.
With a flourish, the Archduke pulled out a piece of paper, showing its contents to the members of the Underworld Ducal. "I'm sorry Your Grace, but there's an arrest warrant out for Sir Dokja right now. Having you join the search would be a conflict of interest," he explained, a smug look on his face.
When the Duchess heard this, she sprung to her feet, glaring at the Archduke, "What is the meaning of this," Persephone hissed out at him, a murderous aura around her, " what exactly do you think my son has done to deserve such treatment?"
The Archduke gave her a pitiful look."Well, you see, the guards accompanying the crown prince during the hunt claimed to have witnessed Sir Dokja pushing His Highness off a cliff."
In the corner of the room where they had been silently observing everything, Han Sooyoung and Jung Heewon glanced at each other with serious faces. Even if they couldn't say it out loud, they knew the Archduke was spewing bullshit. They and everyone around them had personally witnessed Kim Dokja's change, how he'd apologized to the prince and stopped bothering Lee Seolhwa. Maybe this was Yoo Joonghyuk's plot to convince everyone that Dokja was a criminal?
Sooyoung tightened her fists as Heewon plotted how to kill the crown prince herself, her hand going to grip her blade.
They needed to prove Dokja was innocent, but how?
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By the time Kim Dokja woke up, the sun was high in the sky. He stretched his body out, hearing a few satisfying pops and cracks in his bones. It looked like the cave floor didn't agree with his body. He'd really gotten too used to his soft bed; he could wait to return home.
Looking beside him, Dokja spotted the prince sleeping a few feet away. His face was void of the usual scowl that he wore, it was a shame that he couldn't be this relaxed all the time.
Exiting the cave, warm sunlight and a cool breeze welcomed him right away. He turned to look around and noticed the three creatures lurking in a tree. He approached them, "Good morning you three!"
"Ba-at" [You're back!]
"Popo" [Good day]
"Purung!" [Good morning!]
Dokja paused and rubbed his head, "Eh?". He stared hard at them, but the three just returned with innocent stares. He just sighed. Well, he supposed this wasn't the worst ability to get out of nowhere. "You all saw the vines from the other day, right?" He asked, the three creatures looked at each other and then nodded. "Do you know where they came from and why they attacked the assassins?"
The three exchanged glances as though debating whether or not to respond to his query, and then Biyoo uttered "Ba-at,...Ba-at" [Because they were protecting the ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️].
He scratched his head and scowled. "The what?"
"Popo" [◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️]
"What—never mind… besides that, why are the guys here?You should be on the opposite side of the forest, right?"
He questioned. The three exchanged glances before turning to face him.
"Popo" "Ba-at" "Purung" [Wait here] They instructed him, and turned to leave. Dokja was perplexed at first but did as they told him. When the three came back, Popo was holding a bag and handed it over to him.
Casting a confused glance to the three, he opened the bag to find a pendant and a few letters within. Taking out one of the letters and reading its contents, he couldn't help but let a smirk stretch over his face. Dokja then heard a slight rustling behind him from Yoo Joonghyuk in the cave, he looked at the three and grinned, "Thank you for this," he nodded at them earnestly.
"Bye!" he shouted behind him as he ran off.
Jogging back into the cave, he saw Joonghyuk standing there tensely and looking around, no doubt wondering where he was. The prince's eyebrows furrowed at the bag in his arms "Kim Dokja, what are you holding."
"Oh this? Err… I just found it laying around while I was going on a stroll," he said, chuckling awkwardly.
Joonghyuk stared at him for a moment before sighing and taking up his sword. "Eh? You're not even gonna ask me more about it?" he questioned.
Joonghyuk responded, "I don't care, do whatever you want," he said, as he turned away to collect his belongings, wrapping the fruit he collected last night with his cloak.
What the hell? What happened to the Joonghyuk of last night?
"Eh? you should be more considerate like last night." Kim Dokja whined out at him.
"Everything you heard and saw last night, forget about it." Joonghyuk grunted out.
He rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, pouting, "Why should I? Feeling embarrassed? You afraid I'm gonna tell the empress you called her a wench?"
"Kim Dokja."
"Besides, you were being so kind to me yesterday, protecting me, giving me your cloak, getting food for me… don't tell me you did it out of guilt or someth—" Dokja he cut off when he saw Joonghyuk's shoulders tensing up. His eyes narrowed, and he grinned when Joonghyuk turned away, the tips of his ears red. "Aaah, it's like that, huh?Came to your senses and thought about everything you did?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He rolled his eyes at him, placing a hand on his hips, "It won't kill you to admit it, Yoo Joonghyuk."
Joonghyuk paused where he had his back to Dokja and slowly faced him, "… you used my name, Kim Dokja."
"Don't change the subject, plus, you used my name less than a minute ago!"
"…hmph."
The prince turned towards the cave entrance, a pleased look on his face for some reason. "We're wasting time here, let's go." He didn't wait for Kim Dokja as he started marching through the forest, his sword dragging on the ground behind him.
" Hey, wait up, you didn't answer me! Hey—!"