Chapter 168: The Hanging Executioner (Part 1)
Tap, tap, tap—
Iron hooves thundered as they raced over the snow.
It was afternoon on this fateful day, ten miles east of Baihao City, where the rolling hills sloped down from the northern bank of the Ice River. The distant sky was as blue as ice, and the snow beneath our feet was slightly melting. After being whipped by last night’s frigid winds, the snow had turned hard and slick, leaving a chaotic trail of clear hoof prints behind, courtesy of the heavy beast beneath me.
“There! The next mark!”
From atop my beast, I pointed towards a patch of open snow not far ahead, shouting back to my companions.
What caught my eye was a massive, charred cross-shaped sword mark etched deeply into the ground, forming a chasm several meters wide in the pristine white snow—an unmistakable sign left by Tarlasya. Before this, I had already found over a dozen similar sword marks.
The longer end of the cross pointed straight towards the river’s edge, toward the intertwining veins of the earth and the mountain ridges beyond.
“Let’s go!”
As we bounced along, I fixed my gaze in that direction and urged my Horned Horse to pick up speed. The beast let out a long, powerful neigh, panting heavily as the Sword Demon behind me remained hot on your trail. We galloped through the howling cold wind, racing towards the eastern foothills.
At that moment, we had already been out of the city for a solid three hours.
Earlier, I had convened with the blonde girl disguised as Viki, my mother, and several leaders from the Shanter Army in a side room of the Black Fort. We discussed extensively, hammering out a preliminary plan for sorting out the city and dealing with the Church’s prisoners in record time.
Next up was the much more pressing matter of how to send troops east to rescue my father: who would lead the charge, how to navigate through the wilderness or mountains, and strategies for countering the elite forces of the Fourth Knights Order led by Captain Salamus. It was a whirlwind of complex problems, involving troop movements and tactical planning.
We talked until we were nearly starving by lunchtime!
By the time Firebird Annie and Hoover returned, some commanders were squabbling over who would get to lead the rescue mission. The Shanter Lions, Erin Castle, and New City of Kaliye armies were like toddlers fighting over a toy, all red-faced and screaming. Unable to bear it anymore, the blonde girl snuck away under the pretense of something urgent. With my mother having gotten little sleep and increasingly anxious, she finally lost her cool and declared that she would make the decision.
While everyone outwardly respected her opinion, especially the folks from the Shanter Army—like Hoover and Firebird Annie—the other commanders, particularly from New City of Kaliye, simply disregarded any orders coming from a woman in matters like these. Some were hot-headed and were about to mobilize without hesitation before getting restrained.
Mobilizing an army might sound straightforward but is actually as complicated as untangling a ball of yarn. The steps of issuing orders and assembling troops could take ages, and with the chaotic scene unfolding, I was determined not to waste any more time, declaring that it didn’t require so many people—Sword Demon and I would be enough.
And strangely enough…
No one challenged me.
Whether it was the Shanter Army, Erin Castle, or New City of Kaliye’s commanders, even those who had just returned and barely knew what I was about were completely silent.
The atmosphere felt like I was the one calling the shots in that room.
Only my mother finally spoke up, trying to temper the situation. She thought both of us had been up all night—though in reality, the Sword Demon was snoozing in some room—she expressed concern. She worried that even if I was powerful, fatigue could make our situation perilously dangerous. If we couldn’t save my father, what if I ended up taking another life?
Tarlasya had repeatedly warned my mother that there was a certain powerful nun among the enemy ranks, and she was rightly concerned. Even having seen my strength, some notions—whether they would change in time or not—were etched in stone, and my mother couldn’t gamble on my guaranteed victory; I totally understood her feelings.
Understand…
But I couldn’t just do what she wanted.
In the two years of turmoil, my mother had changed significantly, yet deep down she still harbored that hesitant, indecisive nature of a classic damsel in distress. She was desperate to rescue my father, knowing that every passing minute might put him in greater danger. She realized the best bet was to send me, the “Catastrophic Combatant,” like a missile to ensure absolute superiority on the battlefield—yet still feared that I might mess things up.
Such losses would shatter her…
Caught in a bind, she couldn’t see her way out.
But I had to be firm and help her make this decision.
Ignoring the resistance, I snagged two prime Horned Horses from the Lion Hunting Army without even saying goodbye to my mother. We darted out of the city in a hurry.
As for everything else? Let the commanders figure it out. If reinforcements showed up, fantastic; if not, so be it.
But time was of the essence!
“Ha!”
The biting wind whipped past my ears, snagging the hood at the back of my head and revealing my flowing black hair alongside an intricately crafted silver mask—a bizarre piece resembling some peculiar bird, complete with a sharp, curved beak that seemed nearly lethal.
This was a token from Tarlasya when we left the city. It was said to be a special mask of the Church’s “Owls.” A replica or perhaps the real deal, who could tell?
The Sword Demon had a matching one, looking like a menacing carnivorous beast with teeth and a beak that would scare the daylight out of anyone.
Tarlasya hadn’t explained these masks to us; he just tossed them to “Fake Viki” back at the Black Fort along with some Choir of Saints cloaks. This was part of Viki’s pre-preparation for situations—she once told me that Her Majesty the Queen considered going undercover as a member of the Choir of Saints to sneak the Sword of Kanli into Chelyrs Palace and snatch that dog of an emperor away…
That plan got scrapped for being too risky.
But they—Viki and Tarlasya, caught up in that anti-Church organization—had the owl masks, whether they were replicas or not, it showed they knew the style.
Well, this was getting…
More and more interesting.
Hooves thundered across the hills, beyond the mountains, as the sunset gradually sank behind the horizon, spilling its orange hue into the valleys below.
“…Stop.”
Suddenly, just as we were about to reach the foot of the mountain, I twitched my nose and signaled the Sword Demon to halt, yanking the reins. The Horned Horse neighed loudly, whirling around to come to a stop. I hastily dismounted, and the Sword Demon quickly followed suit.
She didn’t ask what was wrong.
Because right in front of us, on the skinny path leading further east, we saw countless corpses… hundreds at least.
As the metallic scent of bl**d came wafting toward us, I could see those bodies hung upside down from several huge, lifeless trees by the roadside, densely packed like ghastly fruits. All their heads had been lopped off, frozen stiff and swaying in the cold wind, while the bl**d had long drained out, staining a large patch of snow beneath the trees a dark crimson.
And those bodies…
Seemed to all belong to the Shanter Army.
