“Move all of our reserves forward! I need everything in the center right now!” General Horatio’s eyes were bloodshot as he ordered his officers forward while placing his grey uniform coat on. Inside Fort Henderson itself, the situation was chaotic.

  Soldiers and officers rushed forward. Horses neighed as they forced themselves to carry additional supplies on wagons to the front, while messengers on horseback ran out and inside of the fortress to deliver letters. Within minutes, Horatio assembled his most important staff officers and field commanders, rushing out of the fortress itself.

  The frontline had gone silent, at least in terms of fighting. But the preparations for the most important battle were underway. Horatio felt it in his heart as his horse galloped with his command unit, the words of each officer blending to his ears while he tried to respond as best as he could.

  He ordered them to move forward entire brigades to reinforce the center. Other brigades were put forward as an assault force, half of them cavalry, half of them foot soldiers who would storm the enemy, who had foolishly decided to stand like morons in the open field. One of his officers shouted at him as they were halfway through the front.

  “Sir, are you not going to consider negotiating with the princess?” A young colonel asked, his eyes clearly nervous. “I mean, she’s with the saintess. Aren’t we in trouble in that case?”

  “If we’re in trouble because of a couple of young girls, then we have no right to call ourselves a part of the revolutionary army,” Horatio snapped. He briefly glanced at the pommel of his saber. “If the goddess wills it, I’ll even behead those two with my own hands. I shall not lose another battle because of them.”

  Of course, Horatio knew that will and bravery weren’t going to decide the day alone. After all, this was the princess and her saintess that they were talking about. They were the ones who doomed the First and Second Continental Armies’s grand offensive to Perlenstadt. They were the ones who robbed the revolutionary cause of their overwhelming initiative, causing them to be forced into a shameful retreat.

  “If we do not win the fields today, then we are doomed,” Horatio said. “I will not retreat. Time isn’t on our side. We must win here, now. This, gentlemen, is our opportunity to make good of our failure to take the Imperial Capital.”

  Horatio’s voice turned deeper, his eyes narrowing as he felt the breeze of cold air nearly freezing his blood. “We will throw everything at her. Then, we shall capture her or kill her. It’s either them or us. Why would we negotiate? We’re rebels.”

  He laughed as he felt his body turning lighter after knowing that.

  “The fate of men like us is death should we lose. So let’s win! We shall kill her, for she was foolish enough to challenge us. What are we? We’re the Second Continental Army! We will not falter!”

  “Is that so, General Horatio Dupont?”

  A cold, gentle voice, clipped and enunciated, struck the group of officers on horseback. The air around them turned many degrees colder, causing Horatio to realize that it was not just the pre-winter weather that he was feeling, but there was magic in the air. A thick fog then began to settle around them, even if it was bright daylight.

  The only bright thing that they could look at was the two figures who landed slowly and gracefully ahead of them. Both of them were in light leather armor and a white uniform used by the Royal Guard. The one on the right had pink hair, her face comparable to the prettiest rose there was. The one on the left, who looked more pure and innocent, had silver hair and a golden halo crowning her angelic figure.

  “Shit!”

  Horatio pulled the reins of his horse as he and the group of officers stopped, dust being thrown in all directions. One by one, they all released their swords from their sheaths, with Horatio aiming his saber straight in the direction of the young woman with pink hair.

  “It’s you,” Horatio frowned. “The pink devil herself.”

  “For someone who uses the goddess’s name in vain, you have no right to speak in that manner to Lady Alexa.” The silver-haired one, who Horatio knew was the saintess, pointed her staff at him. “Get off your horse. I advise that you surrender now, sir.”

  “How delightfully polite.” Horatio kept his sword trained at the woman. “Whatever you two are planning, it’s not going to work. You will both die here. At the very least, I am sure that you two are the bravest women I’ve seen in my life.”

  The officers around Horatio laughed, but they were all quite nervous. Funny, even he felt like something was wrong. He was just acting tough because he had to be tough. But, as other people said, appearances were deceiving.

  Crown Princess Alexa Theresa and Saintess Phoebe Lumiére. These two, they’ve defeated an archdemon, subjugated an entire army group, and forced us into a retreat.

  He gritted his teeth.

  For two girls who look like they belong more in my daughter’s tea parties, they sure are a credible threat. I need to think this through.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “You’re surrounded. You have nowhere to go now. I advise you instead to lay down your arms if you wish to live.”

  I need to fight them to a standstill. His eyes briefly darted from left to right. It’s hard to make out because of this icy fog, but my men noticed. They’re coming here.

