Chapter 187 - A Requiem for Her (1)

Not long after the funeral was held, some of the Azure Sky Knights who had left to help retake The Capital returned to the citadel.

Through them, I was able to hear the detailed circumstances.

When the Iron Lion Knights arrived at The Capital, the enemy had supposedly already taken complete control of the outer castle and were preparing to defend it. As the enemy's defenses were formidable, the Iron Lions also prepared for a long drawn-out battle and began their siege.

However, making those ironclad defenses meaningless, the enemy crumbled far too easily, and it was said that an unexpected internal uprising played a major role in that process.

The citizens inside The Capital rose up on a massive scale and fiercely attacked the gates occupied by the Imperial Army.

Of course, a citizen militia with poor equipment and no proper training could not retake the gates against elites centered around knights.

But the Iron Lions did not miss the chaos they caused, and when York Walloden, the Commander of the Iron Lion Knights and a Silver Lion of the kingdom, stepped forward, they were eventually able to open the South Gate among the four gates of the north, south, east, and west.

The enemies who had been desperately holding out on the walls of the outer castle eventually gave up defending the walls and occupied the outer city streets to attempt resistance, but this too was suppressed thanks to the active response and assistance of the citizens.

Only later was it revealed that all of this was thanks to the commanders and knights of the Marshal's Office, whom the Grand Marshal had left behind when he departed The Capital, leading the citizens.

However, no matter how much the Grand Marshal had prepared for such an event, if the Queen's death had not awakened the citizens, such a massive uprising would not have occurred.

While the Wyvern Rider's report continued, there was no one among the knights and commanders of the citadel who did not mourn the Queen's death.

But the King ordered them to harbor anger in their hearts instead of grief, and they swallowed their sorrow and strengthened their resolve.

Based on the testimonies of the citizens of The Capital, the Wyvern Rider recounted how the Queen fought and how she maintained her integrity to the very end.

He also did not forget to share how the Imperial Army tried to disgrace her end.

Not content with finding the Queen's corpse, mutilating it, and hanging her severed head and neck on different parts of the wall, the Imperial Army even fabricated her heroic final moments, claiming her death was the end of a cowardly fugitive.

However, there were simply too many people who had witnessed the Queen resisting on the wall until the very end, and it was said that one righteous person stepped forward, fought a desperate battle with the Imperial Army, and ultimately recovered her corpse and escaped.

The moment I heard about the existence of that righteous person, I immediately knew who it was.

The Half-Elf—Gionne, who had ultimately guided the Queen's body to the citadel despite suffering severe injuries, with her arm cut off and her entire body hacked up—was undoubtedly the righteous person the Azure Sky Knight spoke of.

The image of Gionne, surrounded by the Imperial Army all alone and fighting a desperate struggle, appeared vividly before my eyes. Her final moments, quietly breathing her last in my arms, were painted all too clearly.

I quietly caught my breath. I forcefully calmed my seething insides.

In the meantime, the Azure Sky Knight also finished his story.

The King commended the knight's hard work, having not hesitated to travel a long way from another country to deliver the news.

With a calm demeanor that showed no agitation whatsoever.

Eventually, when the Azure Sky Knight left his seat, the King ordered that what had happened in The Capital be recorded in detail and made known to the entire kingdom.

He even personally wrote and delivered letters urging all the nobles in the kingdom to participate in the war.

It was a general mobilization order.

The royal cavalry became messengers and left the citadel.

And so, not long after, the entire kingdom began to boil over.

To the extent that the sound of nobles, enraged after hearing of the situation in The Capital, crying out for revenge, and the sound of hermits and swordsmen, who had heard of the Queen's end, quietly sharpening their swords, could be heard all the way to the Silver Lion Citadel.

Not long after the King issued the general mobilization order, the lords near the border came to the citadel leading their private soldiers and a portion of conscripts.

Through them, we learned the news that other lords were also hastily gathering their troops and hurrying preparations to come here.

From the rear, news arrived that the Grand Marshal was arming the citizens. It was said that the number of people who voluntarily enlisted reached a staggering several thousand, making it difficult to organize and supply them.

Most of them were citizens of The Capital who had witnessed the Queen's final moments; although their training and weaponry fell short of the regular army, their morale and fighting spirit were second to no other military force.

Just as the King had said, it seemed the Queen's death had become a spark that ignited the entire kingdom.

The change did not only occur among the nobles and the citizens of The Capital.

At some point, the number of civilians at the citadel began to increase.

They were all people from the villages and domains adjacent to the border.

"This... it's not much, but for the soldiers to eat when they're hungry..."

