As the king and queen exited the room, numerous armed guards were standing in front of the door.
"Is his Majesty and her Highness okay?" one of the guards asked.
Seo-Yeon noticed some of them were panting. She could tell that they ran here when they heard the gunshot.
"I think they came here after hearing that gunshot," she whispered.
"Ah, makes sense, that firearm was rather loud," Henry whispered back.
Henry raised his right arm.
"There is no need to worry, we are both unharmed," he said.
"It is a relief to hear that, your Majesty and her Highness," said the guard. "I assume the gunshot was part of the interrogation?"
"You are correct. The interrogation ended and now we intend to go see our daughter. We heard that she has just woken up from her long sleep," said Henry.
"!" (The guards)
The guards were surprised and also happy to hear the news.
"This is truly good news!" said a guard.
Henry and Seo-Yeon looked at each other and smiled.
"We know," said Seo-Yeon. "We're going to go see her right now."
"Shall we escort her Highness and his Majesty to the princess' room?" one of the guards asked.
"Very well, lead the way," said Henry.
Just before Henry and Seo-Yeon were about to leave, Henry paused and turned around.
"Oh right, send someone to clean up the mess in the room," said Henry.
🔸🔸🔸
[Dunha's room]
Dunha was currently nervously walking around.
"What was that gunshot?" she wondered. "Did the assassin try to escape again and got shot or did the assassin disarm a guard and shot him instead? Or maybe..."
She began to think of all of the possible scenarios which caused her to become even more worried.
"Tch, I can't even leave my room," Dunha thought as she clicked her tongue.
Dunha attempted to leave her room to see what the commotion was. However, the guards were ordered by Clover to prevent Dunha from leaving the room for her safety.
"Blackmailing a guard into letting me out isn't an option either..." Dunha thought.
The mysterious screen that has been bothering Dunha appeared once more and began to show the information of the guards. However, unlike before, none of the guards had done anything that would get them into trouble, so she was unable to convince any of them into letting her out.
"Hm?" (Dunha)
Just then, Dunha heard someone talking from the other side of the door. The door was then opened by the guards.
"Dunha!" Henry shouted.
"Sweetie!" Seo-Yeon shouted.
As Seo-Yeon entered the room, she immediately rushed towards Dunha.
"How are you feeling?" Seo-Yeon asked as she hugged her daughter.
Dunha was a little surprised by her parents' sudden appearance but was also relieved to see them unharmed.
"I-I'm okay," Dunha nodded. "Phew, it seems like I was worried for nothing," she thought.
"Somebody get Matthew here," said Henry. "The rest of you, wait outside."
"Understood, your Majesty," said the guards.
After sending the guards away, Henry approached Dunha and patted her head.
"Dunha, my little treasure, I'm glad to see you're okay," said Henry said he smiled.
"!" (Dunha)
When Dunha saw her father smile, she was taken aback. It was the first time she saw her father smile in many years.
"Dunha?" (Henry)
"Wu... Wa..." Dunha mumbled.
Tears began to come out of Dunha's eyes as she was suddenly filled with regret.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Seo-Yeon asked.
Without hesitation, Dunha rushed towards her father and hugged him as she cried.
"Papa, I'm sorry... *Sniff* I'm very sorry..." she mumbled.
After the death of her mother, Henry rarely smiled and barely spent time with her and her younger brother, Luke. However, despite their somewhat cold relationship, there was never a time where she hoped for her father to be harmed.
Remembering her last encounter with her father ending on bad terms caused Dunha to be filled with self-resentment.
"What a clueless naive fool I was back then..." Dunha thought. "Maybe I still am..."
Surprised by Dunha's behaviour, Henry gently stroke the back of his daughter's head to calm her down.
"It's alright, my precious child... I forgive you," said Henry. "Although I'm unsure what you're sorry for... I doubt my child would do anything wrong," he thought.
"*Hic* Uwaa..." Dunha cried.
She cried for several more minutes before finally calming down. Once Dunha calmed down, she promised herself that she'll make sure her second life will be better than the last.
