※ Chapter 8 ※

Yifan's POV »●

I draw my rapier as several Wangluan soldiers surround us.

"What's the status in the front?" I ask as I slash one soldier lunging at me without looking at him and he falls dead on the floor.

"Marshall is in the throne room, along with majority of the team to protect the King," Tao's eyes fill with terror as he looks behind me, "Brother-"

I roll my eyes, spinning away quicker than air and pierce the soldier who was about to attack me, with a series of quick and precise cuts. Before he realizes what's happening, he's fucking dead. I sigh, "Stupid move. The entire fucking plan is designed targeting the King. They surely got a strategy to prevent us. All we'd do is lose soldiers. We need to retreat. Behind you."

Tao frowns for a second but thankfully, turns just in time to leap out of the way as a soldier wildly swings his sword at Tao, the soldier's momentum sending him barreling into a person nearby.

We turn to find him on Marshall Mark. He grabs him by the helmet and twists, snapping his neck.

What the fuck?

He gotta be insanely strong to be able to kill someone like that, it's almost inhuman.

Marshall Mark eyes us, defeat and worry visible in his gaze, "The King is dead. All guests captured. Captain Antares, gather the remaining soldiers. We're escaping."

I frown, "But where-"

"I've a place," he cuts me off, "There's no time to talk. Go."

I'm highly skeptical about this plan but I don't care enough to argue. So I nod and turn to Tao, "Most of our team should be around the undercroft. Pass the command to them. There's an exit to the north of the undercroft. Gather everyone in the courtyard. I'm going south to find the rest," I command. He nods and we take off in separate directions.

I sprint through the castle and find a huge number of our forces in the casemate. In a narrow doorway, Captain Xiao Zhan and his entire team shelter behind an upended table, holding a squad of soldiers at bay.

"Captain Xiao," I address as I dodge an attack. As his team makes sure the last of Wangluan soldiers collapse, he spots me.

"Captain Antares, do you know how's it going out there?" he asks as he approaches me.

"Bad. King is dead. Everybody fall back. We're escaping. Marshall order," I pass the command urgently. Captain Xiao nods and immediately flees with his team.

We hurry through the corridors, signalling all the Wuluan soldiers we can find to retreat. Around us, the remnants of our failed charge reduce to a fucking disarray. Soldiers break ranks and flee for their life following me.

As we run through the dungeon, a strange sensation tingles my whole body. I've felt it before, in the lake a month ago, in the garden few weeks ago, in the throne room today and a few more times. I have no idea where it comes from or what it means, but everytime this happens, I lose my fucking mind. There's a buzz in my head. My senses lose. My brain doesn't cooperate with me. My feet get cold. And I feel..drawn. Oddly pulled towards the source of this sensation.

Today could be the last day of my fucking life and I refuse to die without knowing what this is and how's it doing such strange things to me. I stop running abruptly.

"What's wrong?" Captain Xiao frowns.

"Keep running. I'll..catch up. Gather everyone you can," I command. He nods and takes off.

I follow the source of this sensation and stop to find few of our soldiers running in a hurry. I do a quick head count. There are six of them. Leading them is a vague figure of a girl covered in veil. It's hard to see her clearly from such distance. I blend in with the soldiers. They're so much in panic that they don't notice me, nor does the girl.

Is it the hidden princess? Is she the one doing this to me?

She sprints towards a wall and pushes a brick into it. I hear stones shifting and suddenly a rock wall swings open, revealing a secret passage. She jumps through the wall and dashes the soldiers in, trying to save them too. I follow after them trying to get in.

As I get closer to her, her fresh yet intoxicating scent ensnares my senses. I try to get a view of her as she tries to seal the door behind her but it's almost impossible. I get so engrossed trying to see her that my whole purpose slips from my mind.

As she struggles to seal the door, I sense some Wangluan soldiers already closing in. I close my eyes and analyze, about ten footsteps are coming in this direction.

"They could be many! We can't make our way out before they catch us!" A soldier breathes heavily in panic. It's fucking shameful that a soldier is cowering like that.

