Chapter Text
The silence was deafening, every person present in the room was either sweating or praying to go back home alive, and those who didn’t know better were… confused. The prince was yet to arrive, taking his sweet time intentionally, while the quivering culprit stood down on his knees.
“Whatever happens, do not lie” The chancellor advises him.
“Bu-But-”
“The prince hates false words with passion. Believe me, nothing will be as punishable as a lie.” The battered man gulps, nodding in fear at the seriousness in the chancellor’s voice. As soon as the sound of the trumpet reached over the throne room, indicating the arrival of the royal highness, it caused everyone to straighten up, whispers quieting down.
The people bowed as the prince passed through them, half of them still awed in front of his beauty, the shining white hair styled perfectly, each strand of hair in its place, ancient gold jewelry sitting cozy around his long pale neck, his eyes glowing under the brown irises, his lips red as roses, and his infamous poisonous sword sheathed over his waist, blood still dripping from its edge.
“Your Highness” The chancellor bows, greeting the prince as he strolled towards his throne with an uninterested expression, almost looking bored with the summon.
“Joong, how many times do we have to go over this formality? Just call me Seonghwa like you would before” He speaks as he settles over the cushioned red throne adorned with priceless gemstones and gold. Hongjoong rolls his eyes, lips thinning in irritation, he turns to the culprit still on his knee, awaiting his punishment.
“Your Highness, the soldiers have returned empty-handed” Seonghwa smirks at the adamant refusal before his eyes narrows at the news, cautioning him to continue. “An incident took place, causing them to lose… the merchandise.”
“The merchandise. The merchandise that was supposed to ensure a treaty between us and the Bangtan Nation?”
“…yes.” Seonghwa smiles, sending chills down each member of the council, an angry prince was one thing, a happy prince was… downright terrifying. The prince gets up from his throne, making the culprit flinch in fear, trembling as the footsteps nears him, and stops right in front of him.
“Pray tell, what exactly happened that made you lose our prized possession?”
“Y-You-Your Highness- we-we, it wasn’t- we- AAH!”
“I prefer clear words, you buffoon. What’s his name, Joong?”
“…Cheol”
“Right, well, dear Cheol-ah, again with clarity this time, yeah?” The wounded soldier nods, lips bleeding as he tries to stifle his groans of pain.
“Your Hi-Highness, we c-couldn’t take the usual road as it was broken b-because of the storm, we took the shortcut that d-doesn’t fall under the borders of Halazia. The t-troop was tired, we saw a village on our way an-and-”
“You decided to have a bit of fun, is that correct?”
“Y-Yes, Your H-Highness.”
“Did that include trashing the place and partying with their resources?”
“Y-Your-”
“Nothing usual if not barbaric, so you became a two-cent bandit, why did you lose the merchandise?” The prince grabbed him by the neck, enough to hurt him but not to restrict his speaking.
“W-W-We were defeated, they had guards” There was a pause of a few seconds, Seonghwa looked surprised at the twist of this story, he was honestly expecting them to forget or something as stupid but-
“You lost?” He threw the man to the ground. “You, along with your troop of what, sixty-five men, the best of the best as I have been informed- lost? By mere guards? Joongie, you getting all that?” The chancellor looked pained, as if more revelations were left to be told. “Ah fuck, what else is there?”
“M-My prince, i-it- it was only one fighter.”
“What?” The prince cackled loudly, “Oh my fucking god, one man against my soldiers? What a sick joke. Throw him in the dungeon, I will deal with him later.”
As the man was dragged away from the throne room, the counsel waited for the verdict, holding their breaths. Hongjoong was getting another headache, as he usually gets when he has to deal with their psychotic prince.
“I have already sent another group to collect the delivery, I doubt those villagers would have taken the contents, it will be useless for them if all they care about is survival.”
“Hmm..”
“Your Highness?” But the prince was elsewhere, thinking about something else, not paying any attention to the matter at hand, “…Hwa?”
“Hm?”
“Are you thinking about the mystery man?”
“Just curious, must be a dirty-blood with that kind of strength, but still, it’s fascinating. Never heard of a creature that efficient. Maybe a wolf imprisoned?”
