Chapter 10

A Red Battlefield

“Please let me treasure you and love you with all my soul. Please be my one and only family.”

When the foreign prince finally whispered those words, her hand in his, the girl could not calm her beating heart. All she could do was silently nod.

This is the story of a girl who once yearned to be someone’s family.

* * *

She was dragged out of her tower, bound and blindfolded. She walked and walked. She felt the cold, hard stone floor through the thin soles of her shoes. She smelled the unfamiliar, metallic stench in the cold morning air. She trembled. She heard people— No, she heard soldiers. Weapons clanged from time to time, and there was a strange heat in the air that felt like it could explode.

When the black cloth covering her eyes came undone, she realized that she was standing on the middle of a castle wall.

“Look, Amelia.”

She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. Soon, she could see that the walls were packed with longbowmen and foot soldiers.

Within the castle walls stood Rohan’s cavalry with lances, ready to charge forth at any moment, and to the sides of the castle were long lines of thousands of foot soldiers, awaiting the start of battle with quiet excitement. Beyond the castle walls, the camps of the coalition army dotted the plains like ants. Among the flags of the coalition, the flag of the Holy Empire of Delcross shined the brightest.

Only after her eyes had taken in everything did Amelia turn her head to face the man holding her blindfold.

Leonard, the King of Rohan. He was the man she had once thought would be her most beloved family, but he had deceived her, betrayed her, and brought her life to ruin. He was the very man who had slandered her, deposed her, and imprisoned her in a cold tower for years.

Leonard looked into Amelia’s eyes, as dry as a desert, and twisted up a corner of his mouth. “So, do you protest? Do you resent me? But this is all you deserve as the daughter of that sinful empire. After all, this holy war is all because of you.”

Amelia showed no reaction. She knew that everything he was saying was a lie, that he was just distorting the truth as it suited him. Who was really responsible for this war? They both knew the answer. The fierce wind blowing over the castle walls scattered her rosy hair, which had been cut short, reflecting nothing of its former glory. Leonard stared at the view as if bewitched. He held his hand up and stroked the ends of her hair.

“Over half of Romaine’s plans failed. Your damn father somehow coaxed the weasels of that kingdom to his side.” His hand rumpled her hair, slid down her roughened cheek, and then clenched her slender neck. “So you must pay the price. I will slit your throat right now to signal the start of this war.”

Amelia closed her eyes as she felt the hand around her neck tighten. Her life had been full of pain. She had no reason to fight death. All she wanted at that moment was for the coalition army to crush this cruel man’s ambition, to stomp over everything he yearned to hold in his hands.

Right then, there was a commotion on the front line. The coalition camp started stirring, and a dark shadow shot out of the camp like lightning. It was coming from Cavalry Unit One. There had been no signal to start the war. It had been entirely unexpected. Leonard awkwardly kept his grip on her neck as he squinted along the coalition camp. The commotion grew louder and louder. It seemed that the action had been unexpected for the enemy camp as well. Soon, a troop of cavalry charged out of the coalition camp, hastily tailing the knight ahead.

“He’s…”

As the knight grew closer and closer, Rohan’s camp started stirring too. The knight was riding his horse, wearing black armor and a helm, with a great sword slung on his back and a few javelins at his waist. It was the infamous knight that had been sweeping the front lines, charging at the castle wall all by himself!

“The Black Devil!”

“It’s the Black Devil of Delcross!”

“It’s the crown prince! It’s the crown prince of Delcross!”

The knight in black pulled out a javelin. It buzzed as an ominous, burgundy aura enclosed it. The entire castle wall grew restless. Was he insane? Was he really about to throw a javelin when he wasn’t even in the range of their archers yet?

“Shoot! Shoot him! What the hell are the archers doing? Shoot him right now!” Leonard exclaimed in a panic.

A dark swarm of arrows hissed through the air, blanketing the sky, then accelerated back down, rattling the ground. But as expected, they were out of range. The knight aimed his javelin as he ran leisurely through the field of arrows.

“Damn it…”

As the archers scrambled to reload their bows, the crown prince had already advanced at least fifty meters. He finally threw his javelin.

Boom!

The javelin had flown fiercely through the air, scattering the aura around it, then plunged into the ground right in front of the castle gates. It had just missed the gates, but the soldiers grew pale at the sight of the crater that the javelin had made.

“I-is that even human?”

“Draw! Loose!”

Hundreds of arrows shot into the air again. The crown prince drew his great sword from his back and cast a large barrier with the aura on his blade. Most of the arrows bounced off, but the barrier wasn’t enough to block the concentrated deluge of arrows in its entirety. His horse neighed fretfully as he was knocked off and fell to the ground. His body rolled across the ground once before he stood up again.

Bam! Another javelin flew across the battlefield and struck the exact center of the castle gates this time.

“That crazy bastard…”

With a couple of arrows poking out of his armor, the dark knight started running toward the castle walls again. The horse had been faster, certainly, but the relentless knight rushing toward the castle, enveloping his entire body in burgundy aura, was a terrifying sight to behold. The knight captain gulped as he waited to reload.

