Chapter 174 - Splendid as a Flame (2)

"Long live His Majesty the King!"

The shouts of the soldiers pierced the King's ears as he looked at the enemy commander falling backward with his eyes rolled back.

"You are the same as ever, Your Majesty."

A low voice interjected through the gap.

It was the voice of the Commander of the Royal Knights, Count Sturmhilde Stuttgart.

"Cut out the lip service."

The King replied without even turning his head.

He had aimed for the heart, but he had merely hit the chest. Since he failed to kill the enemy instantly even with the royal family's treasured bow, it was clear that his hands had stiffened.

"How could it be lip service when you struck the enemy commander from a hundred paces away? It is a feat that even renowned archers would not easily achieve."

"It is not enough. It is not enough. If it had been Margarita, she would have hit his brow, not his chest."

"Was the Queen not originally a famous archer even in Ballorhard?"

The King chuckled at those words.

He suddenly recalled the first time he met his wife at the selection banquet for the Crown Princess.

Unlike other women, she seemed to have no interest in the banquet at all, and it was obvious she had been dragged there against her will.

Her awkward appearance, as if she had been forced to dress up in a gown, remained in his heart, so he badgered the previous king to summon her back to the palace.

When they met again, she had cut her hair short like a man. She was not even wearing a gown and was armed like a Ranger.

'2nd Company Commander of the Ballorhard Rangers, Margarita Ballorhard, offers her greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince.'

She introduced herself not as a daughter of House Ballorhard, but as a Ranger Company Commander.

It was a blatant protest that she did not welcome a marriage into the royal family.

To the King, who had only seen young ladies beautifully dressed up and waiting to be selected, she was a fresh shock in herself, and he completely fell for her.

After that day, he made all sorts of excuses to visit the North where she was.

But nothing was easy.

Neither finding a justification to visit the distant North as the Crown Prince, nor winning her heart, which was as cold as the harsh winter of the northern frontier.

Still, he persistently continued his courtship, and he was finally able to receive her conditional permission.

'I have absolutely no intention of entrusting my life to a weak man.'

She said she would accept his feelings if he surpassed her in archery. However, until then, he shouldn't even think about seeing her again.

From that day on, he brought in an archery instructor.

Because his natural aptitude for martial arts was poor, his progress was merely slow. Still, after three years of effort, he reached a level where he could hit a target fifty paces away eight out of ten times.

He headed straight to the North. There, he met her again, who could no longer hide the appearance of a woman.

Meeting him again, she led him straight to a quiet clearing without even a greeting saying it had been a while.

They held an archery duel there, and perhaps heaven helped him, for he hit the target one more time than his usual skill, landing nine out of ten arrows on the target.

And she hit a total of eight arrows.

He won the bet, and he was ultimately able to become engaged to her.

Only later did he learn that she was an archer with the skill to hit a target flawlessly from a hundred paces away, let alone fifty.

When he asked why she had gone easy on him, she merely smiled instead of answering.

After taking her as the Crown Princess, he was so happy it felt like he had the whole world, but in truth, nothing was his.

The kingdom had already become no different from a province of the Empire, and there was nothing he could do.

Every time he tried to do something to restore the kingdom's spirit and escape the Empire's clutches, unfortunate things happened. Even those who scaled the walls of the royal palace aimed their swords at him and his wife.

Loyal people died to protect them.

The surviving loyal subjects also returned to their hometowns one by one due to misfortune striking their families. And their empty seats were taken by those who were no different from the Empire's lackeys.

Every time he saw the corpses of knights who had sacrificed their lives like straw for their monarch, every time he saw the families of his loyal subjects fall to ruin one by one, every time he saw the indelible scars carved on the body of the woman he had promised to cherish and care for like a flower.

He wavered, and several times he even tried to give up on the kingdom's independence and everything else.

Every time, it was the Queen who stood him back up.

Sometimes she yelled at him, and sometimes she coaxed him like comforting a child. Sometimes they held hands tightly and shared a pledge to overcome it together.

Thanks to her, he was able to not give up and dedicate his whole life to the kingdom's independence.

But even if he devoted that one lifetime and the lives of the few remaining loyalists, the path to independence remained far out of reach.

As time passed, his will was worn away.