  I only really have to worry about the saintess. She’s the one who’s actually powerful, so if we eliminate her—

  That was when Alexa Theresa suddenly opened a book she was holding with her right hand. As her pink eyes shone lightly, the pages on it began flipping wildly before tearing itself off. Dozens, no, perhaps even a hundred papers, all of them containing intricate glyph designs with red ink, rapidly circled the crown princess.

  Paper glyphs? But that’s an ineffective form of combat magic!

  Then, her dainty feet stepped forward, the grass around them parting away from her.

  “You, sir, are a foreigner. First of all, you have no right to command me, the heir who would lead my subjects. Second of all…”

  One of the paper glyphs tore itself, causing a spell circle to materialize in the air, aimed straight at Horatio.

  “You have no right to lead my subjects into a traitorous war, where they will bleed in the hands of their very own brothers.” The young girl didn’t seem like she was playing around, as she raised her head and looked down at Horatio with contempt and disgust. It was enough to make him feel like an ant compared to her. “I do not wish to shed the blood of any human being in this world, but people like you…you disgust me. Have you no shame? No honor? Get out. Get out of my people’s land. Get out of my subjects’ lives.”

  “D-damn it!” One of Horatio’s generals shouted. “Protect him!”

  A flimsy spell circle materialized in front of Horatio after one of his officers flailed his wand, causing a spike of ice that was fired from Alexa Theresa’s spell circle to be blocked. Horatio looked up at the sky and the circling glyph circles while he lowered his arm, which he used to instinctually block the attack earlier.

  The bluish barrier spell created in front of him was shattered, disappearing right before him as if it were a pathetic plaything.

  “It doesn’t make sense!” The officer who cast that spell shouted, his eyes wide. “I’m a seven-circle [Barrier Mage]. Her spell construction is so trash! How the hell did she blast my shield open?”

  “Archdemon blood…” Horatio looked at the glyph papers floating around Alexa Theresa. “I’ve heard that one of her knights, a former Defense Forces officer, used the blood of Archdemons to power his glyph magic.”

  In that case, that book in her hands alone must hold the mana supply of two schütze artillery regiments. Maybe even more! This was bad, extremely bad. Dealing with the saintess alone was already bad enough, but if the crown princess was this strong, then…

  “No way. There’s no way that brat learned how to even cast spells,” another general beside Horatio muttered. “If they have superior mana reserves than us, then we can’t fight them for too long.”

  “Or run,” Horatio said. “There’s only one option then.”

  We’ll attack and defeat them before they can use their full magical strength against us.

  Horatio took a deep breath as he steeled himself.

  “Gentlemen, as you may know, time has never been on our side. It’s more true now than ever.”

  Then, he exhaled.

  “Charge. Die honorably if you must.”

  “Attack! Kill them all!”

  “Don’t hold back! This is it!”

  Horatio was with the charge. They were officers. They were never meant for such a bold cavalry attack, but they were all still powerful soldiers. You wouldn’t be an officer otherwise. You needed to be strong, martially capable, and brave enough to face war.

  But, as he readied all of his skills and sent his mana to his sword, he knew that their chances were low.

  That was why they would gamble it all now.

  +++

  “Fools, all of them.”

  Alexa breathed out a sigh of exasperation as the group of high-ranking officers in front of her charged forward recklessly, letting out desperate battle cries. It was like they were facing certain death; the fear and doom in their faces was so clear-cut that she could make it out even with the artificial fog spell that Phoebe created to mask their attack.

  That dumb guy. What is he even saying? ‘The fate of men like us is death should we lose?’ As if! I’m not such a barbarian that I’ll kill people when so many people have already died.

  I’d rather you morons rot in a jail cell for treachery.

  The problem was that Horatio’s words were already etched deeply into their minds, that they were basically charging at Phoebe and Alexa as if their lives were flashing before them. It was either they kill her, or she wins, and she would have them and maybe their families executed. To be fair, she’d heard many cruel leaders do that.

  In fact, if she lost, that was her fate. It was what Alexa had been trying to avoid from the start. Losing to the revolution meant the guillotine; her head dropped in a basket. She knew that fear well. She knew that if she lost to them, they would kill her with cruelty and barbarity.

  But unlike them, Alexa wasn’t someone who would stoop as low as her enemies. After all, how would she be able to call herself the finest princess out there, the one who was above every pesky lowborn and highborn who had no bravery, honor, and decency?

  “Phoebe, don’t kill them, okay?” Alexa muttered to her partner as she nodded.

  “Mhm. Of course I won’t. I don’t like death.”

  “Good.”

  Alexa smiled.

  “Let’s teach these scoundrels a lesson on why they should treat a lady properly!”