Chapter 14: Harvest Festival pt.3/3

Going forward, there was a decreasing amount of people in the direction Yunho was heading. The festival was most active in the busier parts of the town, so the other parts were quite desolate now. Eventually, there were very few people around him and even less lighting. Yunho, feeling worried, turned to his servants. 

"Should we go back? Maybe we went the wro-" Iris stopped mid-sentence. There was no one behind him. 

Why was there no one behind him? 

Yunho looked around the secluded part of the town that he had wandered into, but he couldn't find heads or tails of his two servants. 

Yunho bit his lip in worry. He sighed. He'd just have to retrace his footsteps or go somewhere crowded enough that they'd eventually find him. 

Yunho started to walk when he saw a tall black figure running in his direction quickly. The figure was wearing a cloak and looked to be a man's silhouette. Yunho was startled and didn't even get to react before the figure shoulder-checked into him. 

Yunho stumbled back and froze until he realized that the cloaked person was walking past. He let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. 

Yunho reassessed himself and was about to start walking again when he realized something was off. He couldn't find his fan! The fan that he just bought from the burned woman was missing. Yunho checked all over himself once again to make sure, and the results were the same. His fan was gone! He remembered having it when he left the stand, so where could it have gone?

Yunho thought about where he could've possibly left it when he suddenly looked behind him. His mind was piecing together fragments of thoughts in his mind. A strange, mysterious figure had just bumped into him, and right after, he realized he couldn't find his fan. 

They obviously stole it! 

Yunho turned around and before his common sense could stop him, followed the departing cloaked figure.

—

"We're so done for!" Aris said, lamenting.

Nym shared the despairing look. How could they have lost their young master? Nym bit his nails. 

"Let's just go in the general direction he went! We'd have to eventually meet him that way, right?" Nym proposed.

Aris let out a thoughtful hum and nodded. That was their best bet. The two servants went forward, keeping watch for any signs of Iris. Aris scratched her arm, anxious. If something bad happened while they weren't together, she didn't know if she could live with herself. 

"Our beautiful young master! We'll save you!" Aris silently lamented to herself, placing a closed fist on her chest. 

Nym looked 

"Hey, isn't that the fan the young master just bought?" Nym said, drawing Aris's attention. The servant boy was gesturing to a spot on the ground. There was a blue embroidered fan, the same one Iris had! 

Nym picked the fan up and turned it over a few times in his hand. 

"The young master must've dropped this somehow. We should be going the right way." Nym said. 

Aris nodded and looked around. Her eyebrows furrowed. They were getting further away from the main festivities and more towards the unused parts of the town. Could Iris really be here? If so, they'd better find him soon. But…

"Why didn't he pick it up though?" Aris said, looking at the fan in her companion's hand. 

Nym shrugged. 

"Maybe he didn't know he dropped it?"

—

"Hey, you!" Yunho chased after the fleeing suspected thief. 

The cloaked figure stopped and looked back at the silver-haired youth. 

Yunho saw this and took it as an opportunity to call out again when the figure turned right back around and started running even faster this time. 

"...!"

Yunho didn't get to see a fraction of their face since it was shrouded in the darkness cast by the cloak. Yunho sighed and started again running after the man. He was determined to get that fan back. If he was willing to give it up before, the audacity of that encounter vanquished all of those feelings. And, it felt nice to run after it was an impossibility for him in his sickly past life. 

However, the cloaked man was incredibly fast and apparently had the stamina of a young horse because they didn't lose any of their speed. Yunho was starting to lose hope when they went down a dark alleyway. The cloaked man paused when they realized it was a dead end. 

Yunho's eyes glittered as he realized it, too! He took the opportunity to catch his breath. His hood had been blown back, and the wind had made his hair messy. His face was tinged with red from exhaustion. 

He huffed, trying to take in as much as he could, "You, stop! Return me my fan! This is a dead end!"

The cloaked man turned towards him, and though his face was still obscured, Yunho felt like he was laughing at him. The cloaked man backed up and seemed to be planning another escape method as he tested out his shoes on the alley walls. 

Yunho, not wanting to take any chances after seeing the man's surprising and a bit terrifying stamina, lept forward and grabbed him. Sometimes, a hands-on method is the most effective! 

Both Yunho and the man grunted as they fell onto the ground. The youth was sitting on top of the man's waist, his messy silver hair framing his pink face. Yunho laughed inwardly. He won the chase, but this position...wasn't it a bit weird?! 

"Give me back my fan! I won't even notify the authorities. I just want the fan!" Yunho said, placing a slim finger on the man's chest. 

The man had a surprisingly pleasant scent. Though his face was still obscured, Yunho could tell his body was well-developed and solid.

"For God's sake, I don't have your fan or whatever you're looking for!" The man said. Halfway through, his sentence he deepened his voice to disguise, but it still had a slight regal quality to it. 

Yunho was about to say something else when the cloaked man threw him off. The silver-haired youth fell back with a thud. He groaned as he hit the alleyway ground. The man was evidently fit and had no trouble throwing Yunho off like he weighed nothing. 

The cloaked man hesitated at the sound of the groan, taking a quick look back at the youth. Yunho was able to see a flash of red before the man turned around and ran past him out of the alleyway in a flash. 

