Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Translation: godsn
The glimpse of the girl's attire beneath the sackcloth suggested noble status.
The slender silhouette faintly visible in the distance bore an uncanny resemblance to the princess.
"Behold, you royal dogs! This is the true face of the Valdina royalty you protect! This is your precious princess who flees to save her own skin!"
Horols pointed at the sackcloth-covered girl while bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"Will you still lay down your lives for this? Does justice still live in Valdina?"
"Uwooooh!"
The rebel army roared in unison with Horols. Their shouts of "witch," "dog," "vermin," and other colorful epithets carried all the way to the castle walls.
"The princess fled?"
"And got captured by the rebels while trying to save herself?"
"Now that I think about it, I didn't see Her Highness among those who climbed the battlements earlier...!"
At the rebels' shouts, murmurs spread among the commoners within the royal castle.
Being neither soldiers nor officials, they couldn't approach the battlements, so they naturally had no way of knowing what was truly happening above.
"What do we do? If even Her Highness has fled, doesn't that mean there's no hope left in this castle? If those rebels intend to capture and kill us all...!"
With nothing to see and only terrifying shouts to hear, their anxiety grew with each rebel cry.
Yet atop the battlements, the atmosphere was one of utter bewilderment.
"What in blazes is that fool saying? That they've captured Her Highness?"
But our princess is right here?
Margrave Monte alternated his gaze between the scene outside and the princess standing before him.
At that moment, Medeia turned and issued a thunderous command:
"Do not be deceived! I, Medeia de Valdina, stand before you—who exactly do they claim to have captured?!"
Her voice held such depth and majesty that one could scarcely believe it came from a young girl.
"As royalty of Valdina, I do not abandon my people to save myself!"
She stood tall, facing the rebel army directly.
As her proud, resonant proclamation echoed, both sides erupted into murmurs.
"Ha! 'I won't flee'? Don't lie! You're using a fake princess to deceive the ignorant masses! You rotten Valdina nobles!"
Horols, convinced they were the ones lying, swaggered triumphantly toward the captive princess.
"Behold! The true princess stands here!"
With a vicious yank, he tore off the sackcloth, determined to reveal the living proof before the crowd.
As the rough gray sack fell away, pink hair fluttered in the wind.
The moment they saw the girl swaying limply like a reed, Catherine screamed.
"Aaaaah! Virnaaaaa!"
Even at this distance, how could a mother not recognize her own daughter?
The instant Catherine realized it wasn't Medeia but Virna who'd been captured by the rebels, she fainted dead away.
"My dear, pull yourself together!"
Even as he supported his wife, the Regent couldn't hide his shock.
Why was his only daughter Virna the one captured there?
'What in the world is happening?!'
Why was his daughter, who should have been at the ducal residence, all the way out there? What had happened to the ducal knights sent to escort Medeia?
As the Regent stood frozen in confusion, Samon rushed forward, shouting at Horols:
"Silence! How dare you shake this nation with your schemes! I'll cut out that treacherous tongue of yours! Men! Cut down those rebels at once!"
'At the very least, Father, we must shut their mouths.'
This was to prevent the people from learning that the "fleeing princess" the rebels had paraded was actually Duke Claudio's daughter.
But Medeia had no intention of letting Samon's efforts go unchallenged.
She smirked before proclaiming loudly:
"What you've captured is no princess of Valdina! That's Virna Claudio—my cousin and the daughter of Regent Claudio!"
"Medeia!"
As if desperate to silence her, the Regent roared furiously.
Siseo then spoke with feigned confusion:
"Duke Claudio, didn't you say the rebels were targeting Her Highness? To quickly and safely retrieve your daughter, we must reveal that the girl they've captured to kill isn't the princess."
He had perfectly thrown back the Regent's earlier hypocritical words about protecting Medeia.
And he wasn't wrong.
Caught between options, the Regent could only glare murderously at Siseo, utterly at a loss.
"You dare speak of the royal family's corruption when you can't even recognize your own princess? From where, pray tell, does your so-called righteous cause spring?"
