Secret of the Two Kings (89 CHAPTERS - ON HOLD)

제 40 부

The elder cousin's eyes narrowed, brows furrowing into a slight frown, still confused with the Crown Prince's invitation. "Your Highness, tell me where we are going first if you do not mind."

"I do not wish to entertain your questions. Just come with me, would you?"

"Alright, Your Highness. I will come with you. I was just worried about you. I could sense something bad with the tone of your voice. Are you sure that you know what you are doing?"

Sae Joo smiled and bent his neck to the right, "I guess. I actually want to thank you for awakening my sleeping senses. Thank you, hyung. Shall we go?"

"If you please, Your Highness."

The Prince led the way, and Jung Min followed. Unknowingly, Jin Ri saw the two of them as she was pacing down the right side of the courtyard, going to her chambers. She paused and craned her neck to their directions, wondering why the Prince was with her brother. Thinking that maybe her brother was planning a huge wave that could shatter the Crown Prince, she just shrugged her shoulders off and continued walking, until she bumped into her father.

She bowed her head and greeted, "Father."

"Jin Ri, let us talk... in my chambers."

"Alright, Father."

The two went to the Prime Minister's chambers and sat at the center table. "What is this all about, Father?"

"About your relationship with the Prince. Have you already talked to him?"

Jin Ri bowed her head down, avoiding his father's hard as a steel stare. "Not yet, Father. I am starting to get uncomfortable now that he is back. I could sense that he had changed."

Leaning his elbow on the table, Jung Ho caressed his chin and thought about what his daughter just said. Back in the council meeting, he noticed the difference in Sae Joo's actions through his eyes, yet he also sensed that there was still a certain level of fear inside him. "Changed? Well, you could say that. After all the things that happened to him, it would be impossible that he would remain the same. We are the ones who made him that way. If someone escapes death, that person becomes stronger."

"What shall we do, Father?"

Jung Ho smiled and tore a small portion of white cloth under his cloak. He placed it on the tip of a candle at the middle of the table. Jin Ri just observed that her father was doing. Then, after a split of a second, her bladder almost burst out when her father threw the burning cloth in front of her. She screamed and bailed out of her chair in extreme horror. "Father, what are you doing?"

"No, Jin Ri. What are you doing?" he slammed the table as he yelled to his frightened daughter.

He stood and continued, "Are you not going to do something? That fire could destroy the table, your whole room."

The girl's stiff neck loosened up as it moved left and right, looking for something that could extinguish the growing fire. She scanned the entire room quickly, and finally, her attention was grabbed by a porcelain flower vase on top of a small table beside her bed. She quickly grabbed it and poured the water inside to the burning cloth, extinguishing it fully. When the sight of the red element completely disappeared, her heart rate started stabilizing as well. Feeling like her energy was drained by the extreme adrenaline, she sat back and leaned her body at the table.

"What was that all about, Father? You almost killed me!"

"Idiot! I was teaching you a lesson. When there was a growing fire in front of you, you try your best to put it out. Why? Because with every second wasted, it grows bigger; it gains more power to destroy everything it touches. So before it does, you better step on it and kill it—the same thing that we should do to the Prince. We are the ones who set up the dormant fire within him. Now, he wants to have a fight. Of course, we should not let that happen. We need to crush him fully before he grows bigger and eat us all."