Chapter 90
“Does that make any sense?”
When Coa went to the stables and I entered the mansion alone, the Grand Duke’s subordinates were gathered in a cluster in the corridor. From among them, a sharp voice struck my eardrums.
“Why should we have to pay the price for Lady Cowet being here?”
“Watch your words, Kallu.”
It seemed Melas was admonishing a man whose voice was filled with protest.
“Don’t you know it’s nothing more than the Emperor’s cowardly excuse? The young lady is an indispensable presence in wartime. Surely you of all people know how important healing power is.”
“Yes. I suppose that’s what you wish to believe, Lord Melas. But I see it differently. We could have waited and moved after making better preparations. Isn’t that precisely why things went wrong?”
“Kallu!”
Melas shouted angrily, but Kallu did not even twitch an eyebrow. Without replying, he turned away, and when he happened to meet my gaze, he glared at me coldly before leaving the corridor.
When Melas noticed me, he hurried over.
“Whew. My lady, I sincerely apologize for this great discourtesy. That fellow’s name is Kallu—given the wartime situation, he seems to have grown especially sharp. I will see that he is properly disciplined. I am truly sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. I’m fine.”
Melas could not lift his head, as though he had committed a grave crime. I shook my hands and my head at the same time.
War was a special situation in which lives could be lost in a single moment of carelessness. As such, it was only natural for everyone to be on edge.
In particular, Kallu was said to be a leading subordinate active in the largest territory of the Grand Duke of Ruslow. Since he had built no relationship with me at all, it was understandable that my presence alone would not sit well with him. He probably thought the Grand Duke had lost his senses over some strange woman—one who was, on top of that, the Emperor’s fiancée.
“Haa.”
Once I understood how he must feel, my mood sank even further for no reason. Propping my chin on the table with both hands, I watched Okhee hopping around on the bed.
Okhee, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, seemed determined to cheer me up, flapping her wings and showing off. She leapt back and forth between the bed and the table, stepping alternately as if dancing and hopping about. Finding her earnest and adorable, I lightly flicked her beak with my finger when she came close. For a moment she lost her balance and nearly fell beneath the table, but she managed to steady herself. She scolded me with an indignant “Ok-ok,” yet even that was so cute it made me laugh.
While I was playing with Okhee and trying hard to forget about Kallu, Raymond came storming into my room a short while later, bristling with anger.
“What’s wrong, Raymond?”
The moment he saw my face, his rigid expression softened.
“I heard about what Kallu said. I’m sorry you had to hear that, Aileen.”
“No, it’s fine. You didn’t come after scolding him, did you?”
“I did. I just finished ordering him to be punished.”
“Ah—don’t do that.”
I clung to Raymond’s arm to stop him.
“From Kallu’s perspective, it’s only natural for him to dislike me.”
“Why are you defending Kallu? Even though he openly blamed you?”
He frowned, clearly unable to understand. I shook my head.
“That’s just how people’s hearts are. And in truth, my position really is like that. I think he should be given time to come to terms with it.”
“Hm.”
Though his eyebrows arched in displeasure, Raymond made an effort to listen to my opinion. After pondering for a moment, he finally nodded.
“Very well. I’ll accept your view. As you say, Aileen, I’ll give him time.”
“Wow.”
“However, to maintain military discipline, punishment is necessary, so I’ll reduce it to just today. I was planning to run him ragged for a week and then dismiss him entirely, but I’ll let him off because of you.”
What? You were really going that far?
Once again, I was reminded just how frightening Raymond could be.
Perhaps realizing that a mere thousand soldiers would never suffice,
this time the Emperor appeared in person, leading nearly five thousand troops.
Standing before the gates of Rus’s outermost fortress, he amplified his voice with a magical loudspeaker. It rang out thunderously, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Grand Duke of Ruslow, once my friend—hand over my fiancée, Lady Aileen Cowet. This is my final warning. I will give you three hours. If you care for the safety and happiness of the people of your territory, surrender peacefully within that time.”
Seated atop a white horse, Emperor Kyle’s golden hair fluttered in the wind. His blue eyes, so similar to the Grand Duke’s, glared straight ahead beneath the blazing sun.
The moment he revealed himself, my heart began to pound violently.
The expression he had worn when he threatened me rose vividly in my mind, and my hands grew slick with sweat. I stared at Kyle without being able to look away, seized by the fear that if I missed even a single movement, that hand would reach out and snatch me away at once.
