“What?”

Ling’er Long’s calm face cracked like ice under sudden thunder, a storm sweeping her brow.

“You’re saying Jade Ring Long colluded with the Demon God’s power and staged a revolt at home? That’s impossible!”

Her heart clenched like a tightened bowstring before her voice cut sharp. She knew her sister’s nature—steady as a temple bell—not the kind to rebel.

And besides—

Hadn’t Jade Ring Long been roaming the Hedon Kingdom with that man Lorin, drifting like travelers through a painted landscape?

How could she rush back and, like night mists, join a demon faction to rebel?

“It’s true, Your Highness,” Kurus said, his words weighed like stones in a river. “When the second princess vanished with you, our ministers thought you’d been taken by cultists. Then, after some days, Second Princess returned out of nowhere, her temper like winter turned strange. She rarely stepped outside. When infighting erupted, we learned she was the mastermind.”

“Did your second princess return with some fool named Lorin at her side?”

Nana Toki listened with a fox’s tilt to her smile, something feeling off like grit under silk. Two days ago, when she scouted the next town for the Protagonist Lord’s trail, those two were still adventuring in the northern forest, leaves whispering under their boots. How did they suddenly fly to the Marl Kingdom to lead a revolt?

Could Jade Ring Long split herself like a shadow clone?

“Lorin? Never heard of him.” Kurus shook his head, a lantern’s flame steady. “Not only around the princess, but across the Marl Kingdom, no such man appeared. Her Highness simply vanished and then reappeared.”

“Then it’s clear, isn’t it?”

Nana Toki’s brow arched like a drawn bow. “Obviously, your Marl Kingdom’s second princess is a problem.”

“What do you mean, miss?” Kurus frowned, lines gathering like storm ripples.

“Your second princess eloped in our Hedon Kingdom with a man named Lorin. They’re probably somewhere whispering sweet nothings and honeymooning under moonlight. Why would she run back to lead a revolt?”

The female lead isn’t broken in the head; hugging the Protagonist Lord’s thigh to farm experience as a saint in Hedon is smooth as polished jade. Running home to rebel is just asking the blade to kiss your neck.

“That’s true.”

Even Ling’er Long nods, a gentle breeze moving a willow. “Setting aside whether that ‘Jade Ring Long’ in Marl is real, I saw my sister during my own abduction. She was indeed traveling with a man named Lorin, adventuring through Hedon’s lands like cranes over marshes. She never mentioned returning to Marl.”

“Then Your Highness means…”

“The Jade Ring Long leading a revolt in Marl is a fake. The real second princess should still be somewhere within Hedon,” Ling’er Long said, sure as a lighthouse on a foggy coast.

“The one thing that sticks like a burr,” she added, brows knitting like threads, “is who’s pulling the strings behind this impersonation. Our kingdom lacks disguise magic, but we do have ways to verify noble lineage. How did they slip past that net?”

“Come on, that’s easy—one of those four idiots under the Demon God who snatched you right under your eyelids.”

After Ling’er Long’s abduction, Nana Toki had crammed on the System’s dossiers, memorizing the Four Heavenly Kings like blades on a rack.

“That’s possible.”

Ling’er Long had seen Trollop’s strength—another of the Four Heavenly Kings—like a mountain looming in storm. “I checked records in the capital library. It said one of the Four Heavenly Kings excels at disguise and transformation, near perfect as painted skin. If our devices can’t detect it, then the fake Jade Ring Long is likely one of them.”

“But if a Heavenly King is impersonating the princess, why publicly claim an alliance with the Four Heavenly Kings?” Kurus, a top strategist of Marl, puzzled hard, his thoughts knocking like stones in a mill. He couldn’t find the purpose of such redundancy.

“So Hedon Kingdom gets a righteous banner to march under,” Nana Toki said, eyes flicking to Ling’er Long like a teasing fan. “Is he really your strategist? He feels… dazed. Did he bash his head while escaping?”

Kurus: “…”

Ling’er Long: “…”

“Ahem. Anyway, let’s shelve that. Miss, you look familiar.”

Kurus slid off the bed, limbs creaking like old wood, and eyed Nana Toki’s Demon Hand, then shifted the topic like a coin. “Have we met before?”

“Of course you have.” Ling’er Long sighed, a ribbon floating down. “She’s the woman who used my bodyguard-selection as a pretext to kidnap me from Marl.”

“What?!”

Kurus, halfway standing, nearly sat back down like a dropped sack. “You’re that Rock Candy?!”

“Yep. Surprised? Thrilled?”

Nana Toki flashed a smile, bright as frost under sunlight. “Don’t your waist feel loose, legs light already?”

“…What’s wrong with this girl?!”

“And by the way, the woman who kidnapped me is Hedon’s princess.” Ling’er Long’s voice landed soft, like snow on stone.

