the guard chuckled, adjusting his posture dramatically for a final, heroic pose.
"But this is the absolute end of the line. Any last words before I secure my massive promotion?"
Inside Hanjun's chest, through the immense physical pain, his spirit remained perfectly flat, rigid, and unbroken.
He didn't know how to give up because giving up required an emotional realization of defeat, and he simply lacked the capacity for it.
With a slow, agonizingly painful effort, Hanjun's fingers gripped the rough cobblestones.
His big gray eyes, though unfocused and surrounded by deep bruises, locked onto the guard's face.
He forced his broken, battered body to slowly stand up, his legs shaking violently inside Beixin's tight shoes.
Beside him, seeing Hanjun rise, a sudden, fierce spark of desperate defiance ignited inside Jayhon's ocean eyes.
He choked back his tears, dragging himself out of the crushed crates, his hands trembling as he forced himself to stand right next to his friend.
They were completely thrashed, but they were standing.
They were going to fight to the literal death.
"My last words are as follows,"
Hanjun muttered, his voice still a flat, chilling monotone despite the blood dripping from his lip.
"Your technique names are too long. It lacks power and taste. If we die, just know that your
taste in names is trash."
"Why you little—" The guard's face twisted in rage, his knuckles whitening as he prepared to drive the spear downward to finish them.
"HOLD YOUR STRIKE, RODOLF YOU CLOWN!"
A loud, frantic voice echoed across the courtyard.
Another city guard came sprinting around the corner, completely out of breath, his iron helmet sliding sideways over his eyes as he waved a freshly stamped royal parchment in the air.
He tripped over a stray piece of timber, face-planted into the sand, immediately scrambled back to his feet, and skidded to a halt between the fighting guard and the kids.
"Cancel it!
Cancel everything!"
the messenger guard wheezed, clutching his knees as he tried to breathe."Official decree... straight from High Commander Kalve... King Lucas himself signed it five minutes ago!"
The aggressive guard froze, his spear hovering an inch from Hanjun's nose.
His face went entirely blank with confusion.
"What? What do you mean cancel? I literally just drank their water and beat them to a pulp! I'm one second away from a massive bonus!"
"If you touch a single hair on their heads, the King will melt your armor into a toilet!"
the messenger yelled, holding up the parchment.
"The search is entirely called off! King Lucas says we do not kill kids, and anyone who continues tracking them will replace the stained-glass windows in the throne room! Stand down!"
The sand-spear guard stared at the paper, then at the messenger, and finally down at the two bloodied, starving kids who were still standing there, ready to punch him with their broken hands.
The yellow sand aura around his spear went pfff and vanished, leaving a pathetic pile of dirt on the floor.
"Are you serious?!"
Rodolf whined, throwing his arms up in absolute,frustration.
"I spent an hour tracking them through open sewers! I drank street water! I invented four separate technique names on the fly! And now it's illegal to arrest them?!"
He aggressively slammed his spear into the dirt, turning his back on them and stomping away toward the barracks.
"I hate this kingdom! The administrative management here is completely garbage! I'm going to go work for the high elves!"
The messenger guard gave Hanjun and Jayhon a very awkward, apologetic look, adjusted his crooked helmet, and quickly ran after his companion.
Silence returned to the courtyard.
Jayhon let out a shaky breath, his legs completely giving out as he collapsed onto his knees, staring blankly at the sky. "We... we're alive? The King just... stopped?"
Hanjun stood there for a long moment, staring at his bleeding, bruised palm. He slowly closed his hand into a loose fist, his expression completely vacant.
"The King's sudden orders,this is weird" Hanjun noted flatly, his monotone voice echoing in the quiet market. "However, we are alive,I thought it's impossible without Beixin but we're getting somewhere. Jayhon. Help me untie these boots.
I feel pain and I can't get up Jayhon do something."