Underland Guard

The Underland Guard is Underland’s royal protective institution, charged with safeguarding the palace, its gates, and members of the royal household. It is named in the marriage agreement between Hannah Delaney and Alvar as the force responsible for protecting Hannah and Lucy after their relocation to Underland, making the Guard part of the treaty’s promised material and personal security rather than merely a background military body. Its importance lies in the way it converts a diplomatic promise into daily protection: the Earth-human bride is not only brought into Underland but placed under the formal protection of the kingdom that claims her as its future queen.

Structure and Deployment

The Guard is distributed according to practical defensive priorities. Alvar explains that his guards remain in the palace and around the gates, where they have a better use than standing beside him. He therefore travels without personal bodyguards despite being king, presenting the arrangement as deliberate rather than negligent. This deployment places security at the kingdom’s fixed centers of power and access, while Alvar relies on his own ability to move without a constant escort.

That arrangement also reveals a distinction between royal authority and ceremonial protection. The king does not treat the Guard as a permanent personal shield, but the institution remains essential to the palace and its boundaries. The Guard’s placement around the gates suggests responsibility for controlling entry and protecting the political center of Underland, while its palace presence connects it to the ordinary security of the royal household.

Protection of Lucy and the Royal Household

The marriage agreement promises Hannah Delaney and Lucy protection from the Underland Guard once they reside in Underland. This provision is part of a broader settlement that also guarantees their material and personal needs and offers instruction from the Institute of Underland in the customs of its people. The Guard thus belongs to the legal and diplomatic framework surrounding the Earth–Axus peace arrangement: its protection is one of the concrete obligations Underland assumes in exchange for the marriage that is meant to preserve peace between Earth and Axus.

After Lucy arrives, the Guard’s protective role becomes personal and immediate. Grey introduces himself as one of Lucy’s guards and explains that he is responsible for watching over her. While Lucy visits the gallery, Grey remains nearby and tells her to notify him when she is finished so that he can take her back to her room. The scene gives the institution a human representative and shows security functioning as an escort service as well as a defensive presence.

Security, Threat, and the Limits of Violence

The Guard operates within a kingdom surrounded by political and physical dangers. Alvar warns Lucy about a dark creature that shadows travelers from the skies, although he says that she is safe with him and that the creature is no longer apt to hurt anyone. His reassurance does not eliminate the need for caution; it establishes that Underland’s people have legitimate reasons to remain watchful. The Guard’s presence around the palace and gates can therefore be read against a wider atmosphere of guarded movement and uncertain threats.

The institution also exists in a world where punishment can be brutally public. Alvar describes the gobli custom of execution on the Star Wheel, where criminals are torn apart limb by limb before being decapitated. That practice belongs to Goblia rather than to the Underland Guard, but its inclusion clarifies the violent political environment in which the Guard must protect the royal order. The contrast between Grey’s composed escort of Lucy and the Star Wheel’s ritualized dismemberment distinguishes Underland’s protective institution from the more openly barbaric systems operating elsewhere in Axus.

Royal Legitimacy and Political Change

The Guard’s association with Lucy helps establish her as queen within Underland. Grey addresses her as “my queen” and remarks that the people must become accustomed to having a queen again, recalling Triss, who died years earlier with her baby from complications of preeclampsia. Through this exchange, the Guard is shown not only as an armed body but also as an institution that recognizes and normalizes the restored royal household. Grey’s service makes Lucy’s title tangible: she has a designated protector, a place within palace routines, and a visible relationship to the kingdom’s security structure.

The Guard’s institutional role also gains significance from the later dispute over Alvar’s return to rule. Sola argues that Alvar has governed for years without abusing his Cursed state and that Underland would be better served by allowing him to resume his duties. Her defense places the Guard’s promised protection within a larger question of whether Alvar can again be trusted with sovereign power. The force protects the royal order, but the political crisis asks which ruler that order should serve and whether authority can be separated from the dangerous condition associated with Alvar.

Narrative Significance

The Underland Guard embodies the tension between protection and control that surrounds Lucy’s entrance into Underland. The marriage agreement presents the Guard as a guarantee of safety, while the circumstances of Lucy’s arrival are coercive: Alvar must bring her across unexpectedly, and the marriage is urgently demanded to save Emily from execution. The same kingdom that claims to protect Lucy therefore receives her through a system in which diplomatic obligations, royal authority, and limited personal choice are entangled.

At the same time, the Guard provides a counterpoint to the kingdom’s more threatening institutions. Its guards are stationed where they can defend the palace and gates, and Grey watches Lucy without forcing her into the violence associated with Goblia’s old ways. The institution’s recurring function is consequently double: it marks the boundaries of Underland’s power and gives the new queen a practical measure of safety within them. As Lucy chooses to remain in Axus and witness what Alvar has made of the realm through peace and restoration, the Guard stands as one of the structures through which that restored order becomes visible and inhabitable.