When Yeosang is back in the room he awoke in, he notices the bundle of new clothes that lay in the bed and a pair of boots that stands beside the furniture's leg. For a moment he doesn't know what to do with himself, as his head has stopped working from the bad fever he is having.

"Rest some more, I will inform your guidance counselor about it and have someone bring you a meal."

The mention of food already makes Yeosang turn around and search for the term, unfortunately, it was only a mention and the meal has not been brought to him yet. His eyes drooped and he curled one of his hands out of regret. Somehow he hadn't felt the hunger from the past days, and he wondered if he had had something to eat after he had passed out and just had forgotten everything about it again. Yeosang looks at the knight again, but his expression has not changed any bit, still, the tense one that could do all brutal things one could imagine appears in their nightmares. If all knight templars are like this, Yeosang would be sure his own nightmares will keep him awake this night and the following.

Without saying anything else, the knight leaves the chamber right away, and Yeosang stands with an odd feeling filling his chest. He doesn't know why his father has sent him here, nor what those people want with him, and that makes him uneasy about the situation he stands in. The boy is even unsure of what he may do with himself while the knight has left him to supposedly rest. Carefully he brings a hand up to his forehead and feels how the skin burns the palm of his hand before he turns his hand and instead tries to cool down his face instead. This must be his body working the stress away and Yeosang realizes how the only way to help himself is to rest. He does not want to give in, as his nerves still feel agitated from the sight of the knight's sword and threatening behavior, but he decides to go against his untrust to this place and steps toward the comfortable furniture and pushes the clothes to the end before lifting the covers and diving under them. His feet are still cold and dirty, but at this moment Yeosang minds nothing else than the throbbing pain his body carries. The light from the still lit lantern at the table beside the bed is the last thing he sees before he drifts off to the lands where dreams stay. What he sees there, lets a tear slide down his cheek.

_____

Yeosang awakes to the touch of a wet cloth touching his forehead. His body is burning hot under the covers and pacing he brings his arms up to push the fabrics off him to let himself breathe the cool air. Sweat from his body makes the rough garms stick even more uncomfortable to his skin and he groans irritated by the feeling, still not noticing the woman that sits by his side calmly. His fever has only gotten worse after his sleep.

"Lay still or I can't change the cloth, please."

The voice makes Yeosang stop moving immediately and he waits with moving his head to the side until the wet fabric is moved away and replaced with new cold water. His eyes are blurred from the blend of sleep and fever, but he still sees the silhouette of a young woman sitting on a stool by the side of the bed.

"Who are you?" Yeosang asks groggily with a hint of his still unconscious state of mind and tries to sit up a bit more.

She squints her round eyes for a moment before smiling sweetly at him, the gap between her front teeth shows.

"You may call me Emma. I am from the healers quarters in the south wing of Lectushire Fortress," the young woman says and calmly turns around to the items that stand on the small wooden table, apparently replacing the lantern that stood there before. Yeosang sees that the lantern now is moved to a hollow in the thick wall.

Emma returns her gaze to Yeosang, and he watches how she is mixing a kind of liquid in the wooden bowl she holds in her hand.

"Here, drink this. It will help your fever surpass faster."

She reaches the bowl out for Yeosang to take it, but the boy tenses at the sight of the content and doubt her words. He is not sure if he can trust her despite her so far very kindness.

Then she ushers the bowl even closer to him, "Come on take it, trust me, I am not poisoning you if that may be the matter of hesitancy. I came here from a request I got from one who didn't know how to help you."

Yeosang eyes her again and now looks closer at her caring features. She is beautiful in a different way than he has seen other women. Her eyes gleam with kindness, carrying out her soft face that shows a mild smile, and her dark hair is braided behind her head as some hair strands have escaped the braid and now round her face. The dress she wears is plain deep green, having laces in the chest part and cupping her body sublimely until her hips where it goes down freely. The white shirt she wears underneath covers her chest and shoulders where it ends over her arms to her wrists. She knows that he stares at her, but she just smiles at him when he looks her in the eyes again.

"Are you going to take it, or will you be ready when you have gawked pleasantly enough?" she says while tipping the left side of her head closer in a questionable manner.

The statement makes Yeosang realize what he just has done and he rocks his eyes away while he grasps the bowl from her hands silently. Fortunately, his cheeks are so warm already, that she doesn't see the embarrassment coloring in his face. Slowly he lifts the bowl to his lips without thinking of it and drinks the liquid there is filled with different kinds of herbs that he doesn't know any names of. When he heaves the bowl down again he lets out a cough and wrinkles his nose in disgust and Emma takes the item from his hands and places it down at the table.

"Sorry, I am aware of its foul taste," she says and smiles apologizing for what she didn't warn him about, "What do their name be?"

She hands him a clean cloth to dry his mouth with and pulls the wet cloth that has fallen from his forehead away from the covers and wets it again in another bowl full of water before standing and carefully pushes the young man down to lay again. Yeosang sighs when the cool wetness from the new wetted cloth touches his hot skin.

"My name is Yeosang..." he mutters and stares up into the ceiling, even if he mostly wants to close his eyes and fall asleep again.

"Yeosang, are you hungry? I have brought a meal with me."