"I'll have to make sure my parents live a longer and happier life than before," she thought. "I promise."
🔸🔸🔸
[2 weeks later]
To Dunha's surprise, two weeks passed by in a blink of an eye with no further incidents with the atmosphere in the castle beginning to return to normal.
Currently, Dunha was in her room, sitting on her desk, writing.
"It's been two weeks since I somehow returned to the past. Even now, I am still amazed and confused by how this is happened," Dunha wrote.
She was currently writing a journal.
"The guard, Misha Smith, who protected me and Lily, is still recovering but the new head doctor said he'll fully recover soon. I believe father will reward him for saving us once he returns," she wrote. "Also, the former vice head-doctor, Matthew Hierba, became the new head-doctor after Mason's sudden disappearance. Although Matthew is currently less skilled than Mason, he'll later become a highly skilled doctor in the later years (Based on my memories from my first life)," she added.
As Dunha continued writing, she began to smile.
"Great General Clover Ashlyn agreed to stay with us until we find out who sent those assassins," she wrote. "Note: Last week, Great General Blue Sky left the capital to return to his territory to deal with some sort of bandit problem. He said he'll return next month to help me with my training," she added.
Dunha was in a good mood and began to whistle.
"Although it is great to be a child again, it's also a bit unfortunate that I lost the physical strength and muscles that I got through my years of hard training," she thought. "It's fine, I'll just have to train hard again."
Once Dunha finished writing, she covered the page with powder to dry up the ink. She then hid the book inside her desk and jumped out of her chair. As Dunha thought about the future, she became slightly concerned.
"I wonder if there'll be consequences for changing the future..." she wondered. "None of these events happened in my first life, so I'm not sure what'll happen now. Maybe it'll lead us to a better future or perhaps it'll lead us to a far more terrible future than my first life..."
As Dunha began to worry about the future, there was a knock on the door.
"Princess, lady Lily is here," said one of the guards.
"Come in," Dunha answered.
Just as the doors opened, Dunha placed a large pillow behind her.
"Dunha~!" Lily shouted.
Lily rushed into the room and immediately jumped towards Dunha, tackling her. This caused the two to fall backwards and land on top of the large pillow.
"M-Milady Lily! Please do not tackle the princess! It will be bad if any one of you were to be hurt..." said a maid as she entered the room, panting.
"Hahaha, it's okay," Dunha chuckled. "I feel a little bad for the new maid... I'm sure she'll have to worry about Lily all of the time," she thought.
"How are you doing, Dunha~?" Lily asked while trying to snuggle with Dunha.
As Lily hugged Dunha her tail slowly moved around. Dunha began to blush as she restrained herself from touching Lily's ears.
"Cute..." Dunha thought. "I wouldn't mind petting her all da-- What am I even saying?"
"Dunha! Let's go outside! It's snowing right now!" Lily shouted with excitement.
"Really?" Dunha asked, surprised.
"Yes! Look over here!" said Lily as she pointed out the window.
Dunha looked out the window and was amazed to see snow falling from the sky.
"Wow..." she murmured. "How long has it been since I have last seen snow? I haven't seen snow since the undead invasion..."
When the number of undead began to rise at an alarming rate, dark clouds covered the skies and blocked the sun for the next five years until Dunha was miraculously sent to the past. The closest thing to snow after the dark clouds covered the skies were the ashes that fell when entire cities were burnt to the ground.
"Come on! Let's go~!" said Lily.
Lily's excited voice snapped Dunha back into reality.
"Ah? Ah, sure. Let's wear our coats first," said Dunha.
"Okay!" Lily nodded as she wiggled her cat-like ears.
After watching Lily being taken by the maid to be changed, Dunha watched on with a smile on her face.
"Well, even if this changes the future, as long as it's not as bad as my first life then to hell with changing the future. I'm going to enjoy my life for as long as I can," Dunha thought to herself.
She then followed the maid to be changed as well. This was truly the beginning of her new life which would later be remembered in the history books as "Dunha's Legacy".
(To Be Continued)
2021/01/17