When the Prey Vanished, the Hound Was Put to Death
Before she had even had time to react, Regina found a seal collar snapped around her throat. The impact sent her sprawling, as though every vein and muscle in her body had been cinched tight all at once.
With her free-flowing mana sealed away, she could not even draw breath properly. She gasped, barely keeping herself conscious, but soon the strength drained from her limbs.
Herais hooked a foot beneath Regina’s chin and lifted her head as though she were no more than something lying in the dirt.
“I ordered you to spar, and yet here you are, stretched out on the ground. How can you be so insolent? I’ll teach you a proper lesson for that arrogance.”
Having robbed Regina of her strength, Herais subjected her to what was little short of torture under the guise of sparring.
Scars multiplied across Regina’s body, and the nights dragged on, full of pain.
Even so, Herais never stopped. He tormented her to his satisfaction, then only removed the seal again when it was time for her to be sent out to exterminate monsters.
Mother.
Regina could not dare to resist. Not while her mother’s life remained in Herais’s hands.
That was not all. He also controlled the supplies for the extermination force.
If her men crossing the border did not receive proper provisions, they might never make it back to the empire alive.
The pain was enough to make a person wish for death, but when she thought of her subordinates, she could not bring herself to run.
***
Regina’s palace stood in the most secluded corner of the imperial grounds.
On the way there from the harem, there was a small flower garden. Its owner, the Empress, would occasionally cross paths with Regina there.
The one who had treated her when she suffered alone, with no one to help her, was the Empress.
“My goodness, Regina. Such severe injuries.”
It was the first time Regina had ever been brought to the Empress’s palace for treatment. Her legs had given out on the way back from the training grounds, and she had collapsed there. A gentle hand had helped her to her feet.
Still dazed, Regina worried that the dirt on her clothes would soil the bed. But the Empress, noticing her concern, deliberately avoided mentioning it.
With a serene smile, she parted her lips. “You are the greatest mage in this country. It is also your duty to preserve carefully the body that is Ferman Empire’s blessing.”
Her gaze was stern, yet full of pity and goodwill. Without thinking, Regina nodded. At her answer that she would uphold her duty, the Empress smiled brightly and gave her final words.
“Then so shall I.”
Regina’s face flushed at the unfamiliar warmth.
Her mother, who had always been weak and bedridden whenever she returned to the palace. Even after being confined to the harem because of the watcher Herais had planted, it had become harder still to see her face.
Her Imperial Majesty the Empress cherished Regina in place of that helpless mother.
She was the only person in this barren palace who truly thought of Regina. She was also the one who had given the unworthy bastard daughter the name “Regina.”
Though she could not dare accuse her son Herais of his crimes before the Emperor, the Empress’s lukewarm pity and kindness became Regina’s only support.
Clinging to that small grace, she found the strength to return to the battlefield, to her comrades.
And so two years passed. At last, the chance to end this hell came.
Summoned abruptly by Herais, Regina had ridden all the way from the border to the imperial capital. Without even a moment to rest, she stepped into Herais’s office.
Before Regina had even finished greeting him, Herais spoke.
“I’m planning a magical barrier that will encompass the empire’s borders. If it succeeds, it will keep monsters from invading our lands forever.”
He threw a thick stack of research notes at Regina’s feet. She bent and picked them up.
After devouring the complicated contents in an instant, her expression darkened.
“But… if this principle is applied, the monsters could all be driven toward the Fredericks Empire.”
“Is our enemy, the Fredericks Empire, more important than this empire?”
“Setting aside hostility between the two countries, innocent commoners will die.”
Right now, the monsters’ numbers were scattered, wandering between the Ferman and Fredericks Empires.
But if the Ferman Empire erected a magical barrier, the monsters would naturally head toward the Fredericks side.
Then the number of pointless victims will only keep growing.
Nobles protected by knights and private soldiers could avoid monsters whenever they wished, but commoners were different.
