Ch.338We’re Friends, Aren’t We?

“Kugh…!”

Nazar couldn’t even utter a word.

His entire body trembled with excruciating pain and shock.

The silver blade had pierced precisely through his nape. A fatal wound that even a Champion couldn’t recover from.

Thoughts flashed through his mind like sparks of fire.

All kinds of realizations surged at once, chaotically swirling in his head.

‘Silver blade. Abigeyl. Betrayal. Oleg…?’

Blood gushed from his gaping mouth.

Abigeyl, who had pierced Nazar’s neck with the hidden silver sword, grabbed his chin and smiled.

“Grrrgh…!”

“Oleg asked me to tell you something. ‘Just as you said, fools don’t live long. Now it’s your turn.’ Did I deliver it properly?”

It was enough for Nazar to understand what had happened.

‘From the beginning, he deceived everyone…!’

While hiding his true self behind the mask of a foolish battle maniac, waiting for the decisive opportunity.

“No…krgh, no…!”

Nazar wanted to scream at his own foolishness.

If Oleg revealed his true intentions at this point, it meant that the prey he had been targeting had finally shown its weakness.

If that was the case, his prey…

Wouldn’t be just Nazar.

‘Your Majesty…!’

The king was in danger.

The delaying tactics, the deception, the retreat to the northern wall—all operations premised on reinforcements joining them.

However, with Oleg’s betrayal, there was no possibility of reinforcements arriving. Or if they did, it would be far too late.

Nazar gripped the hilt of his greatsword with trembling hands.

With the silver sword through his neck, death was certain. But as long as he still had breath, he had to somehow alert others to their betrayal.

Abigeyl glanced at Nazar’s hand reaching for the sword hilt and smirked.

“I’ve delivered the message, so there’s no need for you to live any longer, right? Farewell.”

Her right arm swung swiftly. The silver blade drew a short arc.

– Slash!

Nazar’s head was severed in an instant.

The fox’s hand that had gripped the sword hilt slipped powerlessly.

The Champion, now headless, collapsed onto the snow.

—-

“Hmm…this really is a silver sword. It feels unpleasant to hold, but its performance is undeniable.”

Abigeyl swung the sword in the air to shake off the clotted blood, then sheathed the silver longsword.

It was a weapon from a human Master who had fallen in the northern wall battle.

She had secretly kept it when it was supposed to be buried and disposed of.

A pureblooded warrior watching approached Abigeyl and received the silver sword.

Abigeyl herself couldn’t carry the silver sword openly as it would attract attention, so she had entrusted it to her subordinate until the time came to wield it.

They were Abigeyl’s kin from the beginning.

Naturally, they had known about her plan all along.

“What will you do now?”

“Well…it would be troublesome if Lyudmila and the others discovered that Nazar is gone, wouldn’t it? I wish they would all die except for Lyudmila…what should we do?”

While her subordinates buried Nazar’s corpse under a pile of snow, Abigeyl shook her head from side to side, contemplating her next move.

‘Excluding the two subordinates on that side, there are twenty-six warriors to eliminate. It would be impossible for the five of us to eliminate them all in time…but if we could cause a clash with the humans…’

Once their numbers were reduced through conflict with the pursuit team, eliminating the rest wouldn’t be difficult.

The problem was that due to the difference in mobility between werebeasts and humans, not only was a clash unlikely, but the distance between them was gradually increasing.

“Hmm…I’ve got it! The three of us will attack the humans once, then head toward the detour where Lyudmila will be coming. That way, the enemies pursuing us will block Lyudmila’s troops from both sides when they arrive late.”

“Will they divide their forces? Wouldn’t they rather consolidate as Nazar planned…?”

The subordinate’s concern seemed reasonable, but Abigeyl smiled and pointed at the longsword on his waist.

“We have the silver sword, don’t we? We’ll just wave it around openly. When they recognize it, they’ll be enraged enough to chase us, won’t they?”

“That’s certainly true! To them, the silver sword is no ordinary treasure. Plus, it’s also a relic of the commander who led them…!”

“Exactly. So give it back to me. If you carry it, you might lose it.”

Finding the argument reasonable, the subordinate immediately unfastened the sword and handed the silver sword back to Abigeyl.

“Then all that remains is convincing Lyudmila who will be alone.”

“Shouldn’t we also deal with the observer that Nazar sent?”

“Drozdov? No need to worry about him. Oleg has probably already eaten him. He said he anticipated that one would follow.”

An observer only mattered when undetected; if they knew about him, he was nothing.

What Abigeyl didn’t know was that Drozdov had long since become Oleg’s meal near the northern wall.

Oleg had ambushed and captured Drozdov, then interrogated him by tearing off his limbs one by one. He needed to confirm whether Nazar’s surveillance was his own initiative or authorized by Rurik.

He also needed to check if there were other observers he hadn’t noticed.

Considering Nazar’s personality, it was likely he had sent just one observer on his own initiative, but one could never be too careful.

After hearing Drozdov’s confession, Oleg laughed loudly and bit off Drozdov’s head. It was exactly as he had expected.

Until the very end, Nazar had thankfully underestimated him.

