Clang! Screeeech!

The grating sound of clashing swords and grinding hilts rang through the air, an unbearable noise tearing at the ears.

“Finally showing yourself, are you?”

Aiger tilted his head slightly as he effortlessly parried the knight commander’s sword.

“Or rather, you had no choice, since I killed all your men.”

And just as he said, hardly any knights remained standing.

Those few still on their feet were no longer able to properly hold their swords, and the majority had already fallen, their lives extinguished.

“I truly don’t understand why you avoided us for so long.”

Every time knights—not spies—had been sent after him, Aiger had chosen to flee rather than confront them.

For that reason, not only the knights but even the knight commander himself had never expected Aiger to be this strong.

“Does that really matter now?”

Aiger bared his teeth, forcefully knocking away the knight commander’s sword before lunging at him.

Clang, clash! Slash, clang!

Sparks flared endlessly as sharpened steel met steel, but the more the knight commander blocked Aiger’s attacks, the more wounds began to appear on his body.

As the knight who had served by the emperor’s side the longest, he was far stronger than his reputation suggested.

But he was no match for Aiger.

Crash!

“Khah!”

Aiger grabbed the knight commander by the shoulder and slammed him hard against the wall, raising his knee to drive a vicious kick into his abdomen.

Then, he whispered.

“You’d be better off dying now.”

The knight commander’s armor caved in around his stomach and chest, and at the same time, his face twisted in agony.

He had just been humiliated beyond belief in the midst of a life-or-death battle.

But there was nothing he could do.

Because Aiger had pinned his sword arm to the wall, leaving him completely powerless.

In the span of just a few blinks, several more exchanges had taken place between them, yet neither side had managed to overturn the situation in a dramatic way.

The knight commander, now kneeling before Aiger, looked up at him and gasped out his final words.

“Your Highness, I shall go on ah—”

Aiger did not allow the knight commander to finish his dying words.

There was no point in listening to the last words of a man unworthy of them.

Slash.

The moment his swiftly swung blade turned crimson, the light faded from the knight commander’s eyes.

***

By the time Aiger had finished dealing with the knights and stood alone to face the knight commander, Raylin had reached the servants.

Luckily for them—and for her—there was still a fair amount of distance between them and the chamberlain, the emperor, and Catherine.

The young servant and maid, who appeared barely of age, had been dragged here unexpectedly by the chamberlain. Now, forced to witness a brutal battle between the emperor and the crown prince, they looked utterly overwhelmed, as if on the verge of losing their senses.

Raylin reached out and lightly tapped their arms.

“Hiik!”

“Kyah!”

They let out startled cries, almost choking on their breaths at the sudden touch, but their voices were swallowed by the overwhelming cacophony of the battlefield.

“You… You’re from Greuga—”

“Shh. You don’t know why you were brought here, do you? And you probably never will. But you do understand that this is a dangerous situation, right? You don’t need to say anything—just nod.”

Even in the midst of the overwhelming noise, where even words spoken up close were hard to hear, their survival instincts kicked in. They understood Raylin’s words perfectly and nodded frantically.

“Good. Then we need to get out of here. Do you see that spot?”

She pointed to the place where she had been hiding just moments ago.

“Run there. And don’t come out until all of this is over.”

However, the servant and maid hesitated, casting anxious glances at the chamberlain.

Raylin firmly grasped their hands and tugged them forward.

“Forget about everything else. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting to safety.”

At last, the maid took hold of the servant’s hand and pulled him along, the two of them rushing toward the hiding spot Raylin had indicated.

Thankfully, neither the chamberlain, the emperor, nor Catherine noticed them. They were too consumed by the bloody struggle between Aiger and the knight commander.

Raylin, too, searched for a place to conceal herself.

She had given up her safest hiding spot to save innocent lives, but she had no intention of drawing the enemy’s attention and becoming a hindrance to Aiger.

Though the once-crowded space had been cleared of knights, she managed to find a place to remain hidden. Holding her breath, she turned her gaze back to the unfolding battle.

