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Here is the new chappie! Hope you enjoy it~

Disclaimer: I don't own Akatsuki no Yona.

PS: don't forget to read the Author Note below, 'kay?

Rewritten Fate

By Ld-G

ASSASINATION ARC

– PART 3 –

Yona walked aimlessly, still in daze from her previous meeting. What the old king told her struck her straight in her heart. It's stung. Her mind keep wander back to that meeting.

-Flashback-

After the little outburst, King Joo-Nam and Yona both fell in a deep silent. Yona tried to keep her bearing, calming her raging emotion. Her grandfather helped her by rubbing her back in a slow motion. Some minutes had passed before she finally calm herself.

"Feel better?" she responded with a small nod. She kept her gaze on the ground, suddenly found the ground really interesting. Thinking back at what had occurred, Shame started to creep inside her. "I'm sorry…" she mumbled, disappointment was apparent in her voice.

"Hm? For what?"

She let out a sigh. "For… my outburst… it's unbecoming of me… as a princess…" he didn't say anything for a moment. Then she heard a click sound, assuming that the old man was taking a sip on his tea. Her own tea had long been forgotten.

Not sooner than that, she heard a chuckled. "There is a time when we need to hold back; there is also a time when we need to pour it out. Otherwise, we'll go nuts. This world is crazy enough. It doesn't need to be crazier than it already is." He told her gently.

She frowned, taking her eyes from the floor, she look straight at him. "But still…" she bit her lips. "It was so childish…" she continued, "…and I shouldn't have poured it out on you, Grandfather…" she let her eyes wander again, looking at anything but him.

"Do you actually forget that you are basically a child now?" he asked her with a hint of amusement. "It's not childish perse. In truth, I'm glad that you let it out. It was actually one of my goals to figure out just who you are."

Hearing that, she let her gaze wander back to her Grandfather, and she blinked and blinked. She really didn't realize that he had that kind of objective all along. All of this time, she only thought that he was suspicious of her, wanting to keep her close to him so he could keep an eye on her. After all, there was a saying: Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, but now, it seemed he only wanted to figure her out, or was she wrong again? She didn't know.

She mentally shook her head. Drinking the forgotten tea, she cringed at the coldness that soon numbed her tongue. Her tea has gone cold, making the tea taste more bitter than usual. It seemed that the Emperor had also come into the same conclusion for he called his servant to serve them new set of sweets and tea. Both of them waited in the comfortable silence, despite the argument that happened a while ago.

Minutes passed with no spoken word. The servants came with a fresh sweets and tea. She saw the content look on the old man face as he took a sip of his tea, before she join him in drinking her tea. A cup of fresh warm tea is indeed better than the cold tea she drank before.

The silence was broken by the Emperor. "Do you have a weapon?" he asked, taking a bite at the served sweets. Yona shook her head a little. "no." she answered.

King Joo-Nam's eyebrow rose a little. "Then how are you supposed to learn self-defence?" his face and voice bear the hint of incredulous, maybe because Yona was so ill-prepared in everything despite the maturity that she had shown.

She tilted her head a little. "Martial arts?" she responded, wearing a confused look. She didn't know what's the problem with the lack of weapon in aiding her learn self-defence. There are tons of ways to learn self-defence weapon less.

Once again, the emperor gave her a disbelief look. "With that short body?" he asked.

A vein was popped on Yona's head. She glared at him for giving such remark as she felt insulted. "I'll let you know that I'll grow taller in the future." She pouted. Her height is a sensitive subject, even if it was true.

King Joo-Nam scoffed at her remark. "But not in a few years, no?" He raised his eyebrow by a few millimetres as he commented. He didn't miss the fact that Yona flinched a little under his gaze.

"W-well… I can learn archery." She stuttered. Honestly, she understood his point. And yet, her ego didn't allow her to lose this argument just yet.

"And that will protect you, how?" another point was thrown right to her face.

"It is an effective long range battle skill." She said grumpily. She still remembered all the trouble that she had gone through to learn archery and how she practiced it into perfectness. Though in the end, she didn't use it anymore since it wasn't as effective on the battlefield as sword. Nevertheless, it was still a really great skill to acquire.

King Joo-Nam rolled his eyes at her answer. "And it'll end in a second when you are ambushed." He stated. It was like someone punched her straight at her face. "That's…!" she stopped and thought for a little while before she sighed. "Not… wrong…" she said dejectedly. She realized that he was right; she knew it since the beginning. However, she was not in a condition to complain. It was hard enough to secretly practice self-defence, it would be harder for her to find a weapon for her to use.

