The Weight of Truce
The fortress city of Rosenburg, the northernmost frontline of the human alliance. Its symbolic and strategic importance had grown even greater than before. All because of the recent truce agreement. The vast stretch of land between Rosenburg and the demon city of Dregardt had been designated as a buffer zone and no-entry area. Until recently, countless battles had raged across that very ground. The majority of the alliance forces—including the hero party that had fought there—had retreated to Rosenburg. And even though several weeks had passed since the truce was signed, they remained in the city.
The reason was simple. They didn’t trust the truce, they didn’t trust Regensraum, and they certainly didn’t trust the demons. They believed the enemy could resume their invasion at any moment.
‘What a headache.’
Guillermo, commander-in-chief of Rosenburg, found himself sighing endlessly these days.
‘I thought once the truce was signed I could finally submit my resignation and enjoy a peaceful retirement.’
This place was a powder keg. The knights were one thing, but the hero parties—each member possessing extraordinary personal combat strength—were staying here in large numbers. It would take time before the city could truly stabilize.
‘Once Rosenburg returns to normal, then I’ll retire.’
Responsible to a fault, Guillermo simply couldn’t abandon the city in its current state and walk away. There was no telling when something might explode. Hero parties were usually bound together by towering pride, making them incredibly difficult to manage. Of course, the heroes themselves were literally chosen by the gods. Their fundamental nature was good. Their party members hadn’t been personally acknowledged by the divine, but they had still passed rigorous screening. Not only in skill, but in character. Anyone with even the slightest flaw in personality would never have been selected.
Still, when proud individuals gathered in one place, conflict was inevitable. Heroes weren’t saints. Expecting too much from them was foolish.
‘Besides…’
Guillermo occasionally caught glimpses of hero parties whose spirits had been worn down over time. In the end, they were only human. Not every member of a hero party was a superhuman, and that included the heroes themselves. After a long, brutal war filled with endless battles, the strong and pure figures they had once been were gone. Every time he saw such heroes, Guillermo’s heart grew heavy.
‘Just a little longer. I’ll keep working a little longer.’
Some hero parties had already begun heading south. The allied nations were gradually withdrawing their troops as well. If he could hold on for another month or two, perhaps he could retire and hand the position over to his successor.
While he waited for that day, the incident occurred.
The terrorist attack at Delphiana Academy.
Fortunately, the casualties were minimal. But it was a massive event that had taken place mere weeks after the truce. It could easily have resulted in countless deaths, and even the princess of Solentia had been caught up in it.
Regensraum immediately released an official statement. They declared that the incident had absolutely nothing to do with their intentions, that it was the reckless act of a single individual, and that they strongly condemned such terrorism. At the same time, they offered a formal apology along with an enormous compensation package.
But naturally, many people didn’t believe them. Especially in Rosenburg, almost no one trusted those words.
“The demons can’t be trusted after all!”
“Who would believe that nonsense!”
“It’s just them cutting off their own tail!”
The hero parties roared in outrage. Those who had been packing to leave promptly settled back down in Rosenburg. If it had ended there, it might have been manageable. But more hero parties began returning to the city.
“War! We must go to war again!”
“Let’s abolish the truce and launch an attack!”
“Sir Guillermo! We have to strike first before those bastards come for us!”
It gave him a headache, but Guillermo couldn’t blame them.
‘Gunter…’
That bastard was the problem. Guillermo had known his name from the beginning. He had known the creature was insane for a long time, but he never imagined it would defy the Demon King’s orders and pull something like this.
‘Where the hell did he disappear to?’
A demon warrior with a notorious reputation. For the past several months, no one had known his whereabouts—only to discover he had been plotting this atrocity.
‘You’re scratching at my insides until the very end.’
Guillermo clenched his fist. Retirement suddenly felt very far away.
‘I hope you suffer in agony until you die.’
From His Majesty the King
From the Knight Commander
From the Chief Attendant
Fortunately, nothing serious had happened to Lily. She was found safe not far from the shelter. But the moment her invisibility spell wore off, she was immediately apprehended.
“What are you doing here?!”
“Uwaaa…”
She had thought no one was around, but she had been wrong.
“You are Her Highness’s attendant, correct? Return to the shelter at once!”
“But Her Highness…”
Later, when she learned that Ditrua had left the shelter once more to search for her, Lily didn’t know what to do with herself.
A few days after the incident, she knelt obediently beside the princess she had desperately wanted to find.
In Ditrua’s dormitory, two knights stood before the two girls with veins bulging in their necks. Their scolding showed no signs of ending even after several hours.
“And you’re no better, Lily! Knowing how much Her Highness cares for you, how could you act so recklessly? Not to mention you haven’t even properly learned magic yet…”
Ditrua and Lily remained silent. Even if they had ten mouths between them, they had nothing to say in their defense.
Just then, a voice came from outside the door.
“Your Highness? A letter has arrived from the royal palace!”
“Yes, one moment.”
Lily, who had been kneeling, stood up with trembling legs and opened the door.
‘My legs are numb…’
The man who entered bowed politely before handing the letter to Ditrua.
“A message from His Majesty to Her Highness.”
Ditrua accepted the letter with a trembling hand.
It’s here. It finally came.
Everyone—Ditrua, Lily, and the two knights—tensed up at the sight of that problematic envelope.
“And these are for the two knights. Miss Lily? There is one for you as well.”
“For me too?”
“Th… this is…”
All four of them swallowed hard. Letters from the king, the knight commander, and the chief attendant. Each of them held their respective letter, trembling with fear. Not only Lily and Ditrua, but the two knights as well had committed the grave offense of losing track of the princess. The terrifying face of the knight commander flashed through their minds.