***

By the time Raylin had ensured the servant and maid were safely hidden and had concealed herself as well—

“Your Majesty, you must return the way we came and summon the palace knights. If you command them to guard the gates—”

The chamberlain pointed in the direction where the servants had been, speaking urgently—then suddenly fell silent.

They were gone.

Frozen in shock, he failed to continue his sentence. The emperor, who had been about to follow his gesture, stopped short and whispered hastily.

“It’s almost over. We must get to the gates now.”

Even to someone with no knowledge of swordsmanship, it was obvious that the knight commander stood no chance of defeating the crown prince.

Before this battle, Aiger had already cut down dozens of knights. And yet, even after all that, he wielded his sword without the slightest sign of faltering.

The emperor, unwilling to watch any longer, urged the chamberlain again.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, right away, Your Majesty—urk!”

The chamberlain never got to finish his sentence.

A red stain bloomed on his chest, and a moment later, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. His body crumpled as he slumped toward the emperor.

The emperor quickly stepped back, not sparing the dying chamberlain a single glance. Instead, his gaze locked onto a point several steps away.

“Haa…”

Aiger exhaled, steadying his breath.

He had taken the dagger from the knight commander’s belt and thrown it, disposing of the chamberlain with precise accuracy.

Father and son shared faint similarities in their features, but their faces were nothing alike.

It is said that by the time a person reaches forty, their face reflects the life they have lived.

True to that saying, the emperor’s features were smooth and well-formed at a glance, yet his eyes gleamed with cunning, and his mouth was twisted in a way that betrayed his cruelty.

Not even as a child had Aiger ever wished to resemble him.

And now, more than ever, he was certain of it.

Trailing crimson droplets in his wake, Aiger let his sword hang at his side as he strode toward the emperor.

The emperor instinctively reached for his waist, searching for a weapon—but his hands grasped nothing.

Aiger advanced, one slow step at a time.

Watching his own inevitable demise approach, the emperor’s brow twitched like waves in a storm.

To think he had wiped out all of them…

He had thrown that boy onto the battlefield to die, yet he had clawed his way back and returned a hero.

The emperor had always known Aiger was strong. But this level of power—this was beyond anything he had anticipated.

“You were hiding your strength all this time.”

His voice twisted with hatred, fury, and rising panic. His once-polished expression contorted into something unrecognizable.

Aiger flicked his sword, shaking off the last remaining drops of blood, and responded coolly.

“It was a lesson from the chamberlain—the one who betrayed me on your orders and stabbed me in the back.”

They say you can recognize a promising warrior from an early age.

And Aiger had stood out in swordsmanship since he was a child.

However, due to the emperor’s interference, he had never received proper training. It was only through relentless battles on the battlefield that his skills were honed to completion.

He had slaughtered his enemies like a mad beast to survive and saved his allies like a god.

There was only one reason why the emperor had underestimated Aiger’s abilities, despite receiving reports on the war he had sent him to in order to have him killed.

The enemies who survived the battles he fought in were so terrified of him that they described his prowess as myth or legend, and even his allies did the same.

If he had placed even one skilled warrior at Aiger’s side who could accurately assess his strength, such a mistake would not have happened. But there was no way he would send a strong ally along with him when his sole intent was to see him dead on the battlefield.

In the end, those past decisions had led to this present moment—where the future of both the emperor and Aiger was about to be decided.

In truth, once only the knight commander remained, the emperor had already ordered the chamberlain to flee.

However, with the chamberlain now dead in vain, and the servants he intended to use as shields having disappeared, he had no choice but to face Aiger directly.

The once-relaxed smile had completely vanished from the emperor’s face.

Aiger glanced at the emperor’s empty waist and let out a short laugh.

“You stand unarmed before the one you sought to kill?”

Clenching his teeth, the emperor remained silent, only glaring at him.

There had been a time when Aiger, as a child, had cowered behind the empress’s skirts, looking up at those very same eyes that saw him as nothing more than an obstacle to be removed.

And now, Aiger looked down at the emperor, leveling his sword at him.

“Let’s finish this.”