The old emperor let out a deep sigh. He walked out from the room for a while and came back holding some kind of baton. "Take this." He handed her the baton. The baton might be around 80cm long and because her body was short, she found it a little too long. It was pretty, white in color and had flame-like pattern and dragon on it.

She looked at the King. "What is this?" she asked as she tilted it back and ford. She looked at the old Emperor curiously. However, the old man only gave her a warm smile. "Take a look yourself."

She blinked. Examining the baton again, she soon found out that the baton was detachable. She pulled it and was surprised to find that it become a double blade katana. The same pattern was carved on the blade as well. The blade might be around 40cm long, and it was a double edge blade. After using swords for more than two decades, she knew that this sword was an amazing masterpiece. For the sword to be this good, it needed some real master blacksmith to create it. It was handled with such care too, as the sword was still in a good condition.

Unbeknownst to her, the old emperor gave her a fond look. "That was once given for me by my old friend as a keepsake. As you know, I'm more into heavy swords, so I never used that. Since you said you'll be learning self-defence, having a sword will be better than nothing." He said.

She turned to look at her grandfather, amazement was apparent on her face. But then, suddenly she remembered something. "You know… this is what people called favouritism." She frowned a little. The sudden change of heart cause the king's to raise an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Still frowning, Yona started to explain. "You didn't give anything to Soo-Won. Heck, you don't even spend any time with him." by the end, her furrowed brow get even deeper than before.

King Joo-Nam let a chuckle out. "That child doesn't need this old man prying into his life." He said as he poking her brow, to ease the tension.

Yona scowled. "And what make you think that I need one?" she argued back which only earned a small disapproved shake of head from the old man. "You certainly need one, young one." He said.

Yona was ready to talk back before he held his hand up, indicating her to keep quite. He stared at her as he began talking. "because you saw more, you know more, and you've gone through more, more than anyone can imagine, and certainly I'm the only one living here that understand the way you feel down there."

Yona opened her mouth, wanting to argue back. Yet, she couldn't find any word to say, her voice seemed stuck inside her throat. She closed her mouth and opened it again, but still, she couldn't think of any remark. At last, she sighed. "Do you know how dangerous you are?" she gave him a deadpanned look.

The king let out a snort. "You are not the first one saying that, and certainly will not be the last."

Yona stared down, eyeing her tea. This was all confusing, so much confusing. She didn't know how the old king could know her secret. Is it pure guess or what? "How can you know…" she let the question out, speaking in a small soft voice. It was more for clearing her messy mind, rather than asking for an answer.

The old emperor watched her every action with such a tender gaze. "I know nothing. But I know those eyes of yours, because I saw that every day on my reflection. Tired, aren't you?" his voice was equally soft, and when Yona look at him, the image in front of her was no longer the strong charismatic emperor. It was the look of someone who was tired of everything in this world, who was exhausted in taking burden. Yes, that was not King Joo-Nam, the emperor of Kouka's Kingdom. That is Joo-Nam, an old man who had been tired of working and carrying the heavy burden of the nation.

She didn't know what to say. But she wanted to ease the tension, somehow. "You make me sounds like an old woman." she mentally scolded herself for the lame joke. It didn't feel funny at all.

The emperor just gave her a small smile. "Are you not?" he asked, amused. He took a sip of his tea again, ignoring the glares that his granddaughter sent at him for calling her old. There is a gleam in his eyes as he returned her glare with a joyful look. "I'm not living this long and gain nothing, young lady." He didn't even bother masked his happy voice and enjoying teasing the poor child out, which doesn't sit well with Yona, who was his victim.

"Are you sure you are an old man? Or even an Emperor? Because I'm starting to doubt both my ears and eyes." She grumbled a little, not caring about manner any longer. "We will grow older, this body will grow weaker, but our mental should forever be young." He told her happily.

Once again, he gave a tender gaze to her. "Go socialize more, little one. It will help you, and hopefully cure you. You are actually a ticking bomb right now. It's only a matter of time before it'll explode. Those emotion that you've pent up inside… one day, it'll be the dead of you. You need to let them out before it's too late."

He continued, "I know what you fear the most. You fear losing the love in your life, fear being abandoned and misunderstood again. I can feel that there's a lot of fear in you actually. You find the world confusing. You know it's messed up and yet, you don't know what to do about it. You feel powerless to make a difference. Don't say anything, you don't have to. I can tell from your face that it's true. That's why you close your heart, isn't it? I understand you completely, believe me I do. Why? Because I have walk that road and I have experienced it myself. It wasn't an easy journey, was it? I knew you were someone special from the start, I just knew."