Kurus: “???”

If he hadn’t owed Nana Toki his life, he’d suspect Hedon conspired to kidnap their princess, shadows pooling in his mind.

“One more thing—I’m already set to marry your kingdom’s eldest princess, after we resolve Marl’s mess,” Nana Toki said, words dropping like pebbles in a pond.

Kurus:

In short.

Whether or not Kurus’s shock cooled like tea, the revolt by the Four Heavenly Kings inside Marl meant Nana Toki had to leave early, wind pulling their sails tighter.

“Are we really just walking back like this?” As they reached a town near Mida Village, Kurus asked, worry crawling like ivy. “Marl’s infighting is fierce. Even the king’s been thrown into the dungeon by Second Princess. Three of us won’t change the tide.”

“You plan to go to Hedon’s capital and ask our king to send troops for you?”

Up ahead, Nana Toki threw him a glance sharp as a knife. “Plenty of our ministers would love to watch Marl collapse like a sandcastle. And you’re here to beg reinforcements. Pig-brained.”

Kurus: “…”

He hadn’t said he wanted Hedon’s troops. He’d come to Hedon hoping to bump into the eldest princess, chasing starlight. The rest he hadn’t even planned out.

“I recall you Marl folks used to praise the Demon God’s Four Heavenly Kings to the sky. Called them ‘apostles of the God of War’ or whatever. Now that this broke out, won’t your people riot like a sea?”

Nana Toki scanned the town for familiar faces, her words tossed over shoulder like peaches. Kurus followed, breath heavy.

“Apostles of War? That’s just a pack of martial fanatics spinning tales,” Kurus said, anger flaring like sparks. “We in Marl always resisted the Demon God’s influence.”

“These four stirring chaos—once the war ends, those fanatics should be swept away like chaff.”

Because of them, Marl never found quiet water.

Before, Kurus thought leniency fit fellow subjects under one banner, gentle as spring rain. Now he saw it was his wishful thinking. People like that should be cut out, root and stem.

“Hey, are you folks heading to Marl?”

No sooner had his words faded than a fat man popped from a corner like a cork, cheeks shining, eyes crafty.

Kurus jumped, heart thudding like a drum, still mid-talk with Nana Toki.

The man showed a greasy smile, wore a straw-yellow gentleman’s suit, and gold-rimmed round glasses catching light. If that wasn’t Jin Sanpang, who else? Nana Toki’s mouth curled, catlike. Jin Sanpang hadn’t noticed her yet, babbling to Kurus, hawking his trade like a market crier.

“Heading to Marl, are you, dear sirs?”

“I’m telling you, that way’s no good—war’s boiling. Are you going to profit off the flames?”

“High-risk stuff! I hear Marl’s second princess teamed with the Demon God’s Four Heavenly Kings to reshape the whole realm.”

He rattled on like a sputtering kettle, never noticing how Nana Toki’s eyes turned more amused, a knife wrapped in silk.

“Long time no see, Jin Sanpang.”

She hooked Kurus out of his reach, frost blooming from her core in a breath. An ice sword condensed in her hand like winter’s fang and kissed Jin Sanpang’s throat.

“Remember me?”

“Y-you… aren’t you that auntie from a while ago? H-how’d you come back?” Jin Sanpang felt the icy touch like a winter river and trembled, fat quivering. “Weren’t you in Marl?”

He remembered her face clearly, a plum blossom in snow. Few women passed through his little trade; Nana Toki was one etched in his mind.

“And you dare bring that up.”

Nana Toki’s temper flared like sparks in dry grass. “You pig of a hustler, you tried to set me up. If I didn’t have some skill, I’d have lost my first time in your cart!”

System: “Host, you call that ‘some’ skill?”

In her mind, the System gasped like a fish. This host had no shame.

Shut up.

“…”

“T-that was me being foolish, led astray by those scumbags,” Jin Sanpang pleaded, smile bitter as gall. He dropped to his knees like a sack of rice. “I never thought they’d dare go as far as assault!”

“What could a bunch of men use to ‘bewitch’ you? You were drooling over my gold, that’s what! Filthy.”

Nana Toki lifted the blade, ready to poke holes like a needle through leather.

“Aow! Right, right, I’m filthy. Please, spare me. I’ve an eighty-year-old mother and a child not yet born—I can’t die.”

He was quick on the uptake. Seeing her poised to stab, he didn’t dodge, letting her vent like a storm beating a tree.

“Yo, you’ve got half a spine.”

Nana Toki watched him grit teeth, not flinching. She didn’t go too deep, just pricked him a few times, frost biting skin, then lowered the sword, breath cooling like night air.

“I’m not here to settle old accounts. I need a favor—get us to Marl, three seats. And I want the same coachman as last time, that young lad with steady hands.”