The commotion had naturally drawn a great deal of attention, and it wasn’t long before local guard patrols arrived to investigate what in the gods’ names had just happened. Oliver returned from his pursuit shortly after.

It seemed the final archer had fled the moment the tide turned.

It was annoying that one of the rats had managed to slip away, but I was fairly certain he wouldn’t dare return to try for my life a second time today. They had missed what was likely their greatest opportunity. We could live with that.

Oliver stayed behind to handle the immediate aftermath, smoothing things over with the guards and explaining the situation, while Mia took charge of escorting me away from the scene.

By this point, anyone with half a brain could guess I was a high-ranking noble, or quite possibly the King himself, given how loudly Oliver and Mia had been tossing around "Your Majesty."

The townsfolk naturally craned their necks, trying to get a good look at me out of pure shock. And well, I was the King, but thanks to Mia’s swift guidance, we managed to slip away before I could be mobbed.

She guided me safely back to our inn, heading specifically toward the courtyard where our carriage remained, guarded by Alan and Elric.

Thankfully, the assassins hadn’t targeted the carriage. The two of them were completely unharmed and keeping a close watch.

And, exactly as planned, Leilah had successfully brought Eleanor back.

Eleanor was speaking to Leilah in a hurried, nervous tone when Mia and I approached from behind.

When she turned and caught sight of me, her eyes went wide.

"Y—Your Majesty!" She rushed forward instinctively, only to halt a step away when she noticed the bloody, makeshift bandages strapped over my shoulder.

"W—what... happened..." Her voice trailed off into a horrified whisper.

She wasn’t a fool; she knew exactly what must have happened, but the reality of seeing me wounded had clearly left her shaken.

"Well, we won, Eleanor. There are no more threats against us," I said, offering a reassuring smile.

"But you have been injured..." She said, her hand reaching out hesitantly toward my shoulder, as if afraid to even touch the fabric.

"It is not a serious wound," I said.

"It could have been fatal!" She replied instantly, looking at me with upset.

"It could have been," I agreed with a nod. "But if we hadn’t drawn them out and disposed of them, it could have ended far worse for all of us. It had to be done."

"Not at the risk of Your Majesty’s life," Eleanor replied sternly.

"Eleanor, we both knew the risks when we decided to travel so openly," I reminded her.

An attack like this had been entirely expected. After all, the royal castle was still infested with rats.

We could have slipped away unseen and traveled in pure stealth if I had already purged the court of spies, but that simply wasn’t possible yet. I needed to bait them into acting, to draw them out into the open so I could begin clearing the board. In the end, yes, I had purposefully allowed them to learn a fraction of my itinerary.

I had given them the rope to attempt my assassination.

I honestly hadn’t expected anything too grandiose. My departure had been sudden, and they hadn’t known my exact destination, yet despite their hasty preparations, it had been quite a well-coordinated ambush.

And I had walked away from it alive, learning a great deal in the process.

Honestly? In a strange way, it had been almost refreshing.

My life had been on the line. I had killed, and I had very nearly been killed. I had stood on the razor’s edge of a true life-and-death struggle and emerged victorious.

It was my first true experience of such a fight, and a very enriching one at that.

I didn’t regret taking the risk.

I certainly would have regretted it had I died, of course, but I hadn’t, so it was fine.

Besides, thinking back on it, I was fairly certain the risk of actual death had been minimal from the start. I had Oliver and Mia.

Those two had clearly been holding back to avoid destroying the town. Had my life been in inescapable danger, they would have abandoned all restraint and ended the fight in the blink of an eye.

But despite being Royal Guards, sworn first and foremost to the crown and the capital they were still knights at heart. Shielding the innocent was woven into their very instincts.

Innocent, foolish civilians who had stood by watching the skirmish as if it were some sort of theatrical spectacle.

Truth be told, had they realized it was the Black Sun shedding blood in their streets, they would have fled in terror.

"I cannot approve of Your Majesty risking your life so recklessly..." Eleanor replied, her voice trembling slightly. "And you sent me away with Leilah."

