Chapter 4
There was a deputy commander in the Ebnia Knights, but among the knights, there was only one person they truly called by that title—with a shudder.
“Ludice…?”
Gudel Austin fell into brief thought.
There was no reason for her to come back after resigning and vanishing without a word for a year.
Then, a possibility brushed through his mind.
Could it be…?
If it was about that, she would have a reason to come.
He lifted his head toward his adjutant.
“Where is she waiting?”
“She’s in the parlor.”
He rose from his seat.
Was this the first time since he got married?
Gudel wondered what brought Ludice here.
When Gudel Austin stepped inside,
the first thing he saw was Ludice bathed in sunlight.
Her red hair swallowed the rays, blazing like fire.
She was leaning against the chair, lost in thought, and he couldn’t look away.
She hadn’t changed a bit since the day she left the Imperial Palace a year ago. Even for someone like him, who never spared a thought for feminine beauty, she was beautiful.
After standing still for a moment, Gudel finally moved.
“Duchess of Dfania.”
At the sound of her name, Ludice turned her head.
“Commander.”
She rose to greet him. Just as she had back when she was part of the knights, she still called him Commander.
“It’s been a while.”
“Indeed. Some of the men will be glad to know you’ve come.”
“I suppose no one has been around to beat them properly since I left.”
At that, Gudel let out a faint laugh.
Ludice quietly studied him.
He looked much younger than the last time she had seen him. Facing a man whose future face she already knew left her with an odd feeling.
Four years from now, wasn’t it?
He would be the commander leading the army to annihilate House Dfania.
Yet, at the same time, he had been the only one who did not turn away from her plea. Such a twisted fate.
In her previous life, Ludice had gone straight to the Emperor.
— We cannot provoke the barbarians, Duchess. Therefore, the Empire cannot send the knights.
The Emperor had firmly rejected her request. No amount of pleading moved him. She had been running everywhere begging others for reinforcements when—
Somehow, Gudel Austin came to her.
— I will go with you myself to help.
Even without the Emperor’s orders, he had offered to move the knights. She hadn’t had time to ask why. She knew he’d be punished, but desperate for soldiers, she accepted.
But even then, it was too late.
Contrary to predictions that the lull would last a week, the fighting had resumed in just three days.
By the time Ludice arrived, the battle was already over—and Quinlan was no longer of this world.
For that, Gudel had been dismissed from his post as Commander of the Ebron Knights and reassigned to the Nihil Knights.
The Nihil Knights were a unit unknown to the public, an imperial force directly under the Emperor. They handled work so vile and bloody that they could hardly be called knights at all.
If not for her duties as duchess, Ludice might never have known they even existed.
Thus, because he had lent her support, Gudel was forced to leave the Ebnia Knights he had climbed to lead on his own and live as the Emperor’s hound.
That was the debt—and guilt—Ludice felt toward Gudel Austin.
She could not let the only man who had ever helped her go through that again.
If she could frame his aid not as an act of sympathy but as following orders—then that would be enough.
As if he had only carried out the Emperor’s command.
Ludice smiled.
“What brings you here, Duchess?”
“I came to request a detachment of knights.”
“A detachment?”
“Just two squads. Twenty knights.”
At her words, Gudel’s expression stiffened.
He studied her for a long moment with an unreadable look before leaning back in his chair.
“These are not forces that can be dispatched at will.”
His voice was low and quiet.
“Even if you ask, I don’t know if I can help. We’re already deployed elsewhere—our numbers are thin.”
“I know.”
At her calm reply, a twitch flickered across Gudel’s brow.
“If you know, then you also know why I must refuse.”
“Yes. Of course.”
The price he had paid last time for defying the Emperor’s command had been far too steep. She could not demand his aid unconditionally again.
Then Ludice drew out a red velvet pouch.
In her past life, she had never had this. She had searched desperately, but it hadn’t existed, so she had ended up begging Gudel instead. Had Quinlan survived, he might have helped her keep Gudel in his post—but she had had to cling to him instead.
This time, just before leaving, she had searched Jeff’s room on a hunch—and there it was.
So that bastard had taken it in my last life too.
Her eyes curved, lips lifting into a brilliant smile.
“The seal of the Ebnia Knights.”
“…!”
Gudel’s face hardened.
It was the gift given to Ludice when she retired after ten years as deputy commander of the Ebron Knights.
Just once, she could use it to request the knights.
That she had carried it away with her—he had never imagined she would use it like this.
“You’re really going to use that.”
“Only a fool wouldn’t.”
In her last life, she had been the fool.
She beamed at him.
Gudel raked a rough hand through his hair instead of replying. He tilted his head.
“It’s true—we’re short on men. By His Majesty’s order, the Ebron Knights went to assist elsewhere.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t expect infantry, archers, or spearmen.”
“Then what?”
The formality dropped from his tone, and he spoke to her like in the old days, when she was still his deputy commander.
“Give me twenty of the bravest, strongest men.”
Ludice lifted her chin.
“The House of Dfania officially requests the Ebnia Knights. I will take just twenty knights to the White Valley. I don’t need archers or infantry.”
Her voice was steady. Gudel frowned.
It was an absurd request, at an absurd time.
“No matter how strong, you think two squads can aid your house?”
“It’ll be fine.”
She smiled faintly.
“Because I’ll be there.”
“What?”
“I’ll be their captain. I’ll go myself and lead them, Commander.”
She tilted her head as she answered, her smile dazzling, confident beyond measure.
“Is this really the place?”
Phil Evans peered doubtfully down the slope.
Even as he spoke, the knights waiting behind him cast incredulous glances his way.
Ludice had actually secured knights just as she had boasted—and they had set out at once, arriving earlier than expected.
Wearing a silver helmet and armor, Ludice surveyed the area with calm eyes.
It had all happened so quickly there had been no time to collect himself.
When Ludice returned from the Imperial Palace—no one knew how she’d done it—but she had persuaded the notoriously stubborn Commander of the Ebnia Knights and brought twenty knights with her. Phil had nearly fainted from shock.
She had picked only the most skilled, most infamous among them.
And they had arrived before the fighting began.
Having followed the duchess and witnessed firsthand how a single knight could fight like a hundred men, Phil could not help but feel a surge of hope.
If this battlefield had been the one he had left, he would have believed even more—but still…
Maybe this battle could finally end the war with the barbarians.
Pressing down his pounding chest, he spoke to Ludice.
“If this isn’t the place, then all of this will be for nothing…”
“It’s the place.”
“But there’s nothing here.”
Ludice said nothing, her gaze fixed only on one spot—the narrow pass between cliffs, the sole path an army could emerge from.
Phil Evans glanced at her profile, then followed her gaze down the slope.
To him, the terrain looked unremarkable, but Ludice insisted this was the ideal location.
It wasn’t the sort of place a commander would normally choose: with a hill at their back and only one passage forward, they risked being surrounded and slaughtered.
But if allies lay behind the enemy, it was perfect for striking from both sides.
“Trust me.”
After a long silence, Ludice finally spoke. Phil turned sharply toward her.
“On this, I’m right.”
