Hajin sat quietly with the crimson notification hanging before him while the campfire slowly burned down to grey coals.
'Eliminate the carrier to prevent future threat... the divine prompt insists while a grieving girl sleeps twenty feet away.'
He looked past the floating text at Didi, curled tightly beneath the blanket with tears drying on her cheeks.
'She carries the bloodline of the Underworld King... yet she has never once shown me any trace of hostility.'
All she did yesterday was watch her faithful protector sacrifice his life upon a road she foolishly chose to defend.
'I am not an executioner working from a script... if the Underworld King becomes a problem, I will handle him.'
He thrust his hand through the translucent interface, shattering the crimson warning into harmless sparks that dissolved into the dark.
The cavern returned to the quiet settling of cooling wood ash and the steady, even breathing of two sleeping companions.
'My life, my independent choices... any disgruntled deity with a formal complaint is welcome to file it in person.'
Lively mountain birds singing in the branches above the cavern entrance woke him several hours later with cheerful chirps.
Pale morning light spilled across the floor, prompting him to kick loose dirt over the embers until they died.
Juna stood near the rocky entrance with her arms raised overhead in a luxurious stretch while her fluffy tail swished lazily.
Didi sat upright clutching the blanket in both hands, having regained some composure despite the lingering grief in her eyes.
"We need to get moving," he said, rising to his feet and dusting the ash from his trousers. "The capital is a few hours out... and grief keeps no schedule."
Hajin tested his breathing against the residual soreness in his lower ribs, confirming that overnight rest knit the worst of the blunt impact.
Juna checked the perimeter path through the pine scrub, sniffing the cool morning air for any lingering scent of obsidian corruption.
Didi folded the rough wool blanket into a neat, precise square, extending the fabric toward him without uttering a single spoken word.
"Keep it," he offered with a faint smirk, waving his hand dismissively. "The wind cuts past the gate in the evenings... and you currently own less than I do."
The princess tucked the coarse wool beneath her left arm without arguing, though her knuckles pressed tightly against the rough weave.
She stepped out onto the winding dirt path with chin held high, masking her exhaustion beneath the practiced posture of royal breeding.
Their morning trek began in peaceful silence, as the lush autumn forest showed zero scars of the previous day's bloodshed.
The live chat feed scrolled at a leisurely pace in his peripheral vision, as spectators discussed the previous night's drama.
[ CringeSlayer91: walking the princess home after everything, sure, very natural, casual monday behavior ]
'These cosmic strangers stayed awake through the night watching my broadcast... which is far more than most real families manage.'
[ ShadowMage44: wait until the kingdom finds out she walked home with a stranger and a wolf ]
[ ashley(mod): let us just hope the road stays boring, because they have been through enough ]
'Agreed, Ashley... because a peaceful, uneventful dirt road represents the one luxury I cannot afford to lose today.'
"You are quiet, human," Juna remarked, glancing sideways at him with her pointed ears twitching curiously. "You have been quiet since the fire died."
"I am thinking," he retorted with a dry half-smile, keeping his stride steady. "It is a rare condition... let it run its course."
"You think loudly," Juna countered with an amused smirk of her own. "Your face does most of the shouting."
Didi observed their casual interaction with the first spark of genuine curiosity she demonstrated across the entire morning journey.
"Is he always like this?" she asked, looking over at the wolf girl with an arched eyebrow. "Or did nearly dying bring out his worst personality traits?"
"Worse," Juna snorted, flicking her tail with obvious amusement. "You caught him being exceptionally polite... treasure the rare memory!"
"You travel with him by choice, wolf kin," Didi noted, tilting her head thoughtfully. "What kind of wage does he pay you?"
"Pays in roasted food and terrible plans," Juna replied with a shrug, licking her lips. "Lately the food has been much better, so I stay."
Didi processed the unconventional explanation like a royal scholar examining a bizarre artifact, filing the strange information behind her eyes.
About an hour out from the capital's outer gate, thunderous hoofbeats approached rapidly along the packed highway, prompting Juna to turn on instinct.
A mounted vanguard of plate-armored royal knights burst through the foliage, forming an impenetrable defensive wall of polished iron armor.
Juna dropped into an aggressive crouch with a low defensive growl, but Hajin's firm hand on her shoulder stilled her posture.
'Crossed hammers over a polished silver anvil... out of every noble house in this realm, it had to be them.'
The lead knight pulled his warhorse to an abrupt halt and raised his visor, revealing a haughty, familiar noble face.
The arrogant young nobleman served as a prominent side-branch cousin who tormented him relentlessly before his unceremonious family exile years ago.
'He used to stage brutal brawls between me and the estate hounds for pocket copper, and he still owes me.'
Two mounted retainers reined in behind him with lances held upright, their polished chestplates gleaming under the high morning sun.
The knight observed the young princess first, then located Hajin, letting an obnoxious, mocking smirk spread across his aristocratic features.
"Look what the forest dragged in!" Kenny laughed mockingly, resting an armored gauntlet upon his pommel. "Wondered where the family trash settled."
"Looks like you became a royal lapdog after all," Kenny sneered, leaning forward in his saddle.
'Family trash... speaking such insolence in front of the crown princess proves this fool never learned the price of words.'
'That heraldry belongs to House Flint... so why does an active royal knight address my summoner like an abandoned stray?'
Hajin exhaled a slow, controlled breath as his translucent broadcasting chat accelerated with rapid new messages across his visual field.
[ CringeSlayer91: a rival arrives on the road at the perfect dramatic moment, incredible writing today ]
'Someone orchestrating my fate finds my miserable mornings hilarious... and none of these viewers donate enough to compensate this headache.'
[ NewViewer_02: hang on, hajin got kicked out of his own noble family, is that canon now ]
Juna took a protective half-step across the gravel road without instruction, placing her shoulder between Didi and the warhorses.
