The duo kept sprinting for what felt like an eternity until they finally reached a spot near a cliff with several trees growing by the edge. The prince glanced back and noticed that no one was tailing them, and against all odds, they had managed to lose their pursuers. Once Young-Sik was confident, they were in the clear they took a breather.
They plopped down for a much-needed break; Young-Sik was trying to catch his breath while Jin-Ri worked on her legs, which were sore from all the running. "Ugh, my legs are cramping!" Jin-Ri exclaimed, feeling the tightness spread through her calves.
Young-Sik knelt before the court maiden, tenderly resting her legs upon his knee. Jin-Ri winced slightly as the prince's hands glided over her calf, soothing the weary muscles with gentle strokes. "Is the pain easing? What else troubles you?" he inquired, his voice laced with genuine concern for the woman he cherished.
Jin-Ri beamed at the prince's thoughtful care, her heart swelling with warmth. She watched him lovingly care for her tired leg, feeling a wave of happiness wash over her from this simple act of devotion. "It's much better, all thanks to you," she replied with a bright smile, leaning in to steal a quick kiss from him.
The prince beamed at her, pressing his lips to hers in a tender kiss, but their enchanting moment was abruptly interrupted by a flash of blinding lightning, a roar of thunder, and a sudden downpour. They shared a soft laugh, their foreheads brushing together in a sweet connection. Young-Sik rose to his feet, offering his hand with a gentle smile. "Can you stand? We should get moving."
"Of course," she replied, though a hint of discomfort lingered. She grasped the prince's hand, allowing him to guide her. With a brave face, she pretended to walk with ease, despite the subtle ache that remained. "Maybe we should head in a different direction?" she suggested, seeing that the rain might make things difficult for them.
"This is the fastest way through the mountain, we can reach Pyeongchaeok quicker this way" He explained, leading her through the wet cliffside road. The pair walked with difficulty under the heavy downpour, the water started to soak the mud, and the ground from where they thread started to become slippery.
The two were careful where they took their steps, not wanting a mishap to happen, causing them to fall from the cliff, where unforgiving rocks waited at the bottom. The Rain has other plans though, dulling their vision with the relentless downpour and making the ground beneath their feet unstable.
Just as they were nearing another clearing, the ground beneath them trembled slightly, the rain-soaked mud beginning to give way. "Run! The ground is collapsing!" Young-Sik yelled; his voice filled with urgency that matched the peril they faced. But before they took off, the very spot they occupied crumbled away.
The couple suddenly found themselves falling as the ground beneath them crumbled, the swift mud dragging them toward the edge of a cliff. In a split second, Young-Sik, on his back, seized Jin-Ri with his left hand and with his right plunged his sword into a tree root exposed by the landslide. He successfully stopped their descent just in the nick of time, but Jin-Ri began to slide perilously close to the brink; her wild swinging at the cliff's edge nearly dislocated his shoulders, causing him to shout in agony from the strain on his arms.
The rain continued to pour, very much like how Young-Sik continued to struggle to lift Jin-Ri. His awkward position made it nearly impossible to pull her to safety. Jin-Ri clung on for dear life, her feet scrambling to find a secure spot. "YONG, I can't find a solid ledge!" she yelled.
"Don't let go!" he urged, his voice steady despite the chaos. "I'll get you up, just hold on tight!" he reassured the frantic Jin-Ri.
Jin-Ri then heard some cracking sounds, she glanced up at Young-Sik, and she saw the ground beneath the tree Young-Sik was holding on slowly eroding due to the relentless rain. "Yong, the tree is going to collapse! You have to move before it drags you down with it!" she pleaded, desperate for him to understand that only one of them might make it out.
Jin-Ri's grip slipped from the mud and she was able to let go, "JIN-RI!" Young-Sik yelled, luckily she was able to grab a protruding rock. The prince tried to reach but the few inches that separated their hands felt like a great distance.
