Yuto woke up abruptly. He winched in pain when trying to sit. It seemed the cut on his stomach was deep enough that made him difficult to move. Analyzing his own body, he saw that there were some bruises and cuts all over, and his bare torso had been bandaged neatly.

He tried recalling what had happened before. He was walking to the rendezvous after leaving Mirai near the clearing. He did not find his comrade, instead he was ambushed by a group of people. There were ten of them. From their moves, he assumed that they were part of Royal Palace Force. Despite fighting back fiercely, Yuto was soon outnumbered.

‘How was Lady Mirai? Was she captured too?’ He wondered.

Despite the pain, he deliberately rose to his feet.

‘Where am I?’

He frowned. After observing the room, he realized where he was kept hiding. It was no doubt one of the rooms in his family manor. Not his own room, but it was what he called ‘the last resort’. The room was made under the manor ground and linked with secret tunnels. Nakajima Family used it as a temporary refuge in case something happened that they needed to escape. He knew the room so well that he grimaced angrily.

‘It only means that they did plan to cut my ties with the world outside,’ he thought and suddenly a dreadful feeling enveloped him. ‘No! Their intention is only to cut my tie with… Ryosuke!’

He threw a fist to the nearest wall. Yuto was furious. Instead to his captor, he was mad to himself.

“Foolish!”

He was too careless. He should have predicted that it would happen sooner or later. After all, his father was a member of the king’s inner circle. No matter what or who he had to confront, Yuto knew well where his father loyalty resided. The King of Hakumei, His Majesty Yamada Shohei, was always General Nakajima Hoshi’s top priority.

He looked around the room helplessly. His father must have tightened the guards and with his current condition, there was no way for him to escape. How if Ryosuke sent someone to find him? No. His family was always proud of the room’s confidentiality. It was nearly impossible for outsider to find this room, even for an extremely shrewd Chinen Yuri, the topnotch shinobi in Hakumei.

He exhaled a long breath, “Forgive me, Ryosuke.”

**********

A tiny figure dashed with unbelievable speed in the darkness of the night. His feet barely touch the ground while he jumped from one tree to the next ones smoothly, not making a single noise. All of his senses were alerted to the possibilities of suspicious movement around him, ready for anything. He did not need a light to lead him because the darkness had been his world even since the first time his memory worked. Despite his incredible ability, the best weapon he had was his deceptive serene face. He used it to lure his prey before blowing them with deadly strikes. That was how Chinen Yuri operated.

He halted when reaching a certain place and carefully observed his surroundings. The place was placid, too quiet for his wariness. He smelt something in the air other than salt and that something was not supposed to be there. So when he spotted a stain on the ground, he knew he should resume his sprint.

It’s blood.

Anxiety was growing in him. Despite his trying to suppress bad thoughts, it kept plaguing his mind. It was because Ryosuke had said that he had a bad premonition and, he thought, Ryosuke had almost never been wrong. Beside he feared for the things might happen to Ryosuke remembering what he had seen earlier in the day.

Yuri was doing his usual surveillance around Ryosuke’s chamber area when he heard a clasp. Three times. That was his code. So he flew right away and landed in front of Ryosuke’s door, two steps behind Ryosuke who was standing outside.

“I’m here.”

Once Ryosuke turned around, Yuri tensed a bit. He could tell something was off by seeing Ryosuke’s uptight face.

“Something’s bothering me,” Ryosuke said.

 “I didn’t see something suspicious.”

 “I didn’t either. Have you seen Yuto?”

He shook his head. “No, maybe he’s checking the outer gate.” Because of his role as Ryosuke’s shadow, Yuri should not stray too far away from him. That left Yuto and his squads to be responsible for the rest of Outer Palace’s security.

“Do you need me to check?”

Ryosuke nodded. “And bring Yuto to me.”

He gave Ryosuke a salute before running for the task. He resumed his surveillance, but this time he did a wider one, including the area outside the Outer Palace. He had not bum