✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

n i n e t e e n

Trusting people became a hard game for her.

Eunkyung didn't want to confront Jisung just yet but she's already showing her disinterest in talking to the guy. That just made her hurt twice. Ignoring her best friend for years was the last thing she would do. He surely had helped her ever since she started living here but the thing he did was unforgivable.

A loud thud caught her attention. The king figure walked into the room with his crown placed proudly on top of his head. Eunkyung's eyes averted to her sister, Princess Eunji who was pursing her lips while collecting the fallen book on the floor.

"What is she doing..." Eunhee muttered with a sigh. The older hurriedly went back to her seat which was in front of Eunkyung, embarrassed at the unwanted attention. Eyes were sticked on her for a few seconds before the king spoke up.

"Ju Haknyeon,"

"Your Majesty," said guy in a beret stood up and bowed. "Our team has investigated the murder area and collected data from the villagers. None of them saw what happened but we found a trail of blood going into the forest."

Eunkyung perked up at the mention.

"It led us to an old house. According to the villagers no one lives there for a long time even the hunters, but everything inside was clean when an abandoned house should be covered with webs and dust."

"Are you sure no one visits the house when they hunt?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. It's located one and a half mile from the residents and hidden with bushes. However, the trail stopped there. It seems like the murderer had left after cleaning their wound in the house." Haknyeon slid a paper on the table and began to read the next report, "The hunter, Suk Wonsik, had a bloody knife in his hand when he was found. We believed he used it as a defense from the murderer but ended up being killed.

"A few patrols were done discreetly over the weekend at the abandoned house yet we found nothing but the murder might strikes again so we ordered the villagers not to go outside the borders, even to the riverside and waterfalls. Supplies will be provided from outside until it is all settled down."

An abandoned house...

"Don't bother thinking of going," Eunhee whispered which startled her. She sighed internally.

Since when my family are mind readers?

"Outsiders are not allowed to come except for tradings and selling. We limited it just to the shore to make sure no one escapes for the meantime." the man continued. "As for the royal family, we advice you not to go anywhere without any companion. The murderer is still out there. The risk of them attacking is low but it's just for precaution. All night classes are cancelled too, we will inform this to the teachers."

"So Han won't be out at night..." Eunkyung muttered to herself. Haknyeon bowed as he finished telling the reports and sat down. The rest of the meeting was a blur. She could only catch some words and after an hour, they were dismissed.

"Eunji, what was that?" Eunsoo, the first princess asked as soon as they stepped out from the meeting room. Both Eunhee and Eunkyung turned to them.

Eunji held up a rather thick, old book. The papers had already turned into yellow-ish brown and dots were seen on the cover. On the top side of the cover was carved with a gold arch and a times new roman font was written under it.

The History of Eirene Kingdom

"I found it in the library, it looks interesting because father doesn't really tell us much about the history." Eunji shrugged while flipping the pages.