"Sorry. I came too late."

Muen bent down and gently closed the eyes of Marquis Tern, which had remained open even in death.

He was not glaring because he had died with unfinished business.

He was glaring because he had been furious, because he had scorned the enemy, because he had refused to yield.

To the very last moment, this old man, already well past seventy, had never let go of the sword in his hand, nor had he ever truly fallen.

Just like everyone around him.

"You are all warriors of the Empire."

Muen’s gaze swept over every face. Nearly all of them were so badly wounded that their original features were hard to make out, but he still carefully memorized each of their appearances, along with the names stuck inside their inner linings.

"Ross Derik, Nora Lu, Conwield Shawn, One-Eye... Hm? That’s a strange name."

Unlike the full names before it, that one had been left as a nickname, making Muen pause instinctively for a moment.

"Was it left for someone in particular? Don’t worry. By the name of Campbell, by the name of the Empire, you—and everyone else here—will receive the honor you deserve. You will be forever engraved on the Empire’s monuments."

Honor was a warrior’s medal. To have one’s name preserved in history was an achievement countless people chased their entire lives. If the ones who had stood here to the very end had been Royal Knights pursuing glory, then even in death, they would surely have been satisfied with what they had earned.

But Muen knew these people were not only warriors.

And to them, glory was not what mattered most.

"So..."

Muen rose to his feet, stepped past the shadow cast by Marquis Tern, and walked farther north, toward the plains where the sun was gradually being swallowed by dark clouds.

"Then watch. The thing you tried to protect with your lives... I will never let those people, so convinced of their own righteousness, so convinced of their so-called fate, lay a finger on it."

...

...

"It’s raining."

Celicia lifted her fingertip and caught one of the fine, threadlike strands of rain.

"Rain like this in autumn should be rare in this season, shouldn’t it?"

"Based on the seasonal and weather records the Empire received from within the Kingdom in the past, this region should get very little rain in autumn, so yes, it’s definitely unusual."

As always, Anna lounged in the shadow not far from Celicia’s side. She was the only one who could remain so casual in the Empress’s presence—not only showing no reverence at all, but even occasionally crossing the line and meeting Celicia’s words with smiling, needling replies.

The people around them were already used to the open discord between the mysterious Swordbearer and the Empress of the Empire. As for what lay beneath that... who knew? The Swordbearer was still the Swordbearer. She had not been forcefully stripped of her position by the Empress, and she still stood in the place closest to her.

In fact, on many important matters, Her Majesty still consulted her.

"What do you think of this rain?" Celicia asked again.

"It’s a thoroughly unpleasant rain."

Unlike Celicia, Anna did not let the rain touch her skin.

She hated the Kingdom’s rain. Winter had not even arrived yet, and already there was an icy chill in it, like sleet.

Probably only the cold woman beside her, the one who controlled ice and snow, would like rain this lifeless.

"Who told you I liked it?"

Celicia closed her hand, power circulating through her palm and shaking away every raindrop.

"I’m asking because I suspect there’s something strange about this rain."

"Something strange?" Anna arched a brow.

"Magic deliberately cast by some powerful expert? Or some force strong enough to affect the weather itself?"

Celicia thought for a moment.

"In any case, if an untimely rain falls in an untimely season, it deserves some attention."

"Fair enough."

Anna nodded.

Behind her, that vast shadow suddenly condensed, then became a calm, mirrorlike stretch of night.

The night framed Anna, and even her aura changed with it. The beauty mark beneath her eye remained just as alluring as ever, but a profound, mysterious presence now rose from her graceful figure.

A bright moon appeared in the sky, beneath the clouds.

It was a full moon—spotless and pure—its soft light falling over all things... and watching over all things.

"It feels... fine."

A few seconds later, Anna let out a fragrant breath, dismissed all the strange phenomena behind her, and reclined once more against a soft chair woven from crossing shadows, turning lazy again.

"Neither the clouds nor the rain are a problem."

"No problem at all?"

"At least the clouds and rain themselves aren’t. I didn’t sense any magical aura in them, or any abnormality at all. It’s just ordinary rain."

"I see. Then it seems we’re simply unlucky."

Celicia tugged the reins and brought her horse to a stop, then raised her eyes to the magnificent solitary city in the distance, shrouded in thin mist.

It was a great city, and an ancient one.

The weathered bricks of its walls spoke of age. Even after centuries, it still stood in solemn majesty. From where Celicia sat now, she could not even take in the whole city with a single glance.

So even through the pale mist, its ancient grandeur remained overwhelming.

Saint Blanfazecias.

Naturally, a city that old also had a name that old. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

In the ancient tongue, Saint Blanfazecias meant the holy, the great, the noble, the undying city of light and art that existed alongside the world beneath the radiance of the goddess.

