So was already famous throughout the Palace by the time she turned seven.
In both good ways and bad.
That day started with something trivial.
“Mom, what’s the human world like?”
The Queen smiled and told her an old story. The smells of the market, the laughter of the people, and even the alley where she had first met the Yaksha King. So had heard that story more than ten times at her bedside.
And that night, So used her power properly for the first time—to secretly find the gap in the barrier.
When morning came and her nanny discovered the empty bed, the Palace was turned upside down.
Dowa, the eldest, immediately ordered the entire army mobilized.
Dosu, the second, was already scouring the entire barrier again.
Dopung, the fourth, rushed outside without even properly getting dressed.
Domok, the fifth, froze where he stood—the words So had cheerfully said as she passed him the night before came back to him: “Big brother, I’m going to the human world.”
Only Doam, the third, remained calm enough to ask,
“Does anyone know where in the human world she went?”
No one could answer. The color drained from the Queen’s face.
And in the deepest part of the Palace, the moment the Yaksha King heard the news, he shot to his feet—for the first time in five hundred years.