LADIES OF THE PALACE

Princess Deokman and Queen Sungman stood up and they looked at each other first before they turned to face the battlefield with the two contenders.

Blood was gushing out of Rowun Rang's abdomen and everyone was just as surprised as the injury looked so severe.

He was becoming dizzy and everyone seemed so slow to react while Seungman noticed that the longer they just watched him he would fall from the horse and hurt himself so badly.

She got a hold of the fence and setting her foot on it she jumped over as she rushed towards Rowun Rang's horse which staggered backwards and seemingly started to go wild with the stench of the blood.

As she bypassed Chilsuk who was still holding onto a spear she ceased his sword by it's handle and pulled it out of it's scabbard as she ran in through her uniform until she had tore off a piece of it which she trusted was long enough.

Throwing the sword down she positioned herself right beneath Rowun Rang who finally loosing his senses let go the reins of the horse that he was holding as it stood on its hind legs.

He fell down while the horse charged away and found Seungman who had sacrificed herself to become his support but she was overwhelmed by his heavy weight that herself she was hurt on the sand and her back ached.

She dragged her body from him as she pushed herself until he was leaning on her chest.

The other Nangdos that belonged to the Phoenix corps penetrated the fence as they rushed towards the both of them while Seungman hurriedly tied the piece of cloth around the casualty as her hands were covered in blood.

She looked at Junghwan Rang who had already stepped down from his horse and his hands hanging limp they were twitching and shaking that he had been horrified.

He didn't have to say a word to Seungman as she knew he was already feeling guilty at that moment with himself walking backwards while the others closed on Seungman and the unconscious Rowun Rang.

Chilsuk turned up as well with his sword and he along with Seokpum penetrated the viewers until they were eventually face to face with the two.

"Why are you all just standing there, take him aware." Seungman yelled and the Phoenix corps took him up into their hands while she stood up with part of her attire already drenched in so much blood.

The other Hwarang teams that were present had gathered around as well.

"See to it that he sees the physician." Chilsuk ordered Seokpum Rang.

"Yes." Seokpum Rang replied as he bowed his head and walked away leaving Seungman and Chilsuk Rang looking at one another while he returned his sword into it's scabbard.

Princess Deokman and Queen Sungman came within their midst.

"Your Highnesses." Everyone said as they bowed their heads to the both of them.

"Tell me." Princess Deokman said, "How did Rowun Rang contract that fatal injury?" She asked.

"I saw it all your Highness." Seungman replied, "The second time when the two of them collided with one another and their spears shattered, Junghwan Rang's Iron spear head cut past Rowun Rang before it landed onto the ground." She said.

"It's such an inauspicious event." Princess Deokman said, "As it is the duelling activity has been ruined." She added.

"But your Highness, much as Rowun Rang was brutally injured the rules still stand and not so badly, I can say that it was the very last duel." Chilsuk Rang said.

"So their match is validated?" Princess Deokman asked.

"Yes Your Highness." Chilsuk Rang replied, "This was a competition and they were each using real weapons and not wooden ones.

To get hurt during the Hwarang games is something that is inevitable and considering everything else Rowun Rang fell off his horse first before Junghwan Rang stepped down from his stead." Chilsuk said.

"As you plead it then as Wonsanghwa I can not second your verdict because I am not as experienced in the field of combat.

And as the the rules stand the representative of the Dragon Corps in the next levels shall be Junghwan Rang." Princess Deokman said.

"Yes Your Highness." Everyone said in unison.

"Your Highness." Queen Sungman said.

"Yes?" Princess Deokman replied.

"We should commend this young girl for her good work." She said.

"Seungman Rang us just as outstanding and perhaps had it not been for her, Rowun Rang would have sustained other much worse injuries." Princess Deokman said.

"I see." Queen Sungman said.

"We can not go beyond this point so the rest of the Hwarang can go back to their training and those that have succeeded in this stage we shall have the next stage of the tournament three days from today." Princess Deokman said.

