The ledger didn’t give me time to panic.

  It gave me a window.

  MISSION: MERCY REQUEST — KING-CLASS SIGNATURE (BORDERLANE) WINDOW: IMMINENT CLAUSE: ARRIVE OR LOSE

  “Arrive or lose,” I muttered. “That’s not a mission. That’s a threat.”

  Noxx—still in his larval, husky-sized form—pressed his forehead into my knee again like he agreed.

  Father walked ahead of us through the ward corridor, black armor swallowing torchlight. He didn’t look rushed.

  He looked inevitable.

  Riku matched his pace on the left, calm and sharp like a blade that had decided walking was beneath it. Draxx stomped on the right, cracking his knuckles like the world was a punching bag that owed him money.

  Aunt Sera trailed half a step behind me.

  Not because she couldn’t pass them.

  Because she was guarding my blind angles like it was muscle memory.

  The horn sounded again from somewhere beyond the ward-glass.

  Not celebration.

  No warning.

  A signal that means the border is breaking.

  We hit the junction where the castle’s inner halls opened into an emergency lane—wide basalt flooring, reinforced pillars carved with old kill-marks, medics dragging stretchers like war had learned to wear hospital colors.

  Cold air rolled in from outside.

  Winter, angry and clean.

  And beyond the far doors…

  the borderline.

  A stretch of dead ground where the castle’s protection ended and the world stopped pretending. Twisted trees clawed at frozen soil. Split boulders lay half-buried like broken bones. Shattered pylons leaned at crooked angles, their runes flickering weakly against an open, bleeding sky.

  The battlefield.

  Triage lines ran right up to the threshold—beds in rows, demon soldiers wrapped in shadow gauze, armor cracked, eyes bright with pain and relief.

  They all knew why Father was here.

  Whispers started first.

  “His Majesty…”

  Then louder—

  “THE DEMON KING—!”

  Then the chant hit like a wave.

  “PRINCE RIKU!”

  “PRINCE RIKU!”

  “PRINCE RIKU!”

  A demon with a shattered horn pushed himself upright just to watch Riku pass.

  Armor rang as fists struck chests. Even the medics paused, staring like they’d just seen the answer to a prayer they hated needing.

  Draxx waved back like a celebrity.

  Riku didn’t look at them.

  He looked straight ahead—toward the wasteland, toward the pressure in the air, toward the place the ledger kept tugging at the edge of my soul.

  Father stopped at the threshold.

  The border wind tugged at his cloakless armor and lost.

  He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

  “Report,” he said.

  A battered officer hit one knee in the snow so hard his greaves rang.

  “Your Majesty,” he said, breath steaming. “Five heroes confirmed. Summoned.”

  Five.

  My stomach tightened.

  I hated how quickly my brain adapted to that number like it was a staffing issue instead of a death sentence.

  The officer swallowed and kept going.

  “One is Dominion-class.”

  That did it.

  Even the medics went still.

  Draxx’s grin thinned into something mean.

  Riku’s aura sharpened like winter steel.

  Father didn’t react outwardly. His eyes just narrowed a fraction, like he’d been handed a new problem to solve.

  He turned his head slightly.

  “Riku.”

  Riku stepped forward immediately.

  He didn’t bow to the soldiers.

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  He bowed to Father.

  Deep. Real. Not politics.

  Duty.

  “They want my sister,” Riku said, voice calm enough to cut.

  “Yes,” Father replied.

  Riku’s gaze flicked once toward me—like a blade checking its sheath.

  Then back forward.

  “Then go,” Father said.

  Riku moved.

  Not run. Not sprinted.

  He was simply—

  gone.

  The shadows swallowed him like they’d been waiting.

  The chant outside didn’t even have time to become applause.

  It broke into something rougher.

  Something like certainty.

  Because when Prince Riku stepped into the wasteland, demons didn’t hope.

  They assumed the world would obey then my ledger burned hotter at the edge of my vision.

  PROTECT RIKU: DANGER CLOSE

  My stomach dropped.

  Noxx’s ears pinned back. A low growl rolled through him, vibrating up my leg like he felt the same tug.

  “I’m not staying,” I whispered.

  Draxx turned so fast his chain clinked. “Good.”

  Aunt Sera’s voice was quiet beside me. “Princess—”

  “Don’t,” I said instantly. “Don’t tell me to stay safe. I’m literally a walking target.”

  Father didn’t look back, but his voice carried like the law.

  “You do not fight,” he said again, as if repetition could stitch it into my bones. “You do not stand in front.”

