Chapter 11
As the two horses galloped towards each other, the distance between them rapidly closed. At the moment they brushed past each other as if about to touch, their lances clashed fiercely, producing a sharp noise. Immediately after the flash-like pass, the horses’ speed gradually decreased, and Equilla pulled hard on the reins to turn her horse’s head.
It was the moment when the horse, due to the force of the pulled reins, neighed and raised its front legs. One of the reins connected to the horse’s bit snapped, and Equilla lost her balance and fell from the horse.
Daphne, who had been preoccupied with Johannes, hesitated. For a moment, most of the spectators didn’t notice the broken rein. However, Johannes, who was also turning his horse, saw Equilla’s rein break rather unnaturally.
‘What’s this?’
Johannes, feeling puzzled, dismounted his horse. He waited for Equilla to get up again. He wanted a fair fight. His identity was, in fact, closer to a warrior than a king.
It seemed like she was in shock, having rolled on the ground a few times from the fall, but fortunately, Equilla got up immediately. She seemed more ashamed of falling from her horse than injured. Equilla, having lost her composure, threw her lance with frightening force.
Johannes raised his shield to block it. However, the force was so strong that it pierced the top of the shield. Johannes, while being pushed back amidst the dust, quickly turned his head. Equilla’s spear tip grazed Johannes’s cheek. Shouts and screams mixed in the crowd.
And the next moment, without any hesitation, Johannes sprung forward, using the distance he was pushed back as momentum.
Daphne rose from her seat as if mesmerized.
Johannes, having discarded his shield, jumped lightly, drawing a parabola as if taking a running start. His movements were light and elegant, like a leopard. And in the next moment, his sword, raised high, plunged deep into Equilla’s neck and was pulled out. It happened in an instant. Most of the spectators didn’t immediately realize that his sword had pierced Equilla.
Daphne slowly walked to the railing of the watchtower and held onto it.
Equilla stopped abruptly and then slowly tumbled forward. Only then did the crowd grasp the situation. Shock, horror, and astonishment. For a moment, no one even dared to breathe, then, belatedly, the cheers of the Inacos Allied Forces began to shake the earth and sky.
Johannes walked leisurely towards the fallen Equilla and beheaded her. Dark red blood splattered on the white sand. The frenzied cheers grew louder. A deathly silence descended on the watchtower, where Equilla’s victory had been certain. Soon, chaos erupted as King Bation fainted.
Someone’s scream, Joffrey’s agitated voice seemed to be heard. Daphne had no time to care about the commotion happening behind her.
Disgusting?
Well.
The man who held the severed head high in the sky, the man drenched in hot blood staring at her, somehow wasn’t frightening. Her heart throbbed painfully. Daphne had to admit it.
His victory was my victory.
A thrill she had never experienced before. An uncontrollable euphoria.
The joy of her first victory was like that. Endlessly overflowing, exhilarating, as if her heart would explode.
Her hand gripping the railing, her chin trembled.
Johannes Tennan.
The most threatening enemy.
The black-haired monster.
The blood-soaked murderer.
He was the man who had given her the joy of her first victory.
“Johannes! Johannes! Johannes!”
The roars of the extremely excited spectators resonated through her body. The sense of victory was clear. However, Johannes felt more disgusted than ever. It seemed as if someone had interfered with the sacred match.
Johannes raised his head and glared at the watchtower. The silver-haired Thessarias were in disarray due to the elderly Bation collapsing from the shock. Naturally, the woman standing alone, blankly holding onto the railing and looking down at him, stood out.
Silver hair shining like sunlight on the water, jewel-like violet eyes.
Bation’s daughter.
The woman he had encountered in the oak forest.
And probably the fiancée of the man he had just killed.
At first, he thought she was in shock.
Johannes’s eyes slowly narrowed.
For a moment, he thought he had seen wrong.
“…Crazy.”
Unbelievably, the woman was smiling. As if deeply moved.
💎
The soldiers of Itium, who had begun preparing for their return in earnest, busily moved across the grey beach from early morning.
Among them, Günter Habock stood out at once, even though he was wearing the same cloak. This was because his pigmentation was light for someone from Itium. His hair was the color of a wheat field shining under the sun, and his eyes were a bright, sprout-like green. Judging by his appearance alone, he looked more like a prisoner of the Allied Forces than one of them.
It was proof that he wasn’t of pure Itium noble blood. He was the son born from the illicit affair of Lady Habock and a minstrel who had probably come from the Westel continent.
As nobles often valued honor more than life, Lord Habock, Günter’s father, acknowledged Günter as a member of the Habock family, fearing that the family name would become a laughingstock. And he waited for the day when he could remove him from his sight forever.
That was when Günter had just entered his teens. The war began when Bation of Bellares massacred the envoy sent by Henrik of Inodenia. Lord Habock realized that the time had finally come. It was clearly an opportunity for his wife’s son, a symbol of long-standing shame and disgrace, to fulfill his duty and die most honorably.
The skinny, rat-like boy, who didn’t look like a noble son at all, was sent to the battlefield. In reality, it was a kind of exile, a death sentence. It was a rather clichéd story. This was because most of the nobles sent to the battlefield had stories like this.
Like any other young soldier sent here, Günter waited for the day he would die. Huddled in the smelly barracks, Günter thought that his long lifespan was rather unfortunate. However, the young boy didn’t have the courage to die. He somehow survived for two years and one day, he met Johannes, who was carrying a four-year-old on his back, for the first time.
“How did the king come here? Are you really the king?”
Günter thought that was the turning point in his life.
Günter, who met Johannes, became his knight, and for the first time in his life, he wanted to live. The rat-like boy, whose only wish was a painless death, could grow into a man brimming with vitality, no less than Johannes. He no longer dreamed of returning honorably as a rat of Habock Manor, but as a knight of the king.
And it was no longer a ridiculous dream. It would become a reality when the heat subsided and the west wind blew. He was extremely busy preparing for the return, but Günter was excited about it. Most of Johannes’s soldiers felt the same. They were more motivated than ever.
Günter, who had been passionately reporting, paused and looked at Johannes. Johannes was staring into space with a somewhat serious face. Günter asked, with a feeling of dread,
“…Johan. Are you listening to me?”
There was no reply. Günter sighed at the fact that Johannes was ‘again’ not listening to him at all.
“Damn it. Why are you so unfocused these days, unlike you?”
While the entire Itium camp was excited, Johannes occasionally looked dazed, as if he had something on his mind. Of course, Günter understood Johannes’s reaction.
It was the first time he would set foot on his homeland since being driven out to the battlefield. He had sharpened his blade for eight years, and finally, bloody revenge was within reach. I also feel the tension tightening my blood vessels from time to time, so what about Johannes?
As the commander of the Inacos Allied Forces, Johannes’s war was over, but he would be more tense than ever. Günter, reflecting on his somewhat irritable reaction just now, added playfully,
“So you do know tension.”
Johannes then glanced at Günter. Günter responded with a smile, as if understanding everything. It was then that Johannes suddenly spoke.
“About the princess.”
“…Princess? What…”
Günter was momentarily at a loss. It was because, as far as he knew, there was no ‘princess’ that Johannes would mention.
