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“So? Will you accompany me?”
Biseol has been a silent shadow of late, the air between us still awkward. He’s been training hard every day, pushing his body as I’ve been pushing my own training of the seven divine powers. My opponents haven’t been sitting still, either, I’m sure.
“I shall be your escort, if you’ll allow it.”
His hands are wrapped in bandages. How strained has it been between us, that he’s trained this hard? If it’s my fault that a begrudging ghost doesn’t open up to me, then how much more my fault is it that my own attendant and I are at odds? I can’t get through to him, and he won’t budge either. We’ve never fought like this before.
I can’t wait for these trials to be over. Biseol will feel better then. So will I, although the true work will only begin once I’m on the throne.
“I’ve never had any objections to you accompanying me. But I do have an objection to you getting yourself injured.” I see Biseol flinch. It’s not often that I have the opportunity to turn the tables – usually he’s the one scolding me for training myself too hard. “I’ve noticed you’ve been training very hard recently. Don’t overexert yourself.” I pat him on the shoulder, and go to change. It’s a long journey to Demonbeast Mountain.
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“I can hear them screeching in the distance. So, how come I can’t see anything worth killing?” The trial started less than an hour ago. My rivals are already pulling ahead of me, by the sound of it.
Biseol stands at my back, but the plain in front of us is devoid of anything living or unliving.
“I know competition’s stiff in this area, but surely my luck can’t be this bad.”
We find a small, injured beast, that quivers in fear at Biseol’s feet. Is there no way around it? I wonder. This place is dangerous, and Biseol would hate to be separated from me, especially if it’s his half-demon aura that’s chasing all my prey away… Wait.
My lips stretch in a grin. There is a better way for me to succeed in this trial, without hurting my attendant’s already-bruised feelings by leaving him behind due to his not-quite-all-the-way-human nature.
“Biseol. In this trial, who do you think is my stiffer competition? Choran or Jeongwon?”
Biseol is eyeing my wicked smile with a look on his face that says he’s not sure what I’m up to now, and he’s not sure if he really wants to know. “Choran’s combat abilities are greater. He has the advantage over Jeongwon in this trial.” Biseol’s analysis agrees with mine.
“I’m glad we agree. Now, I have a job for you. Take your jacket off.”
“Master?” Biseol looks very confused.
“If your aura frightens away the prey, then I need you to be very stealthy, and go sneak close enough to Choran to chase away his prey without getting caught. Your jacket stands out too much in this environment – and let’s do something about your hair, too.” I scoop some of the red dust into my hands, swirling a little water power into it to make a mud paste. Biseol’s going to hate this, but hopefully as an obnoxious prank and not the punch to the gut my leaving him behind as useless baggage would be.
Biseol complies with my plan, looking dubious but submitting when I cut his hair as short as I can and rub the mud into the stubble. I rub more paste onto his face, hiding his pale skin, while he tries not to scowl at me and knock the drying mud off. I try very hard not to snicker at him. He has a very important job during this trial, after all. We leave the jacket tucked away in a crevice, along with the cut strands of long white hair. No sense in advertising where we’ve been, though of course all the princes will know where we started from.
It’s not cheating if my attendant happens to scare off the prey by merely existing, and just so happens to be hanging around a competitor in this crowd of princes on the mountainside, while I go off and hunt on my own, now is it?
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Jeongwon and his attendant, carrying the second prince’s living weapon, stop at the place Jeongwon had chosen for his own special hunt. Gazing around, Jeongwon frowns slightly. “I would have thought that the fourth prince and his attendant would be near here by now.” They’re standing on a slight ridge, but no tall, white-haired attendant can be seen in any direction. It doesn’t look like the fourth prince is anywhere in sight, either, but he would blend into this red and black wasteland far better.
“Perhaps they’re taking longer to climb the mountain than you did, master,” Jeongwon’s attendant replies.
“You’re probably right.” Jeongwon has been saving this weapon for months and months, extending the agonizing life of this crippled criminal for one purpose – to expose the fourth prince’s attendant and in one fell swoop rid himself of a dangerous rival for the throne, without ever exposing himself to danger.
“I think it’s time. Let’s go get revenge against the one who did this to you. Now… let the real hunt begin.” A sinister smile spreads across Jeongwon’s face, as the bandit begins crawling on shattered limbs across the wasteland, moaning in pain.
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Biseol, of course, is nowhere nearby – Choran had immediately struck out away from all other competitors (except for Hae-eon, who was stuck to him like an annoying burr) but Jeokyeon had anticipated that he would choose to face as many beasts alone as possible, and Biseol hadn’t had much trouble finding the pair. They certainly shouted loudly enough. And while being on this mountain was scraping Biseol’s nerves raw, waking every terrible memory of his existence Before Jeokyeon to lurk in the back of his mind, having a job to do for his beloved master in this trial was like a salve over a wound. The princes he is following are very skilled, and it takes too much concentration to stay nearby without being caught stalking them for Biseol to have time to worry about his master abandoning him. The prince of flames, Biseol’s precious snowflake, has given her servant a task, and Biseol is determined that his performance won’t disappoint.
