"I thought he didn't want to do it." Ki Ha whispered at Young. Everybody was looking at the receding figures of Jinwoon and Sung Hoon. Young was also perplexed. "Is... Do you think?" Ki Ha scratched his head. "I have no idea."
The ministers were also shocked. "Uhm, we'll tell them later but we wanted to call the selection off. Nobody has ever forced a future king. We aren't planning to be the first." The ministers looked at the queen and the girls.
The queen was fuming. She knew her plan would fail but not like this. Ye Sul was also angry but what could she do about it? She didn't want to lose the little dignity she had. She compared to the others didn't have a great home situation. She really didn't want to go back home.
She had already messed up by acting like a spoiled princess. 'I need to stay here. I don't want to go back. I need to talk to the prince no matter what. I don't mind being his concubine!' She clenched her fist and followed the others outside.
They looked around and saw Sung Hoon rubbing and patting Jinwoon's back. Jinwoon was seen throwing up over and over. At one point he leaned on Sung Hoon. "What is going on? I thought you didn't want to do this?"
Jinwoon was beaten. After throwing up 3 times he felt drained. "Do you really think I'm faking this?" Sung Hoon felt stupid after Jinwoon's question. "Sorry. I'm just shocked." Jinwoon wanted to nod but his vision blurred. "Jinwoon!"
"What could be wrong with him?" Jinwoon slowly opened his eyes. He saw Sung Hoon sitting next to him. Sung Hoon looked sad and had dark circles under his eyes. Jinwoon also noticed that he was back in his room. "What happened?" Sung Hoon had jumped up.
"Elder Young! He's awake! He's finally awake." Sung Hoon finally smiled. He gently touched Jinwoon's face. Young had hurried over and was staring at Jinwoon with a relieved smile. Jinwoon tried to sit up but Sung Hoon and Young stopped him. Young scanned him. "You passed out."
Jinwoon understood that part. "I mean what about the selection?" Young smiled. "The ministers were on Sung Hoon's side. They canceled the selection. They do want to know what is going on with you." Jinwoon was still feeling weird. He noticed that the light was on.
"How long have I been out for?" Sung Hoon softly took his hand. "Two days." Jinwoon's eyes grew big. "Wait?! What! How!!" Young was looking at the scan machine. "Your body was under a lot of stress and fear." "But how come I was out for so long?" Young looked at the machine with a frown.
"I've been trying to find what happened but I can't see anything else wrong with you." Young fiddled with the machine some more. "That doesn't matter. You're awake. That is what's important." Sung Hoon stroked Jinwoon's hand before standing up.
"I'm going to give you some food. I'll be right back." Sung Hoon squeezed his hand before leaving the room. Young waited for a bit before turning towards Jinwoon. He leaned in close and softly talked to him.
"I can't tell the prince the real truth but you passed out because your soul is slowly adapting to your new body." Jinwoon's widened. "H... How?" Young smiled. "You're not the first of your kind to come here."
Jinwoon was dumbfounded. Young continued. "As you know, this has been foretold years ago. The first ever elder has written down all the important events of our planet and you coming here are also part of it."
Jinwoon tried to understand what Young was telling him. "I see that you are confused. I'll go back to the beginning. When this planet was made it was just like your planet, Earth." Jinwoon's mouth fell open. Young laughed at Jinwoon's face.
"Just listen. Whereby your Earth took an evolutionary change, this planet skipped all that. That's because for some unknown reason beings from Earth and other realms were taken and brought here." Jinwoon thought about Tae Jinwoon's words.
"In the beginning the beings knew that they were different from each other but when they integrated and fewer beings were brought over, it was forgotten. The next generations didn't know about their origins. Only a select few knew the real truth. They became the Elders."
"So you're from Earth too?" Young shook his head. "All the people of this planet are a mix of the first beings, so also humans but I'm not from Earth. The last time an Earthling came here was 800 year ago. Of course there have been other beings but they blend in without creating any splash."
"What is the reason for me being send here?" Young scratched his beard. "We don't know. Earthlings are usually brought over during time of needs." Jinwoon frowned. "According to the First Elder, beings from other realms are less empathy than humans."
Jinwoon was getting confused. "Then what am I to do?" Young shrugged "You don't need to do anything. According to the text you'll know when the time is right." "Nothing else?"
Young scratched his beard. "The text is a mix of different languages and not all of it is clear to us." "All we know is that Sung Hoon has to unite all the people and fight something from out of space. We don't know what is going to come or when."
"Can I read the text?" Young was quiet for a few seconds. "I'll have to ask the others." Jinwoon was confused. Tae Jinwoon had only told him to find the most powerful person on the planet. He hadn't mentioned saving a planet.
Or that he would be fighting aliens. Was there something he was missing? Did Tae Jinwoon whip a part of his memories. He was sure that Tae Jinwoon would hide something but this was too important. Something seemed off.
Young turned to the door. "Sung Hoon is coming. I'll leave after he comes in. If the others agree, I'll bring you the full text tomorrow." Jinwoon nodded. Hoping that the other would agree. "Please convince them."
Young stood up, while the door opened. Sung Hoon was holding a tray full of different kinds of food. "Young and the chef said it's not smart to eat solid straight away. So I asked them to make some soups and mashed food." "I'll come back tomorrow." Young didn't look back and left.
Jinwoon ate until he felt full. "How are you feeling?" Sung Hoon put the tray away before tucking him in. Jinwoon laughed at the simple action. "I'm feeling better. I have a question. Do you know any stories about magical beings or special people?"
Sung Hoon thought it was a weird question because every child knew stories about magical beings. But he thought that Jinwoon just wanted to hear a story. He didn't have to think long. "I can tell you about how Namgyeong came to be?" Jinwoon nodded wondering if there would be any clues in his story.
"According to ancient text, Holt used to have 20 tribes and these tribes would fight with each other over everything. There was never a peaceful moment. War after war, the population started to shrink. Then one day a man called Yi Je decided to end all the bickering and fighting."
"After much persuasion, he managed to get his own tribe onboard. Together with 8 warriors, he went to each tribe to ask for peace and to become allies. In the beginning many tribes would try to kill the 7 men but they failed every time."
"After leaving, the tribe would succumb to illness and other misfortune. There were just 8 tribes who were rational enough to notice this pattern. When Yi Je and his warriors came, they were welcomed with open arms."
"Those tribes agreed on working together with Yi Je and his tribe. Yi Je left each warrior in each tribe, asking them to become a bridge between all the tribes. After returning back to his tribe Yi Je vanished, never to be seen again."
Jinwoon blinked at the unexpected ending. "He just vanished?" Sung Hoon found it weird that Jinwoon didn't know. "What's wrong, everybody knows this story?" Jinwoon gave him a silly smile. "I heard a different one. That's why?" "There is a different version?"
Jinwoon wasn't listed anymore. 'Does it mean that after he was finished with whatever he had to do, he would vanish too? Will he return back to Earth? What will happen to his body and Sung Hoon.' Many thoughts were rushing through his mind.
"Jinwoon?!" Jinwoon's chain of thoughts was broken. "What?" "Are you sure everything is alright?" Sung Hoon was beginning to think that something was wrong with him." Jinwoon smiled. "I'm sorry. I'm feeling tired again."
Sung Hoon stared at him before standing up. "I'll let you rest." He turned to leave the room. "Oh! Before I forget, the ministers have decided to hold our wedding on the day of my coronation." "Wedding? Oh... Sorry. Yes. Our wedding. When is the coronation?"