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True Soul Song for Her (6)
Winter Castle reinforcements finally reached the fort, and I went out to the north gate to greet them.
“Rangers, halt!”
When the leading ranger shouted this, the rangers took up a stationary posture. In front of the rangers appeared one of the White Night Tower’s wizards, the white hems of their robes flaring out elegantly.
“Your Highness.”
He was a man who had once dreamed of becoming a knight, the second son of the Tailheim family who abandoned the path of the ring and created a magical circle in his body.
“Taylor of the White Night Tower and sixteen other wizards greets the Crown Prince of Leonberg!” Taylor cried out in an excited tone.
“You have come a long way,” I quietly replied as I shook Taylor Tailheim’s hand.
There were many things I wanted to ask. What was this winter like, and how were Vincent and his rangers doing? How fared the situation in the mountain range?
“We will talk later.”
Instead of asking questions, I turned my head.
‘Shuck~ Shuck~’
Hundreds of pairs of steel boots made a great noise as their owners came before me and stopped.
A company of troops with black hoods over their heads stood in front of me, and upon their armor, on a black background, was engraved an inverted white-yellow flame. The backpacks they carried were almost larger than their bodies. They were dwarves, but not just any dwarves: They were the elites of the fiercest and most belligerent members of their race, the war experts of the Boiling Iron Legion. The Iron Legion’s symbol was, of course, the inverted flame.
The dwarf at their head suddenly flipped back his hood and stepped before me. He took off his horned helm, placing it under his armpit, and pounded his fist upon his breastplate.
“I’m Gurkha, Chief of Haven. I came to help you with one arm of our clan’s warriors.”
He was the commander of Haven; he was a great dwarven general.
“Adrian Leonberger. I never thought the dwarves would send reinforcements.”
“If you truly thought that, you have taken our dwarven friendship too lightly. We dwarves never pretend ignorance about our friends’ troubles,” Ghurka said as he shook my hand in with a wicked grip, laughing as he revealed his sparse teeth. He smiled like a feral wolf and had a strong laugh.
“I understand. Welcome anyway.”
“Can I look around the castle?” Ghurka asked as he glanced back. Following his gaze, I saw five carts covered in thick cloth.
“Cannons?”
“A small number, aye, but I bet they will be quite useful.”
“And not just any cannons,” I noted, “but the iron guns of the Iron Legion.”
“You know the name of our legion?”
“I read a few sentences in a book.”
“And what was written of us?”
“That you are an army of fierce dwarven warriors.”
“That’s not true,” said Ghurka as he shook his head, contemplating my words.
“We warriors of the Iron Legion are not just fierce – we are very, very fierce and brilliant warriors.”
After Ghurka said that, he laughed out loud, his face flushing. He seemed to think his answer was terribly witty. Even if Gurkha’s tone was playful, the confidence contained in the boast was real.
The Iron Legion deserved the praise; they were one the most powerful fighting groups I knew of.
I was able to endure his uninteresting jokes, just being grateful in that moment that we had unexpectedly gained a powerful reinforcement.
I called the garrison commander and ordered him to guide the dwarves around the citadel right away. Several dwarves left with the commander, while Ghurka and the remaining dwarves headed to the citadel under the guidance of soldiers.
I gave a happy laugh as I looked at the backs of the small yet hard dwarves. I laughed only for a while, then once more refining my expression. The dwarves weren’t the only unexpected guests, and unlike the dwarves, the remaining guests were not very welcome.
A little further off, there stood a hundred men and women with their heads held up high.
Their red cloaks were gorgeous and graceful, adorned with gold thread. Their ivory-colored helmets covered their noses, and their shoulder armor was very elegant and strongly shaped. The white uniforms revealed under their cloaks looked pure and sacred, like priestly robes, but their well-groomed energy felt as sharp as a sword.
Their figures were also superb, and the guards on the wall clamored to get a closer look at them.
It was fortunate that their faces were hidden behind helmets; were it not so, the uproar would have been several magnitudes greater. There are few humans who can control their minds when seeing the bared faces of elves.
But to me, that pristine off-white tint of their faces was uncomfortable and disgusting. It is because I knew better than anyone what dark interiors and snake-like natures their angelic visages hid. There was also no reason for me to welcome the sudden appearance of the elves since my breakup with Sigrun had not been very pleasant.
Their sudden presence churned my insides when the end of the half-elves, their miserable slaughter, came into my mind like a vision. All those memories I had suppressed, that mental anguish and anger, rose up within me.
Jordan also felt that anger.
‘Shuck~’
The rangers had spread in all directions and now leveled their crossbows on the elves they had surrounded. This was not the time and place for cheerful rangers making crazy jokes; all the men’s eyes were as fierce as in any battle.
“Your Highness, just give the word, and they’ll have as many holes as a honeycomb right away,” Jordan said to me, his voice cracking. The resentment of my enemy flared up in me, and I knew that I had not forgotten the hatred I had felt when I had come so near death when I dealt with Sigrun.
