Cold sweat poured down her face, and her body turned icy. Despite having once pushed herself to the brink of death without hesitation, she now found herself terrified of it. She had finally started wanting to live. She now had a reason to live. She hadn’t achieved anything yet. There were so many things she had to do, so many things she wanted to do. She hadn’t done any of them yet. It was just the beginning!

“Argh!”

A scream from a familiar voice rang out and faded. Helia flinched, her body freezing. The sound of clashing swords ceased. Cherny had fallen.

The sound of footsteps drew closer, making her dizzy. The noise of someone shaking the carriage door’s latch followed. Helia’s gaze landed on the latch, which was far too flimsy to serve as a lock. The way it rattled helplessly with each shake from outside was terrifying.

“Let’s just smash it open.”

“Put the sword away first. We’re not supposed to kill her.“

“Not supposed to kill her?”

“They said to bring her alive. Apparently, they will execute her in the square as an example.”

The unapologetic conversation reached her ears. There were two voices. While there might have been more people nearby, only two seemed intent on opening the carriage door. Based on their orders, it didn’t seem like they intended to kill her.

Helia clenched her trembling hands tightly. She couldn’t just let them take her. She had to buy time somehow. If she could just stall, her party would notice something was wrong and come to rescue her. Besides, she had a layer of protective magic—the so-called “Saint’s Blessing”—cast on her. Lette had placed it on her in the past. Although it couldn’t prevent fatal physical attacks, even that knowledge gave her courage. Her decision was quick. She reached for the latch.

“Huh?”

The man vigorously shaking the door lost his grip when it suddenly gave way without resistance. Unprepared for the rebound of his own strength, he stumbled and fell backward. His bewildered companions turned their attention to him. Seizing the moment, Helia threw herself out of the carriage. She sprinted with all her might, not even registering which direction she was heading.

“Catch her!”

The men on the lookout scrambled to chase her. The chill of grass brushing her ankles and branches scratching her arms couldn’t slow her down. Her breath was already catching in her throat. Her side felt like it was being torn apart, and the pain in her body screamed as if her organs might burst, but she kept running. The moment one foot hit the ground, she pushed off with the other. She didn’t know where she was going. As long as she could escape her pursuers, it didn’t matter.

But she was physically weak and had never even wielded a sword, while her pursuers were hulking men with trained bodies. No matter how much willpower she summoned, it couldn’t overcome her inherent physical limitations. Eventually, her legs gave out, failing to avoid a protruding stone. She tumbled to the ground, and one of the men chasing her stomped over, panting heavily.

“D*mn it! Wasting energy for no reason.”

He reached out to grab her, but Helia clenched her fists tightly, gathering a handful of sand and pebbles. She flung them at his eyes.

“Ack!”

The coarse grains of sand stabbed into his eyes. The man cried out in pain, clutching his face. Helia used the moment to scramble to her feet. But before she could take another step, his rough hand seized her.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Still covering one eye with his hand, he held her with the other. Without hesitation, Helia bit down on his hand with all her might.

“Arghhh!”

The man let out a scream of agony and released her. Helia took off running again. However, she didn’t get far before she ran straight into another pursuer, who had circled around to cut her off. She froze, her steps faltering. Glancing around, she saw no escape.

“I’ll kill you!”

The man she had bitten charged at her, his face twisted with fury. Tears streamed from his injured eye as he drew his sword. Blood trickled from the bite marks on the hand gripping his weapon.

“You were told not to kill her,“ another voice interjected.

“Who cares? As long as we bring the body intact, it’ll still serve for the execution!”

The man, who had already lost all sense of reason, flashed his eyes and raised his sword. Helia’s legs trembled, but she did not collapse. Even if death awaited her, she would not kneel before them. If she was to die, at least she would not go out disgracefully. Even if she were dragged out like a dog and beheaded in the square, she was no longer the insignificant princess of a fallen kingdom. 

She was the sovereign of a new future. Even if she died, her will would live on, and the future would come. Thus, she refused to surrender. Instead, she planned to make her killers fully understand who it was they were about to slay. Helia stared directly at the blade descending upon her.

