Yeosang helps to hold San down on the floor, with Wooyoung and Hongjoong holding each of his legs, pressing them down. The Nyla king is still writhing on the floor, mumbling something incoherent as squelching sounds dominate the room and the black branches which seem to come from under his skin travel to all parts of his body. The black branches make it seem like his body parts are being tied up, while his torso is bent as he looks like he's forcing down the extreme pain caused by whatever's conquering his body.

"Choi San, Choi San!" Yeosang shouts, trying to attain the king's attention but to no avail as San's eyes are still rolling to the back of his head, his lips muttering unintelligible words.

The king is struggling to break free from the grip of the three, who are seemingly no match despite outnumbering him. Whatever is taking over San makes him stronger, that by the time San is shouting and cursing at them, they are already too exhausted to pin him down.

Yeosang, despite years of practice and countless medical books read, has no idea what's going on with San's body. He can't explain with his limited thinking, as almost all of his mind is directed into pinning down his body. What he can do is hope that the struggle San is facing will go away on its own before he can make sense of the situation.

As Wooyoung is pleading for his friend to stay with him despite not knowing what to do, Hongjoong is quiet, his mind reeling with all the possibilities on why the king is acting this way. The latter holds an iron grip around San's right leg, frowning as he sees the branches of black tattooing his skin. Hongjoong watches as the black spreads to the part he's holding on, almost flinching but wills himself to keep his grip.

It's the fear of the unknown for them, since they don't know what it is or how it happened.

As he gains access to San's neck, Yeosang tries finding a pulse, half-expecting to find none with his condition right now. He heaves a sigh of relief when he finds one, although it's beating somewhat slowly; it's like the branches spreading all over his skin are pulsing stronger.

"What- what's going on?" Wooyoung is almost in tears as he pins San's legs down, as the latter is starting to thrash about. "Is this some kind of- disease?"

"I don't know," Yeosang manages, his every word strained as his own veins pop out underneath his skin trying to subdue the patient. "I've never seen anything like this."

"The plague? Something else?" Hongjoong tries but Yeosang shakes his head.

Yeosang frowns; he has a feeling he's facing something he won't be able to handle as the palace doctor, that someone else would be more knowledgeable on how to tackle San's problem. But their problem right now is they don't know what's going on with him, so who are they supposed to turn to?

Their heads immediately snap to San as the king grabs Yeosang's shoulder, pulling him down and staring into his eyes. He croaks, "I... am... capable... to... become... king..."

"You are, Choi San, you are!" Wooyoung shouts as he tightens his grip around San's leg. "No one is telling you otherwise!"

"They are!" he shouts, but his eyes are directed somewhere else, as if he's speaking to someone other than the three pinning him down. "They say I'm not capable of becoming king. They are all mocking me! Mocking me!" Then he laughs, before he starts crying as tears fall and pool on the floor. "They don't admit I'm their child~ but I'll prove them wrong~" he says in a singsong voice before giving a smile that makes the others' hairs stand on end.

"San there's something wrong-" Yeosang starts but gets cut off as San tries to place a grip around his neck, which he narrowly misses.

"There's nothing wrong with me!" He bares his teeth as he closes his eyes, face as if feeling bliss. "I will be the grea~test~ king Nyla has ever seen. I'll make Nyla bathe in all of its glory, whatever it takes. I will show to the whole kingdom who's king." He cackles, "Me, me, me!"

"Choi San," Hongjoong says with a hard voice, eyebrows knitting. "You're the Shadow King. You're supposed to bring the honour of keeping your status a secret-"

"Secret?" He takes a deep breath as he laughs. "They're all cowards, that's why they only ruled behind the curtains. I'm not a coward," he manages, "I'll prove myself to the palace and to the people how I'm the best ruler they could ever ask for."

"San..." Wooyoung trails off, unable to fathom what he feels about seeing San like this. It's like he's someone else, saying things that he wouldn't be saying.

San groans in pain, almost pushing the three from forcing their grips on him but they manage to pin him down until he goes limp, seemingly unconscious. They loosen their grips on him gradually as his eyelids are shut, his head lolled to the side. The black branches are still marked all over his skin, but the intensity of the colour is decreasing, leaving only faint marks. The white colour smudging a small part of his hair remains.

"What...was that..." Wooyoung says in defeat as he leans against the wall, exhausted. "What... happened to him..."

"It's not San," Yeosang shakes his head. "He's not the one saying all those stuff. It was as if he was possessed."

Hongjoong stays quiet as he inspects the black marks on his skin, tracing it with his fingers as if to try and find a starting point. He looks away; San's state is awful, reminding him of the time the king fell into a coma after being attacked at the central forest. Without a word, he lifts up one of San's arms, putting it around his neck as he looks at the other two, expecting them to help him.

