“General!”
The officers and knights rushed to save him, but the monster, losing its remaining sanity, roared and blocked their path.
They couldn’t reach Adolf, and could only watch as he fell, bleeding.
Meanwhile, Aisia Lil Shuhain, watching from the back, felt her heart sink in shock.
“Kareha Sir?”
She instinctively knew that the injury was far worse than anything seen before, on a different level entirely.
She even began to fear that it might be beyond recovery.
“Princess, it’s dangerous! If you proceed any further, the monster will—”
The guards tried to stop her, but Aisia moved forward with trembling legs.
Her mind was filled with doubt—”Why am I moving? I’ll only get in the way.”—but her body acted on its own.
At that moment, the monster lifted its heavy forepaw to deliver a final blow to Adolf.
“You mustn’t go further!”
Aisia gathered faint magic from a darkened passage and strained to focus her mind.
Though unstable, she felt that if she didn’t act now, this might be the last chance to save him.
“Get out of the way!”
Startled by her command, the guards stepped back.
Aisia charged forward and released all of her energy. An unpolished but powerful shockwave disrupted the monster’s attack trajectory, preventing its paw from crushing Adolf completely.
“AGH!”
The monster’s paw struck the ground with force, shattering stones and cracking the earth as Aisia and Adolf narrowly missed being crushed.
Barely breathing, Adolf managed to regain some consciousness.
As Aisia was catching her breath, the knights finally arrived and drove their swords into the monster’s side simultaneously.
“Now!”
The officer issued the final order. With its strength waning, the monster collapsed with a loud thud that echoed through the ancient ruins.
Victory was achieved, but Adolf was gravely injured. As he tried to rise, his limbs failed him and he fell again to his knees.
“Ah… So it ends here.”
bl**d began to seep through and spread beneath his armor, and his vision blurred. Adolf knew that his wounds were far worse than those of soldiers who had fallen on the battlefield.
He regretted that he wouldn’t be able to take one more step toward preventing the world’s end.
He felt guilty toward his parents and family left behind, knowing that his actions altering the past had doomed the future. Breathing heavily with a sense of guilt, he started to look at the people around him one by one.
“Hurry, treat him!”
Though soldiers rushed to apply bandages, the wound would not stop bleeding easily even when pressed firmly.
The jagged metal fragments had gouged several deep wounds into his flesh.
“The injuries are severe!”
As the medical mage called out, the officer shook his head.
“At this rate, his life may be in danger…”
At that moment, Aisia approached.
Though weakened from expending magic to defeat the monster, she was overwhelmed with unease upon seeing Adolf losing consciousness and bleeding profusely.
“A healing spell should work… but the damage is too extensive…”
The medical mage hesitated while preparing the spell, but his hands were trembling.
The situation was deteriorating.
Due to the unique magical distortion within the ruins, the healing magic wouldn’t activate properly as it typically would.
Aisia steadied her breathing and whispered softly.
“I’ll do it.”
“Your Highness, you’re not in good condition yourself!”
The medical mage tried to dissuade her, but she replied firmly.
“There’s no other way. My magic could at least ease these wounds somewhat.”
Though she was aware her magic was not fully stabilized yet, Aisia judged that as a superior magic controller compared to the medical mage present, she was better suited for the task.
Truthfully, it was more than that. She couldn’t leave him here to collapse.
Aisia had decided to heal the enemy general of her homeland.
She herself was confused about why she felt compelled to save his life so desperately, but there was no time to dwell on the question.
“Just hold on a little longer…”
“…Aisia Lil Shuhain.”
She knelt down and began unfastening Adolf’s armor, revealing the bl**d continuously streaming from multiple wounds.
She placed her trembling hand over the wounds and gathered all her strength to summon magic.
Adolf wanted to stop her with his barely moving hand, knowing he was going to d*e anyway. He had never heard of even someone skilled in healing magic saving those more severely wounded than himself right there on the battlefield.
And how could her unstable mana properly form magic?
However, he did not realize one crucial fact.
Could Aisia Lil Shuhain, who had lived through the battlefield alongside Adolf Kareha, not have known the same truth Adolf knew?
“Don’t d*e, Kareha Sir.”
Breathing deeply, a faint bluish light began to glow from her fingertips.
Since the magic flare incident, Aisia had managed to perform minor spells from time to time. Starting the healing magic began causing her to break out in a cold sweat.