His eyes flicker pleadingly over at Emma and she raises the basket with the promised food up for him to see.

_____

Yeosang has rested for a couple of days now, and the fever has finally disappeared with the help of the odd composition of Emma's herbs. Four times every day she visited him and made sure he wasn't falling even more ill than he already was. She brought him food and conversed with him, letting him know of how the weather was those two days. Yeosang feels as if those days have been the longest days in his entire life, now that he stands outside the chamber he has been resting in. The knight that he met the first day when he awoke has he not encountered since and it makes him turn around every time to another, to watch if he somehow follows him around this place.

Yeosang glances around the courtyard that he already saw the first day. The crowd that had been cheering around the ring is nowhere to be seen, and the whole place seems eerie for no one to be around. He thinks if it normally is like this, or he just happens to stand here at the wrong point of time. The cross that hangs around his neck feels heavy and the new clothes he has on are sitting tightly around his form. Yeosang has never worn any clothes like those before. They are mostly of leather, thick and tight to move around in, but Emma has told him he just has to go with it until it becomes smooth. The attire is very much like the ones the knight had worn, tight black leather trousers, black leather boots, but instead of the dark tight-fitting long-sleeved doublet with the red cross, Yeosang wears a light brown plain shirt with a belt strapped around there is not holding any sheath for a sword.

The boy does not know where he is going and for a moment he even doubts if he has the ability for finding back again. The fortress is built on a hill, and as he passes another unknown huge building, he sees a tree down the slope where he hurries down and sits down by it. From here he still can see the spikes of the magnificent church, and a shudder runs down his back just by the thought of it. He hopes that he won't be coming there much.

A thundering sound comes closer from the far end of the wide meadows down the hill and further away and pulls Yeosang out of his tremors. His head turns in the direction and he squeezes his wondering eyes to what is outrunning the landscape from afar. Out of reflex, he draws his legs into his body when he sees the majestic animal come closer at full speed. His heart beats quickens and when he feels the earth start quivering underneath him he cannot stop himself from holding his breath full of angst. The knight steering the destrier seems untroubled when they pass the obstacle course up the hill and lets the horse gallop at full speed up the last part to the building and therefore rides past where Yeosang sits. The sight of the mighty knight and his destrier stops Yeosang from thinking of anything but if the knight had drawn his sword and steered toward himself to kill him. The boy catches his held breath and raises himself from the dry ground while he pushes himself up against the tree, hoping for the trunk to hide him.

Suddenly he hears the knight cheer for the horse while trotting in the direction of the tree, causing Yeosang to be sent into a state of panic where he is not able to move any limb. There, the knight discovers him and tugs at the reins for the animal to stop. Yeosang feels how the foreign man in the saddle examines him, baffled for who he is and why he is there before he retrieves his eyes and strokes the horse's neck.

"Mind plucking one of the apples hanging above your head?"

The voice suddenly running through the air makes Yeosang astounded and he is not understanding what the stranger tells him before he angles his head up at what the man is pointing at. Hassled, Yeosang reaches for the red fruit and pulls it from its branch, the sound already making the horse reach for what he holds in his hands. Yeosang's hand shakes while his fingers drill into the apple when he holds it out for the horse's muzzle.

"Flat hand!" the knight says sternly right before the horse snatches the fruit from his hand and crushes it with its teeth. If Yeosang hadn't reacted fast, his fingers would have been bitten off.

The boy stares wide-eyed at his empty hand in pure shock before he looks up at the horse, finding its content eyes that are already looking for more treats. The knight swings himself down from the animal before stepping closer to Yeosang's dumbfounded self. The knight looks even mightier up-close and Yeosang suddenly has trouble with breathing. He is manly and very handsome, his body bulks under the close-sitting attires he wears, making Yeosang wanting to look away bashful for his too observing eyes. But he can't. Not when the knight already has caught him gawking at him. Not when he stares into those two different colored eyes.

Without saying anything else, the knight turns around and drags his eager horse with him to the building close to the appletree. His eyes are drawn to where the knight disappeared and he cannot stop looking in that same direction, waiting for him to come back, maybe plucking some more apples for his destrier. Yeosang swallows difficulty when a lump of yarn accumulates in his stomach.

"I see you have already found our fearsome knight, Choi Jongho," a voice puts in from behind and the poor startled boy stumbles around to a man that stands with crossed arms and a smug smile tugged around the corners of his mouth, "What a shame that you are a man."

Yeosang eyes him carefully without saying anything and the man clears his throat before looking into his eyes again. This man looks scarily much like the knight he met the first day.

"I apologize for my rather bluntness, my name is Park Seonghwa and I will be your guidance counselor on Lectushire Fortress."

The man smiles broadly at Yeosang and cocks his head to the side so that black strands of hair move away from his eyes.

"I will be the one ensuring that you will be cleansed and forgiven by our Lord, and teach you how to acquire the title of a Knights Templar," Seonghwa says faithfully and taps the sheath he has strapped to his belt around his waist.

"But first, will you go pray; a new addition to your daily routine. We will look for weapons later."

With the resolving eyes of the Knights Templar in front of him, Yeosang will in no way come around the church and its following prayers if he still wants to keep his head attached to his body.

⚔︎