‘Screeech!’

A bizarre animal cry cut through the sky and descended upon the castle.

“Monsters!!”

From the moment the distant, ear-splitting howl began to echo, Norton instinctively opened his eyes and jumped up. Evelyn, awakened by his vigorous movement, sat dazed on the bed watching the man arm himself in an instant without anyone’s help.

A murderous intent she had never seen before emanated from him, so intense she dared not speak. Even she, not being a knight, could sense it instinctively.

By the time the faint sounds of ‘screech! screech!’ reached Evelyn’s ears, he had already kicked open the door and left.

“Ah…”

But he soon returned with heavy footsteps.

Kissing the forehead of the drowsy woman who had just awakened, he touched her cheek.

“Don’t come out of the castle. Stay inside only.”

“Why now…”

“Answer me.”

“Yes. I will.”

Outside the window, it was still dark. Before dawn had even broken, he left the bedroom without hesitation after hearing Evelyn’s answer.

Not long after, when she realized the sharp sounds tearing through the air were monster roars, Jile hurriedly entered through the bedroom door.

Through the briefly opened door, the commotion from the castle flowed in with the cold air.

“Miss. Don’t be scared. He said you’ll be safe if you stay inside the castle.”

The fingertips of Jile, who was trying to comfort Evelyn with a terrified face, were trembling. Evelyn pulled her over to sit beside her and covered them both with the blanket.

“I’m fine. Give me your hand.”

Evelyn infused divine power into her hand. When the white light aura briefly shone under the blanket before fading, Jile felt her pounding heart calm down and a warm sensation spread throughout her body.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Actually, this is my first time seeing monsters…”

“I see.”

“No, I haven’t seen them yet. I’ve only heard the sounds. Monsters shouldn’t be able to enter the territory. I don’t understand how this happened. Low-level monsters occasionally appear outside the village, but they absolutely cannot enter the village, especially not the castle grounds.”

Evelyn looked out the window. Beasts with disgustingly large wings and smaller monsters with long, pointed beaks were flying in circles in the bluish sky of dawn.

Arrows shot upward at length sometimes penetrated them, sometimes simply fell back to the ground.

“I’ve never seen such large ones either. I’ve only seen small ones the size of little animals that hide from humans in fear, or ones as small as insects…”

She had wandered throughout the empire until now. In the capital, most people knew monsters only as creatures from legends, but the farther from the capital one went, the closer to the magic fence built to protect imperial citizens, the more frequently one encountered traces of monsters.

Evelyn had mostly seen only traces and purified those lands. She had witnessed only the backs of small monsters as they scurried away. Even then, she and the other priestesses had held hands, pretending not to be scared while sweating profusely.

The demonic energy grew thicker toward the north, and since the volunteer group’s route had flowed toward Norton’s territory in recent years, she had seen monster traces more frequently. 

But that was all. Evelyn swallowed dryly as she watched the sky grow increasingly black.

She wondered if it was really okay to just stay inside the castle, if there was nothing she should be doing, but the sharp howls tearing through the air prevented any coherent thoughts.

Where had all these monsters come from? Had the magic boundary been breached?

The knights who had gone on the subjugation mission had not yet returned. Had something gone wrong there?

Evelyn approached the window. Though she wanted to hide under the blanket out of fear, she also wanted to witness everything. She wanted to see clearly how hard Norton’s people and knights fought against monsters to protect the territory and guard the gateway to the empire.

Things that only the people of this land would know. This war-like life that she only vaguely understood from brief lines in newspapers.

Evelyn, who was not born and raised in Norton’s land, who was merely passing through, wanted to see clearly and remember.

Though she couldn’t go out and fight monsters with them, she wanted to properly see and engrave gratitude in her heart. Wanting to do at least that much, Evelyn pulled back all the curtains and watched the monsters flying in groups, forming strange patterns.

The Border Count had said he returned alone yesterday, which meant that all the holy knights belonging to Norton’s knight order were out in the subjugation area.

While monsters could be killed without holy knights, inflicting fatal wounds on winged creatures circling the sky required their presence. The divine power they shot upward would reach higher into the sky than arrows.

Armed knights rode on horseback, cutting down monsters that fell after being hit by arrows.

From the spires, flaming arrows were continuously shot upward, and behind them, knights covered the archers, dealing with monsters that plunged down aggressively.

“Ah!”

The Border Count was riding a horse, standing upright while running up the stairs of the castle wall. In his hand were three large arrows with tips made of magic stones, as large as his body.

He pulled his right arm back as far as possible before releasing the bowstring. The arrow shot straight up into the sky above his head, incredibly reaching higher than those shot from the spires.

The arrow, rising in altitude in a straight line, lodged precisely in the wing, neck, and eye of the largest monster.

‘Screeeech!’

The monster flapped and writhed in midair. As smaller monsters hit by its massive wings fell, knights galloping on the ground spurred their horses, leaping up and swinging their swords.

At that moment, the three arrows embedded in the large monster exploded with a ‘puhk’ sound, instantly cutting off its breath. The huge beast plummeted vertically from the sky, and the knights scattered in all directions to avoid the falling monster.

With a thunderous sound, dust rose into the air. Though the knights were still busily running around, Evelyn saw the large, hideous creature whose breath had been cut off.

It was of tremendous size and weight, enough to create a depression in the ground. Greenish, sticky blood oozed from under the monster’s body, and the surrounding area began to be covered with instantly contaminated demonic energy.

Only then did she begin to see knights with demonic energy clinging to them. Though demonic energy was invisible to ordinary people, Evelyn, being a priestess, could sense it through her divine power.

“Jile.”

“Uhhh…”

“Jile!!”

“Yes? Yes!”

Jile, who had been curled up trembling on the bed, suddenly rose at the firm voice she heard for the first time and came to her senses.

“Go downstairs immediately and have the lobby cleared. Gather all the servants. Now!”

“Yes. Yes!!”

Whether courage suddenly welled up in Jile or her body moved first in response to the firm command, she kicked open the door and ran out. 

Meanwhile, Evelyn took out the priestess robe that had been tucked away in the corner of the wardrobe, put it on, and tied her loose hair tightly.

When she went down to the lobby, frightened servants were gathered in disorder. The butler and head maid approached Evelyn as she ran down.

“Butler, I need to ask a favor. I’m not suggesting everyone go out to fight, so there’s no need to worry. However, we need to prepare for potential injuries. Can you help me?”

“Of course. But please promise not to go outside the castle. It’s His Excellency’s order.”

“I will. First, please clear all obstacles from the lobby and set up temporary beds at that end. Just laying down bedding will do. Also, is there a way for our volunteer group to come from the annex to the main building? Inside the castle grounds.”

“There isn’t one.”

“…They must come.”

Though within the same castle grounds, the main building and the annex were some distance apart, and being external buildings, there was no indoor connection without passing through the garden.

However, the Border Count’s butler felt some certainty in the small priestess’s unwavering demeanor, similar to when serving his master. Though he couldn’t understand why, in this emergency situation, having never experienced anything like this before, they felt infinite trust in Evelyn’s words.

“I’ll manage that somehow.”

“Thank you. And Head Maid.”

“Yes. Please command me.”