029 A Quiet Homecoming

A week later, outside the Governor's Mansion.

The Flame Festival of the City of the Radiant Sun was set to start at noon sharp. At eleven, under the gaze of the crowd, Arthur Kane carried Annie sideways out of the mansion.

The streets outside were packed. Even with the main road cordoned off, celebrants crammed both sides, spilling onto every available inch of pavement. After the massacre, no official celebration had been held in the City of the Radiant Sun for a full twenty years—this meant everything to ordinary people.

And of course, everyone wanted to see what the couple blessed by the Seer actually looked like.

When Arthur lifted Annie effortlessly onto the parade carriage, a chorus of gasps and murmurs rippled through the onlookers. The Alpha, tall and striking, the Omega, delicate and petite—together they perfectly matched the traditional vision of an Alpha–Omega pair. Envious and admiring glances followed them alike, but once Annie steadied herself, her first move was to activate the system in her contact lenses.

Too many people. And so hot.

Under the blazing sun, sweat was already soaking her beneath the white robes. The street decorations seemed to mock the heat—golden ribbons reflected the light overhead, and every hundred meters or so, a brazier blazed with open flame. The crowd pressed close to the fires as if they felt nothing at all.

A situation like this…

Crowded, sweltering, everyone swathed in full-length robes that concealed their entire bodies.

And on top of it all, the carriage was open. Annie and Arthur were standing right out in the open.

A perfect target waiting to be hit.

“Let’s move, let’s move.”

Charles Lang scrambled onto the carriage with a few soldiers in tow. He didn’t seem bothered by the heat, still in full military dress, complete with his red cap and red gloves.

He raised a hand and waved, and the carriage engine rumbled to life, easing forward.

Arthur, naturally, extended his hand.

He’d known Annie would lose her footing. His broad palm closed around her arm, and he stepped forward.

Annie wobbled for an instant—then collided squarely with the Alpha’s broad chest.

—The next moment, roaring cheers erupted from both sides of the street.

The screams and catcalls startled them both. She looked up hastily, and met the same confusion flickering in the Alpha’s blue eyes.

Then, before she could process it, people began shoving their way forward.

The carriage was slow, and many civilians ran alongside it, chasing it.

“So sweet!”

“No wonder the Seer blessed them.”

“What’s the big deal? We’ll go to the Ancient Temple and take the trial ourselves someday.”

The chatter from both sides filtered through her earpiece, amplified and crystal clear.

That was all it took?!

She felt speechless: he’d just steadied her! That was worth cheering for?

Even if they weren’t a “couple,” there was no way anyone would just stand there and watch someone fall flat on their face.

Clearly, the citizens trailing the carriage thought otherwise.

Once they cleared the street outside the Governor’s Mansion and turned onto the widest avenue in the City of the Radiant Sun, Twilight had even prepared fireworks for the Flame Festival. Wherever the carriage went, salutes were fired.

Bang, bang—accompanied by music, the spectacle was nothing short of magnificent.

According to the original plan, the carriage was supposed to reach the altar in the city center by eleven-thirty. Governor Hado and his wife would be waiting there, handing Annie and Arthur the torch to light the flame together.

But right now—

If they didn’t get there soon, Annie was going to pass out from heatstroke! She was dizzy, her head spinning, and to make things worse, plenty of people were ignoring the guards, risking life and limb to scramble up and touch the carriage itself. The more who did it, the slower the float crawled along, drawing even more civilians in.

“Madam Kane! Madam Kane!”

Several figures in white robes shoved through the crowd, hoisting their long hems to run.

The contact lenses automatically zoomed in: three or four young women, and one slender boy. They all had their faces veiled—Omegas, no doubt.

One bold Omega noticed Annie looking and reached a hand straight toward the float.

“Madam Kane, please!”

What?

Annie froze.

An Omega’s robe wasn’t built for running, and they couldn’t expose a single inch of skin. Twice, this one nearly tripped over their own hem, and Annie’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest watching.

Chasing the carriage like this was dangerous. She had no idea what the woman wanted.

Until Arthur, standing nearby, said coldly, “Shake her hand.”

Annie: “…”

Just for that? She wasn’t some idol!

Fine.

For the girl’s own safety, Annie gripped the railing, leaned over the edge, and extended her hand toward the young Omega chasing the float. She barely brushed the tips of her fingers—and then saw the eyes behind that veil light up like a struck match.

“Madam Kane shook my hand!” The young Omega finally stopped, shrieking with joy. “The Seer’s chosen wife shook my hand! I’ll marry a perfect husband and have lots of children!”

Annie: “…………”

And after that shout, even more people surged forward, chasing the carriage.

Help.

This was absurd!

Annie had grown up on Spica, and she’d never imagined that, even in the age of interstellar travel, this kind of feudal superstition could still exist.

But—

The sheer joy and excitement radiating from that girl, barely contained behind her veil, was real.

Annie felt a complicated swirl of emotions. Either way, she hadn’t grown up here, hadn’t lived this life. She couldn’t dismiss or belittle anyone else’s just because she’d had an easier one.

If it made these unmarried Omegas happy, then let it be!

So Annie reached out her hand again.

But the next instant, her contact lenses flared with an alarm.

A sharp warning blared through her earpiece at the same moment. Annie’s head snapped up—and she saw, on one side of the street, a group wearing the same white robes charging forward.

But the lenses clearly flagged the objects in their hands: thermal charges.

So the attackers had finally come.

“Get back—danger!”

Annie shouted the warning at the top of her lungs. The crowd below instinctively frozen.

