Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Chapter 423: Breaking the news to Henrietta

Nyx’s hand still gripped Lucas’s tightly, as though she feared that if she let go the last piece of hope she had would slip away with it.

Around them the camp moved slowly through the quiet of the evening. Soldiers walked between tents with lowered voices, and the glow of cooking fires flickered against armor and tired faces. Yet for that moment it felt as though the entire world had narrowed down to the space between the two of them.

Lucas looked down at her.

Her eyes were still wet from crying, but there was something else there now. It was fragile, trembling like a flame in the wind, but it was still there.

Hope.

And she had placed it on him.

For a moment Lucas did not speak.

Inside his chest he felt the weight of what she was asking. She was not asking for reassurance. She was not asking him to comfort her with empty words.

She was asking him to carry the last belief she had left.

Even if that belief rested on almost nothing.

He knew how dangerous that promise was.

He had already calculated the situation in his mind a hundred times since Ken revealed the truth. The enemy had taken Rus. They had taken Lechia. Now they had taken Valerion itself. Their armies were stronger, their plans had always been steps ahead, and they even had a powerful Celestial standing on their side.

The odds were brutal.

Lucas understood all of that clearly.

Yet Nyx was still looking at him like he could change the course of something that had already begun collapsing.

Her fingers tightened slightly around his hand again.

"Please," she whispered.

Lucas finally moved.

He raised his free hand and gently placed it over hers.

His voice came quietly at first.

"You really believe I can do that?"

Nyx nodded without hesitation.

"Yes."

There was no doubt in her answer.

Lucas let out a small breath.

Lira and Selene watched the exchange silently from a short distance away. Both of them understood how much Nyx was placing on Lucas in that moment.

Tom stood nearby as well, leaning against a wooden post with his arms crossed, watching quietly without interrupting.

Lucas looked back at Nyx.

"You are asking for something very difficult."

"I know," she said.

Her voice trembled again, though she refused to look away.

Lucas studied her face for another moment.

Then he slowly nodded.

"All right."

Nyx blinked.

Lucas squeezed her hand gently.

"I promise."

The simple words carried a quiet strength behind them.

Nyx’s lips parted slightly.

Lucas continued, his voice growing firmer now.

"I will keep fighting."

His eyes hardened slightly as he spoke.

"No matter how small the chance is."

Nyx’s fingers tightened again.

Lucas’ gaze lifted briefly toward the dark horizon where the kingdom of Valerion lay somewhere beyond the mountains, now supposedly in enemy hands.

Then he looked back at her.

"I will not stop until Valerion belongs to us again."

Nyx stared at him.

Lucas’ voice lowered slightly.

"Either I take it back..."

He paused for a brief moment.

"...or I die trying."

Silence settled around them after the words.

Nyx’s eyes filled with tears again, but this time they were different. They were not born from despair.

She nodded slowly.

Lira let out a quiet breath she had been holding.

Selene looked away for a moment, wiping at the corner of her eye discreetly.

Tom simply shook his head softly, though a faint smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.

Lucas released Nyx’s hand gently.

But the promise he had just made hung in the night air between them like a vow that could not be taken back.

The quiet that followed Lucas’s promise did not last long.

Footsteps approached from behind the row of supply wagons, and the faint smell of herbs and medicinal paste drifted with the evening air.

Henrietta appeared from between two tents, her sleeves rolled halfway up her arms and faint streaks of dried blood staining the cuffs of her uniform. Her usually composed expression looked weary, exhaustion that came from spending an entire day among the wounded.

She stopped when she noticed the small group gathered together.

Lucas.

Nyx.

Lira and Selene.

Even Tom lingered nearby.

Henrietta’s brows slowly knit together.

She immediately sensed something was wrong.

"What happened?" she asked.

Her voice was calm, though her eyes moved from one face to another, studying their expressions carefully.

Nyx still looked shaken. Lira’s gaze had lowered slightly. Selene’s face carried a heaviness that Henrietta had rarely seen before.

Lucas did not answer right away.

Henrietta stepped closer.

"I have been at the rear camp all day with Jennifer," she said. "We were treating the injured soldiers from the earlier battle."

She looked directly at Lucas.

"Why does everyone look like the world just ended?"

No one spoke.

Henrietta’s gaze moved slowly to Nyx.

The princess’s eyes were still swollen from crying.

Henrietta’s expression sharpened.

"What happened?"

Still silence.

Then Selene finally spoke.

Her voice came softly.

"Henrietta..."

Henrietta turned to her.

Selene hesitated for a moment, clearly searching for the right words, but there were none that could soften what had to be said.

"Valerion has fallen."

Henrietta blinked.

The words did not register immediately.

"What?"

Lira continued quietly.

"Celestial Ken showed the King the royal crown."

Henrietta stared at them.

"That is impossible."

Her voice came out sharper now.

"No one could have taken Valerion while the army was still here."

Selene swallowed.

"They already did."

Henrietta shook her head.

"No."

Her eyes moved toward Lucas.

"Tell me that is not true."

Lucas did not look away.

He simply said nothing.

That silence answered her more clearly than any words could.

Henrietta felt her stomach drop.

For a moment she just stood there, her mind struggling to piece together something that made sense.

Then Lira spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.

"There is more."

Henrietta’s gaze shifted toward her.

"What more could possibly make this worse?"

Selene looked down briefly before forcing herself to say it.

"The queen betrayed Valerion."

The words seemed to freeze the air around them.

Henrietta did not move.

"What did you say?"

Nyx looked away, unable to repeat it herself.

Selene spoke slowly.

"Ken revealed everything earlier in the valley."

Henrietta stared at them, disbelief flooding her face.

"That is ridiculous."

Her voice rose slightly.

"The queen would never betray her own kingdom."

Lira shook her head faintly.

"She did."

Henrietta’s eyes widened.

"No."

Her voice carried a firmness that sounded more like denial than certainty.

"That does not make sense."

Selene’s voice softened.

"She was working with the Usurpers from the beginning."

Henrietta stood very still.

"The poisoning of Prince Darius."

Her breathing slowed.

"The monsters that attacked Valerion."

Her mind was beginning to move through the past, connecting things she had never questioned before.

Selene continued quietly.

"Ken said it was all her plan."

Henrietta felt a strange chill crawl up her spine.

Her voice came out slowly now.

"All this time..."

Her gaze drifted toward the ground.

"I thought Marquee Scott was acting alone."

Lucas watched her carefully.

Henrietta’s eyes slowly lifted again.

"But if the queen was behind everything..."

Her lips tightened.

"...then he was never acting on his own."

The realization struck her fully now.

Marquee Scott had not been a rogue traitor.He had been following orders. Henrietta’s expression changed slowly.

"So while we were trying to pin him and link him to the crimes..."

She let out a quiet breath.

"...he was only carrying out the queen’s commands."

No one corrected her because that was exactly what it meant.Henrietta stood there in silence for several seconds.

Her hands slowly clenched into fists at her sides.

Finally she looked toward Lucas again.

The disbelief had faded from her face now.

In its place was a hard acceptance.

"So the kingdom we were fighting to protect..."

Her voice lowered slightly.

"...was already lost long before we ever reached this valley."