A Tiger Called Rapunzel ✓ || TaeGyu || HYBEPride 2021

The Heist To End All Heists

They rode to Shinkisoku, on a mission to search the library. Seokjin the Librarian was a Magic Island Network sympathizer, and he always did whatever he could to assist the network. He welcomed them both in with open arms; thankfully the library was not very busy today. Taehyun waited until he and Soobin were both downstairs in the basement before he started pulling scrolls, putting them on the table and unrolling them. The scrolls showed off every location inside the castle, even showing off all of the hidden nooks and crannies that nobody was supposed to know about.

Then, Taehyun pulled one final book from the library's shelf and handed it to Soobin. "We're going after this."

He turned to a page in the back. There was a very detailed picture there, one of a silver crown inset with many, many jewels. It had a big red colored stone in front with several others decorating it all around. Even in the book, it seemed to glisten and shine.

Soobin stared in awe until he read the inscription at the top of the page. "You want to steal the future crown of the Lost Prince Beomgyu?"

"When will you learn to keep your voice down?" Taehyun hissed back. "But yes. Rumor has it that this crown has sat in the castle ever since His Royal Highness disappeared many years ago. And if it's just going to sit there, then it might be worth something more if we get it into our hands and melt it down. If we can travel to the United Colonies, they don't have any ties to the Naeil Kingdom, and they will gladly make use of it for us."

"Taehyun, listen to what you're saying. You could start a war."

"And what? End up making things worse for us? Honestly, if the Naeil Kingdom went to war against the United Colonies because of this, we would lose. Pitifully. Then the Naeil Kingdom would be another colony, and we could live in peace and prosperity and not under a king who's still bitter about his dead son."

"Taehyun, you know that His Royal Highness Prince Beomgyu is still out there somewhere."

"And I say that's a load of crack, Soobin. Beomgyu is dead, and we all know it. The longer that man mourns his death, the longer the Naeil Kingdom suffers for it. It's why everybody goes to that sham of a festival every year, but this year, we're gonna make something of it."

Seokjin brought the two men tea as they reviewed the castle floorplans. Soobin and Taehyun knew most of the castle well — they did raid it on the regular, after all — but stealing Prince Beomgyu's crown would be a new kind of heist, and they had to make sure they were extra prepared for this.

"We'll have to move fast once we have it, so we'll have to find a way to sneak out of the kingdom. My guess is that we can leave the horses in Shinkisoku, then run by foot from the castle and reach Shinkisoku by morning. Then we can take off, and when King Namjoon finds the crown missing, we'll be long gone, maybe even across the sea by then. UC sailors will be in the port towns the entire time, and we can just pay them off with some extra gold."

"This whole thing sounds ridiculous."

"Well...I need something ridiculous to do. And we're running out of gold to steal, Soobin. The people of our kingdom need us to do this. It's for their own good. Either Namjoon realizes his son is gone for good and he starts actually doing something productive, or we go to war and are conquered by a neighboring country. Your choice."

And Soobin suddenly stopped, and he said, "But if we go to war, then Yeonjun will get drafted."

Taehyun rolled his eyes, groaning and looking at the ceiling. "That's what you're worried about?"

"What else am I supposed to be worried about?"

Taehyun almost gave Soobin some sob story about how he needed to stop all this crushing on the castle guard. Almost. But Taehyun bit his lip. Soobin wasn't like Taehyun, who was bold enough to blow through lovers at the speed of sound. Soobin had been harboring this very quiet desire for Choi Yeonjun for many years now. If something happened to Yeonjun, it might actually kill Soobin's will to do anything. There were some days when Soobin only went with Taehyun on his raids to the castle because he might have a chance of seeing Yeonjun.

Taehyun couldn't understand how anybody could love anyone like that. Ever.

And then, for some reason, he thought of Cholongkkoch, her long hair, holding the rope in her tower. He shook his head. What was that all about?

"So, are you in or not?"

"I'm in, I'm in, just...if we go to war, can we kidnap Yeonjun or something?"

"Sure, sounds good, if we can steal the crown of Prince Beomgyu we can steal anything, including Yeonjun's heart." Taehyun checked over the map again. "OK, here's how we do this. You see this entrance over here? It leads to a side hallway that's used by maids and servants. If we go all the way down it, it looks like there's a door at the end that is probably locked, but it leads into a balcony that overlooks Prince Beomgyu's quarters. And I've heard that the room has been untouched for years, and the crown still sits in its place, waiting for the day the prince turns of age and can wear it. Except he's dead, so we're just gonna put it to better use. Look about right?"

"Yeah, looks good."

"Okay. We should check out this route the next time we go for gold, just to ensure it works." Taehyun grinned. "This is gonna be good."

--

Asterhythm: Seokjin makes his appearance! It was my intention to make the stars of last year's story more background characters, to give the others time to shine. But I love how Seokjinnie takes over this role and makes it his. (Yes, you're allowed to use that information to make guesses about next year's book. No, I will not confirm a thing.)