Then, as the mana activated within her already heavily damaged body, bl**d started flowing from her mouth.
“Your Highness! You mustn’t push yourself this far!”
“Push myself? Saving someone’s life is worth pushing myself for!”
Aisia rebuked the healer who tried to stop her as if she had heard the most absurd question.
As time passed while maintaining the healing spell, her cold sweat started flowing like streams, and the continued bl**d loss began making her vision blur.
At this rate, she would d*e too.
Even as her mind grew hazy, she continued the healing magic while drifting into a dream.
“Siya, aren’t you overtraining lately? Ladies must know how to take care of themselves.”
“Uh… Mom..?”
Aisia, realizing she was eating with her family, recalled their conversation.
“Ah… I was eating just now, wasn’t I? You were saying my training was excessive?”
She smiled faintly at her mother’s concern for her excessive training.
Due to the ongoing empire rivalry which the two powers maintained like a two-headed chariot across the continent, young Aisia had chosen a rival to challenge in the future battlefield.
“I’ve decided to take the rookie from the Urth Empire as my rival.”
“Rival? That’s good, seems like a fine person.”
“He’s the same age as me at fifteen, and they say he’s gonna be the next war hero! I can’t lose!”
Aisia recalled saying this, feeling somewhat nostalgic but also strange.
“Why was I nostalgic?”
Regardless, she had felt admiration and competitiveness toward ‘Adolf Kareha,’ with his remarkable tactical skills despite being the same age.
At fifteen, she judged that Adolf Kareha would be a worthy adversary she would face someday on the battlefield.
As time passed, this dream of hers flew by swiftly.
[Honorless murderer, Adolf Kareha.]
[The jester general of Urth who stages public executions for morale.]
[The cruel behaviors of Urths against women knights.]
“…d*mn.”
By the time she was nineteen, her worthy opponent had become a ‘madman.’
Rumors of Adolf Kareha, the ‘war genius’ of the Liberian Empire, filled the Urth Empire.
The rumors were not mere fabrication. Evidence began emerging of atrocities against deceased female knights from the Liberian Empire. Witnesses described execution spectacles.
“d*mn… d*mn!”
How can a nation with such an insane war fanatic possibly be a strong country?
Unforgivable. Aisia Lil Shuhain resolved to judge him herself.
“Unforgivable, Adolf Kareha.”
With hatred for his savage massacre of her people, she faced him on the battlefield merely a year after entering the war.
But it ended in a crushing defeat, and she expected to meet the same fate as those sacrificed.
However, what did he do?
He sacrificed his subordinates for her safety to prevent similar incidents from occurring again, and he refrained from any form of torture, not even laying a hand on her.
Furthermore, didn’t he even rescue a maid from the Liberian Empire for her sake?
Aisia Lil Shuhain knew all this deep down.
‘But… why am I still here?’
She now realized she was dreaming.
Even realizing it was a dream, she couldn’t wake up and absurdly laughed, thinking she must have died from pushing herself too far.
[Aisia, you are a princess.]
“Wha? Mom?”
A deep voice suddenly filled the empty space where she floated.
[Those of the royal family must understand based on what they directly observe and judge.]
She whispered her agreement: “That’s right…”
Having personally observed and judged, Adolf Kareha had sacrificed much for her, treated his subordinates courteously, earned their trust, and upheld a knight’s dignity.
“And yet I’ve only received from Kareha Sir, by knight’s honor, I should have given as well.”
She hadn’t been treated as a hostage—his subordinates had all treated her respectfully as a princess.
[Do you wish to give him something?]
“Now that you mention it, even if I wanted to give something, I no longer have the power or authority as a princess to protect anyone.”
Thinking she was dead, she spoke lightly of her own pitiable state.
[The royals remember grace forever, and if in a situation where they cannot give immediately, they will at some point bestow their ‘favor’ in return.]
“favor…?”
Aisia Lil Shuhain was surprised by her mother’s words.
Wouldn’t simply bestowing favor be deceitful? Even basic bartering requires an exchange of goods.
What he had given was far greater—was her favor really worth so little?
[Do you think it’s worthless? It’s only because you’ve given up now, Aisia.]
“Give up? Me?”
Why was she being told she had given up when she didn’t recognize doing so?
Offended by the comment downplaying her situation, she became angry.
