Yue-Senn POV

The day I watched her from the shadows of that cherry blossom tree, I forgot how to breathe.

I had expected a delicate, fragile princess a girl who was acting tough packaged in pink tulle and suffocated by royal etiquette, waiting to be handed over to a wolf. Instead, I watched her trade brutal, unyielding blows with her sister. I watched the raw, staggering impact of her magic shatter the courtyard’s stone pillars. It was magnificent. The sheer power humming beneath her skin was enough to bring empires to their knees, yet it was her profound restraint that truly captivated me.

She wasn’t just a weapon for her kingdom. She was a force of nature. In that single, breathless moment, my desire turned into a dark, consuming obsession. She was entirely meant for my queen built for my specific brand of ruin.

But my reverence that afternoon was cut short by a foul rot creeping through her garden.

While my eyes were locked on Ryophlira, I caught a sudden, suspicious movement from one of the palace maids. Her steps were too fluid. Tracking her scent through the dense tree line, I watched her pull a glowing, teleporting crystal from her pocket and vanish in a flare of magic. The South. I hadn’t wasted a second. I slipped away from the palace grounds and stormed back to the Spring Inn, where my inner circle was waiting.

"Pack the gear," I commanded the moment I threw the heavy wooden doors open, my voice a low. I looked directly at my commander and Ki-ri. "We are riding for home peaks tonight. There is a spy in the West, and our timeline just fractured."

It took four days of riding at a breakneck pace to reach the capital of the North, and another four agonizing days to race back to the West border. Eight days of pure, relentless traveling just to secure my borders, overhaul my elite guard units, and prepare for a war that was actively knocking on our doors.

Because news from my spies had confirmed what I had expected the South and East had teamed up. They had tracked down an ancient mage capable of breaking blood contract, and they planned to strike at the wedding.

To stop them, I had thought of a plan so ridiculous, so utterly scandalous, it would leave the entire nation speechless.

The South had already done the clumsy work of spreading rumors that I had a hidden "lover" locked away. They thought they could use it to fracture the alliance with the West.

Let them whisper. Let the rumors build.

To ensure that the blood contract could never be dissolved by a Southern mage, I am going to drop the ultimate blow. The alliance will became a sacred, untouchable law. No mage alive would try to break it.

With the trap perfectly set, I crossed back into the West kingdom. There were only five days left until the wedding. The clock was ticking, the vultures were circling, and I was going to make sure the whole world knew exactly who she belonged to.