Chapter 69

Miu’s POV

“Help!”

The cry cut through the quiet so sharply it didn’t feel real at first. For a moment, everything else stayed the same—the wind still brushing through the fields, the sunlight still warm against my skin, the world refusing to react the way it should.

…Did I imagine that?

My head lifted, heart already picking up before my mind could catch up.

“…Did you hear that?” I asked, though I was already turning toward the sound.

Earn didn’t answer right away. I didn’t need her to. I saw it in the way her posture changed—subtle, but immediate. Alert. Focused. Her gaze had already locked onto the far edge of the field, where the river curved into the forest line.

“Yes,” she said.

The word settled heavier than I expected.

Then something moved.

At first, it was just a flicker at the edge of the trees. A shape breaking through the stillness. My eyes strained, trying to make sense of it as it came closer.

A person.

Running… no—not quite running.

Stumbling.

His steps dragged, uneven, like his body was struggling to keep up with whatever urgency was driving him forward. Something about it felt wrong immediately, but I couldn’t place it yet.

Then he got closer.

And I saw it.

Blood.

My breath hitched as I stood up without thinking. “Hey—!” My voice carried before I could stop it. “Over here!”

My hand lifted instinctively to call him over, but he didn’t respond.

I took a step forward.

Then another.

And suddenly, Earn’s hand closed around my wrist, firm, pulling me back just as I tried to go further.

“Your Majesty—”

*BANG*

The sound split everything apart.

It was so loud that it cut through the entire field before I could even react.

My body jerked, the ground tilting for a second as shock hit me all at once. If Earn hadn’t caught me, I would’ve fallen right there.

For a split second, nothing made sense. My mind lagged behind it, trying to catch up, trying to understand what I had just happened.

My breath stopped.

He didn’t even had the chance to scream in pain. One moment he was there, and the next—he was gone. 

His body collapsed without warning, hitting the ground with a heavy, final thud that felt louder than the shot itself.

And he didn’t move.

At all.

Something twisted painfully in my chest, so sudden and so tight it almost hurt to breathe. My hand flew to my mouth, but it did nothing to steady me. 

I couldn’t look away. 

I couldn’t move. 

All I could do was stare at him lying there, completely still, as the reality settled in all at once.

“…No…”

And then a voice came from the forest.

“We’ve been spotted! Don’t waste any more time!”

Figures started emerging immediately after that.

At first it looked random—someone slipping out from the tree line, another from the river bend, more from gaps between the crops. My mind tried to treat it like scattered movement, something disorganized, something we could still react to.

But it wasn’t scattered at all.

It was spreading.

Fanning out.

Closing space.

My stomach dropped as I turned in place, trying to track them, but the more I looked, the clearer it became—we weren’t watching an approach. We were watching a formation complete itself.

A perimeter.

The field didn’t feel like a field anymore. It felt smaller. Claustrophobic in a way open land shouldn’t be.

“No…” I breathed.

My eyes snapped toward the far side.

The civilians.

Still there. Still unaware. Some had already started looking toward us, curiosity slowing their movements more than fear ever could.

They don’t see it.

My body moved before I finished the thought.

One second I was standing still, the next my feet were already hitting the ground in a full sprint.

“RUN!” I shouted, but it came out too late, swallowed by the distance I’d already committed to crossing.

Wind hit my face as I ran, hard enough to sting, my boots striking uneven soil with no rhythm except urgency. Everything behind me blurred—Earn’s voice, the tightening space, the shifting figures—all of it collapsing into noise I couldn’t process.

Only the people in the city ahead mattered.

“GET BACK!” I yelled again, forcing my voice as far as it could go. “EVERYONE—MOVE!”

Some of them finally turned fully.

Confusion first. Then hesitation.

Then they saw what I saw.

The armed figures behind me, tightening in.

The color drained from their faces almost instantly.

“GO!” My voice cracked as I pushed forward harder, arm already reaching out like I could physically drag them away from where they stood. “NOW!”

For a split second, there was still disbelief—people frozen between understanding and denial.

Then the second wave of voices came from behind the encroaching line, sharp and coordinated, and the field shifted like a trigger had been pulled.

Everything changed at once.

I tried to turn—just for a second, just enough to get a glimpse of the enemies—but I never got the chance to see it.

Someone slammed into me.

Hard.

The impact knocked the breath straight out of my lungs and tore my balance away mid-step. My body lifted and dropped all at once, thrown into a shallow, uneven patch of dug-up soil beside a half-finished building. I hit the ground so abruptly my vision jolted, like the world itself had stuttered.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then pain caught up.

And sound followed.

*BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.*

Gunfire erupted across the field in a coordinated wave—sharp, precise cracks that didn’t belong in a place like this. The afternoon didn’t fade into chaos slowly.

It broke.

Instantly.

Violently.

The city of Tungsten—just moments ago alive with breath and warmth—was swallowed by controlled violence spilling in from every direction, as if the entire world had been overwritten in a single breath.

I pushed myself up, instinct more than thought, but my side flared sharply the moment I moved. A quiet sound escaped me before I could stop it, and my hand immediately pressed against my stomach, trembling.

“No…” I muttered weakly.

But it wasn’t just pain anymore.

It was fear.

Cold. Deep. Unfamiliar in a way I didn’t want to recognize.

My vision lifted through the haze just in time to see Earn.

Already in action.

Somewhere between instinct and panic, she had taken position with the royal guards who had rushed in, their formation snapping into place with practiced precision. Taking cover together in seconds—anything solid enough to break sightlines, anything that could hold for even a moment longer.

“Your Majesty!” Earn’s voice cut through the noise as she dropped beside me, crouched low, eyes sweeping over me in a single, efficient glance. “Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine…” I forced out.

It wasn’t true.

Another burst of gunfire hit closer—too close.

Earn didn’t wait. Her hand closed around my arm, firm, steady.

“We have to move. Now. Can you stand?!”

But instead of answering, I grabbed her arm.

“What’s happening? Did any of the guards radio in from the other parts of the city?” I asked, forcing the words out through the gunfire.

“Your Majesty—!”

“Tell me!” My grip tightened before I even realized it, sharper than I intended.

Earn didn’t answer immediately. She looked at me for a brief second— like she was weighing whether this conversatioin would break something already stretched too thin.

Then her jaw locked.

“Attackers disguised as bandits are approaching from the east and west as well,” she said quickly, “but there are units moving like trained knights among them. This isn’t random. This is coordinated. There’s a high chance they’re from Ravaryn.”

The words should have felt like information.

Instead, they felt like weight.

My chest tightened as she continued, “The city is being surrounded. We can’t hold this for long. I’m the only knight here right now but my priority is getting you out.”

She was already pulling me deeper into the unfinished structure, but my body didn’t follow properly. Not because I didn’t hear her—but because my mind was suddenly too full.

Too many pieces at once.

Surrounded. Coordinated. Knights among them. East and west.

This wasn’t an attack that happened.

This was something that had been decided.

Planned.

Built.

And that realization didn’t come with shock.

It came with something worse.

Cold clarity.

The kind that settles in your ribs and makes everything else feel far away for a second.

My fingers tightened unconsciously on Earn’s arm.

So this is what it feels like… when something already bigger than you starts closing in.

And then, without warning, another voice surfaced in my mind, uninvited and sharp enough to cut through even the gunfire.

“Your Majesty. Your womb is significantly weak. There is a higher risk of miscarriage.”

Fahlada’s voice. I flinched slightly at the memory.

“It will take at least two months for the pregnancy to stabilize. You must not overexert yourself. Every movement matters.”

I hated how fast my hand moved to my stomach.

A small, fragile part of me—something I hadn’t fully admitted I even had yet—felt suddenly exposed in a way I couldn’t protect.

And that was what made it worse.

Not the gunfire.

Not the ambush.

But the fact that I wasn’t only afraid for myself.

I was afraid of what I might not be able to protect if I stayed here.

*BONG—BONG—BONG*

The alarm shattered through the distance, sharp and mechanical, like the city itself was screaming.

Earn’s voice cut through it. “That’s the surveillance signal! We have to go now—reinforcements can meet us at the palace—”

She pulled harder.

But I didn’t move.

Not because I didn’t understand.

Because everything in me was splitting in two directions at once.

One part of me wanted safety. Escape. Distance.

The other part… couldn’t accept running again.

I had run before.

I had left things behind before.

And all it did was hollow me out from the inside, slow and quiet, until even breathing felt like debt I couldn’t repay.

So why now?

Why again?

Is this what it is?

My breath came slower now, heavier, as if my body couldn’t decide whether to fight or collapse under the weight of it all.

Earn called my name again, sharper this time.

But all I could feel was the pressure in my chest—fear, anger, and something quieter underneath it.

My gaze lowered on my hand resting over my stomach—gentle, almost protective, as if I could shield something unseen from a world already breaking apart.

Is this punishment?

For wanting something I shouldn’t?

For daring to think I could finally be happy?

I took a slow breath in.

Then let it out.

And finally, I looked up towards the sky.

Dear Lord…

Is this what you want for me?