"Then we have no choice but to make our stand and fight," she growls, startling me with her determination and fury. I've never seen a girl possessing such leadership, specially a pampered princess like her.

As she reaches closer to the metal gate, my soldiers hesitate.

An old soldier steps forward, "We're joining Wangluan."

She gasps, "What?!"

All of them point their sword at her and turn against us.

The soldier continues, "Your royal highness, accept our apologies. But it's an universal rule that the strong lead, the weak bleed. The King is dead. You don't possess any power anymore. You can't ensure our safety, so we can't risk our life for you. We need a place to survive. But I'll have you know, we'll always honour you after your death."

I wanted nothing more than ripping his fucking throat off. I never felt this much anger in my life.

My eyes fall on her eyes, that were glistening with tears. The world blurs around me. Never have I ever seen such a beautiful pair of eyes. There's a peace in them, a calmness that soothes all my anger. My mind and body instantly feels relaxed. Now I know for sure, she's the source of my strange sensations. Probably that's why I've always been curious to know about her. I don't know what she does to me or how she does it. I don't know if it's some sort of sorcery. And I realized, I don't care anymore. At this moment, all I care about is for her to stop crying because each tear falling from her eyes were like a knife twisting in my chest. This feeling is foreign to me, it's almost frightening.

My brain is too overwhelmed to think. I jump in to help her without thinking.

I grab the sword of the old soldier and with an explosion of movement, lash out on him, then the next, then the next.. I slash them all, one after another as fast as possible. Soon, they all fall in a spray of blood. I breath heavily, trying to regain my strength. Now it's just the two of us, and six dead bodies.

"Thank..you.." she mumbles. My back still on her. I signal her with my hands to run away. I can hold off the soldiers coming. Or at least slow them down and buy her some time to escape.

She hesitates for a second but as the voices of the soldiers closing in gets dangerously closer, she turns to leave. I take a last glance at her before slamming the door closed, locking myself in. I see her eyes again for one brief second, my muscles relaxing once again.

I hope she escapes safely.

What the hell..

I killed our soldiers to help a girl I don't know escape..

And now I'm worrying if she escaped safely?

What's wrong with me?

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Few moments after leading the soldiers away, I emerge from the passage and find myself in the castle kitchen. Behind me, the soldiers scramble around. And in front of me, tugging on a locked door is a maid. I realize I'm cornered.

"Please don't hurt him. He's a good man," the maid requests leaving me shocked. Why the fuck is she trying to save me?

"He helped the princess escape. He's got to know where she went," a soldier roars.

"I don't fucking know. And even if I did, I'd never talk," I growl. The guts of them to dare tryna investigate me.

"Then we'll kill this woman. See if that loosens your tongue," he grins.

I roll my eyes, "Why the fuck would I care about a random maid?"

Her eyes go wide, "I defended you!"

I shrug, "Did I ask you to?"

She groans in disgust, "Guard Chanyeol lied. You're a terrible person!"

"Enough!" A soldier growls and slams his fist into the maid's head. She falls. He pulls out a dagger and kneels beside her.

"Talk or she's dead," another soldier says in a commanding tone.

Rage stirs inside me. Nobody fucking dares to command me. I only do what I plan to do.

I yank off the soldier from the maid and slash across his stomach and hit the other one from behind. The third charges at me and I grab him, slamming him on the table, stabbing the rapier in his chest until he stops breathing.

"Oh my god, you saved my life!" she exclaims as she stands up.

"Don't make me regret it," I groan.

"That was incredible! You're like those magical heroes!" she claps.

"Yep, I'm regretting it," I sigh, "What did Guard Chanyeol tell you about me?"

She smiles, "He told me you're a good and attractive man. He saw you help m'lady escape and told me to cover for you."

Chanyeol did that for me? He used to fucking hate me.

"Where's he?" I ask.

"He went to help our army escape," she says.

I completely forgot we were supposed to escape. But I'm not worried because I already know this plan is gonna fail. But Marshall will only accept it after he sees it fail so I didn't bother to say anything..

