A/N: Special thanks to Tiffany, my girlfriend, for taking the time and proofreading this story for me and for providing the cover image for my story! This story is going to be long and will focus on Chung's transition from a kid to a young man. It will loosely follow the plot laid out by the game's developers with a lot of liberty taken in between key story points. It takes place a year after the Velder demon invasion and just before the trip to Hamel. There will be a pairing eventually but it is not central to the story so it'll be some time before that sort of fluff is even written. And even then, it's not going to be the kind of romantic romance you'd expect. The story will revolve mostly around Chung and his own personal motive. There will be a lot of conversations and relationship building that will be important to his maturation and a lot of influences outside the el search party. That means there will be a number of OCs in this story that will change Chung's perspective for better or for worse.

Don't be disheartened though~ This story was written to entertain you and give you an alternative look at how the prince of hamel grew to the young man we all know him to be. I'll let you all figure out what the pairing is going to be. That being said, thanks for the feedback! I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am writing it!

A small campfire flickered in the soft breeze that blew through the forest. The rustle of leaves against the wind gave the night an enchanted feeling of tranquility that was all too familiar for the young man laying in his bedroll. He still hadn't learned the constellations despite the amount of time he spent sleeping outdoors. The only one the young man could pick out was the celestial string: a somewhat curved line of twinkling light that began at the north star and ended at the south star. In colloquial terms they were called the Nape and the Tail, respectively. Everything else around it was just beautiful extras that complimented the line.

It was difficult to remember everything he was supposed to learn a few years ago but he was barely in his teens then and he couldn't help it. He was sure the other stars played a significant role in navigation but Aisha had a terrible habit of droning on and on about each and every white dot in the sky. "The most important part," he remembered Raven saying after Aisha's hours-long lecture, "is to remember the celestial string: the Nape all the way down to the tail." The war veteran had then proceeded to trace the constellation for the young prince from top to bottom.

That was when he first met them—when he was just a wandering soul looking to reclaim a lost kingdom. "If you're ever lost, they will help you find your way," Raven had told him. The young prince idly followed the constellation with his fingers in thought. But was he right to follow them? For years the young man travelled the lands under the stars' directions… and yet here he was: living every day wondering how he survived, clinging desperately to what little he possessed, no place to call home, and still no answer to what happened to his father: King Seiker.

He wanted to know whether this was all a waste of time. For the many months he endured braving the elements both natural and magical for the sake of becoming strong enough to return home, he had never felt more powerless at making a difference. He could leave. Just disappear into the night and pursue his goals without their help… but he owed them too much. Elsword, Aisha, Rena, Raven, and Eve had taken him under their wing and taught him how to survive. They were his friends and, with the addition of Ara, Elesis, and now Add, he had all the more reason not to abandon them. He just had to hang on to Elsword's promise that he'd one day have a place he could call home.

A twig snapped. The young man's cyan-colored eyes snapped to the brush opposite him, over the fire, and closest to Add. His eyes strained to adjust over the dim-lit flames but all rustling had then stopped and Add, who was fast asleep, merely turned to his side towards the young man. He was mumbling in his sleep—laughing, actually. The prince was unsure of whether to be more concerned about what was hiding in the bush or what was sleeping in plain sight before him.

The rustling came back—quieter this time—as if trying not to alert him. To his horror, he could make out a shadowy form much bigger than a bear or a moss golem moving towards the person closest to Add: Eve. He sat up this time and quietly reached for one of his revolvers. The moving shadow stopped and it did so in such a way that the fire almost made its form meld into the black background. Eve was still fast asleep. For a long moment there was nothing—nothing to the point where he was unsure if the shadow was still standing there plain to see. The breeze had all but ceased, as if giving him the chance to listen for the next move. He released the hammer lock and slowly… slowly got to his feet. And as he rose, he ran into a body that stood at the head of his bedroll.

He yelped, squeezing the trigger out of instinct as he jumped back and recovered, pointing the gun at the intruder.

