Chapter 13
A sharp pain at the nape of my neck was jolting my senses awake.
When my father's apology surfaced from the final moment I remembered, I immediately sat up.
Inside the ossuary where I had stayed for several days, there were only Noah, who was avoiding my eyes, and me.
The only trace of Father was the ring in my hand.
I slipped the ring onto the middle finger of my left hand and stood up.
“Noah. Tell me what you know.”
“…”
I had no time to wait patiently for his answer.
I grabbed Noah by the collar and pulled him right up to my face.
“Noah. Please.”
A single tear slid from one of his eyes.
Noah followed the tear with his gaze, then opened his mouth as though he had finally given up.
“Uncle Ethan said… he was going to attack the enemy commander with the last remaining soldiers. He said that if he left you alone, you would definitely follow him…”
“I have to go after him right now.”
I let go of Noah's collar and immediately stood up.
It seemed Father had placed several weapons against the wall of the ossuary.
I strapped the sword to my waist and took the spear in my hand.
Just as I was about to open the door and leave, Noah grabbed my wrist.
“No. Ella. It’s already been several hours since he left.”
“What am I supposed to do? Do you really think that plan will work? Father is in danger. I’m going to save him right now.”
“Please. The fact that we can’t hear the catapults anymore means something is wrong. It’ll be dangerous if you go outside.”
Anger surged at Noah, who continued spouting such pathetic nonsense.
I no longer had the presence of mind to judge what was right.
“Ha. Do you think I’m your wife? You don’t get to order me around. Get out of my way right now.”
I shook him off roughly and stepped outside.
The words came out before I could stop them.
To the person who had kept helping me.
Bitterness stung the tip of my tongue.
Just as Noah had said, the catapults that had been making my ears ring were no longer audible.
It seemed the enemy had succeeded in entering the castle.
‘The northern wall. Father said it would collapse soon. That’s the only place I can slip out unnoticed.’
Turning over Father’s words from our last meeting in my mind, I raced straight toward the northern wall.
I faintly heard Noah calling my name from behind, but I ignored him.
I had no time to worry about him now.
Corpses were strewn throughout every alley.
An extraordinary sight.
It seemed quite some time had passed since the enemy entered.
Running straight toward the wall in a situation like this was far too dangerous.
I had to move while keeping myself as concealed as possible.
Just as I was about to turn back.
I heard the sound of hooves behind me.
“Were there still any survivors inside the castle?”
I had been spotted.
My grip tightened around the spear.
“I’ll handle it, Marquess Beaufort.”
“Wait. Those eyes and that hair remind me of someone. Yes, Lord Ron, bring her here without a single scratch.”
“I’ll obey.”
One of the knights beside the man who appeared to be a noble dismounted.
Similar, but with a different accent and vocabulary.
It was Lumidia’s language.
For now, I had to somehow get through this situation.
I didn’t know why, but the fact that Ron, the knight who had to subdue me without a scratch, was looking down on me was my only chance.
Ron approached me without even drawing his sword.
‘The weight of his armor, the limited vision through his helmet, and that arrogance.’
I had to use all of those things as weapons.
Fortunately, I was still in an alley.
Oak barrels and crates were piled up haphazardly throughout it.
I had a good chance of winning.
“Girl. I won’t hurt you if you come quietly. You don’t want to get hurt either, do you?”
Instead of answering, I thrust my spear toward the eye slit of Ron’s helmet as he slowly approached.
Ron lightly turned his head, as though he had anticipated it.
It was merely an attempt to disrupt his concentration.
The spear grazed his helmet, and I immediately pulled it back so I wouldn’t lose the advantage of its reach.
How many times had I repeated this?
Jeers poured from the knights at Ron, who was struggling to capture a mere young girl.
Having been unable to rest properly for days, a ragged breath escaped me.
Just a little more.
If I repeated this just a little longer, an opportunity would definitely come.
Despite my efforts, there was no overcoming the physical difference between us.
Even when we took the same step, every step backward I took gradually narrowed the distance between Ron and me.
However, because I relentlessly targeted his eye slits and toes, his advance was painfully slow.
The jeers of his fellow knights and the distance that refused to close gradually made him lose his caution.
And then, at the moment I had been waiting for—
Ron abandoned his caution, spread both arms wide as though he meant to bind me, and exposed his chest to me.
I swung the spear downward, striking the side of an oak barrel and sending it rolling.
It was an angle he couldn’t see because his helmet covered his face.
Then I immediately let go of the spear and kicked him with all my weight.
Staggering backward from the impact, Ron stumbled over the oak barrel.
His body toppled backward as he lost his balance.
The moment I kicked him, I drew the sword at my waist and began climbing onto him.
He struggled, but the weight of his armor kept him from getting back up.
Bewilderment filled his eyes at this unexpected turn of events.
In that opening, I drove the sword in with a reverse grip and swept it from side to side.
