Chapter 266

“Who’s there!”

The castle was mostly empty now, desolate after most people had left.

A guard on patrol sensed movement in the corridor, halted, and called out warily. But no one answered.

In truth, there was no one who could. The next moment, the guard collapsed, blood spurting from his neck.

Swish. A Silver Moon Operative in black landed beside the corpse and, in one motion, snuffed out the candles lining the corridor.

Before the war, Marquis Tipion’s castle—like the estates of other high nobles—would have had patrols moving in pairs. Even then, they wouldn’t have survived an encounter with any Silver Moon Operatives, but at least the mission would have been harder than it was now.

But from the moment the war began, Marquis Tipion—whose troops had been pushed to their limit by the Grand Duke—didn’t even have the strength to protect his own castle. Not from external enemies, and not from the commoners under his rule.

After the soldiers left and the remaining commoners attacked, the castle could do nothing but helplessly surrender the wealth it had hoarded over time. Stripped of everything from his new gold-threaded cloak to the rosewood bed decorations passed down for generations, the Marquis barely managed to survive without missing meals.

No one pitied him. No one helped him.

How could they? The surrounding nobles, having seen what happened to Marquis Tipion, were too busy trembling—afraid they would be next. They had even stopped collecting the taxes they were supposed to pay the Imperial family.

The true instigators of the uprising distributed the food seized from the castle to other commoners, then dismantled and sold off the luxury goods. The Moriér Merchant Group bought those items at reasonable prices, procured food from other regions, and supplied it cheaply. With food prices soaring because of the war, the aid of powerful partners—the MacKinnon Trading Company and the Redeng tribe—made something close to a miracle possible. Naturally, more and more people turned their backs on the Marquis’s household.

The four Silver Moon Operatives raced through a castle now lacking both people and candlelight.

And as the deep night thinned and the eastern sky began to pale with dawn…

Marquis Tipion was found as a cold corpse.

❖ ❖ ❖

Illopium Gorge—the only practical entrance to and exit from Maindulante—was crowded again today.

Countless merchants and their goods filed through the checkpoint at the gorge’s mouth. The narrow path made the line crawl, but the mood was bright.

They knew they were on the winning side.

“Marquis Tipion passed away, didn’t he?”

A merchant waiting for inspection asked casually. His colleague beside him nodded, indifferent.

“That’s what they say. They’ve raised the Flag of Mourning.”

“Is the rumor true? That it’s retaliation for betraying the Imperial family…”

He lowered his voice at the end. The colleague frowned and waved him off.

“Tch. Don’t say things like that anywhere. It could bring real trouble.”

Around here, the Imperial family was nothing but a laughingstock. Even so, commoners had to be careful. Who knew if an Imperial spy was mixed into the crowd? Merchants, in particular—whose connections reached all the way south—had to watch their tongues if they didn’t want to suffer losses.

At his colleague’s warning, the merchant shut his mouth. Then, as he rose on tiptoe to gauge how soon his turn would come—

Rumble. The ground shook lightly.

“An earthquake?”

“What’s that?”

Those who remembered the major quake last season—when a city was destroyed—turned pale, and even those unfamiliar with such things looked around in alarm. Then a red flag was waved three times from the cliffs that hemmed in the checkpoint on both sides.

Understanding what it meant, and lacking the restraint to keep quiet, some people screamed.

“Enemy attack! Enemy attaaack!”

Chaos erupted instantly. Civilians panicked, clutching their belongings and trying to force their way out of the line. The checkpoint guards sprang up and blew their whistles.

Wheeeet! Eet! Eet! Eeeeet-!

The sound echoed through the narrow gap between the cliffs.

Soon after, the enemy became visible even to those not on the heights—lightly armored cavalry, roughly a hundred men, carrying long lances.

A force that small wasn’t the kind you’d send to attack terrain this defensible. And—

‘What do they hope to accomplish by attacking here?’

The merchant remembered what he’d almost said earlier: that the Crown Princess who had seized the Imperial family was wielding power indiscriminately and taking revenge on anyone who didn’t obey. That even if they weren’t about to be surrounded by Maindulante’s army, the Imperial family had already lost the nobles who should have been its pillars and was sinking.

So then, wouldn’t the Princess have something she believed in? Otherwise, this wouldn’t be possible.

Could it be those soldiers? If they broke through here, it might give the Imperial family room to breathe. Unlike the early days of the war, there were more civilians than soldiers here now.

But with that number… could they even reach White Swan Castle?

‘No. They don’t need to break through.’

A chill ran down the merchant’s spine. How much supply was gathered here right now? Maindulante was a vast land, capable of producing its own food—until most of the manpower that should have been farming was dragged to the battlefield. They had been buying daily necessities from outside, and some of the supplies for the front were purchased collectively and sent to the rear.

Frankly, if the Imperial Army trampled this area thoroughly and stopped merchants from coming for a while, they could do real damage to Maindulante.

The reason such a simple operation hadn’t been attempted until now was—

‘They couldn’t. This area has been Maindulante’s territory for a long time.’

If you had the ability to drive cavalry straight through enemy land into its heart during a full-scale war, who would lose?

Just then, the merchant’s colleague muttered, face drained of color.

“The knights of the Marquis’s domain…?”

Only then did the merchant consider that the cavalry hadn’t “crossed enemy land” at all. Knights still remained in regions occupied by Maindulante. There wouldn’t have been a hundred cavalry of that caliber left in Marquis Tipion’s castle alone, but if they were gathered from subordinate lords nearby…!

