Chapter 102 - Army of Defiance (3)

A bleak wind brushed past my collar.

Carried on the wind, an unclean and ominous energy made me shudder in disgust before I even realized it.

I couldn't believe it.

To think that the true identity of that horrifying army was the noble knights and soldiers.

I simply couldn't accept it.

But even so, I had no choice but to accept it.

『The Mage wasn't the only one cursed by the necromancer.』

Because right before my eyes was the pitiful Mage who had been robbed of rest and cast out to the boundary between life and death.

『The Mage found a vessel to safely hold everything from her life, but they did not, becoming phantoms beneath the earth who could not reach the afterlife.』

The truth beyond death that I hadn't managed to examine weighed down on me now, 400 years later.

As I tightly closed my eyes from dizziness, a chilling coldness touched both my cheeks.

When I opened my eyes, there were pupils like starlight.

Ophelia, she was looking at me.

Just like when we first met 400 years ago, it was a gaze filled with an incomprehensible pity.

『Even if borrowed from the king's mouth, the teachings bestowed upon them all originated from you. I know you hold them dear.』

I couldn't understand that emotion at all, and feeling uncomfortable, I unconsciously turned my head away.

『But keep this in mind. What remains of the knights and soldiers you held dear is not the burning convictions they held in life, but only the cold grudge of the dead.』

The chilling sensation on my cheeks vanished.

"When the sun sets, they will be unleashed. Along with their envy and hatred toward the living."

Ophelia, who had taken a step back, looked straight at me and spoke.

"If you cannot stop them, you will be plundered, and if you are plundered, you will lose the castle, your flesh, and your soul."

That bleak warning suddenly snapped me back to my senses.

I looked at the sky.

The sun was high in the sky, but there wasn't much time left until it fully set.

I lowered my head again.

Vincent and everyone else were looking at me.

They all looked equally anxious.

Their faces were heavily colored with an instinctive fear of the Army of Defiance they had never faced before, the dead that would soon arrive with the night.

"Gather firewood and oil."

I gave them a firm order as I looked at them.

"Enough so that we won't lack in lighting up the entire castle throughout the night."

I added one more thing.

"As much as you possibly can."

Because tonight will be a very long night.

* * *

The castle wall, already frantic from the battle with the monsters, became even more bustling with soldiers carrying firewood and oil jars.

SHRIEK!

It was the same below the castle wall.

As night drew nearer, the monsters began to run even more rampant.

The monsters struggled with all their might to scale the wall somehow.

KIEEEEE!

A goblin that had been climbing the wall until its fingernails were all pulled out and broken was pierced by a Ranger's arrow and tumbled down.

CRASH, CRASH!

An Orc ramming into the castle gate kept charging even after its shoulder bone was shattered. Both hands of a Troll throwing punches at the gate were stripped white to the bone.

It was sheer madness itself.

Even the veteran soldiers of Winter Castle, who had seen monster rampages year after year, had their complexions pale and stiffen at the monsters' frenzy.

The recruits were in an even worse state.

Exhausted by the continuous battle, they were completely terrified by the monsters' madness.

It wasn't good.

At this rate, even if we wiped out all the monsters before nightfall, their morale would hit rock bottom.

An army with shattered morale couldn't stop the dead.

A terrified soul would easily surrender its vessel, and the soldiers whose bodies were stolen would become ghouls craving the blood and flesh of their allies.

Chaos would devour the army, and hell would unfold.

"Vincent. What are the available knight forces?"

"Currently, sixty-four knights of the Knights of Winter and fifty-nine Black Lancers are awaiting orders."

Compared to when the war ended, our forces had recovered quite a bit. However, it was a woefully insufficient force to quell the monsters running rampant beneath the castle walls.

"Have them all assemble at the castle gate."

"Are you seriously planning to open the gate and go out?"

Vincent expressed his concern.

Although their numbers had dwindled significantly from the ongoing battle during the day, there were still close to two thousand monsters beneath the walls.

And not just regular monsters, but frenzied ones.

Opening the gate and heading out in such a situation wasn't a very wise thing to do.

But there was no other way.

Because if we welcomed the night like this, an even greater tragedy would occur.

What the soldiers of Winter Castle needed at this very moment was an overwhelming victory that would make them forget their fear and let out a battle cry.

"Tell Eli to summon the knight candidates as well."

At my words, Vincent bowed his head with a stiff face.

The Rangers on the wall stared at me.

Perhaps having overheard the conversation just now, their gazes looking at me were full of incomprehension.

'Why in the world?'

'Why leave the safe castle walls? For what reason?'

The questions surfacing on their faces were all the same.

They wore expressions that couldn't understand why I was risking danger by opening the gate when simply firing arrows from the wall would soon clear the enemies out.

However, the veteran soldiers' expressions were different.

Their faces, which had been pale and stiff, were now flushed red.

"The drums! Bring the drums!"

"Which bastard touched my horn!"

"Anyone who hasn't memorized the military songs should consider themselves dead. Even if you live, I'll kill you myself."

The veterans made a huge fuss.

They looked extremely excited, as if they were preparing for a festival.

"I'll bet on His Highness."

"Still, the Black Lancers are the best on horseback. I'll bet on Captain Liechtheim."

Some among them were even placing bets on who would slice off more monster heads.

