Yibo's pov:-

I puked again, my chest was aching again.

"Commander." Adrian slowly kept his hand over my neck and gently rubbed my back, "you are not alright, you are sick," he stated. "Why would the crown prince send you on a mission when you are like this?"

I looked at him. "How are the other soldiers?"

"They are still recovering."

"And how are you?"

"I am fine, Commander." Adrian looked at me up and down. "Commander."

"Yes, Adrian."

"We are wrong."

"I know."

"Then why did you attack the tribe? That tribe is innocent... why is the emperor doing this? And why didn't you say anything to him, Commander? Why are you supporting this? Why are you supporting the emperor?

After what we saw that day, how can you still stand by him! How can you still fight for him?"

I looked at Adrian and saw the pain in his eyes. I looked at him and kept my hand over his shoulder. "Adrian, you are my most capable soldier and I have always trusted you. You know how to distinguish right from wrong. If you wish to join the rebel forces, then you can, I will not stop you."

Adrian glared at me. "And what about you? Are you still going to side with these people? Commander, you are my idol. I joined the royal knights because I was so impressed by you, but you... how can you support something so evil?"

My head was spinning and the pain in my chest was not letting me breathe properly. I could not answer Adrian. I wanted to say something, but before I could let a sound out of my mouth, my vision suddenly blurred and I lost my balance.

"Commander!"

~~

The next time I woke up, I was lying on a bed and Adrian was sitting right beside me. He was looking at me with worry. I tried to sit up but winced because of my injuries.

Adrian looked at me with this worried expression and I realized that I was all bandaged up and was not wearing my shirt. Adrian must have seen my wounds.

"Commander." Adrian spoke, "what happened to you? You have such severe wounds, your back is covered in blood and you are burning up and your chest is branded. Who did this to you, Commander? And why didn't you say anything? How can you go fight in this condition?

How were you even holding up!"

"Give me some water." I said and Adrian handed me a glass of water that I finished in one go, while Adrian said, "Did the crown prince do this? Is this why you are supporting him? Are they making you do everything against your will?"

I said nothing and just stared at the glass of water and Adrian called me again and finally said, "If you do not say anything, then I will confront the crown prince myself!"

I immediately looked at him and grabbed his hand. "Don't be foolish! You will be killed."

"Then you tell me, Commander, what did the crown prince say to you?"

"He said..."

"Commander, if you do not tell me the truth then I will go to the palace myself!"

"Adrian! How dare you talk to me like this, I spoiled you too much."

"Commander, I am scared for you, because you will not hurt me because I am not wrong! Please Commander, tell me what did the crown prince say that you had to raise your sword against innocent people, against your closest friend Zhan?"

I closed my eyes. Adrian was not going to listen, he wanted answers and if I did not give him those then he might go ahead and do something stupid. "The crown prince said that he would send my family after the Xiao family and kill them and then he would go after all my soldiers and their families and torture them to death."

Adrian's eyes widened. "How could he do this? How could he harm the soldiers that fight and die for this nation? How could he even think about harming the Xiao family? Commander..."

I closed my eyes and said, "Adrian, you can join the rebels, I won't stop you... make sure you take the other soldiers with you too."

Adrian cried this time. "I am not leaving you... I am going to fight with you, why must you carry the burden of protecting everyone yourself?"

I gently patted his head and said, "Adrian... you have to do something for me...."

"What is it?"

I grabbed his hand and said, "you have to support Zhan and prince Darius."

"But commander" he spoke and I held his hand tighter.

"Listen, I am their enemy, but if you go against me and take the soldiers with you and choose their side, they will forgive you, they will not hurt you

I know Zhan would never let anything happen to you!"

"But commander..."

"Just do it Adrian that's an order."

Adrian clenched his fists and nodded.

~~

It took us longer than usual to reach the capital mostly because me and my soldiers were all sick, whatever was in that smoke was surely effective.

Adrian was still by my side, very much refusing to leave my side and promising to protect me.

"Another failure." the crown prince's man named Alan said. He is the same man who tortured that poor boy Gareth, the same man who confronted Roland and the same man who has been nothing but a nightmare.