"Chung! What the El?" the young knight shouted as he fell back, several strands of red hair were singed black at the tips.

"Elsword! I… there was a… you see…" Chung pointed frantically towards Eve who was sitting straight up in her bedroll, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "There was a… And I thought you-"

Elsword gave a sigh and got back on his feet, dusting the dirt from his armor. He picked up his sword and wandered over to Eve, glancing over at the bush that Chung pointed at. "Nothing here, Chung," he said with a shrug and kicked at the bush to show for it. He then smiled at Eve, giving her a playful bow. "Sorry to disturb you, your majesty. It's not your shift yet. It's Chung's."

"I'm aware," Eve said and, after rubbing her eyes, laid back down, muttering a "good night" and was out like a light within seconds.

Elsword laughed quietly to himself and looked over at Chung. "So, yeah. It's your turn," he said as he started to remove plates of his armor.

"Oh. Right. My turn," the prince said, He pulled at a sheet that hid his gigantic destroyer and the special Frieturnur armor.

"Before you do that, I need to take a leak," the red-haired knight said with a beckoning motion.

"I'm, good. You go ahead," Chung replied as he fixed the boots and shin guards on his leg. The prince heard a sigh and Elsword suddenly grabbed him by the forearm and dragged the prince off into the dark outer ring of the camp. "I said I'm good, Elsword! Leave me be!"

Elsword threw him that award winning grin and continued to tug him along despite the prince's protests. "Lighten up, Chung. Can't a guy have a man-to-man talk with his friend?" It wasn't until they were well out of earshot did Elsword finally get down to business.

It was quiet, except for the sound of flowing water and the occasional frog in the distance. Chung stood there, back against a tree as he waited for his comrade to finish.

Elsword was the second youngest of the group with the prince being the youngest. Although in a scope of mental maturity, the knight was easily dead last. His brash and headstrong attitude often caused more trouble than he'd mean and all his friends acknowledged this very fact about him. It was this same personality, however, that earned him respect from the older members of their circle. In fact, Chung credited most of his own bravery to watching the young man charge headlong against impossible odds without a second thought.

An ambitious boy, he was raised to be a swordsman like his older sister. Elsword was constantly pressured at a young age to do his best and that mentality was burned in his mind long ago. Now that he was at the peak of his teen years, the boy had already earned his place among Velder's Red Knights due to his valiant effort in stemming the demon tide invading Velder.

"So… what was it you wanted to talk about?" Chung said as he heard the other finish.

"You haven't been sleeping a lot recently," Elsword said, his back still to him, "What's on your mind?" Never the one to beat around the bush, the Red Knight's question came as no surprise to Hamel's prince.

Chung was silent for a long while. Was this his chance? He could tell Elsword about wanting to leave—about going back to Hamel and trying to find his father. Would that be alright with him? Knowing Elsword, he'd probably volunteer himself as well as the rest of the gang to fight alongside him against the demon scourge but… These weren't regular demons. His father, who he regarded as the strongest man in the world, had gone missing against a flood of sinister otherworldly beasts. This was far more dangerous than the small scale demon invasion in Velder and even then they barely managed to survive. What chance did Elsword and the others have in making it out alive? He wouldn't forgive himself if even one of them fell. Just thinking about it brought a heavy weight to his gut.

"Is it Add?"Elsword asked.

"Huh?"

Elsword walked over to Chung and motioned towards the fourth member who was drooling in his sleep. "Is it Add? You've been like this around the time that know-it-all came in and started bossing us around."

Chung stared at their newest member. Elsword wasn't wrong, the man's disposition did put Chung off and he counted a few times where the man treated him almost like a dog! How belittling for a prince to be treated as such, he thought, but he couldn't bring himself to be angry at Add.

Elsword leaned in closer and spoke in a whisper, "Frankly, I don't trust him either. He thinks he's so special, proving how much smarter than he is than me," Elsword snorted angrily, "And look at how close he sleeps to Eve… it's creepy, isn't it? How he worships the ground she walks on like she's some kind of goddess."

