[That’s all I have edited for today. We’ll be back on track now that the holidays are over. (Dec. 27)]

Chapter 182

Montpellier! Oh, Montpellier! (3)

Montpellier woke up. Contrary to the knight’s words he had heard before fainting, he still found himself in the same state: He was out of the royal capital. He knew this as soon as he looked at the windowless room he found himself in. If he were in the empire, there would be no reason for him to be in such a shabby place.

“Oah,” he groaned in pain and then heard that the knights were whispering among themselves.

“Are you awake?” a knight asked him.

“Where are we?”

“This is a hideout in Leonberg’s capital,” the knight said with regret. “We couldn’t get out of the city because the capital’s guards were more diligent than expected.”

The stern-faced knight then said that a number of imperial personnel had been lost due to the capital and palace knights rushing to the plaza like hornets.

“Ambassador, if only you had checked the document sooner, we could have saved you right away. Why did you read it so late? Has all the magic that was prepared for you become useless?”

“I had to be careful because eyes were watching me.”

The knight apologized when Montpellier answered with a grim face.

“I wasn’t trying to blame you, ambassador. I am just sorry that you have suffered. You have gone through a lot of trouble, so take some rest now.”

“What are your plans for the future?” asked Montpellier.

“Originally, some of us intended to take you to the empire, ambassador. But seeing as things have gone wrong, we must now wait for our allies to attack the capital. Once they cause confusion, we can find our gap and get out of here.”

Montpellier frowned at the knight’s words.

“It seems a difficult thing to do, for the few of you who are here. As you saw, the response of the knights and guards of the capital was swift.”

“Don’t worry. We have enough people. Everyone will be here in the evening.”

After Montpellier asked how many people were there and when the escape would be, he shut his mouth, wondering whether there were any suspicions about him.

“I need a little rest,” he said.

“I will wake you up when the time comes.”

Montpellier gestured with his hand and closed his eyes. He had endured the entire night with a damp body, and he got beaten hard. He was exhausted and fell asleep right away.

It was quite some time until he regained his senses.

‘Stop it.’

‘How did they get here?’

He awoke to noisy confusion.

“No!” a terrible scream broke into his ears.

“Ugh!”

Montpellier opened his eyes, and the first things he saw were the fully armed knights and smoke in the room.

“Ambassador! Things have gone wrong! The kingdom has found our hideout! We are scattered and have to fend for ourselves!”

The knight roughly raised Montpellier to his feet.

“What is going on?”

“The knights of the capital and the palace have completely surrounded this area! We decided to wait for our allies to attack, but the knights lit a fire! If we stay here, we will be grilled like ducks!”

After his urgent explanation, the knight grabbed Montpellier and started descending the stairs.

“Fortunately, they don’t seem to know about the secret passage. Let’s leave here and head west while the other knights buy us some time.”

“What is in the west?”

“The abandoned fortress where our allies are stationed. A significant number of troops have already marched upon the capital, but there will be enough personnel left that to lead me and you to the empire, ambassador.”

“Give me a sword too. I don’t know what will happen once we leave.”

As the knight heard Montpellier ask this, he unsheathed a dagger from beneath his arm and handed it over.

“Thank you very much. And I’m sorry.”

The knight stopped walking as he heard that strangely cool voice.

‘Fuchook~’ and in that instant, Montpellier stabbed into the back of the knight’s neck with the dagger he had been given.

“Krugh!” the knight vomited blood as he pushed against Montpellier. “Why?”

Montpellier pushed the struggling knight to the floor and said, “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. It’s nothing personal. It’s only that the guillotine is all that awaits me when I return to the empire.”

The knight, who Montpellier had thought was dead, stood up. He grabbed onto the dagger in his neck and pulled it out with his one hand, and raised his sword with the other.

Montpellier was frozen in terror.

However, the knight had been damaged by his neck wound and could not move properly, so he almost staggered to the floor after taking a few steps.

“Now wait! Listen to me!” Montpellier exclaimed as he watched the knight slowly approach him. Montpellier had been planning to catch his breath and run anyway without anyone knowing of it, but the persistent knight’s vitality proved to be greater than he had thought.

