Peter didn't know why, but he felt that something was wrong. Extremely wrong.

As he pierced the sword into another soldier's chest, he flicked his eyes to the manor. He wanted to continue staring at it and try to think about what she was planning, but a stinging pain from his back made him turn back and face the Nuryynian soldiers.

There were rumors that there were defects in Nuryyn's Army, but he couldn't tell which were defects and which were not. The soldiers fighting him had an array of ears, both pointy and slightly round, while their strength in magic and fighting were weaker than his own.

Were they all defects, or did Nuryyn just have weaker soldiers?

No matter how many times he reached for his magic, the only thing that greeted him was either pain or a near punch to the face. Fortunately, he was able to dodge most of the incoming attacks to him and retaliate with a slice of his blade.

Peter dashed forward, making three of the remaining soldiers in front of him fall to the ground. "Pathetic as always, aren't you, Nuryyn?"

One of them placed a hand on their chest, slowly standing up. Green wisps of magic traced from their fingers, though the color slowly flickered away.

With that, he charged inside Alejandro's Manor. He could always think about that later. Right now, he had to find his sister, make sure she was safe, and make sure the blame wouldn't be pinned on his kingdom.

For Royisa, for their fallen comrades, and for those to come who deserve to live in peace.

He kicked the door in front of him and threw the sword. There was a yell, and another body fell to the ground. Instinctively, he reached for his magic, before dashing to his right. He butted his head against the soldier and grabbed their spear, before piercing them in their chest.

The smell of blood slightly made his nose twinge, and he wiped a drop of it away from his cheek. It would have been more enjoyable if he could use his magic rather than kill people with weapons, but he needed to make do of what he could.

The amount of bodies littering the floor made him shiver, and his nose scrunched at a foreign smell. It was probably poisonous gas that faded away, and the people lying down on the ground didn't have any barriers strong enough to protect them.

His ears twitched, but it only made him frown. They were heavy footsteps, but he couldn't tell how many or where they were from. It took him reaching the stairs to see that even more soldiers surrounded him. Almost like Nuryyn sent an entire brigade just to go after him.

"This is as far as you'll go!" one of them yelled as they pulled their bowstring back. Peter scoffed, but he still raised his arms. "Commander Adrien of the Tactics Brigade in Royisa's Army, surrender or we will shoot!"

Peter narrowed his eyes, though his thoughts were interrupted when the sound of clicks echoed in the halls. He didn't need to turn around to know that even more bows and maybe crossbows were now pointing at him. And one wrong move meant he would die.

Still…

He gulped and gathered every courage and strength he had, hoping that it wouldn't lead him to his doom.

"You'd really point a bow at a super soldier? I can just poof away before you can hit me and maybe kill some of you. It would be a waste of perfectly good arrows!"

He froze in his spot, praying to the gods that none of them would see past his act and think of shooting an arrow just to test if he was lying or not.

When no one moved, he flicked his eyes around him and slowly lowered his arms. His hands shivered, and he could feel sweat trickling down his palms. Still, he swallowed any fear or nervousness building inside of him.

There was another thing bugging him, but he didn't think voicing it out would be a good idea.

Why did they call him Adrien?

If he felt like something was off earlier, then that strange feeling increased tenfold. He didn't like what he was sensing, and he wanted to get out of Alejandro's Manor as fast as he could. Unfortunately, running wasn't one of his options. Unless he wanted an arrow to his head, that is.

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the soldiers around him. Some of them had their weapons lowered, while there were others that still had their guards up. Now that he managed to count them all properly, it looked like there were around ten to twelve of them.

But it was ten to twelve too many. He still didn't know how he could get out of this unscathed.

Mentally, he groaned. He wasn't a mind reader, unlike Adrien. And even then, he couldn't use his magic. The only thing he could do right now was do what Adrien would do--be smart and try to think sensibly.

"That's not Adrien."

Peter froze. There goes my chance of living.

