“Okay, guys!” I shouted over the tense murmurs. Pyers exged looks, some hesitant, others already gripping their ons, but there was a clear ck of dire—they were waiting for someoo take charge. “What we o do now is gather outside on the walls.”

  The pyers’ eyes widened, hands flig into the air as they instinctively checked their HUDs. A system notification for everyone.

  A quest from me.

  I bliaken slightly aback. Wait… I could issue mass quests that easily? That was normal, right? If I was in charge? Right?

  Before I could my head around it, Stha—the closest oo me—let out a low whistle, her sharp grin cutting through the tension like a bde. “Woah, generous!” she remarked, fshing me a knowing smirk before she bolted straight for the doors.

  And just like that, the rest of the pyers followed suit, feet pounding against the marble floor, their murmurs esg ied chatter as they rushed out toward their assigned positions.

  I moved to follow, but my guards didn’t budge. They stood firm, a wall of steel and unwavering discipline blog my way. I exhaled, turning toward the woman at their ter. “Stand down, Alma,” I ordered, meeting her gaze head-on. “I o go to the walls. I o and.”

  She didn’t flinch. Didn’t even shift. Her eyes stayed locked onto mine, determined. “Mi do that, Lady,” she tered, her voice firm but measured. “I won’t let you walk into danger—”

  “Alma, listen.” I stepped forward, l my voice, but keeping it steady. “I will get into danger. All the time, okay?” For a moment, she didn’t move, her jaw tightening as if she was f herself to process that reality.

  Then, after a breath too long for fort, she finally shifted aside, the uards following her lead. “So…” Alma muttered, arms crossed, her totersweet, “my position is useless?” She wasn’t defiant, not quite. But she was bitter, as if the realization stung more than she wao admit.

  “No, no,” I said quickly, shaking my head, pg a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s still important.” I shot her a half-smile, amused but still sincere. “But I’m thankfully not a helpless princess.”

  Alma let out a relut sigh, but there was the fai hint of a smirk at the er of her lips. “Not yet,” she muttered.

  I grinned. “Not ever.” Then I turned on my heel and strode toward the doors, stepping into the chaos.

  The fort was alive with movement. Not just the pyers, but the soldiers, too. Their as were sharp, disciplined, a stark trast to the more chaotiergy of the adventurers weaviween them.

  Orders were shouted, boots pounded against the stohe air was thick with urgency, but there was no panic, just preparation. It was the calm before the storm. Behind me, a familiar soft whisper reached my ear. “Lady, squash them, okay?”

  I bliurning slightly to g Lo. Her usual calm, collected demeanor was o be seen. Instead, her eyes were steely, her fingers clutg her stack of papers with the iy of someone who had personally been wronged by fate.

  I giggled, brushing my fingers across her stiffened shoulder. “Lo, aren’t you fierce tonight?”

  She didn’t even look at me, just stared defiantly out the window. “They interrupted an important moment,” she decred, voice low, simmering, “so they deserve to cease existing.”

  …Okay, that was the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard from her. “Sure, sure,” I ughed, but made a mental o never get between Lo and her meticulously pnned schedules again.

  We reached the outer wall, my lighthearted smirk still pying on my lips. And then it vanished.

  Demon army.

  The sight hit me like a physical weight, pressing against my chest. Without hesitation, I stepped up beside Mi, my gaze sweeping across the battlefield. A thousand demons. They stood not that far away, arranged in tight ranks, their bck armor uniform, their helmeted faces unreadable.

  For someone seeing them for the first time, the sight would be awe-inspiring, terrifying even.

  I could hear it, the uneasy shifting of boots, the sharp inhales of soldiers who weren’t quite used to staring down an inhuman force. But me? I reized these.

  These weren’t high-level demons, nor terrifying monstrosities jured from the depths of the abyss. No, these were Duwin’s foot soldiers—fodder. This wasn’t an unstoppable force, this was a token army. And at its head, standing tall, unmoving, was her.

  Irwen.

  She stood at the front; her flowing battle uniform was cut just enough to leave something for the imagination, but it wasn’t much. Her long silver hair cascaded over her shoulders, barely touched by the breeze, and I could swear her star-like blue eyes found me.

  Even from this distance, I could feel it, her power, her trol, the way the air itself seemed to bend at her presence. She inhaled and then… “e!” Her voied, magic ced through every sylble. Carrying far beyond the distan elven voice should be able to reach.

  I flinched.

  Mi didn’t. …Because, of course, he didn’t. Out of the etalion, only a few held their ground without rea.

  Hey, I ro, but even I jumped at sudden, ued sounds! That was pletely fair!

  “Alma, Katheriechi, and… Lunaris. With me.” Their footsteps were immediate, boots thudding against the stone as they closed in, f a loose semi-cirear me and Mi.

  Only Alma spoke, her voice a mix of disbelief and tightly restrained frustration. “Lady, you ’t be sidering—”

  I was already moving, striding toward the wall’s edge with zero hesitation. Behind me, I heard the sharp ihe resigned exhale. “...You are serious.” Her voice dropped into a near-deadpan, a sigh dragging through each sylble, her armor shifting as she relutly followed.

  “Join me. We’ll get an answer.” Then, I turned, log eyes with Lo, who was still standihe and post, arms tensed, papers half-clutched in her hands as if she was debating throwing them at my face. “You have and of the royal pany.”