Chung had to force a laugh. "So you're jealous or something? I thought you weren't into Eve. It seemed pretty obvious with the way you push her away. Frankly, I don't see what both of you see in her."

The red-head scoffed and after some visible, wordless denial and a struggle for words he leaned in again. "Okay, okay. Let me tell you something that I didn't even tell Raven: I think Eve's cute. Alright? She's cute but..." He motioned his hand in a circle as he tried to find the words, "She's not my… equal?"

"What…?"

"You don't feel it? When she talks to you its like… you're immediately below her. You're always looking up."

"You mean like how Add treats you."

"Yes! Exactly except she's a girl and she does it in a cute way but I still don't like that. You know what I mean?"

"So she's not your type, then?"

"Exactly. When you're looking for that special someone, you gotta find someone you can see as your equal. Eve, I don't see her as my equal... What were we talking about, again?"

"... Add, I think?" Chung said after a moment.

"Right. Don't trust that guy. Keep an eye on him," Elsword gave a big stretch and a yawn, "Anyways, good talking with you, Chung. I'll let you get on with your shift. I'm heading to bed."

The knight gave him a strong pat on the shoulder before making his way back to the camp grounds. "Ah," Chung started as he remembered what he actually wanted to tell Elsword but the knight was already quite a ways away.

"…An equal, huh," Chung mumbled, perplexed at the thought. In truth, he never knew his mother so he wasn't so sure about Elsword's statement. He never saw how his father regarded his mother but when he did speak of her it was one of fond remembrance. Maybe he'd come to understand it one day.

Hours passed without incident as it usually did during the night watch. Chung often used the time during his watch to clean and maintain his destroyer and silver shooters. This time was no different. He sat on his bedroll with one disassembled revolver, cleaning out the chambers specifically designed to hold the magical energies of El. Echo the alchemist from Elder had been very specific about her weapons' maintenance, expressing caution on the fact that these could explode rather violently—"enough to blow your arm clean off"—if they suffered too much wear and tear.

The rustling in the brush never came back and Chung had assumed that whatever it was, it was no longer there. It definitely wasn't a squirrel or anything small so he was glad that it didn't show its face.

Chung felt something metallic and round resting on his head. He tilted his head upward but the object remained. He reached over his head, clutching the round object and brought it to his lap. It was Remy. The white drone, complete with miniature lance and shield like a tiny soldier, whirred its gyroscopic engines at him.

He then noticed that a shadow had fallen over him and he looked over his shoulder to see Eve standing behind him already dressed in her black Nasod garb. She had her arms crossed and observed him with her golden eyes while the black drone, Moby, hovered behind her.

"Good morning, Eve. Is it your shift already?" Chung asked.

With a wave of her hand a soft blue hologram appeared before her, showing the current time: 1:22 AM. "As of 22 minutes ago," she answered bluntly.

"Oh. It's not like you to be off schedule," Chung said, quickly moving to put together his revolver and end his shift.

"I wasn't," Eve said.

"But…your shift started 22 minutes ago, you said. Doesn't that make you late?" Chung saw the Nasod's eyes drop a little and he quickly raised his hands to take it back. "Ah, it's not that I'm upset. We all make mistakes-"

"I was observing you." She flipped her long white hair over her shoulder and walked past him and began her shift.

Seeing as he wasn't going to get anything further, Chung pushed for more while he finished reassembling his revolver. "Why were you watching me?"

"None of your concern," she answered dismissively while looking at him over her shoulder.,"Any disturbances during your shift that I should know about?"

Chung hesitated and after a moment shook his head. "Nothing."

With that the Nasod traced a circle in the air with her finger and it began to glow a soft white and blue. The sound of data flowing from the edges grew louder and after a brief spark a four-legged sentry popped out. It was of a simple design: four blade-like legs attached to a hockey-puck shaped head with a single camera lens that focused on its mistress. She only gestured it to go forth and it obeyed unquestioningly, turning on its area scanners as it disappeared into the woods.

