# 77
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“Your Excellency. The mercenaries are retreating with the Marquis’s faction.”
Ares, who had been watching with emotionless eyes as the knights slaughtered the mercenary army, singled out the fastest platoon.
“Alton. Pursue them as if encircling them. We must capture the Marquis’s faction alive. A certain amount of injury doesn’t matter, so focus on capturing them alive.”
A man with half of his right earlobe grinned and placed his right hand on his heart.
Please leave it to me.
As Alton ran out as if he had been waiting, his waiting platoon moved. No, they flew.
Their warhorses galloped across the land as fast as swallows flying over water, narrowly jumping over or dodging the scattered piles of corpses and weapons.
As they rushed out as if flying, Ares, who had been holding his ground, also moved.
“Sirius, Xeon. Support Alton.”
As Sirius and Zeon's platoon, having ended a meaningless battle and formed ranks, charged forward at Ares's command, the castle gates opened. When Ares turned to look behind him, there stood Eliza, riding a horse that appeared unusually white in the pitch-black darkness.
Ares pulled hard on the bridle of the horse snorting, wanting to run out too, and gestured to Crimson.
“Crimson. Bring him here.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The warhorse, which had been stomping on the ground with its forelegs to run, galloped toward the darkness the moment Ares gave his permission. As he ran, all the knights, except for Crimson's squad, followed behind him. The horses' snorts shattered into white dust, and the sound and vibrations of the warhorse pounding the ground felt like a powerful earthquake.
While the fleeing mercenaries kept looking back with anxious eyes, Alton's platoon, having already caught up with the mercenary group, surrounded them like shepherds herding a flock.
The Black Knights moved erratically, occasionally weaving their way among the mercenaries.
“Aaaargh!!”
Several mercenaries stumbled at the knights' erratic movements, and horses that failed to change direction in time tumbled down upon them. As such incidents occurred everywhere, the mercenaries' fear grew even greater. To make matters worse, wasn't their escape route a damned, long tunnel?
“If you drop off the traitors, I will spare your lives!!”
The Marquis, who had been holding his breath in the mercenary's arms, felt a chill run down his spine at the demonic scream reaching his ears.
"Take me to the Marquis's castle!! I will reward you greatly!"
However, as arrows soon began flying and a chilling sound like an earthquake following them was heard from behind, complaints erupted among the mercenaries.
“Throw it away quickly!! Throw those things away quickly!!”
"heartbreak!!!"
The Marquise let out a scream.
“Don’t throw it away, never throw it away! Please, please…….”
Tears of fear flowed from her eyes like a river. Unfortunately, however, her wish could not be fulfilled.
The Black Knights were closing in at an absurd speed, and the only escape route was a narrow tunnel. It was obvious that if the mercenaries, having lost their ranks, were driven into the tunnel with the sole intention of surviving, irreversible consequences would follow.
In the end, the mercenary captain made a decision. As he raised his right hand, the mercenaries leading the Marquis's faction drove their horses diagonally out of the pack.
“No, no!!!”
As the Marquise struggled and twisted her body, the mercenary's brute force pressed down on the back of her neck.
“Damn, that’s disgustingly loud.”
She was not the only one struggling. The nobles wept and begged to be spared, but the mercenaries' touch was rough and heartless.
As the mercenaries who had captured the Marquis's faction broke away from the group and came outside, the knights who had been carrying out unconventional attacks also ceased their assault.
“No, no, don’t put it down, don’t put it down, please!”
“Just take me with you, and I will give you everything in my territory, please, *sobbing*.”
The mercenaries lowered the clinging nobles as if dropping them. The mercenary captain raised both hands toward Alton.
“You clearly said that if we leave them behind, you won’t attack anymore?”
The mercenaries moved away, stealthily glancing at the knights.
At the boundary between the forest and the meadow where fierce winds blew, the Marquis's faction was surrounded by the knights they had driven to their deaths a dozen years ago. The nobles, their voices hoarse from wailing, burst into sobbing, and the Marquise also buried her face in her palms and wept.
Marquis Rinko blinked blankly, feeling as though all of this was a lie. Perhaps because he had been exposed to so much cold wind, all his senses felt dull.
