Chapter 195

“Ugh!”

Marquis Valenstein, spitting blood, trembled as if struck by lightning.

A strike had pierced his lower abdomen. The bloodied blade of a sword jutted out from his torn uniform.

“Marquis Valenstein!”

“What are you doing, you bastards?!”

The shocked Empire Knights charged at the ambushers.

Two insect-like knights swung their Black Iron Swords at the approaching figures.

A slash imbued with power rivaling that of a master.

The Empire Knight’s sword was knocked away in a single strike, and the following blow crushed his skull.

The next slash cleanly severed the neck of the knight beside him.

The head fell limply, its twisted expression filled with shock and terror.

– Thud!

Meanwhile, another insect knight pierced the necks of two Royal Guards.

Four knights had lost their lives in an instant.

Master. The word flashed through their minds, and the charging knights hesitated for a moment.

With most of their comrades already dead, charging recklessly wouldn’t lead to victory.

To make matters worse, the mastermind behind this was still alive and well behind them.

The one who shattered the Ghost Sword, the monster that devoured people.

Ha-shal-leur Ai-shan Gi-or.

The knights gritted their teeth.

The Empire’s greatest swordsman had been ambushed. Two, perhaps three, master-level enemies had appeared.

Advancing or retreating, death was the only outcome.

In truth, there was no way for them to survive.

So, they chose a more honorable death.

“Protect the Marquis!”

“Even if they’re masters, they’re still human! If we all charge at once…!”

The knights charged at the insect monsters in unison.

Though the odds of survival were slim, being cut down was better than being turned into mincemeat.

Watching this, what thoughts crossed Valenstein’s mind?

He raised the sword in his right hand.

“Ugh… I don’t know who you are, but if you wanted to kill me… you should’ve slashed, not stabbed! Like this!”

Despite bleeding profusely, he shouted boldly and swung his sword.

The blade of the Empire’s greatest sword flew toward the neck of the insect knight who had stabbed him.

The severed head soared into the air.

—-

‘What the hell is going on…?’

Even Ha-shal-leur, the princess, couldn’t hide her confusion at the sudden infighting before her eyes.

With four of them ganging up on her, her life was as good as over, but now they were suddenly attacking each other?

‘Wasn’t that old man allied with the Empress…?’

Her head felt heavy.

Her brain, heated by fever and pain, robbed her of judgment, slowing her thoughts.

The reasoning her dizzy mind conjured was disjointed.

Perhaps Valenstein knew nothing about Isabella…

Or maybe he knew and allied with her, but after the Ghost Sword shattered, Isabella discarded the old man?

‘No. That doesn’t make sense.’

Ha-shal-leur quickly dismissed her own speculation.

If Valenstein and Isabella weren’t on the same side, then Isabella was now blocking Valenstein, who was trying to kill or capture Ha-shal-leur…

But that couldn’t be.

Considering the actions of the usurper, she and Empress Isabella were clearly enemies.

Wasn’t it Isabella who issued the arrest order in the first place?

Moreover, there was no reason to attack Valenstein at this point.

Even if the Empress had decided to discard the old man, it would have been far more rational to do so after capturing Ha-shal-leur.

Fighting each other now would only end up helping Ha-shal-leur…

‘No way…!’

Her bloodshot eyes trembled with shock.

A single, perfectly plausible explanation for this situation flashed through her mind.

—-

When Ha-shal-leur was still young, one of the great warriors had once given her some advice.

One of them was that to defeat an enemy, you must understand their habits.

People, when devising schemes, unconsciously tend to follow certain patterns, he had said.

The more capable they are, the more this holds true.

Thus, by understanding the enemy’s tendencies, you can predict the strategies they might use and prepare accordingly.

It was advice Ha-shal-leur agreed with.

Prince Leopold prioritized justification in all things and was obsessed with rational decisions.

It was evident from how he consistently took a defensive stance, even at the cost of losses, simply because preparations weren’t complete.

A man who wouldn’t move without sufficient confidence.

While he could solidify a stable position when in the lead, in a disadvantageous situation, he would drag things out until his downfall.

Like now.

In Or-han’s case, he often chose strategies that drew most of the enemy’s attention to himself.

A manifestation of his desire to show off, perhaps, stemming from his absolute confidence in his own strength.

Ha-shal-leur herself valued controlling the atmosphere of the battlefield.

Instilling terror in her enemies through ruthless methods, breaking their morale before engaging.

It was the alternative she had chosen to fight multiple enemies, lacking the sturdiness of someone like Or-han.

And then, Isabella.

The witch’s schemes, observed through the usurper, were consistent.

The massacre of the Sigmar family, pinned on a woman named Ophelia.

