Chapter 1 – The Loyal Knight

Act 1: Clash of Blades

The metallic clash and screech of blades erupted, filling the air with a symphony of combat. Heartbeats pounded in chests and palms, drowning out the world’s noise. The impact was so brutal that it felt as if bodies were violently torn asunder. A breath, trapped in the throat, burst through parted lips, and beneath a helmet, a pair of intense green eyes flashed with danger.

If I hadn’t been astride my steed, I’d be sprawled on the ground by now, he reflected.

At the moment their swords met, a dull pain surged through his body, and it was as though he’d been hurled to the earth.

A woman?

Suspicion gripped him, prompting a closer scrutiny of his adversary. Initially, he’d assumed he faced an average knight of a slender build, but now the truth became clear—it was a woman. As realization dawned, his thoughts homed in on one person—the woman whispered to be the war goddess.

“I thought it was mere hearsay…” Kael, crown prince of the Perkan Empire, cracked a grin for the first time since he’d set foot on the battlefield in ages.

“He still finds breath to speak… He must possess considerable skill. A truly worthy opponent!”

Purple eyes, burning with fiery determination, met his intense green gaze. Her hand, gripping her sword, rose, and her lips curled in a matching grin. Irene, commander of the 2nd division of the Knights of Ventus and the paramount knight of the Theorin Kingdom, radiated vitality. Her spirit was unhampered, her high enthusiasm mirrored in the reddish-like glint in her amethyst eyes.

When their blades met once more, a sharp twang resonated through the air. Both trembled as the heavy impact surged through them, as it had before. Though hidden by his helmet, Kael’s jaw quivered with excitement. Similarly, Irene’s eyes sparkled with joy, almost relishing the brief pain. Her intense gaze, locked onto Kael’s green eyes, swiftly shifted elsewhere.

“Do I not make a worthy challenger? You might get hurt turning your gaze away so carelessly,” Kael chastised her, swinging his sword without hesitation.

With a smirk, Irene deftly sidestepped his sword’s arc and grabbed the short dagger hanging at her waist, hurling it swiftly. The dagger pierced an imperial knight’s helmet, saving a fellow kingdom knight from peril.

“Since I’ve saved my comrade, it was worth the distraction,” Irene replied.

Normally, she refrained from engaging in idle chatter except for issuing orders, but for some reason, she felt compelled to respond now.

“A pleasant voi—quite spirited, aren’t you? Shall we test your mettle then?” Kael hastily covered the words that had inadvertently escaped his lips. Her voice sounded purer than he’d imagined from the rumors, causing his fingertips to quiver. Struck by this unfamiliar sensation, he briefly wondered if he had mishandled his sword.

“If that’s your wish.”

“Then, I’ll gladly…”

Irene seemed poised to engage Kael more fully but expertly evaded his next swing, kicking her steed powerfully. Her horse galloped away in an instant, heading in a direction without a single command. In the blink of an eye, Irene had vanished into the distance.

“What just happened?” Kael stood there, dumbfounded, staring blankly at the spot where Irene had disappeared. He had been certain she would counter his attack. It felt like an affront! He glanced at his palm, still throbbing from the impact of her previous strike. This was absurd.

When he raised his head and looked in the direction she’d fled, he couldn’t help but laugh incredulously upon realizing her intentions. He couldn’t believe that, as the leader of her knights, she had chosen such a course of action on the battlefield. She was exactly as others had described her, yet entirely different.

“She’s truly committed to protecting her own people,” he chuckled to himself.

“Retreat!” Irene shouted her orders as she rescued an injured kingdom knight and placed him on her horse.

Irene exploited the imperial army’s inexperience with the harsh Theorin winter, aiming to exhaust their stamina with repeated, vigorous assaults. Since her objective had been moderately achieved, there was no need to continue engaging the imperial army in battle.

“Retreat!”

“Retreat!”

Irene’s orders echoed across the battlefield. While the imperial army scrambled to pursue the swiftly retreating Theorin forces, Kael stood still, gazing blankly at one spot.

“Your Majesty!”

The shrill voices of the imperial army’s chief of staff filled the crown prince’s ears, but his mind wandered elsewhere. Suddenly, the dagger attached to Irene’s ankle whooshed before Kael’s eyes. Though he easily evaded the attack, a shiver crept down his spine.

“She persists in this futile struggle even now,” Kael mused with amusement.

“Your Majesty! Are you unharmed?”

“Why would you think otherwise?” Kael replied sharply.

Kael’s stern tone made the chief of staff shrink back, but if it had been Wellen, Kael’s aide, he would’ve recognized that the crown prince was actually in a cheerful mood. In truth, Kael felt strangely elated even as his heart sank when he thought of the sharp dagger that had targeted his eyes. The whirlwind of emotions he experienced wasn’t solely due to the fierce determination aimed at him.

“Should we continue pursuing them?” the chief of staff inquired. When Kael cast a forlorn look in his direction, the chief’s mouth went dry. After some hesitation, he asked, “So, should I order a halt to the pursuit?”

“Are we even capable of that? How do you propose we catch up to them? For every step we take, they put five steps between us,” Kael replied dryly.

Among Theorin’s knights, the Ventus Knights of Voltern were renowned for their speed and agility. Capable of moving at astonishing speeds, the Ventus knights could cover a distance in one week that would take others at least half a month. And at the forefront, leading these knights, was none other than Irene. During this brief exchange between Kael and the chief of staff, the Voltern knights had already vanished into the far distance.