Choran is very, very angry. After scolding Hae-eon for his ridiculous stunt, the amount of prey he’d been able to find had dropped quite sharply. Had the dragon beast family already denuded this area of additional prey? Did the demonbeasts even eat each other as normal beasts would? Scowling savagely, he and Hae-eon climbed even farther away from the area closest to the other princes. They might run into Hamil if they kept going this way, but surely there would be far more prey on that side of the mountain than where all the other princes were hunting.
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Jeongwon and his attendant find themselves occupied with killing the demonbeasts drawn to the sound of an injured human. Jeongwon is disappointed that his plan is not quite coming off as desired. Perhaps it is time to pack the baggage back up and quickly scout in the direction he’d been crawling, before he finally perishes in this terrible land.
Just as Jeongwon was turning to his attendant to command this, Ayeon appears from around the ridge, spattered with blood.
“Jeongwon! I’m so glad to see- AIEE! OH MY GODS, WHAT IS THAT?!”
The softhearted twentieth prince has spotted the crippled man, dragging his now bleeding, broken body across the ground.
Jeongwon’s chosen theater has very good acoustics, just as he’d planned. So of course, the intended audience hears Ayeon’s cry. Well – some of it. Jeokyeon, having completed the worst gardening task of her entire life (she lived in the Winter Palace, and didn’t have anything to do with plants normally, and liked it that way, thankyouverymuch), hears it, and turns toward the sound of her brother’s distress. As does the 19th prince.
Choran and Hae-eon are already too far away to hear, the ridges of the mountain bouncing the sound away from them.
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I arrive on the scene, flames sputtering around my heels as I let go of the divine power I had used to travel quickly towards the distressed cry. Ayeon has done far, far better than anyone expected in these trials, but everyone knows that he’s been completely uninterested in the throne from the moment his sage hall had introduced him to the palace. He’s not truly a rival.
Despite the pressure, and his dubious association with the most ruthless of my brothers, Ayeon is still soft and kind. He practiced hard and his results speak for themselves – the twentieth prince has a strength all his own. What could have caused him to scream like that?
A corpse?
No. It’s the bandit. The one Biseol said he’d take care of, that night in the baths when I’d been drugged to sleep. Horror shoots down my spine. This man knows my secret. How can he still be alive? Biseol had long ago promised me not to kill, but I’d seen his demon-red nails and felt the blood on my face, and accepted that in this case, it had been justified. But the bandit isn’t dead.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Both our secrets are at risk here, and the second prince has both of his allied princes at his side, along with his attendant, and I am alone.
Small mercies. I may be able to salvage this situation, despite being outnumbered, if I can think fast and turn it to my favor. Biseol might have done something unwise in his shock if he were here. It is me, versus the second prince and his hangers-on, neither of whom is truly a threat-
“What is going on here?” I stride forward as if I were the emperor himself, demanding answers. Yeong-gyeong can’t be responsible for this, although he was behind the bandit’s attack on me – he’s too shortsighted. There’s only one man who could have kept the horribly injured bandit alive, and that’s Jeongwon. They don’t know my secrets, or I would have been reported to the emperor and executed already.
So this is actually my opportunity. Thank you, Jeongwon.
The bandit screams wordlessly at the sound of my voice, striking his head viciously against the sharp rocks of the ground, bleeding copiously from his forehead. He must have recognized the sound of my voice, but he cannot speak -
“Oh no!” Ayeon has recovered from his shock, leaping forward, and hauls the injured commoner into his lap as he kneels. “Where did this man come from?! Who could have done such a thing to him?!” softhearted Ayeon presses ineffectually at the blood coming from the commoner’s forehead. Behind his back, Jeongwon looks vexed.
Yeong-gyeong is cupping his mouth like he’s trying not to throw up. Showtime.
“An excellent question, Ayeon. Maybe our brothers can enlighten us as to which one of them brought this person here,” I say, my voice icy.
Ayeon’s head jerks up. “Who would bring an injured commoner to a trial?! And on Demonbeast Mountain!”
As if that was their cue, a swarm of demon rats erupts from the nearest crevice, no doubt drawn by the fresh scent of human blood. I swirl flames around my hands, shooting darts of compressed fire like miniature arrows before the other princes can react. More points for me, not that I truly need them.
“I brought him here,” Jeongwon admits. Too easy. What is he planning?
“What?!” Ayeon shouts.
“But I have a more important question for you, fourth prince,” Jeongwon continues. “After all, it was you who left this man in this deplorable condition. How could you attack a commoner so viciously?”