Eve stood there, listening to the rustle of her Nasod scout as it patrolled the perimeter before she moved to sit down. Moby, the black drone, quickly slid itself under her functioning as her chair. She brought up a holographic keyboard and opened a window where she began monitoring her scout's position remotely.

Eve is like a machine, Chung thought as he watched her. Of course he wasn't too far from the truth. Underneath the black uniform that hugged her petite body, under the long white locks and fair skin, was a sophisticated and ancient Nasod machine; one that possibly predates even the oldest member in their group: Rena.

Chung didn't trust her. Not completely, at least. Since he was a young boy he had learned from history books that Nasods were a cruel and mindless race of machines that almost wiped humans off the face of the planet a millennia ago. It was a war spurred on by the evil mechanical race's lust for El energy and it was this lust and dependency for its magical properties that ultimately ruined them. The way he saw it, Eve was a remnant of that ancient war and her ruthless power was more than obvious when she destroyed her own King Nasod's core without so much as batting an eye.

"Is there something you need?" The Nasod asked as she looked back at him over her shoulder.

"Ah… no," Chung said as he began to unbuckle his plates of armor, "Was just making sure you had everything under control."

"Your concern is not necessary, human," she said, returning to monitoring the screen, "I will alert you in the unlikely scenario that I would require your assistance."

Chung gave a single slow nod-not at Eve's comment but in recognizing what Elsword was talking about. That was often how she referred to him and towards the others: calling them by their race rather than by name. Only in emergencies or when they were all together and she needed to address one specific individual did she resort to calling them by name and it was times like this that Chung understood where he was in the Nasod's chain of hierarchy.

A red flash appeared on screen and before Eve could see what happened, the live feed for her sentry unit turned to static. Not too far in the distance came the sound of rustling bushes and the soft crunch of metallic alloy.

This caught both of them by surprise as Chung quickly re-buckled his armor and reached for his destroyer. "What was that…?" Chung said only to see Eve bring a finger to her lips.

Eve pushed herself off of her drone and stared out into the darkness. "Indeterminable… but I will investigate. Hold your position here, I will signal for you should your assistance be necessary," she said as she made her way into the forest.

Hearing this, Chung quickly slung the heavy cannon onto his shoulder and rushed to the Nasod's side. "Wait! Wait a minute!" Chung said in a loud whisper as he grabbed her by the forearm. She wrenched it quickly away and looked at him as if she had just been touched by a perverted old man.

"Don't you dare touch me, commoner!" she said angrily.

Chung had to brush aside the fact that she was wrong in the address and pressed onto more important matters. "Okay, I know. I didn't mean to, I'm sorry. But you can't go in there alone, okay? Whatever is out there is big and I wouldn't forgive myself if anyone got hurt when I could've done something about it."

Eve was fuming but she relented. "How would you come to the conclusion that the threat is anything more than a forest bear?"

"I've seen it," Chung said with a heavy gulp, "It was standing over you as you slept a few hours back. I'm sure it's the same one.

This new knowledge brought an even brighter flame of anger in the Nasod's golden eyes. "And you failed to tell me of this earlier? I lost one of my sentries because of your negligence! What if it were Moby or Remy? Out of my way, I'll see to it that this beast is taken care of."

Her drones pushed him aside as she opened another summoning portal above her. Data flowed out of it like raining building blocks, forming a large caliber machine gun that she strained to carry in its weight. She continued stumbling through the forest with her drones leading and combing a smooth path for her to walk on.

Chung stumbled after her. At this rate, he'd lose her in the darkness if he stopped to wake the others.

"Here are the remains…" Eve said after walking quite a ways away from camp. It was in a shaded clearing where she set down her blaster to investigate the corpse of her sentry, or what was left of it at least. Two legs with wires sticking out of it lay twitching and severed from the core. The rest was missing. "Whatever destroyed my sentry bit into it. No signs of gnawing… just one big bite."