  Her lips parted, a protest already f, but before she could voice it, I spun back toward the enemy, my grin widening. Time to show off.

  I focused… Nothing happened.

  I focused slightly more… Still nothing.

  I focused a lot, and a pulse of mana surged from me, fizzing like raw lightning, twisting mid-air before coalesg into the form I wanted. Step by step, a staircase of shimmering ifurled downward, each step humming with frozen magic, refleg the battlefield in fractured, ghostly light.

  The air snapped with cold, mist curling from the edges of the jured path, the magic itself whispering, like an unseen force, breathing frost ience.

  I let out a slow, satisfied breath. “Alright,” I mused, stepping forward, the first stair solid beh my heels. “Now, let’s go say hi.”

  I took the first step, the magieath me solid. Cold seeped through my heels, an unnatural chill that wasirely disf, but still a sharp trast to the lingering warmth of the fort behind us.

  Lunaris followed closely behind, her movements careful, her hand h near her rapier’s hilt as though expeg something to jump at us from the darkness. Alma strode just behind her, posture stiff, eyes locked forward, the tension iaraying her outward posure.

  Katherine and Techi took up the rear, their boots king lightly against the ice as we desded. Somewhere in the middle of our slow dest, Lunaris leaned closer, her voice a whisper, the words slipping through uaihs. “Why me?”

  Her gaze flickered around, uneasy, like she was afraid the attention might turn into a curse. “You have others…”

  I resisted the urge to grin, because I couldn’t tell her the truth. That she was incredible with the bdes, a force of nature I’d watched carve through battlefields in another life. So instead, I whispered back, “Because you are strong, and great up close, as I heard.”

  Her steps faltered just for a sed, but then she nodded, gripping the hilt of her rapier just a little tighter, before we finally stepped off the st stair, our feet g softly against the dry earth of the battlefield. And there she was.

  Queen Irwen.

  She stood in front of her demon army, a statue al indifferehe weight of a thousand soldiers behind her a… she looked unbothered, almost as if she had simply wandered onto the battlefield by act. Her attire barely moved, even as a phantom wind rolled across the field.

  Of course, she wasn’t worried; she was mythic-tier. Nobody here could even dream of damaging her. So… yeah. That was fairly inve for me. I took a measured step forward, stopping just within a respectful, yet entirely unfortable, distance. I licked my lips. “Hi, Mum?”

  A pause. A long, terrible pause, where I desperately hoped she would ugh and say this was all a misuanding, but…

  Yeah. Not a ce. Katherine, in true Katherine fashion, didn’t hesitate. “Ah, ‘sup.” She lifted a hand and gave Irwen a casual wave, grinning as if we had just bumped into her at a bar, instead of a battlefield with her summoned a demon army.

  Then, her grin faltered slightly, and she tilted her head toward me. “Mum?”

  Irwen’s gaze softened just slightly, her expression unreadable yet strangely gentle. And then she smiled. A small, knowing, painfully motherly smile. “We finally meet again,” she said, her voice carrying without effort, without magic, yet sinking into my bones. “And I am gd we did.”

  “Sure thing,” I said, watg my fidence drain out of me like a punctured whiskey barrel. I could hear it leaving, the sharp, hissing sound of my brain desperately grasping for something clever to say… and failing. “I… what are you doing here?”

  That was a solid enough questiht? I shifted my weight, crossing my arms, casual, fident. Totally not awkward. “I told you not to drop by unannounced. I have people at home.”

  I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder, motioning vaguely at the fort. Like this was some annoying family visit and not an apocalyptic-level frontation.

  Silence.

  The kind of silence where you feel someone processing the sheer level of nonsense you’ve just spoken. “Terrible joke,” Katherine decred, arms crossed, her grin half-mog, half-amused. She leaned in just a bit, like she was delivering a secret, but whispered just loud enough for everyoo hear. “Yar nervous. Calm down.”

  Mother’s icy gaze flickered, not at me first, but at my group. Slowly, deliberately, she studied each of them, her eyes lingering, calg. No judgment. Just assessment.

  Theurned her focus to me. “You have impressive friends,” she finally said. Then her head tilted slightly, and with a faint smile, she asked, “But could we talk alone?”

  My terrible joke didn’t nd? Time to double down. “I’m sorry, but this is a big party.” Katherine snorted, and I swore I saw Lunaris suppress a ugh out of the er of my eye.

  Irwen, though?

  Unfazed.

  Her smile didn’t waver, her expression still holding that strange, almost serene happiness. “I’ll make it only two of us,” she offered, lightly, like we were iating tea preferences and not whatever this situation actually was. Her hand rose slightly, fingers flexing, a subtle ripple of magic pulsing through the air, just enough for me to feel it in my bones. “If you are ameo that idea, I’ll put a shield around us.”

  I gnced back at the others, reading their reas before answering.

  Alma? Shaking her head so furiously that if magic didn’t kill me today, she probably would.

  Lunaris? Iing the ground like it had just insulted her family.

  Katherine? Shrugging, like she was watg a particurly iing bar brawl unfold.

  And Techi? The only one who actually spoke up. “The Queen’s strength is vastly superior. Shield or not, it wouldn’t ge things.”

  “Alright,” I said, crag a wry smile, even as my heart pounded just a little harder. “Let’s talk.”