It was followed by silence, and this time, Yona wasn't bothered to break it. She looked at the King in silence, processing what he just told her. Seeing that he has caught your absolute attention, he started speaking again.

"But, you are not alone, not anymore." He began. "Open your eyes, and see the world. This world is not the dark world that you always told yourself. There is sunshine and there are flowers. There are mountain and rivers. There are living things. Take a step outside. You'll realize that the world out there is really bright, full of colours which you have missed for the time you holed yourself up," He continued, "If you stay like this, you'll not only hurting yourself, but also those who stay beside you."

His eyes showed the kind of gentle concern that her father used to have. He laid his hand lightly on her shoulder, and instead of flinching like she usually did, she was soothed by it. He left his hand there and spoke with such a soft voice she felt his words calming her more by the way they were said than the actual words. "There is nothing to be ashamed of by having these emotions. We are, after all, still a human being, are we not?" he gave her a warm smile. The way he spoke made her felt as if she were wrapped in a blanket of his caring that she didn't want to take off anytime soon.

"You have done well, Yona."

And that was the only thing which she had always yearned to hear.

-End of flashback-

As she walked down the hallway, she recalled what her grandfather told her, word by word. Yes, what he had said was right on the spot. She was afraid, afraid of losing someone dear and being left behind again. That was why she kept her distance with the others, even if it was painful for her. It wouldn't matter if she was hurt in the process, as long as her precious one was happy and save; it would be enough for her. She wouldn't ask for more. And yet, a small part of her always yearned for someone's comfort, for them to realize that she was actually really lonely. That small part always wished for a day where she could actually let go this entire burden.

Seeing Yona leaving the room, Hak made a move to trail her again. He jumped down the roof and started to follow Yona when he was stopped by a voice.

"Brat."

He mentally flinched, taking a deep breath as he turn to face the caller, who was none other than Emperor Joo-Nam. "Your Majesty." He bowed respectfully toward the Emperor. 'I'm screwed.' He mentally sighed. He should have known that the Emperor would know about his little spying action. He just prayed to the god that the Emperor would let this one slide.

"Do me a favour and look after that little kid, will you?"

He startled a little. Looking up at the Emperor, he saw the Emperor's gentle expression directed to him. He never once thought that the Emperor would personally ask him to look after Yona; after all, he wasn't part of Yona's bodyguard. 'At least not yet.' He mentally added. But now that the Emperor had brought it up, he couldn't refuse to do so. Hak lowered himself and kneeled in front of the Emperor. "I will, Your Majesty." He said.

King Joo-Nam gave him a satisfactory nod. "Go on then, Young One." He said, dismissing Hak. Hak stood from his position and gave him one last bow before leaving to search Yona. He didn't know why the King did what he did, and it certainly was not his business, but he wouldn't go back to his word. 'Even if he didn't ask, I will do so.' He thought as he looked around for his red head princess.

She was too caught up with her thought that she didn't realize she bumped someone. She almost fell down, had the person didn't change her. She looked up, and realized that person was Hak. He gave her a concerned look. "What's wrong, Yona-sama?" he examined her up and down and noticed that Yona was holding a long baton. He glanced for a brief moment before looking back at Yona. He could see that she had a blank look. Her eyes looked so distant, it seemed as if she looked far passed him. For a brief moment, a slight pain rushed inside his heart. 'Just who are you looking at, Yona?' but he shallowed it down, buried the unspoken question.

Unbeknownst to him, Yona was actually reminiscing the past, of her failure. Looking at Hak's face made her even sadder and guiltier. She remembered his past self, she remembered all those journey they had gone through, she remembered the love she had for him… she remembered the regret of not telling him her feeling before it was too late. 'I lost you before I could even hold you… if only I was more honest with you… and with myself.'

A single tear slid down from her warm, round eyes, followed by another one, and another one, until soon, a steady stream of salty tears flowed it was way down her pale cheek, releasing the sadness and sorrow that has been held inside of her for all this time but still she did not make a sound.

Hak eyes widened as he watched the stream flowed down. He didn't know what he should do, he was never good with handling a crying woman, and certainly still wasn't good with it. But couldn't bear to see her crying like this, his heart throbbed painfully as he saw the tears fell down. He pulled her to his chest, embraced her tightly as she let out her sorrow. Because that was the only thing he knew how to do, the only thing that he could do for her.