What on earth is going on?
Is this reality? Or not? Is it a dream?
At that moment, the image of the Duke and the Grand Madam approaching him formed on his blurry retina.
A faint breath escaped through the Marquis's teeth. Strength drained from his legs. He eventually collapsed.
* * *
After confirming that the knights were surrounding the Marquis's faction at the edge of the forest, Ares turned around. He saw Eliza running through the snowstorm. Ares gripped his shackles tightly to slow down and gave orders to the knights following behind.
"Make a path to where Marquis Rinko is."
"yes."
At Ares's command, the knights who had been charging like a raging storm came to a complete halt. Then, they moved against him and formed a long two-file line to make a path. Soon, the knights lined up from where Ares stopped to where the Marquis's faction was.
Ares, who had been waiting for Eliza at the spot where he had stopped, rode his horse ahead without a word as she approached, and Eliza also followed behind him without saying a word.
It was a night when the sound of sleet falling on the dry grass felt like a downpour.
The knights in black armor paid their respects by watching the Duke and the Grand Lady's steps, and the two passed side by side along the path the knights had made. After traveling such a long path, when they finally came face to side with those trapped inside the rounded ramparts, a faint sigh escaped Eliza's lips.
After a moment of silence, she dismounted and approached them.
Marquis Rinko, having slumped to the ground, stared blankly up at Eliza, who had come right up to his face. He thought that if a day like this ever came, Eliza Richmond would sneer with a cruel look on her face.
But, no. She was sobbing silently. With a face I had never seen before.
"Henry."
When she called his name in a cracked voice, Henry Rinco realized that it had been a very long time since he had heard his name like this.
“Why did you do that?”
As tears flowed from Henry Rinco's eyes that he himself was unaware of, Eliza let out a sound as if her throat were constricted.
“How am I supposed to face your father and mother when I die?”
“…….”
“I killed your son, and your son killed my son. Is that what you wanted me to say to them?!”
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
Instead of getting angry, Eliza beat her chest. She beat her chest and wailed silently until Ares dismounted and stopped her hand.
Henry Rinco could not dare beg for his life in front of her, as she gasped for breath as if she were about to break. He could not say a word and simply stood there, struck by the falling snow. Emily Rinco and Edward Rinco were the same, as were the nobles who had come out of the castle with the Marquis.
Eliza raised her head and looked at the sky. Sleet poured down like rain, soaking her face. Streams of water, indistinguishable from tears or rain, kept trickling down the corners of her eyes.
Considering your sins, it would be right to execute you immediately here, but I will spare you that.
Eliza took a deep breath to wash away her sobbing and wailing. When she straightened her head, which had been turned toward the sky, her gaze was as hard as mahogany that had weathered the storms of time. With that alone, she returned to the appearance of the queen she had been during her prime, and she lashed out at the traitors.
Do not forget that this is my tribute to your ancestors who dedicated themselves to Richmond.
However, Marquis Rinko's faction could not die as vassals.
“Sit up straight. Don’t lean.”
The knight taking Edward away glared fiercely and warned him as he kept leaning back. When he continued to lean despite this, the knight pushed him away completely.
"uh?"
As Edward Rinco, who should have been sitting upright, slumped limply like a puppet with its strings cut, the knight hurriedly grabbed his upper body with his hands. Supporting the head that had fallen haphazardly, the knight checked his face and a look of dismay crossed his face.
Edward Rinco's eyes were wide open. His unfocused, grayish-brown pupils proved that his soul had already left his body. The knight urgently checked his pulse, but the place where the pulse should have been was completely still.
“What’s wrong…….”
Sirius’s voice trailed off as he approached. Just as he quickly assessed the situation and was about to approach Ares, who was crossing the Duke’s castle gate, sighs of disappointment were heard from all around.
“Your Excellency! Madam!”
Ares and Eliza, who had rushed back at the ominous call, were confronted with the corpses of the Marquis's faction sprawled on the cold bare ground. Crimson, who was examining the bodies, approached the two and whispered softly.
All the bodies have needle-like marks along the carotid artery. The lips have turned purple, and blood has pooled inside the mouths.