"You sure it wasn't ripped off?" Chung asked as he caught up to her.

Eve shook her head, "It is difficult to observe but there are clear signs of teeth marks here. Whatever it was had a mouth to big enough to devour a small child… And did I not tell you to remain in the camp until I called for you?"

Chung gave an exasperated sigh, "How in the hells would I be able to hear you through the thick trees from this distance? I'm here now so I can help you at a moment's notice!"

"You were quite helpful in warning me earlier. That is sarcasm. I hope you are able to discern it."

"Look, now's not the time to argue, okay? We have a serious threat hiding somewhere in these woods and we-"

Movement caught their eye and the both of them quickly had their guns pointing at the shadowy presence.

Standing before them was a short, shadowy fiend that, at full height, would barely reach Chung's hips. It had thin lanky limbs and back filled with large protruding spines. The rest of its body was eyes and a mouth which it opened widely to bark at them.

"Target acquired," Eve said, glancing sideways towards Chung. "You can return to the camp, now. I will eliminate this threat without your assistance."

She squeezed the trigger and the bright plasma rounds cut through the night like a strobe light, quickly making mincemeat out of the shadowy fiend.

Chung stared on in horror, however, as with each flash of light, he became more and more aware of the giant looming shadows that surrounded them. These shadows had eyes. They had mouths. Fangs that gleamed a sick yellow with each shot fired from Eve's gun. There were dozens of them and they had already circled the two by the time Eve had begun firing. They were getting closer and it was between the twentieth and thirtieth shot that the Nasod slowly realized something wasn't quite right.

Chung drew a revolver and pulled the trigger. El energy flowed from his arm, powering the chamber of his firearm as a magical bullet exited the barrel. The shot connected but pinged off of the fiend's scales, dissipating in a blue splash. He fired again and again, each shot hitting the creature's head until a crack formed and the following bullet penetrated. The creature shrieked and burst into fragmented shadows but was quickly replaced by another.

The prince drew his second revolver and let loose a hail of rounds as he slowly pressed his back against Eve. For everyone Chung cut down, more would continue the advance until the prince was forced to use his cannon in melee.

He slid the heavy destroyer from his shoulder in one seamless motion that connected with the jaw line of the nearest enemy. He swung it back and forth like a hammer with super-human strength that warded off his end of the circle. Spinning around and following through with a downward strike, he managed to crush another fiend only moments away from biting Eve's head off. He stepped to her side, firing another volley of bullets over her shoulder in an attempt to stave off the tides of monsters.

"Are you alright?" he asked. He could clearly see she was alive and well, though almost out of ammo.

"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. A red flash in her projected hologram caught her attention and she spun completely around. "Watch your own side, human!" she shouted as she covered Chung's back. Her plasma rounds cut through the ranks like butter but it wasn't much longer until her blaster clicked empty. The gun dematerialized as she dropped it, El energy flowed from the core in her head to her palms. Bright orbs of electrical energy gathered at her fingertips which she flung like a disk. The disks struck with an explosive flash that illuminated the area in bright blue flashes.

It was only when her blaster clicked empty that Chung realized they couldn't stay here and had to move. "Eve!" he said as he went into siege stance, "We have to go back to the camp, now!" He fired his destroyer, blasting a hole in the ranks and grabbed the Nasod by the collar of her dress.

She stumbled and protested only briefly but caught her footing as her drones moved to keep the temporary path clear while they made a run for it.

The once silent forest was now alive with a sinister presence. The shadows around Chung echoed with deafening shrieks. He dodged tree after tree, and ducked and jumped every branch in his path as quickly as his legs carried him with Moby and Remy's miniature head lights leading the way back to the safety of the camp.

He felt Eve's hand clutch at his forearm in an attempt to get his attention. He looked back to see the Nasod was still being held at the collar and was trying to pry his strong arm away to let her run on her own. Directly behind her, an enormous demon thundered after them. He couldn't see just how big it was but Chung could see a line of teeth that could easily fit five full grown men side-by-side, knocking over trees as if they were made of Styrofoam.