They help him lift San up carefully, maneuvering until they can let him lie down on the bed as comfortably as they can place him.

Wooyoung sits at the end of the bed, eyes dropping as he looks at the visible marks on his feet.

"What did the three of you do yesterday?" Hongjoong starts. "Was he already acting weird?"

Wooyoung and Yeosang remain quiet to think about the possibilities on why San is acting this way, the only thing that's coming to their minds are when they visited the White Room - the abandoned room that could be teeming with something sinister.

"We visited the White Room," Yeosang admits. "San found this... letter that was addressed to his father from the Kingdom of Ileara. He was curious to find out any connections so we went there to see if we could find anything."

"Ileara?" Hongjoong stands up straighter, eyebrows knitting as he tries to recall the name of the kingdom. "The kingdom that went down without any of their history being penned down in the books?"

Wooyoung nods. "He showed me the letter, but we couldn't find anything else that could connect Ileara and Nyla. I'm not sure..." he looks around to see if he can spot the letter in San's bedroom, but doesn't find it. "Whether he kept it here, or in his study, or somewhere else." He explains the contents of the letter to Hongjoong, filling him in with what happened yesterday, with them returning to their own rooms after they went out of the White Room.

"Maybe it is related to the White Room," Hongjoong utters, glancing at San who looks to be sleeping peacefully as his chest rises up and down.

If not for the physical changes he's experiencing, they would've thought that he's only getting some shut-eye while waiting for the day to start. Hongjoong looks at the clock, noting that it's almost seven in the morning, which means that the other workers must already be out and about the palace compound, carrying out their duties. It would be obvious if they see San in this state, so Hongjoong makes a decision.

"Is Mingi coming to the palace today?" he asks the other two.

"He is," Yeosang utters. "But he might be a little bit late."

"He might know about Ileara more than we do," Hongjoong replies. "Or what went on with San..." he presses his lips together as he mulls over his suspicion. But still, what would someone like him know?

---

Mingi pulls the reins of his horse, Mingki, as he comes to a stop in front of the palace stairs. He's excited to show what he had gotten for the boys after almost a day of bargaining in town, looking for cheap deals. He has brought an array of items; from clothes to fruits, from a ladle to a fountain pen that he thought would've looked amazing for a king like San would use. He unloads all the items at the bottom of the stairs first before bringing Mingki to the stables, promising her that he'll come back to feed her.

He hums as he goes over to the stairs, picks the sacks up before he ascends, slightly frowning as he sees the dark sky - it doesn't look like it's about to rain but it is as if someone has blanketed the sky with another layer. Everything looks gloomy, even as he looks at the palace building. Some of the exterior crumbles down as soon as he steps on the stairs, startling him. He's pretty sure that yesterday everything seemed fine, unless he wasn't paying attention.

Feeling that there's something wrong happening, he quickly lifts up the sacks he brought together and goes over to some of the palace staff, asking help to stow away the items. When he receives no answer as to why he's not seeing the other young masters wandering around the palace, especially San, his first instinct is to go find Wooyoung or Yeosang in their rooms, but can't find them either. Only then he decides to visit San's room, where he almost tumbles backwards as he sees the condition of the room.

It's not only gloomy, but as soon as he enters the room he feels like he's about to suffocate from the thick air. He looks around to find Hongjoong, Wooyoung and Yeosang in one corner, the blacksmith falling asleep while the other two look dead tired. His vision sweeps across the room as he notices the changes; on the walls he sees some kind of dark viscous liquid flowing down and staining them, the cracked mirror at San's dresser, the overall different aura of the room.

He gasps as he sees San's condition; despite lying down on the bed, seemingly in deep slumber, his whole skin is marred with black branches. As he goes over to San, inspecting his body in which half is covered in a blanket, he picks the edges of the blanket up as he croaks out a question.

"What... on... earth... happened... here?"

"Oh you came," Wooyoung utters, as though they have only realized Mingi is there with them. "San... There's something wrong with him."

Mingi nods while sweeping his arms across the whole room. "I can tell."

Yeosang snaps out of his trance as he mumbles, "He became like this after we went to the White Room."

"So he has already decided to take up the crown?" Mingi approaches them as his worried eyes dart towards San. The king looks weak, pitiful. "And this... happened. Even the sky outside is very gloomy and dark... the exterior walls of our palace building are crumbling... some kind of different aura present."

"He was acting strange," Wooyoung offers as he throws up his hands, "mumbling all these words while his body was writhing, then he... fainted or fell asleep. He hasn't woken up since it happened this morning."