"Yes Your Highness." Everyone replied and they started to scatter while Seungman searched all over the place for Junghwan but she was unable to see him.

"Seungman Rang." She heard someone call her and she turned back in the direction of the Princess and her step mother.

"I wish to have a word with you if you wouldn't mind." Queen Sungman said.

"Yes Your Highness." Seungman replied as she bowed her head while she looked at Princess Deokman who walked away calmly.

The two of them walked for a while as they were headed for the Palace and as they by passed a series of Royal guards, they all kept bowing their heads while the Queen raised her head higher entirely filled with pride.

"To have a word with your Highness and a stroll around I am so deeply honoured." Seungman spoke up to break the prevailing silence between them all.

"At last I had heard quite so much about the new female Hwarang, I hadn't hoped like me she'd be a bearer of such a wonderful name SEUNGMAN." Queen Sungman said.

"Then if your Highness has heard so much about me I must be quite famous within the Palace." Seungman said.

"I am marvelled and above all I am at the same time intrigued, Your courage itself is something that is surpassingly unheard of among any common young girl and woman in Shilla." Queen Sungman praised.

"I am flattered that her Highness has noticed me." Seungman said as she bowed her head.

"It's nothing." Queen Sungman said, "Talents are to be praised not buried just like the sun is worshipped for its light and the rain for the life that it gives the earth." She added.

"You are right Your Highness." Seungman said.

"You are unlike other women." Queen Sungman said.

"I'm surprised that you notice Your Highness because to all the other men I am constantly around, my fight to alter their perception of me being like the others seems to be an endless struggle." Seungman replied.

"It's a pity that none of them could match up to the type of person you have become." Queen Sungman said.

"The battlefield is always filled with very many bloody warriors and perhaps it would do well to thirst for one benevolent one." Seungman said.

"Benevolent?" Queen Sungman asked.

"Yes." Seungman replied.

"When you are facing the Enemy Mercy is not an option." Queen Sungman said.

"Defence isn't one either." Seungman replied.

"Then what is the best?" Queen Sungman asked, "Alliance? Peace? surrender?" she went ahead to say.

"War deprives nations of talents and wealth, it weakens the lifestyle of the common people and as long as the war mongers themselves are buried then many lives don't have to be put on the line." Seungman replied.

"Even despite the cold nature that you possess the one thing that you can not change is that you are a woman and perhaps because of that you still live to have a feeling of tolerance and forgiveness." Queen Sungman said.

"I was raised so differently Your Highness." Seungman said.

"For a woman who can Master a sword and wield it much better than most men you couldn't have been brought up like other ordinary girls and women." Queen Sungman said.

"I never lived to see my mother and growing up with my father the only thing that he knew best when it came to taking care of his daughter was to give her a sword as a life long companion." Seungman said.

"But at least thanks to him you are a strong woman." Queen Sungman said.

"Perhaps." Seungman replied.

"Such bravery and audacity I admire From you, have you no fear that to some it is an aggressor that you'll become?" Queen Sungman asked.

"Where is fear for me Your Highness, the world is forever cruel, one would think that because I am merely a girl then I must devote all my days to bend to the whims of a man." Seungman said. "Where is it Your Highness that I can look for aid if not in myself alone?" She asked.

"We are after all the fairer and the weak, they are always so strong and we ourselves are just too meek." Queen Sungman said.

"Except that like me Your Highness I believe that even when you wear your grace deep down inside there is an ambitious woman as well." Seungman said.

"What makes you think so?" Queen Sungman asked.

"To become Queen at a young age is something dear for you and I know it's not what you'll easily let go." Seungman said.

"As the saying goes, great minds think alike." Queen Sungman said.

"You on one hand wish to hold that power, you wish in your own might to reign all the days of your life, mine is the desire to charge ahead of all folks on the battlefield even when they keep on looking down on me and calling me incapable." Seungman said.

