Lord Nigel agreed. “Indeed. They probably came ashore when they realized something was going wrong. I’ll admit, they’re smart.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?!” Lord Hilbert was almost in tears.
Lord Nigel offered Ms. Eva’s jacket to me. “Wouldn’t want this to get dirty. Could you take it for me?”
“Yes, sir.”
He pulled out his blade, which had been in its sheath—his walking stick. Knights carrying injured people ran in from the exit. Mercenaries appeared behind them, steadying their guns.
Lord Nigel kicked off the floor and shot forward, closing the distance between himself and the mercenaries. He seemed not to fear the flying bullets at all. A fountain of blood followed; several people instantly fell to the floor. Crimson spewed from their slit throats as they convulsed on the ground, and eventually, they stopped moving. Ms. Eva and Arthur also ran forward, a blade and a knife in each of their hands. The number of screams and blood splatters only increased.
I only just managed to avert my eyes. R-Right, they’ll be fine. I’ll leave it to those three. It wasn’t a scene I wanted to get a good look at. I covered my ears and ran away, but the place I ended up also had blood everywhere.
Lord Simeon’s saber was slicing off arms at the shoulders. He didn’t even bother to turn around when enemies came at him from behind—he merely swapped his saber to his other hand and angled it out. When his blade pierced through his enemies’ chests, the tip of it emerged from their backs.
As soon as one stopped moving, another would come swinging. Lord Simeon let go of his saber, dodged the oncoming knife at the most perilous moment, then brought his fist up, aiming for the enemy’s jaw. The enemy bent backward, allowing Lord Simeon to get a kick in and send them flying. He pulled his saber out of the previous enemy’s body and immediately ran after the man he’d kicked to slice his heels.
The small guns were of no use in melee combat; the knights’ sabers would knock them out of the enemies’ hands as they tried to aim. The mercenaries had switched to knives, but the knights were far stronger. One by one, the enemies were cut and thrown to the ground.
“Marielle. Don’t look.” Prince Severin was protecting Princess Mira, while Lord Hilbert was sprawled out on the ground. I wished I could faint as well, but this was no time to sleep.
“I-I don’t want to watch, but I have to be aware of my surroundings so that I can move...!”
“Indeed, that’s a good attitude to have. But it’s fine now. We’ve suppressed most of them.”
The battle was still underway, but the winner had already been decided. Though the mercenaries had changed their goal from invading to escaping, the knights that’d first jumped into the fray had blocked their escape route. These knights were soaked, so I assumed they’d just come from the garden.
Once all of the enemies were immobile, Lord Nigel and his assistants also returned. They were much filthier than before, but none of them had any extraneous injuries. They also didn’t bring anyone with them, so the enemies they’d fought most likely weren’t in states that required them to have been captured. I-I’m not going to look, no matter what!
Lord Simeon turned to his subordinates. “What happened to those who ran away?”
“Meyer’s still on the loose. He tried to blow things up with the grenades he’d hidden on his person, and apparently he didn’t care if the mercenaries blew up too. There were no severe casualties on our side, but we lost sight of Meyer. I’m sorry, sir.”
“I see.” Lord Simeon checked on the injured. “What about this one?”
Those who’d been shot in their arms and legs didn’t seem too badly hurt. They said they were just scratches and were moving around just fine. Only one person had been shot in the back.
“Based on the location of the bullet, his heart and lungs are probably fine. We should be able to save him if we can tend to him quickly enough...” The knight answering had a dark look on his face as he gazed at his unconscious comrade. The bridge connecting this island to land was broken, and the boat coming to retrieve us would only arrive once the weather calmed, so help wouldn’t be on the way anytime soon.
I ran over to the window, which made Lord Simeon yell after me. “Marielle!”
“The mercenaries still have their boat!” I exclaimed. “Let’s steal it!”
“Where in the world did you get an idea like that?” He was complaining, but he followed me to the window and peered outside.
The dark waves and heavy rain made visibility low. I walked along the windows and squinted with all my might.
“There it is!” I found a small boat near a rocky area and pointed so Lord Simeon could find it. “Over there. Right where...”
“Ah!” Someone yelped, making everyone run to the windows to look down at the ocean.
I turned back too, noticing a moving shadow by the rocks. A person was there, headed for the boat. That’s—!
The knights began yelling all at once. “It’s Meyer! Damn it! He’s getting away!”
“The ship is going to leave. We have to stop it!”
