Queen of Roses

49) Ultimatum

Normally, a trip from Gaegyeong to the Jung palace in Seogyeong would take three days. Chaeyoung got there in one.

With an intensifying battle, unknown whereabouts of the majority of her companions, a devastating betrayal, and a wounded bestfriend behind her, Chaeyoung charged through Goryeo's rugged forest in search of Lisa. Through the onslaught of heavy rain, cracks of thunder, and bursts of lightning, she pushed forward without a wink of sleep.

All throughout, her father's words constantly echoed in her mind. "In a world where allies are few, you have just created a fatal enemy." She had not grasped the true weight of this statement back then. She had underestimated, she had been naïve, and worst of all she had trusted too easily.

And now, Lisa was paying the price.

Chaeyoung knew running away from a battle she herself had waged was not ideal. A queen would never have abandoned her army, her camps, her people for the sake of one person. But a friend would.

Images of Lisa flashed through Chaeyoung's mind like a tragic, historical timeline. How she had been born in the palace shortly after the princess and lost her mother at a young age too. Memories of their childhood stabbed at Chaeyoung's heart. Sharing toys, playing hide-and-seek in the enormous palace for hours, reading books together in the palace garden, dancing in the courtyard when no one was watching. Lisa had been far more than just a friend to her. She was family.

And she had spent all her life serving Chaeyoung. Protecting her, covering for her, mending her clothes, fixing her hair. She suffered in silence all these years purely in pursuit of Chaeyoung's happiness, never even sparing a moment to think of her own. Chaeyoung could not live with herself if she allowed Lisa to die for her too.

She rode alone, leaving her already sparce army for the war that was becoming increasingly hopeless as the hours wore on. A part of her knew she would not require anyone else to save Lisa. Because she knew she was the only one who could grant the Jung family what they so desperately wanted. What every power-hungry noble in the country desires.

The throne.

~{❀}~

Fatigue tore at Jennie's muscles like an internal disease which only exacerbated all the physical injuries she had acquired in the span of 3 days. A flesh wound on her right arm, several fresh cuts along her torso, a scratch on her left cheek and countless bruises. There was only so much her body could endure.

She silently withstood all the pain, continuing to fight her way through the crowd in hopes of reaching Taeyong. But, with every step she advanced towards him, he seemed to back away by two. It was almost like he was avoiding her. The thought angered her to the core.

Eventually, though, she had been forced to pull back her army for the evening without even being presented with an opportunity to shoot an arrow at Taeyong. Their army would have been massacred if they continued fighting into the night. Thankfully her internal warrior instincts had been cognizant of that fact and convinced her to set aside her thirst for revenge in exchange for the lives of her soldiers.

However, now, as she entered Jimin's tent after replenishing her energy with a loaf of bread, a part of her could not help but slightly regret that decision.

"By my estimates," Jimin began the meeting as soon as Jennie stepped foot inside the overcrowded room of warriors, "their army still outnumbers ours by at least 5,000. Not to mention the six army generals they have remaining in addition to Taeyong."

"Who are the remaining targets?" Jennie asked, her memory foggy from the events of the past week.

"Jun, Woozi, Vernon, S.coups, Dino, and Seungkwan are the remaining generals. Then, there is Taeyong. And of course, Mingyu himself."