"In your own eyes are they right?" Queen Sungman asked.

"No." Seungman replied.

"When I think of all the great women Shilla has boasted, my heart breaks as none of them seem to become peers within the favours of History." Queen Sungman said.

"For a woman to possess just as much power and might to contend with men even to survive, no matter how good her heart is and pure her thoughts might be in the pages of History she'll always be a villain that disrupted the natural order." Seungman said.

"Queen Ji Soo, Queen Sado, Seju Mishil, Princess Deokman, yourself along with me." Queen Sungman said.

"Those that preceded us returned to the earth with our ancestors in eternal slumber." Seungman said.

"And the three of us left and still standing within Shilla could be foes as much as we can also be allies." Queen Sungman said.

"My vision is far too vague but it's natural that for our bravery we would be disliked, when only the trees listen and the walls the skies and the earth bear us witness that had they possesed as many tongues, our stories they could certainly tell." Seungman said.

"But we aren't sorry." Queen Sungman said.

"Not even the scholars that shall right our names down in the pages if history know us at all much better than we know ourselves." Seungman said.

"They're all strangers tainting our names, who can tell how for a woman rising up is like climbing a mountain without a slope, unable to sit with the gods in the sky and forsaken we can never return to the peaceful ground." Queen Sungman said.

"As it is no human being ever writes their history, for us women it's much worse that they'd wish we'd all be forgotten so ours is written by the very people that vanquish us." Seungman said.

"We all need to survive." Queen Sungman said, "You understand that much better than anyone else and I hope that it isn't something given what you have told me that you can not do." She added.

"Thank you for your concern Your Highness but I am surviving." Seungman replied.

"How?" Queen Sungman asked, "Survival for you unlike me and the Princess is if you rallied support of your own and I see for myself that your efforts are quite tireless yet I pity you that those men might never ever bother changing themselves for you." She said.

"I already rallied the support that I needed Your Highness and I took a side." Seungman replied.

"Whose?" Queen Sungman asked.

"Shilla's." Seungman replied.

"Shilla's?" Queen Sungman asked.

"Hmm." Seungman muttered as she nodded her head.

"I see." Queen Sungman said.

"My allegiance was long to Shilla even before I was born, and like this peach tree that graces this compound the person that nourishes it for me and looks after it like a Gardener, gives it cause to blossom and amongst the rest of the trees gives it the grace that surpasses others.

For a person that could share just as much devotion as I have towards Shilla or even more, even if at the expense of my life Is certainly be willing to follow because in the end even when I am gone Shilla itself shall remain." Seungman said.

"And the person that cuts its roots and scorches it, causes the leaves to dry up and fall off, what more could you do for someone as heartless and cruel to the good fate of the country that you wish to strive so much to build?" Queen Sungman ashes.

"I'll vanquish them even if it's the last thing that I'll ever do." Seungman replied.

"Then tell me, who is your Gardener?" Queen Sungman asked.

"Perhaps he is someone you know but no one ever moved me and shared a passion so sincere to Shilla like he did, as much as I wish to confide in you his name I fear that speaking it at this moment my tongue could defile it." Seungman replied.

"It's alright." Queen Sungman said.

"We've talked for a while that I nearly forgot you are quite busy and have to prepare for the next tournament." She added.

"Pardon me Your Highness, I also spoke too much." Seungman said.

"I hope that we'd see each other more oftenly because I only wish that I could get to know you more." Queen Sungman said.

"If I do get time Your Highness, I shall always pass by and visit and when you need me you can always call." Seungman said.

"Very well." Queen Sungman said as she bowed her head and Bora holding her hand she led her slowly away from the gardens towards her personal Chambers.

Seungman watched as the Queen banished and turning around she also headed her own way.

"Your Highness." Bora said.

"I am not disappointed." Queen Sungman said.

"I knew that you wouldn't be." Bora said.