Chung switched his grip, taking the girl by the forearm and swinging her in front of him as he lined up a quick shot with his cannon directly behind. The cannonball burst in a bright blue flash, but only slowed the beast momentarily before it continued its charge.

"Moby! Remy!" he heard Eve call as she took the lead, pulling Chung along behind her. The drones formed steps upward into the trees, forcing Chung to watch his own footing as he stepped on each drone's head. He wondered why they were taking this route but he quickly saw what lay before them: at the forest floor were swarms of smaller fiends waiting like piranhas for the first victim to lose their footing.

Not as agile as Eve, Chung struggled to keep up. Guided only by the hand that pulled him along. The drones that caught his steps did well in maintaining his balance. He saw Eve raise a hand to the sky, drawing a large circle and opening a portal just above the canopy. "Dimension link: flame guardian! To me!"

A large Nasod fell from the portal, hitting the ground with enough force to shake the entire forest. Without so much as a word of command, the guardian knew what to do: planting its flame cannon to the ground, it let loose an explosive wave of fire that engulfed its immediate vicinity and incinerated the swarms of fiends that waited on the ground.

The two leapt down from the branches and continued running through the now-burning landscape as the guardian returned to its pocket dimension just before the larger fiends overwhelmed it.

With the forest ablaze, Chung could clearly see the monster that pursued them: it was a demon whose mouth made up the majority of its body. Black scales sharpened into spines lined with yellow, lightning-shaped streaks covered its body. Large, trunk-like arms pulled it through the forest at a ferocious pace, knocking aside trees and brush while two small eyes remained locked on the two tiny morsels running from it.

He felt Eve's pace slow and when Chung looked ahead to see why, he found himself staring at a wall of flame, its tips climbing ever higher as the canopy leaves ignited from the intense heat.

Chung clenched his fist in frustration before turning around in a siege stance. "Why'd you set the forest on fire?" he cried out through the booming echoes of his cannon.

"I was surrounded by these monsters. I had no better option than to use it to clear my path!" Eve responded, a rocket launcher materializing in her hands. The missile connected with the beast and kicked up burning ash and smoke, blinding the immediate area before them. As the dust settled, to their disbelief, the demon stood before them, its arms already blocking any route of escape.

"In the middle of a forest? How did you think that was going to affect our getaway?" Chung asked angrily as he pulled the reload lever. Another set of fresh rounds were produced and he let loose another volley. Through the explosions the beast opened its maw, lunging forward at the two. Thinking quick on his feet, he turned the cannon sideways and pulled the trigger, launching him into Eve, and pushing them just far enough away to avoid being swallowed whole.

"It was a miscalculation on my part! Moby! Remy! Attack!" She got to her feet and jumped over the demon's flailing arm, and ran along side it as her drones threw their weight into pounding the demon's flanks.

"Miscalculation?!" Chung ducked the arm, swinging his cannon downward at the joint before jumping over it after Eve. "We're trapped here with no way to return to camp because of it!" He ran along behind Eve, firing his revolver at the demon's impenetrable scales.

She came to a stop, turning around to face Chung, her face red with fury. "You think this is my fault? My fault that you failed to warn me about this threat? Had I known it was something this serious I would have awoken the others but you-"

There came a large roar and Chung looked up, noticing that they were already standing under the beast's maw. The roof of its mouth hung over them and threatened to capture the two like a basket trap triggered by rats.

"Armageddon… BLADE!" a giant blade of light pierced the darkness within the beast's mouth and the two inside had to cover their ears from the deafening shriek that came all around them. The upper part of the mouth squirmed opened and through the cage-like rows of teeth, Chung could see Elsword trying to wrestle the giant blade free from the demon's skull.

Add appeared, using his dynamos to slide under the row of teeth and into the mouth to their side. Still dressed in his tank top and shorts sleepwear and with long white hair in disarray, he looked as if he had to be dragged out of bed to get here.