Mingi presses his lips together, something playing at the back of his mind. As Wooyoung and Yeosang help to recount the events that happened up until San seemingly absorbed by this mysterious power, Mingi only looks blankly at the wall, his eyes tracing the viscous liquid which is dripping from the floor to the wall. Some of the liquid has dropped onto Hongjoong's shoulder, but the blacksmith remains lost in his dreamland.

One word however, does catch Mingi's attention. Completely.

"Did you say Ileara?"

"Correct," Wooyoung utters as he puts up a finger. "Apparently San's father had received a letter from someone named 'Hyunwoo'." He repeats the contents of the letters, the words already etched in his brain as he keeps saying it. "We figured out that you'd be the best person who'd know more than us, but," he looks guilty, "San became like this before we could see you."

Mingi's face changes at this, scratching his head. "Sorry-"

"It's not your fault, obviously," Yeosang says. "We just need to find how to reverse this on San. This is not something I've ever encountered."

"So Mingi," Wooyoung takes the latter's hand, "what do you know about Ileara? Do you think they're the cause of what's happening to San?"

Mingi looks back and forth from the two, to Hongjoong then lastly to San before deciding. "Can we talk somewhere else? This room feels suffocating."

The two quickly agree before they drag the still-drowsy Hongjoong out of the room, finding port outside as they discuss it in the hallways, Wooyoung and Yeosang constantly repeating the events to what led up to San's change to him. He takes up a bit of time to try and connect everything together from what he knows, with Hongjoong helping to supplement him with what he himself is aware of.

"So San found a letter seemingly addressed from this person called 'Hyunwoo' from Ileara, all of you were eager to find more information but found none... then ended in the White Room," Mingi addresses this.

Yeosang and Wooyoung simply nod.

"But San is the only one experiencing these changes," Mingi recounts. "Which means that it's not because of the White Room. Both of you are completely fine, when you were there with him."

Wooyoung pauses, his mind finally catching up on what Mingi is trying to point out. "You're right, we're completely fine." He pats his hands all over his body and face before doing the same to Yeosang, who slaps his hands away, disgruntled. "Nothing happened to us, so it's not because of the White Room."

"I'd say it's the letter, but both of you read it, right? Did you hold it?"

Wooyoung nods his head. "Still we're fine."

"Then that could mean that the trigger was what San did alone... but if you say it happened at the White Room and the effects were seen after all of you did something that you don't usually do everyday..." he lets them continue his sentence.

Realization dawns on Yeosang's face. "The crown."

"But I held the crown," Wooyoung frowns. "I put it on San's head as a joke at first," he utters, face already showing how guilty he is.

"Maybe," Hongjoong butts in, all time quiet as he tries to come up with a possible theory. "That the crown only does something to the person who actually owns it."

"Someone with white blood," Yeosang and Wooyoung say simultaneously.

"Or maybe," the blacksmith adds, "San's bloodline. The rightful heir to the Nyla crown."

"But why... San?" Yeosang desperately tries to gather his memories of the past rulers. "I don't think his brother experienced something like this. Right?" He looks to Wooyoung for confirmation.

"His brother was sick because of cancer... his parents passed away for unknown reasons... but we never actually tried to slot in the details," Wooyoung says as he's reminded of the weird connotations San had pointed out before he wore the crown. "Because we simply thought that it wasn't our place to know about it."

"What about Nyla's past rulers?" Mingi asks in general as the other three have lived at the palace much longer than he has been a regular here. "Did they pass away for unknown reasons too?"

"Hmm..." Wooyoung sighs as his eyes shoot upwards, trying to recall. He shakes his head. "I think they only passed away because of natural reasons, but I can't be so sure. Maybe I'm being biased since I've only ever lived at the palace when San's parents were ruling the kingdom, but to think back, maybe their deaths were slightly suspicious?"

"Something to do with Ileara?" Hongjoong offers. He shakes his head, "But maybe it's unrelated."

"Ileara..." Mingi thinks about what he knows about the obsolete kingdom. "They may be connected to our mainland, but they're... different in some sense."

"Different as in how?" Yeosang frowns.

"For once, their blood colours are different than ours. I don't remember what the colour is though... but I know that it's not the common yellow, blue, crimson or white." He lists all of their blood colours.

"Black blood?" Wooyoung tries, his mind flashing to how some kind of black entity is flowing underneath San's skin.

"Maybe..." Mingi trails off as he groans. "Ah, I really don't remember that particular detail because I've read somewhere about it a long time ago. I think it was from some secondhand bookstore we had in town, or maybe even some bookstore in another kingdom. The point that I remember very clearly is, they don't have a distinction between their people based on blood colours. So by default, their status isn't determined by their blood colours."

"Wow," Hongjoong enunciates, impressed by that particular detail. "If only that's how it is for us."

