chapter_0155

Dullahan, the First Legion Commander of the Demon King’s army, was once an ordinary human.

An ordinary human, far from honorable.

In a distant past, long before the current Empire was established, the human nations were divided into several kingdoms, and the demons were too busy waging wars among themselves to bother with humans.

Richard was born into a lower-class family during this tumultuous time.

As always, life in the lower classes was never easy. Yesterday’s friend could become today’s enemy, and it was a place where one could disappear in an instant, their throat slit without warning.

Richard, influenced by his surroundings, grew up to be a less than savory child, often involved in unscrupulous activities.

Unlike the countless peers who had died or disappeared while engaging in similar activities, Richard had a talent.

From a young age, he was faster, stronger, and bigger than his peers, and this talent became his greatest asset in the back alleys.

When Richard was eleven, his parents passed away, and he had to fend for himself. By the time he was fourteen, he began working as a mercenary.

And he excelled at it. From a young age, the only thing he had done was kill, so it was only natural that his talent for killing blossomed.

It could be called a coincidence, or perhaps fate. One day, while working as a mercenary as usual, Richard happened to witness the procession of a princess.

“……”

As he watched the procession, he caught a glimpse of the princess looking out the window, and in that moment, he fell in love. Just like the stories often told.

It was possible because she was the king’s seventh child, and because she was pushed to the sidelines of power struggles, her position extremely precarious due to the intense competition from her older siblings.

If he had seen the face of the first, second, or third prince, he would have been detected by detection magic and had his throat slit on the spot.

“I’m quitting the mercenary work. Don’t look for me.”

“What? Are you crazy? Hey! Where are you going! At least tell me!”

Richard, completely smitten by the princess, spent a week moping before making a bold decision.

He would leave the mercenary group and become one of the knights guarding the princess.

With the money he had accumulated and the connections he had forged through blackmail, Richard was able to take the exam to become a knight. And once again, his talent did not betray him.

Of course, this was only possible because the princess was outside the power struggles. A normal king would have chosen knights from the royal palace to guard the princess, not hold an exam.

So, at the age of twenty-six, Richard began a new life. Not as a mercenary who killed and took, but as a knight dedicated to protecting a single person.

“Haaah……”

The princess Richard served was a melancholy and pitiful woman, but her melancholy and pitiful state had reasons.

Although she had been pushed to the sidelines of power struggles, she was still the daughter of the queen, and her bloodline could not be ignored.

She was the only child of the queen, and this was intolerable to the children of the concubine, the first and second princes.

The king favored the third prince, a genius who excelled in various fields and was also the son of the queen, far more than he favored the princess. However, he could not ignore the princess completely.

If the third prince were to meet with an “unfortunate accident,” the next in line would naturally be the only remaining daughter of the queen.

The other siblings, if they had any interest in power, would know this, and their interest translated into relentless pressure on the seventh princess.

The number of guards dwindled to single digits, and their residence changed from a castle to a small mansion. The number of servants barely reached double digits.

Over the years of this relentless pressure, it was fortunate that Richard remained by the princess’s side, rather than leaving.

“Why… why are you still here…”

But the princess was far from grateful. Unlike Richard, whose loyalty and devotion were genuine, the remaining personnel had no loyalty to the princess and were only there because of their connection to the royal family.

They were all talented individuals who had been chosen to serve the royal family, and they struggled to adapt to their new environment, serving a fallen royal instead of the throne.

The servants began to leave one by one, seeking a way back to the royal palace. This was the intention of the princess’s siblings, to isolate her and leave her with no one.

Finally, when their residence shrank to a one-story building, the only ones left by the princess’s side were those with the flimsiest connection to the royal family, and Richard.

The old Richard would have rejoiced at this opportunity. A woman with nothing left, dependent solely on him. What better opportunity could there be?

“……”

But the current Richard couldn’t bring himself to do it. The way of the back alleys was to exploit the weaknesses of others and take everything they had, but the current Richard couldn’t bring himself to do that to someone he cared about.

Watching the sadness of the person he loved, his thoughts changed.

“This is my last order as your lord. Leave me. I understand the intentions of my siblings. They want me to disappear from this world, so I should just do as they say. I have no intention of prolonging my life by selling my face and body, so it’s best to follow their wishes. I may no longer be in this world, but you can start anew on your own, right?”

“I will stay.”

After spending some time alone, the princess finally emerged and urged Richard to leave, but he chose to stay by her side. The princess looked at him with sad eyes, saying nothing.

Their relationship began to change from that moment on.

Accepting that she had nothing left in her hands, the princess began to rely on Richard, not the king.

The fact that she had received no response to the dozens of letters she had sent to the king meant that someone was still watching over her, and it was clear that this pathetic state of hers would never be conveyed to the king.

“……You seem a little sweaty. Let me wipe you down.”

“I’m not suited for such intimate tasks. Please do it yourself.”

Richard, unlike her previous statement about not prolonging her life by selling her face and body, realized that the princess wanted him to stay by her side.

But he pushed all of that away. A dirty, filthy human like Richard didn’t deserve to be by the side of someone as noble and radiant as her.

From that realization onwards, Richard kept his distance. His life goal changed. He wanted to send the princess to the best man she could reach.

So Richard refused when the princess offered to help with household chores, saying he would continue his mercenary work to bring in money.

Of course, he only chose honorable missions that wouldn’t tarnish the princess’s name.

This strange relationship lasted for a whopping four years. Richard’s age had long since passed thirty, and the princess was in her mid-twenties.