A middle-aged man brought a basket full of grain and provisions he must have saved to survive the winter, and,

"I may not know anything else, but I'm good at menial labor. If you give me even odd jobs, I'll work hard."

A young man showed up empty-handed and volunteered as a worker, saying he would help with even the most menial tasks.

"I may be a plump middle-aged woman now, but in my youth, even the young men from neighboring villages would fight over me day in and day out. Still, I couldn't just stand by and watch those idiots who fought over me get their heads cracked open and their flesh torn, right? So, cleaning up after those immature men, my hands naturally got pretty skilled at taking care of the injured, you see."

And a chatty woman took care of the wounded in the citadel, saying it had been her daily routine in her youth to tend to the village youths who got their heads cracked and their flesh cut.

The tension-filled atmosphere of the citadel, which felt like it could explode at any moment, was somewhat diluted by their presence.

The knights and soldiers still cried out for bloody revenge, but they seemed to have a lot on their minds after seeing the civilians.

It was as if they had newly realized the existence of the very people they had to protect, going beyond the kingdom's independence that the Royal Family cried out for.

Even while the knights and soldiers were carving a new sense of duty into their hearts, civilians continued to visit the citadel.

Not all of them came to stay at the citadel and help the soldiers.

Rather, the vast majority of them were people who came to the citadel merely to pass on a few words.

That they saw a certain group somewhere in the plains, and their appearance was somehow suspicious.

That a hunter searching the plains for prey had found tracks he hadn't seen before.

That the speech and behavior of a man who recently moved to the village didn't seem like that of a citizen of the kingdom.

Most of the stories that flowed from their mouths were nothing more than baseless rumors circulating amidst the chaos of war. However, a few among them were too detailed and consistent to be dismissed as mere rumors and warranted investigation.

The King ordered the citadel's cavalry to be sent out to track down the traces or rumors mentioned by the people, and as a result, surprisingly, quite a few spies were rooted out.

Even though the citadel, where the King's royal guard and the border garrison had their eyes peeled, was right nearby.

The number of spies shot dead while resisting on the spot was a staggering one hundred, and the number of those captured alive while fleeing reached several dozen.

The citadel's commanders, who never imagined that the Empire's spies had been operating so openly to this extent, were also taken by surprise.

But I was not surprised in the slightest.

It was only recently that the nobles, who should have been the kingdom's eyes, were instead in bed with the Empire. It would have been stranger if the kingdom's information network wasn't riddled with holes.

Of course, the Royal Family swiftly dispatched officials to bring their domains under control, but it would take more time for them to grasp every detail of the domains and manage them as efficiently as the nobles who had ruled those lands for generations.

Furthermore, the aftermath of the atrocities committed by the traitors was too great to be resolved in a short time.

Exhausted by exploitation and tyranny, the people were hostile and uncooperative not only toward the officials but even toward the Royal Family.

It wouldn't have been strange at all if not a single person reported to the lord even if the Empire's spies were blabbering in the imperial language in the middle of the domain in broad daylight.

In fact, there was a track record of the kingdom completely failing to notice the existence of the Imperial Army while they lived in hiding on the kingdom's land for years.

If the nobles had properly fulfilled their duties and the Royal Family had not lost the trust of the people, it was something that would never have happened.

But what could be done? It was already after the fact. What had passed could never be undone.

Right now, I was merely grateful for this small change brought about by the Queen's death.

Because if it hadn't been for her, the people would never have come to the citadel to share even mere rumors.

Quite some time had already passed since the King proclaimed revenge and declared the general mobilization order.

The kingdom's army, which looked as though it would charge toward the Empire at any moment, gathered at the border but never crossed the line.

But everyone knew.

The fact that this current state would not last forever.

The kingdom was merely catching its breath.

For the nobles and their soldiers who gathered belatedly at the border to be reborn as a single legion, and for the Eastern Legion and Western Legion, which had spent many years without actual combat, to completely finish their preparations for war.

They were just waiting.

When a month and a half had passed since the Queen's funeral, right around the time all the Silver Lions of the kingdom finished gathering at the citadel.

The kingdom's breath-catching came to an end.

"I leave the border to you."

Unlike the loud proclamation of bloody revenge he made before the soldiers, the King left me with only a brief word of request.

There were so many things I wanted to say, but all that flowed from my mouth was a wish for his good fortune in battle.

The King smiled softly at me and quietly patted my shoulder.

And then he quietly left the citadel.

A portion of the Central Army and the private soldiers of noble houses, who had finally been organized into a single army, boarded the warships of the Eastern fleet with the King, and Dotrin's Wyvern Riders, who had spread across the kingdom to act as messengers, also followed them and set off.