Seizing the moment, the carriage pulled several meters clear of the crowd—and the attackers hurled their thermal canisters straight at the front of the vehicle.

Boom!

A wall of flame nearly three meters tall erupted, instantly cutting the carriage off from the crowd. Shouts of joy twisted into screams of terror.

Annie felt a heavy force slam into her from behind.

Arthur grabbed her in the first instant, but then the Alpha’s pupils shrank. He’d closed in, then immediately leapt back. A sniper’s bullet grazed past his forehead, leaving a thin trail of blood. A second later, and Arthur Kane’s brains would’ve been splattered across the street.

—This wasn’t Boss He’s people.

Weren’t they supposed to have said Luke Garner couldn’t get into the City of the Radiant Sun?!

Annie ducked down quickly, and heard Charles Lang, leaning against the railing, let out a sharp, piercing whistle.

The Butcher had been waiting for exactly this.

“Finally,” he drawled, pushing himself upright, hefting the assault rifle cradled in his arms. “Let me see what this Resistance leader, crazier than Twilight, is really made of—”

“Watch out!”

Her contact lenses flashed another alert, and she shouted without thinking.

The attackers charging the carriage had mostly been gunned down by the Twilight soldiers, but two of them, still in their concealing robes, desperate, hurled two ropes at the float.

The ropes sailed over the three-meter wall of flame, catching fire as they went—blue fire.

Temperatures far beyond reason. The lines sliced diagonally through the carriage platform, cutting it clean in two.

A sharp crack.

The entire platform tipped sideways with a jolt, tilting a full forty-five degrees.

The first to lose his footing was Charles Lang, who was already leaning against the edge. The Butcher’s heavy frame wobbled, and he swore a local swear word.

The next second—taking Annie with it—most of the platform crashed straight down to the ground!

Is this really happening?!

In the final moment, Annie saw Arthur take a step toward the flames. But as fast as the Alpha was, he couldn’t outrun New Thebes’s gravity. A strong hand barely grazed her arm, and then she and Charles Lang both hit the dirt.

Even with a hurried roll to break her fall, Annie landed dazed, her head spinning.

This attack was clearly aimed at the Butcher. Annie had just been standing too close, and she’d become collateral damage.

It hurt!

She struggled to her feet, barely managing to steady herself before Charles Lang grabbed her and hauled her up. Twilight security had opened fire amidst the crowd—the terrorists were exchanging fire with the Resistance. In an instant, flames and gunfire drowned out the cheers and the salutes.

The festive celebration had turned into a living hell. Blocked by the wall of fire behind and the firefight ahead, Charles Lang dragged Annie toward a residential building on the side of the street.

“You wait—”

“Don’t bother looking, little bride. No way we’re getting back on that carriage!”

Who said anything about getting on the carriage?! Annie was about to pass out from heatstroke here!

She was dizzy, she’d taken a hard fall, and she stumbled along helplessly as Charles Lang pulled her deep into an alley—until a faint female voice reached her ears.

“Madam Kane, over there.”

“Wh—wait!”

That familiar voice snapped her back to reality. She fought down the nausea, yanked her hand free from the Butcher’s grip, and spun around.

There, cowering in a corner, was the Omega who’d been the first to shake her hand.

“Go east, there’s, there’s a tunnel,” she stammered, darting a terrified glance at Charles Lang’s uniform, her voice trembling. “You can hide.”

“East…”

Charles Lang’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Right, the air-raid shelter! Little bride, this way!”

Without a second thought, he grabbed Annie’s arm and dragged her further in.

Annie: “I can walk on my own!”

Damn terrorists!

Annie didn’t think she was completely helpless against Resistance fighters—especially since they were after the Butcher, not her. But she had to play the part of a defenseless Omega in front of Charles Lang, and she had to make sure he survived. If the Butcher died at this critical moment, the entire plan to get into the Laboratory afterward would go up in smoke.

Was this really Luke Garner’s people?!

Arthur had already passed the information to Boss He. A sane person wouldn’t still consider an attack, right?

But then again—the radicals had already used orphans as suicide bombers. That clearly put them outside the bounds of sane.

So she let herself be dragged along by Charles Lang, deeper into the alley, until they found the shelter. At the critical moment, the Butcher finally showed a bit of gentlemanly manners—by which she meant, he shoved Annie in first.

And so, caught completely off guard, she tumbled and rolled inside, taking another brutal spill.

Ow!

Annie lay on the floor of the shelter for what felt like an eternity, trying to catch her breath. But at least this enclosed, dim space was finally cooler. The chill in the air eased her somewhat. She turned her head just in time to see Charles Lang land steadily on his feet.

She instinctively tightened her grip on the heat-inducing injection hidden in her sleeve.

The plan was completely out the window.

Her original idea had been to light the flame at the altar, then jab herself and send herself straight into heat. But clearly, today’s ceremony wasn’t going to have a happy ending.

She was alone with Charles Lang now. This was her best chance to make him realize that Annie, too, was “abnormal.”

It was worth a gamble.

Annie chose to trust her own abilities.

“We’ll just lie low for a bit, little bride. I’ll return you to Arthur Kane in one piece, guaranteed,” Charles Lang said, completely unaware of Annie’s plan as he brushed the dirt off his clothes. “And hey, it’s cooler in here anyway.”

The inducer rested in her palm.

While the Butcher wasn’t looking, she jabbed it straight into her thigh.

Annie sucked in a sharp breath.

In an instant, the scent of citrus, lemon leaves, and pomelo peel flooded the dim shelter, filling it completely, without warning.

Charles Lang froze mid-motion.