The death of Matthias, disguised as the work of monsters, with the investigation framed to point to Prince Leopold.

And now, the plot to pin the collapse of the Imperial Palace on Ha-shal-leur.

Her methods always involved staging incidents and shifting blame.

Yes.

Staged incidents.

“Kiiiiii!”

The headless insect knight…

A sharp cry erupted from the throat, and a parasitic monster leaped out.

“This, this is…!”

“A monster! The bug monster that attacked the main palace!”

The knights froze in shock, and the two bug masters they were fighting turned toward Ha-shal-leur.

The creatures stopped about seven steps away from Ha-shal-leur, turned their backs, and raised their swords toward the Empire Knights.

As if to protect Ha-shal-leur from the knights.

‘Was this their plan all along…!’

Ha-shal-leur gritted her teeth.

A precarious distance, just barely out of her attack range.

Even if she tried to attack the bug knights, they could just turn back and swing their swords at the knights again.

Once the battle turned chaotic, Ha-shal-leur would be blocked by other enemies and unable to reach them.

In fact, it would end up looking like she was slaughtering the knights alongside the monsters.

“Ophelia’s parasitic monsters…! So they were in league with the witch after all, Leopold! Ugh…!”

Valenstein, who had sliced the bug in half with a single strike, glared at Leopold and roared in feigned anger before coughing up blood.

A pool of blood, enough to fill a bowl, spilled at his feet.

“Marquis! You must retreat! Your injuries…!”

“Ugh… Are you telling me to shamefully retreat in the face of such monsters?!”

As Valenstein angrily tried to push away the knight’s arm,

– Boom! Boom!

Two loud explosions echoed from the sky above one side of the Imperial Palace.

The knights’ gazes turned toward the source of the explosions.

—-

A fireball shot into the air exploded brilliantly, lighting up the night sky.

“Request for reinforcements?!”

“That’s definitely Prince Ernst’s palace…!”

The knights, their faces pale, looked at Valenstein.

Two signal flares had risen from the 3rd Prince’s Palace. It was an urgent call for reinforcements.

In other words, the Empress and the Prince were under attack… and the situation was extremely dire.

“A diversion…!”

Valenstein gritted his teeth in frustration.

“Marquis Valenstein! Empress Isabella is definitely there…!”

“Ugh, all Empire Knights, retreat! Head to the 3rd Prince’s Palace! I’ll cover the rear!”

Valenstein, gripping his sword and standing tall, shouted at the knights.

The bug knights began to advance toward Valenstein.

“With those injuries, it’s too much! Let me…!”

Indeed, Valenstein, covered in blood, looked severely wounded.

The diagonal slash across his chest and the penetrating wound in his abdomen, still with a sword stuck in it, were injuries too much for his old body to handle.

But Valenstein’s expression was resolute.

“If not me, who else can hold them off?! Don’t worry, go! Even if the Ghost Sword is broken, I am still the Empire’s greatest swordsman!”

The black iron swords of the bug knights lunged toward the wounded old man.

Gripping his pale, gleaming sword, Valenstein parried their strikes.

“Can’t you go already?! Are you planning to leave Her Majesty in danger?!”

His attitude made it clear that disobedience was not an option.

The hesitant knights finally turned their steps.

“…We pray for your safe return! Everyone, move! We must save Her Majesty!”

The knights rushed toward the 3rd Prince’s Palace.

—-

‘Damn it! We have to stop them…!’

Leopold clenched his teeth.

If he let those knights leave, it was certain that this disaster would be exposed.

Along with the false accusation that the 1st Prince was in league with a witch.

So he had to stop them no matter what.

But in the end, Leopold couldn’t utter a word.

He had to stop them, but the words wouldn’t come out.

After all, he couldn’t be sure if it was safe to make a sound now.

The gruesome slaughter Ha-shal-leur had unleashed after waking from unconsciousness.

It wasn’t just the knights who were terrified.

Leopold, too, felt as if a man-eating monster was lurking before his eyes.

He couldn’t tell if Ha-shal-leur still had any sanity left.

‘If I make a sound carelessly, what if she turns on me?’

He could vividly imagine himself being torn to death.

For his own sake, for Sir Persval, and for Princess Ai-shan Gi-or, who had regained her senses, Leopold remained silent.

Ha-shal-leur didn’t chase the knights either. She didn’t have the strength to pursue them one by one.

She had already expended a lot of energy, and stopping her bleeding was becoming difficult.

Letting them go like this would make cleaning up later troublesome, but…

‘The usurper and the Prince will handle it.’

…That wasn’t her concern.

—-

Soon, the knights’ presence completely disappeared.

Valenstein and the bug knights stopped their act.