The darkest hour of the crimson-stained night began to fuse with the first golden rays of a blazing sphere climbing up the sky, forever ending the vicious twilight but beginning a vicious dawn. Every fiber in the elder northern lord's body would be tested, and all his strength exhausted until the unequal forces of righteousness and evil would be overcome with harmony again. As the stars above him silently burned out one by one, Kim Seokjin ignored the burn in the muscles of his legs as he sought out his opponent.

The sound of a slipper hitting the sand made Seokjin turn to his right, and there next to him with a katana drawn was his challenger, Lee Sungkyung.

Seokjin blocked the sword with his own, making Sungkyung freeze in his tracks.

"If you're going to challenge me," he began, staring down at the intersection of their weapons, "you better do it like a man."

Sungkyung held his position, as if contemplating what his rival had said. Looking down at the swords as Seokjin had, then looking back up, he finally acknowledged his words.

"As you wish, Kim Seokjin."

Sungkyung removed himself from his position, edging back towards a still body. Seokjin didn't move, allowing some space between himself and the edge of a makeshift boundary formed by the corpses of those that lay around him. The sight of his comrades on the bloody floor sickened him, but there was barely a thing he could do for them.

Then, he removed the hood of his cloak, revealing a tanned, sculpted face. Barely any softness could be seen on it, and his cheekbones were clearly outlined. It was almost as if his muscles made up the entirety of his complexion, then covered by a thin layer of skin. Everything was exaggerated to the extreme, and his sweaty brow didn't help him look any less frightening.

Still, Seokjin held his sword out, determined to avenge those who laid in peace around him.

"I do not fear you, assassin," Seokjin growled, almost taunting Sungkyung. "Have at you!"

And so Sungkyung did, racing towards Seokjin to cut him down. Surprised but unfazed by the speed, Seokjin countered Sungkyung's blow, turning a full half circle to stick his foot out in a powerful kick to his opponent's stomach. Sungkyung blocked, holding up his knee to take the impact of the kick. Taking his sword down, Sungkyung attempted to slice Seokjin's throat -- which the northern lord evaded, crouching down and slicing at Sungkyung's abdomen. Sungkyung backed away from the attack, but not before Seokjin made a skin-deep, horizontal cut on his body.

"You better be quicker than that, boy," Seokjin said, countenance expressionless. "I almost had you."

"But you don't have me!" a voice breathed, cackling as Seokjin turned and rolled away from Sungkyung's master, Soo Yejun.

"This is not honorable," Seokjin panted, gulping. "Two-on-one isn't fair. Not that I couldn't cut you down if I wanted to."

"Life isn't fair, you aristocrat shit. Now fight me!" Yejun bellowed, pulling out a katana of his own.

"Yejun-nim," Sungkyung suddenly cut in, holding his katana out towards Yejun. "This is my fight with Seokjin-nim. Let me fight it with him."

"You-- I--" Yejun began, stuttering to express his confusion. Was his own minion, the one he trained for years to obey his every command, now going against his wishes?

"This is my fight, a fight that I want to participate in by myself. For myself. Let me do so on my own."

"For yourself..." Yejun began, laughing. "For yourself? Ha! You've never done anything for yourself! I didn't send you here for yourself! I sent you here for one reason and one reason only. And now...you must finish the deed, or I'll finish it for you!"

"It was you?!" Seokjin fumed, his fury unmatched by anyone else. "This was your doing? You sent him here to kill innocent people?! You are nothing but a low down piece of"--

"This is my fight, Yejun-nim, and I will fight it," Sungkyung said, firmly unmoved in his opinion without raising his voice.

"Who are you to say? You're nothing but my little rat! You have no will! There is no will but mine! So quit your foolishness and"--

"As you wish, Yejun-nim."

With that, Sungkyung impaled his master with his sword.

"I-I...you...S-Sung-kyung..." he began once more, glaring down at his wound, then back up at his murderer.

"It's time you stopped talking...and started listening."