At a certain point, he found himself accustomed to being robbed and enduring insults.

He thought he had done his best, but in the end, it was nothing more than the rationalization of a powerless man.

After losing the knights he had secretly trained, he wasted his days merely resenting his young eldest son.

He deeply regretted that time.

If only he had been a little firmer, if only he had been a little more capable.

He wouldn't have spent that time in vain.

Looking at the Empire's large army lined up below the walls, he felt as if he could curse his foolish and weak self.

He would never be like that again.

He would be faithful to every moment until the day his life ended.

And right now, in this moment, what he had to do was protect the kingdom from the enemy's vanguard.

Holding his bow firmly, he stood his ground on the wall and glared at the enemy.

He saw the enemy commander who had been hit by the arrow being carried to the rear on the backs of his knights. Seeing the limp hand and the completely motionless back, it was clear that he had now stopped breathing entirely.

"The enemy commander is dead!"

The King shouted.

The knights and soldiers on the wall let out a battle cry.

"Death to the dogs of the Empire!"

"An iron mace to the enemy!"

Leaving the shouts of the kingdom's army behind, the Imperial Army began to retreat.

* * *

The Imperial Army, having lost its Legion Commander to an unexpected snipe, fell back, but that was nothing more than a temporary retreat.

The empty seat of the 17th Legion Commander, who had acted as the head of the six legions until arriving here, was quickly filled by another Legion Commander, and they set up camp on the plains in sight of the citadel, preparing for a full-scale siege.

A massive battering ram was built, and siege ladders and archer towers were assembled on the spot.

However, they could not even properly use the siege weapons they had painstakingly brought and struggled to assemble.

Around dawn, at the time when even the sentries could not overcome their drowsiness and were nodding off.

Flames rose from the outskirts of the Imperial Army's encampment.

"Enemy attack!"

A step late, the sentries announced the enemy attack.

The deeply sleeping soldiers and knights woke up and headed toward the burning outskirts.

But all they could see were the remains of the destroyed siege weapons and the gruesome corpses.

The enemies had already slipped away.

The Legion Commanders bound all the duty knights who had failed to notice the night raid and forced them to their knees.

"P-Paladins were leading the enemies."

One knight crawled forward on his knees and made excuses to the Legion Commanders, saying there was nothing they could have done.

But the Legion Commanders' expressions remained entirely cold.

The 17th Legion Commander had died in battle after displaying reckless bravado, and even the painstakingly transported siege weapons were destroyed.

It was a loss that occurred just one day after arriving at the battlefield.

A loss the Legion Commanders couldn't have even imagined.

They had to make an example of them to reestablish the lax discipline and military morale.

In the end, the heads of fourteen knights who were responsible for the night defenses fell.

"It seems that because the opponent is such a weak nation, everyone is failing to stay alert."

"A lion does its best even when catching a single rabbit, but since the difference in power is so great, this sort of problem arises."

"Even from now on, we must reestablish discipline and ensure the soldiers approach the war seriously."

The Legion Commanders immediately convened a meeting.

"A cornered mouse will bite a cat, and this is exactly that kind of situation. The fact that the enemies went to such lengths means they are just that cornered."

Senior Knight De Gaulle of the 41st Legion declared confidently that the enemies were likely grasping at straws in desperation, and that while they succeeded this time out of luck, there would be no next time.

The Legion Commanders also firmly believed that since they were now vigilant, they would not be meaninglessly struck by the enemy again.

"Anyway, it seems the heavens are looking down upon you Legion Commanders."

Having just suffered great damage, the Legion Commanders frowned at De Gaulle's words, wondering what nonsense this was.

But De Gaulle didn't even twitch an eyebrow while looking at the displeased faces of the Legion Commanders.

"It is ultimately the act of a mad king who doesn't know his place. I cannot imagine the timid nobles of the kingdom genuinely following the King's will."

"Keep it brief and to the point."

"I mean that this war will end once we catch the King. And the King of Leonberk happens to be in the citadel."

The hardened faces of the Legion Commanders immediately relaxed.

"Now do you understand why I said the heavens are protecting us?"

De Gaulle babbled on triumphantly.

"You Legion Commanders have now seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the enemy's leader."

The Legion Commanders grew anxious.