And that was the last straw for Yona to let loose. As much as she tried to hold it in, the pain came out like an uproar from her throat in the form of a silent scream. The beads of water kept falling down one after another, without a sign of stopping. In the embrace, she tried to scream, but her voice was melted by the sound of the place. The muffled sobs wracked against her chest. The world turned into a blur, and so did all the sounds. The taste. The smell. Everything was gone. The last painful emotion slammed against her before she lost the feeling of feeling. Everything darkened into nothingness as she passed into the oblivion of unconsciousness.

Hak didn't know how long he stayed in that position. He didn't care about the wetness on his shirt. He rubbed Yona's back, trying to ease her tension. Her body shook a little as she poured her sorrow out. He could felt that his arm started to tire out, but he ignored it. He stayed like that until he felt some weight on him. He realized Yona had cried to sleep. Without much choice, he piggy-back her back to her chamber.

He made sure to avoid any servant because he didn't want to go through all the trouble explaining what happened. He tucked her in her bed, watching her sleeping in silent. He noticed that her eyes were swollen and red; tears were still visible at the edge of her closed eyes. He looked at her with a mixed of hurt, pain, sadness and love. With one rough hand under her chin, he angles her face toward him and kissed away the tears.

"I will protect you, Hime-sama, even at the cost of my life."

He gave her one last look before leaving her chamber. 'I will protect you, your future, and your love. I will not fail you again, I swore.'

When Yona woke up later, she thought that was all a dream. But then, her swollen red eyes were the proof that all of that was real. She once again broke down in front of Hak, this time was much worse than before. She hid her face between her hands, feeling really embarrassed as she remembered what happened.

Her face was red, and she pouted a little as she looked at her reflection on the mirror. "Hak will certainly be the death of me." She didn't know how to face Hak anymore.

'Damn it! This is so out of character of me! Can I just bury myself in a hole?!'

She was really mortified by the little accident that she went as far as to avoid any contact with Hak. Whenever she heard his voice, she would run and hid somewhere. It was more of a reflex than intentionally. And if she couldn't hide, she would avoid any eye contact with him and stayed as far as she could from him. The tension was so thick, and the awkwardness was visible in her every gesture.

Hak and Soo-Won obviously picked this up. She could practically saw the questioning look that Soo-Won throw to her and Hak, and yet he didn't asked any further. Soo-Won might be the only bridge which connected her and Hak at this moment. But even that didn't lessen the tension between Yona and Hak, or more like the tension Yona caused.

She mentally used the excuse of wanting to practice using the sword, which was given by King Joo-Nam, to avoid meeting with Hak. Though, she knew that it was merely an excuse to hide herself. She knew she was a coward, not to mention, it was only a little accident. However, her ego spoke differently. It might be a little longer till she could come terms with her heart.

Avoiding Hak was one thing, avoiding a stalker was another thing. It had come to her attention that someone was watching her and following her every movement. 'Someone is following me…' she didn't know who was it, but she knew for sure that she was being followed. Her instinct said so, and she wasn't about to ignore it. The only thing that she can do was to act as if she knew nothing. 'Pretend that you don't know, Yona. Pretend!' she silently reminded herself.

Days had passed, and yet her stalker was still following her. It made her be conscious in her every little act. She dare not do anything that could cause alarm, and she made sure to stay silent all the time. Because she didn't what this stalker wanted from her. Was it information or was it her daily schedule? Or was it the people around her? Whatever it was, she had a feeling that this person was a real dangerous one.

'This person is really stubborn.' She grumbled mentally as she walked. Her ears didn't pick on any sound from the said stalker, which spoke a volume about that person skill. 'And a good one too.' She cursed mentally. This was not a good sign, as a skilled stalker had a high possibility to be an assassin.

'If only I've grown… it'll be easy to deal with this mess.' She let out a heavy sigh. 'I should speed up my training. At the very least, I need to be able to protect myself.'

She was lying on the garden, watching the clouds. She was thinking about how to handle her current predicament, yet she couldn't think up a way out. Why? Because she couldn't do anything drastic. Since she was being watched, her movement was limited. Not to mention, she didn't even know who stalked her, which was really frustrating.

PRANG

The sound was so sudden. She jolted from her position and she turned back to find the source before suddenly her internal alarm shouted for her to dodge something. And indeed, there was something being thrown at her, something sharp enough to cut her cheek. She looked at the thing from the corner of her eyes; it was glinting under the sunshine. 'Damn it. This is bad…' she cursed internally.

