Royo finds a mysterious job offer card slipped into his coat pocket and decides to keep the meeting at the Black Shoe Inn.

Euyn meets his former lover Mikail in a stable in Outton and hears a proposition to assassinate King Joon and claim the throne.

Count Seok offers to free Sora and her captive sister Daysum if Sora succeeds in assassinating King Joon.

Royo accepts Aeri's dangerous job offer after she presents him with a diamond worth 50,000 gold mun as payment.

Royo and Aeri's riverboat is attacked by pirates, and the two are forced to jump overboard into the Sol River.

Euyn and Mikail are ambushed by monstrous samroc birds while crossing the Tangun Mountain Pass into Yusan.

Sora and Tiyung arrive at Count Rune's estate in Rahway for dinner and discover Mikail and an exiled prince among the guests.

Count Rune demonstrates Sora's poisoning ability by secretly lacing her water cup and letting a dog drink from it.

Aeri proves her thieving ability to the assembled group by stealing Euyn's hat and placing it on Tiyung's head unseen.

The group is ambushed by a local gang in Oosant, and Sora is kidnapped while the others are knocked unconscious.

The group storms the gang's warehouse in Oosant, kills all members, and rescues the captive Sora.

A dead palace assassin is found in Dal's courtyard, and Dal is reported dead of an alleged heart attack the next day.

Aeri uses the Amulet of the Dragon Lord to freeze time and steal Joon's crown during the tuhko tournament.

Sora kisses Joon with poisoned lips during the Millennial Celebration, but he survives and orders all six comrades seized.

Joon reveals he masterminded the entire assassination plot as an audition and forces the group to steal Quilimar's magical ring.

Five Broken Blades follows five dangerous operatives who are separately recruited into a plot to assassinate King Joon of Yusan. Strongman Royo joins as bodyguard to the mysterious Aeri, exiled prince Euyn reunites with spymaster Mikail, and poison maiden Sora is coerced by her master Count Seok into the scheme. The group convenes in Rahway, where Sora and Aeri prove their lethal abilities to Euyn, solidifying the team for regicide. After surviving a gang ambush in Oosant and learning their key contact Dal has died under suspicious circumstances, the group presses on to Tamneki and executes their plan at the Millennial Celebration. Aeri steals Joon's immortality crown and Sora poisons him, but the king survives and all six are captured at the arena. Joon then reveals he orchestrated the entire plot as an audition and coerces the group into stealing his sister Quilimar's magical ring.

Six assassins recruited, tested, and captured by the king they were sent to kill.

Sora poisons Count Seok's political opponent Maricellus Silla by posing as a courtesan and kissing him.

Aeri nervously awaits Royo at the Black Shoe Inn and proposes her bodyguard job to him over tea in a private room.

A samroc catches Mikail in its talons during the mountain pass attack, and Euyn shoots the creature and carries Mikail to safety.

Count Seok reveals that his son Tiyung will accompany Sora on her mission, and Sora privately vows to kill him.

Royo and Aeri spend a cold night sheltering on a river isle before hailing a second riverboat the following morning.

Royo and Aeri nearly kiss while hiding from city guards in a dark alley in Rahway's amusement district.

Count Rune privately tells Sora that Count Seok has ordered Tiyung to kill her once she assassinates Joon.

Mikail tells the assembled group that the assassination must occur during the Millennial Celebration, the only day Joon leaves the palace.

Royo pledges his sword and loyalty to Euyn after Euyn promises to overturn Joon's death edict for imprisoned people.

Royo frantically searches for Aeri after discovering she has vanished from the inn in Capricia without any explanation.

Tiyung confesses his love to Sora at Dal's estate and reveals he entered the forest years ago to protect her from his father.

A palace assassin holds a sword to Euyn's neck beneath the arena and captures him before the signal to attack is given.

Royo deliberately allows the guards to capture him at the arena in order to remain close to Aeri after the assassination fails.

Joon sends Tiyung to Idle Prison for treason, and Tiyung promises Sora he will wait for her no matter how long it takes.

The group is unchained, equipped with weapons, and forced into carriages bound for Khitan to complete Joon's true mission.

Beneath the main assassination plot runs a web of smaller but equally consequential events that shape each character's loyalties and decisions. Sora begins her journey as Count Seok's unwilling weapon, having already killed for him, and departs with Tiyung after learning he has secret orders to kill her once her mission ends. Royo and Aeri grow steadily closer as they recover from the pirate attack and navigate their way to Rahway, nearly kissing before the full group assembles. Once united, the team weathers setbacks including Aeri's unexplained disappearance in Capricia and the death of their key contact Dal, with each crisis tightening the bonds between them. At the Millennial Celebration, the plan fractures early when Euyn is captured beneath the arena, and Royo sacrifices his own freedom to remain near Aeri after the attempt fails. In the aftermath, Tiyung pays the price for his father's treachery, while the remaining five are armed and forced toward Khitan against their will.

The hidden costs, unlikely loyalties, and bonds forged on the road to Tamneki.

Euyn learns in Outton that Mikail has secretly known of his survival and exile location for all three years apart.

Sora visits Daysum at Seok's villa and notices the whipping scars Daysum received as punishment for Sora's previous escape attempt.

Euyn stitches Mikail's samroc wounds inside a mountain tunnel while Mikail's narration reveals he is secretly from occupied Gaya.

Euyn privately acknowledges in the town of Tile that he still loves Mikail despite Mikail's vote to exile him.

Aeri uses an unknown power to land herself and Royo safely inside a lifeboat that was far too distant to have reached.

Euyn and Mikail rekindle their relationship and have sex in Gorya after Euyn openly confesses he still loves Mikail.

Sora realizes at the Rahway dinner that Joon is merely mortal and his immortality comes entirely from wearing his crown.

Sora contemplates suicide on a stone patio after understanding that Daysum's cryptic parting message meant she is dying.

Euyn privately fears the Dragon Lord crown will reduce him to ash because he is not of true Baejkin royal blood.

Mikail instructs Euyn to kill the bartender and his daughter outside the Oosant warehouse after using them as bait.

Tiyung reveals to Sora in Tamneki that he secretly burned her indenture contract before their journey began, making her legally free.

Mikail vividly recalls how King Joon's army massacred his entire family in Gaya during the infamous Festival of Blood.

Joon reveals that the crown Mikail destroyed at the tournament was a decoy, exposing the assassination attempt as an orchestrated trap.

Royo is shocked when Aeri addresses Joon as father and Joon introduces her as Princess Naerium Baejkin before the captured group.

Euyn realizes he does not truly know Mikail at all when Joon threatens Ailor, exposing Ailor as Mikail's adoptive father.

The deeper story of Five Broken Blades is told through a series of private revelations and emotional turning points that reframe every character's motivations. From the outset, Mikail conceals his Gayan origins and his years of secretly protecting Euyn in exile, while Euyn wrestles with loving the man who voted to have him banished. Sora discovers that her sister Daysum is dying and that Tiyung has hidden orders to kill her, forcing her to reconsider both the plot and her feelings for him. As the assassination nears, Euyn fears his illegitimate blood will doom him when he touches the crown, and Mikail confronts the memory of his family's massacre in Gaya, the true engine behind his obsession with killing Joon. The assassination implodes when the crown is revealed to be a decoy and Joon exposes the entire scheme as a trap of his own design. The final revelations—Aeri's royal identity and Mikail's hidden bond with Ailor—shatter the fragile trust the group has built across their journey.

The secrets, discoveries, and emotional breaks that expose every character's hidden truth.