God knows what the crown prince had told him but he would not leave my side and would constantly keep an eye on me, question my decisions, argue back with me, he is slowly getting on my nerves.

"Crown prince will not be happy." Alan spoke again, "this has been your second failure right, Commander? I mean it seems like you have really lost your spark."

Adrian and my soldiers looked angry but no one said anything. I suddenly caught a movement from the side of my eye and I saw some black figures, they were not real, I knew that.

I shook my head slightly and looked ahead, but I could feel the movement around me, those shadow-like black figures were walking around us surrounding us and after a few moments I could hear voices in my head.

"Traitor..."

"Traitor..."

"Traitor..."

"Commander." Adrian called out my name, pulling me out of the illusion.

"Yes."

"We are near the capital."

"I see." So this is what my mother meant when she said that I would go crazy, I was becoming crazy. I had let Azrael live, I let Hazel escape, I let that tribe live, I let Zhan escape, I constantly went against the emperor's orders and was also harboring intentions of killing him, everything was against the principles of the Wang family.

Once we reached the capital we went straight to the palace where we came before the emperor. I and my soldiers bowed before the emperor who did not look happy.

"I heard that you failed a mission again, Yibo." the emperor said in a grave voice. Honestly after that night, it was hard for me to even look at the emperor without hate and disgust.

I said nothing and just bowed my head before him.

"What do you have to say?" the emperor said, "what happened? Did you lose against a tribe?"

I said nothing and the emperor grew angry. "Answer me, Yibo!"

"It's my fault, Your Majesty." I said.

"Indeed it is your fault! How have you become so incompetent!"

Suddenly Alan spoke, "Your Majesty, Commander is not telling you the whole story!"

I looked at him with fury and Alan spoke, "When we went to attack that tribe it was Roland Evercrest and Xiao Zhan who stopped us and went against your order and fought us! It seems like those two have also joined the rebels!"

The emperor spoke, "Xiao Zhan? What was he doing there?"

Alan spoke again, "Xiao Zhan has been acting really suspicious lately, even when Commander went to capture Azrael, it was reported that Xiao Zhan was there as well, maybe he was the one who let Azrael escape."

"Alan!" I spoke up for the first time, glaring at him and raising my voice and the emperor spoke, "Is it true, Yibo?"

I looked at him with panic, my heartbeat was rising, my vision was getting blurry and I was once again seeing the black shadowy figures everywhere, they were surrounding us.

I felt my body shake and cold sweat broke over my back. "No... absolutely not, Your Majesty. Zhan was just protecting the tribe, he did not know that the tribe were sheltering rebels."

Alan spoke, "Even if he did not know I still told him that it was an order from the emperor and he still did not agree. He stood in our way."

I wanted to kill Alan, I was going to kill him.

"He is right." The emperor said, "Xiao Zhan should not have stood against my decision, that was so wrong of him, such an act cannot be accepted."

I bowed before the emperor and said, "Your Majesty please, I am sure that Zhan must have had a good reason, we don't know the whole story, please for the sake of the contributions and sacrifices made by the Xiao family please give Zhan the benefit of the doubt."

Before anyone could say anything, a soldier burst through the door and he looked panicked. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" the soldier stood at the door and yelled, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty....we are ... we are under attack..." and before he could say anything further, his head was removed from his body by a single strike from Zhan's blade, the guard's body fell on the ground.

And his head rolled near the door.

 Zhan stood at the entrance and smirked. "Greetings, Your Majesty."

The emperor and the crown prince stood up, while Xiao Zhan stood near the door with soldiers behind him, his eyes landed on me.

"You fucking rebel!" The emperor yelled, "How dare you!"

" Yibo!" I looked at him and he said, "Bring me his head!" I tried to refuse but suddenly I felt like my body was not under my control, my vision and everything around me became dark.

And I only saw black figures around me, my hand went to my sword and dread filled my heart as I saw a black demon in front of me with red eyes and it was coming to attack me, I suddenly felt disconnected from my body and my mind, I felt like I was losing control of reality and my mind.

Seeing that demon coming towards me, I drew my sword.