"I'll bet on Captain Liechtheim too. His Highness still has a long way to go."

The loud voice scratching at my pride, deliberately spoken for me to hear, belonged to Vincent.

"Alright, anyone else want to bet? If so, place your bets quickly."

Going a step further, Vincent even encouraged the recruits, who were staring blankly at them, to participate in the bet.

The recruits placed their money on the bet without knowing any better.

"Sir Liechtheim! The finances of House Ballorhard are riding on you!"

"It's not the finances of House Ballorhard, but the Lord's own pockets!"

The one-eyed cavalry captain beneath the wall chuckled.

There was no sign of tension anywhere.

Swept up in the atmosphere, the rookie lancers laughed without knowing why. The rookie knights of the Knights of Winter were the same.

I shook my head and went down beneath the castle wall.

"Your Highness."

Spotting me, Adelia readied my sword and armor.

As I felt her meticulous touch, I looked at the knights assembled in front of the gate and saw a familiar face among them.

"You're going too, Karl?"

"How could I not, when Your Highness is going."

Behind Karl, who offered a grin, the Royal Knights were lined up.

"Your Highness. Is it uncomfortable?"

"No, it's just right."

"I should fix your hair too."

Before I could even grant permission, she skillfully tied up my hair. As the hair that had been frustratingly blocking my vision was cleared away, I felt a strange sense of liberation.

"Thank you."

"When you return, I'll trim it short for you."

Wearing a satisfied expression, Adelia stepped back. She was also fully armed in armor and sword. Beside her was Arwen, and hovering around them was that Eli bastard.

"Why are you there too?"

"Ahem. I do have some experience, so I should stand in the vanguard."

"Stop spouting nonsense and go to your position. Who's going to lead the candidates?"

At my words, that Eli bastard pouted.

"Dame Arwen, please stay safe."

Despite the Eli bastard's affectionate farewell, Arwen didn't even answer. She merely checked her armaments in silence.

"Then, is everyone ready!"

"Your Highness is the latest one."

When the one-eyed cavalry captain spoke, the knights burst into laughter.

Listening to their laughter, I mounted my horse. And as I stood at the very front of them, Quern tossed another joke.

"Somehow, the one who arrived last has claimed the best spot."

I chuckled at his hearty voice and looked up at the castle wall.

Countless soldiers on the wall were looking at me.

There were veterans filled with anticipation, and recruits still wearing faces full of doubt.

"Your Highness! Just give the word! We will open it anytime!"

At Vincent's words, I answered without a hint of hesitation.

"Open it!"

As soon as I finished speaking, the castle gates shuddered with a deafening roar.

CREAK, CREAK.

The chains and pulleys connected to the gate screamed.

And slowly, the gate began to lift from the ground.

"Huu."

Through the gap that was still woefully narrow, monsters thrust their heads in, trying to squeeze their way through.

ROOOAAR.

Listening to the monsters' roars, which were more noisy than ferocious, I steadied my breathing.

"Huu."

"It seems you're nervous because it's been a while."

At Quern's words, I let out a soft laugh.

"Not a chance."

And then I added.

"My stomach is just bloated."

"I did notice you eating quite a bit while you were on the wall."

Quern chuckled.

In truth, my bloated stomach wasn't due to the few chunks of bread I had snacked on atop the wall. It was because of the forest's essence I hadn't fully digested yet, despite gorging on it for days.

I didn't bother to answer.

Because he would find out soon enough.

The gate was soon lifted high enough for horses to pass through, and monsters, including Trolls, were frantically charging beneath it.

They paid no mind to the knights lined up in front of them. They were merely moving their feet desperately to get even a little further away from the mountains before night fell.

"How truly pitiful."

I slowly drew my sword.

VOOOOOM.

At that moment, my Mana Heart, which had been slacking off in a dormant state of satiety, stretched itself out. In an instant, mana spread to every corner of my body.

There was no more empty space.

But even so, the heart was endlessly spewing out mana.

SWOOOOOSH.

As if a flood had broken out, the mana inside my body overflowed.

"To think the place you fled to, to escape the dead..."

I elevated my state.

Though I had slaughtered the Warlord and plundered it,

Held back by my meager talent and unable to use it properly,

"...was precisely the place where you would die."

I unleashed my lofty presence toward the monsters.

VOOOOOOM.

Right on cue, Dusk howled.

FLASH.

A radiant cluster of light gathered at the tip of the sword.

Condensing, condensing, and condensing again.

The solidly compressed light became a single blade.

The symbol of those who had reached the completion of harmony,

The authority of destruction permitted only to Masters.

I swung Dusk just like that.

SWIIISH.

A single line formed in the empty air.

It was a perfect Aura Blade that severed even space itself.

SKREEEE.

The monsters caught in the trajectory of the line that cleaved the air looked down at their bodies. But before they could even grasp what had happened to their bodies, their heads fell to the ground with a *thud*.

A shower of blood bloomed a step too late,

"Advance."

I threw myself into that crimson world.

* * *

RUUUMBLE.

At the energy that abruptly erupted from beneath the gates, Vincent froze in place.

VOOOOOM.

His circuits began to tremble on their own.

An energy so immense that his heart shrank.

"This is..."

It was the wave of something both incredibly familiar and deeply missed by him.

He stood on the wall as if possessed and looked down below the gate.