As darkness fell, Yuri returned to the Briol army’s barracks outside the city walls.
Raymond was perched by the campfire, poking at the kindling.
“You’re back early.”
“I’ve seen enough for one day.”
“Enough to warm yourself, I hope.”
“Has the word already spread?”
“Hahaha…”
Yuri sat down opposite him.
Each flicker of the flames cast deeper shadows into the wrinkles on Raymond’s face.
He was older than Yuri, even counting all his past lives combined. That meant experience.
Yuri tossed a dry branch from the ground into the fire.
Raymond spoke up.
“I hear you met Fennec.”
“Fennec?”
“The paladin of the Holy Kingdom.”
“That’s his name? I didn’t know.”
“He’s a skilled knight.”
“Didn’t seem like it to me.”
“Skill and virtue don’t always go hand in hand. He’s arrogant, but talented. The problem is, his talent is limited to swordsmanship.”
“Whether swordsmanship or not, Laurent’s better.”
Raymond laughed aloud.
“Well, Briol’s knights are an exception. That’s just the usual standard.”
There was pride in his voice.
Yuri smiled in return.
“Wouldn’t it be better to sleep in Gid?”
“I’m fine.”
Yuri glanced back. A makeshift tent barracks had been set up.
“This is enough for me.”
“Simple, then.”
“On the battlefield, it’s a blessing.”
When he wandered as a mercenary, sleeping on bare ground was routine. Resting his head on a rock, the sky his ceiling, lulled to sleep by the groans of comrades.
“That’s right. This is a battlefield.”
Raymond ran a hand over the sword lying beside him.
“There will be war soon. Aren’t you afraid, Your Highness?”
“I am.”
Yuri answered honestly.
No one faces a blade stained with murderous intent without fear. That was true in his past life and now.
“But there’s a reason stronger than that fear.”
Raymond’s eyes widened, then he nodded.
“An impressive answer. You always surprise me.”
“Don’t start already. There’ll be plenty more surprises ahead.”
“I look forward to it.”
Raymond smiled, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening.
Yuri sensed he was lowering his guard considerably.
Did he have children?
“The moon is beautiful tonight. You’re not an adult yet, but would you care for a drink?”
“Is there any alcohol?”
“I brought a few bottles, just in case.”
“Prepared, aren’t you?”
“A well-aged wine.”
“My favorite.”
“I’ll get it.”
Just as Raymond stood, the gates of Gid opened, and a rider galloped toward the barracks, kicking up dust.
The rider reined in sharply before them.
“Your Highness, forgive my intrusion.”
He was a messenger sent by the lord.
“It’s all right. What’s the matter?”
“The lord’s dispatch. The Holy Kingdom’s main force was ambushed by orcs.”
Yuri clicked his tongue.
What he feared had come to pass. Once beyond the border, there was no room for complacency.
Raymond, standing nearby, asked.
“But you came instead of the Holy Kingdom’s troops?”
“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”
“Did the lord of Gid send you personally?”
“Yes.”
The situation made sense.
Raymond gave a wry smile.
“Prideful, aren’t they?”
“Seems so.”
The Holy Kingdom wanted to handle it themselves, but the lord, worried, sent a messenger.
It wasn’t really his place to intervene. The Holy Kingdom might even protest later.
Still, he informed Briol.
Yuri liked the lord of Gid.
“Tell him I’m grateful.”
“Yes!”
“Raymond.”
“Yes?”
“Before we drink, shall we take a walk?”
Raymond grinned like a young boy.
“Gladly.”
“They might treat you like an unwelcome guest.”
“I’m used to that. I was an unwelcome guest even in my own lands.”
“When this alliance is over, quit.”
“Hahaha…”
Yuri turned to the messenger.
“What’s your name?”
“Roy.”
“Roy, I have a favor.”
“Yes!”
“Go back to Gid and find the Briol knights. They’re probably at the tavern. Tell them what I said: first come, first served. Anyone who hears this, get moving immediately.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t bother with formalities. Go now.”
“Yes!”
Roy spurred his horse and kicked up dust as he rode off toward Gid.
As soon as news of the ambush reached them, Sibylla donned her armor.
Fennec and the paladin order, who had been drinking, hurried back.
Fennec pressed the messenger.
“What’s the situation?”
“I don’t know. When I escaped, the battle was still ongoing.”
The messenger’s clothes were stained with blood.
He said he barely shook off the orc pursuit.
“How many?”
“Not many, but each one’s a monster…”
“Of course.”
Ordinary soldiers learned mana methods, but their skill was weak. Orcs, on the other hand, were born with monstrous strength.
Without reaching the level of a knight, no one could face an orc one-on-one.
Sibylla said, “Let’s leave before the damage grows.”
“Understood.”
Fennec nodded.
They couldn’t afford to retreat before joining the alliance. The honor of the Holy Kingdom was at stake.
They quickly finished preparations and mounted their horses.
The lord arrived, breathless.
“Princess, are you leaving immediately?”
“Yes.”
“Shouldn’t you ask Briol’s army for support…?”
Fennec snapped back.
“What are you saying? The Holy Kingdom handles its own affairs. Do you think we’ll lose to orcs?”
“It’s not that. I just want to minimize casualties.”
“It’s better to go alone than to bumble together. If we’re not on the same level, we’ll only get in each other’s way.”
“Huh…”
Because of earlier events, Fennec held a poor opinion of Briol.
He was confident in his own skills. He believed they could handle this on their own.
Sibylla agreed.
“Lord, don’t worry. It’ll be over without incident.”
“I hope so, but still…”
Worry lingered on the lord’s face.
Sibylla deliberately looked away. She didn’t want to beg a foreign power before even joining the alliance.
