Four years ago, the fourth prince fled into the night...Now, he returned with the sunrise.
Kin did not knock on the gate. He simply stood. The sky was still dark, but the horizon had begun to tint with a faint orange. The sunrise was coming. So was he.
The guards saw him from afar. A tall shadow, wrapped in a black cloak, walking slowly toward the iron gate as if the entire world was waiting for his steps.
"Who goes there?!" the young guard shouted, his hand gripping his spear.
The shadow did not answer. It kept walking.
"Stop! Do not come any closer!"
He stopped. But his halt was not fear. It was the pause of a hunter who knew his prey could no longer escape.
He slowly lifted his hood.
The guard gasped.
It was not the face he remembered. Four years ago, that face had been frail, fearful, its eyes always lowered. But now? The jaw was hard as stone. The eyes were steady, cold, carrying within them something the guard could not explain. It was like staring into the eyes of a hungry wolf on a winter night.
"K... Ken?" the guard muttered.
"The fourth prince," the voice corrected. Calm…sharp…final.
The other guard, an old man who had served the palace for twenty years, whispered to his comrades: "It is truly him. But... he has changed."
Kin entered through the gate without asking permission. His steps were steady, unshaken, like someone who knew every stone in this place. He did. He had known it since childhood. But now, he walked like someone who owned it.
Servants gathered in the corners, their whispers rising. Kin looked at one of them, the thin servant in a white apron, and pointed at him without saying a word.
The servant ran toward him, afraid.
"A bath. Now."
"Y... Yes, Your Highness!"
While the servants prepared the bath, Kin stood in his old room. He looked at the bed, the desk, the window. Everything was as he had left it. Even the dry stain of tears on the pillow was still there.
He touched it with the tip of his finger.
He remembered.
He remembered that night he ran away. He was fourteen years old. Frail. Afraid. Crying in the darkness of the road while the rain lashed his face. He had been running like a rat, not knowing where to go, only knowing he could not stay..."I will not show you mercy. Because the world will not show you any."
And now, he had returned.
Kin bathed in hot water, for the first time in years. When he stepped out, he summoned two guards.
The two guards stood before him, their bodies tense, their eyes fixed on the ground.
"I will sleep now. I do not want to be disturbed. If anyone enters without my permission..."
He paused. Let the silence weigh heavily in the air.
"...you will lose your positions."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Then he turned to the servant. "Where are my siblings?"
"The first, second, and third princes are on a hunting trip. Princess Eliana is asleep."
"And Marvin?"
The servant hesitated. "He was dismissed... three days after your disappearance."
Kin's eyes turned as cold as ice.
"You will find him immediately. And you will tell him that Prince Kin summons him."
He lay down on his bed. Closed his eyes.
In the whispers rising outside his room, one servant said: "He has returned... but he has completely changed."
Another replied: "Wait until his brothers return. Then we will see who truly changed."
In his room, Kin opened his eyes. Looked at the dark wooden ceiling.
He smiled.
A cold smile. The smile of someone who knows something others do not.
He whispered in a voice barely audible:
"Welcome back, my brothers. I have returned."
Then he closed his eyes...