“Nevertheless, should we not at least maintain the illusion of pursuit…?”

“It’s better to mislead them into thinking our army is too exhausted to continue, even if such a chase has no bearing on our stamina. Instead, focus on fortifying the camp.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Even after the chief of staff departed, Kael remained rooted to the spot. His thoughts centered on Irene, who had vanished after throwing that deadly dagger as if it were nothing.

She acted as though she didn’t value her own life.

At that moment, all that had reflected in her eyes was an unwavering determination to defeat her adversary.

Irene was not one to wield her sword or throw her dagger recklessly. Yet, she displayed no hesitation when rushing to rescue her wounded comrades, even if it meant knowingly placing herself in the line of fire and leaving her back exposed to attack. She was human, yet unlike any he had ever encountered.

“I want to see her… again.”

Kael touched his tingling fingertips, still brimming with the exhilarating energy from their duel. Even as time passed, the sensation remained.

* * *

“What’s that?” A drowsy man atop the castle’s wall yawned and rubbed his eyes. “C-could it be that Voltern has been breached?”

While fierce battles raged day after day against the empire along the kingdom’s border, for most of the kingdom’s population, it was an afterthought. The capital’s nobles, who envied Irene and her father, Count Voltern, begrudgingly understood that the peace they enjoyed was due to the Voltern family staunchly guarding the border. As a result, the Voltern family was regarded fondly for shielding them from having to soil their hands with blood or suffer property losses. However, such good times couldn’t last.

“It’s the enemy! The imperial army! The imperial army!” The knight’s armor, unaccustomed to haste, creaked loudly as he rushed to ring the rusty bell that had remained untouched for many years.

The kingdom would soon face misfortune in the form of an unexpected arrival of the imperial army. As if carried by the northern wind, the imperial army’s descent upon the capital continued relentlessly from that day forward.

Lulled into a false sense of security by Voltern’s protection, the kingdom’s mainland forces had grown lax and disorganized, crumbling helplessly in the face of the imperial army’s rapid advance. Moreover, unlike the heavy snowfall blanketing the Voltern region where Irene guarded the borders, there wasn’t even a light dusting to impede the imperial army’s march. Nothing stood in their way, and the enemy forces reached the kingdom’s capital in the blink of an eye.

“Prince Hayden!”

Among a small crowd, Theorin’s third prince, Hayden, swiftly raised his head upon hearing a familiar voice.

“What of His Majesty? Have you found him?” he asked urgently.

“N-not yet…” Helink, Hayden’s aide, stammered apologetically.

Hayden had returned to the capital after being rescued from the pylon in which he’d been imprisoned at the imperial academy, thanks to the Knights of Ventus sent by Irene. However, upon his return, he received devastating news. Not only was the royal capital on the brink of falling to the imperial army, but his father, the King of Theorin, had disappeared, leaving behind a letter.

“Blast it!” Hayden exclaimed, stomping his foot in agitation.

“The whereabouts of His Majesty are crucial, but more pressing is that it seems the imperial army is close to breaching the outer fortress.”

“What in the world! How did our defenses become so feeble?”

“What should we do? If the outer fortress falls, it will be a simple matter for them to capture the royal castle. If this continues…”

“We cannot allow Theorin to be taken like this. We can’t,” Hayden muttered repeatedly, his lip chewed raw with anxiety.

As fear of the country falling to the empire clouded his thoughts, one person came to mind.

Irene M. Voltern…

Hayden clenched his teeth when he realized that unforeseen circumstances once again hindered the goal he had almost achieved.

With a heavy sigh, he said, “We have no choice. Raise the white flag. Our top priority is to protect the country.”

“As you wish,” Helink replied with a solemn expression.

He bowed and promptly set off to carry out the orders he had received. In the absence of the king, Hayden, the sole legitimate successor, wielded absolute authority, and his commands were to be unquestionably obeyed. A white flag was swiftly hoisted atop the royal castle, signaling the kingdom’s surrender.

In acknowledgment of their defeat, Theorin had been granted the opportunity to negotiate the terms of their surrender to the empire. Chaotic negotiations ensued, eventually leading to a brief recess. Sensing an opening, many of Theorin’s upper nobility eagerly sought to influence and persuade Hayden to align with their own agendas.

“Your Majesty, it is simply impossible for us to meet their demands in our current circumstances,” one elderly, rotund nobleman implored, scratching his cheek.

“In this unforgiving tundra, what can we truly offer the Empire, Your Majesty?” chimed in another stout noble, surveying the assembled group.

In what seemed like a prearranged manner, nods and hushed agreements rippled through the crowd, their eyes gleaming with cunning intentions.

“Then, what is your proposal?” Hayden asked wearily.

A voice from the crowd spoke up, suggesting, “How about we send her?”

“Do you even realize what you’re suggesting?” Hayden snapped, his anger causing him to slam his fist against the table. Although the subject had not been explicitly named, the prince recognized immediately to whom the nobles were referring. Despite his initial aversion to the idea, Hayden had no other viable options to offer. In a weary tone, he reluctantly declared, “I agree to hand over Irene M. Voltern.”

Thus, a name that should have never been on the negotiating table was offered up due to the kingdom’s dire straits. Unaware of this fateful turn of events, Irene continued to fiercely defend the kingdom’s borders, unwavering in her dedication to protect her homeland.