TVGS 129

Chapter 129

They were not our allies.

“Prepare for battle.”

Etias’s command spread through the Oswell army, and all soldiers took their battle stance.
Soon, waves of enemy troops surrounded us on all sides.

“Looks like you’ve finished off Gran Orden, Your Majesty.”

Next to the middle-aged man who looked like their commander, I saw a familiar face.

Gomels.

The niece of Emperor Barzenka, and the foreign minister who had once attended the ball.

Their army was supposed to cross into Chen, defend it, and then return to Barzenka’s capital.
So why were they here?

The answer was obvious.

Etias’s lips moved faintly.

“So in the end, you stab us in the back.”

They had pretended to be on our side, even allowing us passage to fight Gran Orden—
only to attack us now.
This was not sudden betrayal, but their original plan all along.

“First, hand over that ring. If you do, well… maybe we’ll let your little girlfriend live.”

Gomels’s gaze fixed on the ring in Etias’s hand—
the special ring taken from the Emperor of Gran Orden, engraved with sorcery that controlled the Rift Wizards.

Their ambition was clear.
They had planned to let us destroy Gran Orden first, then crush us with greater numbers.
With the power of the ring, and the monsters swarming in Gran Orden’s capital, they could conquer the continent.
Once Oswell was defeated and Gran Orden’s monsters under their control, no nation could resist them.

“But of course, we won’t let Your Majesty live.”

Gomels spoke with a false look of regret.
Her words made my eyes twitch.

Yes—I remembered when I had walked into Etias’s office with a letter about the Western front.
In that moment, I had seen a strange vision—
the faint flickering of a yellow banner.

It had been the royal crest of Barzenka.

Even when Barzenka claimed to stand with us, I could never fully trust them.
That brief vision, hinting at Etias’s death, had left too strong an impression.

I glared at Gomels and said:

“How cowardly.”

“Hah. Where in the world is there such a thing as an honorable war?” she shrugged.
“The clever and the strong—those are the ones who win.”

Shadows flickered at Etias’s feet, but their armored army did not flinch.
Even his power could not destroy such overwhelming numbers all at once.

“That’s true,” I whispered.
“If the clever and the strong are the ones who win…”

From the distance came a rumble—thud, thud, thud.
The ground shook.
Lancelot had done his part right on time.

“…then we will be the ones to win.”

Gomels’s eyes trembled at my crooked smile.
The vibrations grew stronger, and Barzenka’s soldiers looked around in confusion.

“Stay calm! Even if Montella’s army joins them, they cannot defeat us—”

But Gomels suddenly gasped and covered her mouth.
From the horizon, another vast army appeared, charging toward us.
Their banners were red.

“Yucubis!”

The third great power of this war, equal to Gran Orden and Barzenka.

Just as Barzenka had been sent to Chen, Etias had sent Yucubis to two other western kingdoms.
And like Barzenka, Yucubis had not returned home after finishing their mission.
They came here instead—because we had prepared for it.

Before the campaign, I had asked Heros to investigate Barzenka’s ambitions.
With the Scavengers’ intelligence stretching across the continent, we learned their true intentions.
I had even asked him to reveal enough of their corruption to provoke Yucubis.

Heros sent us trustworthy documents by carrier pigeon.
I immediately informed Etias and Lancelot, and together we made our plan.

When I first told him, Lancelot had hesitated.

— “Barzenka? You mean they would betray us?”

But in the end, he trusted us, and personally went to guide Yucubis’s army here.

If Oswell had once been outnumbered one to two,
with Montella and Yucubis, the ratio had flipped—three to one in our favor.

Barzenka now stood in a hopeless position.

The soldiers who had been so confident in stabbing us from behind now wore pale, stiff faces.

“You bastards!”

Gomels’s eyebrows twitched in rage.

The grand minister of Yucubis raised his voice:

“You are no better than Gran Orden—corrupt, deceitful, and a threat to the peace of the continent! Yucubis will not forgive this!”

A thunderous cheer shook the earth.

‘So this… this is true war.’

My heart pounded as countless armies stretched endlessly before my eyes.

“Damn it! If we just win—!”

Barzenka’s commander drew his sword and shouted,
but his cry was cut short.

Shadows surged through the ground, seizing his body.

As Gomels screamed and her soldiers rushed to strike the shadows,
Yucubis’s army charged directly into Barzenka’s troops.

“Waaaaah—!”

The battlefield blurred with chaos, but Etias stood tall, unmoving.
The shadows he had sent out returned to his feet.

He turned to me and said calmly:

“He’s dead.”

“…The commander?”

Etias nodded once.

“Yucubis took his head.”

Without their leader, Barzenka’s army crumbled instantly.
Soldiers threw down their weapons and dropped to the ground.

“We surrender!”
“Please don’t kill us!”

Gomels tried to flee, but Yucubis’s soldiers captured her.

“Let go of me! I said, let go!”

Their commander dead, their soldiers broken and disarmed—
the traitors who had tried to stab us in the back were no longer a threat.

“Thanks to you, Katrin,” Etias said gently.

I shot him a playful look.
“You doubted them too, Your Majesty.”

He admitted it.
He had also suspected Barzenka, so he had spies sending regular reports throughout the war.
That was how he knew, in real time, that they were marching to ambush us instead of returning home.

I had been the one to propose the final trap after Gran Orden fell,
but Etias had made sure we tracked Barzenka’s every move.

“…!”

In the distance, I spotted Lancelot on horseback.
He waved at me.

“I’ll go greet him,” I said with a bright smile, running toward him.

The battle was almost over, the field finally safe—
or so I thought.

“…Ugh!”

Out of nowhere, a blue Rift Wizard leapt at me.
He grabbed my shoulder with a clawed hand.

Since no one wore the ring now, he was free.
His melted, dripping face loomed close.

Pain seared through my shoulder, and terror clawed at me.

Then I heard a familiar voice:

“Stop.”

The Rift Wizard’s hand slowly released me.
How?

I turned toward the voice.
Heros stood beside Etias, breathing hard.
On his finger was the very ring we had taken from the Emperor of Gran Orden.

“How dare you touch her with those filthy hands.”

Could this icy, murderous man really be Heros?
His eyes burned with killing intent.

“Break your own neck.”

The Rift Wizard clutched his throat, twisting until his body collapsed into black liquid.