The caravan advanced through the main streets under Governor Arvian's guidance. On both sides of the road, the citizens stepped aside in silence, watching the Carpathian knights escort Princess Elizabeth and Duke Lusian Douglas with a mixture of relief and fear.
The governor's residence was the only building large enough to accommodate the entire royal entourage.
It had once been an elegant mansion, but the war had worn it down just like the rest of the city.
The carpets were stained with mud and the constant footsteps of refugees.
The curtains had long since lost their color.
And the air carried that unmistakable smell of places forced to survive for far too long without rest: medicine, smoke, sweat, and exhaustion.
Servants hurried through crowded hallways, struggling to maintain some semblance of order despite the visible fatigue on their faces.
Elizabeth stepped down from the carriage first.
She kept a gentle smile as she greeted the workers bowing their heads in her presence.
Lusian descended behind her.
He did not say a single word.
Even so, the atmosphere changed the moment he stepped inside the residence. His presence carried a silent pressure that forced even the imperial soldiers to stiffen instinctively.
Arvian quickly approached them and bowed deeply.
"We will prepare rooms for the princess, the four heroes… and, of course, for you as well, Duke Douglas."
Elizabeth spoke before anyone else could intervene.
"Lusian will stay in my wing."
The governor blinked in surprise.
Behind her, the imperial heroes immediately tensed.
Emily frowned slightly.
Elizabeth continued with complete calm.
"He is my designated protector. I want his room beside mine, and I want him to remain near me while we stay in this city."
Silence fell across the hall.
The Carpathian soldiers lowered their heads without question.
Arvian hesitated for only a moment before awkwardly nodding.
"A-as you command, Princess."
Emily clenched her teeth.
Lusian simply observed the scene with visible exhaustion before turning toward the knights awaiting instructions.
"Check every entrance to the residence. I want constant surveillance throughout the night."
His calm voice was enough to break the tension momentarily.
Then he walked back outside accompanied by several soldiers, leaving an uncomfortable silence behind him.
The door had barely closed when Emily spoke.
"You should let him rest."
Her tone was soft, but far too rigid to sound kind.
Elizabeth looked at her calmly.
"He will rest when he decides he can."
Emily took a step forward.
"He's exhausted, Elizabeth. And even so, you keep holding him at your side."
The princess met her gaze without flinching.
"Lusian is not here because I force him to be."
Emily let out a quiet, dry laugh.
"Don't use duty as an excuse to keep him close to you."
There was far too much meaning behind those words.
Elizabeth understood immediately.
But she did not retreat.
"Shouldn't you be taking care of the wounded instead?" she replied serenely. "Our beloved Hero of Light."
Emily's expression hardened.
For several seconds, neither woman looked away.
The air between them grew tighter and tighter.
"You entered his tent last night," Elizabeth finally said. "Do you really expect me to believe you only went there to heal him?"
Elizabeth stepped forward, just enough to force Emily to slightly lift her chin.
"And the sounds you made afterward?" she asked with cold composure.
Emily immediately clenched her fists.
"Were you spying on us?"
For the first time, something shifted in Emily's expression.
She remembered exactly what had happened with Lusian. A blush spread across her face.
Now she understood where that hostility was truly coming from.
Emily spoke again before she lost her nerve.
"I'm his fiancée… it's normal for us to do that."
The blow finally landed.
And Elizabeth felt it.
Even if she did not show it.
The princess remained silent for a few seconds before answering.
"Lusian is mine, understand? And I have no intention of letting him go. Your engagement can be canceled."
Emily lowered her gaze briefly.
When she spoke again, her voice came out quieter.
"You say he's yours…
but you never talk about what he wants."
There was genuine pain behind those words.
Elizabeth noticed the exhaustion hidden behind Emily's rigid posture. Even so, she understood one thing clearly: this woman loved Lusian. Maybe not as much as she did… but enough. And somehow, that fact felt useful, even if her own jealousy resisted admitting it.
For the first time, she stopped seeing Emily solely as a rival.
She too had lost someone; perhaps that allowed her to understand Lusian a little better.
But that changed nothing.
"For now, let's focus on the mission," Elizabeth said firmly. "We'll settle our matters afterward."
Emily lifted her gaze again and nodded.
"For now… I won't fight with you while he's still carrying everything alone."
Elizabeth held her stare without wavering.
"He'll stay with me during the journey. Understand that."
Silence once again settled between them.
Heavy.
Uncomfortable.
Far too personal.
"You can stay with him during the journey if you want…" Emily murmured without looking back at her. "But don't expect me to give him up that easily."
Then she walked out of the room.
The door slammed shut behind her.
Elizabeth remained motionless for several seconds.
Then she slowly exhaled the breath she had been holding.
For the first time since their arrival, exhaustion clearly appeared on her face.
But she had no time to rest.
"Send for Governor Arvian," she finally ordered.
Minutes later, the man returned to the hall with obvious nervousness.
Elizabeth immediately regained her composure.
"Governor, more than eight thousand refugees arrived with us from the surrounding villages. Most of them are women and children. They will remain under this city's protection."
Arvian paled.
"Eight thousand…? Princess, we barely have enough resources to feed our own population."
"Carpathia will send enough supplies for one month," Elizabeth replied calmly. "In addition, there is a plant capable of growing on rooftops. It produces fruit year-round and requires little care."
Arvian stared at her in surprise.
Elizabeth continued without losing firmness.
"It won't be food worthy of nobles. But it will keep people alive."
The governor slowly lowered his head.
And for the first time since the war began…
he looked like a man too exhausted to keep pretending to be strong.
