Hajin kept both hands buried inside his coat pockets while the grand palace corridor stretched ahead of their walking party.
Polished marble floors, gilded ancestor portraits, and the faint scent of beeswax gave the expansive hallway a cold, imposing aristocratic atmosphere.
'Every polished surface in here is evidence waiting for a court lawyer... I will count doors instead of family portraits.'
Twelve towering arched doors, four decorative suits of ornamental plate armor, and a wide central walkway built specifically for royal parades.
Marble busts of ancient founding marshals stood upon fluted plinths between the high arched windows, their carved eyes gazing down the corridor.
Every twenty paces, two royal halberdiers stood motionless in polished steel breastplates, holding their ceremonial weapons at rigid vertical attention.
'The Flint estate maintained a grand gallery just like this... the rich scent of wax testifies against both noble houses.'
Juna walked beside his right shoulder without instruction, her arm brushing against his coat sleeve every four steps on schedule.
"This place smells like floral soap, candle wax, and nervous old men," she whispered, her nose twitching with disdain. "None of them ate since morning."
"They ate," Hajin murmured back with an amused smirk. "Just where nobody important can see them chew."
"The guards carry their steel on the left hip and their lunch ration on the right," Juna noted, flicking her ears toward the nearest sentry. "The tall one skipped both."
"You can actually smell a skipped meal right through plate armor?" he asked, arching an eyebrow in disbelief.
"I can smell it through a solid stone wall," Juna boasted with a proud tilt of her chin. "This fancy palace runs on empty stomachs."
"The palace keeps nineteen guards stationed on this floor," Didi chimed in, glancing down the colonnade. "Two are practically sleeping on their feet."
"Seventeen," Juna corrected instantly, narrowing her eyes. "The two swaying ones are just counting ceiling beams... mind your royal math."
"Your wolf reads guards like a veteran quartermaster," Didi remarked, a faint, approving smile tugging at her lips. "And she is completely right about the tall one."
The royal compliment registered on Juna's flattened ears before her fierce beastkin pride decided whether to accept the praise.
"I do not need a princess agreeing with me," she huffed, puffing her cheeks out as she looked away. "Save your compliments for the King."
Elina trailed three paces behind their shoulders, her eyes darting nervously between the crown princess and the disheveled traveling commoner.
'That juicy palace gossip reaches the servant kitchens by supper... the sole currency this lavish royal court never devalues.'
Hajin spent the long walk analyzing the chaotic events of the past two days, finding only deeper strategic complications beneath the surface.
Kenny boasted about clearing an active dimensional Gate earlier that morning, yet that arrogant cousin never conquered anything beyond private wine cellars.
Now the royal maid placed the supreme Flint patriarch inside the throne room to negotiate formal Gate clearing rights directly with the crown.
House Flint spent two generations cornering the kingdom's military mining operations, securing exclusive salvage charters for every newly breached spatial distortion.
Deploying an entire armed strike unit before the royal council even published the charter proved how deeply the family's informants penetrated the administration.
'Someone handed my family that Gate... I want the seller's name before sharing a room with the buyer.'
"One question, Your Highness," Hajin spoke up quietly, glancing over at her. "Then I will be quiet."
Didi maintained her brisk walking pace, though her chin tilted slightly to acknowledge his spoken words in the hallway.
"Elina mentioned an urgent Gate assignment," he began, keeping his voice carefully neutral. "Why is the clan head here today?"
She remained silent for three sharp clicks of her heels against the polished marble, as the warmth drained from her sapphire eyes.
"A new Gate opened outside the capital walls a week ago," Didi answered, her jaw tightening with bitter frustration. "The royal council has been arguing ever since."
"Some wanted royal knights to clear it immediately," she explained, gesturing with a gloved hand. "Others refused to risk elite troops on an unmeasured rift."
'Nobody volunteers their own sworn soldiers for an uncharted dimensional rift... noble military strategy summarized in a single sentence.'
"I volunteered to lead the expedition myself," she admitted quietly, as her haughty aristocratic composure cracked like fragile glass under the weight of remembered frustration.
"The council would not even let me finish the sentence," she scoffed bitterly, her fists clenching at her sides. "They called me inexperienced... my own royal father called me unready."
"They treat me like fragile glass that might shatter in the autumn breeze," she grumbled, her cheeks flushing with indignant anger. "Excuse me for wanting one single door in this city to open for me!"
"Those council chamber doors were slammed shut in my face twice in one afternoon," she added, her voice trembling slightly.
'She keeps a private list of slammed doors, while I maintain one of unpaid debts... we converse remarkably well together.'
She grasped his coat sleeve while venting her grievance, inadvertently pulling him a half-step closer toward the grand throne doors.
Juna's sharp claws pressed deep into her own palm, her eyes locked upon the princess's pale clutching fingers with fierce territorial hostility.
'Is a royal princess venting her childhood frustrations to an unranked commoner in a hallway... court etiquette manuals omitted this chapter completely.'
Elina stopped walking in utter shock, watching her proud princess complain like an ordinary emotional girl to a ragged commoner.
Juna demonstrated zero awe, flattening her dark wolf ears as a low, rumbling growl vibrated in her throat.
"Let go of his sleeve!" she hissed, stepping between them with flashing eyes. "You have two working arms... he is not a banister!"
The royal fingers remained stubbornly locked in place, though Didi finally lifted her gaze from the coat cloth to glare at the wolf girl.
"He is escorting me to my royal father," she retorted with an imperious toss of her silver hair. "He stays right here beside me."
