[YUZUKI]
"Your majesty, we have a problem," Rinko said the moment they stepped out of Yamashita.
It was so sudden, and the change in tone had Yuzuki wondering what had happened this time.
She had not expected much, given that her mind was still relieved from the fact that Ayami Araki was her Matsui. It was a realization that still crippled her even to this moment, and it hurt to leave Matsui in Yamashita again.
She wanted to go back for her.
Gods, she wanted to mend their realities and make things better for Matsui in this life.
Hell, she wanted to tell Ayami that they were mates from another life.
A life that had been fucked by the same king that she served. But Yuzuki knew that, at this point in time, the truth would have her mate getting hurt. That in itself was too dangerous for her.
For her Matsui.
Maybe that was why she didn't try to reason with Matsui.
Yuzuki didn't try to defend her actions back there. Not because she was the queen of Kurayami now, or even that she had a new life that she didn't want to ruin before she got all her answers.
She didn't say a thing because she couldn't afford to bring too much attention to her new bond with Matsui. And like she had promised, she would keep her Matsu safe, no matter what price she would have to pay this time.
"What is it?" Yuzuki asked passively, and Rinko wondered if she had done anything wrong. However, she shook her thoughts and focused on her queen, the woman who could kill her if she didn't speak as soon as possible.
Maybe it was just her mind playing games too, but no one was counting, right?
"There is war back home," Rinko said carefully.
Yuzuki froze.
Her brain circuited for a moment, and she stilled.
There was no way, right?
Surely this was just something she had misheard from Rinko, no? But then Rinko didn't have a reason to lie to her. And she was certain that that couldn't be the case right now. It just couldn't be.
"A WHAT now?" Yuzuki asked, her tone dangerously low as she turned to Rinko.
The warrior stiffened as she looked everywhere but her queen. She knew that this was not going to end for her.
Yuzuki had instantly gone from being the love-struck girl she had seen back in Yamashita to the queen Kuramitsu that Rinko and the entire kingdom of Kurayami knew.
And gods, was it not something that the warrior wanted to come face to face with? She couldn't afford to piss Yuzuki off, but it just happened that that was their fate at the moment.
Maybe there was going to be a better explanation for this. It was just so sudden and unrealistic. The morning sun was slowly hitting their faces like they had spent the entire night walking away from Yamashita and heading back home. It made no sense.
Truly.
"There were rumors of the queen's death. Your death. People haven't really seen you in action for a while, and so they…" Rinko trailed off, like she was scared of voicing the one thing that they both knew was true.
This was not the moment for them to be rethinking their lives, but it was pretty much what they had to face and deal with.
It was not right; it never would be, but the fact that life was not starting to smile upon them despite the bright sun hitting me was just something else. There was no way that life was that complicated for both of them.
It was unfair, on so many goddamn scales, and someone had to pay the price for that.
"They assumed that I really died in the drowning accident," Yuzuki finished, and Rinko nodded silently. She was being cautious, very cautious, because the Kuramitsu she knew was explosive as fuck.
This queen could decide that Rinko's functionality was over, and the warrior wouldn't even have a say about it.
She would just have to give in because there wasn't a place she would be able to hide in the entire realm that Queen Kuramitsu wouldn't be able to find her. That was dangerous, but not more than the subject at hand.
"We have a traitor," Yuzuki growled loudly in disappointment.
She had learned the history of Kurayami back when she was a young alpha.
Heck, her father made her read the stories of their kingdoms and the absences that would have been beneficial for Yamashita, if ever there came a day for her to be the pack leader and one whom the king Kazuya trusted. Kurayami was impenetrable.
No information got leaked unless someone was thinking that the mad Kurayami queen was truly gone. Because if Kuramitsu were gone, she would not be there to punish those who had tried to disobey her.
Yuzuki knew that this was the kind of shit that the real Kuramitsu would have hated, and she was fuming on behalf of the woman.
She had not expected to be involved in such shit, his mother, after she was reincarnated, but surely, she shouldn't have expected that the moon goddess would bring her back without having to place a spine somewhere in the middle, right?
"The council members are scared; the warriors are at the borders defending with their might, but with them not having seen the queen for the past few months, they have been disheartened, too.
"I fear that we might lose the war if the battles continue," Rinko reported, as if she were silently begging Yuzuki not to hurt her for a messenger.
They knew how much time had passed, and honestly, it was unlikely that the mad queen hadn't made her presence known over the past few months.
Then again, to be fair, Yuzuki had just been reincarnated, and she was busy with the mating ball preparations; she just hadn't thought so much time would pass, not to mention the fact that the timeline was a bit grey.
That in itself was because during every mating season, time was slowed in the kingdom that hosted the ball. Nights were longer and days were shorter. The hours dragged by, literally.
For every night at the mating ball, ten days passed.
And Yuzuki had Rinko and was in Yamashita for two nights. So that was the equivalent of ten days of war. Twenty days of her new people fighting to save their home without the courage to seek out their queen.
"How long has it been?" Yuuki dared to ask, desperate for her calculations to be wrong.
She had not wanted to put Kurayami in danger.
The fact that there was a battle had her thinking of Fukada. She had been in Fukada when the king had come and flashed them all. She had been there, and she had lost everything, including the love of her life.
Now, in the present, she had been in Yamashita and found Matsui, only to come out and realize that her new people were probably scared to death because they thought their crazy, immortal queen had abandoned them.
It was not fair.
That was the kind of shit that no one deserved to go through twice, and as Yuzuki looked at Ayami, silently praying that the answer would be way easier than that was, Yuzuki made another oath to herself and the people of Kurayami.
She would never let Kurayami burn.
She would defend them, and serve them, she would make sure that they were the happiest and safest kingdom in them, regardless of the rumors. She would never let them down again.
But was that a guarantee, or was it just a part of her imagination?
"Three weeks," Rinko breathed.
Yuzuki whimpered at that comment.
She had known what the answer would be, but had hoped that it was just her foolish calculation.
"They want a queen, I'll give them one," Yuzuki said angrily before she created a portal for the borders of Kurayami.
She knew it was a dangerous decision she was making, but honestly, even if she found Matsui, she couldn't let Matsui live in Yamashita again. Yamashita held so many terrible memories for them.
They would need a place to start over, and Yuzuki was going to make sure that Kurayami was that apple for them.
"Your highness?"
"You coming or not, Rinko?" Yuzuki asked as she pointed to the portal.
"Coming. May the goddess save us all," Rinko whispered as the portal closed behind both of them, only to open a little close to the borders of Kurayami.
And, boy, was it a heavy battle they found themselves in the middle of.