“Can’t we… just not open these?”
Nathan spoke up.
“What if we say… it got lost on the way…”
The messenger narrowed his eyes at Ethan’s suggestion.
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on, just this once…”
“Not even for Her Highness! I will report that the letters were delivered safely.”
With that firm declaration, he bowed and left.
All that remained were the three letters he had left behind.
“…Shall we open them all at the same time?”
“…Let’s do that.”
At Lily’s suggestion, the other three nodded. They were comrades carrying the same heavy burden.
“Opening them.”
The sound of seals being broken. Four pairs of trembling eyes stared at the letters. Soon, the color of everyone’s faces began shifting dramatically as they read.
“Haaaa.”
Lily, who finished first, let out a sigh of relief. The chief attendant’s letter was mostly filled with concern for her well-being. There was a mild reprimand, but that was all. No order to return, no disciplinary action.
‘I can stay here.’
Lily herself wouldn’t mind returning to the palace, but she was worried about Ditrua being left behind. Having finished her “homework” first, she now looked at the two knights. Their faces were still changing colors rapidly. Even though Nathan was usually more easygoing, even Ethan looked utterly terrified. Their faces turned green, then blue, then green again as their eyelids twitched violently. After a long while, they finally exhaled.
Lily guessed they probably wouldn’t face severe punishment either. She asked cautiously.
“How is it?”
“It’s so full of curses I can’t even repeat them out loud.”
Yet the corners of Nathan’s mouth were slightly lifted as he said it.
“Still, there’s no order to return immediately.”
If they went back to the knight order now, they wouldn’t be able to show their faces for a long time. It would be a return caused by mission failure—an utter disgrace for any knight. But the letter told them to remain and fulfill their duties. Depending on their future performance, they could fully redeem this mistake.
‘We barely survived.’
And for now, they wouldn’t have to face the knight commander’s terrifying scolding!
Ethan and Nathan looked at each other and shared a brief hug. Only one person remained.
All three gazes turned to Ditrua.
Gulp.
They knew how dearly the king loved his daughter. So they figured nothing too bad would happen, but they couldn’t let their guard down.
“…Your Highness?”
“Yahoo! No punishment!”
She threw both arms into the air. The four of them embraced one another in relief.
His Majesty expresses deep concern for the safety of the Third Princess. Continue your duties at the academy. Further instructions will follow based on your performance.
Lopez’s eyes shook uncontrollably.
“So… twice? You’re saying Her Highness left the shelter twice?”
“Yes.”
“You confirmed that the princess had returned to the shelter. And then she disappeared again?”
“Yes.”
Professor Rivel answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As she twirled her long red hair around her finger, Lopez squeezed his eyes shut.
‘I didn’t hear wrong.’
Rivel had definitely said “yes.” His sanity was on the verge of snapping.
“Alright, alright. Let’s organize this from the beginning.”
Lopez tried to calm himself.
“So, when the princess went missing, several professors including myself went to search for her. And she was found together with Altair.”
“Correct?”
“But in reality, she had already returned to the shelter once in the middle of that? She saw you there? Then she secretly left the shelter again, encountered a demon, and only after that was she found with Altair?”
“Yes, that is accurate.”
Lopez slammed his fist on the desk.
“No! You lost her not once but twice? And it’s the princess! How does that make any sense?! Just what the hell were you doing with that girl Ditrua—”
“That girl?”
Rivel’s eyes widened innocently.
“That! Girl! You failed to properly monitor and protect the princess! What exactly were you doing?!”
“I definitely heard you say ‘that girl’…”
“Shut up and answer me!”
“Haha, you already know, don’t you? The situation at the time was extremely chaotic. There was nothing I could do. Of course, I am truly sorry.”
Rivel bowed her head.
“She’s the princess! The princess! While she wandered out on her own twice, what exactly were you doing?!”
“Wasn’t I taking care of the other students?”
“Taking care?”
“Probably. My memory has been a bit poor lately…”
Lopez clenched his fist tightly. Looking back, that had been the root of the problem. No matter what, as the dean, he should have stayed in the shelter and managed everyone. The mistake had been panicking at the news of the princess’s disappearance and rushing out to find her himself.
‘I should have stayed and sent this one out instead.’
How on earth had he left Rivel in charge and walked away? In hindsight, it was an insane decision. Lopez almost grabbed his hair in self-loathing before stopping himself.
“You should have been taking care of the other students and the princess!”
“Mm. As I said, this is clearly my fault, Dean. However, we were short on personnel… Managing that many people with so few staff is a bit…”
She wasn’t wrong. Some of the professors who had followed him to search for the princess should have stayed behind. There were guards, but not nearly enough of them. Still, at the time he had been so flustered by the princess’s disappearance that such logical thinking hadn’t occurred to him.
‘I’m not very good at managing people. My judgment wasn’t great either.’
Lopez pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. He had some confidence in swordsmanship and teaching, but perhaps he really wasn’t suited to be dean. This incident had left him deeply disappointed in himself.
‘It’s all because that bastard Theodore talked me into it…’
If not for that, he never would have taken the dean position. He could have lived peacefully as an ordinary professor. Should he just resign right now?
‘…No.’
Looking at the current state of things, there was no one he could entrust the position to with peace of mind. If he had to pick someone, Etuan would be the least bad option, but still…
“Why do you look like you’ve been chewing on shit?”
“It’s because of you! And me!”
Lopez shouted, then let out another long sigh.
“Haaa.”
They had been incredibly lucky this time. If not for Altair, Ditrua would have died. Allowing a demon invasion was bad enough, but losing the princess twice?
‘Is this really the kingdom’s top academy?’
A bitter smile crossed his face.