The Crown Prince exited through the prison doors and began to snicker. Things were just starting to get fun. When he first brought that Yeha brat into the Silver Nation, he only did it to pacify Jewol. There was no other reason. But when did things in life go as planned?

“Your Highness.”

Jewol, who had been sitting in his room, got up anxiously. How could his face look so beautiful even as it was filled with anguish and sorrow? The Crown Prince approached Jewol, grabbed his cheek, and brought him into his embrace.

He could feel the tension in Jewol’s body. It had been different in the past. Back then, Jewol was like a young angel. There was a time when he looked at him with clear eyes, no speck of dirt in sight. And the one who had dirtied and shattered those eyes was none other than himself.

Neither you nor I can be rewarded for our feelings.

Jewol was unaware of the Crown Prince’s feelings and merely looked up at him with a pale face.

“What are you worried about?”

“That is…”

Are you worried that your falcon will get hurt?”

“……No.”

Jewol had been lying more lately. The Crown Prince chuckled and pulled away.

“The only way to domesticate a wild falcon is to keep it caged.”

Jewol didn’t say anything in response. He was now pretty good at reading the Crown Prince’s temperament. Jewol knew how quickly he could become cruel and ruthless.

“The falcon will only come to you if you starve it just before it dies. You need to make it reach its limit in order to make it yours. If you can’t do that, you will never become the falcon’s master. You will become its servant instead.”

The Crown Prince walked over to the other side of the room and picked up a bow. He pulled on its string. Now that he thought about it, that brat was the one who had shot the arrow that struck down the Red King from such a far distance. The arrow rode the wind and flew at a frightening speed before piercing through all that armor and almost striking his heart.

The Crown Prince walked over to Jewol, whose brows were furrowed.

“Don’t become weak, Jewol. Doesn’t ChungMae belong to you already?”

“But……”

“Break her spirit. Don’t worry about hurting her. If you try to humor her too much, she will begin to think that she is the master.”

Jewol silently gazed at him.

“Does that mean you’ll let her live?”

“Didn’t I say that she belonged to you?”

As if he were doing Jewol a favor, the Crown Prince began to lightly pat Jewol’s cheek.

“Take your wife and go home. And then find the guibin. The nine seals are now in our hands. Once we find hers, we will be able to obtain everything we want.”

The map.

That was what the Crown Prince wanted.

The three-legged crow’s seal that marked the location of the holy sanctum of the extinct nation of Paran. Once those ten pieces were gathered together, the map of Paran would be complete. Then they wouldn’t have to struggle in this battle. Honestly, the Crown Prince wanted more than the Silver Nation. Like the ancient kingdom of Paran, he wanted an empire that ruled over the whole world.

But then that guibin bitch went ahead and deceived the eyes of the emperor, and her sins were too great. Her death would definitely get rid of the Red King and Muyeo, who were thorns in his eyes.

If any one of these things ended up in the hands of Garan, he’d basically be giving him the resources to amass a lot of influence and power.

That must never happen.

A crisis could turn into an opportunity.

They needed to find her. No matter what.

“How can we continue to live like this in the wretched Silver Nation? It’s a great nation in name only, but it shrivels up when it comes to the south. The lands are always ravaged by floods and droughts. The national coffers already hit rock bottom a long time ago. All the wealth belongs to the noble families. The emperor is no different from a paper tiger. With the way things are, how much longer do you think we can last?”

The Crown Prince’s eyes were filled with ambition. Those fools in Yeha didn’t even know what was hidden within their lands.

Underneath all that horse stool and cow manure of the tribes of Yeha, there were so many stores of iron and gold. And they didn’t know anything about it. The three-legged crow’s seal would point them to the location of those veins of precious metal.

Those resources would make him the greatest emperor of all time.

“All of that will be ours, Jewol.”

The Crown Prince laughed in satisfaction.

“The possibilities would be endless. With that as our prize, why should we be reluctant to get rid of anything that gets in our way?”

A forced smile stretched across Jewol’s lips.”

Inside the carriage taking them back to the princess’s residence, Yujo didn’t say one word. It was raining, just like the day she had first arrived at YeonSung. But nothing seemed to be the same.