“They can’t even be allowed to talk. Let’s kill them where they stand,” urged Jordan, and as I heard him, the intense anger that had swelled up in me disappeared. I felt like now was not the time to be angry. I sighed and ordered Jordan to step back.
“I can’t stand back. You’ve been alone before, and you’ve suffered badly then. This time, I will never withdraw.”
“Jordan.”
“If you punish me for this, I’ll bear the punishment. Now, I cannot obey your Highness’s command.”
“I know what you’re worried about. But I am not the same as I was then, so what you worry about will never happen.”
“Every time you said that you were found unconscious. I don’t want to see your Highness suffer like that again.”
Jordan had always faithfully fulfilled my orders, but this time he did not break his stubbornness. I sighed again. I knew how Jordan was feeling, so I wasn’t upset by his repeated disobedience.
But we weren’t the only two here; we were in the Gifted Lion Citadel, a fortress at war.
Disobedience to direct orders was in no way acceptable.
“Ranger Company Commander Jordan. I will not say it again. Step back.”
Jordan reluctantly withdrew. However, his finger remained on his crossbow’s trigger as he stared at the elves, ready to lift his weapon at any time. I had no choice but to leave things as they were, so I stepped away from the rangers and in front of the elves.
Despite being surrounded by numerous rangers, no change had come to their facial features. They just looked at me, their backs straight.
“Did you not hear it from Sigrun? Hear where you faeries should be?”
With enmity in my voice, I informed them that Leonberg had no intention of welcoming them. But the elves remained calm.
‘Shuck~’
One of the men stepped forward. At first glance, he was no ordinary elf. His appearance was exceptional, and his energy unusual. I presumed that the man was a High Elf.
“Prince of the Leonberg Kingdom. First of all, I express my sincere apology and consolation on behalf of my race for the terrible error of the Executioner Sigrun …”
The male High Elf chattered on as if he had oiled his tongue.
“This is no elven land. This is the territory of Leonberg. But you elves don’t even show proper respect to a prince. And you dare talk so sincerely?”
‘Thwad!’
I summoned energy and slammed it into a small area of ground. Having reached such heights, my attack was released in all directions and pressed against the elves.
The male elf had been haughtily talking on, he now hurriedly opened his mouth, his face stern.
“The elf who lives in the forest has committed her rude acts because she is ignorant of the laws of the kingdom.”
The High Elf knelt down on one knee, and the other elves knelt with him.
“Please forgive us.”
The elf once more apologized to me for the atrocities Sigrun had committed.
“I am not the one who will forgive you and not the one who will decide your fate.”
I called the half-elf who had been looking at me from where she stood among the rangers, and she joined my side. Gunn silently looked down at the elves. The High Elf once more had a face filled with humiliation, and the gaze he cast at Gunn was full of contempt and anger. It seemed that it hurt the pride of a noble, pure-blooded elf to be kneeling before a half-elf.
I had no intention of catering to his pride and conceptions of decency.
“They won’t go back alive if you don’t want them to,” I told Gunn as I raised my hand.
The crossbows that the rangers had pointed down were lifted again. The soldiers on the wall were confused, not knowing the situation, but they also pointed their bows at the elves.
The High Elf remained calm. He looked a bit upset, but his expression showed me he had been prepared for this. He seemed to think that all of this was just a bluff to overpower his will and set a baseline.
However, I soon disabused of his carefree spirit when I put my hand on my sword and released my spirit and energy. I channeled my full hostility into it.
The High Elf looked at me with a taut face.
“Prince of the Kingdom. There’s no reason to neglect an envoy like this.”
“A little while ago, you said you were savages who do not know the law, but now you are trying to teach me how to be a human being?”
I spoke up before the elf spewed any more bullshit.
“If you came to apologize on behalf of Sigrun, you should have been prepared to face punishment on behalf of Sigrun.”
The elf protested at my words, stating that it was not fair to be angry at the wrong person. His was a reasonable plea, but I didn’t even let it grace my ears. Since when have elves followed noble causes? They are beings who destroy the lives of others for self-interest or for no reason at all.
I just snorted.
Besides, this wasn’t just a show of my anger, but also a test, a test given to these insidious faeries who have appeared on the kingdom’s borders all of a sudden.
‘Chik~’
Gunn grabbed my sleeve, then shook her head quietly. I removed my hand from my sword’s hilt. The energy I had spread all over was released. The High Elf male looked at me as if displeased.
Unlike the other elves, his face was not pale, rather being relatively calm. This was the nature of a High Elf’s power, a being of great potential from birth.
“How old are you?” I asked the elf.
“Our race’s time and human time are not the same.”
“So, how old are you?”
“It may seem that I am no older than your Highness, but in reality, the time I have lived would require your Highness’s life to be repeated seven times, and more.”
His gaze reminded me of my own temporal situation; I could understand his emotions. For a High Elf, age was status and strength, and I knew well how insignificant humans beings were to their kind. However, I felt the same about him.
“My age is, roughly, a little over a hundred and fifty.”
I had existed since the era of the Great War. In my eyes, this elf was a child.