Of course, no matter how many prefixes and meanings it carried, that ancient name was still far too long and awkward, so most people preferred to call it by the simpler name—

the Kingdom’s royal capital.

"Who would have thought the second time I came to this city in my life, it would be as a conqueror?"

The thought drew a rare trace of reflection from Celicia.

As the Empire’s third princess, she had once come here with an Imperial delegation as a child for a month-long exchange. The city’s rich artistic atmosphere and weight of history had left a deep impression on her.

But now, when she came here again, it was to break this city open, bringing along a Swordbearer who loved shirking work so she could scout the area personally.

"Oh my, so you really are capable of sentimental reflection?"

Resting her chin in one hand, Anna sounded honestly surprised.

"I thought someone as cold as you only ever thought about how to cut people down."

"No. I was just wondering..."

Celicia’s face remained expressionless.

"...whether that painter from ten years ago who called me an uncultured Imperial barbarian is still here."

"..."

So she was still thinking about who to cut down later.

Anna rolled her eyes beautifully.

"So then? Is this rain going to affect the siege?"

"Not for now."

Celicia lightly flicked the reins and urged the horse forward again. Anna did not ride at all, merely moving through the shadows trailing behind Celicia under the cover of her Authority.

She hated the jolting of riding on horseback. It made her cute little backside ache.

Of course, being jolted on top of a certain naughty yellow-haired boy was another matter entirely.

"Wouldn’t rain make the ground muddy? That would interfere with the use of large-scale siege equipment, wouldn’t it?"

"The soil outside the Kingdom’s royal capital is relatively firm. A little rain won’t turn it to mud."

Out of the corner of her eye, Celicia looked down. As the horse passed, it left behind only two faint hoofprints in the ground.

"And I don’t think large-scale magic machinery will be able to do much in the short term anyway."

As she spoke, Celicia made a casual beckoning motion. Raindrops from all across the sky gathered into her palm and quickly condensed into a domineering spear of ice.

With a sudden motion, she hurled it with all her strength. In the blink of an eye, it crossed several thousand meters, pierced through the hazy mist, and shot toward the ancient city wall.

Hum.

Before it ever arrived, it was crushed apart in midair by something invisible, accompanied by a low, heavy sound. From Celicia’s position, all she could make out was a faint arc of light.

"The Grand Barrier."

Anna’s expression turned a little more serious.

"So they really do have one here."

"Of course. Belrand has one. There’s no reason the Kingdom’s royal capital wouldn’t."

"Doesn’t Belrand’s Grand Barrier only cover the imperial palace?"

"It’s one thing with two systems. The one over the palace is the inner layer, and its effect is absolute suppression. Beyond that, there’s also a larger system that covers the whole of Belrand. That’s the Grand Barrier in its complete form, and its purpose is outward defense.

"But fully activating it consumes too much magic power, so unless the entire city is facing an existential crisis, the outer Grand Barrier is never activated."

"Sounds like the sort of thing you keep at the very bottom of the chest..."

Anna stroked her smooth chin.

"It is. The method for activating Belrand’s complete Grand Barrier is something basically only the emperors of each generation are qualified to know. The Kingdom is probably the same."

Celicia continued, "But the Grand Barrier here was built even earlier than Belrand’s. You could say it was the first Grand Barrier on the continent capable of covering an entire city. And because it’s so old, I suspect even maintaining it is already difficult. At present, it should only be able to react to targets carrying powerful magic."

"And reacting to targets with strong magic is already troublesome enough."

"That’s why I said large-scale magic siege weapons won’t be of much use for now. At best, they can only drain the enemy’s magic reserves to maintain the barrier. If we want to storm the city at present, I’m afraid we’ll have to fill the gap with human lives."

"I see... human lives."

Anna murmured those two words softly.

Such simple words, and yet no one knew how crushingly heavy they really were.

And still, on a battlefield, those same words were often the cheapest thing of all.

"This won’t be an easy war."

Celicia cast one last look at the royal capital.

Any emperor, looking this closely upon the enemy nation’s capital as a conqueror, would inevitably feel the flames of fierce ambition surge in his or her chest. After all, if she took that city, her name would unquestionably be carved into the history of the entire continent, remembered as one of the Empire’s three greatest rulers.

But Celicia remained calm, untouched by that fire.

She knew perfectly well that even after turning the whole war around and reaching this point, the city before her was still far from easy to break.

"Let’s head back. The army led by Duke Campbell should be arriving soon."

Celicia turned her horse.

She had not ventured # Nоvеlight # too far forward, because this trip had never been meant to accomplish anything in particular.

She had simply come as the commander of the army.

She had wanted to see it for herself.

"You come when you please and leave when you please. Must be nice."

