Chapter eleven

While contemplating, he hears footsteps of more than three persons thinking it's his loyal knights, he rushes outside only to find out not only were his personal knights he assigned to go get his daughter back but also the king's specially trained guards were there alongside his daughter and people he had no idea who they were and both of them had someone held someone in their arms, trying to remain calm he casts his gaze on his daughter

"What happened, why are you just returning? Is everything alright? Where is your sister? Why can't I see her with you?

Chung-Jo who was dejected was seriously considering how to answer her father because unlike the others he was no fool and he could tell if a person was lying or not. So she decided to tell a half-lie- half-truth story.

(With a voice that indicated she was weak, tired and having a difficult time answering his question she says 

"Fa... father I...I happened to meet my sister on her out when I returned from my daily training so I decided to follow her to make sure she was fine and doesn't find herself in a bad situation. Following behind her I had no idea where she was heading to so I decided to remain in the shadows for a while after walking around the pathway to the river I figured out maybe she was heading towards the river but unfortunately it seemed like my sister had forgotten the exact direction to go so I decided to wait behind so she'll get tired and head back home because I was certain nobody probably knew she left the house since she was on her own but who knew my sister would suddenly fall asleep under the giant umbrella tree. So iiiiiii got angry and decided to leave her behind so she could return whenever she felt like but getting further away I suddenly smelled a dangerous murderous aura coming from behind me and on getting there the only thing I saw was blood and (pointing at Joon-ha and Son-Wook) These two men fighting a demonized beast in the shape of a boat with their lives. Angry with myself that I had abandoned my sister only for her to get killed I joined the fight with our lives on the line we were finally able to defeat the beast after...

By now the fourth prince could already hear something snap in his head, he interrupted her speech to confirm again if he really heard what she said "what did you just say (with a sudden release of his murderous aura)fear was evident in everyone faces and most people had already resign their selves to death because If truly the second Miss was dead then death was what awaits them) I ask again what did you say? Whose daughter did you say is dead?

Chung-Jo at this point could not breathe probably, san-ho was also finding it difficult to stand and he was even having a nose bleed, joon-ha although pressured could still stand firm and the light army could also slightly maintain their standing position. Someone suddenly spoke up

" My lord if you don't want your second child to die then you'll have to stop what you are doing?

Looking at the one who was speaking to him, he noticed that although not much he was able to resist his aura, so he asked "(reducing some of the pressure, he asked) what do you mean is my daughter not dead yet( there was fear in his eyes when he asked this and at the same time it looked like he would cut off the man's head if he said his daughter was dead)

"Although slightly feverish she is most definitely still alive"

"Feverish? Why didn't anyone of you say that (turning to his personal knight) go quickly invite the royal physician, (moving towards the young man noticed something wrapped in his arms, taking a peep he sees his daughter, turning to her maid he said) why are you still here? Do you not hear that my daughter is sick and needs to be treated urgently? Do I need to order you to go make necessary arrangements for that?"

"My lord unlike this man and us the light army the others are not able to take even this little pressure, if you could please release them am sure they would regain their mobility and go to carry out their jobs(the general said cupping his hands together at the prince)

Releasing them he ordered everyone to get out of his presence. Chung-Jo who was close to her father at the time of his outburst was the one who felt the full brunt of her father's anger and at a point I'm time had thrown up blood. Seeing his first daughter like that there was a pang of guilt and at the same time a bit of disappointment in his gaze, turning away from her, he ordered her maid to attend to her. Although disappointed and feeling a pang of jealousy towards her father's outburst she knew she could not leave, if she wants her story of being a good sister to not break then she had to stay behind and put on a pitiful appearance after all from her story she had mentioned the term "my sister" alot therefore triggering her father's weak point which was his desire for her to have a good relationship with her sister and for the two of them to live as one big family, therefore she could not leave if not everything thing would be ruined.