“Ambassador, that was a mistake!”

Montpellier backed away, yet the knight moved steadily on and finally came before him.

‘Shh~’ the knight raised his sword.

‘Schklp!’ and as that piercing sound rang out, Montpellier instinctively closed his eyes.

‘Chunk~ degurdegur~’ Montpellier opened his eyes as he heard this new sound. The knight who had been approaching him, sword raised, was now a headless corpse. The man’s head was right in front of Montpellier, the face itself holding a desperate expression with its eyes still wide open.

The smell of blood entered Montpellier’s nostrils, as well as the fresh scent of grass.

And there she stood: A black-haired woman who had appeared like a ghost. She had pointy ears and a beautiful face. It was one of the half-elves who served the prince.

“How are you here?” Montpellier asked, amazed, and he looked around. Both fear and anticipation flashed over his face as he tried to see if the prince was there.

‘jrkff~ jrkff~’ and then, a group of people appeared in the dark passage. It wasn’t the prince, but rather the queen and the palace knights who strode on ahead of her.

“There is a special elixir used by the northern rangers to track down monsters. Its smell is so terrible that you can track a monster with only your nose, even if it is days away. Yesterday, I ordered a palace maid to pour that elixir over your body.”

Montpellier almost asked when the hell she had sprayed it over him, but he then thought of the woman who had assaulted him the day before. At that time, he had thought it to be simple shit in the bucket. It seemed that they had mixed the elixir in there as well.

“I saw you pierce your knife into this knight’s back to save your own life.”

Montpellier looked at the queen with a blank face. He couldn’t imagine how the queen of a country would be hiding in the dark in an enemy-filled building, watching his actions.

Whether true or not, the queen spoke again with a radiant smile.

“I personally despise your kind. If it been solely up to me, I would have cut your throat here and now.”

Montpellier stiffened as he heard those bloodthirsty words that did not match the queen’s smiling face.

“But, as queen, I know that your bloody hands are proof that your conversion to our cause was sincere.”

Only then did Montpellier realize it: Every moment, from the instant that the imperial knights had rescued him, had been part of the queen’s test.

“If I…” Montpellier was sweating. He tried to ask what the queen would’ve done if he had left the secret passage by holding the knight’s hand instead of stabbing him in the neck. But he couldn’t manage to ask the question.

The cold gaze of the half-elf standing beside the queen, as well as the queen’s smiling face, kept his tongue from moving.

“Congratulations, ambassador. As of today, you have been reborn as a citizen of Leonberg.”

The queen gave a bright laugh that did not fit her age. Goosebumps arose all over Montpellier’s body.

“Follow me, Montpellier.”

The queen’s attitude was so different from the past when she had always made sure to accord the formal courtesy due to an imperial ambassador.

Montpellier felt strangely dignified as he limped after her. The knights came out of the secret passage and went to strike at those imperial knights still in the hideout.

“Now the seeds sown by the empire are ended. Watch carefully, see it with your own eyes.”

When Montpellier heard that, he could not even blink, even though smoke stung his eyes, bringing tears to them. The queen seemed to be warning him that if he had a change of heart later, he would suffer as these knights suffer.

Montpellier trembled, for both mother and son were equally terrible. If he escaped the one, he got caught by the other. He was sick of it.

* * *

It didn’t take long for the turmoil to be cleared up.

The imperial knights had breathed smoke for a long time and were not in an optimal condition, so they were quickly overpowered by the royal knights that assaulted them.

There were only two survivors.

The queen personally questioned the survivors without leaving the smoke-filled building that reeked with the stench of blood and meat.

“Tell me everything you know.”

“When I see a little girl shouting at me, I know what your kingdom is!” the imperial knight roared like a wounded beast. “Leonberg is like a little girl without virtue! Gschak!”

The knight spat bloody spittle toward the queen’s face.

‘Chin~’ a palace knight reached out, and the spit struck his gauntlet. The knight returned to his position, his face expressionless. The queen also acted as if nothing had happened.

“No matter how much you ask me, you won’t make me vomit out anything!”