“No, it was a man, a human as far as the intel goes. The surviving men briefed me about the situation. Yeosang was going to meet them an hour later, and that’s when Cheol and the others decided to do the… usual deed, but this time they were unfortunate. Five humans were ready for their attacks, didn’t even let one house burn down or an innocent villager harmed.”
“Yeosang was there?” Seonghwa asked, baffled, how can one of their strongest fighters… lose?
“Yes, though his mind was to end the fight rather than take the man head-on. He rescued as many soldiers as he could before escaping from the village. Only nine returned. The other five were protecting the village from harm while this man fought the soldiers.”
“…interesting.”
“There will be time for that later, Seonghwa. Right now, we need to resolve this Bangtan situation. Against the Neo Kingdom, ours won’t stand a chance. And if Bangtan backs them up, we’d be in real trouble. Ex’lusion have already sided with the Neos.”
“Agh. You guys bore me so much.”
-
Lucky for the prince, they did get the chance to revisit the mysterious village with mysterious guards. And it was completely by chance. Seonghwa had almost forgotten about the incident, too busy fucking and killing several creatures, especially to make sure the treaty goes ahead smoothly. But as he put it before, it was awfully boring, this whole schmoozing business, well, bloodshed wasn’t all that bad but a man can only kill so much before he craves something better.
And… what exactly can be better than taking someone’s life as creatively as he does? Nothing much. Hongjoong convinces him to go hunting, it had been a while, and it was getting hard trying to clean up after the ruthless prince. At least animals brought some perks. And less tension. The consort of the Bangtan Nation had shown displeasure for the bloodshed and Hongjoong fears this side hobby of the prince can jeopardize the deal.
So they were on their respective horses, Seonghwa had only brought Hongjoong and Yeosang with him, not that he needed them but the chancellor insists every fucking time, chasing the Blue Stag, a rare stag with glowing antlers and blue skin- every part of the animal could be used for thousands of things.
But that thing was ferocious and extremely fast, so targeting it as it ran was almost impossible, he had managed to injure its back but it didn’t do much to deter the stag. Seonghwa was getting impatient but enjoying just as much the challenge it presented, he was so engrossed in chasing the prey, that his two companions were left behind due to his speed. And then Seonghwa found himself in uncharted territory, the stag had disappeared and he couldn’t find any trace of the creature- so he strikes down one of the trees in fury. It doesn’t make him relent, the urge to kill the blue stag increasing even more as he looks around frantically, riding in circles as the other two finally catches up to him.
“Seonghwa! What the fuck?”
“Joong. That bastard slipped away.”
“Screw that! This isn’t our territory! If we are caught harming what belongs to this land’s king- things will not turn out fine!”
“Uh- guys-”
“Not now, Yeo!”
“Joong, calm your tits-”
“Don’t you fuckin-”
“GUYS!”
“WHAT?” The chancellor and the prince screamed back in unison.
“This is the place. We should probably go back, now.”
“What place?”
“I am not going anywhere without that little shit killed by my hands” Hongjoong rolls his eyes at the expected comment, turning to Yeosang for clarity.
“That village. We can’t take them on.”
“Oh.” Realization dawns on them, recollection of the incident that happened a few months ago coming back to them. “Shit. We leave now-”
“Shh”
“Hwa, not now-”
“Hush” Hongjoong is taken aback at the harsh tone Seonghwa uses, it’s not exactly a shock but the prince never talks to them this way at least. “I heard a thud, a body falling, must be the stag!” The grin is a bit unsettling, Hongjoong muses as the prince takes off.
Yeosang and Hongjoong look at each other, the best solution is to leave, there is no way they could deal with any conflicts right now, but their loyalty to their prince was… unshakable. They sighed and moved to follow the royal highness into the deeper woods, and again taken by surprise to witness the scene in front of them because their prince Seonghwa was arguing with a… child?
“-that’s my prey”
“No, it is mine. I shot it down, the stag fell right in front of my eyes, I will not let you take my target!”
Hongjoong hurriedly runs to his side as soon as he sees Seonghwa about to unsheathe his sword, he can’t even imagine the storm that will rise if their prince kills off a kid over a dead creature. Really. The child has brown hair and determined brown eyes, his appearance is slightly different than the city people, and he has a set of arrows on his back, hands ready to attack.