Ayeon is staring at me in horror, the bandit’s blood staining his robes, unheeded. The cripple’s moans are getting quieter.
“Or was it your attendant? This man was brought to me, his eyes pierced, his tongue torn out, his limbs all crushed. And yet he was alive-”
Yeong-gyeon interrups Jeongwon, shouting, “You dumped this man on my palace stairs in such a condition! How could you be so cruel, you monster?!”
Jeongwon cuts back in. “Using divine powers to kill is forbidden to princes and their attendants, as we all know, Jeokyeon. And I felt something even worse, when this man was brought to me. Tell me, did your pale attendant use demonic power to preserve his life, to feed on his suffering?”
Who is their performance for? Ayeon? Why suddenly accuse Biseol? I’ve never been so glad in my life that my attendant is not with me. I’m going to have words with him later, to be sure. After I get us out of this.
Ayeon has dropped his head, one hand patting the dying bandit in his arms, the other holding a scrap of dirty cloth to the man’s bleeding forehead. He says quietly, “Jeokyeon. Is this true?” He lifts his gaze to mine, looking sick with horror and grief.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jeongwon.” I say, dismissively. “How could my attendant preserve this injured man’s life with demonic power? Do you really think a demon could hide under the nose of the emperor and all the princes for centuries? Biseol has grown up with us!”
“Exactly, you alone have never suffered the loss of your attendant to inevitable mortality-”
I scoff. “Are you forgetting that the noble first prince’s attendant also grew up with us?” Perfect. Everyone knows that Baekrang wields the seven divine powers and could have become a prince himself, if the sage halls hadn’t deferred to Doha’s claim on him as his attendant. “I don’t know how this commoner’s life was extended with such injuries. Jeongwon, everyone knows that you have the greatest medical skill of anyone in the entire empire. Why have you tormented this man by keeping him alive in such a state? Were you setting yourself a challenge to test your own skills at the expense of this man’s suffering?”
Ayeon gasps, “Jeongwon would never injure someone so badly-”
“That’s right!” Yeong-gyeong exclaims. “You did this-”
“Oh, did I?” I ask, mildly disinterested, face kept cool and blank.
The 19th prince opens his mouth to reply, but Jeongwon cuts in, “This man was Yeong-gyeong’s retainer, who was sent to keep an eye on you, Jeokyeon. It’s quite common for princes to use commoners to spy on each other and look for weaknesses, as I’m sure you know. I don’t know what he did, that you brutalized him to this extent, but surely you must confess that you’ve broken the palace rules.”
I’m sure that this pack of lies is meant for Ayeon’s ears. The 20th prince will probably believe his friends’ tale over the truth, but there’s no need for me to make this too easy for them.
I gaze coldly down at the body in Ayeon’s lap. Their only witness has finally bled out the last of his life, despite Ayeon’s desperate attempt to save him. Or perhaps it was the comfort he felt in the kind prince’s arms that allowed the bandit to finally let go. “Jeongwon. Your patient has at long last gone to receive his rewards for this life.” I look up at him. Colder than frost. “I have never laid a hand on this retainer of Yeong-gyeong’s. Let the Emperor himself ask me, for that is the truth.
“But if what you claim is true, then why don’t you tell your story about what this man was ordered to do before His Majesty, so that he can rule justly between us?”
Yeong-gyeong goes deathly pale and Jeongwon’s mouth compresses into a thin line. Ayeon doesn’t look up from where he’s laid his hand over the deceased man’s shattered face.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have a trial to continue,” I turn, and walk away with a deliberate, measured pace. I told Biseol I wouldn’t overdo it, but the adrenaline pouring through me demands otherwise. Fire is singing in the rush of blood through my whole body. Maybe I’ll get a lot of points today, after all.
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At midnight of the 18th, the divine scrolls report the princes’ rankings in this penultimate trial. Doha, splashed with demonbeast blood from head to toe, regards his first place ranking with grim satisfaction. Jeokyeon’s score is only a little lower than his own.
Choran and Hae-eon have oddly low scores, but they’re in no danger of elimination. Jeongwon didn’t do very well in this one, either, but he’ll also sail through to the final trial without trouble.
Doha mulls over the results while Baekrang exclaims about how terrifying the first and fourth princes are. The last trial.
Doha’s been thinking about something for a while, when he’s not thinking about Jeokyeon. About a commoner blacksmith who was brave enough to love an emperor, and about a prince whose sage hall killed her for no reason other than to keep their own prince candidate in the number one position. As if their numbers mattered.
There’s never been a generation of princes in which there haven’t been deaths during the final trial. Perhaps Doha will take care of a thorn in Jeokyeon’s side, and gain his own revenge for years of loneliness at the same time. Perhaps.