Vivid | Lee Minho

•Scene 2•

As you had predicted, not seeing Minho did indeed clear your mind of its troubled thoughts.

The sole reason you were in Valorieve was to shield yourself. You married Minho to escape the Crown Prince and the fate of doom he guaranteed. Everything you had done so far was to further your plans, that fact had not changed.

It cannot change.

Minho's absence was a much-needed blessing, for it reminded you of how things ought to be. Him minding his own duties, and you minding yours. Neither intervening in each other's lives or bothering the other. You did not need him by your side to disquiet your emotions and confuse you.

Solitude was what you handled best.

You were toiling away in your study, taking advantage of the peace of the past three weeks to further develop your plan for the new register. The team of advisors Minho had assigned to this project had been more than pleased with its progress so far. Chaeryeong's trial school was running smoothly, attracting the public's increasing attention with each day. The results you had initially expected were turning out to be better than anticipated.

You were signing off a letter to Valorieve's Minister of Education, inquiring about the training of teaching personnel, when a terrible crash startled you.

Something whizzed past your ear, dark and round, missing your head by mere inches, before it hit the carpeted floor with a heavy thud. It rolled across until it finally lost momentum and rested at the center of your study.

Heartbeat drumming in your ears and your letter now ruined, you stood slowly and let your gaze latch immediately onto the damage to the window behind you. There was a glaring hole in the crystalline glass, and it was nothing short of a miracle that your head had not been bashed in.

What, by all gods, just happened?

"My lady are you all right?" Seungmin's voice sounded from behind the door, but you were too distracted to respond to him, stepping toward the suspicious object that flew into your room.

It was a jagged rock the size of an open hand and a folded piece of paper was tied around it, dirtied by blooms of gruesome brown. You made the unwise decision to pick it up, unravel the twine, and unfold the paper, morbidly curious.

That paper was acting as a pouch for another unknown object, which fell to the floor when you opened it. It made no significant noise when it dropped, but you stumbled backward, stifling a shriek.

A severed finger was lying at your feet, coated in old blood.

Bold, angry letters screamed at you from their place hastily inked on the paper.

'I WILL TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU.'

Your mind went blank and your voice rose in a shout before you could realize it.

"Guards!"

Your knights burst into the room, alarm distressing their faces. At their forefront was Seungmin, whose eyes filled with grim understanding as they scanned the scene.

He knelt promptly, frustration with himself simmering dark and dangerous under his breath. "Forgive us for our incompetence, my lady."

"Rid of this thing. Discard it post-haste," you tried to uphold your calm as you ordered, and your knights obliged without a moment's delay.

This was not the first time you had received a threat. Yet, you had never been rattled this much.

I will take everything from you.

You knew the meaning behind that macabre message. This was not a threat directed at you alone—he had begun to threaten the people around you.

He had already harmed one.

Who could it be? Who did the finger belong to? The notion made you sick beyond belief, but you could not stop your mind from wandering.

It could not belong to either of your parents. The Count and Countess were constantly protected by a stringent body of Lurmuse's best knights. For the Crown Prince to attack them and succeed was unthinkable.

Likewise, it could not have belonged to Changbin, for he was too far and too good with a sword. It was not Chaeryeong's either. You had seen her earlier in the day and the finger was too old to have been hers. Besides, targeting either of them made little sense.

Seungmin, Ryujin, Sycross, and the rest of your staff were obviously exempted. They accompanied you tirelessly throughout the day. If something were wrong, you would be the first to know about it.

So, that only left—

Minho.

The ground seemed to give out underneath your feet.

He was the only person whose whereabouts you did not know. He was the only person against whom the Crown Prince may hold a true grudge.

The journey had taken him far where he was unable to write to you. A mission that could be brimming with peril, and you would never hear about it until it was too late. What if he had been attacked? Ambushed or raided along the way?

What if he had been killed?

The thought brought with it mind-numbing terror.

No. Minho could not die. You would not allow it. He was your partner, your aide, your vivid light in a realm of endless despair. He cannot be taken away from you. You would wring the Crown Prince's neck with your bare hands if he ever dared, and that realization only worsened your panic.

You tried to force the idea away. Minho was not helpless. He would take command of Valorieve's forces in a few years, surely he was skilled enough not to let himself be killed.

That is right, you inhaled deeply, attempting to steady yourself. Your husband was not an average man, you did not need to worry about him so much. He would return to you in a week's time, safe and sound, and you would forget that such a threat ever happened.

Until then, you had to stop thinking about it.