Yunho pulled himself off the ground with a huff. He looked in the direction the man fled in and was shocked. Red... What could that have been? And that man still had his fan?! Yunho couldn't help but feel aggrieved...Those silver coins he spent...

But then, he heard two pairs of footsteps behind him.

"Young master...?"

---

Nym and Aris were still looking around. They were in a very secluded area now, and both of them were very nervous when a tall, cloaked man ran past them. The man bumped into Nym's shoulder in his rush, causing the servant boy to stumble back. 

Nym looked back at the figure when a groan sounded in the air. Both Aris and Nym looked in the direction of the noise. It was coming from a dark alleyway from which the cloaked figure came from. 

They shared a look before slowly approaching the alley. Aris peeked into the alley first but couldn't see anything. She sighed and nodded to Nym. The two servants timidly entered the alleyway until they noticed the young man brushing off his knees in the middle of the alley. His silver hair was messy, and his face was still pink. 

Aris and Nym were shocked at this sight. It was their lost young master who also looked really disheveled. 

"Young master...?" Nym said, questioningly. 

Yunho whipped his head around and met eyes with the two servants he'd gotten separated from earlier. He awkwardly laughed as he realized how crazy he probably looked. 

Seeing it was really their young master, Aris and Nym let out sighs of relief and promptly surrounded the youth. 

"Are you okay, young master? Who was that man?" Aris asked, grimacing as she looked around the dirty alley. 

"Yes I am..but that man stole my fan. I chased him down, but he got away in the end." Yunho replied, smoothing out his hair. 

"What?! That's so dange-..." Aris said, stopping when she noticed something off with what was just said. 

"The man stole the young master's fan?" Aris asked, confused, "But Nym, didn't we find it on our way here?" 

Yunho froze and turned to Nym who lo and behold was holding the blue embroidered fan the Yunho had just chased and harassed an Innocent man for. 

"..."

Well, that was that guy's fault for acting so suspiciously?! Who wears cloaks while walking in remote parts of towns?! 

---

The reunited trio made their way back to the bustling festival in the main parts of the town. 

Tired from the already-enough adventure they experienced, the three decided to head back to the lodge. 

Yunho was walking with the two servants, maneuvering through all the festival-goers, when he spotted a stand near the entrance of the town. 

The stand wasn't there when they first arrived, so it was most likely set up later in the festival. It was a pretty innocuous set-up with a simple wooden table and sign and an older man running it. But it was the goods being sold that caught Yunho's eye. The man was selling seeds. Yunho froze. 

Suddenly, it felt like a door in Yunho's brain was being unlocked. 

He remembered what had been evading him this entire time. The famine.

In the novel, right before harvest, blight suddenly swept through the empire, killing crops. This led to a widespread famine that was ruthless and claimed many lives. 

During this arc in the novel, Irene gains her holy powers and gets the crown prince's attention as she's given the title of High Priestess. On her trip to the Northern temple, Irene finds the solution to the famine. A fast-growing tenacious weed that's edible and not bad tasting. 

She finds it in high quantity in the Northern countryside and brings it to the crown Prince's attention. He orders the mass cultivation and collection of the plant which is used as feed for livestock and food for the people. It eases the effects of the famine and puts the crown prince into further favor in the public eye over his younger brother who's also vying for the throne. 

Since the famine was especially affecting the North and Irene finds the solution, she ends up meeting the Northern Grand Duke, Dorian, the childhood best friend and second cousin of the crown prince. 

In the novel, that's how the order of events went, but it just so happened that Yunho currently needed to get some leverage. To do an act so grand that Irene had no choice but to at least forget the original Iris's wrongdoing. A grand act like preventing a famine... 

Yunho felt his heart beating faster. But was it really okay to change the plot like that? Irene's solution to the famine was a pretty crucial part of the beginning part of the novel. It boosts the crown Prince's favor, brings Irene straight into the public light, teases the palace politics, and introduces the Northern Grand Duke to Irene who's really important during the war arc. 

But what about Yunho? Keeping the plot of the book was nice and all, but in that same plot, Iris, a.k.a HIM, gets banished! 

Is it really a sin to steal the spotlight once in a while anyway? Plus, he'd be saving thousands of people! 

Yunho was Iris now, and Yunho wanted to finally live in peace. So, Iris needs to evade his bad ending somehow and get a happy one. And you know who gets happy endings? Heroes. 

Yunho felt a gentle tug on his cloak. He looked at the person beside him. It was Aris. 

"Young master Iris, are you okay?" Aris asked with a concerned expression. To her, Iris randomly stopped walking and spaced out. 

Yunho shook his head, shaking off the spiral of thoughts he was already dizzy from. 

"Yeah, I am. Let's go." He said, beginning to walk again. The two servants shared a look and shrugged, following. The trio headed back to the lodge after the interesting events of the festival. 

The sound of music and laughter could still be heard from the town as the group left. Three figures made their way across the white of the North to the large lodge estate waiting for them. 

The stars twinkled above as the fibers that were this reality were beginning to shift and intertwine. 

---

End of Chapter 14-

Harvest Festival pt. 3

(HARVEST FESTIVAL END)