He lifted his head up. The soldiers above the stairs parted their ways, before bowing down. A young woman walked down the stairs, though her attire didn't look like it matched anyone's clothings. It didn't look like she was a soldier, but at the same time she couldn't have looked important either.

"Wait a minute." Peter squinted. "Allaine?"

One of the soldiers placed himself in front of her. "Your Highness, please. Let us take care of this."

He blinked again. "H- Hold on. Your Highness?"

"I'd watch my tongue if I were you, soldier," the man in front of him hissed. "You might be a commander, but I wouldn't hesitate to shoot you on the spot if you insult the princess like that."

Peter didn't know much about the Nuryynian Royal Family, but he knew that no soldier would protect a rebel and then call them "Your Highness" for no reason. Nor would a rebel be in a general's home.

"Calm down," the princess placed her hand in front of her and shot him a glare. One he could have easily wiped away with a quick burst of flames.

"Like I said," she continued. "That man is not Adrien."

Don't do or say anything stupid. He took a few steps backwards, stopping just in front of another soldier.

His mind was spinning, and his fingers were starting to jolt in pain again. He didn't have magic, he didn't have a way out, and he didn't have a mind like Petra or Adrien's. There was no way out of here that didn't involve him dying.

So, he took a deep breath and clenched his hands into fists. It would have probably calmed him more if there was magic flowing in his hands, and he hoped no one noticed his lack of using magic lately.

"No, I'm not. And I never said I was. But…" He narrowed his eyes and took a single step forward. "Why did you call me him?"

Allaine mirrored his expression and took even more steps, to the point where she was face to face with him. She was smaller, Peter didn't know if that made her more frightening or not.

"Where is he? And why are you here?"

He wanted to butt his forehead on hers, but he wasn't sure if Nuryyn would let him live if he even touched their princess.

"He's dead." His voice slightly cracked at the corner, but he mustered up his strength to continue talking. "He's been dead for a while, now. I'm surprised that you don't know that."

Allaine gritted her teeth. "Stop. Lying."

"Do you really think I'll lie about my comrade dying?"

"Yes, you would."

"And why do you think that is?"

"Because he wasn't supposed to die, you are!"

Peter gritted his teeth even further, and he could feel his nails tearing the gloves in his hands. He didn't care anymore. He didn't care if Allaine was the princess of Nuryyn, he didn't care if he had no magic with him, or if opposing soldiers were ready to shoot an arrow to his back if they needed to. 

He grabbed Allaine's collar and lifted her up, making her squirm in his hold. As expected, the click of crossbows reached his ears, and the sense of magic made his skin slightly tingle.

"Drop the princess or we will shoot!"

Allaine gasped as she turned her head around. "D- Don't shoot!"

"But Your Highness--"

"I said don't shoot!" She turned her head back to him and glared. "I want to- I'm going to talk to him."

"Apologies for the rudeness, Your Highness," he hissed. He wished he had magic right now and make every word literally drip with his anger like poison. "But if you're going to guilt-trip me for the death of my own friend, you're wrong."

Allaine chuckled, her hands reaching for his wrists as she steadied herself. "S- So confident, yet so incorrect. I'm not-- I'm not guilt tripping you… the stars have spoken, and they said you should have died from the ravine instead of Adrien."

The stars… Peter's grip on her almost loosened, but he made sure that she wasn't getting away from his hold.

Petra… she always checked on her star map, wherever they went.

Did she know something about this?

"Surprised?" Allaine scoffed. "As am I. But there's nothing you can do now. I have proof that your friend killed General Alejandro, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"As a matter of fact, there is."

Peter blinked. This time, he placed the Nuryynian princess down and lifted his head. The soldiers in the second floor parted, clearing the way as Petra descended down the steps. They parted so perfectly, almost like she was moving them on her own. Those who had their weapons up placed them down, and the aura of magic slowly faded away.

What made him shiver was his sister's smile. It didn't fit her dull eyes. It didn't make her look creepy or happy or anything.

