Chapter 160

• After my conversation with Icarus, the restlessness within me only grew. The helplessness gnawed at me, a slow, merciless consumption from the inside. He had told me to trust in the King's strength, to believe in the unparalleled skill of the Royal Army’s finest warriors—but I had seen the flicker of fear in his eyes. The same fear that was rooted deep within me.
• I knew Hadrian could take on ten men, perhaps even a hundred. But thousands were coming. And together, their power was not something to be dismissed. In the end, it all came down to strategy, and EH was not losing in that regard.
• Yet, amidst all of this, my thoughts kept circling back to something else. The messages I had received from Hadrian—were they truly from him? I knew it was selfish, maybe even foolish, to dwell on such things at a time like this. But the “what if” dug into me like a thorn that refused to be ignored.