Chapter 72

Miu’s POV

I struck the final match against the stone wall, shielding the small flame with my hand as the underground draft threatened to snuff it out. For a brief second, the fire trembled weakly between my fingers before finally catching the lantern wick. Warm amber light spilled across the cramped underground grave chamber, pushing back just enough darkness to reveal the exhausted faces packed tightly beneath the church.

“Here,” I said quietly as I turned and handed the lantern toward Father Gaston. “Take this.”

“T-thank you, my lady…” His hands shook badly as he accepted it, the light flickering against the fear written all over his face.

The underground burial grounds stretched endlessly behind him, rows upon rows of stone graves now crowded with civilians pressed shoulder to shoulder. Mothers clutching children. Elderly men struggling to breathe through panic. Farmers still stained with dirt from the fields above. There were too many people and not enough air, not enough space, not enough certainty.

And every single pair of eyes kept drifting toward me.

Waiting.

Hoping.

Terrified.

“M-my lady…” Father Gaston spoke again, his voice barely steady. “W-what should we do now?…”

The question was simple.

But the weight behind it nearly crushed me.

I slowly looked over the crowd once more. Babies cried somewhere deeper within the chamber, their thin wails echoing faintly off the old stone walls. Some people whispered prayers under their breath. Others simply stared blankly at the floor like their minds had stopped processing anything at all.

Fear spreads quickly.

Faster than fire.

If I lose them now, everything above us will collapse with them.

I forced myself to breathe steadily before turning back to the priest.

“Father Gaston,” I asked carefully, “if the church falls under attack… will this underground grave remain safe?”

“Yes, my lady,” he answered quickly. “Even if the church above collapses entirely, this chamber was built deep beneath the foundation. It should remain intact.”

I nodded once.

“Is there another exit besides the entrance we used?”

“There is,” he replied immediately. “An emergency tunnel. We constructed it years ago when this region suffered frequent raids from bandits.”

A quiet breath escaped me before I could stop it.

“That’s a relief…” I murmured. “Thank you. Truly. Your church has protected this city longer than most people realize.”

But before Father Gaston could respond, panic finally erupted behind us.

“M-my lady! What’s happening?!”

“Why are we being attacked?!”

“The palace army isn’t even here yet!”

“We’re all going to die here!”

Voices rose over one another instantly, fear feeding fear until the chamber became suffocating with noise.

“I don’t want to die!”

“Damn it!”

“Why did we work so hard if this is how it ends?!”

“DEAR GOD PLEASE SAVE US—”

WHIP!

The crack split through the underground chamber like lightning.

Silence crashed down immediately afterward.

The whip struck the stone floor hard enough to echo through the graves, and I stood there gripping the handle tightly at my side, the leather still trembling from the impact. Earn had only managed to lend me a spare handgun before we separated, so I took this as well.

Now every eye was on me again.

“Enough,” I said, my voice sharper than I intended, though it did not shake. “Crying and surrendering everything to prayer will solve nothing. If you have strength left to panic, then use it to survive.”

Several people flinched.

Others lowered their heads in shame.

I raised my chin and forced myself to look at all of them despite the fear clawing inside my chest.

“I do not plan on dying here today,” I declared firmly. “And I do not plan on allowing any of you to die either.”

The room remained silent, but I could feel it—that fragile shift between despair and attention.

So I stepped closer.

“Above us, the palace guards are risking their lives buying us time. They are bleeding in this city right now to protect what we built together.” My voice hardened. “And yet all you can think about is dying?”

Guilt spread visibly across several faces. A woman wiped tears from her cheeks. One of the older farmers clenched his fists tightly against his knees.

“This city,” I continued, “is your home. Every crop above us. Every repaired building. Every stone placed back into those streets—you all fought for them with your own hands after this land nearly died.”

I slowly walked deeper into the crowd, meeting as many eyes as I could.

“Will you truly allow strangers to trample all over the life we struggled to restore?”

No one answered.

But they were listening now.

Really listening.

“For now, calm yourselves and follow my orders. Panic will accomplish nothing except bury us faster.”

I rolled the whip once in my hand before stopping in the center of the chamber.

“We still have work to do,” I said. “Those capable of fighting will come with me. We’ll reinforce the church above and look for remaining civilians while Father Gaston leads the evacuation groups toward the emergency tunnel.”

The fear in the room had not disappeared.

But it was changing.

Slowly.

Turning into something steadier.

Something harder.

I lifted my head fully and looked at them not as frightened civilians—but as people defending their home.

“There is no time left to waste,” I said firmly. “So stand up. We will protect this city with our own hands.”

—

Ollie’s POV

“Burn and kill everything in your path.”

The words drifted through the trees so casually that for a moment, my mind failed to process them.

I remained crouched behind the thick trunk of an old cedar tree, barely daring to breathe as I watched the armed men gather along the edge of the road ahead. Their leader stood near the center, issuing orders without the slightest hesitation, as though setting an entire city ablaze was no different from assigning farm work.

The smell of gunpowder lingered faintly in the air even from this distance.

“And if you come across a woman who looks like a noble,” the man continued, adjusting the rifle hanging from his shoulder, “bring her back alive. That’s a direct order from the Valeens.”

A cold feeling crawled up my spine.

“YES, SIR!”

The men answered almost enthusiastically.

Then came the heavy rumbling of boots against the earth as they began splitting into smaller groups, disappearing through different parts of the city with frightening coordination.

I stayed still until the sound of their footsteps faded enough for the forest to breathe again.

Only then did I finally exhale.

So that’s their goal…

My fingers tightened around the handgun one of the royal guards had shoved into my hands earlier. Even now, it still felt unnatural holding it. Heavy. Dangerous. My palms had long turned slick with sweat, yet I held onto it so tightly my knuckles nearly lost their color.

They’re after the lady.

But why?

No…

I think I know why.

Anyone with eyes could see what Lady Miu had become to Tungsten.

Hope.

The one person who dragged this city out from starvation and despair with her own two hands.

Destroying Tungsten alone would wound the Crown.

But taking her?

That would break people.

I swallowed hard and carefully glanced around me.

Miss Earn was hidden several meters away behind another cluster of trees, speaking quietly with two royal guards while keeping watch over the streets ahead. The others remained scattered through the area exactly as instructed, weapons raised, bodies tense.

Everyone looked afraid.

Even the guards.

No matter how disciplined they tried to appear, I could see it in the stiffness of their shoulders, the way their eyes kept darting toward every distant sound.

And honestly?

So was I.

My legs felt weak.

My heart had been pounding nonstop since the first gunshot earlier.

I was not a soldier.

I was not a knight.

Just an administrator who spent most days buried in reports and construction plans.

If someone had told me months ago that I would one day be hiding in the woods with a gun in my hand while armed men ran through the city, I would have laughed at how absurd it sounded.

But now here I was.

And somehow, despite the fear threatening to choke me—

I still found myself thinking about her words.

Lady Miu said we could do this.

The image of her surfaced vividly in my mind. Her voice cutting through the panic. The look of determination in her eyes.

She was terrified too.

I knew she was.

But she still stood in front of everyone anyway.

My grip around the handgun steadied little by little.

Right…

If someone like her could keep moving forward despite carrying the lives of thousands on her shoulders…

Then the least I could do was stop trembling long enough to protect the city she fought so hard to save.

We will get through this.

We have to.