It made her frightening.

"Apologies for the interruption, Princess Nesha. But…" She placed two fingers up, where a folded paper was between them. "I believe we have proof that your uncle did, in fact, kill himself."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"This right here is the proof that we have that General Alejandro killed himself in the Royisan Royal Gardens and pinned the blame on us." She tossed the paper towards her, and Allaine caught it with ease. "Read it for yourself."

Curious, Peter stepped forward and read the letter from behind Allaine… Nesha's… shoulder. The paper was clean, with no sign of tears in it. The handwriting was unfamiliar, and the page was blotted with splashes of ink.

He didn't get the chance to read it. Princess Nesha crumpled the paper in her hands and balled it in her palms. "What the hell is this?"

"Your beloved uncle's suicide note." She twisted her fingers in the air. "I patched the two pieces together. The other one was from his body we found in the royal gardens."

"But that's impossible! He wasn't supposed to kill himself!"

"Then what was he supposed to do, Princess?" Petra's lips twitched as a small smile formed on her face. "Was he supposed to disrupt the Declaration of Peace? Were soldiers supposed to ambush the castle and kill our crown prince?"

Peter opened his mouth, but bit back his tongue afterwards. He had a lot of things to ask, but perhaps not now. Not when she wasn't finished talking or when he didn't know what was going on.

But he felt like he didn't want to know anymore. He just wanted to go home, get his magic fixed, and be done.

"He said you killed him. Adrien said you killed my uncle!"

"Did he?" Petra lowered down to her height, making their eyes meet. "Or did he say that just so you can have hope?"

Princess Nesha opened her mouth. But whatever she wanted to say, she didn't get a chance to do so. A scream left her lips as she fell to the ground, followed by an even louder scream. Two of the soldiers rushed to her side, comforting her.

Like before, Petra walked away, with the soldiers moving to let her pass. Even Peter stepped out so his sister could walk. She didn't meet his gaze. Instead, she continued walking as if nothing happened.

"P- Petra!"

While the Nuryynian princess cried, Peter followed his sister out of the mansion. She didn't respond to his voice, only stopping just when they were finally by the gate.

"Petra--"

"I've contacted Crown Prince Nikolas." She turned around and placed her hand in front of her. A light purple circle appeared, before she immediately swiped it away. "He'll be sending people to pick us up. It'll be here by night, so--"

"Petra, wait.

She lifted her head and met his eyes. Like always, her light blue eyes lacked in any light or life in them. It was almost like Adrien's, except at least Adrien at least looked alive. His sister looked at him distantly, and it didn't even seem like she was looking at him

He clenched his hands to fists, but he didn't dare reach for his magic. "Did…Did you really kill General Alejandro?"

He wanted her to say no. He wanted to believe that Princess Nesha was lying, and that she only made up what Adrien said.

But when Petra smiled and hummed, his heart dropped.

It made his blood boil. He hung his head, his brows furrowing as his teeth grinded against each other. His eyes were starting to sting, probably from the anger.

If he had magic right now, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her on the spot. For once, Peter hated her. He hated his sister, he hated the person standing in front of him.

"Does it matter? The important part is that Royisa won."

"Of course it matters!" He snapped his head up, glaring at her. "This is a serious war crime, we can't get away with this! We can't--"

"And let Royisa fall?"

Peter's grip slowly loosened. His eyes were starting to sting even more, but he sucked a deep breath and mentally slapped himself. Now wasn't the time to get too angry.

"We're doing this for Royisa, remember that, Peter. It's for our  people, and those who deserve to live free of Nuryyn." She turned around and sighed. "Now come on. We'll camp in the fields and wait for whoever's going to rescue us. We can go home now."

With that, she walked away, without saying another word. It wasn't like he felt like talking to her anymore. If she was going to say something, he would just ignore everything.

He wrapped his arms around himself, following Petra behind.

Home…

At least he still had somewhere to go to.