Ch.196Incomprehensible Decision

As soon as the knights’ presence disappeared, Valenstein and the insect knights stopped pretending to fight.

In the garden of the First Prince’s Palace, human fragments floated on a sea of blood.

Only four living humans remained here now.

“Kuhm! Kuhm! This was quite distasteful… But now, I suppose we no longer need to continue this crude play. Isn’t that right, Princess Aishan-Gioro? You’ve been resting quietly for a while now. Has your strength returned?”

Coughing up blood, Valenstein addressed Haschal.

Though the insect knight’s ambush had been merely an act, the wound piercing his abdomen seemed real enough, as his complexion was somewhat pale.

“…If you’re curious, why don’t you come at me? I’ll shatter that precious ghost sword of yours once and for all and send you to your grave.”

Haschal raised her black iron greatsword again.

Her voice was slightly cracked with fatigue, but clear and free of madness.

Now that the knights had dispersed, she no longer needed to pretend to be a monster.

“Princess…! Have you regained your senses?!”

“I was in my right mind from the beginning, Tortoise Prince.”

Haschal replied mockingly.

Her disrespectful tone dropped all honorifics. Her fierce voice even carried a hint of reproach.

After all, this situation had largely resulted from Leopold’s excessive caution.

“My goodness, you did all that in your right mind…?”

Leopold was too shocked by Haschal’s words to notice her tone.

He had just learned that his fearsome yet reliable ally had a habit of eating people while fully conscious.

“Indeed. There’s a saying that youth can chew through stone… but I never expected Orhan’s daughter to enjoy human flesh. Was it really that delicious?”

“If you’re curious, come at me already. I’ll cut off your wrinkled manhood and stuff it in your mouth. It’s something you’ve never used anyway, so you won’t miss it.”

Haschal bared her teeth, provoking Valenstein.

As if she had enjoyed the taste of human flesh? That meat was fishy, salty, bitter, and even nauseating.

She had forced herself to swallow it despite the urge to vomit, just to recover some strength and instill fear in her enemies.

“Heh heh… *cough*! Ah, I can’t even laugh freely… Anyway, your bravado can’t hide your obvious limitations. In that condition, how many more minutes can you last?”

“Well… until an old man like you dies of old age?”

Haschal stood there forcing a smile and appearing fine, but… Valenstein was right.

If he attacked, she might somehow counter, but she was in no condition to charge in and fight herself.

There was a limit to how long she could press her wounds to stop the bleeding.

To make matters worse, her mind kept growing hazy, suggesting her time was running out.

If she lost consciousness now, she would lose control of her body again. She bit her lip.

“Hmm… very well, I’ll stop.”

At that moment, Valenstein flicked his sword and sheathed it.

The insect knights followed suit, sheathing their weapons.

Clearly, they had no intention of continuing the fight.

“…What are you thinking?”

Haschal narrowed her eyes and asked.

If they just dragged this out, they could surely end her life.

Though the old man was injured too… why would he throw away this perfect opportunity to finish off an enemy with just that minor wound?

She couldn’t understand Valenstein’s intentions.

“Isabella asked me to capture the princess alive… but how am I supposed to capture a woman who moves her limbs with threads of murder karma, and who wakes up again even when knocked unconscious? Fighting on would obviously kill you… and that’s not what ‘we’ want.”

Valenstein’s answer was strange.

He was letting her go because capturing her might kill her?

This wasn’t how one treated an enemy.

It was closer to how warriors would try to tame a wild horse.

“Besides, as you can see, my wound isn’t light either… I might lose my life if I’m unlucky. Why should I take such a risk just to fulfill Isabella’s request? Eventually, with time… the princess will also come to thank us.”

“Thank you? The one who split my chest in two? Have you gone senile in your old age?”

Haschal pointedly indicated her chest.

Though it was wrapped in bandages—someone must have provided emergency treatment while she was unconscious—the vertical cut was clearly visible through the partially loosened bandages.

“Well… when you face the limit of mastery, that towering wall… the princess will also come to understand ‘our’ purpose.”

With a quiet murmur, Valenstein turned and departed for the Third Prince’s Palace.

The insect knights silently followed him.

“He’s retreating? After having victory in his grasp…?”

Leopold muttered in disbelief.

He understood that the series of staged events had been orchestrated by Isabella and Valenstein working together.

The purpose seemed to be to frame Isabella’s own evil deeds on Leopold and the Aishan-Gioro princess.

‘No, why go through such unnecessary trouble…?’

In a battle already won, there was no need to retreat after securing a justification.

Just by temporarily restraining Haschal and killing Leopold, Isabella’s victory would have been all but assured.

This was like deliberately taking a detour while ignoring the shortcut.

“Isabella… what is she thinking?”

“Who knows? Anyway, it seems we’ve escaped the immediate crisis, so I have one request for you, Tortoise Prince.”

Haschal staggered toward Leopold.

