Chapter 194

Elise’s message had come by carrier pigeon.

“There is a mad dragon in the underground catacombs beneath the chapel. It is trapped within a barrier, but no one knows what might happen, so be careful,” Elise had written.

Yet to Baron’s eyes, the wreckage spread out before him could only be evidence that a dragon had shattered the tomb and burst free.

Days passed, but no sound came from within the collapsed ruins.

The knights of Argan searched every corner of the imperial palace, now thick with the traces of barbarians. They checked every place that could be entered, but the emperor was nowhere to be found.

The dragon that had taken the emperor’s body vanished without a trace.

“Should we look for a way into the main keep?” one knight asked.

“Leave it,” another replied. “When the true master of this place returns, it will open on its own.”

The magical aftershock from the dragon’s departure had wiped out most of the Ugel forces stationed in the palace. It had been assumed that a confrontation with them in the capital would take at least a month, so the sudden absence of resistance left them with unexpected time.

“Once we reclaim the palace, check on the imperial citizens in the capital first,” Baron said. “There will be many who could not flee.”

Under Baron’s command, the soldiers of Argan began restoring everything except the main keep. Areas that had been deliberately ravaged were beyond saving, but elsewhere the damage was less severe.

Work began with the central rear garden, once another pride of the palace, the western annex that had been the princess’s private quarters, the administrative offices where ministers had once bustled with state affairs, and the imperial knight order’s barracks and training grounds.

The armories plundered by the barbarians were refilled with weapons supplied by the Kingdom of Regal. The gold coins and treasures that had been slept upon in the imperial treasury were carried out one by one. Compared to the empire’s golden age, it was a meager sum, but it was enough to revive the handful of merchants and guilds still left in the capital. Supplies and provisions brought by the allied forces were distributed to civilians by order of the princess.

Thus, the Argan imperial palace slowly began to recover its former shape. All that remained was for its rightful owners to return.

***

Around the same time, an urgent report reached Pahan, the capital of Ugel.

A courier with a gyrfalcon feather tucked into his shoulder spurred his horse at full speed toward the royal palace. Racing through narrow, winding streets and crossing countless canals, he finally reached a colossal mosque of sand and brick that loomed in solemn majesty.

The series of events that had unfolded at the Riosa Gorge were delivered to the ruler who resided there. Nearly three weeks had already passed since Riosa Castle had gone up in flames.

“Exterminated?” the king shouted.

A roar of fury echoed beneath the largest dome overlooking the desert and wastelands.

A man wrapped head to toe in a silk turban sprang to his feet.

“Exterminated, you say? Are you telling me Rihan and Hanan were defeated?” the man demanded.

He was Taham, Ugel’s aged king of conquest. Veils and beaded ornaments hung from beneath his turban, obscuring his face.

The soldier who had brought the news bowed until his forehead nearly touched the floor.

“Both princes were unable to escape the castle,” the soldier reported. “There are almost no survivors who made it out of the gorge, Your Majesty.”

“Then why has this news only reached me now?” Taham shouted.

“That is…” the soldier began.

The courier had been dispatched not from one of Ugel’s major cities, but from a southern colony. News of Ugel’s crushing defeat had spread throughout the south, reaching even the Ugel forces stationed in the southeastern colonies.

Yet while rumors circulated in the south, not a single message had reached Pahan itself. The five cities surrounding the capital had long since fallen into enemy hands.

“Taro, Quinoa, Urs, and even Sapa? All of them?” Taham asked. “When did this happen?”

“We do not know,” the soldier answered. “We believe the enemy seized the opportunity when those strongholds were left exposed to support the alliance’s southern advance.”

“Damn it all,” Taham snarled.

Unable to contain his rage, the king drew his sword. Slaves who had been trembling in the corner were dragged forward without mercy.

Blood sprayed across a throne adorned with buffalo horns and fox fur. A slave from Argan collapsed with a heavy thud, his severed neck gushing like a rotten log split apart.

“One or two cities would have been bad enough,” Taham said. “But five. The northerners occupied our cities for an entire month, and only now do I hear of it?”

It was the result of the allied armies stationed in each city carrying out their duties with ruthless precision.

As long as they held their assigned city, unimaginable riches and a foothold to the fertile south were theirs. No commander of the Northern Alliance was foolish enough to throw that away. They sealed off their cities with everything they had.

Taham ground his teeth, his eyes blazing.

“Rezette Kyrstan,” he said.

Just last year, he had lost his fourth prince to that man’s hand. Even if it meant clashing with Van Yela, he should have crushed him then and killed the princess.

In the end, he had lost his first and second princes as well, all because of that Argan b*tch.

The bad news did not stop coming.

“They say even the Argan imperial palace has fallen,” the soldier continued. “The chapel as well.”

“What?” Taham demanded.

