Chapter 14: Counter attack
The morning mist curled low across the Balmoral woods, clinging to the heather and stone like restless spirits. Tsunade sat wrapped in a thick cloak near the firepit, her amber eyes sharp despite her bandaged arm. Edward stood a few paces away, speaking quietly with Angus, the gruff groundskeeper who had found the mysterious tracks the night before.
Angus handed him a small object—mud-caked but unmistakable. A tranquilizer dart, long and wickedly barbed.
Edward's stomach twisted. This wasn't random. This wasn't a rogue bear. Someone had stirred up the wild.
Someone had set it loose.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of the dart. "Prince," she called, her voice low but commanding. "What is it?"
Edward crossed to her, crouching beside the fire. He placed the dart on a flat stone, his jaw tight. "This isn't hunting equipment. It's military grade." His fingers brushed his temple in frustration. "This was planted."
Tsunade's mind raced. In her world, ambushes were an art form. Here, it was cruder—but no less deadly. "You're saying the bear attack… wasn't natural?"
Edward nodded grimly. "It wasn't hunting instinct. It was provoked. Drugged. Directed."
The pieces clicked into place. The heavy woods, the strange sluggishness in her chakra, the bear's unnatural aggression. Someone had tried to kill her.
And only one name hovered in both their minds:
Viktor Malin.
Edward rose, fire in his chest. For weeks, he had played a diplomatic game, pretending to tolerate Viktor's subtle threats, his veiled sabotage. No more. This was an attack on Tsunade—an attack on the woman he loved, even if he hadn't yet dared to say it aloud.
He turned to Angus. "Secure the grounds. Double the watch. Discreetly. No alarms." His voice brooked no argument.
Angus, sensing the shift in Edward's mood, nodded stiffly and disappeared into the mist.
Tsunade studied Edward carefully. He was shedding the soft skin of a prince and stepping into something harder, more dangerous. It stirred something deep inside her—a recognition.
"You're ready to fight back," she said, her voice a mixture of approval and warning.
Edward looked at her, his blue-gray eyes hard. "I should have fought back sooner."
He knelt beside her again, taking her uninjured hand in his. His thumb brushed the back of her fingers gently, grounding them both. "I won't let him hurt you again, Tsu. I swear it."
Tsunade squeezed his hand, her voice soft but steady. "Then we start by finding proof. No more shadows."
They moved quickly. In the Balmoral study, Edward retrieved a hidden laptop—one not connected to any royal network. He pulled up encrypted files, emails, surveillance records.
Hours blurred by as they combed through data. Tsunade, though still physically weak, was relentless, her sharp mind cutting through false leads.
And there it was.
A transfer order.
A private security team contracted two weeks ago by Viktor Malin's shell company. Their mission: relocate a trained bear from a controlled wildlife reserve to the Balmoral outskirts.
Under "plausible deniability" orders.
Tsunade leaned back, her heart pounding. "He engineered it. He made it look like an accident."
Edward's hands clenched into fists. "And if you'd died, it would have been blamed on 'unfortunate wildlife.'" His voice was a growl now.
Tsunade's gaze sharpened. "He underestimated me. He underestimated you."
Edward met her eyes, a fierce light burning in him. "He won't make that mistake again."
They downloaded the files, encrypting them into a portable drive. Edward didn't trust cloud storage, not anymore. He tucked the drive into a locket he wore under his shirt, close to his heart.
Tsunade watched him, a rare smile curving her lips. He was learning. Fast.
Night had fallen by the time they emerged from the study, their plan forming in hushed, urgent whispers. Tsunade would recover in secret. Edward would prepare a legal strike—evidence handed directly to allies in Parliament and MI5, bypassing the royal courts Viktor manipulated so easily.
They would expose him.
Strip him of his protections.
And send him to rot in a cell.
As they crossed the quiet corridors of Balmoral, Tsunade faltered slightly, her injury sending a sharp jolt through her arm. Edward caught her instantly, steadying her against his chest.
She looked up at him, surprised by the sudden intimacy. His arms were strong, sure.
"I've got you," he said simply.
Tsunade leaned into him for a moment longer than necessary, then pulled away with a dry chuckle. "I'm supposed to be the bodyguard, prince."
Edward's smile was small but fierce. "Not tonight."
They reached the safety of Tsunade's room, where she settled carefully into a chair by the fire. Edward lingered in the doorway, torn between duty and the magnetic pull toward her.
She met his gaze, her amber eyes softer now. "Stay," she said simply.
He crossed the room without hesitation, pulling a chair close to hers. The fire crackled between them, but it was the unspoken promise in the air that truly warmed the space.
Tsunade tilted her head back against the chair, her bandaged arm resting lightly in her lap. "Tomorrow, we start the war," she said, her voice low, almost tender.
Edward reached over and laced his fingers with hers again. "Tomorrow," he agreed, his voice a vow.
Outside, the mist thickened, and somewhere in the woods, unseen eyes watched the castle.
Viktor Malin's reach was not yet broken.
But this time, Edward and Tsunade were ready.
And this time, they would strike first.
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