"Don't worry too much. His Majesty is with them, so what's there to worry about? I'm only telling you this, but even if the entire Azure Sky Knights charged at him, they couldn't beat His Majesty. He's a real monster."

"I know he's a monster."

"It's not just the level you're thinking of. So don't worry."

While all his comrades had left, Doris, who remained at the citadel until the end, comforted me like that.

But he too left the citadel not long after, leading the Wyvern Riders who had belatedly returned.

And just a few days after everyone had set off toward the Empire's land like that, a massive offensive by the Imperial Army began, braving the bitter cold.

I led the soldiers remaining in the citadel and repelled the Imperial Army time and time again.

When I opened my eyes, I grabbed my sword and climbed the wall, and I cut down everything in sight.

Then, when the enemy's offensive waned, I immediately opened the gates, rushed out, and overturned the border line.

I destroyed the Empire's frontline fortress located a day and a half away from the Silver Lion Citadel, and I annihilated several legions.

Upon returning to the citadel, I reorganized the kingdom's additional troops that had arrived belatedly and deployed them here and there along the border.

I entrusted the eastern side of the border to Arwen, along with 2 legions, the Silver Foxes, and the Iron Lion Knights. I also had that guy Eli lead 2 legions and the North Wind and Dawn Knights to guard the western side of the border.

The battlefield was no longer just the Silver Lion Citadel, and battles broke out sporadically all over the border.

The Masters and I guarded the border without taking a single step back.

They were days so busy that we forgot to sleep at night, and it was a chaotic time where we rarely ate our meals on time.

In the midst of that, the prisoners who were just squandering food without doing anything caught my eye.

Among them, the one who caught my attention the most was the adjutant who had been assisting the young Legion Commander.

An attitude that consistently exuded relaxation even while captured as a prisoner, and a sharp spirit that was subtly revealed even while emaciated from meager meals.

"Oho."

I let out an exclamation.

The guy was a Paladin.

And one with a level so high that he could easily wipe the floor with any half-baked Imperial Paladins at that.

However, there was something familiar about his appearance. Rummaging through my memories, I suddenly checked his status window.

Clear information popped up above his head.

I ended up opening my eyes so wide they felt like they would tear.

Back when my close friend wasn't a King yet, when he was called the Lion of the North or the Sword Saint, there was a time some hybrid guy who was neither a swordsman nor a Mage came to visit.

「'Basic Theory of the Mana Chain' written by 'Bruno Burdoph', the 8th successor of 'Verner Ratchel', the 16th disciple of the founder of the Mana Chain, 'Ernest Altringen', and compiled by 'Gregory Hessler'」

Only later, upon seeing the surname 'Altringen' written plain as day in the swordsmanship manual my uncle handed me, did I realize that the hybrid guy from back then was the founder of the Mana Chain, which had rendered the Mana Heart obsolete.

And the young Paladin before my eyes also had the surname 'Altringen'.

"Are you a descendant of the Altringen family?"

When I asked him to confirm, the expression of the guy who had been constantly giggling and smiling stiffened like stone.

Explosive killing intent flowed from his body.

I chuckled and quietly looked at him.

Completely unleashing the status and spirit I had kept contained.

The descendant of the Altringen family, glaring at me with blazing blue eyes, resisted my spirit with a stiff face.

But it was a futile effort.

The guy, who had been resisting me while raising his spirit, eventually vomited a mouthful of blood and stumbled backward.

Just as his ancestor had done in the past.

"I've never seen anyone make Percival step back with just their spirit before."

At that moment, a low voice was heard right next to him.

It was the young Legion Commander.

I merely turned my head to look at the Legion Commander. He too was staring intently at me.

That expression was extremely irritating.

I had heard he was a surrendered general who had yielded without even putting up a proper fight, but his expression looked as if he were watching me like some entertaining spectacle. There was even a bizarre sneer hanging around the corners of his mouth.

He might have thought he was hiding it, but the superiority and mockery he hadn't fully contained grated on my nerves.

It was a time when my mind was as sharp as a blade from the repeated battles with the Imperial Army. It was a moment when my nerves were on edge as much as possible, worried about the safety of the King and the army who had left with the fleet.

If it were my usual self, I would have dragged him out right away and given him a severe beating.

But I couldn't do that.

The [Authority of Judgment], which had been activated to check the descendant of the Altringen family, was telling me.

That this guy was a gem whose value no one had recognized. That finders were keepers.

"To think such a precious person is in such a shabby place."

I ended up grinning without even realizing it.