[T/W: Depictions of violence]
“That way!”
She heard someone screaming.
When Rieta looked back, Knox climbed onto the horse and took hold of the reins.
Rieta barely turned her head to watch her father’s soldiers running.
She saw two small children blocking their way.
They are the Princes of the land, but King Liz did not care for the lives of his sons very much.
It was a fact that the King’s servants, as well as those children, knew very well.
It would be obvious to know what the outcome would be when they defied the King.
… No!
Rieta bit her lip, but there was no going back.
Come to think of it, she remembered learning about a situation like this one day.
[Whether your protectors die a useless death or an honorable death depends on your determination. Do you understand, Rieta?]
According to those teachings, Rieta was right to run away.
Moreover, his younger brothers had swords at their waists.
That meant that they had stepped out as knights to protect Rieta. She had to honor Vernon and Eddie.
Even if she thought dying along with them was sweeter.
“Ugh!”
As Rieta made up her mind, Knox’s body, who stood behind her and hugged her, twitched a lot.
“Sir Knox?!”
“It’s no big deal.”
But soon he flinched again with the sound of a blade being driven into his flesh.
An arrow!
Rieta tried to check his condition, but the knight’s harm arm weighed on her body.
“Stay still… Please stay still.”
Even though he was in pain, he was worried that Rieta might be hurt by the flying arrow.
This knight shouldn’t have met Rieta at all… until this.
Did he notice Rieta’s thoughts, or was it to recover his mind from the sharp pain that continued to pierce his body.
Knox struggled to tell the story that Rieta hadn’t asked for.
“The two Princes… have saved my life before.”
“…Ah.”
Rieta recalled one day when the boys freely manipulated the king’s mood and achieved their desired conclusion.
Perhaps the boys had helped some of their subjects in that way.
“So, if I can do my part in this plan, I’ll be very… ugh!”
“Kyaah!”
Before he could finish his story, Rieta hurriedly grabbed his arm.
The horse they rode suddenly began to jolt. Did an arrow hit the horse?
Rieta hurriedly turned her gaze to find out what was going on, and soon noticed a bright red fireball flying in the distance.
“Sir Knox!”
The fire-bearing arrows were flying straight in this direction.
At the end of her short scream, the large knight hugged her tightly.
* * *
Feeling the world spinning, Rieta opened her eyes and found herself on the dirt floor.
She felt no pain at all.
It must have been because Knox had completely embraced her and protected her.
Then, from a distance, there was the sound of a horse crying in agony.
When Rieta managed to get herself up and turn around, she saw countless flaming arrows lodged in and around the horses they were riding a moment ago.
The fire grew in size little by little, clinging persistently to the mane of the horse as well as the fallen leaves that were around it.
“Ugh . . .”
Rieta heard a painful sound right next to her, so she quickly checked Knox’s condition.
She hadn’t realized it until now, but there were an awful lot of arrows stuck in his back.
“Sir Knox!”
“It’s not… deadly, I’ll be fine.”
But in Rieta’s eyes, he looked like he was about to die.
As Rieta panicked, Knox pushed her shoulder a little.
“Hurry.”
The implications of his resolute action was easy to understand.
Go.
Rieta stood there for a moment, and again she had to weigh between a useless death and an honorable death.
At this point, she had no idea what the difference was between the two.
She doubted that there was any meaning to the result she would achieve by abandoning the one who had done this for her.
“…Sir.”
He shook his head resolutely at her faint call. Like he had already looked into her thoughts.
Rieta, who breathed out painful breaths, eventually stepped over Knox.
She thought as she stretched out her hand toward her honor that was somewhere in the dark.
Was it really the right thing, to step over friendly people? To stand up and go? Wasn’t that the logic of a coward who ran away because they wanted to live in the end?
Thinking about it that far…
“Rieta!”
There was a voice calling her.
Rieta, who naturally stopped walking after hearing a familiar voice, fixed her gaze on the spot from which she had heard the voice.
On the nearby wall stood King Liz.
Under the black sky, red burning lights illuminated the surroundings like the sun.
“I knew full well that you and your brothers were idiots who only thought of one thing.”
At the end of his sarcastic words, he lifted the tip of his chin slightly.
Then, she saw the servants who were waiting in the back, making someone walk up to the precarious ledge of the castle wall.
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