As she watched the glimmering sights through the red curtains, how easy had YeonSung seemed to her back then? Yujo closed her eyes. She recalled the man in black that she had seen back then. The rude soldiers who had carried her shaking palanquin. Garan was one of them*. A scoff left her lips.

“Since when did you work for the Crown Prince?”

Jewol flinched when he heard her hollow voice and looked at her. Yujo still wasn’t looking at him.

“Yujo.”

“Answer me, Jewol.”

She didn’t want to call him ‘brother’ anymore.

“I……”

“Why did you hand over Brother Yuha? Why did you betray us?”

He was someone she had trusted. They treated him like their own flesh and blood for seven years. But now she couldn’t trust him at all. She couldn’t trust him with anything. Since when? When did it all go wrong?

“…From the very beginning.”

Jewol whispered from the shadows of the carriage.

“The very beginning?”

“Yeah, from the very beginning.”

“What do you mean? When you returned to YeonSung? When the war started? When we met you for the first time?”

He said he had been attacked by thieves. He had been treated so wickedly. His face, his body… It had been covered in bloody wounds and bruises.

He had looked so pitiful, and he seemed to be in so much pain. For two months, he received Yeha’s protection, and Brother Yuha treated him like a brother. But Jewol deceived them after all this.

“Even before then……?”

She couldn’t believe it.

Yujo’s teeth began to chatter as she gazed at him.

There was a saying that some repaid kindness with evil. Those words were used to describe someone like him. Yujo wanted to leap up and snap his neck right this instant. She wanted to kill him and then run off to save her brother.

“The Crown Prince will never kill your brother.”

“Are you joking?”

Yujo realized that Jewol wasn’t in his right mind. Yujo asked back in disbelief.

“At least, he won’t kill him while I’m looking for the guibin.”

“What did you say? How can I trust you?”

“If you don’t trust me…!”

Jewol shouted out in a strained voice as he looked at her.

“If you don’t trust me, what else can you do?”

Yujo glared at him with cold eyes. The audacity of this man…

How could she trust a man like him?

Jewol endured her glare and whispered.

“All the feelings I had towards you and Yuha were true.”

“True? Even the dogs outside will bark out in laughter if they heard what you said just now. Is this what you call truth, Jewol?”

“Yujo……”

“If Brother dies, you will die as well.”

It was difficult to move her bloody, cracked lips. She felt as if her whole body and heart were broken. Yujo glanced at Jewol, who looked as if he were suffocating, and twisted her lips before speaking again.

“I’m going to capture all these arrogant members of the imperial family and feed them to the wild beasts of Yeha.”

She couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t hear anything. Her heart was burning with an intense hatred.

“Yujo!”

She wanted to get up and rush over to Jewol and strangle his neck. But she held back the urge and grit her teeth.

Even if she killed him right now, what would change? Would Yuha survive? Would they be able to return to Yeha? Silent tears ran down her cheeks. Jewol’s face also looked pained as he watched Yujo.

“I didn’t do it because I wanted to.”

“I don’t need your excuses.”

“I’m telling you the truth. Please trust me. It couldn’t be helped. The Crown Princes is……”

Jewol closed his eyes and turned his head away as if he were in pain.

“He’s a scary person. You don’t know what he’s capable of. The situation doesn’t look good right now, but I’ll make sure to get Yuha back.”

Yujo turned her head as she let out a hollow laugh. Whenever she thought of her brother, she felt as if her heart would burn a hole through her chest. Jewol hurriedly got down from his seat and knelt in front of Yujo as he looked up at her.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Yujo. But please endure this for now. Please trust me just this once. If we find the guibin, Yuha will be returned to us.”

“I don’t trust those words. The Crown Prince isn’t someone to be trusted. Even if we find the guibin, my brother will die.”

“There’s no way that will happen. I won’t let that happen.”

Jewol looked into her eyes as he whispered.

“We just need to find the guibin. The Crown Prince only wants the seal of the three-legged crow in her possession. He’s been searching for it for a long time. Until then, he won’t let Yuha die. Once we find the guibin and the three-legged crow’s seal, let’s try and strike a deal with the Crown Prince.”

A deal? Was it possible to strike a deal with the Crown Prince?