The power struggles within the kingdom were becoming more and more intense. Rumors spread that the fifth princess had died under mysterious circumstances, and news arrived that the third prince had perished in battle.

Richard felt a glimmer of hope. With the third prince dead, wouldn’t the king’s only remaining daughter, his lord, be welcomed back into the royal family?

“Richard, I received a letter from the royal family.”

After a decade, the princess finally received a letter from the royal family, sent in the king’s name.

“They’re giving me five hundred soldiers to repel the monsters invading the Aegis Plains.”

“……They’re telling us to die.”

Richard understood the true intent behind the letter. And he knew who had sent it.

It was obvious. They wanted her to die. With the third prince gone, the only remaining daughter of the queen, his lord, would be the next in line, and that was a threat to the other siblings, no matter how distant the relation.

The monster offensive on the Aegis Plains was already well-known, and the third prince had perished while trying to stop them before they could reach the plains.

Now, the monsters had joined forces with a nearby group, making their numbers even larger than when they had clashed with the third prince. It was absurd to send only five hundred soldiers, especially when the kingdom needed all its might to repel them.

“Let’s go, Richard. Let’s go die.”

“I obey.”

But if they refused, they knew another charge would be pinned on them, so the princess and Richard, along with the five hundred oldest and sickest soldiers provided as support, headed to the Aegis Plains.

And they defeated the monster offensive.

The princess, without any exaggeration or joy, simply wrote a letter stating that the offensive had been repelled. She knew that the first and second princes wouldn’t give up after just one attempt.

“Another letter came.”

“They must be confused because we didn’t die.”

As expected, another deployment order arrived, this time with a hint of urgency.

Richard won again.

A more urgent letter came, and Richard won again.

Letters kept coming, and Richard kept winning, this bizarre exchange repeating a total of seventeen times.

“Did you know? People call me the Goddess of the Battlefield now. They say I always win when I appear in a battle.”

“That’s an interesting nickname.”

“Yeah. At first, I was just there to die with you, but now my presence boosts the soldiers’ morale.”

Naturally, the princess, unlike the other royalty, became known for appearing on the battlefield and leading the troops, which was quite ironic considering she had initially gone to the battlefield to die.

And the Goddess of the Battlefield never died. In total, the princess and Richard participated in seventeen battles, and they miraculously repelled the monster offensives every single time.

“I received a letter from the royal family, Richard. They want me to return to the royal palace.”

“Could it be a trap?”

“I don’t know, but if we don’t go, that in itself could be a trap.”

One day, as rumors of their situation spread among the soldiers, the princess received another letter, this time not about a battle but an invitation to return to the royal palace.

Neither Richard nor the princess took the invitation at face value, having tasted the bitterness of the world too many times to blindly believe such an offer.

However, what awaited them was a truth even more cruel than they had imagined. The first and second princes personally arrested the princess and Richard.

“Let her go! How can we be accused of treason?! We have no reason to do such a thing!”

The charge was treason, and a series of fabricated reasons were recited, along with testimonies from bribed witnesses. But what truly broke Richard’s will was something else.

His past. Unlike the other reasons, which were obviously fabricated, Richard’s past was an undeniable truth, and the first and second princes knew about it because he had been chosen as a knight through an exam.

Richard bowed his head, unable to refute the truth of his past.

“The sin of a subordinate is the sin of the superior! How dare you put such a person in a position of power and think you can get away with it?!”

“It doesn’t matter! Richard is my knight! It’s up to me to judge whether he’s guilty or not!”

And on that day, Richard witnessed the princess’s anger for the first time. She, who had endured countless humiliations without a word, was now furious on his behalf.

Of course, her words fell on deaf ears. The princess was kicked in the chest by the first prince, her ribs cracking, and she collapsed.

Richard, seeing this, stood up with fire in his eyes and lunged at the prince, but with his limbs bound, he could do nothing. He was soon beaten to a pulp by the nearby knights and collapsed next to the princess.

“……Call my father.”

“By all means. What can a man who’s so sick he can’t even recognize his own child do?”

The first prince sneered, and the two of them brought the princess and Richard before the king, who had aged so much he didn’t even recognize his own daughter.

The princess lowered her head, tears streaming down her face. After the death of the third prince, the king had gradually become a recluse, showing no interest in the princess.

“I will carry out the execution of the traitors!”

The execution of the Goddess of the Battlefield and her knight was carried out with alarming speed. Less than half a day after being thrown into prison, they were dragged to the execution ground.

The first and second princes personally recited the fabricated charges, including using civilians as human shields and luring monsters, while planted agitators in the crowd shouted insults.

“I’m sorry, Richard. I’m sorry… if only I had been stronger…”

Amidst the chaos, the princess, lying on the execution table, repeatedly apologized with tear-stained eyes.

“……”

Throughout the execution, Richard, his neck sawed through by a blunt dagger, didn’t utter a single scream. Instead, he stared at the two princes with bloodshot eyes.

“That stubborn bastard…”

“Ah, ahh! I’m leaving now!”

The first prince broke into a cold sweat, and the second prince couldn’t bear it any longer and left. Richard had won again.

But it was a meager victory, considering the name he had earned.

‘In the next life… I will definitely…’

As his consciousness faded, Richard made a firm vow.

‘In the next life, if I have another chance, I will become an honorable knight without a single blemish, and I will protect my lord with all my might.’

Deep in the mountains, a headless body that had been discarded and forgotten began to move again, and that vow remained unchanged.