All the way back to Mida Village under the back mountain, Jade Ring Long kept her heart tight, like a drawn bowstring.

"Don't be so tense. Relax," Nana Toki said, her tone drifting like a lazy cat in the sun.

On the road, Nana Toki kept poking at Jade’s sore spots, playful as a fox.

Jade clutched Ling'er Long’s arm harder, like a drowning girl clinging to driftwood.

"Sis, why are you in the Hedon Kingdom?" she asked, her voice thin as a mosquito, her eyes wary as a deer.

She stole a glance at Nana Toki leading the way, like a wolf marking a trail.

"Weren’t you kidnapped?" she added, the word snapping out like a gust that steals a sail.

"Seeing me here makes you unhappy?" Ling'er returned, her tone cool as moonlight over snow.

"But why did you leave the Marl Kingdom for no reason?" Her gaze fell, heavy as a stone on a pond. "Aren’t you afraid Father will worry?"

"I’m an adult now," Jade huffed, her tongue peeking out like a teasing sprite. "I won’t rot in the palace, learning ‘princess benefits’ all day."

She leaned in again, voice coaxing like warm wind. "Sis, take me out to play. Write Father that you seized me as your personal guard, like a banner flying true."

"That way I can go out openly," she pressed, hope flaring like a paper lantern. "You don’t even have a personal guard now, so let me fill it."

"You? As my personal guard?" Ling’er’s eyes curved, amused as a bell’s swing. "Your half‑baked, cat‑scratch skills don’t cut it. I already chose one."

"That’s a lie," Jade shot back, quick as a thrown pebble. "You were kidnapped during selection. The post is empty."

She lifted her chin, proud as a crane. "I gathered the news before coming to Hedon, like nets cast wide. I even know about the Marl Kingdom’s arena."

"Is that so?" Ling’er’s smile sharpened, thin as a drawn blade.

"You don’t believe me?" Her lips tilted, a curve deep as a hook.

"Of course not," Jade said, confidence bright as noon.

"My personal guard is right there," Ling’er pointed ahead, her finger a spear toward the path. "Beat her, and the post is yours."

"This is your—" Jade began, springing like a coil, then froze.

She followed the line of that finger and saw Nana Toki’s back, slim as a snake’s shed shadow.

Her merry face fell at once, collapsing like a wet paper lantern.

"That nut of a woman is your personal guard?" she blurted, disbelief crackling like dry twigs. "Impossible!"

"Are you just brushing me off with excuses?" Jade pouted, lips like a sulky sparrow.

"I’m not lying," Ling’er said, voice smooth as still water. "I can call her over to tell you."

"What do you want me to say?" Nana Toki’s voice slid in from the side, light as a breeze through reeds.

"You two heading back to the Marl Kingdom?" she asked, curiosity sharp as morning frost. "Great news. I support it with hands and feet. I’ll book a carriage now."

She turned toward the nearby town, steps jaunty as skipping stones.

"Stop," Ling’er snapped, catching Nana Toki’s sleeve like a hook snagging silk. "Who said I’m leaving? Jade just wants proof who my personal guard is."

"A say from me?" Nana Toki shot Ling’er a look, crooked as smoke. "I’m your personal guard. What more is there to say?"

She had meant to deny it, then agreed in a blink, fast as a hawk stooping.

"Trying to borrow your sister’s title to roam?" she needled, her grin glinting like steel. "Too bad. I’m the one."

"Impossible!" Jade flared, words flying like startled sparrows. "My sister’s standards are iron. How could she choose a woman like you?"

"You must’ve used dirty tricks," she accused, sharp as vinegar.

"Yeah," Nana Toki said, pulling a face like a jester’s mask. "I used dirty tricks to fool your sister and got the post. Mad yet?"

"..." Jade’s mind blanked, flat as a fish on sand. "She’s got a screw loose," she muttered, voice sour as unripe fruit.

"Sis, did you hear that? She admitted it," Jade pleaded, clinging to Ling’er’s arm like ivy on bark. "Kick her out. Let family handle family."

"No. It has to be her," Ling’er said, gaze dropping like soft snow. "If you want the post, show strength. That Giant Dragon who abducted you—she killed it."

"Do you have that kind of strength?"

"What? The Giant Dragon outside the cave was killed by this woman?" Jade pointed at Nana Toki, her hand trembling like a twig in wind. "How could that be?"

