The Crowded Fortress
Allied forces from across the kingdom of Bluisol continued to pour into Ileang Castle in droves.
Among them were many soldiers sent from the very regions Jeanne had visited earlier.
Even though the enemy held the nation’s heart—the capital tightly in their grasp—small and medium-sized units alike slipped through enemy eyes to reach the mountain fortress.
With Nael and Dane, the only knights from the Second Knight Order who had accompanied Jeanne to Ileang, returning, Grand Commander Gaspar went out to greet them personally.
“Did even you come at the command of the Second Knight Commander?”
“You still refuse to address Her Highness as Queen, I see.”
“Right now I am merely the Grand Commander. The military must obey the rank system where it stands, mustn’t it.”
Yet Gaspar never forgot to use at least the bare minimum of honorifics.
Divine shrugged her shoulders in response to his words and explained her reason for being here.
“I expect a major battle is coming soon, so staying here will be more helpful.”
“Perhaps it’s simply because accompanying you has grown tiring.”
“Oh, must you insist on dragging out the truth I’ve been trying to ignore?”
Even if her words carried that weight, Jeanne had decided that sending Divine and Heini to the castle was for their greater protection there, not because she needed them at her side.
“I wish the Second Knight Commander would arrive soon.”
“He’ll be here any moment. I’m eager to see him myself.”
Divine stared in the direction Jeanne had moved.
***
In her previous life, Bluisol had suffered a devastating defeat at Ileang. The enemy had seized the fortress. But this time, against the first charge of Nicolas, they had won with pride.
Yet Aaron’s failure to gain ground would only grow more desperate. The greedy, ambitious king of Rotinzel could not possibly endure such a long, stagnant war.
Jeanne had foreseen the second battle of Ileang with certainty.
“But is it truly all right for us to be here?”
Fabian asked with genuine concern in his voice.
Jeanne had sent several knights and even Divine to the fortress, yet she herself remained outside. Fabian was curious about her true intention.
“Right now Ileang is the gathering point of the entire kingdom’s strength. I believe they can hold Aaron back without fail.”
Jeanne intended to head to Gironde. The crime-ridden city that had once been called a commercial center, now a den of thieves and assassins.
With Bluisol’s military forces stretched thin, eliminating key enemy leaders through assassination would prove a decisive boon. It would also prevent allied soldiers from being slain by their own spies.
To them nationality meant nothing but coin. Before Rotinzel’s reach could be extended, hands must be cut first.
And if Jeanne’s memory was accurate, the time when those “things” would be discovered on the eastern frontier was now.
Chastan, warming his hands by the campfire, startled at a flying spark and quickly hid them behind his back.
He, too, had been meant to be sent to Ileang, but in this timeline he was considered “already dead” according to the future Jeanne knew. Even one who knew so much about the war’s course could not predict his exact death, so this time she had decided to keep him close and protect him herself.
Beside Jeanne stood her personal guard knight, Fabian, along with the new priest from the Horde, Samuel, and Chastan and Ines.
Unlike the other priests who had immediately rushed off to support the fortress, Samuel had tagged along because he wished to walk wider paths and help people, as Jeanne had requested.
Finally, Ines added wood to the fire, her face twisted in disgust, and asked Jeanne.
“Why did you bring me along?”
The sudden question drew Jeanne’s gaze to her. Her platinum hair, so bright it almost looked white in the strong light, and her gray eyes made her look every inch the saint more than Jeanne herself.
“Because I believe traveling with you will be useful.”
In her previous life Ines had never revealed her past to Jeanne, no matter how long they walked together. Jeanne had only pieced it together from the fragments she had let slip.
If one truly wished to lay the past to rest, avoidance was not enough; one had to confront it head-on and shatter it. That was Jeanne’s judgment.
Night in the forest fell swiftly. A single campfire was lit, and the group curled around it to sleep in rotation. Ines claimed the deepest, most exhausting hours of dawn.
Ines stared quietly into the flames. Red embers leaped, flickered, and when a stray spark died, her thoughts wandered.
How much did her superior—the Second Knight Commander, Jeanne Luare—truly know?
Truly mysterious. How easily she had been absorbed into the Second Order, and how she moved without hesitation, as if she already knew the future.
Most of all, that calm bearing that seemed to know her… unsettled Ines.
‘There is only one city in this direction. Gironde. Why here of all places…’
Should she say something now and head to Ileang with the others to face the enemy?
The flames swayed again. The fire dancing in Ines’s pupils mirrored its rhythm. Ines closed her eyes.
‘No. We must face it sooner or later. Let us settle this once and for all.’
Ines endured the night with open eyes long after her watch ended.
***
After walking for about two days, a city finally appeared. Gironde.
Once called a commercial center, Gironde had been flooded with greedy men who, in a blink, became a city of corruption. Wealthy residents fled, leaving only those who fought one another to survive. The cycle of theft and betrayal turned the city increasingly desolate.