"Such a very loyal and trustworthy person, I now see the reason why Galmunwang Baekban wanted her allegiance in the first place, she is quite the talent that the walls I'm this Palace have been singing about and the Hwarang of Seoraebeol have resented for phasing them out." Queen Sungman said.

"She is quite smart your Highness but you do know Galmunwang Baekban very well that he isn't the type to trust so easily." Bora said.

"Of course he isn't." Queen Sungman said, "She is just as fatal as he says, putting on such a wonderful charade of state devotion when it is clear that without us she can not survive in this world." Queen Sungman added.

"What are we going to do about her?" Bora asked.

"For now it is clear that Princess Deokman doesn't trust her and all that we must do is to ensure that it remains that way." Queen Sungman replied.

"How Your Highness?" Bora asked, "It won't be too easy to convince Princess Deokman, we need to do a lot more than sending gifts over or even talking to her." She added.

"I have already thought it through that Princess Deokman herself is afraid of Seungman, she wouldn't put in an effort in trying to act casual that I have noticed today on more than one occasion that she seems to give her nothing but a cold stare." Queen Sungman said.

"It is certain that she'd be threatened by the presence of another woman amongst the Hwarang." Bora said.

I want you to at least get any piece of paper or document with Seungman's handwriting and I'll personally master her calligraphy.

Not so long from now one must be suspicious of the other and depending on who makes the first strike either way we'd be victorious." Queen Sungman said.

"Yes Your Highness." Bora replied as she bowed her head while they entered the Queen's Chambers.

Seungman was walking about the Palace when he managed to spot Junghwan who was seated in one nearly darkened corner.

She seemed rather concerned as she recalled the incident that had happened earlier in the day so she walked up to him as he noticed the sound of footsteps drawing closer to him.

"Stop." Junghwan said but she persisted to keep on moving and angrily he ceased his sword by it's handle and then he pointed it right at Seungman who ceased there with it in her face.

"Go ahead." She confidently said, "Cut me and perhaps you'd be content with yourself and what you have done." Seungman said

Junghwan looked her in the eye.

"Don't think that because you are a woman I shall spare you, even if you are a Hwarang you can not meddle in my personal affairs." Junghwan said.

"Perhaps I shouldn't but people like you don't need to be left alone because you can do anything that could end up harming you." Seungman said.

"And who are you to care?" Junghwan asked, "Are you my mother, my sister or my wife?" He went ahead to say.

"I am but a woman that is struggling to live my life with men.

It's not the most comfortable thing and it is far too complicated for anyone to understand but above all people I may not critique but I can tell when someone needs a helping hand." Seungman replied.

"You can keep it to yourself, I haven't Asked for it." Junghwan said.

"Then If you feel that I should do so slit my throat and I assure you I won't stop you if I am dead but as long as I am alive I won't watch you sitting their miserably." Seungman said.

Junghwan lacking the confidence to lay his sword onto her returned it to it's scabbard.

"Go ahead." Junghwan said and Seungman walked right in front of him and sat down onto the ground folding her legs.

"I didn't expect you to be too brazen for a woman." Junghwan said.

"There are a lot more things that I can do surpassing all your expectations." Seungman replied.

Junghwan sighed.

"I shouldn't have participated in these games to Begin with." He said.

"No one forced you to do so." Seungman said.

"For a comforter you are quite hopeless are these the words that you can tell me now?" Junghwan asked.

"I didn't promise to understand you and even if I tried I wouldn't do it much better than yourself?" Seungman replied.

"Your right, you couldn't have an idea." Junghwan said.

"You said I am not your mother, your sister or your wife." Seungman defended herself.

"You realize that you are annoying me?" Junghwan asked.

"Then get your sword out again, after all if you are angry vent it out until you have exhausted yourself or if you are tired killing yourself is a good option too." Seungman said.

"You....." Junghwan tried to speak up to her but he was at a loss of words that he let his hands hang limp.

