“So how did you, Chang, and Seol Hwa meet?”

Twenty yards into the forest, Yong Hwa and were using the trees as cover while they waited for Chang to reconnaissance the fort. Geum had positioned himself at the edge of the forest to keep track of the situation. For a while, Yong and Dal were silent while they were lost in thought. As they were silent though, Dal walked up to where Yong Hwa sat down and started a conversation.

“How’d we meet, huh?”

Hearing Dal’s question, Yong Hwa looked up to the canopy of leaves above them. After spending a few minutes contemplating, how to answer the question, he finally replied.

“Well actually, a little over four years ago, I lost my memories due to an accident. When I woke up, the first people I saw were Chang and Grandpa Shin. Supposedly, I had been a soldier for the Haneul Province and lost my memories due to getting hit in the head by a large rock while saving him during some invasion.”

Dal’s eyes opened wide in surprise when she heard what Yong Hwa said. When he talked about the invasion, she abruptly spoke out.

“Ah! You must be talking about Westeria’s invasion!”

Yong Hwa didn’t say anything but nodded his head in acknowledgement. Seeing his response, Dal’s eyes seemed to sparkle. Excitedly, she began to speak quickly.

“Oh wow, I can’t believe you were actually there at that time. My father told me about how even though they were vastly outnumbered, the Haneul Province’s army, due to the Provincial Lord’s bravery and leadership, were able to save the majority of civilians and used a stalling method to buy enough time for the country’s army to gather and repel the invasion later. Even though the Provincial Lord, Rosland Dragos, lost his right arm in the conflict, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Defense Chief due to his heroics that day!”

Seeing how excited Dal looked while talking, Yong Hwa was lost for a minute. Seeing how confused he looked, Dal finally realized that she had been over-enthusiastic. Sticking her tongue out and scratching her head, she started to explain.

“Actually, Rosland became a sort of motivation to me when I heard about it. It’s hard to find people who are valiant enough to lead their troops from the front and risk their own life to buy even a second more for their citizens to flee farther away. Even my dad respects him a lot for his actions. Someday, I want to become such an amazing swordsman, too.”

As Dal spoke, her expression changed into one of determination. Looking at her, Yong Hwa felt that his respect for her grew. Looking up to the canopy once again, traces of a smile appeared on his face.

“Keep working hard. I believe that one day, you’ll be able to reach your goal. Anyways, it feels as though I know nothing about you, except that you’re the daughter of some sect leader.”

“My full name’s Yoo Dal. Geum and I are from the Moonlight Sword Sect.”

When Yong Hwa heard that they were from the Moonlight Sword Sect, his eyebrows arched up in surprise.

“The Moonlight Sword Sect? Isn’t that the new sect that was founded by the previous King Guard, Sword God Yoo Hae? Wait… you’re Sword God’s daughter?!”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Hearing you call my dad Sword God though…. It sounds so tacky.”

Sword God Yoo Yul. Renowned as the strongest swordsman in the Estrada Kingdom, he was awarded the title by the King himself after many years of meritorious service to the Kingdom. After serving as the King’s personal guard for decades, he finally retired a decade ago and founded the Moonlight Sword Sect.

Even though the newly founded Moonlight Sword Sect couldn’t compare to the other top sects or clans in regards to their history, numerous amounts of people from around the continent swarmed to the sect to become disciples. The reason for this was that the sect didn’t care about people’s statuses and only took their skills into mind. The bigger reason though, was for the chance to learn the famous sword form that Yoo Yul created.

’No wonder her swordsmanship is so amazing. It turned out to be the Moonlight Sword form.’

Still, knowing that Dal practiced the Moonlight Sword form didn’t lower his opinion of her. Although some people might say that the only reason she was so strong was that she was lucky to be born as the daughter of the Sword God and learn from him personally, he wasn’t that closed minded. He could tell that she put her blood and sweat into refining her swordsmanship to what it was. He actually respected her more for not being overbearing and haughty like some other children were.

“How does it feel like being the daughter of such a famous father?”

“Eh, I think he’s just like any other father? Although he’s really strict when it comes to training, he dotes on me a lot. Truthfully, I think he’s just a normal father. He’s strict when he has to be, but loves me nonetheless. Whenever I’m out, he’ll worry endlessly, and when I come back, delight will fill his face.”

Hearing Dal speak about her father, Yong Hwa raised his head once more. He didn’t want to make Dal feel bad because of the envy that his face expressed. Even though he considered Chang and Grandpa Shin his family, they weren’t his biological family. In his mind, there were no memories of loving parents. He also didn’t know if he had any siblings. From time to time, he always wondered whether his parents were still alive and if they were doing well. He didn’t worry about whether he would meet them again though; if the heavens willed it, they would once again meet them.

