Amidst the diplomatic conversations of the King and the Tang envoys, the teen royals also had their own petty issues to settle. Petty, solely because of Xiao Ji who still bitterly recollected the memories in Dokdo Island. His brain could not accept the fact that he was tricked by a Prince lower than him in any way, excluding height.

He dragged Sae Joo into the corner of a pavilion, and they talked face to face. Heart to heart. No more hiding, just pretentious, chagrined smiles. The Silla Prince, being also a bit childish, shove his hand away from clinging to his arm.

"What is this?" snapped Sae Joo.

"You bastard! You fooled me! Now, where is that boy you had presented as the Prince?"

Xiao Ji's face was flaring in anger. A furious fire under the chimneys. The blaze danced higher and higher in the humid air as more charcoal of ego fueled the fireplace. Sae Joo was the resident of the house, enjoying the warmth of the fire—unbothered.

"Do you seriously think that I would introduce him to you? Forget it. Just accept the fact that not everyone would be scared of you. Just so you know, the world does not revolve on you. You are not the smartest among all of us."

"Shut up."

"No, you shut up. Your attitude needs to be modified." a word dagger finally came out from Sae Joo's mouth. Xiao Ji could not dodge its sharp edges, it buried straight to his skin, twisting its way into his soul. "I admit—you may be intelligent and powerful, but you if you do not change the way you treat people, you will be a trash, Heaven-crapped leader."

"How dare you say that? What do you know about leadership?" Xiao Ji meandered around Sae Joo, scanning him from crown to boots. "... you could not even face me when I demanded a Prince. You faked your identity and passed the responsibility to another person. You are a coward. Your ancestors are weeping in their graves for birthing a Prince like you."

"That is not being a coward. I was just being smart. I choose my battles to save others. I think. I process. I care— you will never learn unless you open your heart, destroy that towering ego away."

The Tang Prince flinched as his eyes twitched. The word dagger seemed to had penetrated the core of his existence. He moved his eyes away from the Silla Prince, keeping his distance. Wild cubs like him were trained to never falter or back down, be it by experience or by people around him. Sae Joo was like a wildlife doctor; he tried to analyze and tame the wounded cub, but he did not know where the wounds had come from. He was trying his luck, giving his best shots, unsure about the upcoming outcome.

"Prince Xiao Ji, I seriously believe that no people are born evil. They become evil because of their life choices. You still have a lot of time. You are still young. You could change if you would desire."

"You have no right to tell me that. You do not know me."

"Then, tell me who you are! I still believe that you are a good person. If not, you would not release us from being your captives... You know what, I have always been wondering, why did you decide to set us free?"

Strangely, underneath the sweltering heat of the sun, a cold gust of wind blew from the east, tingling their skins, swaying their royal robes. Xiao Ji's face turned blue, his frigid eyes reflecting on Sae Joo's. The Silla Prince tried to break the intangible barrier, knowing finally his nemesis's hidden world behind the strong facade, like a lone traveler peeping through the misty windows of an unknown cabin in the cold winter night.

The much-awaited response did not come out easily. It took a pure struggling moment of destroying a continuously growing iron-tower of pride. Xiao Ji was at the top, wobbling at the ball-point tip. Sae Joo climbed up. Higher and higher. His words of blandishment were sticking pads on his boots to keep him from falling. He reached the top and pushed the Prince all the way down to the navel of his pure, innocent, fragile subconscious. (Phew! Plak!)

"I just wanted to... are you not thankful enough that you were released? I want to see the 'Prince' more, to engage in another fight with him just in case," Xiao Ji's eyes rolled in disgust, "but here you are, the real Prince, who cannot even fight fairly."

Sae Joo knew that Xiao Ji was opening himself slowly, through his answer. A concise light in a hazy vagueness. "I see. Well, just so you know, I started my training, not more than a week ago. Who knows maybe someday I could fight you... and knock you down again."

"I will be rooting for that," the arrogant Prince stepped closer to Sae Joo, near his ears. He raised his toes like a princess ready to kiss his prince. He whispered, "Do your best. If you did not knock me down, I might eat you alive," his body deftly moved away from Sae Joo, leaving him a hair-raising threat in which he was sure about, "I will see you again, Prince Sae Joo," without blinking, he handed his final gift of cold stare. He left the Silla Prince contemplating and reflecting on what he just said.

Not all visitors deserve a warm goodbye. After the heated discussion about the sovereignty of Dokdo Island, after Silla had lost to Tang partially because of an internal poison, all Tang people departed. The palace did not give them a warm farewell. The walls wanted to curse them, the courtyard wanted to eat them. They were seen but never were felt. Silence pervaded, coldness with an ample sprinkles of hatred and disgust to a nation full of deceit and trickery. The gates barred, freeing the entire palace from the evils of the eastern world.

~~•~~

Freedom was not supposed to be given to everyone. Some said it was a right, like being birthed, educated, or fed. But for some, it should be a privilege. You earn your freedom. You consider the stakes. You gamble. You fight. Like these men who had the nerve to intrude on Chil Yook's house. After the night of a silent battle, the hwarangs had managed to capture some of them, others were killed. There was never a pure victory, after all, some hwarangs were slain as well.

