A few hours ago.

"Miss, we don’t have enough men. How do you plan to stop Count Hazzard’s 300 Royal Guards? Under your command, there are only 150 of us, and none of us are Royal Guards—we’re outnumbered! Not to mention the fact that there are only 30 of us here..." One of Aurora’s subordinates ran after her as she walked through Lor City.

As soon as she found out that the Royal Guards were heading to Edward’s location, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

But she turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the few guards who were with her to protect her.

"I don’t intend to stop them by force," Aurora replied, climbing into the carriage her family had arranged for her. It was camouflaged and looked like a normal carriage to avoid drawing attention at such a difficult time as this.

"Let’s go to the outskirts of the city, to the main streets. I’ll tell you what to do there," he said.

The guard who was following her sighed and ordered two others to lead the way. "So how do you plan to stop them? Miss, the family is going through a difficult time..."

Aurora interrupted him at that moment. "Don’t worry. I understand very well that getting in the way of the royal guard is treason. I don’t intend to reveal myself, which is why I came out in disguise." She replied.

The guard stared at her without responding, waiting for her answer to his question.

"You’ll understand soon enough. Tell all our men to follow us. We’ll need to move some heavy things." Aurora said without giving him much explanation.

Even so, the guard remained where he was, staring at her.

As the minutes passed and the carriage drew closer to its destination, Aurora had to speak again. She understood her subordinate’s concerns.

"Edward has discovered that the Red Moon Cave was behind my father’s downfall... It seems we have traitors within our ranks," she said.

This was nothing new to the guard. He already knew it.

"He’s working to destroy it, but not out of pure revenge; he actually wants to steal the information they have because they hold secrets about what happened 20 years ago and about... the destruction of all the families of that era. Not just our downfall."

Finally, the guard frowned and recalled the time 20 years ago. He was barely 23 then, but he was already working in the service of the Ashford Family. He strove day and night to one day become one of the family’s finest men and give his own family a prosperous future... 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But what happened 20 years ago—which left damage that lasted for another 5 years—killed his hopes. His family died in that internal war, and even his wife’s family, along with his wife, were wiped out.

That information struck a chord within him... The extent of the damage caused by that internal war still lingered in the present.

But... It’s been 20 years.

"I understand that the Young Lord is trying to do something to free the Lord, but miss, getting in the Royal Guard’s way—even indirectly—will bring dire consequences for the entire family... The Royal Guard has more authority than a count when mobilized for a mission. You..."

"Don’t worry." Aurora interrupted him again. "I’m not afraid, and I won’t be too obvious either. They won’t discover me that easily."

"But they will discover you sooner or later, Miss."

Aurora shrugged before replying. "By the time they discover me, I’ll already be stronger, and my father might be free. Edward won’t die at the hands of traitors, and then it will be another time to fight."

"If a traitor is discovered that way, they’ll send the entire Royal Guard after him. Miss, no matter how strong you may be, can you take on tens of thousands of men trained to the highest standard? Can you take on Línnava’s elite force? Think carefully..."

"I don’t need to think any further. I’ve already made up my mind." Aurora was so resolute that the guard in front of her couldn’t press the matter further.

"As you command, Miss Aurora." He bowed to her, and with nothing more to say, the journey continued at full speed to the outskirts of Lor City.

They stopped among the nearby villages, some of which were abandoned or in ruins.

’I heard that some of these were blown to pieces by Ed,’ Aurora thought, looking at the destruction she had come to stand amidst.

But for the guards, what was shocking wasn’t the destruction, but the pile of wood and rocks piled up along the road.

"Miss, don’t tell me you..." The guard from before swallowed hard as he realized her intentions.

Aurora smiled. "It cost me a fortune to get them brought here so quickly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone who dared to put them in the middle of the road, so I had to come myself." She said, gazing at the moon.

"We have 15 minutes to block off this entire road and the other exits leading to the Commercial City with these things. Before the Royal Guard leaves the city. So, we’ll have to hurry, won’t we?" Aurora had already taken a step forward and, alongside her Spider, was carrying several extremely heavy items in full view of the guards.

They stood there dumbfounded, staring at her...

There were tons of rocks and logs!

15 minutes... The guards swallowed hard. It looked like they were in for about 15 minutes of intense action.

--

"Stop." Among Count Hazzard’s carriages, a loud shout rang out as the 300 royal guards reached the outskirts of the city.

"My Lord Count, what the hell is this?" The General of the Hazzard Royal Guard frowned and approached the Count, who was in the lead carriage.

"Does anyone actually dare to stand in the way of the Royal Guard and this Count?" Count Hazzard stepped down, furious, and glared at the drivers. "What the hell is going on here? Who set all this up?"

"My Lord Count, I swear I don’t know." The man driving the torch-lit carriage that announced the arrival of the Count and his army stepped forward to speak. "But according to estimates, there are more than 300 tons of rocks and timber in front of us. Do you want us to blow it up to clear a path? It’s the fastest way to get rid of so much debris."

Count Hazzard looked furious, but he quickly calmed himself with a deep breath and shook his head. "No. Our horses will be frightened and refuse to move. Do we have enough men to clear it by hand?" He asked a man traveling with him, his trusted strategist.

He was a smart man who came up with a coherent answer in seconds: "We have a one-hour journey ahead of us. With the 50 men we have, we should be able to carefully remove them in about 30 minutes. That’s assuming we have to move them off the road to avoid problems with the commercial traffic coming later."

The Count frowned. ’Deploying the royal guard for this kind of work would be an insult. Although they’d handle it in a matter of minutes, they’d be upset with me,’ he thought.

That left him with only 50 men to use. Unfortunately, they weren’t his 50 best men, since he’d only brought them along to drive the carriages.

He shook his head and returned to the carriage. "It’s been a long time. We’ll go around this. Notify the city so they can take over and investigate the bastard who did this. I have to teach him a lesson he won’t forget for the rest of his life," he said.

But just then, someone came running up shouting, "Sir, we can’t surround it—they’re positioned in such a way that access from the sides is impossible; we’ll run into the woods!"

The Count, who was just about to sit down, frowned. He looked at his strategist.

The man was frowning too. "Whoever did this intended to hold us back. They must have spent a fortune to mobilize all this."

"Forget the fortune; I’ll find that bastard," said the Count. "We have to reach the Commercial City as soon as possible. Tell me the fastest route now."

The strategist frowned and leaped toward the massive logs and boulders blocking the road. He surveyed the piled-up wreckage that looked like a mountain.

’300 tons is nothing; there’s over a thousand tons here,’ he thought.

The weight wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it had been strategically scattered, and they didn’t have many men on hand. The only intention of whoever did this was to tie up a large group of soldiers, especially the Royal Guard.

Who would be such an idiot as to put the Royal Guard to work on a job like that? Not even a count would be that stupid.

In less than a minute, he made his decision and returned.

"I’ll give you two options, Count," he said. "We can take a detour and go to the other road to reach the Commercial City. If we move quickly, we could get there in 15 minutes. The other option is to have the men we brought clear the obstacles from the road; the time frame is as mentioned earlier."

"Let’s take the other road." The count’s decision was immediate, and without a second thought, he climbed into the carriage.

Everyone else did the same.

But 15 minutes later, the count got out of the carriage, furious...

His eyes seemed to be shut tight, while his body trembled with rage.

In front of him, the strategist repeated the same thing, except that there were no more roads.

"Start clearing this trash off the road," said the count, his teeth clenched in anger. His face was red, on the verge of exploding with rage.