Chapter 2

Five days later, I accompanied my father and brother to the royal training grounds in the western hills.

Clad in silver armor bearing the royal arms, Ned remained at my father’s side.

Halfway through the military exercise, the deputy commander of the right wing suddenly wheeled his horse toward the royal pavilion and raised a crimson signal flag.

The banner snapped open in the wind as he drew his sword and charged with several dozen of his retainers.

The noblewomen in the stands screamed and scattered.

Josephine sprang to her feet and demanded, “General Kirke, why are your men attacking His Majesty?!”

Ned vaulted onto his horse with the Royal Overseer’s warrant in hand.

“The right wing has advanced without orders and placed the king in peril. General Kirke, yield the baton of command. I shall assume sole command of the field!”

With that, he held out his hand to my father.

The system suddenly issued an alert.

“Warning. The target’s affection for you is falling. Reassure the target immediately to prevent further loss.”

Ned paused and turned to look at me.

A moment later, however, he turned back to my father.

“His Majesty’s safety must come first. Hand over your baton of command, General Kirke.”

His outstretched hand did not waver.

I stared intently at his open palm.

The first time around, that had been how my family had surrendered control of its army to him.

In the end, he used our own soldiers to surround our estate and drag my father and brother to the scaffold.

That same hand was reaching for my father’s army once again.

However, before my father made a move, the deputy commander panicked.

He waved the crimson flag three times, but the soldiers behind him did not so much as stir.

Only his few dozen retainers followed him into the charge. Before they could reach the royal pavilion, soldiers closed in on them from both sides.

At my father’s command, the rebels were subdued. He personally knocked the deputy commander from his horse and sent him crashing into the dirt.

Ned’s outstretched hand remained suspended in midair.

When the order for the military exercise first arrived, I had no way of knowing what Josephine was planning, so I warned my father to prepare for every possibility.

From that day onward, no unit of the Kirke Army would act on a flag signal alone. Every order also had to be delivered by one of my father’s trusted officers and confirmed with the day’s countersign.

Josephine had bribed the deputy commander, but she did not know that the rules of command had changed.

Shaken by the attack, the king ordered the deputy commander taken to the royal dungeons and demanded a full investigation.

When my father left the field, there was no relief on his face.

“Now that he is in royal custody, he may not live through the night.”

My heart sank.

If the deputy commander died, whoever was behind the attack could place all the blame on him.

My father would not only lose his chance to uncover the true culprit, but also be held responsible for failing to control his men. Ned would still be given command of the Kirke Army.

It was a vicious trap designed to destroy us no matter what we did.

After returning to our estate, I immediately sent for John.

“Could we get him out before Josephine kills him?”

John frowned.

“He is being held in the royal dungeons. If we intervene, Father will be accused before the king tomorrow of secretly freeing a traitorous officer.”

My hands curled into fists.

I had been given the chance to return to the past. Was I still doomed to relive the same fate?

Just then, the butler hurried in.

“My lady, a carriage bearing the Pugh crest has arrived at the rear entrance.”

Susie stood at the far end of the alley. Her face was pale. Behind her waited a carriage with its curtains tightly drawn.

“My father is the Deputy Justiciar. The capital’s prisons answer to him.”

She pulled back the carriage curtain.

“A prisoner who has not yet been formally charged can be transferred on his authority without attracting much notice.”

Inside, lay a man whose hands and feet were bound.

It was the deputy commander who had been imprisoned only hours earlier.

At first, he refused to talk. Then, John threw a purse of gold coins at his feet.

The coins bore the seal of the royal treasury.

The color drained from his face, and he soon confessed everything.

A servant from Rosewood Palace had bribed him to change the signal flag during the military exercise.

Once the Kirke Army appeared to pose a threat to the king, Ned could use his authority as Royal Overseer to seize command.

However, the servant had already been found dead at the bottom of a well on the palace grounds.

Josephine had covered her tracks perfectly.

When I emerged from the secret chamber, Susie was still waiting in the gallery.

After what had happened at the garden party and the royal dungeons, I saw no reason to be evasive. “You came back in time too, didn’t you?”

Susie was silent for a moment before nodding.

“Yes.”

“When did you die?”

“Three years after you did.”