339. The Silver-Haired Witch
339. The Silver-Haired Witch
***
Clank, clank! Clank, clank!
The mere movement of a large-scale army in disciplined order produced the sound of iron meshing, a continuous low noise.
Zernati's rebel army.
The very word "rebel army" carried an unpleasant ring, and yet, for a force gathered under the banner of rebellion, their discipline was remarkably uniform and their morale keenly honed. Never in the long span of history had there been rebels so lavishly armed.
But all of that was only natural.
It was possible because the empire's own knight orders and soldiers had turned against it.
At the head of those rebels, Zernati slowly urged his horse forward, watching the marching troops.
'Before long... great chaos will sweep through.'
And if they could seize the fortress ahead, they would gain a decisive advantage in the war to come.
With justification and momentum both on their side, now was the time to strike.
The empire was rotting away. Knowing how much more blood would be spilled because of it, they had to stop the empire now.
Before Zernati's eyes stretched the vast open land and the blue sky.
The blue sky looked utterly untroubled and clear, and the wilderness, lush with fresh greenery, brimmed with life.
But the storm of blood about to sweep through here—how much devastation would it take before it stopped?
"..."
Zernati let out a silent sigh and shook his head, the motion barely perceptible.
Beyond this wilderness lay the inner fortress. And beyond that, the imperial palace in the capital.
As the image of a certain woman in that palace rose in his mind, the fierce resolve in Zernati's eyes dimmed faintly, and even the hand gripping his horse's reins trembled almost imperceptibly.
—Birua von Cecilia.
The princess who had seized imperial power had changed completely.
And all of it was because of a single person. A witch, white as snow.
Because of a witch who had appeared from nowhere, the princess had embraced an immense ambition she should never have harbored, and had been swept away by the absurd notion of continental unification.
The blood spilled for it was far too much to overlook, and still the princess sought to see far more blood than that.
The loyalty he had believed immutable had no choice but to change.
If he could drag down the princess who had strayed so far, and save the lives of tens of millions to come...
Then the image of the white witch at the princess's side rose in his mind.
Zernati's expression froze cold as a blade of frost, and a vast, dark killing intent filled his eyes.
"...!"
The many escort knights riding around him flinched at that intense killing intent and could not help but turn toward him.
Even so, Zernati remained absorbed in a single thought.
'If only the witch could be separated from the princess's side, then perhaps...'
Could the princess, who had already strayed so far, be restored to her original wise and brilliant self? It was a thought he had turned over dozens—no, hundreds of times, and though he knew it was hopeless, he could not shake off the lingering attachment.
In truth, it was questionable whether the witch could even be separated from the princess at all.
The white witch had entrenched herself as the princess's closest confidante and wielded absolute power. Who would dare tear her from the princess's side now?
Her personal martial prowess surpassed that of most knights, and he had heard that several past surprise attacks had been repelled with laughable ease.
'Even so... she must be killed.'
They had once stood on the same battlefield with the same goal, and he had acknowledged her skill.
But if that witch remained alive, the princess would never change. The image of the princess trusting the witch and lavishing her with everything was still vivid in his mind.
The princess had been brilliant and wise beyond measure since childhood. For Zernati, who had devoted everything to her, a part of his heart lay heavy.
He had not the slightest hesitation about turning rebel and standing against the empire.
But at the end of it, he would have to point his sword at the princess—the one he had believed he must protect above all others.
@#$%.
A faint murmur of noise from up ahead broke his long reverie.
"What is it?"
"There seems to be a disturbance causing a delay. I will ascertain the cause at once."
When Zernati asked, the knight who answered with crisp courtesy immediately departed toward the front to investigate, and the army came to a complete halt.
'Are they staging guerrilla attacks to delay us, even a little?'
The imperial household would not hand over the fortress easily. Gazing toward the distant place where the disturbance had arisen, Zernati activated his mana.
His vision expanded in an instant, and he could not help but widen his eyes at the sight that met him.
—The white witch.
Even if her appearance had changed somewhat, that face was impossible to forget.
The witch who should have been at the princess's side right now had appeared on the battlefield, flaunting herself.
***
The plan they had most readily agreed on for dealing with Zernati was a "surprise attack." More precisely, they had settled on launching a surprise attack amid chaos.
Someone would act as bait to draw the rebel army's attention and disrupt their formation, and in the confusion, they would strike at Zernati.
