Chapter 251: Outside

A few hours later. The afternoon sun cast long shadows through the towering gates of Rujgard.

Eren stood beside the carriage they had secured before leaving the city.

He was now wearing a clean, high-collared dark dress, fresh white linen bandages taped over his cracked brow and cheekbone. His limbs still ached with the fatigue, but his posture was easy, shoulders loose as he watched the frantic logistics unfold.

Since the girls had ridden straight through the mountain passes on horseback to reach him in record time, the cavalry mounts were now being hitched to the carriage team. Emma was expertly tying off leather reins, her pink ponytail snapping in the mountain wind as she grumbled under her breath, while Aria, having completely discarded her noble vanity, was carefully holding the harness straps to help her.

Over on the carte beside, Norelia was leaning over Alice, her petite hands glowing with a soft, warm green hue as she steadily healing Saintess’s battered ribs.

"Good to see you in one piece, Young lord."

A deep voice called him. Eren tilted his head up to greet the towering, bald monolith of a man standing at his flank. Cinon, Princess Seraphina’s personal shield-bearer, was practically a walking fortress of muscle, a faint silver earring glinting on his earlobe just like the ones worn by the rest of the unit.

Eren offered a warm, tired grin and extended his right hand. "Good to see you too, big guy. Thanks for riding out to the middle of nowhere for my sorry ass."

Cinon gripped Eren’s hand, his rough, calloused palm engulfing Eren’s fingers in a firm, respectful shake. "It’s nothing, Young lord. A modest ride compared to what you’ve done for Her Highness."

Before Eren could brush off the praise with a joke, the heavy iron hinges of the border wall groaned.

A dozen municipal enforcers strode past the portcullis, led by a sharp-eyed representative draped in gray silk and boiled leather—the city’s temporary administrative voice while the underworld tore itself apart over the vacant thrones.

The representative stopped five paces away, his gaze flicking nervously toward Emma’s greatsword before settling on Eren.

"Everything is prepared on your end, outsider?" the man asked, his tone clipped and guarded.

"Almost," Eren replied smoothly, rocking back on his heels with his hands buried in his pockets. "What about the small favor I requested mod?"

The representative’s brow furrowed, a trace of bitter reluctance flashing in his eyes. "Handled. Exactly as we agreed in the square. Every last slave held in the municipal auction vaults from the past fortnight has been granted unconditional emancipation. We even handed each of them a purse of sovereigns from the dead lords’ reserves."

Eren turned his head toward the inner archway.

From the dark shadow beneath the iron gates, a ragged, emaciated crowd slowly emerged into the open air. There were dozens of them—haggard men, trembling women, their skin stretched thin over hollow cheekbones, dressed in frayed burlap sacks.

Yet as the warm, open mountain breeze hit their faces, the terror in their steps vanished, replaced by breathless, frantic joy. They clutched small leather pouches to their chests, hurrying toward the southern roads like people waking from a prolonged nightmare.

A young boy bounded ahead of the group, kicking up small clouds of dust with his bare feet.

"Mom! Look! Look at my hands!" the boy cried out, giggling as he held up two tiny, raw-boned wrists. He hopped on one leg, rotating his arms and flexing his small fingers wide toward the sky. "They’re not heavy anymore! The cold iron is gone!"

Behind him, a hollow-cheeked woman hurried forward, dropping to her knees in the dust to sweep the boy into a tight, trembling embrace. Tears carved clean, bright tracks through the grime on her cheeks as she buried her face in his hair, smiling. "I see it, sweetie... I see it. You’re free. We’re going home."

Eren stood quietly, watching them go.

’Yeah,’ he thought, his lips curling into a gentle, genuine smile. ’Getting beat to hell and back by sovereign psychopaths... totally worth it for a view like that.’

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the little device, holding it out toward the representative.

The man snatched it with hurried desperation, quickly inspecting the casing.

Tucking the harmless trigger into his tunic, the representative narrowed his eyes, offering a sneer. "The deal is honored. Now take your people and your fat noble and clear our borders. And if you have any survival instinct left in that mad skull of yours... don’t you ever dare set foot in Rujgard again."

"Thanks for the glowing travel advice, pal," Eren replied, turning his back on the city. "Give my regards to the next batch of idiots who try to run this dump."

**

The colossal iron gates slammed shut with a THUD as Rujgard locked its rotting teeth from the inside.

There was no one left on the road except their little traveling circus.

Emma dusted her tanned palms against her breeches, planting her knuckles on her hips.

"Horses are secured. Carriage is prepped," she announced, though her storm-grey eyes immediately snapped to Eren, narrowing into a lethal, promising slit. Her voice dropped into a sweet, terrifying purr. "Shall we hop in?"

"Hold it."

Princess Seraphina’s crisp command cut through the banter. She stepped past the carriage hitch, her sharp gaze flicked up toward the petite professor.

"Miss Norelia," Seraphina said, her aristocratic cadence impeccably polite yet laced with absolute authority. "Could you make a high-density sensory isolation barrier around our perimeter? Complete acoustic dampening and visual distortion. Ensure no one can know what happens in this circle."

Norelia blinked her red eyes, tilting her head like a confused brown-haired squirrel. "A... full sensory blackout dome? Out here in the dirt?"

She hesitated, catching the dead-serious chill in the princess’s face. "Right away!"

Raising her ornate wooden staff, Norelia casted a dome of dense mana swallowing the carriage, the horses, and the party whole, sealing them inside a soundless, private pocket dimension.

"Thank you," Seraphina murmured softly.

Her blood-red eyes locked onto the cloaked figure standing beside Alice. She began striding directly toward him.

Theo flinched, taking an instinctive, frantic step backward. He threw both hands up in placating surrender, his voice pitching high behind the leather disguise. "H-Hey! Wait—what are you doing? Miss—"

"Shut the hell up, you utter, brainless little brother," Seraphina hissed.

Before Theo could even think of what’s happening, Seraphina lunged forward. Her hand shot out and ruthlessly ripped off the mask from his face.

Cinon’s jaw literally unhinged. Emma gasped, while Aria pressed a silk-clad palm to her parted lips, her golden eyes practically vibrating with shock.

Only Eren and Alice stood there completely unfazed, Eren casually cleaning his ear with a pinky while Alice let out a long, long-suffering sigh.

Revealed under the mask was a ridiculously handsome, chiseled face framed by messy, gleaming silver locks. Bright, puppy-dog blue eyes blinked in mortified expression.

"I should have guessed it," Seraphina muttered. "Only a complete and total idiot sharing half my blood could ever dream up a disguise this pathetic."