We Meet Again So Soon
The supply depot did not burn because of a military order. The military order arrived only after the depot was already in flames. The Eastern supply officer, clutching an envelope stamped with a black seal, heard the sound of hooves before he could even break the wax.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Black banners rose from the darkness. Behind them, fire arrows rained down. The oil-soaked tents were the first to erupt. The dry timber groaned. The hay, grain sacks, horse feed, and spare quivers of arrows stored within the depot all fed the fire at once. The Eastern night turned crimson.
“It’s an ambush!” the supply officer screamed. But it was already too late. The outer supply depot was not a fortress; it was a lifeline meant to sustain the front lines. A lifeline is more fragile than a stone wall. And the Black King Castle hadn’t come to batter down the walls. They had come to strangle the lifeline.
“Close the east gate!”
“The supply route is on fire!”
“Where are the Blood Family soldiers!”
The answer came from within the flames. A guide banner stamped with the black seal of Roadmia. One of the auxiliary supply routes for the Eastern military camp had been left open. The guide hadn't betrayed them; the master had simply changed. Through that path, the cavalry of the Black King Castle poured in.
The black seal. The military order of the Black King Castle. Seradin’s black armor. And the head of the Roadmia Blood Family. The Eastern outskirts were not prepared to face all four at once.
Kardia Noxbell saw the glow of the fire while on her way back from the Black King Castle. At first, she thought it was a fire in a distant village. But that was impossible. There were no villages in that direction. There was only the depot. The outer supply depot of the Eastern military camp.
Kardia’s hand moved to her hilt. “Turn the horses around.”
The soldiers following her hesitated. “General?”
“I said turn the horses around!”
The horses kicked up dirt. Kardia galloped, cutting through the darkness. Her black hair whipped behind her. Her heart hammered against her breastplate. Lucion. The name echoed in her mind. The man who had been sitting in the throne room just moments ago. The man who spoke of sparing a single soldier. The man who had them write names in a ledger instead of drawing swords. That man. On the very night he said those things.
He had struck the supply depot.
“…….”
Kardia gritted her teeth. What came before the rage was shock and disbelief. That weak prince. That soft prince. The man who had gasped at the smell of blood. This quickly? What on earth was happening?
The supply depot drew near. Flames. Screams. Shattered carts. Scattered horse feed. And soldiers standing with weapons in hand, yet unable to move.
“Raise your shields!” Kardia shouted from her horse. “Do not abandon the depot! Form a line!”
The soldiers looked at her. Their gazes were strange. They weren't the eyes she was used to. Fear was familiar; everyone fears something on the battlefield. But there was something else mixed into their eyes now. Hesitation.
“I said raise your shields!”
One soldier opened his lips. “General.”
“What is it?”
“A proclamation has been circulating from the Black King Castle.”
“A proclamation?”
The soldier held out a crumpled piece of paper with trembling hands. It bore a black seal. Kardia snatched it.
Soldiers who lay down their weapons shall be reclassified not as Blood Family soldiers, but as protected soldiers of the Black King Castle.
Those on the protection list shall not be punished for their bloodline or military record.
Kardia crumpled the paper in her fist. “Is this why your hands were slow? Because of a single piece of paper?”
The soldier couldn't answer. Kardia grabbed him by the collar. “Are you protecting the paper, or the front line!”
The soldier’s eyes wavered. He said, very quietly, “Ladin survived.”
Kardia’s hand froze. “What did you say?”
“Ladin…… went to the Black King Castle, and he survived.”
A burst of flame roared. The red light illuminated the soldier’s face. “We aren't abandoning Prince Belion.” The soldier gritted his teeth. “We just want to live.”
Kardia let him go. It wasn't that she let him go; the strength simply drained from her hand. In that moment, Kardia realized. Lucion hadn't just struck the supply depot. He had struck the soldiers' tongues. He had struck the soldiers' hands. He had carved a path into the heart of their fear. Not by cutting with a sword, but with ledgers, meals, a place to sleep, and a protection list.
“General!” A scream came from the side. Kardia turned her head. A force in black armor was descending from the retreat path. A woman stood at the lead. A long scar on one cheek. Black armor. Seradin. The executioner’s sword of the Black King Castle who had closed the palace gates. She didn't hold a spear. She held only a long sword. And that sword had not yet been drawn. That was the most humiliating part.
“Move aside,” Kardia said.
Seradin did not answer. Behind her, the banner of the Roadmia Blood Family appeared. Kardia’s eyes hardened coldly. “Roadmia.”
Only then did Seradin open her mouth. “The path is open.”
“A path of betrayal, no doubt.”
“It is the path of the Black King Castle.”
