Chapter 224
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 224
Chapter Title: The Command. (2)
Bianca ran.
Whatever noises came from behind her, she kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, moving her legs without rest.
"Fulfill... the command."
She hammered that one thought into her mind.
She excluded all personal emotions.
If she didn't, she felt like she would stop running at any moment and turn back to where she had come from.
She couldn't do that.
She glanced at the baby cradled in her arms.
The crown prince, not even a month old yet.
This child had lost his parents today. And to kin of the same blood, no less.
Yet seeing him sleep so peacefully made her turbulent heart feel a little calmer.
'I need to hurry to the Crayon family and report everything that happened here.'
The family of Knight Commander Volbinos, one of the true powers in the Silter Kingdom.
If she could just deliver the message there, they could somehow turn the situation around.
The true bloodline of this kingdom's king was here, after all.
Bianca bit her lower lip hard.
"The command... I will fulfill the command no matter what."
Her fellow knights were fighting fiercely to cover her escape.
Tears streamed from her eyes.
Blood from her bitten lip mixed with the tears and trailed down her chin.
Volbinos, the commander who had taken in an orphan like her, and the others who had treated her normally from the start.
They had said they would follow, but she wasn't a fool. She knew.
They would all die.
The royal castle was already fully under the fourth prince's faction, and the remaining palace knights were only those who had been there.
And yet here she was, fleeing?
'I should go back right now...'
She had to obey the command.
But she didn't want to abandon her comrades.
What was the right thing to do?
She knew going back would just mean dying like a dog, but at least dying with her comrades would leave no regrets.
-Survive somehow with Crown Prince Your Highness. This is an order from your commander to his subordinate. You must carry it out.
Volbinos's final words flashed through her mind.
"The command."
She steeled her resolve.
She would agonize no more between regrets, lingering attachments, and the future.
She would finish everything and fulfill her comrades' wishes.
Then, she would return to their side.
That was the best she could do.
Feeling the blood trickling down her chin, Bianca increased her speed.
Thuk-
And an arrow pierced her chest.
Her body tumbled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
The newborn baby bounced off the earth, covered in dirt.
"Waaahhh!"
The baby began to wail.
Thrown to the ground from a full sprint, it was a miracle he was alive and crying.
Someone leaped down from a tree.
An archer wearing a wide-brimmed hat adorned with a hawk's feather.
Shouldering a massive longbow, he stood before the crying baby, the crown prince.
He drew a dagger from his belt and hurled it downward.
Thuk-
The crying stopped.
Red blood soaked the swaddling cloth, pooling on the ground.
"Target eliminated."
The archer left those curt words and departed.
It was a futile moment.
She had run this far, clutching the crown prince and leaving her comrades behind, all to protect him somehow.
Suppressing the urge to turn back, she had run forward.
"The command... must be... fulfilled..."
Bianca crawled along the ground.
She dragged herself with all her might toward the crown prince, who no longer cried.
The command couldn't end like this.
He surely wasn't dead yet.
If there was breath left, she had to do everything she could.
Only then could she face the comrades who had gone first.
How could she face them if she died so pointlessly?
"The command..."
Her vision blurred.
Her breathing weakened, and the pain in her chest slowly faded.
As darkness closed in, she reached out her hand.
The commander had ordered her to survive. To fulfill the command.
'I...'
She couldn't fall here.
She had to go to the Crayon family and tell Volbinos's wife and children.
Run here with Crown Prince Your Highness in her arms.
She could do it.
In this extreme situation, her desperation bordered on brainwashing.
This happened just before her last breath.
And the moment her breath stopped, the underworld understood her "grudge."
Dozens of tentacles extended from the darkness, binding Bianca's body and lifting her into the air.
Her breath had stopped, so she hung limp and powerless.
The full moon rose in the sky.
A chill wind swept through the forest.
Then it happened.
Boom!!!
Far away.
A purple pillar shot up from the direction of the royal castle, piercing the heavens.
Primordial black mana, imperceptible to the living, reacted to the darkness.
Could this truly be called a "miracle"?
Bianca's desperation summoned the power of the underworld, and that power awakened the primordial black mana slumbering in the castle.
