The Unsurpassed Maiden

Mi Young walked behind Hae Choon who was still pretending to be one of the soldiers inside the hidden part of the headquarters. As they walked further inside the building, the black haired girl wondered how big the area was and why no one from the other side noticed its secret side.

The black haired girl didn't know what happened after that, all she remembered was that they walked from corridor to corridor and passed a series of rooms until they finally stopped in a huge and empty lobby that had huge frames and arts plastered on the walls.

A scientist comes in and instructs the soldiers to halt. He walked towards the center of the room and told the soldiers to stand all over the side of the room and at least three meters away from each other. Mi Young walked along Hae Choon as he walked towards his assigned position, which was just below a huge picture frame of two girls facing away from each other; one had blonde hair and the other black.

Mi Young looked at the picture more closely. For some reason there was something really familiar with the two girl's faces.

"I want all of you to stay where you are and be alert at all costs. The female prisoner might wander here since she's probably finding a way out. If you see her, capture her and bring her to my lab alive." The scientist says before he exits the gallery room.

Mi Young's eyes wander around the room trying to find something interesting to kill her time. Hae Choon told her earlier that the soldiers will have to change shifts just a couple of hours from now and then they can go back to the prison where she left Kwang Soo and Jang Hoon so they can both set them free.

The black haired girl decided to stroll around the room instead so she sent a single in front of Hae Choon, who was still pretending that he can't see her, and told him that she'll just check out the surroundings. Of course the other party didn't reply to her and instead, just continued staring ahead of him as he should.

So Mi Young followed the series of pictures that were hanging on the walls of the gallery room. She found tons of different pictures that depict different ears of the Mage kingdom. There were some that showed the livelihood of their ancestors, some were paintings of Masters training their apprentices on how to meditate and control their elements. There were also paintings that were just covered with black and white ink that Mi Young doesn't entirely get. However, one painting stood out among the others which made Mi Young stop in front of it.

The painting looked fresh and with the way it was hanging on the edge of the last wall, Mi young knew that it was recent. This painting was nothing extravagant actually, it was just a normal picture of the city of Furotingu. It showed the heart of the city where people gather the most. Mi Young sees the merchants selling their goods and the people walking around the area. But what caught her attention the most was the fact that on the top right corner of the painting was her, Kwang Soo, and Lady Ning Gwang who was walking with the two highest ranking officials of the city.

Mi Young's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the painting more closely. The painting was so detailed that it looked somewhat real if not for the fact that the people in the painting do not move. What shocked her most was the fact that she only arrived in the city a while earlier with her two companions. She might not be an expert in art but she knew that paintings such as this one required more than a day to be completed.

When Mi Young scanned the painting, she saw a signature engraved on the bottom part of the painting. What she saw made her almost lose her balance.

There, written on the bottom left part of the painting of Furotingu was the painter's signature and the year he or she drew it. Mi Young doesn't know who the painter was but the date that was written below the painter's name was the reason why the black haired girl couldn't believe what she was seeing. The painting was made three years ago.

"How the hell…" The black haired girl whispers to herself. However, she forgot that there was a soldier standing a few feet away from her. So when the soldier whips his head towards her direction, the black haired girl panics.

Even though she knew that the soldier couldn't see her, Mi Young still made sure to walk gently and soundlessly as possible away from the soldier. But the soldier didn't give up after that.

"Who's there?!" The soldier shouts, earning the attention of almost all of the other soldiers inside the gallery room. Mi Young meets Hae Choon's eyes, but the boy immediately looks away so no one would notice that he was staring into something else.

"Are you okay?" The soldier who was standing beside the soldier who heard Mi Young asks. "What's wrong?"

"I think I heard someone talking here. No, I knew someone was talking here." The soldier says while pointing at the exact same spot where Mi Young was standing earlier.

"But there's no one there, buddy. Maybe you're just hearing things." The other soldier says.

"No, trust me I heard it pretty clearly." The soldier who heard Mi Young says.

Another soldier stepped forward, "I know you're scared because of how they treat us here but there's no need to cause such ruckus for nothing. This can get us into trouble."

"No, you guys have to trust me. I came from a town near the woods. I grew up in a family of hunters. We know everything about hunting because we were trained since we were younger. I have the best hearing skills in our family and I knew when I hear something." The soldier presses, trying to make his co-soldiers listen to him.

"That's great but we could really get in trouble if someone hears you shouting loudly for no particular lesson."

"That's true. Just ignore it lad and focus on standing there."

"We're a couple of hours away from the shift change so get your mind off of stupid things and focus on your mission!"

There were a couple of nods coming from the rest of the soldiers, saying that the soldier who heard the black haired girl was just tired and needed some rest so they ignored him and continued standing on their part of the gallery.

When Mi Young looks at the soldier who heard her, she knows that the man is more than convinced of what he heard based form the look on his eyes right now and the black haired girl couldn't help but feel uneasy. She sense that something bad is going to happen.

So Mi Young, to avoid further trouble, went back to standing beside Hae Choon who was now back on his spot. The black haired girl sat on the carpeted floor just a few inches away from the man as she thought about the painting she saw earlier.

She wonders if the painter who drew that can see the future. It has to be the only explanation as to why there was a painting that showed her and Kwang Soo as well as Lady Ning Gwang and was dated three years ago from today. However, there was another thing that kept on bothering her.

If such a painter exists, then where is he now?

The young girl couldn't help but let out an annoyed grunt as she was getting more confused with everything around her. She immediately looked up when she saw the soldier next to Hae Choon looking in her friend's direction.

Good thing Hae Choon was quick-witted as he bows at the other soldier and says in an apologetic voice, "Sorry, I was getting bored."

The other soldier just chuckled and said a little 'me too' before he looked away and went back to his position.

The black haired girl couldn't help but to send an apologetic smile towards her friend who threw an icy glare at her before finally looking away.

Mi Young slowly pinches skin to punish herself for being so clumsy.

A couple of hours later, with the soldiers still standing on the exact same spot where the scientist left them and with Mi Young sitting beside Hawe Choon with a bored expression, the scientist who left them earlier finally came back. But this time, he was walking with a man who was wearing an elegant suit and with a mask covering his whole face.

"Listen everyone! I would like you to give reports now if you find something unusual going around here while I was gone." The scientist announces as he stand at the center of the room, the man in the suit standing proudly beside him. "To those who want to report something, step forward and come to me."

The soldiers remained standing since there was nothing to report according to their part. However, the soldier who heard Mi Young earlier finally steps out from his position and walks forward to reveal his observations.

"Is there something you would like to report?" The scientist asks. The soldier explained about the incident earlier without hesitation. The scientist looked puzzled at first before saying, "You are reporting such useless observations. I want something real—"

"Actually," The man in the suit starts to say, making the scientist stop talking. "What he said might be true. If he heard something, it is still a report and an observation. And to be honest, what he just reported adds up to the mystery behind the escape of the female prisoner."

"What do you mean, Sir?" The scientist asks while looking at the man in the suit.

The other party slowly caresses his chin before humming and saying in a very chilling voice which made the black haired girl's skin crawl.. "It night be that the female prisoner escaped through the use of invisibility."