Win | Jung Wooyoung

14

It was a few days later that you stood at your father's grave, right next to your mother's, back in her hometown. You couldn't help but smile- your mother and father had long promised to be buried next to each other, and when your mother expressed her wish to be buried in her hometown, your father had no problem.

A love like your mother and father had- your father often said he was waiting to meet with your mother after her death. You sometimes wondered if he really didn't care for you, if all he wanted was to just be together with your mother, but now you realise that when you loved someone... you really couldn't bear being apart from them.

The grave was already decorated with various flowers from the citizens. You didn't contribute, you only thought about what you wanted to tell your father.

Thank you for being there for me all this time.

When you had reached the castle after your father's death and seen him for the last time, you were glad your friends were there to hold you while you broke down. You spent that night huddled between Hongjoong and Yeosang, sitting in front of the fire while the three of you recalled the old times- when your parents were alive and everything was good and well.

The next day as you went through your father's belongings, you noticed a letter addressed to you in his drawer. For a moment, you thought it was a letter he couldn't dispatch, something related to the mission you went on, but upon reading, you realised it was a goodbye letter.

You teared up as you read it- the letter addressed to his 'beautiful and brave daughter'. You often insisted that you were neither very beautiful nor brave, but it was your father who always insisted you were both.

The letter made you realise he kind of knew he didn't have much time anyway- he hadn't written this recently since the ink on the pages wasn't very fresh and smudged from a few places- as if your father himself went through the letter again and again.

Reading it changed you though- it gave you your nerves of steel stronger than before. You had a big responsibility on your shoulders now, and your father insisted that you never disappoint him- that mistakes were okay as long as we held ourselves accountable for it.

So you fulfilled your father's wish of his burial- simple with family and close friends- next to your mother. And now that you were done with this job, you had one last thing to do-

Crown yourself queen.

You sighed deeply- were you fit to be? The King insisted you were, but of course, he was your father. The nation was still shaken after the havoc the Utopian officer had created. You had dispatched the letter first thing the morning after Wooyoung came with the news of your father's death, and the Colonel was back in his homeland.

You would become queen, yes, but you had one last job to do.

You bowed deeply in front of the graves, raising your head high after. You were not only the Princess- you were a part of the Wanderer's Society, the people who took on their shoulders the job of keeping the people of this nation safe from the shadows. The people who served the throne with their life. Once you became queen, you wouldn't be able to keep being an active part of the Wanderer's Society- you couldn't continue to be an assassin while being queen. So you had to do one last job before your coronation.

"You're smiling rather suspiciously," Prince Yunho, who had just arrived, commented. You turned to greet him- he was in his official uniform of emerald green this time. After exchanging bows, he came forward and spread his arms. You sighed before hugging him, enveloped in his large frame.

"I'm so sorry to hear about the King," he said. "He was truly an amazing man, and I wouldn't be where I am now without him."

You broke apart, smiling. "I'm sure he'll say you flatter him too much."