Chapter 177: A Name Erased

For one careful hour, the danger appears to have forgotten them.

the chancellor who plans to trade the kingdom for a crown strikes at the people, place, or promise that has become most precious.

The trap is clever because it offers exactly what the hero wants. Recognizing that desire becomes the only escape.

Prince Lucan Grey keeps the larger goal in view: turn farmers, smugglers, and defeated soldiers into a defense no empire expects. The immediate problem is smaller, sharper, and impossible to postpone.

The moment almost becomes a kiss. Instead, it becomes a promise to tell the truth next time.

Prince Lucan Grey and Captain Mira Holt separate over what sacrifice love is allowed to demand.

The recurring signs of battle maps, iron, ravens return with a different meaning, linking this choice to what came before.

The apparent defeat conceals one surviving clue inside battle maps, iron, ravens.