Five kilometres of empty terrain from Busan, sat the campsite set up by Erin and all the people she had managed to move out of the town at the beginning of the war. There were over five hundred of them with over half of that number being soldiers.

There were only ten small tents which were ultimately used for overnight storage before they'd have to continue with their journey. However, two hours after their dinner of bread loaves, three Busan soldiers, Erin, Jeongin, Minho and a few army officials stood in one of the bigger tents, discussing what was to happen.

"Well done, Erin," one of the Busan soldiers, Kang Daniel, rolled his eyes. "You lead us out of our town just to watch it burn, huh? Bet your next move is to kill us all."

"Test me," Erin glared at him. "And I will."

He snarled, "Well, what was your plan then? Having us wander aimlessly around for the rest of our lives?"

"I told you, we are going to Masan."

"And I told you it's a dead town. We should go back to Busan."

She raised an eyebrow at him, folding her arms over her chest, "are you really suggesting disobeying Nathaniel right now? Because if you are, and I hope you aren't," she cornered him against the wall, staring directly into his eyes. "Then we are going to have a problem."

Daniel scoffed, "I guess we are then because I'm not about to leave my hometown to rot... Unlike you."

She grinned, mildly impressed as she took several steps back and pulled out her dagger.

"Feeling brave, are we?" she teased. "Where was all this courage when I saved you from mere bandits after fooling around, huh?" Silence fell upon the room at the revelation and Erin watched intently as he blushed before immediately replacing the expression with one of fury.

"Oh?" she sounded, smirking as she ghosted her fingers over the cold blade of her dagger. "Hit a soft spot, have I? Perhaps two can play at this game."

"You are too arrogant," he spat out.

"Confident is a better word. But if we are describing each other now, I'd say you are quite the fool thinking you have the right to question me."

"Who do you think you are? The Queen? Why do you place yourself higher than all of us here?"

"Because, my dear Daniel, if you would stop admiring yourself for a moment and look around, you'd notice I'm the only Guardian here. Meaning that in this case, I stand as the Leader of the Guardians. And if you do not like that, sweetheart, leave."

"Seungmin is still here. You're not the only Guardian."

"According to Guardian law, during the week of a Guardian's marriage, they must take a mini-hiatus from the job. So right now, I'm the only Guardian here. If you plan to change that, why don't you enter the auditions in a couple of months and show us what you've got. But until then, things will go according to what I say, alright?"

"A leader should be friendly and kind to the people they have under their wings, and here you are doing the opposite. You should be like your brother. Maybe then we wouldn't have a problem with all this."

"Newsflash, I'm not my brother so if you are expecting me to be like him, the door's that way. Besides, you preach about a leader being friendly and whatnot but do you really expect me to grin and massage your feet after you daringly brought up my past? And for your information, your problem was never the fact I'm not as approachable as Nathaniel so don't you dare pin me as the bad guy, your problem is the fact you don't like me. And I understand that, trust me, Danny, I do."

He snarled," fine. If you want to play that way, We will. And you are right, I don't like you and I never will."

"Well good for you, mate. Don't let the door hit you on your way out."

"And to think," he muttered, heading towards the door -- which also happened to be beside Minho. "All this just to save your stupid love interest."

"My what?"

"Oh? You didn't think I'd catch on? I've seen the way you look at that stupid Prince. I bet you are just waiting for the perfect moment to betray us all and run off with him."

She raised her eyebrows in clear amusement, "Prince Minho? You think I like that rat?" she roared with laughter. "You are delusional! Trust me, I want him dead as much as you."

"Then why not kill him?"

"I swore to Chan and Nathaniel not to."

"Alright," Daniel pulled out his sword, ghosting the sharp edge on Minho's throat. "Then I will."

"Or maybe not," Erin snarled in response, commanding Jeongin to pull the soldier away from the Prince. "You see, now that the war has actually begun, His Highness over there has suddenly become ten times more valuable than we ever thought. He's our ticket to the white flag. So touch him, Mr Kang, and I swear I will decapitate you."

"Should I be scared?" He scoffed earning a smirk from Erin as she finally put her dagger back in it's hiding spot.

"Terrified. Because I have humiliated many, many men like you and made their lives a laughing stock at death. But the difference here is I didn't really mind those men, I for one loathe you too, Mr Kang. Which will make killing you all the more fun."