The sky was gray when they pulled him away.
Seo Yul didn't scream. He didn't cry anymore. His throat was dry from it, his voice long gone. He only stared down at the body in front of him his father, the king of Baekseong, now cold and lifeless on the blood-stained stone.
His hands clutched the royal robes, refusing to let go. The cloth was torn and soaked in red, but to him, it still smelled like the palace like power, like home.
"Appa..."
He whispered the word so softly it barely made it past his lips. He waited for a breath, a twitch any sign that this wasn't real. But his father's eyes remained shut, his chest still.
He felt the soldiers pulling him back. Strong hands around his arms. His knees scraped against the ground as he was dragged away.
"Let me stay," he wanted to say. "Just a little longer."
But no one listened.
And the man on the black horse the king of Goryeon said nothing.
King Hwan Seong. The man who had ordered this war. The man who had killed his father.
Seo Yul's heart felt like it was tearing apart. His mother had died when he was small not from illness, not from old age. She was executed, quietly, after being accused of passing secrets to the enemy. He remembered the way she held him one last time, whispering, "Be careful who you trust, Yul-ah."
His stepmother watched from the palace steps, face calm, almost relieved. She had never loved him. He wasn't her son. And now, she didn't stop the soldiers. She didn't speak a word.
No one did.
No one tried to save him.
Seo Yul looked up once, just once, at the man on the horse. Hwan Seong was quiet, his eyes unreadable. He didn't look cruel, not like the stories said. But he didn't look sorry, either.
Seo Yul turned his eyes away. He didn't know why the king was taking him. Maybe it was mercy. Maybe it was guilt. Or maybe it was something else entirely.
All he knew was...
His home was gone.
His family was gone.
And he belonged to the enemy now.