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When the dawn comes (7)
When Bernardo Eli wielded his sword and cut down a paladin in one strike, the Iron Lions were amazed.
However, the situation did not allow for them to stand by admiring his skills.
There were still four enemy paladins left.
In contrast, their side had to face them with only two Silver Lions.
To make matters worse, their retreat was blocked, and their allies were behind flames.
It would take a considerable amount of time for assistance to arrive.
It was a crisis.
The Iron Lions exchanged glances.
Seeing the looks in each other’s eyes, they confirmed that they shared the same intentions.
In the eyes of those who silently drew their swords, there was the determination to fight or die.
No one gave any regard to the order of retreat.
They would rather die.
Even if they lost an arm and had both their legs broken, they would create a chance for their Silver Lions.
They believed that the Silver Lions would not miss that opportunity.
That was enough.
It would be a worthy end for people like them who were like tiger moths walking on the edge of a blade.
That was what they had believed, and that was what they had intended to do.
If it hadn’t been for Bernardo Eli’s sudden confession, they would have done so.
“I like you.”
The Iron Lions doubted their ears.
They felt like they had heard something, very out of place.
Just look at the situation.
They convinced themselves that they must have heard it incorrectly, and readied their hearts again.
But.
“From the first time I saw you, all the way until now. There hasn’t been a single moment when my heart did not move for you.”
They didn’t hear it wrong.
“The person called Arwen Kirgayen truly means that much to me.”
It really was a confession.
Not only that, it was a confession that would make you feel very exposed even if the two people were alone and in ordinary circumstances.
It was absurd.
Listening to the sudden confession that didn’t match the situation, the Iron Lions felt like their resolve to die was being overshadowed.
Their confused eyes secretly turned to Arwen Kirgayen.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t see her face with her back turned.
They were curious.
What kind of expression would she be making now, what would she say?
The Iron Lions involuntarily pricked up their ears.
What was this. In a life or death situation.
Their mouths were very dry.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed dryly.
Eventually.
“I.”
Arwen Kirgayen opened her mouth.
“I cannot accept Sir’s heart.”
It was a resolute rejection that didn’t leave any room for doubt.
“Ah!“
The Iron Lions let out a sigh.
They unknowingly turned their heads toward Bernardo Eli.
He was laughing.
“I knew it.”
Although saddened,
“I had expected as much.”
His face had a comfortable smile.
That was it.
Bernardo Eli displayed his resoluteness.
“I just said it because I thought that other than now, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
Why.
As he pointed his sword at the approaching paladins, his voice sounded pathetic rather than solemn.
“I just wanted to check, so please don’t feel burdened.”
After dumping all the pressure on her, his contradictory words about not feeling burdened were incredibly lame.
“We should focus on them for now.”
It was lame to say this so late and with a bitter face.
“Let’s deal with our own matters after finishing this.”
Every glance and gesture of his was like that.
“Offense is the best defense!”
Bernardo Eli yelled and kicked the floor.
And at the same time, the paladins rushed towards the Silver Lions in unison.
Clang clang!
A brawl broke out.
Flash.
Sword light flickered countless times.
Kwaduduk.
Broken pieces of iron armor scattered in every direction.
“Be ready.”
One of the Iron Lions said firmly while watching.
His mischievous expression from a moment earlier had disappeared without a trace.
They observed the battle with determined faces.
As soon as an opportunity presented itself, they intended to jump in and tie up the paladin’s hands and feet, even if it was only for an instant.
The Iron Lions waited for their chance.
However, no matter how long they waited, the opportunity they were hoping for didn’t come.
“How are they so in sync?”
When Arwen Kirgayen defended, Bernardo Eli stabbed his blade into the opening.
When Bernardo Eli defended, Arwen Kirgayen slashed down with her sword.
They moved as if they were one body and exchanged strikes with the paladins.
“Was Sir Arwen really that strong?”
One of the Iron Lions who was watching sighed in admiration.
Arwen Kirgayen never moved without reason.
She only acted when necessary, and only as much as needed.
Thud!
The ground shook when she stamped her feet.
Sswek!
When she swung her blade, sword light that resembled starlight rained down from the sky.