Amelia stood on the castle wall, caught in Leonard’s grasp, watching the whole scene unfold. She had been desensitized to no end, but now, her eyes trembled, hinting at her emotional turmoil for the first time. She had given up on her own life, but someone else still hadn’t. And he showed no hesitation as he sped to a place that would certainly become his deathbed.

A dark swarm of arrows hissed through the air, blanketing the sky, then showered down on the crown prince. But this time, he was not facing them alone. The crown prince had charged from the camp without warning, but the group of knights who followed him had finally caught up with him and raised their shields. The arrows made a beehive out of the barrier of shields.

“Hey! You crazy bastard!” One of the knights dared to yell at the crown prince, throwing away his useless shield.

Leonard chewed his lip anxiously.

“Is he going to make it? Is he going to make it over here?”

The knights formed a circle around the crown prince and started advancing slowly. They had made it past the range of direct shots, so arrows poured down on them, but as every one of them was an aura user, they took turns casting blade barriers, growing closer and closer to the castle walls.

The crown prince seemed to have lost his helm when he fell from his horse. He was clearing away arrows left and right with his face bared. His eyes shone viciously and his jawline had grown sharper with age. His face was familiar to Amelia and yet, at the same time, there was something unfamiliar to it. Half of his light blond hair was wet with blood, as if an arrow had scathed him.

“Morres…”

They had never been close, even as children. So why was her brother so desperate to reach her? Their sets of gray eyes met one another. They were so much alike. At that moment, Morres’ eyes grew wide and…

Stab.

She felt a burning pain on the right side of her chest. Amelia looked down and saw the dagger in her chest. The blood stained her shabby dress red like a blooming flower. It was so unreal. Her gaze followed the hand holding the dagger and reached Leonard’s face. His eyes held terrible despair, but his mouth smiled bitterly.

“Well, if you’re so precious to them, what else can I do? I need to let you go. But…” He paused. “I’ll never hand you over whole.”

She stood at the edge of the castle wall, barely clinging to Leonard’s hand. And with a light tap, she was pushed off the edge.

“Amelia!”

She heard Morres cry out to her as she helplessly plummeted to the ground. Beyond the inverted view was the impossibly calm blue sky. A bird disappeared behind the clouds, then her consciousness began to fade.

Someone shouting, another screaming, weapons clanging, flesh splitting…

“Amelia, Amelia! Sister! Wake up!”

Someone kept calling for her. She opened her eyes. She coughed and it brought a burning pain to her chest. She looked around just by moving her eyes. She was in the center of the battlefield where the two sides clashed. Morres was crouching next to Amelia, pressing down on her pierced chest with his hands free of his gauntlets.

“Mo…”

She wanted to say his name, but no sound came out. The dagger must have punctured her lungs. Every time she tried to breathe in, she heard the leak of air, and blood seeped from her mouth.

“Shh… Don’t talk, Sister. You’ll pry the wound open. I think I caught you just in time, but the dagger went right through…” Morres said gently, pressing down on the struggling Amelia. “But Father will be here soon. A wound like this is nothing for him, so don’t worry. You know that too, right?”

Despite his reassuring tone, her younger brother’s face had also gone pale. He continued talking, trying to console Amelia as well as himself.

“Just hold out a little longer, Amelia. Give it a little while. As soon as Father arrives, everything will be alright…”

Oh, His Majesty, the holy emperor. Father. As soon as she thought of him, her dried-out eyes started tearing up for the first time in years. He had never approved of her marriage with Leonard. Once she had left home, nearly cutting ties with him, she had never once sent word to her father. Even if she were to see him again now, what could she possibly say?

Morres keenly sensed her guilt and whispered, “Amelia, that man is always thinking of you, worrying about you. He’s not mad at you at all, so when you see him, just smile. Act like nothing happened. Okay?” He paused. “He was so miserable after he lost Logan a while ago. It was scary. If he loses you too, I don’t know what he’ll do. He needs you, Amelia.”

It wasn’t like Morres to talk so softly. Amelia looked up at him in shock. Since a moment ago, he was no longer looking into Amelia’s eyes. His unfocused, gray eyes were staring blankly into the air. She had thought he had simply been anxious. Was there another reason for his pallid face?

“I guess this is a good time to apologize too. I’m sorry for disrespecting you and bullying you when I was younger. It’s all my fault…”

When Amelia looked closely at Morres, she was horrified. She hadn’t noticed because they were facing each other, but behind his back, his armor was already packed with arrows. The blood on his hand that pressed down on her chest was mostly his own. Amelia realized that to catch her as she fell from the castle wall, he must have rashly jumped into the rain of arrows. She had fallen from such a height, but she had no other wound. Not a single arrow had hit her. In that split second, Morres had exerted all of his strength for Amelia.

Finally, she heard the knights around them yelling at the top of their lungs.

“Hold out a little longer, Your Highness!”

“You always do this! You always rush ahead and do whatever you want! You damn crown prince. Just wait. When we get out of here…”

“His Majesty is near! Your Highness! Do not lose consciousness!”

Amelia sobbed helplessly as she heard Morres’ breath grow shallow.

Oh. It’s all my fault. I came to Rohan despite Father’s disapproval and forced him to agree to unfair treaties. My brother, the crown prince, had to charge into his deathbed. And despite all of their sacrifices, I’m a burden to them until the end, until my death.

Suddenly, the sky started turning red.