Falling Flower (A Meanie Fanfic)

16. Imperfect love

Wonwoo groaned as Jeonghan fixed his makeup "This feels like a fever dream."

"Makeup can fix anything."

Wonwoo was on edge
"Excuse me but are you delusional? We are men! our figures are much huger than the girls here. Someone will notice sooner or later."

Seungcheol was the only one thinking rationally at this point. He grabbed both the princes and whispered
"We don't need to settle here. We just need to find what are they doing by keeping these maids here,  then find Jangmi and others. After that we inform someone from Mingyu's battalion and as they have already taken over the Northern parts it won't be hard to defeat all the guards here."

The princes looked at Seungcheol and then inspected their looks in the mirror. They all decided to go to the kitchen first and  then find a way to explore the whole residence.

Thankfully no one batted an eye towards them when they walked out. A guard outside led them towards the kitchen and asked them to clean up and locked the door from outside.

"What are we going to do now?" Wonwoo whispered.

Seungcheol inventoried his surroundings and grabbed a knife "There are guards in every corner and the highest number of guards are at the tunnel. It won't be easy to get out of here. I can fight them but I can't protect all of the maids here at the same time. We have to find a way to inform Mingyu."

Wonwoo's heart jumped no matter how many times he heard that name. He groaned
"Are we supposed to keep cleaning and for how long?"

Jeonghan shushed Wonwoo
"We can definitely find some information from the maids here. We have to wait till we meet one of them."

They kept cleaning the kitchen for almost a week but didn't find any opportunity to talk with anyone. Even though the maids looked cheerful, their shivering hands and wound marks screamed their agony.

Finally after two weeks of cleaning they met the other maids when they were shifted to a larger room. All the maids gave them an uncomfortable smile but were very welcoming nevertheless.

Wonwoo's eyes were constantly searching for Jangmi amidst hundreds of faces. He secured a spot near his two companions to sleep at night in a room filled with girls.

In the middle of the night they woke up when they heard a few whispers nearby.

Wonwoo and Seungcheol didn't speak in front of others. Jeonghan on the other hand easily could bring out any voice he wanted. He whispered to the bunch of girls opposite to them "What are you guys talking about?"

A girl with an black eye quaked "The time for the ritual is approaching again."

Wonwoo sat up as he tried to force a female voice "What ritual?"

She moved closer to the three guys "Every year in the first full moon they arrange a ritual. They sacrifice a hundred of us to some devil of wood and stone. They choose the ones who tries to escape or disobey them for the sacrifice. This room  has ninty five of us. I think we are the ones for this year's sacrifice."

Seungcheol lowered his voice "Who are these people? Are you all from the kingdom of Jajeong?"

"No. Some of us are from the kingdom of Ilchul and other neighboring small kingdoms."

Jeonghan didn't used his coquette voice when he spoke again "I am here to help you guys. Tell me how many of you are here in this residence."

A few girls who were listening nervously sat up when they realized Jeonghan was a man.

Jeonghan tried to calm everyone down and once everyone calmed down he continued "Shhh..Now tell me how many of you are here."

That same black eyed girl spoke up "About 800 of us are here in the whole residence. Check your satchets and the number on it. Its 803 including you three."