Chung let out a relieved sigh. "Add! Are we glad to see you-"

"Are you hurt, Eve?" Add asked.

"Minimal damage was sustained," Eve replied.

"Excellent." The man then proceeded to scoop her off her feet. "Phase shift!"

In a blink of an eye, the two disappeared, a transporter beacon taking their place.

"What about me?" Chung called out from inside the beasts mouth.

"Chung!" Elsword called from outside, "Get out of there! I can't hold this guy for much longer!"

"How?"

There was a hot flash of red light as everything from the roof of the monster's mouth upward was blown clean off. In its place were the sparkling remnants of the giant laser beam that disintegrated the beast's upper body.

The rest of the body slumped forward and slowly began to dissipate back into shadow. Through the smoke and demon guts, he saw Add pointing a finger towards the prince, his dynamos taking the form of a cannon.

It took a while to realize what happened but Elsword was the first to speak up. "Hey, Add! You almost hit both of us!"

"Shame," Add replied with a grin. As drops of rain began to fall through the thick canopy.

"You asshole!" Elsword started for him but Chung was quick to jump in between.

"Whoa, alright, THANK you both for saving us. We would've been dead if you didn't arrive when you did. How'd you know where to find us?"

Add snorted. "Doesn't take a super genius to figure out where you two ran off to," He pointed at Elsword, "Even this dimwit could follow the smoke trail you left behind."

Again, Chung had to keep Elsword from ripping the man's tongue out, putting the knight in a half nelson in the process.

Elsword calmed down after a moment and the prince slowly let him go. The knight recomposed himself and spoke. "After we reached the burning forest you were easy to find."

"Were we?" Chung asked.

Elsword nodded. "You two were practically screaming your heads off at each other. Would've taken longer to locate you if you hadn't been arguing… But since the threat's gone and we're all alive, what were you two going on about?"

For a moment cyan eyes locked with golden ones standing in the distance. It was as Eve was challenging him to admit this whole ordeal was his fault. The rain had picked up by then and it was already beginning to pour, dousing what would be an out-of-control blaze.

"I… I was the cause of this," Chung said as he dropped his gaze. Even though he broke eye contact he could feel Eve's and now the rest of the group's eyes on him. "Earlier this evening, I thought I saw something towards the end of Elsword's watch. I couldn't see what but I knew it was big and it was standing over Eve before it disappeared."

"And you didn't tell me?" Elsword started. Chung didn't look but he could hear how angry he was.

"I… I had other things on my mind and it wasn't important to me then… I KNOW I was wrong for thinking that. I didn't tell Eve either so I'm even more at fault. When her sentry was destroyed and went to investigate, I went with her and, well… the rest is history."

"You know," Add began, "This monster could've killed my Eve-"

"I know. It was selfish of me and I'm sorry for endangering Eve and your lives as well… I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

There was a long moment where all he could hear was the soft crackle of burning lumber. All these years of swearing to protect his friends, he put it aside over the selfish thought of pursuing his own goals. It was his friends that protected him this time. He was even more in debt to them now.

A hand fell on his shoulder and he looked up to see Elsword shaking his head at him with a sigh. "Just promise not to ever do that, again. Am I clear? Your friend's safety always comes first. That's your duty as a guardian, isn't it?"

"…Yeah."

"Let's get back to camp and get out of this rain," Elsword said, signaling the rest of the group to follow.

He heard Add grunt, "And I had my clothes hung to dry, too."

Chung stood there, shuffling his feet uncomfortably as he listened to the group leave for camp. He began to walk but almost ran into Eve, standing in front of him. She had her arms crossed, her expression as poker-faced as ever.

"…Never seen a prince bow to commoners," she remarked.

"I had to put it out there," Chung said through gritted teeth.

"That wasn't all of it, though."

He looked up at her, tilting his head in confusion.

"Nevermind," the Nasod said, "Let's go back to camp."

"As you say, Eve."