However, the rebel army's numbers, which at a glance reached four digits, showed no sign of breaking formation under ordinary chaos, so the three women exchanged a great deal of discussion.
The danger of being bait, the feasibility, whether the formation would break, and so on.
While they were still talking, Serin suddenly volunteered.
She would be the bait and draw the army's attention.
...
"You're going to be the bait, Serin?"
"Rin... wouldn't it be better if I were the bait instead?"
At Serin's words, the other two initially reacted with skepticism.
And with good reason—just from what they had seen in Phase 2, both Sua and Yujeong had realized that Serin was their greatest asset right now.
Using their most critical asset as bait seemed wasteful to them, but Serin shook her head.
"From what I saw of Zernati, he was definitely a knight. And against a knight like that, Sua has the best matchup. And for the escort knights around him, Yujeong is the right fit. So wouldn't the last remaining person have to be the bait?"
Even as she spoke, Serin considered it the best plan.
She had experience fighting multiple opponents alone, and the Crescent-Moon Weight's characteristics gave it an advantage when facing many enemies.
At that, the other two reluctantly nodded.
"If you're that set on it... okay."
"I'll trust you too, Rin."
Once they seemed to have reached an agreement, Serin let out a small laugh and rose to her feet.
"The rebels are almost here, so I'll head out and draw their attention. I'll trust you two, okay?"
She spoke with deliberate playfulness as she gripped her Crescent-Moon Weight. Yujeong smiled brightly back at her, and Sua nodded with a calm expression.
Immediately after, Serin revealed herself from behind a massive boulder and then surged toward the rebel army.
...
"Huh?"
When a figure casually appeared in the path of their march, the soldiers at the front turned their eyes toward her.
A silver-haired woman in red light armor.
The soldiers who looked at her were at first captivated by her beauty, and though they soon warily scanned for other enemies, the only person who had appeared was that single woman.
Just as the knight commanding the soldiers was about to approach her—
The silver-haired woman suddenly swung her hand.
Whoosh!
With a chilling sound, a massive blood-red arc swept across the space itself, and the soldiers at the front found themselves staring blankly at it.
'Is that an aura?'
There was an aura that knights commonly used.
He had heard that the size and shape of the aura changed according to a knight's level, and that it could cut down distant enemies. He had seen knights use it before.
But as a soldier, he had never seen an aura so enormous and wide-ranging.
A blood-red aura that seemed to seize control of the space itself.
As the beautiful blood-red aura swept lightly through his body, the soldier's mind went blank for a moment.
He only felt his vision slowly tilting, as if creaking.
The strange sensation of the world that had been clear until just now suddenly splitting cleanly in two. And that was not a sensation felt by just one soldier.
It was the same bewilderment felt by most of the soldiers at the front.
SPLAAASH!
Along the blood-red arc embroidering the air, about ten soldiers split apart at once, spraying fountains of blood, and a great commotion erupted.
"Kill her!!"
"Don't panic! There's only one enemy!"
The knight commanding the rebels immediately barked orders, and the soldiers began surging toward her all at once.
Whirr!
Watching the scene, Serin steadied her breathing with a deliberately calm expression.
'Familiar, yet unfamiliar.'
The situation itself—standing alone against a multitude of humans—was something she had experienced several times in Black Ark.
But for some reason, the feeling was a little strange now. Among the soldiers charging at her, the corpses felled by her own hand kept catching her eye.
The severed sections were obscured by an opaque mosaic, but the corpses that did not dissolve into motes of light drew her gaze for no reason.
'How are the viewers going to take this?'
With that small idle thought, she swung the Crescent-Moon Weight again.
—Jeolyeon.
A blood-red line slashed upward diagonally. The many soldiers charging at her collapsed once more.
The faces of the fallen soldiers seen up close bore an astonishing variety of expressions.
Eyes that could not believe what was happening, resentment, horror, desperation.
The expressions were so strangely realistic that it made her question Another World itself.
'...They even deliberately implemented this?'
Even as she thought that, she looked toward a figure on horseback far in the distance.
Commander of the Imperial Knight Order, Zernati.
Trusting that Sua would do well, I surrendered my body to instinct.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Dodging dozens of arrows pouring in from all directions, I hurled myself forward to drive even deeper into the enemy ranks.
Like a blade plunging sharp and deep into the flesh of a colossal beast.
I had to make them focus on me.
...
While Serin was churning through the rebel formation with overwhelming momentum—
Zernati was watching her with bloodshot eyes.