Hoseok clutched the sleeping baby at his chest, rocking her back and forth as she dreamed. The sun was beginning to show some young rays of light, reminding the doctor of his childhood days -- and the days that were to come for the child he held in his sturdy hands. The mornings filled with early awakenings, breakfast at the family table; days filled with playing with friends on the bank of the river and in mud puddles, taking happy baths afterwards, having kind Mother braid her hair and strong Father throw her in the air over and over again; eating dinner at the family table, having Mother sing a lullaby to send her off to sleep, only to wake up again and repeat the cycle. It was the childhood Hoseok once had, and now wished to bestow upon Rinji.

"Sleep on, sweet child," he cooed, thinking of his own childhood with his own mother. He couldn't help but happily gaze at the baby, cutely wrapped in a silver blanket lined with thin, red phoenixes. Her face poked out of the blanket like a young, budding tulip peeking out of the ground.

"Eomeoni, I'm taking care of this precious child," he whispered to himself, walking over to the bed and laying Rinji gently onto it.

He thought of his mother and the way she took care of him as a child.

"I'm taking care of this precious child. Soon, I'll be taking care of many children, their parents, their aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. I'm even taking care of a king."

He caressed Rinji's forehead, smiling down on her as the world around him lightened with the sunrise.

"You can smile now, Eomeoni. Your son has done well."

"When I was young," Sungkyung began quietly, "I wanted to do well. Success was my dream. I chased after it blindly, unwilling to believe that too much success was ever possible. Taking classes in different things, graduating from them at the top, passing exams with flying colors was all common to me. I was chosen as an Elder Council member under him, Soo Yejun."

"Then, under his mentorship, I got even more successful and let it control me. I've been a shell of a person my whole life as an Elder Council member. He convinced me that stepping on others to get to the top was okay...and rebuked me when I refused to do so. He even took me and my own friend and...and..."

Tears began to stream down his eyes, but his hold on the sword that still stabbed Yejun's flesh remained firm.

"Seokjin-nim, he told you that he trained me to follow his will and do all things in his favor. But what he really did was torture. He sat there in a chair drinking alcohol and laughing while my friend and I were on our knees in chains...w-we had to count...while they whipped us...they whipped us bloody. They whipped us to the point of near-death, then healed us, bandaged our injuries and gave us life again -- only to continue our punishment once more. It hurt...I lost myself to the criminal that this man made me become..."

Yejun refused to look at Sungkyung, refused to acknowledge his crimes.

"And it wasn't just me...it was Jinmo, my best friend...Baekyeol...Doyoung too...they were all subject to this torture. But they were all stronger than I, and Doyoung found a friend in Baekyeol...and he found a friend in you, Seokjin-nim."

"I thank you, Seokjin-nim, for helping them last as long as they did. For giving them purpose in their last days of life. Unfortuntely, they are all no more...Yejun saw it fit that he eliminate them on his own."

"W-What?!" Seokjin whimpered, dropping to his knees. "When?! At what time?!"

"Baekyeol met his end soon after he was sent to prison...Doyoung found his fate in the gardens. Then, he pulled Jinmo and I over and gave us orders to kill without restraint..."

Seokjin was now overcome with tears. Everything that could've possibly went wrong didn't just go wrong, but collapsed over him.

"...orders which I did not follow, and neither did Jinmo."

Yejun and Seokjin both stared at Sungkyung, now smiling at himself.

"The people you see here are not dead. Merely asleep. Jinmo and I administered tranquilizers by making small, deep cuts in the palms of their hands with small blades coated with the tranquilizer."

"B-But...the blood..." Seokjin stuttered, unable to believe his ears.

"Mixture of honey, water and red wine," Sungkyung smiled. "This entire 'massacre' was staged and prepared for. They should be awake by morning."

"How the fuck did you manage to"-- Yejun began, until Sungkyung interrupted him.

"You gave us too much time, Yejun," Sungkyung explained. "You gave us the mission when the sun was just beginning to set, but told us to begin at midnight. That gave us around seven hours to set up."

Yejun's blood angrily boiled as he realized the futility of his plan. Seokjin's tears temporarily subsided -- not in happiness, but in shock. Sungkyung finally drew his sword from its bloody sheath that was Yejun's stomach. It suddenly became clear to them that Yejun wasn't even close to death; Sungkyung avoided hitting a vital spot by angling his katana away from any organs.

"Now...blood for blood, you shall repay!" Sungkyung roared, turning his sword and swinging it around.

Soo Yejun fell dead, clutching the slice in his throat.