The queen did not even lift an eyebrow at the words of the knight who was prepared to die, and she asked no more questions.

‘Shkk~’ the queen drew a sword from where it was sheathed at the waist of a palace knight and sliced it in a downward arc.

‘Qluap~’ the knight’s forearm was severed. “Noo! No!” he screamed. The queen cut off his other hand with her next slice. Her strike cut through flesh and bone and was as good a strike as any knight’s.

“Your kingdom will perish! The Imperial Army will burn it down without leaving a cornerstone of the imperial palace standing!” the knight screamed out his curse.

The queen drew back the sword, and as she swung it again and again, the knight had one leg remaining, then none. The limbless knight cried out from a pool of blood like an animal.

The queen raised her hand, and one of the palace knights stepped forward to stop the imperial’s bleeding. The queen stepped up again, a dagger in hand, and started peeling off the knight’s skin.

Montpellier turned his head away, wanting to see no more of the sight.

“Montpellier, have you forgotten your loyalties?” came the queen’s cold voice, forcing Montpellier to turn his head back. Terrible torture followed, and Montpellier puked several times while he watched. The imperial knight had been ready to die when he had insulted the queen. He now cried like a child and begged for death. The queen did not stop her work. After she had flayed him, she cut off his ears and then started with his nose.

“Will you tell me?”

The knight eventually spoke.

“Woah… his Majesty the Emperor told as to prioritize the annihilation of those in the Leonberger family above all else in the event of a war. He even told me to kill the king, or at least the first and second princes if that was not possible. By now, the legions will be moving with the same instructions.”

The queen looked at Montpellier, her face was ice-cold.

“Well, I didn’t even know about it,” said Montpellier in terror as he hastily shook his head. The queen refocused her attention on the knight.

“My… This is all I know. So please kill me now.”

‘Schlk!’ the queen swung her sword before the knight finished begging. With that single strike, she severed his head – the face of which was filled with fear and pain as it rolled in front of Montpellier.

‘Kwadush!’ Montpellier fell back on his buttocks, and his pants became wet as fright took over his mind.

“Tsu,” the queen clucked her tongue and then gave orders to her knights.

“This other knight will be useful, so put him in the royal prison.”

The imperial knight was still riven by shock as he stared at his comrade’s mutilated corpse. He was dragged away.

“Burn this place down, leave no bodies. Those who died here do not deserve to be buried in the soil of Leonberg.”

“As your Majesty commands!” came the response of the palace knights to the orders.

“I shall return to the palace.”

The queen left the scene, and the knights threw torches into the building before leaving with her.

Soldiers who remained kept stacking firewood as they stationed themselves in the surrounding area so that the flames would not spread. They would make sure that once the fire died down, no sign of a body remained, as per the queen’s order.

* * *

The remnant of the imperial presence was wiped out. During that same evening, thousands of troops appeared at the capital. The flag of the Burgundy Empire was flying in their center.

They surrounded the capital, waiting for something to happen. What they had been waiting for didn’t happen throughout the entire night. The day was bright, and a knight who seemed to be high-ranked eventually came forward and shouted, “If you expel those of the Leonberger family from your city, we will retreat without doing harm!”

No answer came, and the knight shouted in a more ferocious voice.

“We will see how many in your capital die because of only a few dozen people! Is this your decision?”

Silence remained the only answer.

“The king you want to protect has already run away! The first prince has also disappeared! The remaining Leonbergers are hiding behind your backs in comfort! Do you want to die for those who are not worth giving your lives for!”

There came an answer this time, not in the form of human speech, but as the sound of something sharp cutting through the air.

‘Quap!’ an arrow pierced the forehead of the knight who had been talking so loudly. It pierced the exact center of his brow.

“Your dog barked too much! I couldn’t listen to it anymore!” a loud voice rang out. The besieging army looked to the top of the wall at once. A middle-aged woman stood there, an iron-armored heroine with a longbow in hand and a golden crown upon her head.

“If anyone wants to bark some more- Go ahead!” the woman challenged as she walked on the battlements. “I will personally teach human etiquette to dogs who severely lack it.”