"My lord...?" Zoe looked at Floch's military uniform, then glanced at the guards' respectful manner by the door, her gaze shifting slightly.
Floch also noticed the unexpected visitor in the room.
"Mm." Chen Si lowered his eyes slightly. He was about to end the war with his own hands, but he would inevitably carve up Zoe's homeland as well.
"Zoe, perhaps we were simply born in the wrong era," Chen Si murmured as he walked straight out of the room, brushing past her.
Zoe froze briefly and turned back in bewilderment to look at Chen Si outside. What followed made her pupils tremble.
A military car pulled up outside, and twenty guards escorting Chen Si came to a halt on either side.
Floch removed the jacket Chen Si had been wearing and helped him into the Imperial Marshal's specially tailored uniform. The conspicuous Wings of Freedom insignia stabbed into Zoe's eyes, sending waves of pain through her.
"All personnel, dedicate your hearts to the Marshal!" Floch shouted.
"Dedicate your hearts!!!" Along with the guards on either side, the troops in the distance shouted in unison toward Chen Si.
Those shouts all but shattered every fantasy Zoe had cherished about Chen Si and every idealized image she had held of him.
Floch opened the car door. Chen Si hesitated for a moment and looked back at Zoe, his eyes filled with conflicting emotions and guilt. "Zoe, I'm sorry."
"It's all right. All this time, I never imagined someone as young as you could be the leader of a nation." Zoe smiled gently, like a green lotus, seemingly still as soft and delicate as autumn waters.
At the sight of Zoe's calm, graceful smile, Chen Si's hands trembled a few times. Unable to meet her eyes again, he climbed into the car.