"Only fools live their life regretting things that they did in the past while the wise focus on what lies in their future, however the fortunate and the happy are those that choose to enjoy the present and reminisce the tender past." Seungman said.

"Perhaps it is the guilt that overwhelms me." Junghwan said.

"What's good enough is that you didn't kill him and at least he is still alive so you owes him a favour because had he perished you would have never made it up to him in this life." Seungman said.

Junghwan looked down.

"For a moment I thought that it was either my bad luck or his." Junghwan said.

"Nothing in this life is certain and so is life and death, in war or combat accidents are inevitable just like a soldier goes to war unsure if he'll see his family and like a merchant travels across the desert unsure if he'll survive it's heat." Seungman said.

I couldn't feel more remorseful than I am right now." Junghwan said.

"But had he died today then heaven will have willed it because as we all roam this world there is nothing at all that is eternal and our bodies are all frail they can never be immortal." Seungman said.

"You speak like a sage." Junghwan said.

"I take myself to have been raised by one." Seungman replied.

"Wasn't it something that you held so valuable and most precious?" Junghwan asked.

"That something in the long run made me realize that it was the real Shilla for me." Seungman replied.

"You say that only fools live their life regretting things that they did in the past but looking at you I can tell that there is remorse within your eyes." Junghwan said.

"I am remorseful that I was a hasty teenage girl, remorseful that I nearly abandoned my dream, remorseful that as the world trampled on me I was one time on the verge of giving up." Seungman replied.

"But you didn't, you at least made a choice." Junghwan said.

"And it turned out to be the most beautiful one I ever made in my entire life." Seungman said.

"Good for you." Junghwan said.

"You won fairly and the odds weren't in your contenders favour, sitting here to silently grieve inwardly and allow yourself to be haunted by the fact that you nearly killed someone today will not help you in any way." Seungman said.

"I understand better than anyone else." Junghwan said.

"An honourable man has the courage to stand on his feet and fight to win that in the ages to come you won't be haunted by the people you'll slay on the battlefield but you shall rather be proud that you brought glory to this our Heavenly kingdom of Shilla." Seungman said.

"Thank you." Junghwan appreciated.

"Your welcome." Seungman replied as she heartily smiled at him.

Junghwan staring at her eyes smiled in return and eventually he laughed.

"What?" Seungman asked.

"It's so funny how someone as heartless as yourself could comfort a very old man like me." Junghwan said.

"We aren't that far apart when it comes to our age." Seungman said.

"You are the first sincere person in this world that ever comforted me." Junghwan said.

"Thank you so much for appreciating but please don't fall in love with me." Seungman said.

"How straightforward, how sure would you be that I'd necessarily fall for you?" Junghwan asked.

"It's just a possibility." Seungman replied bad she stood up.

"Of course." Junghwan said.

"Don't think that I comforted you for nothing." Seungman said.

"I never knew that you are also the give and take type of negotiator?" Junghwan said.

"It's hard for me to survive here and a number of the Hwarang already give me a cold shoulder including Ichan Chilsuk and Seokpum Rang, if I had a few more people to at least treat me kindly then it wouldn't be something very bad." Seungman said.

"I already accepted you as my training partner, what more do you want from me?" Junghwan asked.

"Initially we became training partners because you lost a bargain to me and now it can only be fair for you to return the favor of my guidance by at least accepting me to be your friend." Seungman said.

"Aren't you afraid that I am far out of your league of peers?" Junghwan asked.

"What's a peer if you can not only go through thick and thin together but you can also share a common dream?" Seungman asked.

"I can't guarantee you that I'll be there to eat with you during the lunch break." Junghwan said.

"I only asked you to be my friend not to also become my eating partner." Seungman replied as she sashayed away with a smile on her face while Junghwan looked at her.

"You..." He shouted at her but halted when he realized that she was waving her hand while showing him her back.

"She won't listen anyway." Junghwan said to himself as she stood up from where he was seated and he smiled at her while she vanished from his sight.