Jin-Ri extended her right hand, clawing at the dirt, desperate to inch her way toward the prince's outstretched hand. "Reach for my hand!" Young-Sik begged; his voice laced with urgency.
"Reach for my hand!"The words rang through her mind, and images of a boy flashed in her mind. A boy who gave her a snack, a boy who she played with, who taught her how to write her name and treated her injury.
Her mind suddenly went blank, but she could feel she was running. She then heard thunder and felt the cold rain pelt her skin. Then she saw lightning illuminating the road she was on, and she realized she was running after a boy. When she got to him, a flash of light sent her flying. She felt her body crash on the ground, and she rolled over the edge. She was able to grab hold of a protruding rock. She was calling for help, calling someone a name she could not remember.
"Reach for my hand!" she heard someone yell, she looked up and saw the boy's face as clear as day "Smart Ass?" she whispered, the boy's face slowly vanished only to be replaced by the prince's visage.
The ledge gave way, and she had nothing left to hold on to, at the very last moment Young-Sik was able to grab her arm. "I GOT YOU!" he tried to pull her up, but his outstretched arms made it feel like his arms were being torn apart.
"Yong," she called out to him, "Let go, or you will die with me. It's okay Yong let go,"
Jin-Ri's sleeves fell away, exposing her right elbow, and in that fleeting moment, Young-Sik noticed the scar that took his breath away. His eyes widened in shock as he whispered a name he had kept buried for almost sixteen years: "Eun-Ae?" Instantly, a flood of memories rushed back to him.
He remembered their first encounter, how she became his dearest friend, and the pain of being unable to save her from her fatal plunge. With a fierce shout, Young-Sik declared, "Not this time! I will save you this time!" His voice rang out with urgency as he strained to turn his body to its limits.
With one final yell, Young-Sik was able to hoist Jin-Ri onto solid ground and into safety. The prince quickly got onto his knees and embraced Jin-Ri "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I should have listened to you. None of it would have happened if I only listened to you" he told her.
Jin-Ri gently pulled away from Young-Sik's embrace, cradling his face in her hands. "It's alright, Yong. You saved me," she reassured him, aware that his sorrow stemmed from a past event that had haunted him for sixteen years.
Just as she was about to envelop him in another embrace, she was startled when his head suddenly shot upward, his body twitched as if he had been struck. "Run!" Young-Sik urged Jin-Ri before he collapsed, his unconscious form falling against her shoulder.
Then she saw two arrows protruding from his back, and panic surged within her, leaving her torn between the instinct to remove them or leave them be. But when she spotted Guiong assassins charging toward them, swords drawn and intent on murder, she instinctively shielded the unconscious prince with her own body. The emperor had commanded his assassins to capture the prince alive, but witnessing Young-Sik's skills, they decided it was wiser to eliminate him while he was vulnerable.
Without a hint of hesitation, Jin-Ri stood firm, determined to shield the man she loved from the imminent threat of the assassin before them, sword raised and ready to strike. She embraced the prince tightly, shutting her eyes as she prepared for what she feared would be their last moments together.
In the silence of her closed eyes, the sounds of battle erupted around her—the ringing of swords clashing. When she finally opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of an assassin lying lifeless on the ground, a gaping wound in his chest. Her heart raced as she scanned the scene, spotting a scruffy stranger valiantly fighting off the remaining attackers.
Clutching the prince's sword, the man fought with a style reminiscent of Young-Sik, focusing on precise strikes to critical areas. He swiftly stabbed one assassin in the abdomen, withdrew the blade, and with a quick flick, slashed the chests of two more attackers to his right. Then, he charged at the last four, delivering a lethal blow to the neck of the enemy on his left before slicing through the one on his right.
As a sword swung toward his neck, he crouched to evade it, sweeping his opponent's legs and sending him tumbling down. The man then thrust his sword into the chest of his foe. The last assassin, sensing his impending doom, dropped his weapon and turned to flee. In a split second, the man retrieved a dagger and launched it with deadly accuracy, piercing it in the assassin's back, who fell forward, lifeless.