“If you think it’s impossible, are you going to give up?”

Jewol spoke as if he’d read her mind.

“Trust me. I also……”

Jewol’s face turned gloomy. He frantically hung onto Yujo. He didn’t even want to hink about losing her. But things had already become like this.

He needed to turn her heart back to him no matter what. No matter what, he needed to save Yujo and Yuha.

“Please trust me. I also do not want Yuha to die. I’m telling you the truth.”

Truth? Pfft, a bitter laugh burst out of Yujo’s lips.

In this kind of situation, a person’s truth was worthless.

She recalled the Red King.

What she did to Garan and what Jewol had done to her… What was the difference?!

Just this morning, she was in his arms as she gave him some ridiculous advice. She never expected to be in a situation where she would have to corner his mother and capture her.

Thankfully, she never told him her name. She didn’t want him to remember her name in such an ill-fated situation. She needed to erase it completely. She needed to forget all of it. She must never see him again.

“Your Highness, please relax and rest.”

The female doctor lowered her head in a deep bow and exited Princess Muyeo’s room. The door was firmly closed. The palace maids stood outside the door.

Inside the room, only Duke HyoEun remained as he tightly held the sick princess’s hand.

The princess’s face was pale. However, once the doors closed, her deathly sickly face suddenly transformed.

“What happened?”

“Shh.”

Duke HyoEun brought his finger up to his lips when he heard her question.

“My lord husband.”

“Please be quiet, Your Highness.”

After helping his wife sit up, he began to prepare. First, he slightly moved a decorative piece leaning against the wall and pulled out a doll that was the size of a person. Then he placed the doll on top of the princess’s bedding. Finally, he adjusted Muyeo’s rumpled appearance.

“I’ll stay behind. If something goes wrong, please pull on the cord. Once you do, it will ring a bell.”

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t be scared. You’ll do well.”

He smiled before placing a kiss on the princess’s lips. Muyeo gently received her husband’s kiss. Seol Joon was someone who had done everything for her sake. Even now. He had gone so far as to……

“Someone must stay behind. The Crown Prince’s soldiers are outside the residence. If they suspect something, they won’t hesitate to kill us all.”

“I know. Please don’t worry.”

Ever so prepared, he even handed her a lantern.

“Please hurry and return safely.”

Muyeo nodded and entered the secret tunnel. As she made her way through the narrow tunnel, she heard people speaking through he walls.

She walked for a long while before she came across a flight of stairs. She lifted her skirts and made her way down the stairs. Once she stepped into the basement, she felt a warm heat. She saw that Duke HyoEun had already brought some water, food, and even some medicine. However, that wasn’t important right now.

A woman was lying in a bed draped with curtains.

The woman was a lot skinner than she remembered. She was a lot paler, too. No, were her memories even accurate? Muyeo hadn’t seen her mother since the age of ten.

She didn’t even have a single portrait of her, so she couldn’t remember her face. Her mother’s face had always been vague like an unfinished drawing.

Was this woman truly her?

Was this woman truly her mother?

Was she truly the guibin who had vanished?

She wasn’t sure. She couldn’t remember her face. But her warmth felt familiar.

When the Heukra had first appeared, she merely laughed at the rumors. However, when the rumors said that the Heukra wore the guibin’s waistband, she couldn’t laugh anymore.

To the people of YeonSung, it was merely a strange rumor. But to Muyeo and her brother, it struck a nerve, bringing about a stinging pain.

However, when her husband Seol Joon confessed to the secret, she had felt so overjoyed that the pain didn’t matter anymore.

Her mother was alive.

Her mother was alive. With the Nine Families’ help, her mother was alive.

However, seven years ago, due to the cruel effects of the poison, her mother had become reduced to an invalid. She was merely a shell that was alive. She didn’t remember anything.

However, that wasn’t important. Mueyo was so happy and thankful that her mother was even alive.

“Now I’ll protect you, Mother.”

Muyeo quietly whispered as she gazed at the sleeping guibin.

No matter how many times she looked at her mother, she missed her.

Muyeo didn’t understand why her cheeks were wet. She lifted her hands and touched them. They were the cold remnants of her unstoppable sobs.