"Well, I had no desire to risk your life. Listening to you now, I suspect you might have actually tried to take an arrow for me," I said with a light chuckle.

"Would that be so wrong?" She asked, fixing me with a, upset gaze and biting her lower lip.

"It would be," I nodded, my tone turning entirely serious. "If Mia or Oliver gave their lives for me, it would be the fulfillment of their duty. But it is not yours."

"B—But I am Your Majesty’s wife! And to take Leilah away when she could have helped you—"

"Eleanor," I interrupted her. "I brought you with me to stand by my side as my wife, yes. I did not bring you to serve as my human shield."

"Then..." Eleanor hesitated, her gaze dropping to the cobblestones. "Then perhaps Lady Asthenia or Lady Morgana would have been better suited to accompany Your Majesty."

If one spoke purely of physical and magical capability and strength, she was right. Both of them were women who could have tipped the scales in a fight. Actually Ravenna even more.

"Yes, perhaps," I nodded, not bothering to deny the truth of her words.

A bitter, crestfallen smile fell on Eleanor’s lips at my agreement.

Before she could utter another self-deprecating word, I closed the distance between us and abruptly captured her lips with mine.

"Hm!"

Her eyes went wide with shock at the sudden contact, a deep flush of crimson instantly flooding her cheeks.

In the periphery of my vision, I could tell that Mia, Leilah, Alan, and Elric were flabbergasted. Flustered by the sudden intimacy, they hastily averted their eyes and thoughtfully walked away to give us privacy.

I, however, could not care less who saw us.

"Hmm—hmphh~" Eleanor’s eyes fluttered shut, her delicate hands coming up to grip the fabric of my shirt tightly as I kissed her deeper, tasting her lips.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, slowly walking her backward until her shoulders gently bumped against the polished wood of our carriage.

Eleanor could only whimper softly into the kiss, yielding completely to me. She was unable to match my dominant pace, overwhelmed by the intensity, or rather, I simply wasn’t giving her the chance to catch her breath. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

After what felt like an eternity of intense, heated kissing, I finally pulled back just a fraction, a thin, glistening thread of saliva bridging the scant distance between our parted lips.

"Haah... hm..." Eleanor gasped for air, her chest heaving as she looked up at me, her beautiful emerald eyes hazy and glowing with newly awakened heat.

But I was far from finished. I lowered my head, trailing my lips down the curve of her neck.

"Aaaahh, noo—hm!" She let out a soft, sweet gasp as I pressed kisses against the milky, sensitive skin of her throat.

She quickly clamped her mouth shut, trying to hold back any further unseemly sounds, but I was making it difficult for her to remain composed.

I trailed my lips higher, savoring the soft scent of her skin, until my tongue grazed the highly sensitive spot just beneath her ear, giving it a teasing flick.

"Ahnn!" This time, she lost the battle entirely, letting slip a breathless moan that was truly unbecoming of the usually graceful and proper Eleanor.

The sound of her own voice seemed to snap her back to reality. She blushed a vibrant, furious red, her small hands clenching tightly against my chest in sheer embarrassment.

"Y—Your Majest—aaah... please—hmm!"

I silenced her pleas with one last, lingering kiss to her lips before finally pulling back, taking a moment to simply admire her beautifully flushed, disheveled face.

Truthfully, in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to drag her to the nearest inn room and take her right then and there. She looked that enthralling.

Her breaths came in short, uneven gasps as she finally released her white-knuckled grip on my shirt, slumping weakly against the side of the carriage for support.

She hastily averted her face, unable to meet my gaze.

With how heavily her chest was heaving, I was treated to an enticing glimpse of her cleavage straining against the neckline of her dress.

"Perhaps others might have been more suited to a battlefield," I said, a soft, teasing smile curving my lips. "But the one I chose to bring with me, in the end, was you, Eleanor. So, will you keep me company until the very end of this journey, or should I send my sulking Queen back to the capital all alone?"

"I—I shall stay," she stuttered out softly. Trembling slightly, she raised a hand to her mouth, delicately wiping the lingering moisture from her swollen, beautiful pink lips.