"I suppose she isn't a bad training partner after all." He said while Seungman walking away she halted in her footsteps while she looked at the Jade pendant that hang around her neck.

Holding it she remembered what she had told Junghwan.

"I am remorseful that I was a hasty teenage girl, remorseful that I nearly abandoned my dream, remorseful that as the world trampled on me I was one time on the verge of giving up." Seungman replied.

"No human being is perfect father and we all make mistakes." She whispered to herself, "However I shall prove you wrong one day and I assure you father that coming back here to Seoraebeol itself wasn't a mistake either.

I don't just have to be good enough, I just have to be the very best that there is." She added as she walked away while she tightly held her sword and clenched her left fist.

Rowun Rang was lying within the Nangdos quarters when he opened his eyes and the first thing that he saw was were the faces of all his fellow members.

"He's awake." He heard someone say.

"Rowun Rang." He was followed by many other voices and judging by the sorrow that was within them and their desperation, it was a sign of their concern.

He tried to sit up as his mind wandered away to the events that had happened earlier on in the day.

"I fell on someone." He quickly remembered first, "Who was it?" He asked one of the Nangdos that was seated next to him but they all went silent.

"Who was it that I fell on?" Rowun Rang asked.

"It was SEUNGMAN RANG." one of the Nangdos replied.

"Impossible." Rowun Rang said.

"We were all slow witted yet she rushed and jumped over the wooden fence and was able to put himself there for you to at least fall on her and not hurt yourself more." He replied.

Rowun Rang was surprised.

"And Junghwan Rang?" Rowun Rang asked.

"He's not around right now." His fellow Nangdo replied, "Since the rules of the game still stood and you fell of your horse first before he stepped off of his so he shall be the one to represent the Dragon corps in the next tournament." He added.

"You may go." Rowun Rang said.

"You haven't recovered and you were just stitched." His fellow said.

"It's alright, I need to spend some time alone." Rowun Rang said.

"Yes." His friends replied as they all excused themselves one by one and they walked out of the room and left him there.

His mind wondered as he recalled the events that had happened to him and he related them to the words that he had been told.

"Seungman Rang?" He said, "Why?" He asked himself as she stared at his wound and he recalled the warm hands tying a white piece of fabric around his torso.

"She in deed saved my life." He concluded as he ran his hand down while the memory came back clearly in his mind.

She amongst all the people that had been watching him managed to step up and sacrifice herself just so that no harm would come upon him.

He started to slowly feel awful.

"She'd even care much more than these compeers that I held dear for my whole life when I was nothing more than a stranger to her." He said as he smiled at himself.

Haek Ga rushed through the doors that led to his master's Chambers and there he found him looking through a series of books.

"Your Excellency." He said as he was entirely running out of breath.

"Haek Ga?" Baekban called. "What's the matter with you, have you seen a ghost?" He asked.

"No Your Highness, I received word from the Cheolwon Mountain Fortress." Haek Ga replied.

"What happened there?" Galmunwang Baekban asked as he went ahead to look through the pages of the book that was in his hands.

"You asked me to find out what was in that box and I asked our spies to find out what it was, the guards were drugged and they Temporarily blacked out to pace way for them and reaching inside the box was found intact.

"What was in the box?" Baekban asked.

"You'd be surprised your Excellency just as much as I was." Haek Ga replied.

"Get straight to the point and tell me what was it that was within that box?" Baekban asked.

"Your Excellency, within the box lying there was the Royal seal of Shilla." Haek Ga replied and Baekban who was reading the book in his hands he let it go and smacking the table he stood up.

"What?" He said.

"Yes Your Excellency." Haek Ga replied, "It was the Royal seal of Shilla that was inside that box." He confirmed as Baekban's eyes widened with surprise it had only given him a heavy blow and something that he least expected.

"Her Highness Princess Deokman." He said as he clenched his fists and his expression went wild with so much rage he looked at that time no different than the devil himself.