내 왕자 My Prince || Stray Kids Hyunsung (Hyunjin x Han)

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‚So you proved that someone else than Silla ordered these assassins.. now again.. what does it have to do with the murder that happened.'

Hyunjin's eyes shortly trailed over the audience, that had already forgotten about the news about me and Hyunjin from before. They were captivated by his presence, the way he talked, calmly without losing his patience. They saw the qualities of a King I had admired about him all along, and shut up for once that day.

‚You don't know, as you weren't in the palace that night, the assassin was caught up in a fight with one of the palace guards, that had noticed him. He wasn't able to kill him, he escaped before he could, but he also didn't need to. That fight gave us enough information.'

Someone stepped up to Hyunjin, it was the palace guard from yesterday, Lee Minho.

He handed the prince an arrow and a piece of fabric. Hyunjin first held out the arrow.

‚This is the arrow used from the assassin. It was the same kind of arrow used in the ambush.' Minho gave him a second arrow, that looked the same. It was the one that I had saved him from back then.

Then he held out the fabric to the audience. It was simple, black, nothing special.

‚A piece of fabric, from the assassin's clothes. It was of the same kind as from the assassins in the ambush.' He held out a second piece of fabric, given to him by Minho.

‚So now we know, that it were the same people behind the ambush and the murder. Now I will tell you, who's behind it.' He took the arrows again.

‚It was something I noticed when I talked to the Hwarang. Actually it's a very trivial fact everyone is aware of, but at the same time forgets about easily, as I had done, when I investigated in the ambush back then. Simply, the points of Sillan and Tang arrows look different. The arrow used by the assassins. It's a Tang arrow and not just any kind. It's of the special kind that are used inside the palace, by our troops. It even has the engraving of our black smiths on it, a royal insignia. So whoever sent the assassins, was someone from inside the palace. The next thing I did was to compare the arrow tip with one of the arrows of my guard.'

A third arrow was given to Hyunjin. I noticed the discoloured feather at the end immediately. It was something I had started to do out of boredom once, colouring a single feather on my arrows.. this was one of mine..

[memory, sometime shortly before kiss]

Tang was a nation of bows and arrows.. an archer's nation. Admittedly I was only alright, my arrows would always hit their target.. but my posture and my technique weren't great. They do the trick.. only less graceful than certain others..

I don't like it that much... actually not at all.. My favourite choice was always my dagger or my sword, it's just more fitting with my character and style of fighting. With a blade you could be unpredictable, swift and unstoppable. Both bustling whirlwind and silent shadow. With a bow you only had a target and needed a steady hand and complete motionlessness to hit that. It was an elegant way of fighting, but a predictable way. Especially if your technique sucks, like mine did, then you hadn't much of a choice other than being predictable. I couldn't vary or act spontaneously. In situations were you have to be quick I wouldn't be of much help with a bow.

It's kinda ridiculous that exactly shooting an arrow with a bow made me the first prince's guard. Noticing my bad posture myself and thinking back the more I feel like that he had to have seen something else in me other than my archery that day. I would pretend that it was my handsomeness that got to him.. but I had been an unkempt wild thief when I threw him off his horse.. probably not even smelling very nice.. he did...very nice..