Afterwards, Yong Hwa and Dal talked about their training. Laughing while talking about how strict Yoo Yul and Grandpa Shin were and their own tales, time quickly flew by. A while later though, Geum came back from the edge of the forest and made a report.

“Something’s wrong. There is a lot of activity within the abandoned fortress. There were a lot of shadows moving around on the walls while fires have been lit up all around them. “

When Yong Hwa heard Geum’s suspicions, his first thoughts were of his best friend, Chang. Worried, he looked at Dal and Geum while he spoke.

“I’m worried for Chang. You two wait here while I go see if anything happened to him.”

“No, we’ll all go together. If something did indeed happen to Chang, we’ll be able to move together instantly to rescue him.”

Yong Hwa looked gratefully at Dal and silently thanked her. Dal, on the other hand, just winked back at him in response. Geum though, looked disinterested. Still, Yong Hwa knew he would follow them if for nothing else than to make sure Dal was safe.

Soon afterwards, the three ran through the open plain. Even though all Yong Hwa wanted to do was rush to the fort at his fastest speed, he silently endured it and they kept a moderate pace to ensure they wouldn’t run into a trap. When they were only a quarter mile away from the fort, they finally understood what all the commotion was.

“So it turns out that the Kingdom found out that the assassins were here.”

In front of them, the three saw a battle occurring. On one side were the assassins, while on the other were some soldiers suited up in metal armor. On the banner that some of the soldiers were holding up, was the depiction of a fox with nine tails. This was the symbol of the Estrada Kingdom: the Nine Tailed Fox.

Seeing the chaotic scene, Yong Hwa’s face became grim. Just how was he was supposed to find Chang in that mess? As if mirroring his thoughts, Dal’s face turned more serious.

“What should we do now?”

Hearing Dal’s question, Yong Hwa became lost in thought. After struggling over what to do for a while, he spoke out while he continued to look forward.

“This battle is actually helpful to us. Still, we can’t do two things at once in this chaos, so let’s split up. Dal, you and Geum look for Chang. I’ll be counting on you two to help him out if he’s in the any danger.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to go free Seol Hwa.”

“It’ll be dangerous for you to go alone, though.”

When Yong Hwa heard the concern in Dal’s voice, he turned and smiled at her.

“I’ll be fine. Also, it’ll be easier to move around undetected alone. It’ll be better for the two of you to stick together out here in this chaos to protect each other. “

Dal nodded her head. What Yong Hwa said made sense. Still, she couldn’t let go of her worry.

“Be careful, there’ll probably be a few guards left behind to guard her.”

Yong Hwa didn’t say anything else. Instead he lightly rubbed the top of Dal’s head. Startled by the sudden action, Dal stiffened up momentarily. Geum, who had stayed to the side the whole time, put his hand on the hilt of his sword while glaring dangerously at Yong Hwa. Ignoring the glare, Yong Hwa rushed forth while waving his hand back.

“Alright, when we’re both done, we’ll meet back in the forest, okay? I’ll see you two soon!”

Not having to worry about stealth or traps anymore, Yong Hwa sped up as he raced toward the fort. Making sure to veer far away from the fight, he found an opening on the wall and jumped through. Once he inspected the area around him and found it to be empty, he rushed toward the closest building and inspected it.

For the next thirty minutes, Yong Hwa searched from building to building, trying to locate where Seol Hwa was. Still, no matter which building he checked, he wasn’t able to find any signs of life and was starting to worry that Seol Hwa wasn’t in the fort. During that time, the sound of fighting was also dying out.

Luckily though, there weren’t too many buildings within the fort. There were only two buildings left that he hadn’t inspected. Gritting his teeth, he ran to the bigger of the two buildings on the left.

The building that Yong Hwa chose had four floors. On the first floor, there was only a large audience area and a kitchen. The second floor didn’t have much either as there were only six bedrooms. As Yong Hwa walked up the stairs to the third floor, though, he found that there was light on the fourth floor. Excited by the discovery, he silently went up the stairs while making no sounds.

As he peeked onto the fourth floor, he found that there were two people that stood on either side of a door and were chatting. The two people were dressed in the same attire as the assassins that had attacked the Millennium Inn. The light that he had spotted was a small candle that was on top of a wooden barrel off to the side. Seeing that the two hadn’t noticed him yet, Yong Hwa stayed where he was while he condensed an ice javelin. After his preparation was complete, he charged forward to the guards.