In a weak voice " father I will stay behind and wait for the royal physician to come, please grant me this permission (she was betting on how weak she was right now to get on her father's good side)

Annoyed he turned to his first daughter intending to scold and send her away only to see his first child for the first time apart from when she was just born looking so weak and fragile, at the end of the day he was also her father he could not bear to say any harsh words to her so he decided to calmly ask her to leave and take care of herself and to return back when she has regained her strength back.

(With a not-so-obvious smirk on her face she responded) "okay father I will be back shortly (facing Joon-ha she did not forget to inform him to hand over her sister to their father since they were already home and then she bowed to her father again before taking her leave)

Turning to Joon-ha "hand her over (he said with an annoyed tone) inner thought) 'if not for that first child of mine I would have totally forgotten my precious was in the arms of a male animal, hmph, any male who attempts to take my precious away from me has another thing coming their way ' (reaching out his hand to take his daughter)

"(With a raised eyebrow and an amusing glint in his eyes) inner thought)' seems like wooing the little one won't be an easy task, tsk) reaching out to hand her over to her father the same incident that happened on their way back happened again giving him a sense of dejavu, the child refused to go to her father(smirking) inner thought) seems like you didn't disappoint me little one, with this I'll be able to prepare myself for what is coming.

Flash back

While thinking about his miserable fate, he decided to figure out a way to delay his encounter with the king because of how powerful the king is he will be able to see through me and am not prepared for that yet and so he looked at the beauty in his arms and suddenly had an idea. 

Turning to the royal knights he said"I understand the need to report to the king but the little one in my arms urgently needs to see a physician how about attending to that first"

Looking at the young man he frowns although h was not wrong he also did not want to keep the king waiting so he decided to divide his team into two, one team headed by his assistant would escort the young Miss home and another headed by himself would report back to the king. After making arrangements it was time for Joon-ha to hand her over.

"You can hand the second princess to my assistant be rest assured that he will bring her safely before the fourth prince (signals to his assistant to go pick up the child)

Walking forward he said "young master please hand over the child to me)

Disappointed that his plan did not work, he could only hand her over and as much as he didn't want to do that he had no valid reason to refuse either but while handing her over, something amazing and at the same time amusing to him happened, the little one refused to go over but rather held on to him tightly in her unconscious state, how happy he was at the new turn of event after all even him didn't see this coming but more importantly he was happy because she refused to be held by any other male except for himself even if it was an unconscious movement it still made him happy, apart from him every other person was stunned by the new turn of event, the assistant attempted to try again only to yield the same result and so it was finally decided that they would head over to the fourth prince mansion before heading to the palace. 

Chung-Jo on the other hand was quite dissatisfied on finding out that Joon-ha would still be holding onto her sister but at the same time she was relieved because she knew if the assistant was to return back home with her unconscious sister then he would inform her father of happenings surrounding her ordeal and even though he knew almost nothing about it what scares her is the fact that he might inform her father that the reason the both of them had stayed out late was the fact that she said she forgot the way back home, she shivered in fear of how her father would respond to that. Gritting her teeth, with her hands tightly clenched it looked like she was shivering from the night cold but really she was preparing herself on how to answer to her father without him interrupting and asking more questions, and luckily for her although she hated to admit it, her father loved her sister and her current state was the perfect way to dodge whatsoever she would have faced tonight, she then relaxs her body with a sad smile.

On the other hand, Joon-ha was excited that his plan was in motion and although it was only a temporary one, he would cross the bridge when it got to that point. For now he was going to enjoy his victory.

Back to the present

To say that the fourth prince was shocked would probably be an understatement, he was speechless, even the light army was stunned too but the assistant suddenly felt some sort of relief as it turned out there wasn't any special reason as to why he was rejected by the princess in the first place. As for the fourth prince, the fact that his priceless jewel would rather stay in the arms of a stranger than come to him made him so angry and at the same time he wore a stunned expression on his face. He looked up at the stranger again and every impression he had of him just turned out for the worst, so he decided there and then that he would most definitely get revenge for this. Reason being that the idiot stranger actually had the nerve to smile even if it was just for a split second, he still saw it and that was because he was trying to figure out what his daughter saw in this stupid elf boy.

