To Live | Hwarang

Chapter twenty five

sun woo won the fight. they'd ended up throwing punches after losing their swords, both of them getting beaten up pretty bad. sun woo had gotten his sword and pointed it at the prince's throat, forcing the prince into admitting his defeat to sun woo.

"what about the people you've been holding prisoner?" sun woo asked.

"they are guilty of theft from baekje and have nothing to do with this." the prince replied, continuing to limp his way back to the palace.

(name) and ah ro are taken back to the prison cell, along with the other terrified prisoners. the men were angry. "you said that he would help us! he didn't!" they accused ah ro.

"stop..." (name) whimpered softly. "please..."

the men stopped shouting when they caught sight of (name) curled into a ball in the corner of the cell, her side pressing against ah ro.

ah ro looked down at (name) sadly, petting her head softly and pulling it in to rest on her shoulder. "nobody should die without hope. sun woo will save us," she insisted, "so get ready to run at any given moment." one of the men began to protest but ah ro shushed him. "even if you are going to die, still have the hope that you will be able to see your family and homes again."

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sun woo and ji dwi came during the night. the broke past the guards silently. (name) barely glanced up as her cell door was opened, the prisoners flooding out. ji dwi dragged ah ro out, not noticing (name) huddled in the far back, her dirtied clothes and face hiding her.

(name) wasn't quite sure how long she had spent in the cell in the pitch black, the only sounds the shouts from outside and her soft breaths. she looked up as light flooded the area, finding a tired ji dwi with a torch in his hand.

ji dwi's eyes softened and he opened the cell door, walking over and crouching down next to (name). he held out his hand to (name), coaxing her to take it so that they could leave.

"(name)," ji dwi whispered. "something happened to you, i can tell, but i'm not going to push you to tell me. but we need to leave, now."

(name), sensing the urgency in his voice, took his hand and let ji dwi lead her out. they climbed on his horse, catching up with the others.

(name) yelled out as an arrow flew past her face and lodged itself into the chest of the man next to her. she watched in horror as the man slumped to the floor, blood trickling out of the wound and down the shaft of the arrow.

ji dwi grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground, shielding her with his body. "i'll protect you. don't worry."

"what are you doing?" (name) screeched. "stop it! you're going to get hurt!" her eyes widened as she saw a man aiming an arrow at ji dwi. she spun him around as the archer fired, a dull ache forming in her shoulder, spreading across her arm.

(name) was in shock but she could feel the warmth of her blood sliding down her skin and staining her clothes, making her uncomfortably sticky.

the last thing she saw was the rest of hwarang running across the field towards them before she passed out.

omg this is like my longest chapter. do you guys prefer my shorter, quicker updates or longer ones like this one?
anyway, some of you may have noticed: i changed the name of the book and the cover~! this book is now called "To Live".