The Iron Lions were stunned.
“If it’s this much…”
Even if she had to fend off the paladins alone, she might have actually been able to allow them to retreat safely.
Although she couldn’t defeat five of them by herself, it would have been entirely possible to single-handedly hold them off and then escape.
“What the hell happened to Sir Arwen?”
They had known she was strong, but right now she was on an entirely different level.
Something must have happened.
Otherwise she couldn’t have grown this much in such a short amount of time.
Her prowess was incredible.
However, it was Bernardo Eli who tore through the enemy’s armor and sliced apart their flesh.
He moved without stopping.
Hovering around Arwen and madly swinging his sword.
At times he circled around her, and at times he appeared out of nowhere from behind her to stab with his sword.
His movements were dazzling.
The Iron Lions were amazed.
If it wasn’t for his blathering mouth, they would have been even more amazed.
“I felt it from the moment I saw you at Winter Castle…”
Bernardo Eli continued to talk.
“As a knight, looking at your figure that never wavered…”
And confessed his inner thoughts without anyone even asking.
“Actually, I was going to give up, but the heart is fickle…”
He spoke about his decision even though no one was curious.
How bad was his chatter?
“Please close your mouth!”
It was to the point that Arwen shouted in disgust.
Only then did Bernardo shut up.
But it wasn’t long before he started babbling again.
The Iron Lions looked at him with complicated expressions.
Aside from his blathering mouth, Bernardo Eli’s ability was no less than Arwen Kirgayen’s.
If Arwen was as steady as a mountain, then Bernardo was as swift as the wind.
His sword shattered his opponent’s strikes, and relentlessly pursued his opponent’s vital points.
Pausing and moving, heavy and swift, straight and curved.
As the contrasting natures of the two Silver Lions blended together, one plus one became more than four, and the two faced the four without giving an inch.
No, it wasn’t just to the point of not being pushed back.
At some point, the two of them overpowered the four.
While the Iron Lions waited for an opportunity to intervene just in case, one of them spoke suddenly as if they had just remembered.
“He said that he thought he wouldn’t be able to tell her if it wasn’t at this time.”
They had believed he said that line out of desperation, thinking it would be difficult to leave this place alive.
“Who knew he was just saying it.”
Who could have imagined it meant that now was the time he had the courage.
Maybe he thought it a good time to confess when he appeared during a moment of crisis.
While the Iron Lions were at a loss, Bernardo Eli opened his mouth again.
“I melt the green rust with the pale crescent moon, and sharpen the dull blade with the howl of a wolf.”
In an extremely heavy tone, unlike the frivolous tone from before.
Suddenly…
A paladin’s head went flying.
It was the moment when the delicately maintained balance of the battle was completely destroyed.
The paladins instantly fell into chaos.
Stab.
Arwen Kirgayen’s sword light pierced the chest of one paladin.
And then another paladin fell.
The last paladin who resisted to the end was also cut into two and died on the spot.
Puuuu!
A horn that sounded a little late.
“What the hell happened!”
The knights who appeared after finally bypassing the flames asked.
Bernardo Eli answered their question.
They had been attacked by paladins, and they had defeated them all.
He responded arrogantly.
The Iron Lions who were standing right behind him and watching him muttered lowly in barely audible voices.
He had also confessed. And had been dumped.
***
Duke Briand thought it was truly unfair.
Although he had certainly approved of the plan in the end, he didn’t expect it to be so extreme.
He hadn’t even heard about using the catapults to turn the plains into a sea of flames.
Had he known, he would have stopped it.
All he had wanted was to politely detain Adrian Leonberger’s dear knight and negotiate a ransom, not have an all-out war.
But the operation had already failed. And Arwen Kirgayen had already returned to the kingdom’s encampment.
It wouldn’t work now if he claimed to have had no intention to harm her, and that he had only wanted to detain her for a while before letting her go.
In order to resolve the situation, he had thought of pinning all the responsibility on the one who planned the operation, but even that was not possible.
When he sent the knights, the nobleman who had suggested the strategy had already disappeared.
“S-send a messenger! Tell them it was an accident!”
The nobles shook their heads when they saw Duke Briand shouting in a fit.
