Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: 54. As Gloriously as Flames (6)
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After a brief mourning for the fallen, we headed straight to our next destination.
Perhaps because the heightened excitement hadn't worn off yet, no one complained about the grueling march right after the battle, without even a moment to rest.
But fatigue still built up nonetheless, so when the excitement began to subside, I ordered a halt to the march and instructed everyone to rest.
Tuk.
As I lay sprawled out watching the soldiers bustle about, I heard footsteps approaching.
Still lying down, I craned my head back and rolled my eyes.
A woman who had just removed her helmet, her sweat-soaked hair clinging to her cheeks and forehead—yet even that sight was as beautiful as a painting.
Arwen Kirguyen was looking down at me.
"Your Highness."
When I just stared at her silently, she called out to me.
But her voice sounded somehow stiff.
I abruptly sat up.
Now that I looked closely, her expression was definitely different from usual.
Her face was subtly tense, and her melancholic eyes didn't suit her at all.
"You look like you have something to say."
I adjusted my posture and waited for her to speak.
"Was there really no other way to handle it?"
After hesitating for a long while, she finally spoke.
"What do you mean?"
"They had given up resistance. They discarded their swords and spears, seeking only to save their lives."
It was too somber to call it reproach, too dry to call it pity.
It was closer to self-mockery.
"I can understand executing the defeated commanders to hold them accountable, but wasn't granting such merciless deaths even to the soldiers who merely followed orders a bit excessive?"
No wonder she had been unusually quiet; she must have been mulling over the recent battle the whole way here.
"As victors, I think we could have shown a bit more mercy."
I sighed at her somber words.
If she had simply stood there aloof, arms crossed, declaring she couldn't strike down unarmed foes, I would have berated her no matter who she was.
But I knew she had fought harder than anyone. I had even seen her with my own eyes stabbing her sword into the backs of fleeing enemies to carry out my orders.
Her anguish deserved respect.
I quietly studied her face.
Her starry eyes had dried up completely. Those pitch-black, lifeless orbs were filled with guilt and doubt.
If left alone, it would surely fester into a heart demon.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue without thinking.
Under my clear gaze, Arwen spoke in a voice squeezed out like wrung cloth.
She said it wasn't battle—it was a massacre.
I stood and faced her directly.
"Arwen."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Mercy from the victor? You're already talking as if we've won the war."
She flinched.
"Those four victories must have felt monumental to you. After cutting down the indolent ones, they started seeming like the weak. Seeing them beg for their lives stirred your pity."
Arwen didn't deny my words.
"So, were they truly the weak?"
She gave no answer to my question.
"We've won so far. I pray it continues. But we can't assume it'll always be like today. One day, we might have to drink the bitter cup of defeat."
I didn't wait for her reply either.
"We're not like the Empire. A single loss could jeopardize the kingdom. This war is a fight between those we protect and those we must crush—and because we're the weak."
She bit her lip.
"Mercy is what the strong grant the weak. The mercy of the weak is nothing but fleeting bravado."
"I'm not talking about the knights and commanders. I'm speaking of how we treat the powerless soldiers."
"Powerless soldiers..."
I gave a cold laugh at her words.
"Then let me ask you this. Are the 'powerless' Empire soldiers you speak of weaker than the kingdom's people?"
Before Arwen could answer, I pressed on.
"If we show them mercy, how? Is stripping their swords and spears enough—do you think releasing them would satisfy? Or would taking them prisoner, sparing their lives, be enough?"
Released, they'd be absorbed into other legions and turn their spears and swords against the kingdom once more. As prisoners, they'd slow our advance and burden our shoulders.
"Do you think we have the strength for that?"
Either way, it was a burden the kingdom couldn't bear right now.
"My meager compassion, your hollow mercy, someone's naive chivalry—it could lead them straight to our kingdom. And do you believe that when they arrive, they'll gratefully honor the mercy we showed by sparing our allies and the kingdom's people?"
I had seen countless fortresses and citadels fall to the Empire. I had witnessed time and again the fate of neighboring territories and villages.
There were no 'powerless soldiers' as the righteous Arwen described. Only plunderers and destroyers drunk on madness. And the grief and resentment of those trampled and slaughtered by them.
"Remember this, Arwen."
I grabbed her evasive cheeks and forced her to look at me.
"Our fight is the desperate thrashing of those backed into a corner, the precarious steps of one walking a tightrope."
I stared straight into her wandering, shaken eyes, repeating myself.
Look at me. Look into my eyes.
Her lightless eyes finally focused.
"If we can win this war..."
I met those eyes squarely and said,
"I will gladly become a devil."
I released Arwen and glanced around.
Before I knew it, knights and soldiers had gathered, listening to our conversation.
Some among them surely shared Arwen's thoughts.
This rotten kingdom—why did it have so many upright souls? My lips twitched despite myself.
"So all you need to do is obey my orders. If anyone reproaches you, just say you followed the devil's command."
If the day came to atone for today's sins and bloodshed, it would be me who paid.
It was merely a handful of blood poured atop the mountain of karma I'd accumulated living by the cursed sword.
