When the soldiers returned to the palace, it was already daybreak, but they still could not find the missing prince. "What do you mean there was no sign?" the king yelled at the captain.
"Go back there, the lot of you! Don't you dare return until you find my son! Leave all of you!" He shouts to his subordinates. Once alone, he picked up all the scrolls on his table and threw them away. He broke down and cried at the pitiful fate that befell his family.
That moment, somewhere deep within the mountain, in an area, the soldiers did not look. Young-Sik and Eun-Ae emerge from where they slept. Eun-Ae was stretching and looking directly at the rising sun. "If the sun is here, then the north would be..."
"That way" Young-Sik interrupted the little girl, pointing to her left. The prince then started to trek northward.
Eun-Ae scoffs "Tsk, Smart-Ass," she said beneath her breath. "Hey! wait up!"
After enduring hours of walking and the sound of Young-Sik's stomach growling, Eun-Ae finally had enough. "Oh my goodness...If you're hungry, just say so. I've had enough of that gurgling sound"
"I'm not hungry!" Young-Sik said, with a raised voice. He was about to continue walking, when his stomach grumbled again, this time louder making the prince stop and rub his belly. "Fine...maybe I'm a little hungry...but we have nothing to eat"
Eun-Ae shook her head and sighed "What do you mean, we don't have anything to eat?"
The little girl, looked around, brushing aside vegetation. Then she found some smooth bright green leaves. She came closer to smell the leaves, and she detected a grassy-like aroma, she collected some leaves and went to the prince.
The little girl, offered the leaves to Young-Sik "What's that?" he picked up a single leaf and looked at it with disgust "Is this edible? Or are you trying to poison me?"
Eun-Ae's face crumpled "Aish... if I wanted you dead, I don't need poison, I'll just push you off a cliff...smart-ass" She then took a bunch of leaves and ate them. She shoved the rest into Young-Sik's hands, turned around, and started to walk northward.
Grimacing, the prince nibbled at a small piece of the leaf, when he learned that it was rather tasty, he started to gobble up the leaves "Hey...wait for me...stick girl wait up" the prince called out as he followed his companion.
Back in the palace, the Ministers gather, to discuss the recent uprising. "We learned that the cause of the uprising was because of the tax increases. But the King never sanctioned any tax increase," said the Right-wing minister
"Are you saying, that someone authorized tax increases, without the King or our knowledge? Are you insinuating that one of us has the gal to use the King's name for their benefit?" said a minister from the left.
Another minister from the right stepped in "There is no other explanation, someone from this very gathering is the true instigator of the uprising"
Minister Gi, remained silent as he scanned the people around him, too nervous to speak as he might say something incriminating.
"What bothers me, is how did these peasants have access to military-grade weapons? How did they get the money to purchase such weapons?" Asked another right-wing minister.
Voices erupted at the great hall as the ministers debated on which issue to resolve first.
The King slammed his fist on the table, to stop the squabbling "Enough!" he roared, silencing everyone "Can I not mourn first for my family? Can't this wait till I find my missing son?"
Do-Yun stepped in and dared to speak "Your Highness...I too am in mourning, as you all know, my father died defending the royal family. Yet here I am, speaking to you all because just like my father, I value our nation and as such, the nation comes first"
The King calmed himself "Speak your mind, Minister Lim"
Do-Yun bowed to the King "Your Highness, a more pressing matter is...the nation is left without its Queen and heir. A chain of succession must be established, to showcase that our strong monarchy will continue"
The King sat on the throne and thought "Very well send a message to Magistrate Lee, and have his daughter return to the capital as soon as possible." With those words, the King left the great hall.
Three days later, a messenger accompanied by a platoon of soldiers arrived at the home of Magistrate Lee. The messenger was led straight into the magistrate's office. Consort Lee was present when the messenger handed a scroll to the magistrate. He took the scroll opened it and read the contents. "The King is requesting that you and the prince return to the capital at once," he told his daughter
"Has the uprising been controlled already?" Consort Lee asked
Magistrate Lee nodded "Ye, but at the cost of the lives of the Queen, The crowned prince, and his wife"
Consort Lee, covered her mouth from the shock "The Queen... and the royal family, they're all dead?"
"You are to be crowned queen as soon as possible" Magistrate Lee, rose from where he was seated and went to his daughter to hug her "Congratulations my darling," he said smiling.