Just before it could reach her, the sword vanished into thin air like it had evaporated. Everyone froze in astonishment. At that moment, Helia realized that the magical force protecting her had dissipated. The faint purple glow surrounding her had exhausted its power and faded away. Though she had no means to defend herself, she did not retreat. On the contrary, she stepped forward with an air of defiance.

It was the man poised to kill her who became fearful instead. His fierce demeanor crumbled as if it had been a lie when faced with her piercing golden eyes fixed on him. An instinctual fear arose within him as if committing an unforgivable sin. He faltered, stepping back. The others remained tense and wary of her, unsure of what was happening. 

One man, who had been blocking her escape from behind, looked at his retreating comrade with a puzzled expression. He could not comprehend how someone so much smaller could inspire such terror.

The men surrounding her felt an ominous air shift but could not discern its source. A creeping unease took hold of them—a sense that something was going terribly wrong. With a desperate impulse to end the cause of all this chaos, the princess overcame him as quickly as possible. His grip on his sword tightened.

But he never got the chance to swing it. His eyes lost focus, and he collapsed forward, lifeless. Startled by the sudden noise behind her, Helia turned around. Her gaze was immediately filled with the sight of a broad back—one she instantly recognized. She could never forget it: the back she had long struggled to grasp, always distant and cold toward her. Now, it stood tall, shielding her.

“Ruben!”

After cutting down the man who dared to raise his sword against Helia, Ruben drove his blade into the chest of another who had been blocking her escape. In an instant, two bodies lay lifeless at their feet. The sudden change in the situation caused the pursuers to hesitate. Ruben, standing protectively before Helia, surveyed them sharply.

“Are you all right?“

“I’m fine.”

Ruben’s breathing was labored from his rush to get there, but Helia kept her tone calm to reassure him.

Three knights, five mercenaries, two in the trees…

Helia quickly assessed the numbers. Even if these were the remnants left after Cherny and the other guards had fought them off, they were still a considerable force. While reinforcements had been signaled and were likely on their way, there was no guarantee how soon they would arrive.

The enemies surrounding them raised their swords, threatening the two of them. Though they had the advantage in numbers, the imposing presence of Helia and Ruben kept them at bay. The knights, in particular, seemed frozen. They had realized who they were against: Ruben Effenberg, the kingdom’s finest swordsman and unyielding protector.

A mercenary, unaware of Ruben’s identity, made the first move. Confident in their numerical superiority and assuming that Ruben would be weakened by having to protect the princess, he charged. His calculations weren’t entirely wrong—except that his opponent was Ruben.

The charging man was full of openings. Ruben didn’t even give him the chance to clash swords. With a swift strike, he slashed the man’s chest, sending blood spraying. The same fate awaited the others who rushed in. One aiming for a sneak attack from behind was stabbed in the stomach before he could even get close. Another tried to slip in from the side but lost his arm. A third, targeting Helia directly, lost his head to a single swing.

Ruben even became a shield for her, intercepting arrows aimed at them.

Swish.

An arrow flew toward them, and Ruben used the body of a dead mercenary as cover. The corpse twitched from the arrow’s impact. The knights, using the mercenaries as cannon fodder, also attacked Ruben, but they were no match.

Whoosh.

One of the knights, crawling on the ground, whistled as if signaling someone. At the exact moment, something fell from the trees in an arc. Ruben instinctively struck it with his sword. A sharp sound of shattering glass echoed.

A bottle?

There was no time to think. The moment he inhaled, dizziness overcame him, and his vision blurred. Ruben glanced at Helia. She looked startled but unharmed. The bottle had likely contained a paralyzing gas. He felt a fleeting relief that the poison did not affect her.

But that relief was short-lived. Another arrow was already flying toward them. Though Ruben managed to block the first, his sluggish movements betrayed him. There was no time to hesitate. He discarded his sword and embraced Helia. Her small form fit entirely within his arms.

It was the warmth he had long yearned for, and now he finally held it.

It was ironic to feel a fleeting sense of relief at that moment. Holding her tightly in his arms, he collapsed to the ground, landing face-first. Arrows struck his hunched back one by one.

“No!”