'Considering how close that demonic horror came to ending your life, the royal council possessed a very valid point... definitely not repeating that aloud.'
He gently pried her delicate fingers from his linen sleeve before Juna decided to resolve the territorial dispute with bared claws.
"Right," Hajin coughed, stepping back a pace to restore neutrality. "What did the council decide instead?"
Didi crossed both arms over her silver-trimmed breastplate, allowing her haughty royal composure to descend over her features once more.
"The ministers suggested outsourcing," she replied coldly. "The Great Noble Families possess the private armies and constantly crave royal prestige."
"My father offered House Flint the exclusive clearing rights," she explained. "They accepted before the ink on the charter was even dry."
Outsourcing the dimensional rift spared the royal garrison from frontline attrition, while simultaneously feeding the endless territorial appetite of the noble factions.
The crown gained safe regional stability without spending treasury reserves, and the Flints absorbed the bloody risk of clearing corrupted monsters.
'Kenny deployed an elite detachment onto that road before the contract was announced... remarkably efficient as royal tax collection.'
'The noble house that erased my identity collects imperial favors down the corridor, while the erased heir walks inside.'
"Will the patriarch recognize you as his son?" Didi asked suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized his face. "You mentioned House Flint exiled you on the road."
Hajin maintained an entirely neutral expression, which required immense discipline considering the dangerous political implications behind her casual question.
'Does the patriarch who banished me remember his discarded offspring...? She understands that only a family head possesses legal authority to exile an heir.'
'Noble jurisprudence is her native tongue, meaning the query was never innocent curiosity, but a calculated royal inquiry.'
"He knows who I am," Hajin admitted in a flat, emotionless tone. "He threw me out personally... a talentless son stains the family name."
He halted upon the marble tiles, resting a palm against the back of his neck to offer an early exit.
"I do not need a royal bounty," he said with a wry smirk, nodding toward the corridor. "You are home safe... let me slip out the side gates while you tell your story."
Didi reached forward, seized his sleeve a second time with an iron grip, and towed him along the grand hallway with surprising strength.
"Too late to back out now," she insisted with a victorious smirk. "My father will meet the person who saved my life."
"Try running and he will dispatch the royal cavalry," she warned with a teasing wink. "You will meet him with armored soldiers holding both of your arms."
His feet dragged across the polished marble for one reluctant pace before yielding to the princess's stubborn royal determination.
'Every single exit in this grand corridor terminates at the throne room... containing both of my least favorite audiences today.'
"For what it is worth, sir," Elina whispered from behind them, hedging a small personal wager upon two strangers she had met minutes ago. "The King actually smiled this morning when the search parties found your tracks."
"Forgive me," Elina added in a hushed, anxious rush. "Bow at the second marble step, and hold your posture until you are spoken to."
"Never make eye contact with the Flint Patriarch first," Elina coached rapidly. "And never mention eastern mining rights under any circumstances."
"Quite the practiced survival list," Hajin muttered under his breath, giving the maid an appreciative nod.
"I poured royal wine at their last formal audience," Elina whispered back with a wink. "I pour with my ears wide open."
"What about Juna?" he asked, gesturing toward the wolf girl beside him. "She came with me... she stays with me."
"She should wait in the outer hallway," Elina suggested nervously, fidgeting with her apron. "Beastkin are not traditionally presented to His Majesty."
"Then I am not being presented either," Hajin stated firmly, crossing his arms. "The hallway gets both of us."
"I go wherever he goes," Juna growled, stepping up beside Hajin with bared fangs. "Try explaining my teeth to the palace guards on your way out."
"She comes inside with us, Elina," Didi commanded, stepping between them with finality. "Manage the doors... that is what you are here for."
The elite sentry detail stationed at the end of the grand corridor gripped the handles firmly.
Four armored palace guards leaned against the polished timber without displaying any curiosity toward the arriving traveling party.
'The King sells zero admission tickets, but the sleeping Goddess consumes Soul Energy, making broadcast concealment terrible accounting.'
'Observe with politeness, Earth viewers, keep the donations flowing, and nobody repeat what the royal crown wears today.'
[ Viewers: 171 ]
Beyond the solid oak timber waited the ruthless man who erased his name and the powerful monarch who owed him a life debt.
A muffled murmur of aristocratic debate echoed through the thick timber panels, accompanied by the dry rustle of parchment and legal petitions.
Palace heralds adjusted their embroidered gold tabards beside the massive brass fittings, waiting for the senior chamberlain to signal the formal entry.
Court etiquette demanded polite bowing and subservient speech, treating the ruthless patriarch merely as one noble among many aristocrats.
Three years of bitter slum memories required absolute suppression beneath borrowed royal civility for the duration of the audience.
Tension tightened like drawn wire through his bruised ribs as the massive bronze latches disengaged with a deep metallic ring.
'Whatever happens next... there is no alternative doorway leading out of this chaotic life.'
A pristine white silk sleeve appeared through the expanding doorway gap, crisp and unblemished like ancient official family paperwork.
'The patriarch wears the exact white robes he wore while signing my exile... some colors never wash away.'
The double doors parted fully, revealing a cavernous throne room bathed in warm sunlight and crowded with aristocratic courtiers.
Two hundred paces of crimson carpet separated the grand entrance from the golden throne, flanked by dozens of watching ministers.
Juna hooked two fingers through the back of his travel belt without looking, as Hajin took his first resolute step forward.
The royal herald's booming voice resonated across the silk and perfume, announcing the miraculous and safe return of the crown princess.
Beyond the ranks of kneeling courtiers, a solitary figure in white silk robes turned his sharp, calculating head toward them.