CH 19.2

The ambush occurred when she left work the next day.

She had been going to the palace at her usual time when Kenta and three other guards surrounded her. Iveca felt a panic rise in her – there had been no warning. Instead, they formed a protective barrier between her and the rest of the world, a threat she couldn’t even see. It didn’t take long for them to appear, however. Charging at her guard were masked assassins, more than she could count. Her hand went to her dagger instinctively. While the Bureau was a bit further from the palace than it was recommended that she walk, she had not felt danger before. However, people could freely enter the road between the Bureau and the palace, and the assassins had taken advantage of this security lapse.

“Your highness, be careful!” Kenta cried out, which sparked the battle into a frenzy; blades flashing in every direction. All Iveca wanted to do was help but as she looked at her three guards battling the assassins, she knew the numbers weren’t on their side even with her involvement. A group of the assassins would fight and clear out to be replaced by another group before they were killed. Her guards could not leave their places since they needed to protect Iveca, and it seemed that the assassins would win with this plan by simply overwhelming them.

Iveca reached into her uniform to throw a dagger at an assassin about to strike Kenta’s head, before a slow, cold pain entered above her hip into her stomach. Kenta batted away the assassin with his own sword, but the damage was done, and warm blood replaced the cold steel.

“Your highness!”

She felt blood gushing out of her, and she shouted that she was all right. The wound did not seem fatal, and there was no magic. However, she could not hear her own words due to the pain. Some employees from the Bureau of Investigation came into conversation with those from the Bureau of Judicial Affairs. They came up running on seeing the fight.

“Your highness! Are you all right?”

She tried to stay conscious, but her knees buckled under her. The assassins disappeared on seeing the bodies swarming from the Bureau and as some chased after the masked assassins, one supported Iveca under her arms. Those from the Bureau of Judicial Affairs came to her, but she could not see clearly. She only saw a blur of face and pink hair of the one supporting her.

“Your highness!”

The employee was tall and thin, and Iveca willed herself to stare into the woman’s green eyes. She heard a worried voice that she recognised tell her, “do not worry, you only need to be healed.”

“R… Raina?” Iveca murmured without realizing she had before losing consciousness.

***

She woke up after all the treatments were over, and her first sight upon waking was Daniel leaping up at her bedside. Iveca realised he had been holding her hand, and she thought this was the first time she had seen him so tired even though she surely had not been out for long. He and his clothes were rough, and his voice was rushed.

“Iveca, are you well? What happened out there?”

“I’m fine, Daniel,” she murmured, “it was not fatal and as there was no magic involved, I will heal.”

Daniel sighed at her calm answer. Iveca slowly sat up. Noticing there was someone else in the room with them, she smiled at the employee wearing the uniform that showed he belonged to the Bureau of Medicine.

“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” The urgency of Daniel’s question made her heart flutter a little.

“No, but…”

Iveca looked around with wide eyes, looking for the guards who were standing behind Daniel. She was surprised by their presence, mainly because she had never seen them in her palace before. She saw Anriq’s rigid face as Daniel grabbed her hand tightly.

“Iveca, do you remember anything? Was there something you noticed? It will be investigated, of course. We will hunt down every last…”

“…We don’t know who is behind this?”

Daniel grimaced, “Not yet.”

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“I did not see anything that would be of much use in tracking them down.” Iveca sighed sadly. “What about Kenta and the other guards? Are they okay?”

She remembered her guards who had circled her at the moment she had been wounded. They had turned their backs at the enemy, which meant they could have been gravely wounded in trying to help her.

“While their wounds are not heavy, they are being treated elsewhere. Iveca, are you really, all right?”

“I think I can walk. May I?” She directed the question at the medical staff, and the middle-aged woman with brown hair and glasses nodded hesitatingly.

“While your highness can move now, please do not exert yourself.”