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A Rejected Luna – Her Rise to Power
Chapter 29 – Pedestal
14 min left
KAEL’S PERSPECTIVE
From the city wall, I could see the entire sparring ring.
Jareth stood across from her, blade already drawn. Marcia stepped in like she wasn’t facing a veteran commander, but a fresh, inexperienced recruit. It seemed like she didn’t care that half the camp was watching, waiting to see her fall.
Eunice leaned against the stone ledge beside me, arms crossed, eyes cold. She hadn’t said a word since the horn sounded. But now, her lips curled faintly.
“Watch this,” she murmured. “It’ll be over in two moves. Maybe three, if he’s feeling generous.”
I didn’t answer.
Below, the fight began.
Metal clashed once—clean, sharp. She moved fast. Quicker than I expected. She aimed for his side, cut fabric. He recovered,
pressed forward. She didn’t flinch.
Then, somehow, she got the upper hand. A hook of the foot, a twist, a blade to the throat.
10:35
Chapter 29 – Pedestal
It ended in under a minute.
Jareth yielded.
Silence.
(2) 14 min leff
The crowd didn’t cheer. Just shifted, murmured, whispered.
“Didn’t even draw blood,” Eunice scoffed. “He let her win.”
I didn’t respond. Not yet.
She glanced at me. “Come on, you saw that. He didn’t even try. She tapped him with a blade and now she’s a war hero?”
“She’s not the one who issued the challenge,” I muttered.
“But she knew she couldn’t beat him in a real fight,” she snapped. “So Dravic must have stepped in like her little bodyguard. Probably warned Jareth what would happen if he humiliated her. Think about it. After everything—her being named general, the punishment to my cousin—this just happens to fall into place?”
I watched Marcia clean her blade. She looked… steady. Not smug. Not shaken. Just focused.
But Eunice’s words made too much sense. Marcia was still new. Could she really have defeated a skilled veteran so easily?
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Chapter 29 – Pedestal
14 min left
“She barely broke a sweat,” Eunice said. “That was a show. For the camp. For us.”
I said nothing. But something in me shifted.
I remembered the last border battle. Rum wolves ambushed our eastern flank—Eunice and I were holding the line. We bled. We fought for hours. She dislocated her shoulder. I nearly lost a leg. And where was Marcia?
Nowhere near it.
She was at home, playing my wife, waiting for me to return from
war.
And yet here she was. Wearing a general’s crest. Leading the King’s own guard.
Eunice leaned closer. “You know she doesn’t deserve it.”
“Maybe,” I said softly, still watching her.
“Not maybe. She rose because of her name. Her family. And now Dravic’s favor. You and I? We earned everything with blood. She walks into command like it’s owed to her.”
She was right.
I clenched my jaw.
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Chapter 29 – Pedestal
14 min left
There had been a time I pitied Marcia. Felt guilt for leaving her, for what my choices had done to her family name. But watching her now, standing in the centre of attention, sword in hand, praised and doubted all at once… that pity was gone.
All I felt was distance. And something colder than resentment.
Contempt.
“Don’t,” I said suddenly, noticing the way Eunice’s stance shifted.
“What?” she asked, feigning innocence.
“You’re about to go down there. Start a scene. I can see it in your
face.”
“She humiliated our entire guard. Disgraced my cousin.”
“Your cousin humiliated himself,” I snapped. “He started the rumours. She didn’t lash him–Dravic did.”
Eunice laughed bitterly. “And Dravic is her little puppy. He does as she tells him.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t go around commanding the prince.”
Eunice narrowed her eyes at me. “And you’re defending her now?”
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Chapter 29 – Pedestal
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“I’m saying, don’t make this worse.” I turned from the wall. “She won the duel, real or fake. Let it be.”
“She didn’t win anything,” Eunice muttered.
But I was already walking away.
Let her sulk. Let her plan.
I didn’t care anymore.
Marcia could have the title. The soldiers. Even the Prime King’s
favor.
But I knew the truth.
She hadn’t clawed her way here like the rest of us. She hadn’t fought. She hadn’t bled. She hadn’t lost anything.
Marcia had been placed where she was. Protected. Propped up like a little child to grab something she couldn’t reach.
And one day soon, that pedestal would crack, and I’d be there to watch.
B
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