‘But is that even possible?’

Lately, they said the subordinate lords in the Marquis’s domain had been extremely cautious—terrified of uprisings.

Thud. Thud-thud.

Each synchronized stomp of hooves shook the ground like an earthquake. People screamed and fought to push into the gorge, and in doing so, they blocked the Maindulante guards trying to ride out.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

The merchant’s heartbeat began to match the cadence of the hooves. It felt like his heart might leap out of his throat.

Then a tremor came from another direction.

Thud, thud, thud-thud.

If the enemy was approaching from the south, this new tremor came from the west, moving along the grain of the mountain range. And soon another cavalry force appeared—wearing Maindulante’s colors—and cut off the civilians’ path from the front.

If the enemy numbered about a hundred, this side had three or four times that. They were visibly better armed, too. Civilians cheered in relief, and the Maindulante commander shouted with booming energy.

“First squad, Arrow Storm—! Show those fools what happens when they try to lay a hand on Maindulante’s friends!”

Swooosh. Part of the Maindulante force nocked arrows and drew to the limit. The enemy hesitated.

“Fire!”

Swish-swish-swish-thwack!

With a sound that felt almost refreshing down to their toes, the arrows flew. The enemy, charging at full speed, barely managed to slow down—but that was all. Men fell in droves, and horses stumbled over bodies and collapsed.

Which side held the advantage was brutally clear.

“Second squad, charge behind me! Let’s goooooo!”

The middle-aged commander, more exhilarated than anyone, raised his lance and thundered forward.

Around then, the civilians finally came back to their senses and made way for the Illopium Gorge guards to ride out.

Once the guards were out, the civilians—leaving the slaughter behind them—slowly began to move through again. As the line advanced, the merchant found himself directly behind a young couple and greeted them cheerfully.

“Oh, what a relief. Don’t you agree?”

They were dressed as moderately well-off commoners might be for travel—neither too fancy nor too shabby. But the merchant’s sharp eyes didn’t miss the wife’s natural elegance, nor skin so pale it had clearly been cared for over time.

‘A young lady from a wealthy family must’ve married into a less well-off household.’

The wife, with round green eyes, noticed his gaze lingering a bit too long and offered a gentle smile, as if asking why. The husband—plain-looking—stepped between his wife and the merchant.

“Sorry about that. My apologies.”

Only then did the merchant realize he’d been staring. He apologized, and the husband gave a small nod.

The merchant forced himself to lose interest in the couple and began talking with his colleague about what to do if something like this happened again. Finally free of scrutiny, the wife whispered to her husband.

“Where did all those knights come from?”

The husband, Talfrin, answered Diane.

“They probably scraped them together from subordinate lords across the Marquis’s domain, with a few sent by the Imperial family mixed in.”

“Reckless.”

Right behind them, people were dying. They had passed through battlefields to get here, so Diane wasn’t deeply shaken, but the sight still left her dispirited. Talfrin cleared his throat and continued.

“That’s probably why they killed the Marquis. To scare the subordinate lords who hid as many soldiers as they could to protect themselves.”

“But those soldiers are all dying now.”

“What would the lords know about that? If they can make the sword fall on someone else’s neck instead of their own, they’ll do it. To them, the people are just tax-paying livestock, not human beings.”

Diane stared, stunned. Seeing her expression, Talfrin hurriedly tried to take it back.

“No—what I mean is, people in the Marquis’s domain are a bit like that. Maindulante isn’t. And MacKinnon County isn’t like that either.”

“Ah, no. I’ve seen kids who treat their servants like that, too.”

The Noble Academy gathered all kinds. There were children who mocked her for being close to the servants, saying, “You can’t hide lowly bloodlines.” Diane had thought those children were the strange ones, but—

Talfrin clicked his tongue inwardly. In front of others, he wouldn’t have tried such an awkward retraction. But whenever she made that surprised face—again and again—

“Anyway, they wouldn’t have sent those guys out with a ‘If it fails, so be it’ attitude, knowing they’d lose. They must have something else in mind.”

“What is it?”

“I have a rough idea.”

Talfrin’s gaze shifted, scrutinizing the Maindulante soldiers fighting fiercely. Hilbrin had probably used the secret passage that connected Maindulante to the outside. The timing working out was likely because Nerys, after hearing about Marquis Tipion’s death, had listened for news beyond the border—just in case.

Because of that, the people here survived. But it also meant the location of the secret passage—west of Illopium Gorge—had been exposed.

‘Her Highness wouldn’t be the type to let people die just to conceal that direction.’

Even so, it left him uneasy. Anxious. Talfrin frowned and whispered to Diane.

“We need to move a little faster.”

“Ah, yes. Let’s do that.”

Even after Joyce joined Maindulante, Diane and Talfrin continued their journey while hiding their identities. If Diane’s appearance became publicly known, it could be used as a pretext to punish Count and Countess MacKinnon for having smuggled their daughter out in advance. Joyce had urged them as well, insisting it was necessary to go into hiding preemptively, in case anything happened.

‘This journey will be over soon.’

As Diane thought that, she stole a glance at Talfrin. Ever since meeting Joyce, he’d been strangely awkward around her.

‘It’s because Oppa keeps calling me “baby girl.”’

Even if it made her cringe a little, she honestly had nothing to say…

As Diane was turning that over in her mind, Talfrin spoke loudly, as if for others to hear.

“Let’s go, my lady. The line is moving.”