'Why did I say that aloud... to a crown princess of all people, with my notoriously terrible luck?'
Hajin stood as the sole living heir the Flint clan formally exiled, stripping his name to bury their noble humiliation.
The main family branch treated his existence as dead for years, and inconvenient corpses with living memories invited lethal solutions.
The dirt highway widened as it skirted the outermost tenant farms, where wooden windmills turned sluggishly in the morning breeze.
Carts loaded with winter cabbage and salted grain lined the roadside verge, their drivers glancing warily at the ragged trio.
'If she carries this tale back to the royal court, the main house dispatches cleaners... starting with whoever spoke aloud.'
Didi walked three paces behind Juna with her arms crossed tightly, leaving the unresolved question hanging unresolved in the autumn breeze.
"Technically, I am not part of the Flint family anymore," Hajin said, rubbing the back of his neck with a grim half-smile. "Not since I turned sixteen."
She quickened her brisk pace to walk directly beside him, offering zero apologies for entering his personal walking space.
"On account of the exile," Didi observed quietly, her sapphire eyes analyzing his expression. "And Kenny clearly remembers every detail."
"Yeah," he admitted with a dry scoff, kicking a loose pebble into the ditch. "Born without elemental talent, so they threw me out before anyone important noticed."
"As far as House Flint is concerned," he added, "I am just an unranked commoner with no forwarding address."
Zero shock appeared across her youthful aristocratic face, and zero patronizing pity followed, though her eyes narrowed in serious contemplation.
"Seems nobody told Kenny to keep quiet," she remarked, her brows knitting together in distaste. "He was remarkably eager to remind you of home."
"Kenny is an arrogant idiot with a loud mouth," Hajin chuckled darkly, shaking his head. "Writes checks his five Shards can barely cash."
"The main house has professional cleaners," he warned, looking directly into her eyes. "And they do not send polite letters before arriving."
'I understand precisely how that noble clan launders family embarrassment... because I served as their scheduled embarrassment once.'
"Promise me you will not repeat this at court," Hajin requested firmly, his voice dropping low. "The main house cleans up loose ends like butchers wiping counters."
She stopped abruptly in the center of the path, prompting him to turn around and face her waiting figure.
The haughty, guarded expression she maintained for Kenny dissolved into genuine, unguarded sincerity that she made zero effort to conceal.
"You carried me out of that burning forest alive," Didi said softly, looking him straight in the eyes. "I am not throwing you to the wolves over an old family name."
"Your secret is completely safe with me," she promised, placing a gloved hand over her heart. "That is my second vow today."
'He guards the painful scars of his past like a survivor who learned early that honesty gets taxed with interest.'
He scrutinized her determined face for several seconds, before allowing his tense shoulders to relax under the warm morning sun.
"Thank you," Hajin said, offering her a sincere half-smile. "For what it is worth... you are the first noble to ever keep a secret for me."
They resumed their journey along the woodland trail, and the peaceful silence between them felt remarkably natural and unforced.
'Zero talent, he claimed... yet our safe return to the capital contradicts that official paperwork on several glaring points.'
She recalled the suffocating aura of the obsidian monster, pinning her against the dirt like useless discarded wooden furniture.
When she awakened from unconsciousness, Gazel perished, and she rested miles away inside a safe mountain cave shelter.
'A talentless failure does not extract a royal princess from an immortal demonic beast... his humble account contains massive gaps.'
'Strange magical energy clings to both of them... sharing an identical divine frequency, while neither stranger shows exhaustion.'
'A talentless exile possessing elite tactical instincts and a feral wolf girl with refined manners... the royal report writes poorly.'
Juna slowed her brisk pace until her shoulder brushed against his coat sleeve, flattening her ears in genuine confusion.
"Master..." she whispered hesitantly, her claws fidgeting with her hem. "I keep feeling this strange hatred toward the princess... I do not know where it is coming from."
Hajin slowed his stride instinctively, scanning her earnest eyes for any trace of sarcasm without finding a single clue.
'Is the divine system leaking into her consciousness...? I dismissed that elimination prompt, but nobody explained the spiritual backlash.'
'If the interface projects its cosmic grudges into her thoughts, it controls far more of her mind than I permitted.'
"No clue where it comes from," he answered gently, keeping his voice low so the princess did not hear. "Maybe you two crossed paths in another life."
'If the divine interface leaks ancient grudges now, future directives might prove far more intrusive than a simple warning prompt.'
'I need to understand what this contract actually connects between our souls, before an unknown tether compromises us in combat.'
She scoffed softly beneath her breath, flicking her bushy tail behind her like a battle flag in turmoil.
"Do not joke about that!" Juna huffed, puffing her cheeks with an irritated pout. "I only hate people with good reason... and this has none!"
They continued walking in silence for fifty paces before the formal title she used finally registered within his conscious mind.
'Did Juna genuinely address me as Master just now... and did it require ten whole paces for my thick skull to register it?'
Since the fateful hour of her summoning, she either ignored him entirely or spoke with the insolence of an unruly tenant.
He parted his lips to tease her about the honorific, then reconsidered before spoiling the sole positive development in days.
"She called you something back there," Didi interrupted, glancing between them with a knowing look. "Court tutors taught me lip reading at ten."
"She called me a monster," Hajin lied smoothly, flashing an amused smirk toward Juna. "That is her pet name for me... do not put nicer words in her mouth."
"I definitely said monster," Juna stated firmly without turning her head, as her pointed ears flattened defensively against her messy hair.
"Obviously..." Didi murmured dryly, rolling her eyes as she filed the term into her mental notes where the royal court would eventually learn its true meaning.