The guards immediately reacted. When Yong Hwa saw them turn toward him, he immediately threw the ice javelin forward. Before the guards could react, the javelin pierced through the chest of the one furthest away. Due to the impact, the assassin’s body flew backwards for five yards before it hit the ground and remained still.

Even though everything happened so suddenly, the other assassin reacted quickly. As he neared Yong Hwa, a dagger materialized in his right hand and he thrusted it forward, aiming for Yong Hwa’s chest. Seeing the quickly approaching dagger, Yong Hwa jumped back. In the place he was just at, an ice replica of himself appeared.

As the ice, shattered apart due to the force of the attack, Yong Hwa materialized Azuron’s Requiem in that short span and jumped forward while he stabbed forth. Due to density of the ice sculpture, the force behind the dagger dropped drastically and the assassin had slowed down. He wasn’t even able to the see the Yong Hwa’s attack until the sword was right in front of his chest. Before he could protect himself, the sword pierced his chest and stabbed through his heart. Without the ability to even cry out, the body collapsed to the ground as Yong Hwa withdrew the sword.

After spending a few moments to regain his breath, Yong Hwa froze the locks on the door before he slashed through them and opened the door. Seeing what was inside the room, Yong Hwa let out a relieved sigh.

“Yong Hwa! How’d you get here?”

When Seol Hwa heard the sound of fighting at the door, she had immediately put little Rem behind her and summoned her soul weapon, which was a whip. Staring intently at the door, she was just about to pounce forward when the door opened until she saw who was at the doorway. Seeing such a familiar face, relief flooded her face and she cried out in joy.

Seeing Seol Hwa’s state, he first made sure there were no external injuries on her before he rushed forward and hugged her. Even though she was surprised by the sudden action, she didn’t push back and also hugged back in relief.

After spending a few quiet moments like that, Yong Hwa regretfully pulled back.

“Are you alright? Did those bastards do anything to you?”

“I’m fine. All they did was throw me into this room and locked me up.”

“Ah, that’s a relief. Alright let’s hurry up and head out of here. We have to find Chang and the others.”

“Chang’s here too? Who are the others? Ah! Before that, Yong Hwa. Let’s take this little child, too. He’s way too pitiful.”

When Seol Hwa mentioned the child, Yong Hwa finally notice the small figure behind Seol Hwa. The child seemed to be around five to six years old with cute chubby cheeks. The child was grabbing onto Seol Hwa’s legs while peeking his head out to look at Yong Hwa. In his eyes, were the mixed emotion of fear and curiosity. Seeing the cute action, a smile appeared on Yong Hwa’s face as he walked forward and crouched down.

“Hey kid. This hyung came to rescue you and nuna. How about we head out of here?” (A/N: Hyung is a familiar way to call someone a little older than you or your older brother in Korean.)

Rem’s eyes seemed to sparkle when he heard Yong Hwa say he was rescuing him. After nodding his head enthusiastically a few times, he released Seol Hwa’s legs and stood beside her. Looking up at her, he raised him arm and held his hand out, asking her to hold it. Smiling, Seol Hwa nodded her head and grabbed Rem’s hand.

Smiling at the cute scene, Yong Hwa was just about to stand up straight when he felt cold steel on the side of his neck.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The voice was feminine and sounded bell like, but a hint of coldness were within them. Not daring to make any sudden actions, Yong Hwa spoke.

“My friend Seol Hwa was kidnapped by those assassins. I came here to rescue her.”

Hearing what Yong Hwa said, she turned to Seol Hwa and asked.

“Is what he said true?”

“Yes, it was. He is my friend and just arrived here to help rescue me.”

The room stayed quiet for a while after that. Once she was done contemplating what to do, the girl finally brought the sword that was beside Yong Hwa’s neck back. With the sword gone, Yong Hwa finally let go of his breath. The next time she spoke, the coldness was gone.

“I apologize for my actions. I wasn’t sure whether you were friend and foe and had to take precautionary measures.”

“Ah, no it’s fine. My name’s Yong Hwa. How should I address you?”

While Yong Hwa spoke, he slowly turned around to look at who the person behind him was. The girl had short black hair that seemed to hug around her oval shaped face and bright blue eyes. Although her armor covered most of her skin, they parts that showed looked milky and pure. Overall, the girl made for a very beautiful sight. At first the girl was smiling, but the moment the girl saw Yong Hwa , her eyes opened wide as her expression changed to one of disbelief.

“RYTHER?!”