She remembered the wounds on that beast, each mark fatal as a wolf’s bite. Only brute power or a seasoned dragonslayer could do that, like iron writing on hide.

"Why not?" Nana Toki leaned in, a shadow under a lamp. Her whisper brushed Jade’s ear like cold silk. "If not for your sister and another blockhead tailing you, I’d have carved you too."

"You dare?" Jade’s voice hardened, ice on a blade.

A chill rose from her gut, creeping like dawn mist. She recalled the dagger Nana Toki had handed her, a tooth coiled like a snake.

Her unease grew, thorny as night weeds.

"Oh, I dare," Nana Toki said, warmth on her face like a cat by the hearth. "Don’t wander the village these days. If something happens, it’s not on me."

She tossed Jade a look like a pebble skimming water, then lengthened her stride, rain racing off tiles, her back unreadable as dusk ink.

Lorin had listened the whole way, his expression melting stranger by the step, like clay under rain.

Pretty much this face, flat as a meme held to the sun.

Our princess is the enemy grand princess’s personal guard? What kind of stunt is that, like a cart parked on a roof?

Your Highness, you’re this mischievous, like a fox in a henhouse—does the king know?

Of course not, the thought fell away like a stone into a well.

All that reached the Hedon royal capital was this: a Giant Dragon had appeared behind Mida Village, a storm cloud crouched on low hills.

The Hedon King was sorting Marl Kingdom diplomacy, papers layered like fallen leaves. The report struck, and his face shifted, a sky turning toward rain.

"Is this true?" he asked, the words pressing down like a lid on a boiling pot.

Mida Village was where his banished daughter lived, a bird in the reeds. How could a Giant Dragon appear out of nowhere, a whale in a pond?

"Reporting, Your Majesty. The news is airtight," the scout said, voice tight as twine. "The Giant Dragon roosts on the back mountain behind the princess’s village, a boulder on the ridge."

Silence pooled in the hall like ink. A minister bowed low, a reed bending to wind. "If you worry, we’ll send men to slay it and bring the princess back, a convoy through snow."

"Does Bingtang know you came to report this?" the king asked, his thought veering like a kite tugged by a gust.

"The princess doesn’t know," the scout answered, small as a lamp flame. He didn’t catch the king’s intent, a boat adrift in fog.

"Anything else unusual with Bingtang?" The king lifted another paper, thin as a tile. "I hear the Gui Sui infected swell at our borders, mold after rain. Anything odd near Mida Village?"

"Reporting. Everything around Mida Village is as usual, a lake at dawn," the scout said, then hesitated, a thorn under cloth. "There is one more thing, I don’t know if I should say it."

"Speak," the king said, his word a pebble breaking still water.

"Rumors in the capital say two Marl Kingdom princesses vanished, sparrows exploding from a banyan," the scout said, eyes flicking like minnows. "Our princess vanished in Mida Village for a while. When she returned, she brought back a strange woman, a stray cat in her shadow. Your Majesty, could the two matters be… connected?"

He stopped there, watching the king’s face like a traveler reading clouds.

"Nonsense!" the king snapped, thunder cracking across the rafters. "The Marl grand princess reached King‑tier at a young age, a blade crowned."

"Bingtang is only apprentice level, a green sprout. Even infected by Gui Sui, she couldn’t match the Marl grand princess."

"How would these two link, a bridge drawn across empty air?"

He had thought of it, the doubt a moth beating at a lantern. But strength stood like granite, unbudgeable as a cliff.

And his daughter wasn’t a lunatic, a fire set in a library.

She wouldn’t sneak alone into an enemy capital and kidnap their princess before thousands, stealing the moon off a temple roof. That’s madness.

"But, Your Majesty—" the scout tried, his words trembling like dew. A shout split the air outside the hall, a spear flashing through fog.

A mailed soldier burst in, armor clattering like hail on tiles. "Report—"

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! A big event!" He raised a letter high like a flag, then dropped to one knee beside the scout, a pine felled in one stroke. "News from Mida Village!"

"What news rattles you like this?" the king barked, his glare a hawk’s shadow cutting the floor. "Speak. What mess now?"

"It’s… it’s the princess!" the soldier gasped, breath smoking like winter. "She killed the Giant Dragon behind Mida Village, a thunderbolt felling a cedar."

"What?!" The word shattered the hall like ice breaking on a river.