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Poor Joon-ha, it seems you have just entered your to be father-in-law's bad books

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With slight anger in his voice he said "come with me, we have to lie her down in preparation for her treatment (he lightly flung his robe and walked away)

Shaking his head, he looked at the little girl and said "it seems I will be having some issues with your father in the future, you will have to take responsibility and look after me(he smiled and walked towards the direction the fourth prince left in).

Joon-ha POV 

On reaching her room,I had no time to look around for her father was urging him to quickly put her down and leave her room. I mean I can understand his annoyance if I had a daughter I probably would be annoyed if she would rather stay with a stranger than me. Shaking my head I put her down and attempted to leave only for her to grab my clothes, I raised my brows in surprise and turned my gaze to the fourth prince only to see him almost red with anger, I coughed slightly and tried to take her hands off but it seems she was bent on holding on to him looking at the fourth prince again I was waiting for him to make a decision on how to solve the issue at hand and that was when he decided I should stay behind and look after his daughter while he walks out. Was I surprised?yes,yes I was, because from the interaction tonight, one thing can be deducted the fourth prince love towards his youngest daughter was not to be messed around with. Seeing her dependence on me, I knew if I play my card well I would be able to escape what was ahead of me.

San-ho POV

Outrageous, simply outrageous. I was mad,one could even say I would loose it any time soon. What exactly was this weird dependence my daughter has towards this strange man. I have to find out exactly what happened in that forest as soon as possible.

Son-Wook POV

No matter how I look at it, it seems I have been forgotten or better yet, it seems I never had any presence before the prince (shakes his head in an awkward manner) not that I mind tho but if this goes on this mermaid will probably go paler and something bad might happen. 

He sights the fourth prince from afar and decided to approach him. On approaching him, he discovered that he seems to be in a bad mood but he had no choice than to make his presence known

Kneeling down with the mermaid in his arms, he bows down and greets the fourth prince "I greet the fourth prince of the dragons,may the blessings of the river god and the peace of mother nature be with thee"

Resisting his anger from pouring out, he sighs and says"Rise son of the elven lord, how may this prince be of service"

"My lord I know you are worried about the second princess but this also seems to be a serious situation as it would do us no good for a mermaid to die on dry land, it would be even worse if she were to die while in the household of a prince"

If the fourth prince didn't know better, he would have thought he was being threatened but he knew that was not the case. Looking at the girl in the young man's hand he could not tell what was wrong with her but due to the fact that he said she was a mermaid, he decided to carry out an experiment.

"Hmm I see bring the fish(abruptly stops himself, he coughs and corrects his word) I meant bring the young lady and follow me"

Following behind the fourth prince Son-Wook could not believe the fourth prince actually called the mermaid a fish, I mean it's not like he's wrong since mermaid were part fish but it was still felt insulting to him but who was he to complain after all it's no hidden fact that the mermaids and the dragons are always at logger heads. They finally arrived at their destination which was a pond with clear springs where all kinds of rare fish could be seen. He had no idea what the prince was up to but he decided to wait and see, the next thing he heard was...

"Throw her in"

"Eh"

Seeing his dumbfounded look, he wondered if the elven prince had any problem with his hearing"I said throw her in"

"Oh!ok"

He gently puts her in the pond and turns to the fourth prince who was looking at him with eyes that were probably trying to gauge his actions. He turns back to the mermaid and to his utmost surprise, her hair was gradually going back to their color. The fourth prince seeing this, touched his slightly grown beard and said amusingly..

"As expected, it's a fish"

Turning to leave, he sees the young elf man looking at him, he coughs to hide his embarrassment but choses to walk away than offer any explanation. After all his daughter was still his ultimate priority.