Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

Yu Ang, in rough cloth armor and hemp robes, seemed armored in air, like mountain mist hardening into unseen steel.

Lorin’s blows drummed down like rain on stone, yet Yu Ang’s face stayed still, a lake under a windless sky.

Hah!

His shout struck like a lion’s roar; an aura burst from him, battering outward like a storm breaking its banks.

In a heartbeat, Lorin fell behind, a leaf swept by a sudden gale.

Yu Ang’s heavy, swift fists felt like a small mountain, pressing until Lorin could barely breathe, thin air at a frozen peak.

Unlike the qi training of Hedon Kingdom, Marl Kingdom honed the body, iron tempered in open flame.

Like devotees of external arts, Yu Ang trained every day, sunrise to starlight, a hammer beating flesh into steel.

Shoulders and legs, day after day, year on year; he chased strength’s limit, a river carving stone.

Bang!

A plain low kick missed and smashed the earth. The boom hit like a shell; Lorin, iron sword in hand, was blasted away like driftwood in surf.

The ground caved into a wide round crater under Yu Ang; dust and dirt surged like waves, rising high, then falling.

Cough-cough!

“Lorin, watch out!”

Dust rose and veiled the world, a sandstorm curtain.

In that blind spot, Lorin pushed up from the ground, a stag shaking off dust.

Before he could lift his long sword, Yu Ang burst through the haze, a hawk cutting through cloud.

His punches flashed like lightning, then hammered like a tide.

Straight punches, crushing shots, inch-power, knee strikes—hailstones from a black squall.

One strike after another; Yu Ang’s fists carried terrifying force, chasing Lorin like a racing gale.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Lorin’s armor couldn’t take three blows; it splintered in an instant, brittle bark cracking from winter cold.

Ugh…

Barely holding his iron sword for balance, Lorin staggered back under Yu Ang’s brute barrage. He clutched his chest; blood threaded from his lip like a red silk.

“You’re trained, sure—but this is where it ends,” he growled, words slamming like a gate.

Hum—

As Yu Ang moved in to finish Lorin with bare-knuckle finality, a small white sigil flared in the air and exploded before him, a snowflake turning into a sun.

Caught off guard, Yu Ang jerked back fast, eyes narrowing like blades. Not far away, Jade Ring Long, sneaking a spell, trembled—like prey pinned by a great beast’s stare.

Whoosh—

With irresistible pressure surging, Yu Ang roared and drove his inner power. In the next second he charged like a human bulldozer, a landslide in motion rushing Jade Ring Long.

“Jade Ring Long!”

At this distance, it was already too late. Lorin reacted first, but hadn’t taken more than a few steps before Yu Ang sprinted in, feet cutting ground like a tiger’s rush.

Boom—

A dull impact boomed, heavy as thunder trapped in a drum.

Eyes shut, helpless, Jade Ring Long didn’t feel the expected pain, rain that never fell.

“Sister!”

Falling to the ground, Jade Ring Long stared, shocked, at the woman standing before her. In a flash like lightning over water, Ling’er Long had raced from the lakeside and taken Yu Ang’s explosive punch for her.

“Yu Ang,” she said, voice steady as a drawn bowstring.

“General Long! How are you here?” Kurus’s words tumbled out, startled like sparrows bursting from brush.

Feeling fierce heat bite his knuckles, Yu Ang pulled back and retreated several steps, face shifting. Ling’er Long, gone for so long like a star vanished, now stood clear as dawn.

“Lord Yu! Stop, quickly—these two are the real Dragon Princesses,” Kurus cried, waving like a man brandishing jade seals.

He ran from the back forest, branches whipping like shadow snakes. Fearing more trouble, he hurried to explain, “The Dragon Second Princess causing chaos in the capital is a fake!!”

“Fake?” The word struck like a pebble skipped across still water.

By the crater, Yu Ang looked at Ling’er Long and Kurus, figures stepping from fog. His expression went blank, stunned, winter frost on stone.

He still didn’t grasp what was truly happening, groping in twilight.

“Lord Yu, the Dragon Princess who schemed to disrupt Marl Kingdom was a disguise by one of the Four Heavenly Kings. These two are our true princesses, names carved in stone.”

“Is that truly so?” Yu Ang eyed Kurus, who trotted up like a wary deer, suspicion clouding him.

“As true as daylight. See, the Dragon Princess is here—and Princess Nana Toki, who dueled you before, is here too,” Kurus said, voice flicking like frost and flame.

Kurus pointed at Nana Toki, sauntering over like a cat. He explained, “The Dragon Princess wasn’t kidnapped at all; Princess Nana Toki took her as a guest to Hedon Kingdom.”

He didn’t dare mention the two women’s liking for each other, fearing this martial man would question life like a cracked bell.

“You’re saying that woman is a princess of Hedon Kingdom?” Yu Ang asked, the thought buzzing like hornets.

He glanced toward Nana Toki, expression turning colorful like a stormy sunset. Wasn’t Hedon Kingdom the land of mages?

How’s there a princess with body arts this sharp, steel wire drawn tight?

Do princesses these days all fancy foreign arts, swans wearing new plumage?

“By the way, that princess is also our princess’s personal guard,” Kurus added, careful as walking on thin ice.