Kardia drew her sword. The blade flashed red as it caught the firelight. At that moment, Seradin’s sword was also half-drawn. But Seradin did not charge. Another banner rose from the side. The Black Armor Guard. Varkan’s forces. Hoofbeats stopped behind Kardia as well. Seradin in front. The Black Armor Guard behind. A burning depot to the side. And beneath her feet, soldiers were beginning to lay down their weapons.
Kardia stood with her sword raised. She was in the middle of a battlefield. But it was strange. There was nowhere to swing her blade. She could see the enemies she needed to cut, but the soldiers she couldn't cut stood in her way. The depot she needed to save was already burning. The path she needed to return to was already closed. The soldiers she needed to command were looking at the Black King Castle’s protection list before they looked at her mouth.
Kardia gritted her teeth. “Cowardly.” She didn't know who that word was directed at—the enemy, or herself.
Seradin said, “It is war.” The words were short. And just as cruel.
Kardia tightened her grip on her sword. “I have not yet been defeated.”
“That is not for you to decide.”
Seradin raised her hand. The Black Armor Guard moved. Kardia lunged. She was fast and precise. Her sword was still the sword of the battlefield. She sheared the shaft of the first guard’s spear and shoved the second soldier’s shoulder. Before the third could move in, she twisted her body to parry Seradin’s blade.
Clang!
The sound of steel erupted amidst the flames. Seradin’s arm was pushed back. In that moment, Kardia was undeniably strong. The tip of Noxvine’s blade. The sword the Eastern military camp had trusted. The name the soldiers had entrusted their backs to. But being strong and winning were different things.
Varkan moved. The Black Armor Guard Captain’s sword was heavy and short. Kardia parried it. But in that split second, a hilt struck the back of her knee from behind. Kardia’s body dropped. She gritted her teeth and tried to stand again. The tip of Seradin’s sword stopped at her throat. Varkan’s sword rested on her wrist. The pressure to drop her sword. The silence that promised to sever her wrist if she didn't.
Kardia held out. Her fingers turned white. The flames licked at her face. Then, the soldier from before spoke again. “General.”
Kardia did not turn her head. “We…… want to live.”
The sword fell from Kardia’s hand. The iron struck the dirt. It was a short sound. But it was clearer than any scream she had ever heard.
Seradin said, “Record it.”
A scribe stepped forward. His hands were clean, ill-suited for a battlefield. Those hands opened a ledger. “Name.”
Kardia did not answer. Varkan’s sword lowered a fraction. The scribe said again, “Name.”
Kardia gritted her teeth. “Kardia Noxbell.”
The pen moved. Scratch. Scratch.
“Affiliation.”
“Eastern military camp.”
“Rank.”
Kardia’s lips twisted. “General.”
The scribe paused for a moment. He looked at Seradin. Seradin said, “Correction.”
The tip of the pen moved again. “Rebel prisoner.”
Kardia’s face contorted for the first time. Rage. Humiliation. And a tremor of disbelief. She had lost her sword before. She had been wounded before. She had even retreated in defeat. But she had never had her name taken from her. The moment 'General' was replaced by 'Prisoner'. Kardia Noxbell had been defeated for the first time—not on the battlefield, but on a ledger. And on the very first line of that ledger, her name was written. The prisoner roster opened anew in the name of Lucion Vergrad. The first name. Kardia Noxbell.
***
The prisoner reception room of the Black King Castle was cold. The firelight lay low against the stone walls. Kardia was brought in with her hands bound. Her armor was scorched, and blood seeped from her shoulder. Her sword was gone. That was the most noticeable thing.
The sword-wielding ex-girlfriend. Had returned without her sword.
I sat in my chair. To be honest, I wanted to clap inside. Ex-girlfriend revisit event. Location: Prison. Dress code: Bound. At this point, it wasn't a story of regret; it was a story of arrest. If this were a web novel, that is. But I didn't smile on the outside. Smiling makes you look pathetic. A King does not smile. A King records.
I looked at her. “We meet again so soon, Kardia Noxbell.”
Kardia’s eyes pierced me. “You are cowardly.”
“It is war.”
“If I had been on the battlefield—”
“You were there,” I said.
Kardia’s mouth stopped.
“You were on the battlefield.” I opened the prisoner roster. I pressed my fingertip against the name written on the first line. “It’s just that the battlefield you knew had already ended.”
Kardia’s bound hands trembled. It was because of rage. No. It wasn't just rage. I said quietly, “You didn't lose because you weren't on the battlefield.”
A beat.
“You lost because you couldn't admit until the very end that the battlefield had changed.”
Kardia couldn't say a word. It was the first time. The first time she had stopped in front of words rather than a sword. I closed the prisoner roster.
“You said you would come to verify.”
Kardia’s face stiffened. I said, “Have you verified it?”
My voice was calm.
“The shadow of the Black King Castle.”
And finally.
“That it can reach you before a sword ever could.”