Chapter 89: To resist [1]

The silence lingered for several minutes; Adam said nothing; Princess Alexandra, who had been silent, was expected to speak.

The air in the room grew heavy, charged with an anticipation that neither seemed willing to break first.

With a sigh, Adam broke the silence:

“What do you want to talk about, Princess?”

He had no idea what the princess wanted to talk to him about: thank him? Ask him to escort her? A thousand questions raced through his mind… but in the end, he had no idea, so to avoid all that, he asked directly.

It was safer to take the initiative than to keep speculating.

Alexandra looked at him for a moment and replied:

“What happened to the demon that was summoned?”

“!!?”

She got straight to the point, taking Adam by surprise—he hadn’t expected that at all… he’d been expecting a “thank you” or something similar, not such a direct question.

That completely changed the tone of the conversation.

What a unique princess!

He assessed her again, more carefully.

He had no intention of lying either, and since Alexandra didn’t mention the demon, he wouldn’t have mentioned it either.

At least… not directly.

“No demon appeared because the ritual was performed in a hurry.”

That was obviously a lie, given that the demon was right behind him.

But his expression didn’t change.

“I see…”

Alexandra nodded.

He assumed that perhaps she knew the requirements for summoning a demon, which were nothing out of the ordinary: just drawing a circle with blood and offering a sacrifice, which, for the most part, was a human life.

And if she did know… then that conversation wasn’t over yet.

“If you have nothing else to say, Princess, I take my leave.”

His tone was respectful… but firm. He had no intention of prolonging the conversation.

Adam stood up from his chair; he didn’t want to waste time talking to the princess about demons or anything else she might want to discuss; his goal was still to find the mercenaries.

His mind was already elsewhere, anticipating the next moves.

The longer he stayed here, the greater the chance he wouldn’t make it in time to stop Migzar’s army’s attack. That’s exactly why he didn’t want to talk too much.

Every second lost counted.

“Wait a moment. You refused to escort me earlier, but it turns out we’re headed in the same direction. Why don’t you escort me, and I’ll pay you a fair wage?”

The proposal came without hesitation, as if she had been waiting for that moment.

“…”

Adam turned and stared at her for a few seconds, his brow slightly furrowed; he was processing that request, but… she was the kingdom’s princess, so it would be frowned upon to reject her outright.

…Who, coincidentally, are going to the same place.

Most of those were just excuses he wanted to make. What Adam doesn’t want is to get involved with the royal family; he’d already had more than enough of them in his past life… and as if that weren’t enough, he’s now dealing with the princess who died under mysterious circumstances.

The memory wasn’t pleasant.

They weren’t strangers.

There was more to it than met the eye.

With a sigh, he pushed his thoughts aside.

He couldn’t help it.

“As you say, Princess.”

…

With the wind ruffling her hair, Alisha gazed beyond the wall with a complex expression; in the distance, she could make out that something… was moving.

The height gave her a clear view of the terrain, but not enough to ignore what was approaching.

At first, it was just a dark line on the horizon that grew clearer by the moment.

It wasn’t a chaotic movement. It was uniform.

It was an… army.

The banners fluttered in the wind, while the formations remained tight. The ground began to shake as hundreds of… synchronized footsteps advanced.

Even from that distance, she could see the discipline in their advance, the way the ranks never faltered for a single moment.

Alisha’s stomach tightened; this wasn’t like business. Here, decisions… and their consequences involved the lives of soldiers and knights.

There was no room for even the smallest mistakes.

“Ma’am…”

A soldier’s voice sounded beside her.

Low, restrained… as if he feared breaking something invisible in the air.

“They’ll be within range in less than ten minutes.”

Ten minutes.

Time no longer felt like an abstract concept. Now it had weight.

Alisha clenched her jaw; it was very little time, but she had already done everything she could, so in a voice firmer than she felt, she ordered:

She couldn’t afford to hesitate now.

“Archers, take your positions.”

The men moved, each to their station, but Alisha could see that some of their hands were trembling and their eyes looked somewhat uncertain; they looked like a child’s when they’ve done something wrong.

They were soldiers… but at that moment, many of them just looked like young people facing something far too big for them.

She swallowed hard, feeling an enormous weight on her shoulders; they were all counting on her… and she had no idea what she was doing.

That was the truth she couldn’t reveal.

A war horn blared.

The sound cut through the air like an inescapable signal.

The enemy army halted. For a moment… the world seemed to hold its breath.

Then…

Arrows darkened the sky, too many to count. A black rain fell upon the walls.

The whistling sound was the last thing many heard.

The initial impact was chaotic.

No formation could withstand that initial moment.

A soldier to his right fell with an arrow lodged in his eye. Another screamed as he tried to pull one out of his neck.

Blood splattered on the stone.

And the battle… was beginning.

Blood appeared immediately, splattering everywhere, as if it were rain. The arrow attack was too sudden.

Alisha took a step back without realizing it, feeling a little dizzy; the smell of blood hit her like a powerful punch.

It was overwhelming, thick, and impossible to ignore.

She took a deep breath and shouted:

She forced her voice out, even as her body begged her not to.

“SHIELDS! RETURN FIRE!”

The city’s archers fired.

The order was carried out almost by reflex.

Arrows flew in response, vanishing into the distance.

But this time, Alisha saw what was happening.

She saw men fall, bodies writhing, how some didn’t get back up, and worst of all… she watched as others kept advancing over the corpses.

As if the deaths of their comrades didn’t matter, as if they were all replaceable, like clothes.

That coldness made his blood run cold.

“They’re coming!”

The enemy advanced; many of them marched forward with their shields held high, stepping over the corpses of their comrades, while the ground ran red with the blood of all the fallen soldiers.

The pressure mounted with every step.

“Brace for impact!”

The first battering ram struck the first defensive line, claiming many lives in the process, but the soldiers of the Halla family managed to hold their ground.

The sound of the impact was brutal.

However, in the process, many of the soldiers were blown to pieces, their bodies torn apart before their eyes, and their organs floating through the air.

The violence was total.

Some of the enemy soldiers managed to break through the defenses and reach the walls, but Alisha had anticipated it, and she quickly gave the order, her hands trembling.

Her mind reacted before her fear could.

“Oil! Now!”

The boiling liquid rained down from above at various points, and the screams were immediate, filled with pain and heart-wrenching.

The sound… wasn’t human.

The bodies of the enemy soldiers were melting under the intense barrage raining down from various points along the walls.

The advance halted… but at a cost.

Alisha couldn’t bear the sight and closed her eyes unconsciously; the screams echoed in her ears, but she opened them again. She had to see, she had to look; that was why it was her responsibility, too.

She couldn’t look away.

No, not if she wanted to keep giving orders.

Her hands were shaking. This was much bigger than she had imagined. Seeing so much death on both sides made her clench her teeth tightly. She could now understand just a small part of what her son and her husband had been carrying.

She understood what it meant to decide who lived… and who didn’t.

And that there was no way to escape that decision.

And most importantly, after this, she would never make it again; she would no longer be untainted.

Something inside her had already changed.

The second wave of attacks erupted.

This time, among the enemy soldiers was a mid-ranking knight who sliced through them all as if they were leaves, sending eyes, tongues, organs, and other human body parts flying through the air.

His presence shattered any attempt at defense.

Staining the air crimson once more, the metallic smell grew increasingly intense.

And the battle… was far from over.

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