Regina thought of the duty tied to blue blood: the duty to protect the weak and to fulfill one’s responsibilities in proportion to one’s privileges.
Yet Herais seemed to think otherwise.
“If you don’t want to be branded a traitor, know your place and keep your mouth shut! How dare you talk back to me—!”
The command came down like a whip: she had not been asked for her opinion, so she was to obey. With a sneer, Herais added, “Besides, if this barrier is completed, you and your subordinates might finally get what you’ve always wanted, no?”
A pardon, recognition, and freedom.
Regina bit her lip.
She was little more than a hound moving at Herais’s command, and she had to remain tethered to the empire until the leash was cut.
She could have fled on her own, if she truly wanted to. But then the weary faces of her subordinates flashed through her mind. So did her mother’s—pale and ill.
In the end, she lowered her head and accepted the assignment.
Leaving at once, Regina traveled along the borders of Ferman Empire, drawing magic circles to complete the barrier.
“Do you think this will work, Commander?”
“It might not.”
“Then…”
“But we have to make it work somehow.”
At her subordinate’s question, Regina answered calmly.
What she wanted was absolute freedom.
Not freedom for herself alone, but a plan that also carried the price of her subordinates’ lives. So she could not fail.
It took a full two years to draw the barrier’s magic circles.
The barrier was complete, but the land had not yet been fully reclaimed. It took a great deal of time to eliminate the monsters still remaining inside the borders.
Another four years were spent killing off the rest of the monsters within Ferman.
After even their hiding places had all been cleared out, Regina returned to the capital with the mage corps that had followed her.
“Waaah! The empire’s hero!”
“Princess! Look over here!”
“Long live the mage corps!”
On the day they entered the capital to a shower of petals and the cheers of the empire’s people, Regina rode along beneath the brilliant sky and turned at the touch of a hand on her shoulder. It was Linzas Malpang, who oversaw the mage corps.
His face, still bearing the harsh marks of battle, was lit with joy.
“Commander, at last… did we really do it?”
“Yes.”
Regina gripped the rough back of the magic chief’s hand tightly.
In the end, they had survived.
There had been moments when she wanted to give up, but she had managed to drive every monster out of Ferman’s territory after all.
They had succeeded in seizing glory with their own hands.
There was now no one in this empire who could carelessly discard those who had fulfilled its long-cherished wish and exterminated the monsters. The Emperor would have no choice but to produce the promised reward.
That was what Regina thought as she looked up at Herais, who stood beside the aging emperor with a smile that looked almost mask-like.
***
That evening, after the welcoming banquet, Regina was summoned by the Empress.
The Empress, whose body had always been frail, had relied on Regina’s healing magic more and more as she grew older. Hearing that she had been called for, Regina went to the Empress’s palace without thinking of anything else.
Even when she stepped into the dim, gloomy palace, all she felt was concern. The Empress had been confined to her sickbed for so long that she had grown too weak to endure even strong sunlight.
“I came when I was called, Your Imperial Majesty.”
No sound came from within. There were no maids in sight, though they should have been guarding the Empress’s bedroom.
“Your Majesty…?”
Regina knew it was rude, but she moved closer to the bedroom door.
Perhaps the Empress had lost consciousness from the pain. Regina wanted to help if she could, because this was the same woman who had shown her kindness.
Creaaak—
The bedroom door opened with a harsh, grating sound. It was exceedingly rare to hear such a noise in the meticulously maintained imperial palace, especially in the Empress’s own chambers.
Unease prickled through Regina, and she called out again, louder this time.
“Your Imperial Majesty?”
But there was no answer.
Questions circled through Regina’s mind.
If only she had not been forbidden from using magic inside the palace, she would have moved her mana at once and searched every corner of the room.
Yet the frustration of being unable to do so drove her to look beyond the door with her own eyes.
When she stepped into the bedroom, a chill in the air and a familiar smell made Regina shiver all at once.
It was the smell of death. The sorrowful, pitiful stench of grief she had smelled countless times while wandering battlefields.
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