The Unbreakable Sword

■EPISODE-2■

That cold breeze that I felt that day, I knew, was something I would not be able to forget in my life. It was a feeling unexplainable. It was neither exactly, a feeling of fear nor happiness but whatever it was, it had a sense of it.
    "Park Kyung Jae?" I murmured under my breath, staring at his face.
I don't think he might have heard me. He looked back up once again. There was nothing I could think of at the moment except for holding onto him and riding. I was entirely blanked by several thoughts that crossed my mind at once.
    "Why is Park Kyung Jae here? Is he not supposed to be a celebrity? What happened to the train? I met with an accident. Didn't I die, in such a violent accident? Am I not injured? Why is he carrying me on a horse of all things?!"
After a short time, we came to a stop.
He made me sit upright gently. He got down from the horse first. Then he helped me get down. Only then I saw his horse properly. It was a jet black horse wearing a fine black harness with symbol in gold that resembled the "Seed of Life". I felt like I had seen it somewhere but I let go of that for the moment.
He didn't say a word though. I was still shocked. I was fully concious but was still a bit dizzy. My head was feeling heavy, and my weakness did not leave me.
I saw, we stopped in front of a huge bunglow. There were people, I did not recognize, waiting in front of the main gate. There were two women, one probably elder to me and the other almost of my age.
Once they saw me, the younger one, came and hugged me.
    "Where had you been? We'd been looking for you everywhere!", saying that she held me around my shoulder and intended to take me inside.
So far, I could at least figure out whatever this place was, it was not where I was before. But at the same time, there was Park Kyung Jae...
While going in with her, I turned back and looked at the man who was still standing there with his horse.
    "Who.....is this man?", I asked the lady taking me inside, weakly. Even while asking, I was still looking at his face.
Hearing what I said, the lady turned and looked at him too. Then bowed her head gently to him, as if apologetically. She took me inside at once.

Once I entered inside, the first thing I saw was the garden. It had warm lights on, at different places among bushes and trees. A water fountain took the centre place of the semicircle shaped garden. I felt like I was in some antique style five star hotel. Everything in that house was so extraordinary, and I could tell, expensive.
I didn't know why I was there. I was starting to feel dizzy again. While taking me inside the lady kept on asking me questions about how I was feeling, where I had been, if I wanted to rest. She took me to a room, which was apparently my room. Then helped me to lie down. But I got straight up again and asked politely,
    "Umm, what is this place?"
There was a mirror in front of the bed on which I was sitting. As soon as I got up, I noticed my reflection on the mirror. I was shocked to see myself with short hair. I touched my hair slowly, not being able to believe. I pushed aside the blanket and got down from the bed. I clumsily made my way to the mirror and looked at myself. I was dressed in a white coat and pants. My hair was straight, short and black. It was middle parted but was messy then. I ran my eyes from top to bottom. It was me but still not me. I was wearing a pale yellow sweater when I got on the train as far as I remembered. I had shoulder length long wavy hair.....
    "What happened to me?"
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    "Why is my hair short? What's up with this formal dress?"
I turned and looked at the lady, asking,
    "Who are you? What have I to do with you here. What is this place? Why did he bring me here? I want to go home."
The lady looked at me with utter amazement.
    "What are you talking about? I'm Daeun, your best friend! Don't tell me, you don't recognize me."
Right then the elder lady, came in. She was not that old. She was probably middle aged. She apparently just worked there. I could tell by the way she talked to Daeun.
    "The royal guard left safely, just now...I am so thankful to God! If it was not for him, where would we find our Seung Ah?" She rubbed her hands together and made a gesture of praying.
Daeun was still looking at me awkwardly,
    "Seung Ah?" I turned and looked behind me to check if someone else was there in the room, whom they intended to call.
    "Who is that?", I asked gently as I was too frightened to know the truth.
Getting frustrated she made me sit down on the bed, held my shoulders and started talking to me.
    "Look, I know you are trying to joke around. But this is not funny! YOU are Myeong Seung Ah. And what do you mean by I want to go home? This is where you live. Your home. Your parents live in Canada, you have been applying for a job at the royal office for years. Today morning also you went out as usual. And I don't know what happend to you....
You don't like to stay here alone so you asked me to move in. We'd been like flatmates, bestie. What's up with this drama?"
    "Woah woah, I'm not Myeong Seung Ah. You must have mistaken me for someone else. I am Myeong Sung Hee."
The maid and Daeun both got startled. This time, Daeun was a little more gentle with me.
    "You know, you just need some rest. Some rest, and you'll be all fine. I'll leave you alone for some time. Rest. I'll just call the doctor."
She said those words and left the room with the maid.
I really felt like I was sick. My whole life up till now, seemed like a long dream. As if I'd never been Sung Hee. I had no idea about what was going on. All this was so real. I was nervous.
I could not rest wondering about this. A few moments later the maid came in to give me a glass of water and my kalimba.
    "He said, this was with you." she said, keeping the kalimba gently on my bedside table. I was still roaming around in the bedroom when she came in. I looked at the kalimba, and remembered myself grabbing that before the train accident.
    "Ummm, excuse me? Could you tell me, what year it is?
She was surprised by the question but still she answered,
    "2016, ma'am."
Hearing this bit of information I was starting to feel dizzy again. How on earth was it possible for me to be in 2016! It was supposed to be 2050. But still gathering up courage I managed to ask her another question,
    "What is this place called? We are in South Korea, aren't we? What 'royal office' was she talking about?"
    "South Korea? This is the Kingdom of Corea. Royal office, the King's Court.... don't you remember anything ma'am?...Ma'am, I suggest you take some rest. The doctor is on the way."
After saying that she bowed to me, I bowed back and she left the room, closing the door behind her.
Now I was actually wishing to get checked by a doctor, I felt like I was crazy. I pinched myself for me to wake up from this never ending dream. But nothing happened.