At that moment, Medeia's question once again reverberated through the open sky.
No answer came.
Ha. Medeia's derisive snort soon spread into laughter among the soldiers.
"Just who exactly have you captured to be shouting about revolution?!"
The rebels were thrown into confusion upon hearing that the abducted girl was the Duke-Regent's daughter, not the princess.
"W-what? She's not the princess?"
Horols alternated his gaze between the girl standing atop the castle walls and the one beside him.
Though their builds were similar, their hair colors were entirely different. She lacked the signature silver hair characteristic of Valdina's royal lineage.
"You should've verified beforehand!"
Horols swung his fist at his subordinate.
"Sh-she had a sack over her head when we first brought her! The knight from Duke Claudio's household handed her over, so I assumed she was the princess!"
"Where is that knight now? Where did that bastard go?!"
Horols frantically scanned his surroundings, but the knight was nowhere to be seen.
That knight—no, Zeta—had long since discarded the armor of Duke Claudio's household and leisurely returned to the royal castle.
"Damn it all, someone switched the princess. There's a spy among us!"
Unaware of the truth, Horols exploded in fury.
Yet he couldn't retreat now.
Capturing the spy infiltrating the rebel ranks was secondary—what mattered more was not losing momentum in this critical moment.
"That doesn't change the fact that your royal family has sucked the people dry! What were you doing while so many rose against you? We won't stop until this den of corruption and depravity—your royal house—is torn down!"
He shouted louder, gripping his sword and brandishing it wildly.
"Comrades! As one of Valdina's people, I stand here today for our future! Will we entrust our lives to a king mad with war?!"
"Uoooh!"
The bloodthirsty roar reinvigorated the rebels' fervor.
Then, movement stirred behind Horols.
Spotting a tall youth clad in helmet and armor, his face lit up.
"Ah, Theo! Perfect timing! You saw it too, didn't you? They tried to fool us with a fake princess!"
But as if deaf to Horols' words, Theo blankly raised his head.
His gaze fixed on the white castle walls, where the princess stood facing them.
And beside her—a small girl with brown hair.
'Saya...'
[Theo, is your revolution worth more than your own flesh and blood? I await the moment you prove your answer with your own body.]
Though phrased as a gentle question, it was in truth a vicious ultimatum: abandon the revolution, or Saya dies.
And that moment was now.
The princess's words—that this rebellion was merely a scheme by the Regent and its leader for their own gain—swirled chaotically in his mind.
Theo bit his lower lip hard.
The princess's letter had spelled out her demands with crystal clarity.
Its sharp characters rose in his mind like a noose, tightening around his throat.
Even from this distance, the princess's presence gripped his entire being, gnawing at his reason.
The metallic tang of blood seeped into his mouth.
The revolution he'd devoted his youth to, and his sister—his other self—he couldn't abandon either—
At that instant, a female knight stepped behind Saya.
Then, a glint flashed near Saya's throat.
Theo's eyes flew wide.
A blade reflecting sunlight—sharp and merciless enough to pierce his frail sister's neck in one stroke.
"......!"
A soundless scream tore through him.
Theo's gaze shot upward to the castle walls.
Even knowing it impossible, he somehow felt the princess's eyes meet his.
There was nowhere left to run.
A crushing despair pressed down on him, like a mouse driven into a dead end.
Lightning seemed to strike him—his entire body shuddered violently.
"Theo? Are you listening?"
And when that trembling finally stilled, Theo took a step forward.
"Use that clever head of yours and tell me quick—if we lose ground to the royal bastards now—"
In an instant, blood sprayed.
Horols' head hit the ground before he could finish speaking.
"AAAAH!"
"He's dead! He's dead!"
"What? Who died?"
Before the shock could fully spread through the crowd, Theo—teeth clenched—lifted the leader's severed head and roared:
"The rebel leader is dead! Duke-Regent Claudio! Your scheme has been exposed! This false rebellion ends here!"
The boy's bloodstained cry echoed across the heavens.