She steeled herself and mounted her horse.
“We are paladins of the Holy Kingdom.”
She gripped the holy symbol around her neck and invoked the sacred law.
“Lord, your servant runs. Please push me forward.”
A white radiance burst from Sibylla’s body.
The light enveloped her and her horse, spreading outward. The horses’ speed and stamina increased.
She grasped the reins tightly and shouted sharply.
“Move out!”
Leading the charge, the Holy Kingdom’s paladin order thundered toward the city gates.
The townsfolk scattered in surprise, but they paid no mind and pressed forward.
They left Gid behind.
Suddenly, the Briol barracks outside the walls came into view.
Yuri Briol’s face flashed through Sibylla’s mind—the one who had worried about an ambush.
His judgment had been right.
Sibylla muttered, “Maybe we shouldn’t have come first.”
Originally, the entire force was to arrive together by tomorrow morning.
But Fennec insisted on meeting the lord first, and there was no reason to refuse.
She hadn’t expected trouble overnight.
She regretted the rash decision.
But there was no time to dwell on the past. It was time to focus on what lay ahead.
Sibylla assessed the coming battle.
“Fennec.”
“Yes?”
“The messenger said one leader commands all the orcs. When we enter the battlefield, we strike him down.”
“Understood.”
Fennec nodded.
“Strike simultaneously?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t like following Fennec’s lead, but she wasn’t foolish enough to cause unnecessary conflict now.
Fennec shouted to the knights behind him.
“Charge immediately upon contact. Don’t hesitate. You break the wall, and the princess and I will follow to strike the enemy leader.”
“Yes!”
They shifted formation as they rode.
The paladin order took the lead, ready to break through, with Sibylla and Fennec bringing up the rear.
The Holy Kingdom’s main force was not far ahead.
“There.”
The lead knight spoke.
“I see it.”
Far off on the horizon, the Holy Kingdom’s banners fluttered.
Sibylla felt relief.
The banners still stood. They hadn’t been wiped out yet.
“The orcs?”
The lead knight scanned ahead with a telescope.
“They’re still fighting!”
“How many troops?”
“They’ve formed ranks to resist.”
The battlefront began to take shape.
Fierce fighting raged.
Each time an orc swung a massive weapon, soldiers were pushed back.
A handful of remaining knights fought desperately, but orcs paired up to block their movements.
Bodies of humans and orcs littered the ground.
Sibylla gritted her teeth.
She had never fought orcs before, never even seen them in person. But there was no time to hesitate.
She tensed her entire body.
White mana surged from her.
Soon, she and her horse became one, wrapped in light.
The Holy Kingdom’s signature mounted charge.
Man and horse thundered forward.
“Speed up!”
The arrival of the paladin order sparked new life in the Holy Kingdom troops.
“Reinforcements!”
“The knights have returned!”
But it was only momentary.
As Sibylla charged toward the orcs, she felt her body tilt.
“Huh…?”
She no longer felt the ground’s rebound.
She realized something was wrong—but it was already too late.
The knights ahead were falling one by one.
It was a trap.
They plunged straight into a pit.
Horses and riders, armor clashing against armor, tangled together in chaos.
Sybilla’s head slammed against another knight’s armor.
For a moment, her mind went blank. Her vision blurred, a ringing filled her ears.
She couldn’t steady herself.
“No… no.”
She fought to clear the fog in her mind.
“Everyone, stay alert!”
Even her own voice sounded distant.
Leaning on her sword, she forced herself upright.
“It’s a trap!”
The orcs had dug a wide pit.
But until they fell in, it hadn’t looked like a trap at all. It was a cunning trick, no doubt about it.
“An orc shaman…”
She muttered the name under her breath.
She’d heard that orcs had their own kind of magic users—shamans who could enrage their kin or confuse the enemy’s eyes.
They’d been caught far too easily.
Sybilla kicked a struggling knight at her feet.
“Get up, now!”
Following her lead, Fennec rose to his feet and urged the others on.
The knights began to regain their senses, though most of the horses had broken legs.
“We need to get out of here—immediately!”
The pit was deeper than expected, but not so deep that they couldn’t escape.
Then, suddenly, Sybilla caught a strange scent.
The ground was damp and slick.
“Oil.”
She lifted her head.
An orc stood at the edge of the pit, torch in hand.
A cruel sneer twisted his ugly face.
Something was terribly wrong.
Watching the torch being hurled down, Sybilla felt her heart drop.
A flood of thoughts raced through her mind.
Should she strike it down?
But the sparks would fly.
Should she try to snatch it away?
There was no room to move.
She never imagined the orcs would lay such a meticulous trap and lure them in like this.
One moment of carelessness.
The price: death.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind.
The day she first manifested her sacred power, when everyone praised her. The moment she bested her brother in swordplay, and their admiration turned to hostility.
Since her mother’s death, she had always been alone in the royal palace.
The so-called divine emissaries she encountered in the Holy Kingdom bore no resemblance to the god they claimed to serve.
If that was the case, did heaven even exist?
When that torch fell, would her soul be burned to ashes along with her body?
I want to live.
That was all she could think.
An eternity seemed to pass in a single heartbeat.
“Sybilla.”
A voice called out.
“Open your eyes.”
She lifted her eyelids.
“Ah…”
It was like magic.
When she opened her eyes, everything had changed.
Instead of a falling torch, the severed body of an orc collapsed into the pit below.
Instead of the sneering orc, a boy holding a torch looked down into the pit.
The orc’s body hit the ground with a thud. Blood poured from the severed neck, spreading over the oil slick.
No one dared to speak.
The third prince of Briol.
Yuri Briol looked down at them, smiling.
“Your expressions are priceless.”