A Cruel Twist of Fate
After Yan's departure, King Yunho (Min) sat in the heavy silence of his shop, his mind drifting back eight hundred years. Like a fading dream materializing through the mist, the memories of that day flooded back—the vibrant colors of the festival, the laughter of the crowds, and the chaotic pulse of the human world.
On that fateful day, he had crossed the portal into the mortal realm, hot on the trail of a dangerous fugitive. In the heart of a bustling fair, amidst the flash of steel and the blur of pursuit, fate intervened. Just as Yunho lunged for his target, a young girl named Shauji stumbled into his path. His blade, intended for a criminal, sliced through the air and struck her delicate hand. The collision sent her spiraling to the ground. The combined trauma of the blood loss and a violent strike to her head left her lifeless and pale upon the cold earth.
Though his soldiers captured the fugitive, Yunho's heart—far more tender than his royal title suggested—could not leave the girl behind. Surrounded by mortals, he dared not use his spiritual powers lest he cause a panic. He soon realized that the laws of the human world were as rigid as they were strange; for a man and an unrelated woman to be seen together was a stain on one's character. He sought shelter at various houses, but every door remained closed. Desperate, the King resorted to a lie.
"She is my wife," he told a landlord, his voice steady despite the deception. "She has been gravely injured. Please, we only need a place to rest." Finally, a door opened. Once alone in the dimly lit room, Yunho used his celestial energy to knit her flesh back together, though she remained unconscious, drained by the ordeal.
The Price of Dishonor
Three hours passed before Shauji stirred. When her eyes fluttered open and met Yunho's gaze, terror seized her.
"Who are you? Why have you taken me prisoner?" she cried, her voice trembling with a fragile edge.
Yunho replied softly, trying to anchor her. "I brought you here to heal your wounds. To protect you from the whispers of the crowd, I told them we were husband and wife."
The color drained from Shauji's face. "Do you have any idea what you've done? For this lie, the world and my kin will demand a price I cannot pay!"
As if on cue, the door burst open. Her aunt and uncle stormed in, their faces contorted with rage. Without a word, her aunt delivered a stinging slap across Shauji's cheek.
"Have you no shame?" the woman shrieked. "First, you brought death to your parents, and now you drag our family name through the mud!"
Yunho stepped forward to defend her, but his interference only stoked their fury. The mortal laws were merciless: either a marriage would be forced, or an inhuman penance would be paid. Shauji was dragged before the village elder. The sentence was chilling—fifteen hundred lashes and three days bound to a tree without food or water.
Shadows of the Past
Deep in the dead of night, Yunho watched from the shadows as Shauji hung bound and broken against the bark of a tree. He approached her slowly, his heart burning with the fire of a thousand regrets.
"Why are they so cruel to you?" he whispered. "Are they not your own flesh and blood?"
Shauji let out a hollow, bitter laugh. Between ragged breaths, she unveiled the darkness of her past. After a plague took her parents, her aunt and uncle had seized her inheritance, reducing her to a mere servant in her own home. This "punishment" wasn't about honor—it was a calculated move to dispose of her forever so they could keep her father's wealth.
"I will help you with everything I have," Yunho vowed, his voice ringing with royal authority.
But Shauji's eyes were vacant, stripped of hope. "Your 'help' has already ruined me," she whispered. "Please... just let me die this time."
A Sovereign's Gamble
Returning to the Fairy Land, sleep eluded the King. When his loyal confidant, Yan, heard the tale, he suggested a simple fix—whisk the girl away to a distant land and provide for her in secret.
But Yunho knew that wouldn't suffice. He returned to the mortal realm one last time to plead with the aunt and uncle, but their hearts were made of stone. "She is nothing to us!" the uncle barked. "Only her death will wash away this shame."
Yunho's blood boiled. He felt the urge to strike them down with his divine power, but the laws of the Heavens were absolute: a Fairy King could not take a mortal life without divine decree.
Retreating once more to his realm, he summoned Yan. His expression was a mask of cold determination.
"Yan," Yunho declared, "I have made my choice. I am going to marry Shauji."
Yan gasped, his eyes wide with disbelief. "My King! Have you lost your mind? A century ago, your father betrothed you to the Lady Li Qiane. If you marry a mere mortal, the Fairy Land will fall into chaos! Your enemies will use this to tear the crown from your head!"
A mysterious, knowing smile touched Yunho's lips as he looked out at the shimmering horizon of his kingdom.
"I am well aware, Yan. But I have a plan—a strategy so far-reaching that no one could possibly foresee it. Now, listen closely to my secret..."