Eventually it became Bluisol’s worst criminal den.
Dark organizations tangled together throughout the city made it untouchable by the kingdom. Like cockroaches, they could not be uprooted; they hid and bred in the shadows until the moment was right.
Jeanne did not believe this had happened by chance. The kingdom had ignored rising reports simply because the small city was inconvenient, and that negligence had allowed Gironde to rot.
The streets were filthier than ever. Men sprawled on the ground, drugged and mindless. Hands stretched out for coins. Bodies slumped, stabbed by unknown blades.
Begging, prostitution, theft, murder—Gironde had become the new normal.
“Truly there are so many pitiful souls here.”
Samuel glanced around, folded his hands, and prayed. Even criminals, in his eyes as a priest, were merely souls in need of God’s mercy.
Ines watched the man on the ground with cold eyes. The figure moaning from a stab wound was unlikely to be innocent.
“There is no need to pity them. Criminals are criminals, after all.”
“Everyone commits sins. The only difference is the severity. It is the will of the Horde to give them the chance to repent.”
Ines offered no argument, yet she could not fully embrace the sentiment.
A man staggering from the opposite direction brushed past Jeanne and quickly snatched her purse.
Ines seized the hand.
“Tch.”
The thief tried to wrench free and flee, but Ines’s grip was unbreakable.
“What shall we do?”
“Just let him go.”
“But he attempted to steal the Commander’s purse.”
“There is no suitable punishment here. We cannot take him to prison, and we cannot cut off his wrist.”
“Cut off his wrist, you say? That seems reasonable.”
Jeanne narrowed her eyes at Ines. Ines returned the gaze as if asking what the problem was.
“Still, let him go. I do not wish you to involve yourself in such matters.”
Ines released the thief’s hand. He spat on the ground and vanished into the alley in an instant.
Jeanne wandered the streets of Gironde as if she had no purpose. Every time an outsider passed, pickpockets would approach—only to be caught by Ines.
When this pattern continued, Jeanne entrusted everything to Ines. And then the atmosphere changed.
These men were far quieter, far more stealthy than the others.
Ines sensed the hidden presence and warned the group. She moved swiftly.
The moment Ines returned before Jeanne, two men clad entirely in black lay sprawled on either side of her.
“Did you come to kill me?”
Ines asked coldly.
Jeanne questioned her.
“Are they acquaintances?”
“Yes.”
“Did they seek you out? Or were they targeting me?”
“No. Among the pickpockets I released, one appears to have recognized me.”
Ines looked at Jeanne with eyes that seemed to ask why she had let them live.
“Once we entered this city, even if I had killed him, word would have spread immediately.”
“Commander. These people are criminals. You need not treat criminals as citizens.”
“Not all of them are criminals. Children born to criminal parents among them cannot be labeled the same.”
“…”
“Even if they are criminals, they are still my people for now. Punishment will be decided by me.”
The assassin, hearing Jeanne’s words of mercy, immediately shouted in hope.
“I never intended to kill!”
One of the assassins aiming at Ines raised both hands. The other knelt, waiting for Ines’s judgment.
“Assassination work has been laid aside for a long time. I heard a war broke out outside. When strangers appeared, I panicked and tried to flee to the empire with the money I had gathered.”
Ines punched the man in the stomach with a cold expression.
“Kerk—”
“I never meant to kill. Then what is this?”
Ines searched his body and pulled out a hidden stiletto. The sharp blade gleamed coldly.
At that moment.
Sssst.
The man who had been kneeling raised a hidden needle and lunged at Ines.
Jeanne tilted her head back, avoiding the point, but the sharp tip grazed a long scratch across her neck.
Ines wiped the blood running down her hand.
“Always poison your weapons. That was the lesson.”
“I know. There is no antidote.”
“Unfortunately, this much poison does not affect me.”
The assassin’s eyes widened.
“Thoroughly investigate your targets. That was the lesson too. If you knew why he wanted to kill me, then you would know about me as well?”
Ines snatched the needle from his hand and pressed the tip to his throat.
“Guide us. To the Black Wing.”
The assassin led the group into the shadowy alley. Ines’s stiletto hovered at the back of the guide’s neck. One wrong move and he would die instantly.
Through twisting alleys they descended into the basement of an unfamiliar building. Ines gave a small signal, and everyone raised their hands, ready to draw swords at any moment, except Samuel.
Ines pushed the guide forward. From here, no further instructions were needed. She knew every inch of the place. Even after ten years, Gironde’s darkest, ugliest quarter remained unchanged.
The underground kingdom where the self-proclaimed king of the depths lived.
Beneath a faint lantern light, a dark silhouette finally appeared.
“Long time no see, Ines.”
“I would appreciate it if you would refrain from using that disgusting mouth to speak my name.”
“So even toward Father you behave this way? You’ve grown rough.”
Vicente, leader of the Black Wing, smiled gently at Ines.