Chapter 193 : The Northern Front (5)
“Go on,” I murmured, stroking the black beast’s nape.
It rumbled low in its throat, gave me a final glance, and dissolved into my shadow.
A long breath shuddered out of me as I dismissed the halo of light above my head.
Was it the strain of a first-time use, or was my Mindscape uniquely draining? I couldn’t be sure, but my body and soul felt as if they’d been ground to dust. And worse… the lingering image of the Goddess made my head spin.
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead as the last vestiges of the mental world dissolved.
Just then…
“…Was that your Mindscape?”
The Grand Duke’s voice was rough. He stood a few feet away, his expression a storm of warring emotions.
“Gods above… what kind of life have you lived to create a place like that?” He shook his head, a sharp sound of disapproval clicking in his throat.
“It’s nothing, Your Grace,” I said, trying for a light tone. “The Goddess seems to have taken a liking to me.”
“Nothing?” His voice cracked with disbelief. “Your Mindscape was never like this before!”
I didn’t understand the depth of his reaction, but the raw worry in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Don’t try to shoulder everything alone,” he said, his voice lowering. “My daughter, my knights… they are not your burdens to carry.”
The Grand Duke turned to rejoin his men. As he did, he spoke again, his voice so low I almost missed it.
“…Thank you. For what you’ve done for the North.”
So that was it. All that bluster, just to force out a few words of gratitude.
Not a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.
A dry chuckle escaped me, and I shook my head.
Still… a flicker of unease remained. A moment ago, when Myu fell… had something dropped from her?
Or did I imagine it?
I scanned the ground where the Countess had made her last stand. Nothing. With a grimace, I forced the thought away. The dead were not my concern.
“Captain, you can use a Mindscape? Damn… you really are a full-fledged Grand Master.”
“Lancelot,” I cut him off, my voice sharp. “Assemble the army. Now.”
I closed my eyes, focusing inward, pulling at the dregs of my power. An immense wave of demonic energy was cresting over the northern mountain range, a tide of pure malice. I reached out with my senses, activating my Clairvoyance.
Dammit.
My prediction was wrong.
The main Demonkin army was advancing far faster than I had anticipated.
“The main force will be here soon,” I announced, my voice grim. “Judging by their speed, we have about a week.”
“…A week? I thought we had two,” Lancelot said, confused. “The battle with Myu took a week, so we should have two left before they arrive.”
“We should have,” I agreed, biting my lip. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken them at least three weeks to cross the mountains.
But things were different with him leading the army.
“…It’s one of the Twelve Nobles.”
“What?”
“And one we know.” A man who knew the paths of the Demonic Realm better than anyone, who was intimately familiar with the Imperial Capital’s secret passages. A name I recognized from Roxha’s intelligence.
“The Marquis of Envy, Leo Fortia.”
The man who had murdered the Emperor, the current master of the Imperial Capital, was coming to the North himself.
* * *
The Third Prince.
He was one of the great tragedies of Imperial history. Born to a foreign princess, he was an outcast from birth. His brilliance only earned him the corrosive envy of his brothers.
In the end, he was murdered by the old High Elder of the North.
And now he’s alive.
I hadn’t believed it when I first heard the news. Even before my regression, no rumor of his survival had ever surfaced. I’d assumed it was someone using his name, a clever imposter.
But seeing him now through my Clairvoyance, I knew.
It was him.
The old air of refined elegance and sharp intelligence still clung to him. And the rage pouring from him was a torrent aimed squarely at the North.
It’s a miracle he’s waited this long.
If I were him, I would have razed the North the moment I was resurrected.
“Is it true? Their advance has quickened?” my master asked, his voice low.
“Yes.”
He let out a soft groan and closed his eyes. “…I had hoped I was mistaken.”
“Why the change in schedule?” the Grand Duke demanded.
“Two reasons,” I explained. “First, they’re not coming over the mountains; they’re cutting through the Demonic Realm. Second, they have a traitor.”
“Shouldn’t the Demonic Realm take longer?”