Even now, the Empire's armies were continuously arriving here. If they didn't capture the citadel and catch the King before they arrived, they might risk having their achievements stolen.

Completely forgetting that they had just pointed out the lax mindset of the soldiers and knights, and beheaded fourteen knights to reestablish discipline.

But not everyone was so blinded by achievements.

The 84th Legion Commander, Malcoi de Marseille, who was the youngest and had the least influence, thus occupying the lowest seat all along, didn't open his mouth once throughout the meeting.

He merely watched expressionlessly as the other Legion Commanders babbled as if they had already placed the King of Leonberk's head in their hands.

"I have important matters within my legion, so I'll be going."

He even stood up from his seat during the meeting, saying he had other business to attend to.

"Tsk. To think someone who couldn't even serve his master properly is leading an army. I sometimes think His Majesty's mercy is excessive."

"The deceased Second Imperial Prince was someone His Majesty also cherished, so he must have taken in his subordinate and opened a path for him to live."

"It's truly a pity that he only acts so twistedly, without even knowing His Majesty's mercy."

"Well, in his own mind, he might consider it a demotion that he, who used to do well in the imperial capital, became a frontier soldier. Otherwise, there's no way he would lack so much enthusiasm."

The Legion Commanders were extremely displeased with the young 30-something Legion Commander who, unlike them, had at least once stood at the center of power.

But they quickly forgot about him and began chattering about the glory that would fall to them after taking the citadel.

* * *

"Lord Marseille. Why already."

Seeing him return much too early, his adjutant widened his eyes.

"A honey-tongued man is leading the legion into the fire."

"You must be talking about that Senior Knight from the fortress."

"A so-called knight wags his silver tongue better than the nobles in the imperial capital, so the stupid Legion Commanders can't keep their wits about them."

The adjutant looked at his superior with a troubled face.

"This war won't end easily."

Malcoi let out a sigh.

"Unlike the Senior Knight's words, the Leonberk kingdom's army is by no means a bunch of rabble. The servility they supposedly showed all along is no different from the slyness of those keeping their heads down while waiting for their time, and the rumor that they acted exceptionally harshly only toward their own knights and soldiers means they strove to firmly maintain their military discipline even in difficult situations."

Malcoi did not hesitate to harshly criticize the Senior Knight who judged the enemy as rabble without knowing that, and the Legion Commanders who fell for those words and acted as if they had already won.

"They have been sharpening their blades while waiting for their time, but the Empire has rusted—no, rotted away from a long peace. I guarantee you, if we cannot fix that rotten mindset, the Empire will not avoid suffering the same fate as it did in Dotrin."

"Isn't that a problem that can be solved if you step to the forefront and lead them, Lord Malcoi?"

"It's useless. They won't listen even if I tell them, and I won't see any good from stepping up."

The adjutant smiled bitterly at Malcoi's lamentation.

It was because the adjutant knew that his superior was the only person to express concern during the last Dotrin subjugation campaign, saying that the movements of the Dotrin army, which had surrendered their fortress all at once, were suspicious.

However, the Second Imperial Prince did not listen to the admonition and ultimately died gruesomely, crushed under a pile of rocks. And the survivors reported as if he, who had sprouted ominous words, was the mastermind of the whole disaster, and he was ultimately demoted from a successful power figure in the imperial capital to a frontier Legion Commander.

"Seeing how they fail to recognize a once-in-a-lifetime talent, it seems that being in high places doesn't mean they have better foresight."

"Enough nonsense. Go and summon the frontline commanders immediately."

"What are you planning to do?"

At the adjutant's words, Malcoi replied casually.

"Before everyone dies playing war games for achievements under those stupid Legion Commanders, I should at least try to save the bastards in our legion."

"And if you get lucky and the other Legion Commanders die in battle, you'll gain command, too?"

"I don't even wish for it, nor do I have the drive for it. After His Highness the Second Imperial Prince passed away like that, I lost all affection for this damn country. I'll be satisfied just keeping my life and returning alive."

"It's a waste to let that talent rot."

"Stop talking out of turn and take care of what I told you first."

Urged by Malcoi, the adjutant pouted once and left the tent.

"Damn it. If I'm unlucky, I'll end up shouldering the blame for another defeat."

Left alone, the Legion Commander let out a deep sigh.