The black mana swiftly overtook the underworld darkness enveloping Bianca.
Her body shattered and reformed repeatedly.
Then both the darkness and black mana began to be sucked into her body.
As the darkness holding her aloft vanished, Bianca's body fell to the ground.
...
Just as it seemed like nothing had happened.
Kududuk! Urururuk!
Black armor burst through her skin.
From head to toe, without missing a spot, pitch-black full plate armor took form.
Once fully armored, her closed eyes slowly opened.
Black smoke billowed from the joints of the armor.
Bianca slowly rose to her feet.
She wobbled at first but quickly found her balance and stood straight.
She walked forward and looked down at the crown prince's corpse.
She carefully lifted the tiny body.
"The command... must be... fulfilled..."
Darkness rose and enveloped the crown prince.
The corpse shrank to the size of a hand, becoming a small skull.
She shaped it into a necklace and hung it around her neck.
As black mana settled there, purple glows flickered in the skull's eye sockets before fading.
"The command..."
She assumed a running stance.
The Death Knight she had become thought of only one thing.
"Must be fulfilled."
That alone was the reason she had revived as a Death Knight.
Jamie silently watched Bianca.
He didn't know what to say to her, who had become a Death Knight driven solely by the will to fulfill her command.
In truth, her state wasn't as simple as those words suggested.
Countless tangled emotions had raised her even from death.
"You weren't just trying to slaughter Pibion's family, were you."
"The command..."
Even now, Bianca thought only of the command from her knight commander.
He rubbed his dry face.
He had initially wanted her skills for his own retainers, but now he wondered if that was right.
Wouldn't it be better for her to fulfill her command and send her to her comrades' side?
"Time is precious."
Bianca would feel urgency even in this moment.
Her command was unfinished.
And with a far stronger foe blocking her path, her obsession-like desperation must be shaking her mind even more.
He hadn't realized before, but now her existence felt different.
'A time bomb.'
Now he could see Bianca's true state.
If left like this, she would eventually explode.
He didn't know what would happen then, but one thing was certain.
She would become an unprecedentedly horrific evil spirit, terrifying all the living.
"Release."
The Defying Heaven chains unbound from Bianca's body.
Now free, she raised her hand blade in a single strike for Jamie's throat.
As expected of a top-tier palace knight, it was a fierce attack.
But it didn't reach Jamie.
Defying Heaven chains wrapped around her arms and chest from behind, yanking her back.
Bianca's fingertips halted before Jamie's throat.
"I'll resolve your grudge for you."
"...?"
Jamie snapped his fingers.
"You bastards! They're weak, but there are too damn many!"
"They're undead—they don't tire! Shut up and cut down one more instead of talking!"
"Both of you, quit yapping. You're disrupting my focus."
Jamie glanced at the trio slicing through ghost soldiers, then at Bianca standing silently beside him.
"Go. Fulfill your command."
"...The command."
"Yes. Do that task you must complete. It's in there."
Bianca looked where Jamie pointed.
A shabby house.
She had tried to go there countless times, but something always blocked the house, preventing her approach.
"Now you can go."
At those words, Bianca turned and walked toward the shabby house.
Her limbs trembled.
She didn't know how much time had passed.
But now she had arrived.
First, report what happened at the royal castle. Then entrust Crown Prince Your Highness to the commander's wife.
Teach swordsmanship directly to the commander's children to prepare for the future, rally forces against the fourth prince, and restore Crown Prince Your Highness to the throne as the rightful heir.
Then the command would be complete.
She could return to her comrades.
Srrrrk-
Her helmet crumbled to dust and vanished.
Golden blonde hair cascaded down her back.
The black skull necklace took shape, transforming into a newborn baby sucking its thumb in sleep.
The extension of that day.
Transformed into the form of an ordinary human, Bianca stood before the worn door.
She carefully called out to those sleeping inside.
"Bianca Andrey, ordinary knight of the Royal Palace Knight Order. I have come under Knight Commander Volbinos Crayon's orders."
A small noise came from inside.
The creaky old door slowly opened.
A young boy stood there.
It was Pibion.
"...Who are you, big sis?"
Still sleepy, the half-awake boy asked Bianca in a daze.