[ ashley(mod): looks like some rich kid who thinks he owns the road and everyone on it ]
'Two seconds of observation was all our moderator required to formulate an accurate character assessment... she is entirely correct.'
"Still standing there mute," Kenny scoffed, his smirk turning vicious as he shook his head. "Just like when you were a pathetic boy."
"Heard you were scraping the southern slums after admitting your talent was a complete fraud," Kenny continued, loud enough for his retainers to chuckle.
"Carrying royal luggage suits you," Kenny added with cutting malice. "Your mother carried things for a living too."
The cruel insult directed at his deceased mother transformed the ambient atmosphere of the road faster than any frost spell.
Didi stepped past Hajin before he could respond, radiating an aura of chilling royal authority that dropped the surrounding temperature.
"That is enough!" she commanded, her sapphire eyes blazing with furious royal dignity. "Speak to him with respect... or my father strips your posting by sunset!"
Kenny maintained his position in the saddle, tilting his chin down as his patronizing smirk morphed into the arrogance of a man backed by his family.
"With all due respect, Your Highness," Kenny answered smoothly, offering a shallow, insulting nod. "The Flints are not your lapdogs!"
"We are not some minor provincial house for you to boss around," Kenny warned, narrowing his eyes. "Mind your royal tongue on a public highway."
She stood her ground as brilliant frost surged from her feet, crawling across the packed dirt toward the nervous warhorses.
"Are you certain, Sir Knight," Didi whispered with icy fury, "that you can carry the weight of those treasonous words?"
Kenny refused to yield an inch, as dense silver elemental mana erupted from his plate armor, deflecting the advancing frost.
Five luminous crystalline Shards materialized into rapid orbit around his right gauntlet, pulsing with formidable and refined aristocratic combat power.
The raw pressure of five awakened Shards pressed downward like lead weights, causing the roadside pine needles to tremble against the gravel.
A veteran knight in the rear rank observed the princess's icy wrath, tightening his armored gauntlets over his leather reins.
[ ShadowMage44: she owns the ground, but he is not worried, and that is the part scaring me ]
'That is no empty boast... Kenny commands five refined Shards, and five Shards easily overwhelms her current magical capability.'
[ Donation - NewViewer_02: 100 Credits ]
[ NewViewer_02: my money rides on the ice, because she looks genuinely terrifying this morning ]
[ CringeSlayer91: the bid war returns, and the last time chat bet on violence the pig died twice ]
[ Donation - DarkBlade: 250 Credits ]
[ DarkBlade: on the five shiny ones, because numbers usually beat a temper at this rank of fight ]
'Two hundred fifty credits on brute violence and one hundred on frost... and zero coins wagered on peaceful negotiation.'
Initiating open combat against five-Shard nobles represented tactical suicide, and the sole authority greater than five Shards was royal succession.
He stepped directly beside her shoulder, placing himself inside her line of sight before she could cast another offensive spell.
"We are late, Your Highness," he said smoothly, resting a calm, grounding hand on her forearm. "Your father has royal riders searching the woods... every minute here is one he spends worrying."
'The King's supreme authority represented the sole currency that arrogant knight could not challenge, and I gambled on a bluff.'
Kenny scrutinized Hajin with narrowed, calculating eyes for several tense seconds, before dismissing his five orbiting crystalline Shards with disgust.
"How remarkably considerate," Kenny sneered, reining his warhorse sideways. "Run along to your master then, lapdog."
"We have an active Gate to clear by noon!" Kenny scoffed, motioning for his vanguard to proceed. "I would not dream of holding up a messenger boy."
He spurred his warhorse forward, leading the mounted column past through the shattered frost without sparing another downward glance toward them.
The dull thud of hooves receded down the packed highway, kicking up a gray cloud of dust that drifted slowly across the ditch.
The thundering hooves receded into the distance, allowing Hajin to release the breath he held since the visor lifted earlier.
'That was perilously close... an open royal altercation would have granted House Flint tremendous political leverage against the crown throne.'
'They deliberately provoked her into attacking first... the sole reason an arrogant noble lingered upon an open road so long.'
The glistening frost melted into the roadbed as Didi lowered her hands, turning her sharp sapphire gaze toward his face.
[ LurkerNoMore: he talked down five Shards with a bluff, this man negotiates like rent is due ]
[ JunaFanClub: the wolf girl shielding the princess though, character development everywhere ]
"So," Didi began slowly, crossing her arms as she scrutinized him. "The Flint family... and their 'trash' standing before me with my blanket."
"The Flints hold the regional Gate clearing contract," Didi observed, her eyes sharp with tactical calculation. "Your former noble house clears the dimensional rift."
"My former house holds a contract," he corrected with a cynical smirk. "I hold a grudge with much better posture... we are not colleagues."
'House Flint walks my city again... but this time I possess a divine weapon that consumes their corrupted planar essence.'
He turned his gaze toward the dense canopy, finding zero answers in the rustling autumn leaves above the dirt road.
'I am in tremendous trouble... because that calculating analytical mind behind her eyes never forgets an unresolved personal mystery.'
"Long story," he sighed, rolling his shoulders as he took the lead once more. "The capital gate is barely an hour ahead along this road, so pace your questions for now."
"Keep walking, Hajin," Didi demanded, matching his stride with a stubborn lift of her chin. "You can pace your full explanation until we reach the sentries."
"He talks much less when he is thoroughly uncomfortable," Juna chimed in with a teasing grin, nudging his elbow. "Keep him moving, princess!"
[ CringeSlayer91: the wolf girl commentary remains undefeated, someone give her a raise ]
The folded blanket rested securely beneath her arm like an official royal document she refused to surrender at checkpoints.
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