Chapter 74

Jayden’s POV

I pushed deeper into the forest, branches snapping and whipping past my shoulders as I forced my way through them. Leaves tore against my armor, roots snagging at my boots, but I didn’t slow down—not even when the ground dipped sharply beneath me and threatened to throw me off balance.

Damn it.

My breath came sharp and controlled, but my chest refused to match the discipline of my training. It kept tightening anyway, like something inside me had already decided panic was the correct response.

Where is Queen Miu?

I had circled from the south, cut through the west, doubled back through terrain that should’ve given me sightlines of the entire field—and still, nothing. No sign of her.

Just smoke. Distant gunfire. And too much silence where there shouldn’t be any.

My grip tightened around my weapon.

I can feel it now. That pressure behind my ribs. Not exhaustion. Not even urgency.

Anxiety.

I know this feeling too well.

It’s the same one that creeps in right before everything goes wrong. Right before you realize you’re already late.

Right before you fail someone you swore you wouldn’t.

My boots hit the ground harder, faster, each step tearing through damp soil as I pushed myself forward.

I remember.

Not the battlefield first—but before it.

“Jayden, do you see?” my mother’s voice echoed in my head so clearly it almost drowned out the forest.

Amelia, Queen Alice’s right hand.

She had always spoken softly when it mattered most.

I had been sixteen then. Still raw. Still trying to convince myself that becoming a knight was about honor, duty—something clean enough to survive inside my head.

She stood beside me in the palace gardens, her hand lifting slightly as she pointed toward a boy sitting alone under the shade of a tree.

Prince Matthew.

He was small then. Quiet in a way that didn’t feel empty. Just… contained. A child reading as if the world outside the page was something he had already learned to ignore.

“From the moment you take your oath,” she said, “he will be your lord. He has gone through more than you can see. He will need someone he can trust when he takes the crown.”

At first, it really was just duty.

A name. A role. A future I thought I could simply stand beside and protect.

But then I watched him grow.

Not loudly. Not in the way others expected strength to show itself.

It was slower than that. Subtle. Like something being forged out of sight.

And somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking of him as “my lord.”

He became something else entirely.

My sun.

Not only because he burned the brightest—but because he kept rising even when everything around him told him to disappear.

And still…

I failed him.

I failed my mother.

The memory shifts again—harder this time. Darker.

Chains. Cold stone. The aftermath of rebellion. The weight of being dragged away while everything I had sworn to protect collapsed without me.

They said he would have become like his father.

Weak. Manipulative. A tyrant waiting for a crown.

But I knew better.

I knew.

There was strength in him that people mistook for silence. Intelligence they mistook for hesitation. And kindness—dangerous, quiet kindness—that no one bothered to understand before deciding he didn’t deserve a chance.

And I—

I didn’t get to prove them wrong.

My jaw tightened as I ran harder.

That is why I cannot fail again.

Because I already know what it feels like to lose the person you were meant to stand beside.

And I remember the exact moment Queen Lena changed everything.

“Is this the one?”

Her voice cut through the silence of my prison cell like a blade that didn’t bother to hide its intent.

I lifted my head despite myself.

She stood there—unshaken, unbothered by the blood, the chains, the ruins of what had just ended. Light poured in behind her through the broken corridor, but she didn’t step aside from it.

She stepped through it.

“You… killed eighteen of our men that night,” she said calmly, as if reading a report instead of weighing a life.

I said nothing.

What was there to say?

Then she moved forward—just one step—but it was enough to block the light behind her. Enough to bring her figure into view.

“I like people like you,” she said.

My breath caught.

“Join my side, Jayden.”

It should have been a joke.

A punishment. A mockery.

Instead, it sounded like a command that expected survival.

My eyes flicked up before I could stop myself.

Why?

An enemy should have ended me.

Not offered me a place.

Not spoken like I still had value beyond the war I lost.

“Because of you,” she continued, almost casually, “I am short on good knights. If you follow me, you won’t get glory. You won’t get honor.”

A pause.

Then—

“But I’ll promise you life.”

That was when I saw it.

Not her face fully. Not even her expression.

Just her eyes.

And something inside me went still.

Because I recognized it.

That same light I once saw in him. In Prince Matthew. The same one I thought I had failed to protect. The same one I told myself I would never let disappear.

And now it was standing in front of me again.

