They'd been residing in Ilhun's home for a week now. Besides the one day the royal guards had come to the village,neither Dokja nor Joonghyuk had encountered them since. They had grown accustomed to living in the village where there were no bothersome nobles or politics to deal with, living in their own little bubble away from everyone and everything they knew. But they knew they needed to return, so they made plans to travel to the capital with Ilhun.
"Pretty ahjussi, what's your relationship with Joonghyun-hyung?" Over the past few days, he'd taken to teaching kids in the hamlet how to read and write, occasionally reading some stories to them out loud. Today all of them were sitting under a large tree to shield themselves from the sun, with Dokja leaning back against the tree trunk.
"Hmmm? We're just friends." He said, putting down the storybook to give his full attention to the children.
"Really? The adults say that you and Joonghyun-hyung share a room with each other, just like my mom and dad do!"
"Yeah, hyung always follows you around when he's not away hunting!"
"The other day, my mama said that she saw him glaring at the other noonas that were staring at you, pretty ahjussi!"
"My big sis told me that you were married to each other, but too dumb to know it!"
Dokja blinked owlishly at the children in front of him as they innocently tilted their little heads at him."No, haha… we're just… really good friends, is all…" he answered, his lips quirked oddly. "Let's just go back to reading, ok?" He quickly picked up the book and started where he'd left off.
"Prince Charming slipped on the glass shoe onto Cinderella's foot and it fit like a missing piece of a puzzle," he turned the page. " Finally, being able to reunite with the beautiful lady he'd fallen in love with at first glance, the prince and Cinderella went to the palace and married each other, living happily ever after." he ended as he closed the book and looked at the children. "Did you all like the story?"
"The prince was lame, he didn't even fight a dragon or anything!" one of the children exclaimed, but the other children were quick to shush them.
"I want my own prince charming," another child dreamily murmured and faced with shining eyes, "What about you,Pretty Ahjussi?"
"What do you mean?"
"Have you already found your own true love?" All the children turned to him, watching expectantly.
Slightly balking at the sudden onslaught of attention, he tried his best to answer carefully, "Well, you see, I don't need a prince charming, I can find my happy ending on my own," stated the man (who currently had a fiancé).
All of the kids didn't seem satisfied with his answer, but they held their tongues, not wanting to go against their teacher's words. Dokja stood up from his spot and patted the dirt off himself, the children following suit. He'd seen the hunting party reentering the village from the distance and decided to end class, the parents would probably want to see their children after a long, arduous day of work. "Okay, it's time for you all to go back to your parents. Make sure to stay safe and don't run off playing before you go home, okay?"
"Yes teacher!" they all cried out as they went their separate directions, some to welcome the hunters back, others running back to their homes. Seeing Yoo Joonghyuk amongst the returning hunting party, Dokja decided to go up to greet him. He approached the prince with a wide grin, waving his hand as the prince turned in his direction.
"Welcome back!" Dokja observed all the animals he was holding, "Looks like you hunted a lot today." The prince only grunted in acknowledgement as he started unloading the hunting equipment he was wearing and cleaning the blood off of them.
"Did you see any royal guards today?"
Joonghyuk's response was as expected: "No, they've probably moved on to another area to search for our whereabouts." Dokja hummed at that.
"We came across a road leading to the capital when we were hunting, Ilhun won't need to show us the way back.Pack up, we'll leave by evening today."
"Yes sir~" Dokja saluted him, walking beside him as Joonghyuk hauled the catch to the meat market.
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They (primarily Dokja) said their goodbyes to Ilhun and the other villagers before they departed, and the locals had even been so generous as to provide them with some rations to take along on their travels. The village had greatly enjoyed their presence, with Dokja often taking care of their children when they had to work and Yoo Joonghyuk single-handedly providing the village with double their usual hunting haul every day.
After thoroughly making sure they had packed everything, they left the village when night had already fallen upon the sky. Going back into the forest, Dokja could sense the three creatures following them back as they made their way through the foliage.
"… the necklace, you still have it, right?" Dokja spoke up after they'd walked silently for a while. According to Joonghyuk, they were almost on the road back.
"Obviously," the prince said, pulling some of the necklace out of his pocket to show to the man beside him. Dokja nodded.
Suddenly, an arrow hit the tree near him, and Dokja couldn't help the sense of Déjà vu that overcame him as assassins emerged all around him. "Seriously, again?" he cried in frustration as Joonghyuk drew out his sword beside him. Dokja followed suit despite his lack of proficiency with a blade; "How many are there?" he asked.
"Fifteen, maybe twenty," Joonghyuk replied. In a heartbeat the assassins were on them, swinging their weapons at the two.