Yu Ang: “?” You’ve got to be kidding me—like a cat tossed in rain.

…

“Still able to walk?” Nana Toki asked, voice cool as a fine drizzle, eyes drifting toward Ling’er Long.

“Barely, but I can move,” Lorin said, a bent reed stubborn under wind.

Propping himself with his long sword, he steadied his sway and answered with a weary smile, lantern light at dusk.

Even though her gaze wasn’t on him, cool as moon on a pond.

“Sigh, how’d that guy not beat you to death?” she said, words pricking like thorns in a breeze.

Lorin: …

“By the way, Your Highness, why are you here?” he asked, stepping around briars.

Used to Nana Toki’s harsh streak, Lorin wisely sidestepped the barb. “I recall His Majesty said you were living with the Dragon Princess in Mida Village.”

“The demon god’s four idiots annoyed me. I plan to dig up the tomb they want to resurrect,” Nana Toki said with a dead-serious face, thunder kept in a teacup.

Lorin: … As always, Princess Nana Toki’s words were delightfully deranged, fireworks in daylight.

“Kidding. I’m actually preparing a marriage alliance with someone from Marl Kingdom. I’m going to meet my future father-in-law,” she said, tying red strings in the air.

Tap—

Lorin’s steps stopped suddenly, a stag hearing a bowstring hum.

“What?” Nana Toki turned toward him, puzzled, a cat tilting its head. “Can’t walk?”

“No… I was just thinking. Doesn’t Marl Kingdom have only two princesses? Your Highness, who are you marrying?” he asked, counting stars.

He thought it through: Marl’s direct royal line had only Ling’er Long and Jade Ring Long—two princesses, no princes, twin moons over one river.

“Her.” She dropped the word like a pebble into a well.

Nana Toki pointed plainly at Ling’er Long not far away. “A bit of a surprise?” A blossom opening in winter.

Lorin: … Surprised, sure; joy, maybe skip—bitter tea cooling.

“Your Highness, the Dragon Princess is a girl, right?” he asked carefully, words placed like stepping stones across a stream.

“So what?” Nana Toki flicked him a glance, cool as a knife’s edge.

“Can a girl and a girl be together?” he asked, two swallows seeking one beam.

…

With Lorin’s words, silence fell between them, snow muffling a wide field.

Indeed, same-sex love was a first in Lorin’s life, and the two were tied to two nations, stakes like mountains on the horizon.

“Do you like girls?” Nana Toki turned her gaze to Lorin and asked suddenly, calm as a knife laid on silk.

“I do,” Lorin answered without thinking, truth dropping like a pebble into water, ripples spreading.

“Then if you can like girls, why can’t I?” she said, a bell struck at the heart.

…

It was an answer that struck the soul, a hammer ringing through a temple bell.

Even Lorin wasn’t dense enough to miss it. His grandfather had told him: love is the world’s treasure needing the most courage, diving for pearls in deep water.

As a boy, he hadn’t understood. Now, he did; the meaning bloomed like dawn.

…

“Lord Yu, that’s how it went,” Kurus finished, tracing the tale like the course of a river.

When Nana Toki and Lorin arrived, Kurus finished explaining to Yu Ang, then asked, “Weren’t you captured when you covered my escape in the capital? How are you here?” A raven questioning the sky.

“I escaped the capital,” Yu Ang said, night slipping through a net.

Thinking on it, he looked at his fist and spoke slowly, voice like gravel. “After that day, I realized if we let the usurping witch keep at it, Marl’s century-old foundation would crumble like a cliff in a storm. So I set out to rally heroes in the surrounding lands. But I ran into rebel patrols by chance and had to hide here, a fox in thickets.”

“What came next is what you saw,” he said, rain following thunder.

“And you?” Yu Ang lifted his eyelids and looked at Lorin, a spear tip leveling. “You, a Hero from Hedon Kingdom—what’s your aim in Marl?”

“I…”

“Lorin came to help me take down the fake Jade Ring Long!” Jade Ring Long behind Ling’er Long cut in, words snapping like lightning. “But Yu Ang, Kurus—how did you two not see through someone masquerading as me?”

She had only stepped out for a short time, and Marl had sprouted trouble like weeds after rain.

“For heaven’s sake!” she huffed, a foot stamping dust.

“Jade Ring Long, the impostor was one of the Demon God’s Four Heavenly Kings, a master of disguise who fooled even the machines,” Ling’er Long said, brow furrowed, shielding her two subordinates like spreading wings. “You can’t blame Kurus and Yu Ang for missing it.”

“And the main problem lies with you, Jade Ring Long. Even I set a plan for my absence before being taken, but you didn’t—and left no message. How could Marl’s people not be outplayed?” Her words fell like a shepherd’s crook on wandering sheep.

“But I left you a letter before leaving the capital,” Jade Ring Long answered, pouting, lips like a cherry. “I clearly stated I wouldn’t return soon. How were you not paying attention?”

“But none of us found the Second Princess’s letter…” Kurus said, the thought drifting like paper in wind.

Kurus, who had led the investigation into the two princesses’ disappearance, looked at Jade Ring Long, bewildered like fog. “From our side, Second Princess, it was as if you vanished. We couldn’t even find traces of your flight from Marl’s capital.”

“What?!” The exclamation cracked like a thunderclap under a clear sky.