No one spoke. Silence hung over the camp.
I glanced at Arwen and the knights, then lay back down.
As I covered myself with a blanket to sleep, a crisp voice pierced my ears.
"I will become a devil too."
It was Quean, captain of the Black Spear Cavalry.
"What, isn't being called a devil by the enemy a compliment?"
Ilai butted in abruptly.
"What a coincidence. Even I was called the orc's calamity, the devil of Winter Citadel."
"The calamity of our allies, devil to your subordinates."
"Shut it! Devil's a devil, no matter who calls it!"
A ranger company commander and squad leaders chuckled.
With that, knights and soldiers began shouting they'd gladly become devils to the Empire troops.
"Then I..."
Adelia timidly chimed in.
"You're plenty devilish already."
I teased her playfully.
On the battlefield, she was already a finer devil than anyone.
A devil mad for blood and crazed for war.
Before I knew it, I was bantering nonsense with the veteran rangers, chuckling along.
The unique cheerfulness of Ballerhards, unlost even in death-ridden Winter Citadel.
The central knights and soldiers, swept up in the mood, shed their heavy expressions and just shouted.
They'd be the Empire's calamity. Devils for the kingdom's sake.
"Isn't that our legion's name?"
"What?"
I instinctively frowned at Ilai's random remark.
"Winter Devil Legion? A devilish army from the freezing north..."
As he boasted, thinking it clever, my heated chest cooled instantly.
I ignored him without hesitation.
"I..."
Then a faint voice, barely audible unless I strained, slipped into my ear.
It was Arwen.
"Am Your Highness's sword."
As if reaffirming her oath of fealty, she said to me,
"If Your Highness is a devil, then I am the demon sword."
Her eyes no longer wavered.
She had shaken off the seed of a heart demon in such a short time—I was immensely proud.
I absentmindedly ruffled her hair, and she bowed her head, face flushing red.
Adelia, who had appeared unnoticed, watched with inexplicable envy, while Ilai slyly reached out only to get his hand smacked.
Seeing that unchanging scene, no different from Winter Citadel, I just laughed.
Thus the night passed, and when day broke again, we spurred our horses toward the enemy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Four days passed.
But the Empire legion with wyvern knights, said to be four days away, was nowhere in sight.
The wyvern knights' intel had never been wrong before, so the knights grew restless.
"Rangers, scout the vicinity. Everyone else, hold position."
Soon, the scouting rangers returned, reporting traces of a large legion's camp.
"The Empire forces departed north at least two days ago."
I frowned.
The Empire moving faster than expected was absolutely not a good sign.
"Wyvern knights there!"
A sharp-eyed ranger spotted a tiny dot approaching from the horizon and shouted.
Sure enough, the speck grew rapidly, revealing a wyvern.
Whoosh.
The wyvern knight landed amid a fierce dust wind and urgently shouted without even dismounting.
"The situation has changed! The target legion is advancing north rapidly, and half the Empire legions spread across the front have vanished! The entire Sky Knights are scattered searching for the missing Empire forces!"
"Why the sudden change?"
"Reason, route, objective—all unknown so far!"
Suppressing my unease, I asked for the target legion's precise location. Fortunately, the wyvern knights hadn't lost track of them.
"The target legion is three days from here, marching north at high speed."
The rangers said the Empire had left two days ago.
Yet a force that departed two days ago was three days away? That meant their marching speed was unnatural.
"Stragglers are minimal."
Even on that mad forced march, few fell behind.
It meant they were true elites, unlike the Empire troops we'd fought so far.
The situation was dire.
The enemy's elite legion was three days ahead, pushing north fast. Even riding hard from now, catching them before they crossed the border wouldn't be easy.
And even if we did, battling with exhausted troops after a forced march was impossible.
Our forces, having swept through enemy lines and fought four battles, needed to conserve strength.
"Hm."
I sorted the situation and pondered the Empire's goal.
Even conferring with the command staff yielded no answers.
The wyvern knight said they'd likely uncover the missing info and purpose in two days at most, and asked for my decision.
The answer was decided from the start.
"We'll push north and catch the enemy."
Time was critical.
Until now, only the Empire was our foe. From here on, time was our enemy too.
Before the enemy's elite legion struck Silver Lion Citadel. Before the vanished Empire legions appeared at the kingdom's weak points.
Before they inflicted massive damage, we had to hurry to the border.
I urged the wyvern knight to report back immediately on the missing legions' positions or why the enemy commander had accelerated, then began marching north at once.
After three days of urgent travel, we reached a point not far from the kingdom's border.
"The Empire never intended a frontal assault on the border from the start! The forces at the border and en route were mere decoys—their real target was elsewhere!"
The wyvern knight returned around then.
"They were aiming for your capital from the beginning!"
Through him, I finally learned the reason for the Empire's sudden shift, but it brought no joy.
"Your capital is under fierce assault from the Empire's detachments and knight orders. In response, your sovereign has ordered Your Highness's immediate return!"
It was far more horrific than anything I'd imagined.