A dilapidated room inside a ramshackle house. Old, crumbling, with some of its woods infested by growing colonies of termites. Wood shavings scattered on the floor, some even flew and lingered into the dead air. Rats, cockroaches, name all filthy animals—present but probably hiding. But their trails and odors would never lie. Blood patches painting an abstract image on the floor, fresh. Dripping from the bodies of four men, arms tied, hanging in the air, eyes bloodshot, muscles tingling and weakening in pain. Over-cooked vegetables.

The door suddenly creaked open, revealing a lean man in cowhide vest, green baggy pants, and green headband. Three men with same apparel (aside from the vest) followed inside, each holding a long, black whip. A hwarangdo and his nangdos.

"Wake up!"

A nangdo whipped the floor, waking the captives in surprise. "Are you still going to shut your mouths?"

"If you want to stay alive, tell us who sent you. Why did you cause a commotion in the peaceful neighborhood of Myeongju?"

No one responded. Either tired or just mocking the hwarang leader, testing his thread. "Our patience is not endless. We could kill you if you still refuse to speak."

Despite the warning and taunting, no one still answered. The hwarangdo's clemency and civility ran out. He ordered his men to whip the captives again. They would not stop at anything. Only with a confession. The ruthless whips lashed their skins, small serrated barbs carving another batch of stinging, blistering, painful marks on their backs. It was silent torture, interspersed with low frequencies of grunts and yelps. The dominant tone was the hissing of the whips into the air. It was hopeless. With the current state of the four men, a confession would be a Heaven-sent miracle.

"Stop," ordered the hwarangdo.

"Do not give them food or water. They have already sentenced themselves."

The hwarangs followed their leader's orders. They all left the room, leaving the half-dead men to suffer in dark peace. Outside the house, Chil Yook was waiting all along, together with Deok Cheol.

"How was it? Still no confession?"

The hwarangdo bowed his head, "None yet, Muhyuk-ahjussi."

Chil Yook shook his head, upset with the result. He wanted to confront them personally, punch them in the faces at least, but he knew they would recognize him right away, despite the weak front his eyes and face was flashing.

"Is that so? How bad."

"Yes, but I think the person behind all of this is inside the palace."

Pretending to be curious, the former Grand Marshal scrunched his eyebrows in a discreet frown. "Inside the palace?"

"You heard me right. When we showed up to them, one of them recognized me as a hwarangdo. Ordinary people would not recognize my rank specifically. With that, the range of our search narrows down to more possibilities."

Chil Yook paced down a few steps, trying to find a way, to get the most-wanted confession. He knew they were the Prime Minister's men, but a verbal confirmation would make so much difference. The entire sense of knowing the mastermind was actually not to incriminate Jung Ho—that would be like punching the moon in the skies. It was actually an act to confirm something, a warning for a severe catastrophe.

As he was thinking keenly, Deok Cheol asked him, "Muhyuk-ahjussi, why are still here? You should probably go back to Seorabeol."

"I am fine... By the way, I have not thanked you yet for what you have done. If it was not because of you, these hwarangs would not be able to know the movements of those wretched bastards."

The plump boy smiled, "It is nothing. I did that for you and Shun. The whole neighborhood needs to be credited as well. It was a community effort, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"At first, they never agreed. They were all scared, petrified, terrified on what those people might do to them, to their families. But I convinced them to fight subtly, in our own way. We executed the plan discreetly, we acted like we were all scared and cautious of our actions. We had used codes, hand symbols, body languages to communicate even if we were not talking with each other. We did not involve the local hwarangs, thinking it might get too complicated. It was hard, but it was worth trying. For Myeongju."

Chil Yook nodded, "For Myeongju."

The hwarangdo suddenly interrupted their warm conversation, suggesting a new way to forward the story. "There is another option for us to lure the real culprit."

The sickly man's eyebrows furrowed, confused. "What is it?"

"This is Minister Dae Wong's last card. Do you remember that we had one person from their team escaped? He will surely tell the mastermind about the ambush."

"What about it, then?"

"We will kill those men inside, bring their bodies to your house. Chances are, if that person managed to tell everything that had happened to the mastermind, he will send a very trustworthy person to investigate, or better yet, he might make his way here to investigate personally."

A ridiculous plan for Chil Yook. He knew that the Prime Minister would definitely not do the second option, nor the first. He had known him for years, and when he wanted something to be taken care of, he orders people to do all dirty jobs. Not even a shadow of him would be revealed, just his gold, gifts or bribes, and just his power. He knew that once his plans failed, he would start from scratch and never would apply the same methods again. He tried to hide his panicking face, his lips quivered as he asked, "Would that not be a perilous plan?"

"Yes, it might be. But we will not fall back."

"What if it is not just a single person? What if it is a whole organization?" Chil Yook reasoned out, trying to flush out the farcical idea.