  “I won’t,” I promised.

  It was true.

  I just wasn’t going to stand behind either.

  There wasn’t a proper saddle yet—just a warded strap rig that medics had thrown together the moment Father said bring the hound.

  It still held.

  Noxx braced like he’d been born for this.

  The moment my knees locked against his sides, he launched forward.

  Fast.

  Too fast.

  The triage lane blurred.

  Medics shouted.

  Someone yelled my name like it was a prayer and a warning.

  “NOXX—SLOW DOWN—!” I screamed, dignity abandoning ship.

  He did not.

  Draxx whooped like an idiot and ran after us, boots hammering basalt.

  “THIS IS INSANE!” he yelled.

  “YOU’RE INSANE!” I yelled back.

  He laughed like he’d won.

  “It’s fine!” he shouted. “It’s co-op!”

  “It’s not—”

  The instant we crossed the threshold—

  urgency hit Noxx like a command.

  Shadow mist surged outward.

  His body expanded mid-stride—legs lengthening, shoulders widening, weight multiplying in a heartbeat.

  “N—NOXX?!” I choked.

  Too late.

  His newly massive frame slammed into the outer gate supports as we burst through.

  Metal screamed.

  The stone cracked.

  The ancient doors tore free from their housings and collapsed outward into the snow in a shower of sparks and frost.

  We hit the wasteland at full speed.

  I looked back over my shoulder in horror.

  The gate was ruined.

  The pillars still stood, but the entry looked like it had been punched by a god.

  “…How am I supposed to explain that to Dad,” I whispered.

  Noxx barked once—innocent as a saint—and kept running like the gate had clearly done that to itself.

  Behind us—

  “WAIT—WAIT—WAIT!”

  Draxx came charging out of the castle like subtlety had never been invented. He skidded at the shattered threshold, stared at the wreckage, then at the giant hound carrying me like a war-mount.

  “…WHAT DID YOU FEED YOUR DOG?!” he shouted.

  “I DIDN’T FEED HIM ANYTHING!” I screamed back.

  Draxx didn’t slow.

  He fired a grappling hook on instinct.

  The line snapped tight around the strap rig with a solid CLANG as he vaulted, boots slamming down behind me.

  I yelped. “DRAXX—?!”

  He grinned like this was the best decision he’d ever made.

  “CAN I CATCH A RIDE?!”

  “THIS IS NOT A RIDE!”

  “IT IS NOW.”

  Noxx barked.

  And we ran—snow blasting behind us, mist tearing up from his paws, the wasteland swallowing the castle’s warmth until all that was left was winter and pressure and the distant, wrong shimmer of holy power.

  The land out here didn’t feel like a place.

  It felt like a bruise.

  Dead trees snagged the wind like claws. Shattered pylons leaned at angles that made my eyes itch. The air tasted sterile in a way that made my nurse's brain angry.

  And somewhere ahead, beyond the fog and broken stone—

  Riku was alone.

  My ledger shimmered again, and for half a second the text changed in a way that made my throat close.

  WINDOW: IMMINENT CLAUSE: ARRIVE OR LOSE SUBCLAUSE: MERCY REQUEST — BLOODLINE PRIORITY

  Bloodline priority.

  Me.

  My brother.

  My family.

  “This thing,” I hissed, breath fogging, hands clenching in Noxx’s fur, “is going to get me killed.”

  Draxx leaned forward behind me, voice bright and fearless like he couldn’t hear the same doom.

  “Then don’t die,” he said.

  I made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob.

  “Wow,” I panted. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  Noxx growled low again.

  The fog ahead thickened—unnatural, rolling in low and heavy, swallowing sound like a curtain.

  And then—

  a thin line of black flame flickered at the edge of sight.

  Disappearing.

  Reappearing.

  Bodies dropping where it passed.

  My stomach went cold.

  “…Riku.”

  We weren’t there yet.

  But the battlefield was already answering him.

  Noxx surged faster.

  Draxx whooped again like a lunatic.

  And I tightened my grip—because the wasteland didn’t care that I was ten, or tired, or a nurse in a demon princess’s body.

  It only cared that the ledger had issued a mission.

  And the mission had chosen my brother.

  We tore forward into the fog.

  Straight into war.

  THIS IS AN EXTRA CHAPTER FOR THE WEEKEND PLEASE ENJOY!!

  Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a like/follow (and a comment if you have thoughts—feedback helps a lot). As mentioned above, AI is used as a writing assistant, but the creative work and decisions are my own, and I keep draft snapshots for transparency. See you next chapter!