The voice from the hallway was a death sentence, cold and final. Panic, a useless, frantic energy, began to fill the room. Allison and Sandra were terrified, their faces ashen. Hye-jin, who had just found a moment of safety, was already mumbling, lost in a new storm of fear, her eyes wide with the horror of a cornered animal.
But Nari was a statue of ice, her pistol now held in a perfect, steady grip, aimed squarely at the door. And Bella… Bella looked at me; she was confused. She doesn't know how to handle this situation, she has the same fear when I first came to Triveria, even worse.
This was it—the test of mine and my people.
My mind, which had been a chaotic mess just seconds before, became a realm of cold, absolute clarity. The noise of my own racing heart faded away, replaced by the silent, whirring gears of strategy. System, activate [Chanakya], [Napoleon], [King's Aura], [President]. The room resolved into a chessboard, and I could see the moves, the sacrifices, the one clear path to victory.
I moved quickly, my voice leaving no room for argument. "Allison, Sandra," I commanded, my tone firm but not harsh. "You both take the twins into the master bedroom. Lock the door. Barricade it with the heaviest furniture you can find. Don't make a sound, no matter what you hear."
Sandra, her face pale but her expression defiant, started to protest. "But—"
"No buts," I interrupted, my gaze locking onto hers, the full weight of my authority pressing down. "You are our most precious assets. We can't protect you while fighting them. Your job is to protect them. Go. Now." She saw the logic, the absolute finality in my eyes, and nodded, herding the still-trembling Hye-jin and the unconscious Hye-rin toward the back of the suite.
I turned to Nari, who was already repositioning herself, a predator seeking the perfect angle. "You and me. We handle the guards. You have your gun. You shoot, I handle them by hand."
She gave me a single, sharp nod, a look of complete, professional trust in her eyes. "That's a good idea."
That left Bella. She was looking at me, her own face a mask of fear and determination. "What should I do?"
I looked at her, and in that moment, I saw the perfect move on the board. The one they would never see coming. "You," I said, my voice low and intense, "are going to be our most important weapon."
Her skin went pale. "Me? I don't fight," she said, her fear genuine and raw. "I'll get killed."
I stepped closer, grabbing her gently by the shoulders. I looked deep into her eyes, letting the full force of my own unshakeable will flow into her. "I'm not asking you to fight, Bella. I'm asking you to rule. Remember Triveria? The Mayor. They expect a terrified victim cowering behind a door. I want you to give them a leader who is annoyed that her evening has been interrupted. Act arrogant. Negotiate. Distract them. Buy us the opening we need."
Bella's internal thought, "He's insane. He wants me to stand in front of armed killers and... act? But the look in his eyes... he doesn't just believe I can do this. He knows it. He's not using me as bait. He's deploying a leader. A leader..."
Nari, ever the pragmatist, added her own cold logic. "He's right, Bella. Calm down. Your voice is the weapon. We will handle them. There is no other option."
Bella looked from Nari's cold confidence to my absolute belief in her. She took one deep, shuddering breath, then another. And then, something in her shifted. The fear was still there, but it was now caged behind a wall of pure, stubborn pride. "Okay," she said, her voice still a little shaky. "Okay." She straightened her back, and the Matriarch of Triveria walked toward the door.
I melted back into the shadows behind the bar, a silent predator waiting for the trap to spring. Nari vanished into the dark archway of the study, a ghost with a silenced pistol. We were ready.
Bella took one last deep breath, and then, with a confidence she absolutely did not feel, she called out, her voice laced with a perfect, imperious annoyance. "Who the hell is knocking on my door? We didn't order any room service. I am with my boyfriend. Get out."
There was a moment of silence from the hallway, then a chuckle, cold and synthetic. "Ma'am, it's an emergency drill. There is a criminal in the building, and we are here to check."
"I am on vacation with my boyfriend," Bella shot back, her performance flawless. "I am not opening this door. Now, you fuck off."
The voice from the other side lost its polite edge. "Ma'am, we will ask one last time. Open the door, or we will break it down."
"I'm not," she said, her voice a final, defiant statement.
The response was immediate. A loud, heavy THUD slammed against the door, making the entire frame shudder. "Bella, move away!" I roared.
She scrambled back just as the door exploded inward, splintering from its hinges. Four men, clad in sleek, black tactical gear, stormed into the room, moving with a fluid, terrifying precision. They were not thugs. They were soldiers.
But they were walking into a perfectly executed ambush.
The moment the last man cleared the doorway, I moved. I was a blur of motion, a phantom exploding from the side. I launched myself at the last two men in their stack. I wrapped my legs around the neck of one, my thighs clamping down in a brutal chokehold. At the same time, my hands found the head of the man beside him. I twisted, a sharp, violent motion fueled by all my strength. There was a sickening, wet CRACK, and his body went limp, collapsing to the floor.
Simultaneously, a soft phht echoed from the study. The point man, who had been raising his rifle to sweep the room, just crumpled, a neat, dark hole appearing in the center of his forehead. Nari didn't miss.
The man caught in my leg lock was still struggling, his hands scrabbling at my legs. He managed to pull a knife, the blade a flicker of silver in the dim light. He was about to drive it into my side.
But he never got the chance.
There was a loud, satisfying CRASH as a heavy crystal vase shattered against the side of his head. He grunted, his body going slack for a split second, his grip on the knife loosening. It was Bella. She stood there, her chest heaving, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and savage triumph.
That single second was all Nari needed. Another soft shot, and the man in my grip went completely still, a second bullet finding its mark.
In less than three minutes, four professional soldiers were dead on the floor of our suite.
The adrenaline was a roaring fire in my veins. Bella, her own face pale but her eyes blazing, rushed to the shattered door and slammed it shut, jamming the deadbolt. Nari emerged from the study, a ghost in the dim light, her pistol held low as she calmly checked each of the bodies, ensuring they were no longer a threat.
The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the sound of our own ragged breathing.
"That," I said, a slow grin spreading across my face as I looked at the two of them, "was something amazing. Nari, Bella. Both of you were wonderful."
Nari just gave me a curt nod, though I could see a flicker of pride in her eyes. "You trapped two men. That was efficient."
"And Bella," I said, turning to her. "You were good at distracting them. More than good. You were a queen."
She looked from the dead men on the floor to the vase shattered at her feet, a slow, dawning realization spreading across her face. She hadn't just been a distraction. She had fought. And she had won.
We stood there for a moment, the three of us, the adrenaline beginning to fade, leaving a strange, exhilarating calm in its wake. We had been cornered, outgunned, and we had not just survived. We had dominated.