Chapter 338

“Kuh…!”

Nazar couldn’t even utter a word.

His entire body trembled from the pain and shock.

The blade of Jin’s sword had pierced his neck with precision. Even for a Paladin, it was a fatal wound beyond recovery.

His mind flickered like sparks, thoughts surging chaotically in an instant.

‘Jin’s Sword. Abigail. Betrayal. Oleg…?’

Blood gushed from his gaping mouth.

Abigail, who had pierced Nazar’s throat with the concealed Jin’s Sword, grabbed his jaw and smiled.

“Grr…!”

“Oleg said to tell you, ‘Stupid people don’t live long, just like you said. Now it’s your turn.’ Did I deliver it clearly?”

It was enough for Nazar to understand the full picture.

‘From the beginning, they deceived everyone…!’

Hiding their true selves behind the mask of foolish warmongers, waiting for the perfect opportunity.

“No… Gurgle, no…!”

Nazar wanted to scream at his own stupidity.

If Oleg had revealed his true intentions at this point, it meant the prey he had been hunting had finally shown its weakness.

Then, the prey he was after…

It wasn’t just Nazar.

‘Your Majesty…!’

The King was in danger.

The delaying tactics, the deception, the retreat to the Northern Wall—all were strategies based on the assumption of reinforcements joining.

But with Oleg’s betrayal, the possibility of reinforcements arriving was zero. Even if they did, it would be too late.

Nazar’s trembling hand gripped the hilt of his sword.

With Jin’s Sword piercing his throat, death was certain. But as long as he still had breath, he had to somehow reveal their betrayal before he died.

Abigail glanced at Nazar’s hand reaching for the hilt and chuckled.

“I’ve delivered the message, so there’s no need for you to stay alive anymore. Farewell.”

Her right arm swung swiftly. The blue blade drew a short arc.

– Slice!

Nazar’s head was severed in an instant.

The fox’s hand holding the hilt slipped weakly.

The headless Paladin collapsed onto the snowy field.

—

“Hmm… As expected of Jin’s Sword. It’s unpleasant to hold, but its performance is undeniable.”

Abigail swung the sword in the air, shaking off the clinging blood, then sheathed the longsword.

It was the weapon of a human master who had fallen in the Northern Wall battle.

She had secretly taken it after it was supposed to be buried and discarded.

A pureblood warrior who had been watching approached Abigail and received Jin’s Sword.

Abigail couldn’t carry Jin’s Sword openly, so she had entrusted it to her subordinate until the right moment to wield it.

They were originally Abigail’s kin.

Naturally, they had known about her plans from the beginning.

“What will you do now?”

“Well… If Ryudmila and the others find out Nazar is gone, it’ll be troublesome. I wish everyone but Ryudmila would just die… What should I do?”

While her subordinates buried Nazar’s body under a snowdrift, Abigail shook her head, pondering her next move.

‘Excluding the two subordinates left on that side, there are twenty-six warriors to eliminate. It’s too much for the five of us to handle in time… Maybe we can provoke a clash with the humans.’

If the numbers were reduced through a clash with the pursuers, eliminating the rest wouldn’t be too difficult.

The problem was the difference in mobility between the beastmen and humans, causing the distance to widen rather than close.

“Hmm… Got it! We’ll attack the humans with the three of us, then head towards the detour where Ryudmila will come. That way, the enemies chasing us will end up blocking Ryudmila’s forces from both sides.”

“Will they split their forces? Like Nazar’s plan, wouldn’t they rather concentrate?”

The subordinate’s concern was valid, but Abigail chuckled and pointed to the longsword at his waist.

“We have Jin’s Sword, right? We’ll just wave it around openly. If they recognize it, they’ll go crazy chasing us.”

“That makes sense! Jin’s Sword is no ordinary treasure to them. Plus, it’s the relic of their fallen commander…!”

“Right. So give it back. If you carry it, they might take it.”

The subordinate, seeing the logic, immediately handed Jin’s Sword back to Abigail.

“Then all that’s left is to convince Ryudmila, who’s alone.”

“Shouldn’t we also deal with the watcher Nazar sent?”

“Drozdov? Don’t worry about him. Oleg probably already ate him. He knew the guy was tailing him.”

A watcher only matters if they’re unnoticed. If you know they’re there, they’re nothing.

Unbeknownst to Abigail, Drozdov had long become Oleg’s meal near the Northern Wall.

Oleg had ambushed Drozdov, tearing him limb from limb to interrogate him. He needed to confirm whether Drozdov’s pursuit was Nazar’s solo act or if Ryurik had approved it.

He also had to check if there were any other watchers he hadn’t noticed.

Given Nazar’s personality, it was likely he had sent only one watcher on his own, but Oleg couldn’t afford to be careless.