Bianca smiled at Pibion.
"I'm your father's subordinate. Is your mother inside?"
"Oh, Father's subordinate?! Mom! Mom!"
"Wh-what is it, Pin? How can you yell so loudly at this hour in the morning."
"Uung..."
A familiar woman's voice and a little girl's grumbling came from inside.
Bianca waited quietly.
The boy Pibion's voice rang out.
"A big sis who says she's Father's subordinate came!"
"What... did you say?"
Rustling noises and urgent footsteps approached from inside.
The woman who appeared at the door, Irina, spotted her and covered her mouth, staggering back.
Bianca bowed politely to her.
"Lady Crayon. It's been a long time."
"...Knight Bianca? How on earth are you here...? No, before that. You're alive?"
"I have much to report, my lady."
"And that baby... who is it?"
"Crown Prince Your Highness."
Irina couldn't continue at those words.
It was impossible.
The crown prince had fallen to the fourth prince's faction. There was no longer any hope of reversal.
The Crayon family had barely escaped total annihilation, with her saving only the two children and fleeing here.
And now, the crown prince?
Regardless of Irina's shock, Bianca continued.
"Right now, at the royal castle, your husband the commander and our comrades are fighting the coup forces. You must flee in the meantime. There's still a chance to plan for the future."
"Wh-what are you saying? The royal castle is already..."
"Mom? What's wrong?"
"Uung... What's going on...?"
Pibion and Fiona, now awake, rubbed their eyes and approached Irina.
Irina gripped the children's hands tightly, about to snap at the nonsensical Bianca.
Then she spotted Jamie in her view.
Jamie mouthed words to her silently.
'Accept her words, my lady.'
Looking at her, Irina realized Bianca was a Death Knight.
And understood why she spoke of long-past events as if they had just happened.
Tears nearly welled up, but she had once been the matriarch of the great Crayon family.
Restraining her emotions, she asked Bianca again.
"Knight Bianca... So you came here from the royal castle with only Crown Prince Your Highness?"
"Mom? What does that..."
"Pin. Take Fiona to another room."
"Huh?"
"Now."
The two children reluctantly obeyed and went to another room.
Irina let out a low sigh and looked at Bianca again.
Bianca forced a smile despite her somber face.
"Yes. I was just fighting the enemy... and came here on the commander's orders. For the future... Yes, for the future."
The crown prince was dead.
Bianca, who had been carrying him, must have died too.
Irina clenched her trembling hands and nodded.
"You did well. Truly, truly well..."
"My lady? Why are you crying...?"
But it seemed she couldn't hold back the tears.
Knowing all the truth, Irina wept in place of the oblivious Bianca.
She reached out carefully.
"Come here. Let me hold him."
"My lady?"
Bianca was bewildered by Irina's sudden action, but strangely, emotion welled up in her chest.
"Wh... Why are there tears?"
She panicked at the tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks.
Why were tears coming now, so out of place in this urgent situation?
She hadn't cried since childhood.
Why in this moment?
"Wh-why. Why do the tears keep coming? Why, my lady? Why does my heart... hurt so much?"
Once started, she couldn't stop the tears.
Her heart ached.
It hurt so much it felt like it would burst.
Endless guilt and the sense of loss from losing precious people.
The torment of failing to complete the command.
All those tangled knots burst forth at once.
Bianca began pouring out her past regrets like a plea.
"I... I abandoned the commander! My comrades! I alone... I alone survived!"
"It's okay. It's really okay."
"I can't live alone... I can't, my lady..."
"Your husband... would understand too. So rest easy. Everyone's waiting for you."
"I... I..."
"Knight Bianca. You did enough. Leave the rest to us and rest."
"I'm sorry, my lady. For failing to protect the commander... for dying on the way here... for putting you through this... I'm truly sorry."
Bianca hugged Irina tightly, tears soaking her cheeks.
All the pent-up rage, torment, pain, and sorrow built over years.
As if pouring it all out, Bianca wept and wept.
Finally.
As it all burned away.
Bianca began to fade away.
"..."
Irina staggered back a step.
Bianca, who had been before her, was gone.
Only a small necklace lay on the ground.
The skull was no longer attached to it.