I turn to her, "You're the princess's maid?"

Her eyes narrow, "I was, yes. The name is Oyshi."

I nod, considering. She might know something.

"I gotta go. But you fucking owe me," I glare at her one last time before leaving.

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As I reach the courtyard, Captain Xiao catches up to me with a huge army of soldiers. It's sad we're having to endanger so many people's lives just to prove a fucking point to Marshall.

"Most of the army that we could make is here," Marshall sighs as we make our way out the main gate.

Captain Xiao nods, "Now we just need to go to-"

I cut him off raising a hand, trying to focus, "Something isn't right."

"What do you mean?" Marshall asks. Suddenly the world spins around us. I turn my focus towards the tree lines.

"They're in the woods. Wangluan army marched around us. They're gonna strike now," I announce.

"Back to the castle!" Marshall commands the army. We gallop back towards the castle. All around us, Wangluan troops pour out of the forest like ants from an anthill.

Marshall lifts his finger to his lips, blowing a long sharp whistle. Chanyeol approaches and opens the castle gate and we charge inside. He gives me a questioning gaze.

"Wangluan army were waiting for us outside just like I thought," I answer him.

As soon as we get inside, Marshall turns to us.

"Are we fighting?" Captain Xiao asks.

Marshall nods, "They're less in number than us. I think we can make it-"

Atop the wall, Tao stares out at the battlefield in shock, "Uh..Marshall? You may want to see this."

Marshall hurries next to him and gasps, "Weapons? They've got siege weapons!"

Captain Xiao approaches them, "Why didn't you spot these before driving all of us?"

"Perhaps the same reason why all of you missed the whole invasion of Wangluan," Marshall growls.

"Enough," I hiss, "Don't you fucking see? These weapons and soldiers didn't approach with the rest of the army. They approached during the invasion because we all were too occupied in fighting and protecting the King and the border walls were free."

"But why'd they do that?" Captain Xiao asks.

"King Wang invaded this place to claim it, not just to kill King Wu. He wants to keep every surviving soldier of our army to join his, so that his army is strongest in the five kingdoms," I shrug.

Tao nods, "That explains why they didn't attack any servants and guards. His motive isn't murder. He's gonna keep them at service."

"But we'll be dead as soon as we step outside," Captain Xiao frowns.

Marshall nods, "That changes our entire plan. Captain Antares, what do you suggest we do?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Tao raises an eyebrow.

Marshall shakes his head, "I can't do that. I've a family in-"

Captain Xiao cuts him off, "And you don't think we do?"

"It's not the same!" Marshall growls and turns to me, "Can we talk for a second?"

I nod. He pulls me aside and looks around to make sure no one's hearing. Then he whispers, "My son is King Ming's successor. The King is dead now. That means my son is officially the King-regent. We also have other important.. responsibilities in Mingluan that's solely on my family."

"What type of responsibilities?" I raise an eyebrow.

His face pales, like he's hiding something. There's a clear fear in his eyes as sweat drips off his forehead.

Suspicious.

His voice is shaky as he says, "That's confidential. But the thing is my son is too young to leave all these to him without any notice. That's why I was planning to retire this year!"

"How's that any of our problem?" I roll my eyes.

Marshall takes a step forward, gazing angrily at me, "Mingluan is the largest realm in five kingdoms. Queen Seulgi's estate is still safe and I know the location and how to get there."

"You know the hidden city?" I frown.

He nods, "If we make it outta here, I'll be able to provide everyone with shelter. But if we stay trapped under King Wang, he's just gonna use us until we're dead or not capable of fighting anymore. No one's fate is guaranteed."

I bite my lip, considering, "I've a plan. We're gonna escape, but not now. We're gonna master a strategy and sneak out."

Marshall nods. We turn to go back to the soldiers. He addresses them,

"Soldiers, King Wu entrusted your safety with me. To honour his death, I take all your responsibilities. Today, we pledge our loyalty, we bend the knee, we promise King Wang our service. And when the time's right, we strike."

To Be Continued »☆●