Just then Man-Ju burst into the room and excitedly asked "I saw the soldiers outside, is it all over? Are we going home? Is it Father or the crowned prince here to fetch us"
Consort Lee gave a sad smile and said "The Crowned Prince... Mountain bandits killed your brother along with Princess Yoo-Na and the Queen"
"What? No...that's not true! He is the best swordsman of all Chiongsun. Young-Sik? What about Young-Sik?" he asked with tears streaming from his eyes
Consort Lee, glanced at her father. The magistrate cleared his throat and said "He is missing, they have not found him yet, and the ministers are speculating that he might be dead as well"
Man-Ju cried uncontrollably at the news he heard, his mother tried to console him with a tight embrace, but he continued to cry.
That night, heavy torrential rains hit Mt. Yangge. The two children scrambled to find shelter. As they were running along a path by the edge of a cliff, Young-Sik saw the lights of Nyuong gum. "We made it, we're here" The little prince started to run despite the wet and muddy path.
"Your Highness ...stop it's too dangerous, I found us a cave for the night, let's wait for the rain to stop before we continue," Eun-Ae told the prince while grabbing him by the hand
But the prince just shrugged the little girl's hand and insisted to continue "No! I'm so sick of sleeping in the dirt and eating grass, I want to go to my grandfather's house and eat proper food and sleep in a warm bed. If you want to stay...then stay here by yourself"
Young-Sik started to run amidst the heavy rain. Knowing that the prince was in danger, Eun-Ae ran after him.
When she caught up with the prince, she tried to restrain the prince. The two children struggled in the middle of the rain. Eun-Ae was trying to stop the prince from exposing himself to harm, while Young-Sik could only think about the comfort of his grandfather's home. "Listen to me, we have to wait it out, it's too dangerous" she shouted at the prince.
The sound of rain was muffled by the rumbling sound of thunder that followed blinding flashes of lightning. Then without warning a sharp streak of lightning struck the ground by the two children. Young-Sik was thrown to the ground by the explosion. After a while he regained consciousness as his vision slowly came into focus, he grasped his head from the constant ringing and pain. When the pain and ringing quickly subsided, Young-Sik got up and looked around for Eun-Ae.
"EUN-AE!" the prince shouted; then he heard her call to him
"Your Highness help me!" Realizing her voice came from the cliff, he quickly went to the edge and there he saw Eun-Ae hanging at the side, her weight supported by only a small rock.
He quickly got down on his belly and reached for his friend.
"Reach for my hand!" he shouted, stretching his little arm to its limits. He was about to reach her hand when the unthinkable happened. The rock that Eun-Ae's was holding onto, broke off making her fall. Young-Sik saw the terror in her eyes as she fell, and was swallowed by the darkness of the ravine.
Young-Sik kept calling her name, but he could hear no answer. He crawled to the middle of the road and huddled. He kept crying and crying. Images of his family's death and the look of terror on Eun-Ae's face as she fell from the cliff, flooded his mind. The only thing he could do was to hug his knees and cry.
The next morning, the sun shone happily on the capital. Birds chirped as they shook the water from their feathers. Drops of water slid from the leaves, falling to the ground.
A group of soldiers trekked the last possible path they could think of. "It's been four days now, I don't think a young boy like the prince can survive all alone in a place like this," Said one of the soldiers
"I don't think the King is expecting us to find the prince alive, I guess as a father he just wants to give his son a proper burial, seeing that the crowned prince's body will probably never be found." Another soldier said expressing his sentiments
As they passed a narrow path by the side of a cliff, they saw the province of Nyuong gum. "That is the homeland of our late Queen," said one of the soldiers pointing at the town in the distance.
As the soldiers marched on, the captain saw something from ahead of them. Nervously he approached what he thought was a pile of tattered clothes, upon further inspection, he immediately recognized the royal robes embellished with a two-toed dragon. "I found him...I found the prince" the captain shouted.
The soldiers quickly gathered to see, what the captain was shouting about, whispers and murmurs ran about as they looked at the boy sprawled on the ground.
He gently picked up the boy and placed his ears on the boy's chest. The captain's eyes widened when he heard a heartbeat. He quickly positioned his fingers near the prince's nostrils to feel for air. When he felt air run through his fingers he quickly shouted "He's alive the prince is alive!" All the soldiers cheered loudly as they finally found Prince Kim Young-Sik alive.
The sun was about to set that very same day. All the ministers gather at the great hall, waiting for the King to stamp his seal on Prince Young-Sik's death registry.
"Your Highness... the minister of registry is waiting, so the line of succession can be passed on to Prince Lee Man-Ju," Minister Do-Yun said, reminding the King
The King's throat felt dry, and a single tear fell from his eyes. With trembling hands, he reached for the royal seal. To the King, the light seal felt like a ton of bricks, it was too heavy to lift let alone move.