Wearing a crown.

I didn’t choose her then because I believed in her.

I chose her because I couldn’t afford to lose another light.

Even if I knew—

Even if I knew—

I might just be chasing an illusion.

The forest suddenly opened slightly ahead, branches thinning.

I pushed forward, breath burning now, sweat cold on my skin.

Still.

Even knowing that…

I don’t want to see the one who resembles my sun befall the same end.

Not this one.

Not Queen Miu.

—

Third Person’s POV

“AGH—!”

The bandit crashed onto the ground with a choking groan as Miu’s kick drove straight into his chest. Dirt scattered beneath him from the force, his weapon slipping from his grasp as his body curled instinctively around the pain. He tried to push himself back up, but his arms trembled violently beneath his own weight before finally giving out altogether.

Miu barely spared him another glance.

Her breathing came harder now, uneven beneath the constant strain of battle, but her body continued moving long before exhaustion could catch up to her.

“Got you!”

A voice suddenly burst from behind her.

She reacted instantly.

Miu ducked low just as rough hands lunged for her shoulders. She felt the rush of air pass over her head, then pivoted sharply on one foot. The sword in her grip flashed once through the chaos.

The blade sliced cleanly across the attacker’s ankle.

“ACK—!”

The bandit stumbled forward with a scream, collapsing face-first onto the dirt while clutching at his mangled foot.

Miu straightened immediately—but there was no time to breathe.

More figures were already closing in.

Three.

No—five.

They rushed toward her from the broken street, some armed with rusted blades, others with stolen rifles hanging carelessly from their shoulders. Their confidence came from numbers alone.

Miu exhaled sharply and swung her arm.

The whip cracked through the air like thunder.

One strike.

That was all it took.

The sharpened edge tore across the front line before they could even react. Blood sprayed violently into the air as the men recoiled in horror, hands flying toward their faces and chests. One collapsed immediately. Another staggered backward screaming.

The rest faltered.

For a brief moment, the street froze around her.

Miu stood in the center of it all, chest rising and falling heavily as blood dripped from the strands of hair clinging to her face. Crimson stained the sleeves of her torn dress, soaked across the fabric and splattered against her skin until it no longer looked like noble clothing at all.

It looked like war.

Around her, the civilians of Tungsten continued fighting desperately.

Farmers swung shovels with shaking hands. Workers used broken wood as clubs. Some attacked recklessly out of fear while others hesitated too long before striking. Their movements lacked discipline. Lacked experience.

But not courage.

Miu could see it clearly now.

Every terrified swing.

Every trembling breath.

This was their first real battle.

And they were enduring it anyway.

Her gaze swept across the chaos quickly, calculating.

Even when the civilians outnumbered the attackers, they still struggled to overwhelm them cleanly. Panic made people slow. Fear made them hesitate at the wrong moments.

If she left them now…

If she pushed ahead alone…

There was a high chance the formation would collapse behind her.

And that thought chained her feet in place harder than any enemy could.

Because if it were only herself—

She could disappear from these bandits easily.

She could cut through alleys, flank them alone, move faster without worrying about anyone else falling behind.

But these people couldn’t.

Miu tightened her grip around the whip.

Damn it…

Every second she remained here, more enemies entered the city.

But every second she moved too far ahead, civilians risked dying behind her.

For the first time since the attack began, hesitation clawed at her.

Then—

“My lady!”

A civilian’s voice suddenly rang out from farther down the street.

Miu turned sharply.

“The knights!” the man shouted, pointing toward the rear district with wide eyes. “The knights are starting to arrive!”

Another voice erupted almost immediately after.

“We’re saved!”

More civilians began turning toward the distant streets where faint movements of armored figures could now be seen breaking through the smoke.

“We can defeat them now!”

Relief spread through the battered civilians like fire catching dry grass.

And slowly—

A smile formed across Miu’s bloodstained face.

Not relief.

Not yet.

But something fiercer.

“…Well,” she breathed, adjusting her grip on the whip as she lifted her chin once more, “it looks like today is not the day we die.”

The civilians stared at her.

Then Miu’s expression sharpened immediately.

“Don’t lose focus!” she shouted. “Stay in formation! The moment you let your guard down is the moment they kill you!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The response came louder this time.

Stronger.

And as more armed figures of the royal knights finally began emerging through the rear streets of Tungsten