He had offered a deal and then stabbed them in the back, the nobles knew that there was no way the other side would believe the messenger.
Everyone was aware of this except for the duke.
Duke Briand dispatched a messenger.
Before the day was over, the messenger returned after being beaten half to death.
“They said that there would be no second chances for those who had betrayed their trust!”
The messenger reported with puffy lips.
***
The news that Adrian Leonberger would arrive in three days spread throughout the Briand Duchy.
In addition, information about the disturbance from the day before also became well known.
The soldiers were horrified to hear that Duke Briand had done something so stupid and had incurred the wrath of the kingdom’s army.
Coincidentally, the Leonberg army appeared at that time.
They immediately set up camp and prepared for a siege.
Briand’s soldiers watched them with stiff faces.
Dukdakdukdak.
Battering rams and siege towers were built on the spot.
Soldiers in black leather armor fired arrows to measure the height and distance of the walls.
Several knights stood out of range and looked at the castle for a long time before disappearing.
Briand’s soldiers trembled with anxiety.
It seemed that the battle would begin at any moment.
“All, all die. We’ll all die like this…”
“Adrian Leonberger will never leave us alive.”
Fear spread like an epidemic.
Time passed and night came.
And the morning dawned again.
“Hm?”
The soldiers who climbed the wall for their shifts were bewildered.
The walls were empty.
They couldn’t see a single one of the guards, who would normally be dozing off at this time.
“Th-the south gate is open!”
A little later, someone shouted.
“They deserted!”
The soldiers who climbed the walls for the morning shift shouted.
***
“The number of soldiers who disappeared overnight is over 500.”
Despite the knight’s report, Duke Briand did not get angry.
He was just blankly listening.
“Increase the number of guards, and deploy knights so that there will be no more deserters.”
Even when a lesser nobleman stepped forward to give an order to the knight, Duke Briand’s mouth did not open.
Another day passed like that.
“Soldiers have deserted again.”
The knight came back and reported the situation of the wall.
“What were the knights doing!”
Like the previous day, another nobleman yelled at the knight instead of Duke Briand, who remained unresponsive.
“Why don’t you answer! Surely you asked the knights what the hell they were doing!”
“That… the knights who were stationed on the wall are nowhere to be seen.”
The knight, who hesitated after being shouted at, squeezed his eyes tightly shut and answered.
“The knights have also deserted.”
“Ha ha.”
The nobles laughed.
They knew that the morale of the soldiers had hit rock bottom, but they didn’t know that even the knights had been shaken.
Later that afternoon, the knight who gave the reports returned.
“57 people were beheaded for attempting to desert. However, we were unable to completely prevent people from trying to flee.”
In the meantime, there were even more reports of deserters.
The next day.
The knight who entered the hall stopped abruptly.
Unlike the day before, not a single nobleman could be seen in the seats.
Only a drunken Duke Briand was sitting in a chair at the podium.
“How many disappeared this time.”
Startled, the knight who had been staring at the empty seats turned his head at the duke’s voice.
Duke Briand sat there with empty eyes, as if his soul had escaped.
“Approximately 800 people are gone. Not only the soldiers guarding the walls, but also those who were resting in the barracks have disappeared together.”
Despite the knight’s report that the number of missing troops amounted to about two legions, Duke Briand did not have much of a response.
“What is the enemy doing.”
He just asked about the movements of the Leonberg army.
“There haven’t been any movements, nor any signs of them preparing to attack. To be precise, they don’t seem to have any intention of attacking.”
The knight hesitantly added his opinion that the army might be waiting for the allies to collapse on their own.
“What about Adrian Leonberger?”
“There was a report that he strayed from his route for a while and then returned to it last night. My guess is he came back after subjugating a group of monsters.”
The duke nodded slightly when the knight reported that he would arrive by dawn the day after tomorrow at the latest.
That was it.
The duke did not open his mouth after that.
The knight, who looked at his silent figure, lowered his head and left the room.
And didn’t come back.
**
On the second day.
When dawn broke, troops carrying the symbol of a crouching golden lion appeared on the front lines.
It was the moment when Adrian Leonberger finally arrived at the front.