“There was a secret passage in the Imperial Capital connecting to it. They used it to enter the realm and are now using another passage to strike at our flank.”
“…Dammit.” The Grand Duke’s brow furrowed. “A route we never knew existed. We couldn’t have defended against it. And this traitor? Is one of our own a turncoat?”
“No. No one here has betrayed you.”
“Then who?”
“One of the North’s former knights.”
The Grand Duke’s jaw tightened, but he gestured for me to continue.
“It’s simple, really. The knight who tried to assassinate Lea and me—he’s been turned. He’s with the Third Prince now.”
My Clairvoyance had shown me two figures at the prince’s side. One was Pol, the disgraced knight. The other was Martin Artezia, the heir to a ducal house.
I didn’t expect to see that bastard again.
I’d left him a broken addict in Miphra. How he’d recovered and found his way here was a mystery.
“Thanks to them, a shortcut from the Demonic Realm to the North has been opened. They will arrive in one week.”
“Ugh… I suppose I should be grateful we have a week at all,” the Grand Duke grumbled, running a hand through his hair.
Normally, a week would be a gift. Now, it was a death sentence.
We had supplies, thanks to the merchant guilds I’d connected them with, but there was no time to evacuate the civilians. No time for the knights to recover. No time for the Grand Masters—myself included—to replenish our Aura.
“We have to move,” I said, forcing myself to focus. “We don’t know their exact point of entry, so we need to establish a perimeter watch.”
I could use Clairvoyance to pinpoint their location, but the cost would leave me useless in the battle to come. I needed to recover.
“Tell Lady Roxha to use her guild to begin evacuating the northern territories.”
“Understood.”
“Your Grace, take command of the knights. Organize them into watch and rest shifts. Lancelot can help you plan their movements; he was trained by my father.”
I glanced at him. “Lancelot, assist His Grace.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Lea, you and I will find a place for the others to rest. We can’t stay in the manor with an attack imminent.”
I had barely finished speaking when I tried to stand, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me.
Lea’s.
It was a light touch, yet I collapsed back to the ground as if I weighed nothing.
“Yes, I understand,” she said, her voice dangerously level. “I will find us a place to rest. I will see to the knights’ morale. You will stay here.”
“…I can’t rest while everyone else is working.”
“No one will say a word!” she snapped, her control finally breaking.
I stared at her, stunned. For Lea to show her emotions so openly…
“…Is it the demonization?”
“No!” She cut me off with a sharp, frustrated sigh. “Just rest. Look at yourself. Is any part of you not injured? Your Aura is shredded, your body is a wreck. What good can you possibly do like this?”
“I can rest later—”
“When?” she demanded, a chill rising in her voice. “After you’re dead? After you leave me a widow before we’re even wed? Please… just take care of yourself. Father was right. We are not your burdens. I am a warrior. My knights are warriors. We fight for our homes and our people. Stop trying to carry everything on your own.”
I was speechless. She had never spoken to me this way, and every word was true. I was pushing myself past arrogance, into foolishness.
Just then, her anger dissolved. Her arms wrapped around me, her voice cracking into a sob.
“…Please. Don’t suffer alone.”
I was frozen, a fool in her embrace. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. How could I refuse a plea like that?
Besides, she was right. Our forces would be more effective if I recovered properly.
I nodded against her shoulder. “…Alright. I’ll rest here.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
She held me for a long moment before finally letting go and rising to her feet. Without another word, she turned and left to carry out my orders.
I sat there, looking up at the sky. It was blue again, cleansed of demonic energy. It would soon be shrouded in darkness once more, but we would just have to drive it back again.
I watched her walk away, the word a ghost on my lips.
“…I’m sorry.”
Was I apologizing for my stubbornness? Or was I asking forgiveness for something deeper? For using her, for using the North… for making them all pawns in my game of revenge.
Slowly, I closed my eyes, my mind blessedly empty for the first time in a long while.
Sweet sleep welcomed me.
And so, a week passed.