Day 21 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Military Base, Dustor City, Grizzle Province

HER worst nightmare came true, though.

The next morning, when the day barely broke, Lirsk suddenly attacked. The archers along the wall took care of some enemy cavalries, but their number was simply too great. That two monsters called Mudeorp or whatever are inflicting even more damage to their forces.

Victoria watched the battle through one of the southern watchtowers and felt pained. In the watchtower, there was only her, one of her personal guards, and some other soldiers. Her friends, the generals, and her other guards, she sent them all to fight. Dustor couldn’t afford to lose now, even though it was most likely that they would. After the aggressivity incident, they only had barely two hundred soldiers defending the whole city, while the enemy had five hundred. The only reason they could hold on was because they had many more siege weapons.

She knitted her eyebrows. Those monsters were the biggest problem here. She still couldn’t come up with a solution and it drove her insane. It killed a lot of her soldiers in short period of time, making things even harder for Dustor. Victoria tried to help by joining the archers, but she realized she would only make the soldiers anxious to protect her. So, she stood in the watchtower, occasionally shooting her arrows whenever she saw clean opportunity. It wasn’t so easy because the battlefield was so bloody chaotic.

But those monsters…

And there were two of them, too! Dustor City wouldn’t be able to hold for long…

Victoria aimed at the big monster and started to shoot it. Perhaps she would get lucky and killed it somehow… was her wishful thinking. Obviously, it wasn’t that easy. In fact, she the more she shot, the more she felt like she was wasting her arrows. The monster didn’t even seem to get hurt.

She didn’t try to shoot its eye, because based on the experience of Tamworth battle, she heard that shooting its eyes would just cause it to went completely berserk in the battlefield. None of them would want that.

As the monster to the right twirled around to swept soldiers off, Victoria noticed something. That… Um. There was something on the back of its nape. The thorns were covering that spot, circling it like the sun, but whenever the monster threw thorns around, that spot was opened. Victoria squinted her eyes and started lifting her prized bow. Could it be…?

She shot.

She never missed a shot in her life—okay, well, at least ever since she graduated. She did miss when she just started training, as a kid. But now, whether the target was stationary or moving, whether the wind blew hard or gently, she never missed.

And this time, she didn’t miss either.

Her arrow hit a spot on the monster’s nape, right when he was throwing his thorns around, causing it to roar viciously. Victoria widened her eyes, a bit afraid that it would go berserk. But instead, that thing started dripping more mud…

…and then completely melted to the ground.

It was dead.

Victoria couldn’t believe her eyes.

She turned to the other monster, which was a bit further away, but it wasn’t a problem for her—she killed it too. But by this point, Lirsk was already winning. The monsters already caused their damage—she lost more than half of the Dustor troops.

The enemy troops started thumping on the city gate.

Victoria clenched her fists. She couldn’t help but get angry. Despite everything… No. She ran to the watchtower window, to the soldiers on the wall. “For Forewood!” She yelled.

The lethargic soldiers were jerked upright in surprise. None of them replied, already tasting defeat in their mouth. Their deaths were eminent…

“For Forewood!” Victoria yelled again.

On the other end, on another battle tower, she heard voices shouting back to her. “For Forewood!”

The Generals weren’t giving up, as well.

The soldiers looked at each other, and somehow felt spirited again. “For Forewood!” One of them yelled, and then the others joined it. “For Forewood! For Forewood!” They started chanting, and the archers were vigorously attacking.

But in the end, the bloody path couldn’t be avoided. As the enemy destroyed their weapons, they successfully pushed down the city gate. Many of them started to climb up the wall and attacking the archers…

“Your Highness! It is no longer safe, we have to go,” her personal guard said to her, full of concern.

Victoria hesitated, but at last she nodded. She knew she was too important to die.

She’d always known that.

So, as she walked away to follow her guard out of the tower, she also tried her hardest to not look at the bloody scenes of the soldiers battling each other. But she couldn’t help herself. As she walked away, her eyes wandered.

What she saw astonished her.

It was exactly the time the soldiers started to yell, “Reinforcement is here!”

The Northern Goldburg Army, led by the Marquis of Ferrough, arrived with their promised three hundred soldiers. []