Just then, a gentle hand wrapped around my trembling shoulders. It was Raymond, standing beside me at the window, watching together with me. When my gaze shifted to the side, he curved his eyes and smiled warmly.
“Aileen.”
“Raymond?”
Raymond grasped my chin and turned my face toward him, holding it there.
“You have nothing to worry about. Just look at me. That’s all you need to do.”
Was he trying to reassure me?
If so, it worked. Whatever kind of spell it was, his single magical sentence smoothed my once-stifled breathing. Instead of answering aloud, I silently nodded.
The five thousand soldiers the Emperor had brought truly possessed power worthy of their number.
The thousand sent ahead earlier might have been nothing more than an experimental appetizer. Since Gunta, their commander, had been captured and killed while fleeing, they were likely disposable pieces to the Emperor.
Before setting out to battle, Raymond placed me in the second fortress. He sternly warned me that if I came out this time, he would not let it slide. Coa, too, seemed extremely tense after having lost track of me last time.
Instead, I watched from a high point on the walls of the second fortress.
Our side struggled considerably due to the enemy’s overwhelming numbers.
Just as the Grand Duke fought on the front lines, the Emperor also entered the fray actively—though mounted on a top-grade horse and clad in top-grade armor.
Emperor Kyle would probably have preferred to stay back and merely observe. But there were too many eyes on the battlefield. It seemed he believed he had to stage a scene of risking his life to save his fiancée.
Great numbers made many things possible. While some engaged directly in combat, the remaining troops battered the gate with logs, and the first fortress eventually fell. Knowing this would happen, I had stayed in the second fortress. The civilians had done the same.
“My lady, please move to the inner fortress.”
“Alright.”
Reluctantly tearing my eyes from the battlefield at Coa’s urging, I turned away. Now that the first fortress had been taken, we had no way of knowing when the second would fall as well. Just as I was about to turn—
An arrow flew straight toward me.
Its sharp tip, aimed at my heart, was suddenly right before my eyes.
“My lady, dodge!”
“Ghk!”
Coa quickly grabbed my arm and yanked me back. By sheer luck, the arrow pierced my shoulder instead of my chest. Still, the sensation of sharp metal burrowing into flesh was excruciating. I let out a groan at the pain—something I had never experienced before—and my body collapsed to the ground.
“M-my lady!”
Coa’s scream of anguish cut sharply through the air. For reasons I could not tell, my consciousness faded at that moment, and I slipped into darkness.
“My lady. Please wake up. Physician! Over here, at once!”
The incident that occurred inside the second fortress caused a great commotion. Naturally, the battlefield could not remain unaware of it.
Being struck by an arrow in wartime was common enough, but this target was special—the Lady Cowet, the fiancée the Emperor desperately sought, stolen away by the Grand Duke. That fact affected the entire battlefield.
Raymond, who had been cutting down enemies with his sword, sensed the disturbance. Looking toward the fortress, his eyes widened. A tremendous shock pierced his mind.
Who was it? Who did this?
He looked around frantically for the culprit. When he turned his head to the opposite side, he happened to see Kyle lowering his bow. At that moment, the fury that had been coldly suppressed in Raymond’s eyes began to boil over.
“Kyyyyyle!!”
His roar of rage shook the vast sky above the battlefield. Knocking aside the minor foes around him, he charged madly toward Kyle. Until then, Kyle had worn a relaxed expression, but he recoiled in surprise at Raymond’s terrifying momentum.
Emperor Kyle was a master archer. He was better with a bow than with a sword. His regular visits to the hunting grounds were both to maintain his archery skills and to indulge in a hobby. He could draw the bowstring and strike his prey accurately even from atop a galloping horse, so hitting a stationary target was nothing to him.
At the hunting grounds he had once visited with Aileen, Kyle had issued her a warning.
‘You’d better be careful. Even from far away, I can recognize you and hit you—so don’t even think about trying to run away from me.’
Shooting Aileen on this battlefield was his way of putting that warning into practice. How dare she leave him and go to the Grand Duke of Ruslow? His rage had grown so intense he could barely sleep.
‘She can die, or she can be injured—it doesn’t matter.’
He didn’t care what became of Aileen. His only goal was to keep her by his side, and if he couldn’t achieve that, he thought it would be better for her to die.
That was why he set the arrow to the string and aimed at Aileen. That, too, was the purpose for which he had come here today.