"And," Mingi adds, "their kingdom was surrounded by sea, but back then there was a bridge connecting the mainland to their... island I would say. Besides Lucida, Ileara also seemed to be a kingdom that kept to themselves. All livestock, fresh produce, any product were all from their own kingdom. I'd say they were an independent kingdom who could flourish on their own despite being far away from the other kingdoms."

"Then this is... was... something big then, for someone from Ileara sending a letter with the royal emblem to our kingdom," Wooyoung adds.

Mingi nods. "I guess for a kingdom that could survive on their own without needing any diplomatic relationships, this could be something to point out."

"What was the reason for their disappearance? Too much self-reliance that they just simply vanished off the earth without people having the opportunity to record their history?"

Mingi then shakes his head. "I don't remember exactly how or why they vanished, nor do I think it was written in the books. People seemed to just completely forget about them, not talking about them."

"Or people didn't know, didn't write about them, then naturally everyone would just forget. I mean..." Yeosang gestures towards Mingi, "if you've found a book about Ileara, that means people do know of their existence, only maybe the records weren't enough to sustain their existence in people's memories."

"Hm," Mingi agrees. "It could be that they were too independent until no one would even care to remember their details. Just something on the surface, just general details that they know. Ah, it was a book on the history of our kingdoms." He snaps his fingers, "But Ileara's pages were too little as compared to the other kingdoms."

Wooyoung releases a heavy breath. "Are we simply going around in circles for focusing too much on the kingdom that people barely even remember?"

"Ah," Mingi enunciates, bringing back the attention to him. "I remember another unique detail about the kingdom." Then he backtracks, "Well, I wouldn't say it's that unique, but their royals did practice black magic. That's one of their obvious differences between us and their kingdom."

"Wah," Yeosang and Wooyoung echo. Then Wooyoung quickly blinks, "Maybe that was the reason their kingdom completely went off the map? Black magic that backfired?" His face starts to change as he feels like he's on to something.

"That could be a plausible reason," Hongjoong replies. "Something could have gone wrong."

"If it's true that they practice black magic... then how did it get here?" Yeosang utters. "Black magic is unheard of in our kingdom."

"Unheard of... to us," Hongjoong reminds him. "We don't even know what happened exactly to the past royals when we've been living in the palace, so we probably don't even know half of the story."

"So San's parents practiced black magic?" Wooyoung's lower lip is pushed outwards as he mulls over his next sentence. "It backfired... then..." he doesn't want to repeat it, "events happened."

Mingi gets taken aback as he hears Wooyoung pointing out how San's parents could practice black magic. It's not that he didn't have the thought, but it's the fact that the idea brought up a knowledge that he has yet to share with Wooyoung about his parents. As he tries to assemble the puzzle pieces in his mind, he tries to think over whether it would be the appropriate time for him to reveal to Wooyoung that he knows about his parents.

Yet he doesn't know whether Wooyoung is ready to accept to hear who they are.

"So... something to do with black magic-" Hongjoong starts, but they get interrupted as they hear San's bedroom door opening.

Their heads automatically turn towards the direction of the opened door, where San steps out, still with the black branches all over his body yet now it seems that it was purposely tattooed on his body as per his request.

San stretches his body, looking as if he just woke up from a long, satisfying slumber. As he notices the other four gathered outside his room, he walks over to them, a different demeanour than before as he smiles. He doesn't look troubled, but contempt. As if his physical changes don't bother him a bit.

"What are you guys doing outside here?" he mentions to the others.

"San..." Wooyoung trails off, unable to form a sentence.

"Don't you... remember what happened? Or... your body... it's still like that..." Yeosang helps to add.

"My body?" San looks genuinely questioning before he notices the black branches on his skin. He looks unfazed, unlike the rest of them. "Ah, these? It's part of my body, so what?" He winks to Wooyoung, "I took the crown now, so I'm not a coward am I?" He stretches again, "Ah, it feels so good; I feel like my body is just recharged after I wore that crown." He grins, "Maybe it is meant for me only."

The other four look at each other before frowning. This is not what they expected for him to become.

"Aren't you... hurt?" Yeosang tries again as he remembers how San seemed to be struggling against a painful takeover.

San chuckles. "Hurt? Why would I be; in fact I feel amazing."

The others remain speechless at his appearance and attitude; he's completely changed. Mingi mouths to the others, signalling with his eyes towards the direction of San, who looks like he's completely entranced by the physical changes of his body.

Oh they have to find a way on how to reverse this.

Because as they look at San grinning, they know that the king is no longer the person they knew before.

---

[A/N: If any of you watch these shows - Howl's Moving Castle, Tokyo Ghoul and Sweet Home - I'm heavily inspired by them for this story.]