Improvised candles burned between rows of bodies covered by gray blankets. The makeshift infirmary was saturated with the metallic scent of blood, medicinal herbs, and melting wax. In the narrow corridors, the murmurs of the wounded mixed with muffled sobs and prayers spoken far too late.
Leonardo Erkhan stopped in front of one of the corpses.
It was a young priest from the Temple of Thunder. He could not have been older than eighteen.
His hand still tightly held a small silver amulet, as though he had tried to cling to his faith until the very end. A crumpled letter protruded from his robe pocket. Leonardo recognized the clumsy handwriting immediately.
He had read it days earlier.
"Hero Erkhan, I will fight by your side. You will guide us to salvation."
His chest tightened instantly.
Those words sank deeper into him than any wound he had suffered in battle.
"My army barely suffered casualties…" he murmured, though his voice trembled the moment he spoke. "And even so… they…"
He could not finish the sentence.
Alejandro Jones slowly walked over to stand beside him. His eyes wandered over the silent rows of bodies until they stopped on one in particular.
A red-haired boy, covered in soot and burns, rested motionless with a strangely peaceful expression.
Alejandro recognized him immediately.
After every battle, that boy would run up to him asking for advice, insisting that one day he would become as strong as him. He always talked too much. Always smiled too much.
Now none of that remained.
Alejandro swallowed with difficulty.
"He followed me because he believed I could protect him…"
His voice broke before he could finish.
The silence between them grew heavy.
Kara Bourlance arrived moments later, but none of her usual defiant attitude remained. Her eyes were red and tired, as though she had cried until she no longer had the strength to deny it.
She stopped in front of three bodies carefully laid side by side.
Three warriors from her unit.
They had trained under her for years. Kara knew their voices perfectly, their ridiculous arguments during night watches, the way they complained about the cold every winter.
Now only stillness remained.
Kara slowly lowered her gaze.
"They were the best I had…"
The words came out nearly broken.
"The most disciplined. The strongest. And even that wasn't enough."
She covered her mouth with one hand, trying to contain something that seemed ready to tear her apart from the inside.
"My squad was the most organized unit in the entire defense…" she continued with effort. "And even so, we still lost nearly a third of them. What kind of leader am I… if the first to die are the ones who trusted me the most?"
Alejandro clenched his fists until his knuckles hurt.
Leonardo looked away.
Neither of them knew how to answer.
A few steps away, Emily carefully cleaned the blood from the body of a child who had lost an arm during the attack. Her hands still moved with a healer's precision, but tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
"They prayed for us…" she murmured while changing the bandages. "They prayed for you. For me. They believed we would come to save them."
Her voice broke.
"And now we're barely managing to keep them alive… only to bury them afterward."
Nearby, an adult soldier collapsed to his knees beside one of the bodies and broke down crying.
He no longer looked like a warrior.
Only a shattered man.
"He followed me everywhere…" he sobbed. "He said that as long as the heroes were here, nothing bad could happen… he said the gods would never abandon us…"
Leonardo shut his eyes tightly.
For one instant, he wanted to destroy something.
Anything that could tear away the unbearable helplessness crushing him.
But he did nothing.
He simply remained there, surrounded by the people who had trusted them… and had died anyway.
When night finally fell, Elizabeth finished organizing the residence staff and retired to her chambers. Lusian followed her in silence and closed the door behind them, finally isolating them from the pain still breathing throughout the city.
The door shut behind them with a dull sound.
For a moment, neither spoke.
The silence inside the room contrasted too sharply with the screams, sobbing, and smell of blood that had filled the city all day.
Elizabeth took only a couple of steps before stopping.
The weight of the day finally crashed down on her.
She rested one hand against the wall and lowered her head while trying to steady her breathing.
"You almost died today…" she murmured.
Her voice came out more fragile than she intended.
Lusian remained silent, watching her.
Elizabeth let out a small, broken laugh before continuing.
"And even then, you still throw yourself into danger as if your life doesn't matter."
Slowly, she raised her eyes toward him.
There was exhaustion in them.
Fear.
And something far more difficult to hide.
"I don't want to see you like that again."
Lusian held her gaze with that dangerous calm that always seemed to unsettle her more than reassure her.
"That's my role," he answered simply.
Elizabeth immediately shook her head.
She crossed the room until she stood directly before him and held his face between both hands.
Her fingers trembled slightly.
"No," she whispered. "You're not just my guard."
Her breathing faltered for an instant.
"You're my man."
For the first time that entire night, Lusian seemed left without an answer.
He slightly parted his lips, probably intending to remind her he was still injured.
Elizabeth gave him no chance.
She gently pushed him onto the bed and climbed over him almost immediately, like someone who had just survived the terror of losing the person who mattered most to her.
Her lips sought his without patience.
Without hesitation.
Without leaving room to think.
"Elizabeth…" Lusian murmured between breaths.
"Be quiet," she whispered against his neck.
Her voice trembled slightly before she softly bit his skin.
"Don't ever make me think I'm going to lose you in front of me again."
Those words struck harder than any wound.
Because Elizabeth did not sound like a princess.
She sounded terrified.
Lusian slowly closed his eyes.
And for the first time since the day had begun… he stopped resisting.
Her.
The warmth of her hands.
The desperate way she held him, as though she needed to reassure herself over and over that he was still alive.
Their bodies eventually sought one another with a need restrained for far too long.
The tension built between them finally shattered in silence, between uneven breaths, clumsy touches born from exhaustion, and kisses heavy with everything neither of them had managed to say during the war.
Outside, the city remained full of suffering.
The wounded still fought to survive.
The dead still awaited burial.
And the gods continued watching from an indifferent sky.
But inside that room…
none of it existed.
There was no war.
No heroes.
No monsters or prophecies.
Only the two of them.