Dokja dodged a blade slice aimed at his neck, kicking the assassin in the stomach. He then parried an assassin to his left side with his sword, delivering a swift blow to another assassin that approached him. He tried his best to only aim at non vital areas, though he couldn't be sure how much damage he was actually inflicting.
He took note of Yoo Joonghyuk's progress, and as expected the latter was exceptionally more skilled in this area. His slices and sword handling were much more graceful and effective in backing off the assassin from him. Yoo Joonghyuk was standing firm with the majority of the attackers targeting him.
Dokja's lips upturned in wonder as he pointed to the vines emerging around them, "Joonghyuk~ah, look!" as the vines wrapped themselves around his arm.
Joonghyuk scowled and fought the assassins "What the..." he murmured as he looked at Dokja's arm and at the vines.
The vines made quick work of picking off the assassins, dragging them away to the depths of the forest, engulfing their entire bodies, and choking them out."Looks like they're on our side" Dokja huffed out breathlessly, running over to Joonghyuk. "Why don't we try using them to our advantage?" he proposed, looking down at the vines around his arm.
Joonghyuk scowled as he observed the vines encircling Dokja's hand, "No, we don't know anything about them."
"Come on, they're protecting us, don't you trust me?"
"No."
"I thought we were friends," Dokja replied sarcastically as he angled his head to gaze at him.
"When did we start becoming friends?"
"Since we got attacked by the assassins." Joonghyuk rolled his eyes at Dokja "Come on trust me, just this one time."
Joonghyuk looked at him for a moment before relenting, "Fine," and approached him.
Dokja grinned and turned to the vines, "Hey, can you take us outta here?"
The vines complied, wrapping around Joonghyuk's hand and body as they lifted them off the ground, hauling them through the forest. With how fast the two of them were going, wind whipped against their faces. The trees around them became a blur and in no time the attackers became nothing but dots in the distance.
But unbeknownst to the two of them, much more assassins were sent after them than they had thought. Whoever had hired them had become much more determined to get the job done this time and knew to order more assassins, after the first batch had failed.
The next wave of assassins leapt from the trees, severing the vines that had been carrying Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja, making them tumble to the ground. By the time the both of them had scrambled up from where they landed, they were surrounded once more.
Hearing a grunt from Yoo Joonghyuk, Dokja looked over to see him pulling an arrow out of his arm, the tip of it covered in some sort of liquid.
"Joonghyuk!" he yelled as he rushed by the prince's side. He helped the man, who was clutching his arm, stand up.
"Are you ok?"
Joonghyuk observed the assassins around him before turning to face Dokja, "The arrow was laced with a fast-acting poison. I can already feel my arm going numb. I'll keep the assassins off as long as I can, try to find some help, it's possible the royal guards are around here," he rasped out, drawing his blade.
"What?! Of course not, it's you they're after, you bastard, of course I can't leave you here alone!"
"Exactly, they won't go after you. Just get out of here, the vines will keep you safe."
"But—"
"GO!" Yoo Joonghyuk yelled at him, shoving him away as the assassins started descending upon him.Gritting his teeth as he cast a last glance back, Dokja ordered some of the vines to stay back and protect the prince while getting the rest of them to lift him far above the forest ground, away from the assassins. He looked around the forest, whipping his face at every rustle and distant sound in hopes that it indicated human life. Every second that passed by felt like an eternity. Dokja had no idea how Joonghyuk was doing or if he was even still conscious.
The darkness of the night made it an almost impossible task, with the trees around them swallowing up any light that shined upon it
Eyes desperately scanning over every shadowy corner and clearing that he could possibly see, he finally saw it by some miracle. The glint of metal reflecting the moonlight, overlayed with the insignia of the royal palace. Dokja hastily ushered the vines to lower him to the ground. He scrambled to their location as fast as his legs could take him, finally finding the help that they needed.
In his frenzy Dokja shoved the branches and foliage out of his way, not caring about the twigs that were cutting his hands and face. Pushing away the last plant that separated him from the knights, Dokja almost plowed into the group with how fast he had been rushing. The royal guards looked on in shock, seeing the proud Underworld heir hurl himself at them with his arms and legs shaking, frantically grabbing their shoulders.
"You need to go there, Joo---His Highness was th—" he heaved his words, getting tongue tied in his panicked state and from the adrenaline rushing through his body. He feverishly pointed toward the spot in the forest where he'd left Joonghyuk, but was shocked when a royal guard handcuffed him.
"Sir Dokja from the Underworld Duchy, you're being detained for attempting to kill a member of the royal family."