That’s where he was?! Several knights ran out to chase after him. Would we make it in time? The cliff was below here, so we couldn’t get down to the shore via a straight path. Mr. Meyer could get away while the knights tried to find a detour. What should we do? If only we could get boats out there to encircle them at sea... But we don’t have that kind of time!
Mr. Meyer ran in the rain and stumbled into the sea. He kicked at the waves, getting fully drenched as he headed toward the boat. All I could do was panic and watch from above. It didn’t seem like anyone could catch up to him. I ground my teeth uselessly at the thought of this impossible situation. Wasn’t there a way for us to catch him somehow, even though he’d escaped?
All of a sudden, a brilliant light flashed in front of my eyes, accompanied by a great boom. All the similar sounds I’d heard throughout the day didn’t even come close. An arrow of light had struck exceedingly close—it had not only white hues but flame-colored ones as well.
I screamed without realizing it. The black spots caused by the blinding light left my vision after I blinked once or twice, but I’d already seen exactly what had happened and where. I turned away from the window and shivered; Lord Simeon wrapped his arms around me.
“Lightning struck.”
Lord Nigel also came over, followed by Prince Severin. “It did. That was surprising. I’ve never seen it happen up close.”
Lord Simeon patted my head to calm me down, and at the same time, he looked out the window without a word. I leaned against his reliable chest, knowing that it was all over.
The bolt of light had not allowed Mr. Meyer to run. It had been like a judgment from the heavens. He’d almost made it to the boat, to a place where we wouldn’t have been able to follow. He was supposed to have shaken off his pursuers and made a clean escape.
Over and over, rough waves flowed over his limp body, which had fallen onto the stony shore.
That man would never reach that boat for the rest of eternity.
Though they were shaking at the thunder rolling overhead, the knights went out—all of them prepared to die—to investigate the boat for the sake of transporting our severely injured. They reported that two people were inside the boat, though they’d already stopped breathing.
That shocked me. “So the lightning struck the boat as well?”
“Yes,” explained Prince Severin. “Sometimes multiple strikes will occur simultaneously. The boat could have also been too close to the first strike. It’s dangerous to be near lightning, even if you’re not hit directly. Being soaked in water makes the impact worse too.”
Lord Nigel supported that statement. “And they weren’t just wet—they were in the water. It’s actually a good thing that we were too late.”
Had our knights gotten too close, they would have died as well. Everyone paled at the thought.
We hesitated to send the boat out in such a perilous situation, but we didn’t have time to wait until the storm stopped. So we sent the boat off with the smallest number of people we could afford, while the rest of us remained in the castle. All we could do was watch the boat head for the other island and pray that lightning wouldn’t strike again.
Thankfully, that frightening flash of light didn’t attack anymore. Once we heard news of the boat’s safe arrival, we cheered.
A while after that, the rain gradually died down, and the thunder sounded far off. The dark sky lightened, then the clouds dispersed and became white, revealing that it really had been afternoon all along.
One group came over to our island before the rain had completely stopped. Not by boat, but by horse. The tide had pulled back, so the sea wasn’t deep enough to be crossed by boat. The attendants, guards, and Terrazant police made it across the shallow water. We left the castle and welcomed them with hand waves, internally sighing in relief. Everything was finally coming to an end.
As we walked down the narrow path, Princess Mira suddenly came to a stop. Everyone around her turned to ask why, but she paid them no mind. She was staring intently at the group coming to greet us. Her face, which had held a severe amount of nervousness, seemed to release all of its tension at once. Tears welled up in her blue eyes.
At the front of the group was a young man riding a horse. His dark gray hair flowed down to his shoulders.
The princess moved first, pushing the knights out of the way so she could run farther down the stairs.
The knights shouted after her. “Watch out!”
“You’ll slip! Please be careful!”
She grabbed her skirts and bolted down the wet steps, ignoring the warnings. We all fretted as we watched her, but she somehow made it to the bottom without slipping and stepped into the water without hesitating at all. Every step kicked up a splash as she ran, and the man came down from his horse to run toward her as well.
“Mace!”
Her hands reached him and wrapped around his back—she was completely lost in the moment. Mr. Mace hugged her back tightly. At this moment, these two were not a crown princess and her secretary but merely two people who loved each other. Their feelings of relief and joy were expressed to one another with so much clarity.
As the waves rolled in and out at their feet, the two firmly held each other close.