Wounded Rose of Garden Metro의 모든 챕터: 챕터 121 - 챕터 130

The first riot didn’t start with shouting.It started with silence.Lena was in the lower logistics wing when the report came in—no alarm bells, no screaming crowds. Just a Guard runner, breathless, eyes wide, saying the words no city leader ever wants to hear.“Speaker… the East Market ration line has stopped moving.”Stopped lines meant stalled tempers. Stalled tempers meant decisions being made without permission.Lena was on her feet immediately. “How many?”“Hard to tell,” the runner said. “Couple hundred at least. Merchants closed their stalls early. Someone spread a rumor the southern warehouses are holding back food for the refugees.”Vincent swore under his breath. “That didn’t take long.”“No,” Lena said quietly. “It never does.”They moved fast, Damien already barking orders into a handheld comm as they pushed through the corridors. The city above felt different today—tenser, sharper. Doors closed more quickly. Conversations dropped when Lena passed. The borrowed time from

The river platform had been built decades ago, back when Garden Metro still believed diplomacy could be engineered the same way bridges were—measured, reinforced, predictable. It floated anchored to pylons driven deep into the riverbed, wide enough for two delegations to stand without touching, narrow enough to remind everyone that distance was a choice.Lena arrived before dawn.Mist clung to the water in pale sheets, muffling sound and turning the far banks into silhouettes. The city behind her was quiet for once, exhausted from days of argument and ration lines and whispered predictions of what would fail next. She stood at the edge of the platform, hands clasped behind her back, watching the current slide past, indifferent to borders and votes.Vincent joined her a moment later, boots soft against the planks.“They’ll be here within the hour,” he said.“Selene?” she asked.“Yes,” he replied. “Corven’s scouts were spotted upriver last night. Not close enough to intervene. Close eno

The first consequence arrived before dawn.It came not with fire or marching boots, but with absence.Selene’s scheduled morning transmission—usually a brief status ping confirming array output and river salinity readings—didn’t arrive. The channel stayed quiet long past its window, the line a flat, accusing silence on Lena’s console.Vincent stood behind her, arms crossed. “That’s not an accident.”“No,” Lena said. “It’s a squeeze.”By midmorning, the second message arrived—not from Selene, but from a smaller upriver town called Harren’s Ford. Short. Clinical. Frightened.UNIDENTIFIED ARMED UNITS BLOCKING RIVER ACCESS. CLAIMING COALITION AUTHORITY. REQUEST GUIDANCE.Lena closed her eyes for half a second, then opened them.“He’s not marching,” Vincent said. “He’s demonstrating.”“Control without spectacle,” Lena replied. “Make people choose him to make it stop.”Damien entered, rain still clinging to his coat. “Guard scouts confirm. Coalition insignia on the boats, but no official de

The river did not rise or fall after Corven left.That unsettled Lena more than any outburst would have.She stood on the platform long after the delegations dispersed, long after Selene’s envoys returned to their boat, long after the observers drifted away with their conclusions half-formed and heavy. The planks were damp beneath her boots, the smell of wet wood and river iron lingering in the air. This was what followed confrontation when it did not explode—space. Uncomfortable, uncertain space.Vincent waited beside her, silent. He had learned when not to speak.“He didn’t retaliate,” Lena said at last.“Not yet,” Vincent replied.She nodded. “He wanted to see what would happen if he didn’t.”“And?” Vincent asked.“And now he knows,” she said. “We don’t collapse just because he removes his hand from our throat.”Vincent’s gaze drifted downriver. “That makes us more dangerous to him than defiance ever could.”“Yes,” Lena agreed. “Which means he’ll change tactics.”They left the plat

The basin did not wait for consensus.It never had.Two mornings after Corven’s broadcast, the western tributary towns went dark—not all at once, not with an announcement, but with the quiet efficiency of a door closing. Communications stuttered. Supply confirmations failed to arrive. Convoys rerouted themselves without explanation.By noon, the pattern was undeniable.“They signed with him,” Damien said, voice tight as he laid the reports across the table. “Three towns. Maybe four. They’re calling it ‘temporary coordination.’”Reiss exhaled through his nose. “Temporary always means permanent when fear is the negotiator.”Lena said nothing at first. She studied the map, watching pins change color—neutral to gray, gray to black. She felt the familiar pressure rise, that urge to rush, to force motion before motion forced her.“Who’s left in the corridor?” she asked.“Harren’s Ford,” Damien replied. “Barely. Selene. Two upland settlements with nothing Corven wants—yet.”“And Garden Metro