It was a different sensation from when I had killed the wolf.
The sensation of cutting through human flesh and bone was one I could never grow accustomed to.
If I didn’t kill, I would be killed.
The law that had ruled the battlefield was raising its head again in this new life.
Nausea surged up, but I had no time to waste.
The other knights, startled, came running straight toward us, but thanks to how long I had kept backing away, they were still quite far.
The knight’s body convulsed amid a terrible scream.
I immediately tried to pull myself away, but something seized my arm and yanked it hard.
“Damn it!”
At the final moment of his life, the knight had clutched my arm, tangling my sleeve in a metal ornament on his gauntlet.
I frantically tugged at my arm, but the dying knight’s grip and the tangled fabric refused to let me go.
There was no time to untangle it.
“Get that bitch!”
“What’s Lord Ron’s condition?!”
The shouts of the other knights were already right behind me.
“Ella! Come here!”
Then I felt someone tug me from behind.
Noah.
My clothes had torn from the forearm down, but I managed to escape safely.
Angry shouts erupted behind us.
“Capture that bitch! It’s the marquess’s order—take her alive!”
I pulled Noah along by the hand and led him deeper into the alley.
“Don’t let that bitch get away!”
The knights’ shouts and footsteps behind us grew closer and closer.
“This way!”
“It’s a dead end!”
Instead of answering, I climbed up the wall.
“Give me your hand!”
While I pulled Noah up, the knights approached.
But they couldn’t climb the wall because of the weight of their armor.
“There she is! Grab her!”
“Keep running!”
We emerged from the alley and reached the street.
Yet the chaos I had expected was nowhere to be found.
There were no residents screaming as they fled, nor soldiers making a final stand by burning through the last of their lives.
Only silence held dominion there.
Corpses that had been unable to escape lay scattered throughout the streets.
In that silence, the clatter of armor colliding rang out especially loudly and eerily.
“Run!”
We had to find somewhere to hide immediately.
Going straight to the ossuary carried far too great a chance of exposing our hideout as well.
I dragged Noah through the ruined city at a run.
There was only one thought in my mind.
A place where we could hide safely for a while.
We had to shake off the enemy pursuit.
I hid behind an abandoned cart and leaned against a collapsed wall.
“I think they went this way.”
“Spread out and search! Deploy the soldiers too! The marquess is extremely eager for his prize.”
Their footsteps gradually drew closer.
I held my breath, but Noah’s ragged breathing was grating on my nerves.
I pressed him against the wall with my body, covered his mouth and nose with one hand, and met his eyes.
A shadow swept over us.
The smell of leather and iron.
And mingled between them was the faint, fishy smell of blood.
With our bodies pressed together, I could feel his heartbeat growing faster and louder.
After what felt like an eternity, the footsteps began to recede again.
The moment they disappeared from sight, I dragged Noah along and began running again.
A wide square stretched out ahead of us.
We couldn’t run across an open area with no cover at all.
In a hurry, I entered one of the empty houses nearby.
We had lost both the spear and the sword while fighting the knight, leaving us with no weapon to resist with if anything happened.
‘A blade. I need any kind of blade.’
With that thought, I lowered my body and slowly searched the house.
Since the household furnishings were still intact, I thought I might at least find a kitchen knife.
Just as I began taking one step after another, making as little noise as possible,
I sensed some shape moving ahead of us.
Its face slowly rose from the thing curled up like a ball.
“Who are you?! Get out of here right now!”
The sound rang throughout the house.
It was a familiar type on the battlefield.
Soldiers who had panicked and fled before the fear of death.
I saw the spear in his hand.
The noise had already spread, and now that things had come to this, we needed at least that spear.
“D-don’t come!”
As I slowly narrowed the distance, the soldier sprang to his feet and gripped the spear tightly.
“Ella! What’s going on?”
“Noah, don’t come!”
Running footsteps approached from behind, accompanied by a desperate voice.
The panicked soldier swung his spear.
“Ella, watch out!”
Noah shoved me aside.
The spear grazed his arm.
I grabbed the shaft thrust toward me.
Putting my strength into the arm holding the spear, I leaped upward.
My knee slammed into the soldier’s chin, and he fell backward with a final groan.
“Noah!”
“I’m fine. It’s better than you getting hurt.”
Noah clutched his bleeding arm.
But we had no time.
“Noah! Help me! I need to take this armor off and put it on!”
“Uh, yeah.”
Dull footsteps sounded from every direction.
I put on the bloodstained leather breastplate and fastened the buckles of the iron shoulder guards.
Cool air seeped through the loose gaps.
I held the spear in my right hand and a small hand axe I had picked up in the kitchen in my left.
There was nowhere left for us to retreat.
The only door was surrounded, and the window was too small for an adult to get through.
This narrow house could not become our grave.
We had no choice but to fight back somehow to survive.