At first glance she would have sworn it was chunks of clear glass, given the temperature, it was the most likely guess. But when she bent to pick up a piece she almost screamed. It was cold, ice cold, and wet to the touch. Her heart was beating wildly. What the hell was ice doing way out here? And why so large and irregular? Each piece had at least the volume of an oversized mug. She could only imagine them being used as weapons of some sort, maybe shot from afar, and so she spun around on her heels casting wild eyes to the horizon. Empty. She readied her baton, just in case. This was a surprise and she didn't like them, not even on birthdays.

'After all of this time, the stalker indeed is an assassin? Isn't this too predictable?' she let out a wry laugh. 'Things really can get worst in the strangest time.' she narrowed her eyes as she looked around. 'But why…?' silently, she began wreaking her brain for an answer.

She didn't remember ever received a threat in her previous life. She used to have a quite peaceful life in the castle, of course minus the annoying little things that happened like the courting from that stupid Kan Tae-Jun.

She widened her eyes as she realized something. 'Don't tell me… don't tell me things had changed…' unconsciously, her body shook a little. Her face gone pale and she had hard time breathing. 'But I haven't done anything yet!' she silently screamed. She gasped a little. 'Why…'

As she struggling calming herself down, she heard someone called her. "Yona!" it was Soo-Won. He ran to her while smiling at her. When he had come near her, he let out a gasp. "Yona! What happened to your face?! Why is it bleeding?" he asked, panic was apparent in his voice.

Yona only stare at him before touching her face. Indeed, there was blood, which was flowing unnoticed by her. Now that she conscious about the cut, she realized that it throbbed a little. She turned her face away from Soo-Won. "It's nothing." She mumbled. She wiped the blood with her sleeve and walked away. Her brain had already started to form a plan in handling this not so good situation. Little did she know that Soo-Won was watching her retreated back with a worried look.

'Something is wrong…' he thought. But the lack of knowledge made him unable to do anything. He looked around the area and found the pieces of ice. Dread and concern suddenly rushed into his heart. 'Yona… what exactly happened?'

To be continued

That's it for the forth chapter! A little short, I think, but I felt that it was the best place to cut it. A little spoiler to you~ the next chapter will be the climax of this arc~ =w=

Anyway, regarding the last issue about Extra Chapter, I came into the conclusion that most readers don't want one since there are only four readers who actually participating in the survey, three of them wanted to read the Extra, while one of them didn't want to.

Like I said before, if there were not at least 10 people participating, it would be considered that readers don't like the idea. So I'm hereby apologizing to those who had said they want one. Don't worry, there is always next time! Maybe for next time, I'll just use the pole system. Will it be more effective, though?

Alright, that's it for the announcement! Thank you for your attention!

Thank you for those who have reviewed the last chapter, favourite and followed this story! :D

Bookgirl18: Thank you for reading this story! I'm glad that you enjoyed it! ^^ All of your question will be answered soon in the story, so just stay tuned, ne~ Though, I'm so sorry that I won't write any Extra Chapter soon, maybe next time 'k? ;)

Harukatana: Thank you for reading my story! I'm glad my King Joo-Nam was likeable, since he was really a mysterious character for us. He had never come out in canon, and I wonder will he ever come out, like at all? -.- And so sorry about the extra chapter! . as you can already saw the result… maybe next time, 'kay? :D

M-Angel 05: Thank you for reading this story! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Ohoho~ just stay tuned on this story to find out, k? :D Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Sage McGavin: Thank you for your offer! I'm sorry, but I'd like to see how far my writing can improve, so I would like to keep this as how I write it for the time being. Thanks for your offer, though! :D

Nfirefly: Thank you for reading this story! :DI hope that all the character are not OOC, it was especially hard to write Hak and Soo-Won. (._.) And so sorry about the extra chapter! . as you can already saw the result… maybe next time, 'kay? :D Oh, and your English was alright. You know, mine isn't perfect as well~ ;3

MugetsuIchigo: Thank you for reading this story! I'm glad that you love it. Thank you for participating in the survey as well! Hope that you enjoy reading this chapter~ :D

Minako213: Thank you for reading this story! Here is the newest update~ :D Yes, as I've mentioned before, the flashback part was taken directly from the wattpad version, since I hadn't tell readers about Yona and her grandfather's first meeting, so yeah. I hope that you enjoy the next part as well! :D

Review please, Minna~ any comment, critique, or advice is welcome! :D

See you on August 27th!

*Ld-G signed out*