The towering granite battlements of the royal capital materialized across the horizon later that morning like an unyielding stone promise.
Curtain walls stretched across the valley floor, punctuated by massive siege bastions and iron-banded watch posts.
Dozens of traveling merchants, woodcutters, and laden grain wagons stood in stalled queues before the colossal outer portcullis.
A keen-eyed sentry standing upon the high parapet spotted their approach, sounding two sharp notes upon his brass signal horn.
A disciplined squad of plate-armored royal guards rushed through the grand gate archway, drilled for extreme crisis defensive operations.
They marched past Hajin and Juna without acknowledging their presence, forming a protective, interlocking shield perimeter around the princess.
An imposing knight captain displaying golden royal insignia dropped to one knee, rising swiftly to inspect her damaged garments with eyes full of alarm.
"Your Highness!" the captain gasped in horror, his face pale beneath his crested helmet. "What happened to your royal escort... who are these two commoners?!"
Didi parted her lips to respond, yet zero words emerged as the tragic memory of the ambush replayed internally behind her eyes.
Her hands trembled against her sides, and zero polished sentences from her extensive royal education formed in her throat.
The captain observed her visible distress, shifting his suspicious, aggressive gaze upward toward the nearest armed stranger standing nearby on foot.
'This arrogant captain is about to misjudge the entire situation... and I cannot even blame his exhaustion today.'
"What have you done to Her Highness?!" the captain barked furiously, stepping forward with his hand dropping to his sword hilt. "Answer me, scum!"
He stepped forward aggressively with an armored gauntlet reaching for Hajin's collar, but the youth shifted his weight smoothly onto his back heel.
The steel gauntlet closed on empty air, causing the bulky officer to stumble half a pace in sudden disbelieving surprise.
[ LurkerNoMore: two clean slips on a man with three Shards, and he looks bored doing it ]
The captain lunged a second time with his left arm, yet Hajin sidestepped the predictable grab with practiced, effortless street ease.
Juna bared her sharp white fangs with a low, menacing growl, but Hajin's raised palm gently pacified her combat instincts.
"Hold still, gutter rat!" the captain snarled, veins bulging in his neck. "My patience ran out three ranks ago!"
Vibrant azure mana flared around his steel breastplate, as three crystalline Shards formed a tight, threatening orbit around his gauntlet.
He planted his lead foot to strike the insolent commoner onto the flagstones before watching witnesses could question the escalation.
"Stop!" Didi shouted, her voice ringing out like a cracking whip.
The captain froze mid-stride, as the circulating azure mana around his gauntlet stuttered into stillness like an exposed tactical lie.
Didi stood with perfect aristocratic posture and an icy expression, as crystalline frost radiated from her feet across the cobblestones.
"What do you think you are doing to my saviors, Captain?" she demanded, her voice chilling the gate air by ten degrees. "In front of the entire public gate?!"
The three crystalline Shards orbiting his gauntlet extinguished sequentially, resembling snuffed candles cleared away after an unsuccessful formal banquet.
"Your Highness..." the captain stammered, holding up his hands defensively. "These two are on no official escort roll... the gate received zero notice!"
Didi crossed the distance between them with swift, furious strides and struck his cheek with an open palm hard enough to echo off the walls.
The sharp crack silenced the entire gatehouse, as merchants, guards, and draymen froze in stunned disbelief.
The captain maintained rigid military attention with eyes forward, as a vibrant red handprint surfaced upon his pale cheek.
"Then start writing an escort roll immediately!" she commanded, her eyes blazing with regal wrath. "Both of them enter the palace with me... fed, bathed, and properly thanked!"
"Send word ahead to the royal wing for hot water, clean linen bandages, and a physician who asks zero questions!" she barked.
She marched through the defensive shield wall, forcing the armored knights to part ranks with absolute and immediate obedience.
The perimeter sentries lowered their pointed halberds in synchronized haste, locking their heels together as the royal party advanced.
[ CringeSlayer91: she slapped the captain clean across the helmet of his career, princess of the year ]
[ ShadowMage44: saviors, plural, the wolf girl is getting a royal dinner off one chain swing ]
[ NewViewer_02: started this stream during a pig fight, and now we have palace politics, i am invested ]
[ CringeSlayer91: the ration lady at my job owes me twenty, and today i collect in drama ]
[ JunaFanClub: she growled at a gate captain for him, protectiveness goes both directions ]
'So much for slipping into the capital unnoticed... while my fractured ribs applaud the painful irony of the situation.'
'A royal princess validates my entry papers, while an immortal demon schedules my soul harvest... my calendar fills rapidly.'
Juna twitched her ear at the term saviors and remained silent, communicating volumes through her proud, upturned nose.
The towering iron portcullis swallowed all three figures, delivering the capital city its most intriguing political rumor before high noon.
Dense marketplace crowds gathered along the paved thoroughfare, watching the royal princess escort two mysterious traveling strangers past the sentries.
The bustling murmurs of the city market rippled ahead through the open plaza like water finding its natural downward course.
Juna's nose tracked the rich aromas of fresh honey bread, tanned leather, and roasted fowl, as her tail gave a quiet, contented wag.
The chastised guard captain signaled sharply toward the palace garrison post, summoning an ornate royal carriage across the flagstones.
Armored footmen scrambled to secure the thoroughfare, clearing a path through the gawking merchants before the princess could issue another reprimand.
"Keep your chin lifted, summoner," Didi murmured beneath her breath as the gilded carriage drew up beside them. "The high lords within those palace gates will scrutinize every single breath you take before the throne."
"My chin is fine, Your Highness," Hajin whispered back with a wry smirk. "Just make sure that physician brings the good bandages."
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