Kouka's Crowned Prince | oc insert

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Four days later_

??? PoV

"What did you say?" I looked to the messenger as I folded my hands over each other on my lap in hopes to hide the shake that was beginning to form in them, my heart racing as I processed just what it was the messenger had told me.

"I said, General Neguro's force was wiped out," the messenger repeated.

I stared at him with wide eyes.

Neguro...

"Take me to them immediately!" I shouted, standing up from my seat in the castle.

"But, Princess Kouren—" he tried to stop me. I shook my head and silenced him with the raising of my hand. Walking out my office and heading through the Palace.

I noticed guards were running around frantically and stopped one of them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Somehow the bodies of our men all appeared in front of the gate!" he exclaimed.

"What?!" I stared at him before running to the front gate where a sight faced me.

Bodies upon bodies were layering the grounds surrounding the Palace. Eight thousand were intact while two thousand had their heads chopped off.

"Princess, please don't look," someone placed their hands over my eyes and turned me away from the pile, but I shook him off.

I was shaking. The sight was horrific.

They're all here so... so he should be here too. Please—

"Neguro," I muttered before pushing myself out the gates despite my body and mind telling me not to, "Neguro!"

My voice was more of a scream than a shout and it was breaking dangerously as tears started to bubble up in the corner of my eyes.

"He's over here, Princess!" someone shouted, I looked to my left to see two soldiers holding up a still breathing Neguro though he looked starved and exhausted.

I ran over to him and hugged him as soon as I saw him.

"I thought I'd lost you," I sobbed, "please don't... don't do that again!"

"Princess," he croaked out, his voice almost a foreign sound to my ears, "don't cry for me. I'm a mere servant who is supposed to give his life up for yours. But this... Was barbaric..."

His eyes travelled across the corpses.

"I was so confident but they... Had a very smart strategist on their side," he bit his lip as if to stop himself from saying something he shouldn't, "the second princes son, Aric. He outsmarted us. We've never gone up against someone like him before. He turned the tables on us faster than we could react... I'm so, so sorry, Princess. I failed you."

"You being alive means you have not failed me," I pushed away from him and looked to the soldiers supporting him, "have his injuries tended to."

"Yes, Princess Kouren!" they both nodded before walking away. I turned to the other soldiers awkwardly lingering around the bodies. Some were recognising faces and others refused to even look.

"Everyone else! Bury these bodies! As you go, identify them, and write out a list," I ordered loudly, "I shall personally visit their families once they've all been buried."

All the soldiers looked at me with heartbroken looks before nodding and going to do as I told them to.

Kouka.