"You worry too much. Just let us do our jobs. This is Minister Dae Wong's order. We have to comply."

Chil Yook raised his hands, knowing he could not change his mind. Being a former hwarang, he understood the mindset of the hwarangdo. A hwarang never complains, never reasons out, keeps his questions and reservations deep inside. He eats pain and fear for breakfast, drinks blood and tears as frequent as a sweet potato wine. He just follows and protects his master. Not all hwarangs protect the kingdom per se. Depending on the type of master, the extent of being an automated slave differs, some hwarangs may do morally-questionable practices, like those men fighting for their lives in a derelict room. They may slaughter a person or groups of persons. They may harass people to illegally solicit golds or other currencies. They may abduct someone to protect someone or to protect the majority. They may keep secrets, turn their eyes blind for the good and welfare of the majority. Different ways, one rule: follow your master at all cost.

Defying the golden rule, Chil Yook may not be considered as a standard hwarang. As a former Grand Marshal, he was at the top of every game. Respected, looked up to by juveniles. But he fell down and smashed his head into the depths of reality—his former master was more than a monster. He was the personification of evil.

"Alright, if I cannot change your mind, I guess I will just go home."

"Sure. Rest assured that within this week, we have revealed who the mastermind is."

~~•~~

Members of the council reconvened at the main hall, as per Jae Joong's orders. The King sat at his throne, disturbed, clouded, a part of him was crippled. His entire mind was blurry and disoriented but he had to do his royal obligations. His long sleeves rustled on the golden handle as he spoke, voice trembling. "Hwabaek, hear me... now that the Tang Empire has claimed the ownership on one of Dokdo Islets, we must strive harder to protect our territory. We should deploy more hwarangs to our islet to make sure Tang never claims it when they please."

Jung Ho seconded, "I agree, Your Majesty. Tang poses a great threat to us. We should not let them take what is rightfully ours. I will talk to the Prince and the governors to make the list of possible hwarangs to be deployed on Dokdo Island.

"That is good. Do you have any other suggestions? Other things we could do to strengthen our security?"

A moment of brief silence passed as if an angel of death had graced them. Dae Wong motioned his hand upwards, waving a suggestion. "The suggestion of the Prime Minister seems logical, Your Majesty. I just have a question though. Where are we going to get spare hwarangs? We could not deduct the number of our palace hwarangs. The provincial hwarangs are our only choice."

Jae Joong nodded, honoring his right-hand's suggestions, "So where shall we get some hwarangs?"

All council members stole glances at the Prime Minister. He was the former hwarang leader, he knew the number of hwarangs on each province. A man to consult when it comes to security allocation. Jung Ho smiled and reciprocated the gazes of everyone. "Well, in relation to the province area and number of hwarangs, we could consider the provinces of Sangju, Ungju, and Muju."

Yoo Min interrupted, deciding to join the discussion, "Prime Minister, I guess we could cancel out Ungju Province since it is on the left side of the kingdom. It is quite far. It would take them about a week or so to reach Dokdo.

"Leave it to me, Minister Yoo Min. I thank you for your suggestion," Jung Ho irkly smiled. He faced the King and indecently suggested to end the discussion. He took responsibility. Jung Ho had always worked that way. It was his effective work of living for years. Claimed all the work and used all opportunities given in order for him to insert his hidden agendas. His ploys, his stratagems. He had made everyone laughable fools. His tracks were always concealed, by people driven by his power. A slick cat silently prowling in the wee hours of the night.

Jae Joong, being tired and drained for what had happened, finally decided to dismiss the meeting. He needed to think, to rationalize everything, for everything to make sense. The council members left the hall and went on to their respective duties.

Another day had passed just like sweet flakes of sugar, carried by the wind. The particles were gone, only the taste and the memories remained. Starting his day, Jung Ho strolled outside his pavilion to have his morning tea session at a gazebo near his wife's shrine. The fresh winds rushed by, the chirping of the birds harmonized with the serenity of the entire place. Fresh daffodils and orchids massaged his nostrils from a small garden, sniffing all the sweet scents they could offer.

His servants had served his tea, hot and steamy. He had a few sips while unrolling and reading some documents. Everything was pretty great, pretty normative until a guard came rushing in. Jung Ho welcomed him with a frown. Knowing his character, he hated it when someone disturbs him while he reads.

The guard bowed and handed a brown rolled paper to a hwarangdo. Jung Ho's once tranquil aura drastically darkened. "What is that about?"

"I do not know, Your Excellency. An unknown man left it with me, saying I should give it to you firsthand."

"Leave," ordered he. He signaled the hwarangdo to hand him the letter. Jung Ho unrolled the letter with a map inside and read it. His stomach flared, heart throbbed and skipped light-years away.

Your Excellency, help us. My colleagues are all captured, soon to be dead. 

__________

NOTES:

Ungju (웅주) - a province in Unified Silla, located in Modern day North Chungcheong and South Chungcheong Provinces, South Korea. 

Muju (무주) - a province in Unified Silla, located in Modern day South Jeolla Province, South Korea.