Crown

3. Him, who shall not be named

Seonghwa allowed himself to stand back for a second as he normalised his breathing again. He'd had some troubles crossing the ruins, but nothing too dramatic for now. There had been some deathly traps that seemed to be keen on ending his life before he ventured in further. He had to dodge those with dangerous climbing tricks across the walls. Seonghwa had seen some weird ceremonial looking altars, and a lot of bones, but so far, nothing that pointed him at what he was searching for. It seemed futile. The city was huge; it spread seemingly endless through massive parts of the mountains. Seonghwa would spend days exploring, and he was not equipped for such an extended stay.

While he was sitting in some corner and munching down his lunch, he discussed the matter with his friends back in England.

"It was not at their burial site. And also not in the ceremony room." Seonghwa shuddered at the reminder of that room, of rusty knives and wooden apparatuses that had been blackened by blood with time. "Do you think it might have disappeared somewhere? I've read nothing about it anywhere; they might have thought it's not important?"

Seonghwa would need more time if he had to search the whole damn mountain. The time he did not have with a needy omega at home, and men, who wanted to shoot him waiting around every corner.

His knees were bleeding where he had scraped them earlier, and the elbow of his camouflage uniform was ripped too. His vest made his shirt stick to his skin uncomfortably tightly. He wanted to rip it off his body already, but if he did that, three people would scream his ear off.

"Maybe you could try finding the living quarters of their important people — a king maybe, or a shaman. I'd say if anybody gets to keep weird things nobody has ever seen before, it might be those people," Yeosang supplied helpfully, albeit a tad breathless. He had been back for a while now, and his earlier tension was now eased. San had allowed him to sit down on his cock to keep him nice and warm while Yeosang was working on his documents on the side.

"I could try. This down here looks like the quarters of the lower class. I might need to search further." With a sigh, Seonghwa put the empty box back into his bag and rose to his feet to dust his pants off.

"Where is that little scoundrel anyway? I haven't seen him yet." Which he was glad about. He did not need to see his smug smirk when his men had already ruined Seonghwa's day anyway.

"His chopper is parked in a cave further north. He's been hanging around for a while now; I think he might be waiting for you."

Seonghwa groaned as he again spied out his route. It led him further South, further away from his Nemesis.

He hesitated.

"Do you think he might have found it?"

There could be two reasons why that brat could be waiting for him. Either, he wanted to show off and disappear with Seonghwa's artefact, or he wanted to talk. Usually, their talks ended in gunfire, though, so Seonghwa saw little use in those.

"I have no idea. But the fact that he managed to get the right time again kinda creeps me out. Ah- Yeo- don't move." San gave a choked groan that got echoed by Yeosang. Seonghwa rolled his eyes, smirking. He could not wait to be home again and play with Yeosang in the sheets while he forgot everything about his arch-enemy.

"Send me his coordinates, I'm checking it out."

"Checking him out, hm? I kinda get it, he's undeniably hot." San began tapping away at his keyboard again, their little slip-up forgotten. However, Seonghwa believed to hear the slick sound of Yeosang moving on him anyway. He willed the heat that gathered in his own body unprompted away and tried to concentrate on his duty.