After hearing Drozdov’s confession, Oleg laughed heartily and devoured his head. It was exactly as he had expected.

Nazar, until the very end, had underestimated him.

With the lone watcher sent on a whim eliminated, there was no one left to obstruct Oleg’s plans.

—

Later, Abigail and two Black Panther warriors ambushed the rear of the pursuing force as planned.

With only one Paladin and two purebloods, their limit was killing thirteen knights.

Any longer, and they risked being surrounded and torn apart by the pursuing masters.

Abigail’s right hand held the blue longsword as she swiftly retreated.

Freide and Leonor, rushing in, immediately recognized the sword.

It was Georg’s sword, the commander of the Imperial Army who had fallen at the Northern Wall.

The sword symbolizing the Empire’s legion commander was now mockingly held by a beast.

Freide’s eyes burned with vengeance. It was an insult she couldn’t tolerate.

“Damien! Milia! Chase that hyena! We’ll go carve up that Black Panther!”

Freide, with Leonor and ten knights, pursued Abigail. The sudden departure left no time to stop her. As the commander of the pursuit force, no one could stop her anyway.

‘Good, keep following!’

Abigail maintained a precarious distance, luring Freide towards the perfect spot to encounter Ryudmila, who was turning north.

Two hours later.

Freide, who had lost sight of Abigail after a sudden speed boost, spotted Ryudmila’s forces approaching.

For a moment, Freide considered the possibility of a diversion, but the Black Panthers carrying Jin’s Sword were nowhere to be seen.

If they had lured her and Leonor for an ambush, they should have attacked by now. Instead…

“Princess Freide. Isn’t that Damien in the distance?”

“…Yes. What’s going on?”

Freide tilted her head in confusion.

If this continued, her forces and Damien’s could flank the enemies from both sides.

“Did their diversion backfire?”

“Who knows? But it’s definitely a golden opportunity!”

Leonor smirked and charged towards the approaching enemies.

Freide and the knights followed suit.

They didn’t know what was happening, but with enemies ripe for slaughter in front of them, they could figure it out later.

“You…! How did you get ahead of us…!”

Ryudmila, unable to hide her shock, raised her spear as Leonor’s sword shot towards her like a beam of light.

—

Outnumbered more than two to one and surrounded on both sides, Ryudmila had no choice but to abandon her plans and desperately flee.

Fighting four masters alone was impossible from the start. Escaping at all was a miracle.

Only three warriors remained by her side, all severely wounded.

One had lost an arm.

Another had his stomach torn open, organs exposed.

A third had a spear lodged in his back.

Ryudmila herself had lost three fingers on her left hand to Jin’s Sword.

As they barely escaped, Abigail, who had been waiting for them, appeared.

“Are you okay, Ryudmila? You look terrible.”

“Abigail?! You’re alive?”

Ryudmila couldn’t hide her confusion.

When the enemies appeared, and during the battle, Ryudmila had sensed Nazar’s plan had gone awry.

She didn’t know how, but Nazar and Abigail must have been defeated by the enemy. If not, they would have joined her in the fight.

So, she never imagined meeting Abigail here.

“I’m fine. Were you worried about me?”

Abigail smiled nonchalantly.

Behind her, two Black Panther warriors appeared.

They sighed inwardly, seeing no kin among Ryudmila’s battered troops.

If they had fled elsewhere during the chaos, they might still be alive. Otherwise, they likely perished at human hands.

“What happened? How did those guys block us? Where’s Nazar?”

Ryudmila vented her frustration.

If she had any judgment left, she might have noticed Abigail and the two Black Panthers didn’t look like they had been in a fierce battle, or questioned why they appeared now.

But the fatigue and injuries from the battle left her in no state to think.

“Nazar? He’s probably meeting Valentin by now.”

“What? Valentin? Why that name suddenly…?”

As Ryudmila tilted her head in confusion, the two Black Panther warriors lunged at the severely wounded pureblood warriors.

One wielded Jin’s longsword, the other a silver longsword.

“What…!”

Before the startled warriors could react, the lightning-fast blades sliced through the wounded beastmen.

Three warriors let out their final cries as they fell beneath the trees.

“Abigail! What is this…!”

The sudden betrayal. Ryudmila’s fur bristled as she gasped in shock.

She couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

“What am I doing? Just cleaning up obstacles for Oleg.”

Abigail grabbed Jin’s Sword from her subordinate and pointed it at Ryudmila’s neck.

The cold, blue blade pressed against her skin.

Ryudmila, sweating and trembling, stared at the sword at her throat.

“Originally, I should have killed you too, Ryudmila… But we’re friends, right? So I asked Oleg to spare you if you joined us. Aren’t you grateful?”

Abigail grinned.

—

“Persuading” Ryudmila didn’t take long.