I went and stood in front of the mirror, looking at myself once again and stared, searching for answers to my questions....logically.
    "So I met with an accident, and ended up here,......in 2016?! This is impossible. If I'm not Sung Hee here, and am Seung Ah. What does this mean? Is this someone who looks like me? My long lost twin sister or something. But 2016? Can't be. Does that mean I travelled back in time? Okay fine. Let's assume, I travelled back in time, I don't know how, but I did. Then why am I Seung Ah not Sung Hee?
This is Kingdom of Corea?.....The one I read about in books?....This place is still ruled by a King."
That's when it struck my mind this could have some resemblance with the book I read, "The Unbreakable Sword". But that was published in 2020 as far as I remembered.
Still, I tried to recall all I could, of what I had read in volume one.
    "The place was Kingdom of Corea. It was ruled by the King, Lee Gon. His parents passed away. The book was written by his best friend who was also the Captain of Royal Guards. There was a court lady who took care of him from childhood. But there was no mention about any Myeong Seung Ah in the entire book. The 'Seed of Life' was the royal symbol. The mark I saw on the harness earlier....was the royal symbol. The maid did mention he was a royal guard.....
Was he.....by chance........."
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
I opened it, it was the doctor and Daeun.
He checked me thoroughly, I cooperated.
Soon after the doctor left, Daeun came in...
    "The doctor said you must be in shock for the accident. So, it might be possible that you have lost your memory temporarily. There's no need to worry. Other than that you're all fine. In a few days your memory would be okay too. She sat down beside me on the bed while saying that and hugged me. I hugged her back, not knowing what to do.
    "What accident are you talking about? Was I in a train?", I couldn't stop myself from asking out of curiosity.
    "Not in a train, but the captain of royal guards said he found you lying down unconscious near some bamboo forest. So he enquired about your details from the police and brought you home."

    "Captain of Royal Guards? Is he........" I asked reluctantly.
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    "Yes. He is Captain Jo Yeong.