A single observer sent on his own initiative. With him eliminated, there was no one left to obstruct Oleg’s movements.

—-

Afterward, Abigeyl and two snow leopard warriors ambushed the rear of the pursuit team as planned.

With just one Champion and two purebloods, they could only kill thirteen knights at most.

If they had lingered any longer, they risked being surrounded and torn apart by the Masters rushing toward them.

In Abigeyl’s right hand as she swiftly retreated was a silver longsword.

Frider and Leonore, who had hurriedly arrived, immediately recognized the sword.

Georg’s sword from the northern wall.

The longsword symbolizing the Empire’s legion commander was in the hands of a grinning beast, as if mocking them.

Frider’s eyes burned with vengeance. It was an insult she simply couldn’t tolerate.

“Demian! Millia! You chase that hyena! We’re going to cut that snow leopard bitch to pieces!”

Frider pursued Abigeyl with Leonore and ten knights. The departure was so sudden there was no time to stop them. Besides, since she was the commander of this pursuit team, there was no one who could stop her anyway.

‘Good, keep following me just like that!’

Abigeyl maintained a precarious distance, continuing to lure Frider.

Heading toward the perfect spot to encounter Lyudmila, who had changed direction and started moving north again.

Two hours later.

In Frider’s field of vision, after losing sight of Abigeyl who had suddenly increased her speed, she spotted Lyudmila’s troops approaching her.

For a moment, Frider considered the possibility of falling into a diversion tactic, but the snow leopards who had fled with the silver sword were nowhere to be seen.

If they had intended to lure her and Leonore for an ambush, they should have attacked by now, but this was rather…

“Princess Frider. That in the distance, isn’t that Demian?”

“…It seems so. What’s going on…?”

Frider tilted her head in confusion.

At this rate, her troops and Demian’s would be able to attack the enemies from both front and back.

“Did they try to use a lure but fail to coordinate…?”

“I don’t know about that, but this is definitely a golden opportunity!”

Leonore grinned and charged toward the approaching enemies.

Frider and the knights followed behind her.

They didn’t understand what was happening, but with enemies right in front of them ready to be torn apart, that was a concern for later.

“You…! How did you get in front of us…!”

As Lyudmila raised her spear in astonishment, Leonore’s longsword extended toward her like a beam of light.

—-

Surrounded on both sides by more than twice her forces, Lyudmila had no choice but to abandon the operation plan and attempt a desperate escape.

It was impossible for her alone to fight against four Masters. The fact that she managed to escape at all was close to a miracle.

Only three warriors remained by her side, all severely wounded.

One had lost his right arm.

Another had his belly torn open, exposing his intestines.

The third had a spear lodged in his back.

Lyudmila herself had lost three fingers from her left hand, sliced off by a silver sword.

As Lyudmila and her warriors were barely fleeing in such a state, Abigeyl, who had been waiting for them, revealed herself.

“Are you alright, Lyudmila? You look terrible.”

“Abigeyl?! You’re safe?”

Lyudmila couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

When the enemies appeared before her, and during the fight, Lyudmila had sensed that Nazar’s plan had gone awry.

She didn’t know how it had happened, but she was certain that Nazar and Abigeyl had been defeated by the enemy. If not, they would have joined her in the fight.

That’s why meeting Abigeyl here was beyond her imagination.

“I’m fine. Were you worried I might have been defeated?”

Abigeyl smiled nonchalantly.

Following her, two snow leopard werebeasts appeared one after another.

They noticed there were no kin among the stragglers accompanying Lyudmila and inwardly sighed in mourning.

If they had fled elsewhere during the chaotic battle, they might still be alive, but if not, they had likely lost their lives to the humans.

“What happened? How were they blocking our path? And where is Nazar?”

Lyudmila spat out her questions irritably.

If she had any judgment left, she might have been suspicious about how Abigeyl and the two snow leopards didn’t look like they had been in a fierce battle, and why they only appeared now…

But with the fatigue of battle and her injuries, she was in no mental state to think clearly.

“Nazar? Nazar is…probably meeting Valentin by now.”

“What? Valentin? Why that name all of a sudden…?”

As Lyudmila tilted her head in confusion, the two snow leopard warriors lunged at the severely wounded pureblooded warriors.

One drew a silver longsword, the other a silver-plated sword.

“What…!”

Before the startled warriors could respond, the swiftly swung blades cut through the bodies of the injured werebeasts.

The three warriors fell beneath the trees with death cries.

“Abigeyl! What is this…!”

Sudden betrayal. Lyudmila bristled with shock, her fur standing on end.

She couldn’t even comprehend what was happening.

“What am I doing? Just clearing away those who would interfere with Oleg.”

Abigeyl caught the silver sword thrown by her subordinate and pointed it at Lyudmila’s neck.

The chilling touch of the silver blade.

Lyudmila looked down at the silver blade hovering at her neck with trembling eyes, cold sweat breaking out.

“I should probably eliminate you too, Lyudmila, but…we’re friends, aren’t we? So I asked Oleg a favor. He agreed to spare you if you join our side. Aren’t you grateful?”

Abigeyl grinned.

—-

“Convincing” Lyudmila didn’t take long.