Once he confirmed that all the assassins were eliminated, he approached the couple to check on their condition. As Jin-Ri noticed the man coming toward them, her gaze shifted to the fallen assassin's sword nearby. Grabbing it, she pointed it at him, shouting, "Stay back! Don't come any closer!"
With a simple tap of the sword, the man disarmed Jin-Ri, sending the sword flying from her grasp. He then knelt beside Young-Sik to assess his injuries. "The arrows need to be taken out," he informed her.
Jin-Ri felt her anxiety ease when she realized the man posed no danger to the prince. "Will he be alright after the arrows are removed?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.
"The quicker we remove them, the sooner we can treat his wounds," he replied, examining how deeply the arrows were embedded in Young-Sik's back. "They're lodged deep; we can't simply pull them out." He broke the arrows, leaving the arrowheads still in the prince's back, then lifted Young-Sik with both arms. "Let's go, my horse and carriage are just near, we can extract the arrowheads at my place." They set off toward his home.
When they reached the carriage, the man lay Young-Sik on his stomach and instructed Jin-Ri to keep him in that position. When Jin-Ri climbed onto the carriage to support the prince, the man boarded the carriage and whipped the reins to make the horse start to move.
After a while, they reached the man's dwelling, which Jin-Ri realized was a sizable tent situated on the far side of the mountain. The man leaped from his carriage and assisted Jin-Ri in carrying the prince into the tent. "Father, you're back!" A young girl was outside, heating water over a fire. Spotting her father, she rushed over, and upon seeing who he was carrying, she exclaimed, "Is that Uncle Young-Sik? Is he hurt? What happened?"
"Yes, Young-Ju, I need you to clear the bed; we must treat him right away," the man instructed his daughter, who hurried inside the tent to follow his orders.
"Uncle Young-Sik?" Jin-Ri asked, puzzled. "You know the prince, don't you? And he knows you," she concluded, unaware that the man she was speaking to was Young-Sik's brother, the former crowned prince, Seo-Joon, who now goes by Min-Jae.
"Soon enough, all will be made clear," Min-Jae told Jin-Ri. "But for now, we must prioritize his condition."
"Your name is Jin-Ri, isn't it?" The question took the court maiden by surprise, and she could only nod. "Let's lay him down on his stomach, and we need a knife."
"A knife? What do we need that for?" Jin-Ri asked, her face filled with concern.
Min-Jae carefully laid the prince on the bed and explained, "I can't just pull out these arrows; it would rip his muscles. If you want to save his life, you must do as I say!"
Realizing what Min-Jae needed, Jin-Ri dashed to the area she believed was designated for food prep. She searched through the clutter until she discovered a small fruit knife. With the knife in hand, she hurried back to Min-Jae and handed it to him. "Water... get the water my daughter was boiling!"
Jin-Ri nodded and rushed out of the tent, using the hem of her skirt to lift the hot kettle. She quickly brought it back inside. Min-Jae extended the knife toward her, instructing, "Pour it on the knife." Jin-Ri complied, pouring the boiling water over the blade. As Min-Jae whisked away the excess water, he steadied himself and examined the two arrows that were sticking out of the prince's middle back, just missing the spine. Min-Jae took a deep breath and began to widen the wound with the knife.
Young-Sik let out an angry groan, and Jin-Ri noticed his face contorting in pain as if he were battling an unseen foe even in his unconscious state. When the wound was large enough, he carefully unhooked the barb from the muscles and pulled it out. Min-Jae repeated the same thing on the other arrow. Once both arrowheads were extracted, Prince Young-Sik's expression and breathing calmed down. "We're not done yet," Min-Jae told Jin-Ri. "Over there, get some thread and needle," he told the court maiden while pointing at a nearby table.
After retrieving and giving the requested items to Min-Jae, she watched him carefully clean the wound with water and close the edges by sewing them shut. After placing bandages on the wound, Min-Jae walked away to give room for Jin-Ri, saying, "He's lucky, you can attend to him now."