Anna suddenly let out a sigh.

"Too bad the enemy won’t let us be that carefree."

At some point, the fog had thickened, spreading until it covered the area around both Celicia and Anna.

Several figures gradually emerged from the mist, vague and indistinct, carrying a bone-deep killing intent.

They had been surrounded.

"No Crowned One has made a personal move... which means they still don’t know who you are. Your attack just drew them over."

Anna’s beautiful eyes swept over their surroundings. The mist that concealed presence had no effect on her senses at all, because anywhere shadow reached was an extension of her awareness.

Clearly, these people had only sensed someone attacking the capital’s barrier and dispatched several fairly strong experts to investigate. They had no idea the attacker was the Emperor of the Empire herself.

No one would imagine that an emperor would personally come scouting.

"Since you know that, could you stop making sarcastic comments and deal with them first?"

Celicia said coldly.

"I refuse."

Seeing there was no real danger anyway, Anna simply curled up into the shadows and drawled lazily, "I’m tired. I don’t feel like moving. That move just now took a lot out of me."

"That’s an order." Celicia’s voice went colder still.

"Oh? There’s no one else here. Are you really still going to put on airs?" Anna giggled. "That trick doesn’t work on me. Though of course, same as always—if you’re willing to call me big sister, I’d be more than happy to help."

"..."

Clang—

At the exact same moment an enemy was pierced through by a razor-sharp blade of ice, that blade slammed into the ground right beside Anna with perfect precision.

The frozen blade was stained with blood. Because of the force with which it had been thrown, it still trembled and rang after embedding itself in the earth. Imperial authority flowed through it, forcibly tearing open the shadows around Anna.

"All right, all right, I’ll listen..."

Anna raised her hands helplessly.

"No need to be so violent. Calling me big sister wouldn’t cost you anything."

"Hmph."

Celicia snorted, once again expressing her disdain for Anna’s shameless fantasies. She was the Emperor of the Empire. There was no universe in which she would call a woman like this big sister.

Still, she did not dwell on it. This woman asked to be called big sister every day. Celicia had long since gotten used to it.

Cold gathered in her palm once more as she prepared to end things quickly and clear away the obstruction in front of her.

But before she could make her move—

"Hm?"

Celicia’s eyes widened in surprise as the dense mist was suddenly torn apart.

A crimson meteor lit up the entire sky and came crashing down from above with overwhelming force.

In an instant, the leader of the group—the peak fifth-tier expert Celicia had judged might actually be a little troublesome—had his head shattered as easily as a watermelon.

His blood had not even had time to spray before it was vaporized by an intensely scorching aura. The man never even understood how he had died before he disappeared from this world entirely.

Then the meteor struck the ground.

Amid the dust, a towering figure appeared, kneeling on one knee.

"It’s been a long time, Your Majesty."

Lorne Campbell raised his head. Though he was covered in dust from a nonstop forced march, the power and authority that seemed born into him had not diminished in the slightest. It had simply been carefully restrained.

As he looked at the girl who had now become emperor, his eyes and brows carried the indulgent warmth of a man admiring his daughter-in-law.

"Your Majesty grows more beautiful by the day."

"Duke Campbell?"

Celicia let out a quiet breath, suppressing the inexplicable flicker of fluster that had risen in her at meeting the duke so suddenly.

"You arrived that quickly?"

"The army’s a little behind. I came ahead on my own! I’ve missed Your Majesty, after all. I was worried that brat Muen might have gone and angered Your Majesty again."

"Rest assured. He doesn’t dare."

"Haha, as expected of Your Majesty."

Lorne laughed heartily, then turned toward the side.

"By the way, this young lady is...?"

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

The instant Lorne’s gaze shifted over, all the remaining enemies were swallowed at once by the night. The girl who had been lazily refusing to move just moments ago exterminated every last enemy with crisp efficiency, then smiled with the graceful charm of a spirit of the dark and lifted the hem of her skirt in an elegant curtsy.

"A pleasure to meet you for the first time, Duke Campbell. I’m Anna. Anna Kaplin."

"Anna?"

Lorne blinked.

"That name sounds strangely familiar."

"Well, Muen must have mentioned me to you."

Anna covered her mouth and laughed softly, speaking to Lorne with perfect natural ease.

"After all, I’m Muen’s absolute favorite upperclassman. Oh, and Muen makes me angry all the time too. Duke Campbell, you really should discipline him properly. The second you stop watching him, he has no idea where he’ll drift off to. He’s terribly exasperating."

"..."

How are you the one saying that?!

Who do you think you are?!

Seeing Anna act so unbelievably well-behaved in front of Lorne, Celicia’s entire body instantly erupted with frost, and a sharp, grating crack rang through the air. The cold around her turned biting.