I, Rosemary Loto Amelia, the first princess of the Amelia kingdom,
grabbed the long sword on my side as soon as I heard the commotion
outside. Then, my female knight escort, Anna, entered my tent.
「PRINCESS, PREPARE YOURSELF! We were raided!!」
「Raided!?」
I confusedly asked when I heard Anna's mortified voice, which I had heard
for the first time.
「IT'S THE EMPIRE! There's a betrayer amongst us!」
She said in a desperate voice.
「Who's the betrayer!?」
「It's Lord Fracton! He and several others knights are the cause of this
mess!!」
Lord Fracton was the first on the list amongst the members of the Gilbert
faction who upheld tradition and noble supremacy. From the very
beginning, he was my political opponent. And the veteran knights with him
were also members of the Gilbert faction.
This is bad! We're in an extremely bad situation right now! I brushed Anna
on her head to calm her down. Then, I told her,
「It's okay. Let's withdraw from this place. Where's Arnold right now!?」
I asked for the whereabouts of the lifeline of my team.
「H-He received a report that a demon beast had raided some private
houses in the vicinity, so he went to check those places.」
I see now! The majority of my escorts during this journey were novice
knights who lacked the experience of subjugating a demon beast. The
veteran knights might be able to, but all of them were members of the
Gilbert faction. Even if I ordered them, they would give a firm refusal to
save commoners' lives. In such a situation, Arnold was the only one who
would go to save those innocent civilians.
I couldn't blame Arnold for his actions. After all, I had never expected that
we would have a first-hand experience of being back-stabbed by the people
of our own kingdom in this journey.
（Are you willing to go that far, Gil!?）
Currently, a battle to decide who will inherit the throne from the current
king of the Amelia kingdom was happening behind the scenes. The biggest
contender was me, the first princess Rosemary, and the first prince, Gilbert.
However, the battle had never gone beyond political strife inside the royal
palace. I would've never expected that the Gilbert faction would make a
secret deal with the empire, the kingdom's enemy.
「Evacuate from this place as fast as possible. We're going to meet up with
Arnold. Don't forget to bring Kai too!」
I fastened my short sword on my waist. When I left the tent with the
longsword in hand, I saw that many of my knights had already fallen on the
ground, drenched in their own blood.
「Oh no! We can't let you escape.」
A blonde knight stepped on the head of a knight who fell on the ground and
pointed his sword toward us.
「What kind of a joke is this, Lord Fracton!? Are you trying to betray your
homeland!!?」
Anna groaned as she glared at Fracton, who showed a victorious smile as he
stood along with the veteran knights.
（They're the worst…）
I looked around and realized that our camp had been surrounded by blackrobed men. If it were only that, even Anna might've mistaken them for
mercenaries hired by Fracton. The reason Anna said that they were from the
empire was the two people who were clearly different from the rest. To be
exact, the black-haired young man with a wound on his cheek, and the greyhaired man with a crew cut and dressed in a crimson robe. The two of them
were clad in red clothes that had the crest of a twin-headed divine bird sewn
on them. It was the crest of the Glotnir empire. In short, they were military
personnel of the empire.
Everything had already been destroyed. I looked around but couldn't find
Kai's figure. Since he wasn't amongst the collapsed ones, I assumed that he
had already evacuated into the forest. That should be enough since the most
dangerous place was right by my side.
「Don't say something as distasteful as treason. Rather, you're the one who
betrayed the kingdom, Princess Rose.」
「Me? Betrayed the kingdom? What kind of nonsense is this?」
I was really clear about the reason behind their behaviour. They were the
ba*tards who would even sell their country as long as they could protect
their privilege. Trying to talk to them with reason was a fool's errand.
「Because of you, our noble traditio―」
「Ah, okay, stop! My creed is different from you people. I don't even have
a reason to betray my kingdom to begin with. Just tell me why are you
going as far as colluding with our enemy, the empire, just to kick me out of
the kingdom.」
I interrupted Fracton before he could even start his long winding talk about
tradition and blablabla. I defined my question for a specific answer.
My interruption caused Fracton to glare at me for a while.
「As long as we marry you off with the third prince of the empire, the
barren conflict between the kingdom and the empire will end. Moreover, by
allowing Prince Gilbert to inherit the throne, we will protect the order and
the traditions of our motherland!」
After heaving a sigh, he spread his arms and gave such an answer with a
proud look on his face.
「Shouldn't you say that grandiose speech during a meeting?」
「That's… Well, you wouldn't have accepted it.」
「So, you're colluding with the empire to sell me off just because I have a
different opinion? You just confessed the fact that you're nothing more than
a traitor.」
「…」
Seeing Fracton ground his teeth in silence, I continued,
「No matter what you say, you had already betrayed the Amelia kingdom
the moment you hurt her citizens! Shame on you!!」
The moment I spoke those words―
A lump of white metal leapt out from the depths of the forest and crashed
against Fracton's subordinate, the veteran knight who had stepped on the
head of the novice knight drenched in his own blood. The veteran knight
got blown back and hit the trees behind him. He then crumbled down
without even twitching anymore.
「Arnold!」
I almost cried when I saw the reliable figure of the blue-haired, muscular
swordsman with an unshaved beard. He was holding the great sword in his
hand. It was only natural since he had appeared like a dashing hero when I
was in a pinch.
「A-Arnold! Why are you in this place!?」
「I felt that something was wrong since the locations of the said villages
were way too far. Moreover, he's way too skilful in erasing his presence for
a mere hunter. That's why I knocked him out and immediately returned. It
seems my guess is correct.」
Arnold replied as he stood in front of me with his greatsword, ready for
battle. The moment he appeared, the black-robed military unit of the empire
started to take out their weapons. It showed just how much pressure
Arnold's existence exerted.
「What's the meaning of this? This area should've already been surrounded
by black panthers and ogres?」
The black-haired young man with a scar on his cheek asked the grey-haired
man with a crew cut.
「I'm as surprised as you're. It's as if… he came without any interruption.
Did you set an ambush on us?」
Fracton glared at the grey-haired man as if he wanted to punch him.
「N-No! There's no such thing!」
He denied with all his might.
「Keh! That's clearly the fault of your tiger cub's summoner unit, right?」
「I won't deny that. I shall investigate this matter after we return to the
imperial capital and thoroughly purge the traitors. But now, we've
something even more important―」
The grey-haired man with a crew cut looked at the black-haired man with a
scar on his cheek.
「I understand. That's also my intention.」
The black-haired young man nodded as he stepped forward and unsheathed
his sword.
「I never thought that I'd get the honour to fight against the kingdom's
strongest swordsman in this supposedly boring duty. I'm Signiel Gastrea.
Let's fight to the death in a battle that will burn our souls!」
「Sword Emperor, huh… I guess… I've no reason to refuse.」
Arnold lowered his centre of gravity as he accepted the challenge from the
black-haired young man with a scar on his cheek, the sword emperor
Signiel Gastrea.
「「EN GARDE!」」
Their swords clashed right after they said those words.