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THE Ferrier camp was set up on a nearby hill, and the massive gate of the royal capital was firmly shut to keep them out.
The iron gate was famed to be able to repel any weapon and be impervious to damage from the claws of any beast. However, when the Ferrier mutants with explosive powers directed their attacks at the gate, it was blasted to pieces.
“That’s strange…,” said the bearded commander. “Should it have broken that easily?”
“Well, um… That gate was built the same time the capital city was, hundreds of years ago, and since then, everyone’s boasted about the invincible iron, but…”
“I get it… This ‘invincible iron wall’ was a story of the past, but the barrier that stood in our way just now was nothing more than an old wall with little more than fables keeping it strong in the peoples’ eyes…”
The young man with the flying ability ran up to them and kneeled. “Excuse me, Your Highness…,” he said to Sara. “We’ll be going in soon.”
“Right,” Sara said, nodding.
The bearded commander started giving orders to his troops. Sara made her way down the hill.
Didn’t I play on this hill as a child with my mother and father?
On a warm spring day, they had come there for a family picnic, her mother carrying a flower basket and her father carrying a bag with packed lunches for the three of them.
Sara was very young then. She had run around the sprawling meadow, tumbling around and chasing butterflies. She picked flowers with her mother, they ate the lunch boxes a servant had prepared for them, and on the way home, Sara had gotten so sleepy that her father carried her on his back.
It was a very strange feeling, seeing the Ferrier army marching on this hill of her memories. An enemy of Saleilles tromped over the soil, but Sara didn’t feel angry. Was this because she trusted them, or because she had exhausted any goodwill she had toward King Saleilles?
At the bottom of the hill, smoke rose from the crumbling remnants of the gate explosion. The Ferrier soldiers watched as the townsfolk ran in panic, trying to get away, as they had never imagined that the iron wall could be destroyed. But the soldiers just observed calmly—it was much better that the people were running inside than staying out in the road.
Richard was staring intensely at the castle. But he turned around, seeming to sense Sara’s presence, and the corners of his thin lips turned upward slightly in a smile.
“Are you ready, Sara?”
“Yes… Let’s go.”
He offered his hand, which she took.
Standing like that, they looked like a pair of married aristocrats on their way to a dance party, but in reality, they were walking toward a city filled with dust and smoke.
Flanked on either side by specialized attacking forces, Sara swallowed hard and walked over the crumbled gate.
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SARA hadn’t been back to the royal capital in over six months, and it smelled kind of dusty.
Huge pieces of debris were scattered everywhere and almost hindered their progress, but before they could come to a complete stop, a Ferrier soldier made a motion like he was grabbing something in midair—one piece of debris nearly the height of an adult man levitated into the air and was tossed to the side. It was like a stronger version of Daniel’s ability.
Sara looked around the city that was in an uproar and sighed. The people here probably didn’t know that the king had refused Ferrier’s demands, but with the gate being closed, then destroyed, and then the city being stormed by mutants, they probably had a general idea of what was happening right now.
Sara heard snippets of people muttering.
“It’s Princess Hermine…”
“Why is the princess doing this…?”
“Is that really the prince of Ferrier…?”
“She’s betrayed her own kingdom?”
Sara ignored them completely, and they were all silenced by a scowl from Richard.
The Ferrier soldiers were prepared to fight if anyone dared to try harming Sara or Richard, but they probably didn’t have to worry about that for the time being.
Civilians who had no power to fight were fleeing from the main street as fast as their legs would take them, and although Saleilles had successfully roped in patrolmen (who seemed hardly any different from the regular townsfolk), they were trembling and clearly unused to handling the spears and swords gripped in their hands. Sara’s heart sank when she noticed they were all young, nearly the same age as her.
Usually, they would have dispatched the army for something like this… Did they not have time, or are they concentrating those forces to protect the castle?
If it were the latter, any desire for clemency in Sara would be dashed entirely.
“Well—now we must prepare ourselves for the possibility that this battle will turn bloody,” said the bearded commanding officer, who caught up with them after leading the group bringing up the rear.
Sara nodded and looked up at the front door of the castle.
The castle where Sara had served for six years.
For six years, she believed that Hermine’s happiness was her own happiness.
And now she had returned to destroy it.