“Hwa, I don’t think killing a ki-”
“It’s a youngling” Seonghwa corrects him, his eyes still narrowed with a killing intent. The chancellor is surprised to hear that, the kid doesn’t look anywhere near feral or uncontrolled, rather he has all the grace of a royalty- even in the way he talks. “Must be a spawn of dirty-blood”
“Don’t call them that!” The kid strikes in anger, his bow glowing magnificent blue as the arrow comes flying dangerously close to the prince, even grazing his cheek and both of the companions look at the youngling with shock. The arrow looks like it would go to the left but it changes the direction in seconds and passes from the right side. The precision was genius, and it was obvious the kid- youngling did not actually mean to fatally harm the prince, maybe striking just as a warning. Hongjoong’s blood pressure increases, after this stunt, he doubts Seonghwa would let it be, he gulps and turns to look at the prince only to find him actually… impressed.
What in the tarnation?
“Hmmm, maybe I should spare him and take him back to the castle. He’d make a good soldier”
“…Seonghwa, please don’t.” Hongjoong pleads, pushing down the astonishment he feels to see Seonghwa acknowledge someone so easily, he doesn’t want to encourage his criminal tendencies even more. “Kidnapping is a new low, even for you”
Before anyone could speak, a black-draped creature dropped out of the sky, masked and covered with only a pair of eyes visible. The figure stood in front of the youngling, posture ready to attack, it wasn’t until they heard a voice coming from the black figure to realize it was a female creature.
“Stay away from our children!” Her voice was booming, echoing through the forest, she pulls off her cloak to grab two axes hanging over her waist, Hongjoong and Yeosang look at each other, part terror-part interest. Her eyes glows blue, raising their alert, she was one of the fighters they encountered before.
“Ah, so the dirty-blood inter-operate huh? Trying to increase your population?” Seonghwa taunts, smirking as she sneers at the prince, eyes cast over him in disgust.
“We’d rather die than sacrifice a poor soul to this fate” She takes a step forward, “He’s blessed by nature”
“Blessed?” Before she can retort, he adds “Yes, this is the villainous monologue and a time-wasting conversation before we get to the main event, now enlighten me, how did a kid achieve that level of precision without being a dirty-blood?”
“I am surprised you don’t know what that means. It’s a common phenomenon for the tribes of forest, a worthy child gets blessed by the dryads, the ability to harness great power without shedding the skin of humanity. Unlike you monsters.”
“Awh, no need to get moody, you get blessed, we experiment, pot kettle yeah? Anyway, we weren’t the creators of your situation now, were we? It was the nature who made you a dirty-blood”
“It’s lycans, you dimwit”
“Ash!” She reprimands the kid, even in the middle of a confrontation with a literal devil, Hongjoong is mildly impressed, “Alpha Cho- uh- Alpha will not be happy hearing you be so rude”
“He looks like a bad guy, aun-”
“Bones”
“-Auntie Bones, I think I should be allowed”
“You should not be allowed” Another voice intervenes, a creature appearing with the same black cloak and getup, his eyes were brighter, glowing like a pair of sapphires. He had appeared out of nowhere, as if he teleported into the woods, standing in all his glory in front of them. His voice vibrated, sounding gruff and loud, his presence drew everyone in, the kid and the woman- Bones bowed and their faces lit up at his entrance. It was obvious this creature was revered among his villagers, he was deeply respected and loved by the looks of it. “Do not dirty your tongue, Ash, not for anyone”
“Yes, Alpha!” The kid smiled big enough to brighten the whole fucking forest.
“Now, Bones, why did you not alert the Captain about the intruders?” He asks but his eyes are trained on them, it looks as if he is trying to get inside their head, untangle the darkest secrets he could find.
“Apologies, Alpha. I engaged with the enemy, I broke the rule.” She bent down on her knees, but the Alpha stopped her midway, communicating with a sign his intention.
“Later. You, intruders, what is your purpose? We do not mean harm to any traveler but if you attack, we will defend.”
“Finally! It was getting really boring watching all of you converse. I do like being the center of attention, as I have been so graciously told” He side-eyes his chancellor, who again pushes the urge to facepalm himself. “Basically, your spawn has his dirty little hands on my prey, and I will not leave without it”