“According to witnesses, the ground shook without warning, and the main keep and the church collapsed,” the soldier said. “After that, the Argan and Regal allied forces stormed in.”

“Damn Aseica,” Taham cursed.

He slammed his iron hard fist into the table.

All he had needed to do was kill the emperor cleanly. Just that. And he could not even manage it.

“Magic. That power granted by the dragon. Because of that,” Taham muttered.

The Kingdom of Ugel had been founded by nomadic tribes that once roamed the vast central plains of Grandel. Though it bordered the center, the fertile southern lands were beyond comparison to deserts and wastelands, and had always been the object of Ugel’s longing.

But it was not only rich land that tempted him.

Taham glared at the cracked table. The skin on the back of his hand was creased and swollen, veins bulging.

No. Not yet,  Taham thought. Not already.

“Is the princess’s whereabouts still unknown?” Taham asked.

“Yes,” the soldier replied. “But given that she is heavily pregnant, she could not have fled far.”

“Mobilize every remaining force in the south and find her,” Taham ordered. “She must be killed before she gives birth.”

So far, every spell the princess had wielded had been incomplete. Because she carried a dragonborn child, she had been unable to use her full power. If she gave birth and regained her strength, the future would become impossible to predict.

“Summon the legion commanders,” Taham said. “We must convene a strategy council to prepare for an all out war at Pahan. What are you all standing around for? Move at once.”

The attendants hurried backward in a flurry.

Along with his fury, a bitter, metallic taste rose in Taham’s throat.

“Kh, cough,” Taham gasped.

Blood surged up from deep within his lungs and sprayed across the floor. He clutched his abdomen with a sagging hand.

I cannot die like this, Taham thought. I have waited decades for this day.

Immortality is within reach. I cannot let everything collapse now, he thought.

Dragging his exhausted body, Taham walked the corridor leading from his bedchamber to the throne hall.

Our forces are sufficient, Taham thought. We can hold them back. As long as I find a way to bind Rezette Kyrstan.

Soon, the legion commanders guarding the east, west, south, and north of Pahan would arrive. Ugel’s army possessed mobility and offensive power unrivaled on the continent. Half of that immense military strength was stationed here in Pahan itself. There was no reason to shrink back.

Yet when Taham entered the throne hall, the one waiting for him was not his trusted vassals.

A very tall, powerfully built man stood with his back turned. He wore the ochre cloak and face covering of an Ugel soldier, but the boots visible beneath the cloak were different.

Leather boots not worn in the desert. Northern boots.

“Who are you?” Taham demanded.

“How did you get in here?” Taham said. “Reveal yourself.”

Just speaking those two lines made his entire body tense. The man, who had been gazing up at the mounted trophies lining the walls, slowly turned his head. Above the cloth covering half his face, a sharply drawn profile came into view.

“There is no need for that,” the man replied calmly.

With that, he pulled the shemagh down to his chin. Beneath his brow framed by falling black hair, sharp, raptor like eyes and a high, straight nose were revealed.

Though it was a face he had never seen before, Taham knew who it was by instinct alone.

There was only one man who could infiltrate the heart of enemy territory so boldly, without obstruction.

“I heard His Majesty was convening a war council,” the man said.

Rezette Kyrstan, Taham’s greatest thorn and nemesis, turned fully toward him. He flung aside the body he had been gripping by the collar.

Taham swallowed a soundless gasp.

The corpse of the Northern Legion Commander, who guarded the capital’s northern fortress, rolled across the carpet with a dull thud. Warm blood spilled from the body, whose eyes had not yet closed. There was no blood trail leading in, which meant the man had been dragged here alive and killed on the spot.

Rezette cast aside the stifling cloth completely and brushed his hands off with indifference.

“I was looking for the fastest way into the palace’s core,” Rezette said. “I do not have much time.”

Impossible. Taham had issued the summons only a few hours ago. Had this man been lurking outside the fortress all that time, waiting for his chance? Alone, without even a single knight?

“Is there no one outside?” Taham shouted. “What are you all doing?”

Taham drew his sword and roared, but only a hollow silence answered him.

At Taham’s feet, a faint spark flashed. Black mist slowly seeped up from beneath the carpet, beginning to coil around him.

Rezette was in a foul mood. He had not felt well even before leaving his wife, whose delivery was imminent, but the moment he stepped into the palace, his temper sank to its lowest point.

Preserved heads were displayed throughout the royal palace, as if daring anyone to look away. They were the severed heads of royalty and knights from the nations Ugel had conquered. There were easily more than a hundred.

Here in the throne hall, the walls were lined with the heads of leaders who had once held especially high rank.

“If I had not taken her away back then, her head would be hanging somewhere here as well,” Rezette said quietly.

He recalled the fourth prince of Ugel, who had been obsessed with Elise’s neck around this time last year, when Rezette had taken her to Van Yela.

His mood darkened even further.