She had already discarded the cracked black iron greatsword on the ground.

Perseval moved to block her warily, but stepped back when their eyes met.

Though her eyes were bloodshot with burst vessels, they no longer contained hostility or madness.

“A request?”

Looking at Leopold who stupidly repeated her words, Haschal smirked.

His furrowed brow and gaping mouth made for quite an amusing expression in her eyes.

“Nothing difficult… just somehow keep me alive. I’m about to pass out.”

After finishing her words, Haschal collapsed limply toward Leopold.

The murder karma that had been flowing from her dissolved into the air and disappeared.

Blood flowed from her chest, soaking the floor, as if the sword wound she had been suppressing had reopened.

“Princess…?! Oh no! The wound…!”

Leopold’s expression changed as he hurriedly picked her up.

He needed to get her to a priest as quickly as possible—her injury was severe enough that death wouldn’t be surprising.

“Sir Perseval! Prepare the horses immediately! We’ll head to the infirmary by carriage!”

“Yes, sir!”

Running toward the carriage, Leopold examined Haschal’s condition.

A terrible wound that gaped open from her collarbone through her chest to near her abdomen. Leopold sighed.

‘To have fought like that with such a wound… I must at least stop the bleeding!’

Leopold laid Haschal on the carriage seat, removed his coat, wrapped it around her upper body, and tied it tightly.

It was just a temporary measure, but it was all he could do.

Watching anxiously as his elaborate formal wear quickly turned red, Leopold prayed to the divine.

‘Elpinel, please watch over us…!’

—-

Perhaps his prayer reached the heavens.

Haschal’s breath didn’t cease until they arrived at the Church of Elpinel’s infirmary.

Though the holy maiden candidate, Lacy Elmaine Stardolf, was absent, she wasn’t the only healing priest at the infirmary.

The priests of the Church of Elpinel, who had been murmuring while looking at the collapsed palace, were shocked to see the “Goddess’s Knight” severely wounded and hurriedly prepared treatment.

To them, who were still unaware of the tragedy at the First Prince’s Palace, Haschal was still a knight blessed by Elpinel.

The miracle of healing, manifested by dozens of healing priests giving their all, was collectively poured onto her.

As brilliant holy light enveloped Haschal’s body, the wound on her chest slowly began to heal.

Color returned to her pale complexion.

Though it would take time to fully recover from such a serious injury, the immediate danger had passed.

Leopold exhaled a sigh of relief.

======[Isabella]======

Inside a dark carriage.

“I’m a bit disappointed, Lord Valenstein. Unable to capture a girl not even twenty years old. The reputation of the Empire’s Greatest Sword has fallen quite low.”

Isabella, dressed in a black dress, sharply rebuked Valenstein, who was leaning against the carriage drinking a recovery potion.

She was somewhat irritated as she had prepared hounds and war horses to use when he brought Haschal back, but they had gone to waste.

“Well. She was a much stronger opponent than expected. The power inherited from her father, plus skill surpassing her father’s. Neither I nor Orhan reached such a level at that age.”

Valenstein shrugged nonchalantly.

His chest and stomach ached, but thanks to the recovery potion, it was bearable.

“Even so, if you and the Para-Chevaliers had attacked together, surely…”

Para-Chevalier.

Monsters created by implanting parasitic worms in master-level knights or those approaching that level.

They were Isabella’s favorite forces.

Though the Oath Sword would make it difficult to capture Haschal with these alone, she believed the combined attack of the ghost sword and these creatures would be sufficient.

“We could have won, yes. But capturing her alive was impossible. She was a warrior who would forcibly reconnect broken bones to continue fighting, so she wouldn’t stop until death. What could I do?”

Isabella sighed overtly in contempt.

“I was surprised when Feyrus brought you in… but you’re less useful than I expected. If you had just captured her, I could have had so much fun. What a shame.”

“If you’re so disappointed, why didn’t you go yourself? Instead of rolling around with your own son.”

Valenstein sneered.

Though the plan to capture Haschal had failed, that was only a secondary objective. The main purpose—the staged play—had been perfectly achieved.

So there was no reason to be subservient.

After all, he wasn’t Isabella’s subordinate.

Valenstein followed Feyrus, not Isabella.

Isabella’s gaze turned cold.

“If I had gone myself, it would have been your plans that went awry… And… don’t speak informally to me, boy.”

“…Boy?”

Valenstein asked in disbelief.

As far as he knew, Isabella Benes was forty-one years old. There was more than a twenty-year age difference between them.

“Feyrus didn’t tell you? That I am the last witch to survive the church’s witch hunts.”

Isabella chuckled.

Valenstein swallowed hard.

The witch hunts ended a hundred years ago. If so, the age of Isabella who survived the witch hunts was…

‘Poor Ferdinand, even I can’t help but pity you.’

Valenstein expressed his condolences to the departed Emperor.

To the man who had taken a centuries-old hag as his wife.