Huian frowned deeply. “What about my betrothed?”

“Well, you know that he’s a Dragon General, yes?”

She rolled her eyes. “How can I not know? Everyone knows it.” It was that singular fact that made her father go above and beyond for Yao Chenglei, her betrothed. He kept telling everyone about how amazing his daughter’s betrothed was and how he was impacting the war so much. He beamed with pride every time her betrothed was mentioned.

For years, a war Had been brewing between the Kingdom of Ki and the Huo Empire. It was a constant tug of war of power and land, neither side ever advancing to capture the other. This particular war had been raging on for twenty or so years, but war had been occurring between the states for a little over a century now. Ki had been a part of Huo, but the states had broken apart, fought, unified once more, broke apart, fought, etc., until finally uniting to form the Kingdom of Ki. Essentially, there had always been war. On the Huo Empire side, however, six notable figures rose from above the rest of the generals and dominated the battlefield. They were awarded with the Dragon General title.

Huian’s betrothed, Yao Chenglei, was the red Dragon General—Zhulong.

“Well, um,” Chun squeaked out. “Er, I don’t know if you know this . . .”

Huian narrowed her eyes at the girl. “Know what?”

“Uh, well, he’s officially receiving his title from the emperor this week. Obviously, he’s been Zhulong for a while now, but he hasn’t officially receive his title yet. Er, so, he’s going to the palace and he’ll be taking the title . . .” she trailed off.

Huian hardly saw why it mattered. Zhulong or not, it couldn’t have been that hard to acquire such a title. Sure, he was one of the top generals of his generation and was impacting the war in their favor, but she was sure she could do better if she had taken the battlefield as well. How hard could it be? Hell, she’d bet she could become the commander-in-chief of the whole army if she put her mind to it. His accomplishments weren’t that big of a deal to her.

“What about it?” she said when the frail girl didn’t utter another word. “It’s expected that he holds some sort of prestige. After all, he’s marrying me. As much as I dislike him, I don’t want him to do poorly and tarnish my name in the process.”

Chun shifted in her feet nervously. She licked her bottom lip. “Er, did you forget why he wasn’t able to acquire his title earlier?”

“Because he was in the middle of his war campaign.” She raised a brow and folded her arms over her chest. She honestly didn’t understand where she was going along with this. “And? What’s the big deal about that? If he’s getting his title, that means . . .” She closed her eyes as the realization dawned on her. “That means his campaign is over.”

Once his campaign was over, they were supposed to marry. How could she have forgotten such a key detail? Obviously because he had been away for so long! She wanted to punch the wall and tear everything to pieces. Marriage, what a joke. To him, no less. So that was what her father wanted to talk to her about. He was probably giddily preparing for the wedding. She could imagine his joy at the prospect of his daughter finally marrying the heir to the prestigious Yao family.

She bunched her fingers together into a fist and cursed under her breath. “I should probably go see my father,” she ground out, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. In fact, she just wanted to run out into the forest and take down as many beasts as possible. She wanted to relieve some stress and feel the weight of her sword in her hands. “He’ll probably tell me that I should prepare to be wed.”

“I-It was expected, wasn’t it? I mean, it’s not like you didn’t see this coming—” Chun shut her mouth when Huian shot her a look.

She breathed out deeply to calm her nerves. The stirring in her chest continued once more, indicating that he had awoken. “Truthfully, I was hoping he would die on the battlefield so I didn’t have to marry him.”

Chun’s eyes widened. She had probably never fathomed such a dark thought before, so it must’ve been a great shock to her. Huian was slightly amused at her reaction but chose to ignore it as she swept down the hallway once more, her mind accelerating with plans. What could she do? There was literally no escape. No matter how strong of a woman she was, no matter how many men she bested, no matter how amazing she was, she couldn’t escape marriage. It was the one thing that bound her. Although she wasn’t keen on the idea of marriage, she was especially not happy at the thought of marrying Yao Chenglei.