74 Protecting The Kingdom

"Right!"

"We'll join you!"

"Let's drive off the invaders!"

The three Reilaean Knights together with the other citizen of the capital marches towards the inner district to spread the Prince's order.

King Ordeus calls Edle's name, suggesting him to come to the royal castle together to check on Queen Elena and the others.

"Edle. Let's go to the castle, Elena and the others should still be in the hall."

Before he agreed to the king of Cartha's proposal, Edle nonchalantly asked Christa to lend her power to protect the capital from the invading soldiers of Kruule.

"That's exactly what I was planning to do!" Christa grinned, accepting Edle's request without hesitation.

"Thank you. Be careful."

"You, too."

Edle turns back to Ordeus and jumps to the roof and grabs on the King's soldier, then the two went flying towards the royal castle.

"Let's go at the town square."

"I'll be right behind you!"

Edle and Christa took a brief parting from each other.

...

All the while, Sieghart and his party went inside the capital and are on their way to the adventurers guild. But not far in front of them, there are people lying on the ground with swords and spears stabbed on their dead bodies. While three black armored knights are ganging up on the lone female Reilaean soldier.

"Lira, Jinrah, take the lead!"

"Right!"

"Yeah!"

The two most agile in Sieghart's party sprinted towards the fighting soldiers. Jinrah throws his fist onto one of them, while Lira follows up with a kick from another enemy. And David uses his bow and arrow to shoot down the last.

The enemies were blown away with their quick attacks, saving the Reilaean knight from danger.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Lira asked the knight if she received any dangerous wounds around her body, fortunately she only took minor bruises and a broken armor while fighting the black armored knights earlier.

"I'm fine... But the others... I was weak and could not help them. Yet I'm still alive... Something like this..."

A tear came coursing down her face. Sieghart can see Eileen from the young female knight due to the way she talks about herself being weak.

Sieghart passes Eileen onto David's hand. The party leader walks over to the female knight and grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Don't cry!"

"Eh?"

"Don't ever think that they died because of you, don't even think why you're alive and not them. They died protecting the Kingdom, now it's your turn to continue that purpose for them. Don't let your emotions blind you on what you're supposed to do."

Jinrah and David watches Sieghart intently as he tries to encourage the female knight, while Lira is looking at Eileen, thinking the same about what Sieghart is saying.

"Stand tall and keep on moving forward. Protect the Kingdom you and your friends swore to protect with your life!"

"...!"

The young female knight sniffles as she tries to wipe the tears coming down from her eyes. Her lower lip curled up, trying to hold her emotions to herself as she looked into Sieghart with a determined expression on her face.

"Yes...!"

It's such a small word, but that single word she mustered up means more than taking up what Sieghart tells her.

"I'm gonna go and regroup with the others and save as many as I can. Now then..."

The young female knight went on her way, leaving behind her sadness and carries on with a purpose. To protect the people of Reilaea she swore to protect the moment she became a knight.

"What a poor young knight... She was not ready for this."

"Yeah. But taking up the sword to protect lives means the same fate is bound to happen at some point. Anger, pain, guilt. She mustn't let those emotions stop her from doing her duty as a knight."

Lira wordlessly took a glance at the long black sword hanging behind Sieghart's back.

"Only those who are willing to set aside everything can go forward. Even if it means putting aside your own life."

Lira approaches Sieghart and hits his back hard with the palm of her hand.

"Ow!"

"Yes, yes. Are you done with your monologue? Mind if we keep going?"

"Y..yes. The adventurers guild is close, let's go."

Jinrah and David who was startled due to the elven girl hitting their party leader have turned their eyes towards each other. The two let out a short sigh before smiling at each other.

"Let's go, everyone!"

"We're right behind you!"

Sieghart takes the lead towards the adventurers guild along with the members of his party, knocking down the black armored knights on their way.

...

Somewhere inside the inner district, Christa and Selene reached the townsquare, helping the civilians and other Reilaean knights to fend off the enemies from taking over the area.

"Please carry the injured in here."

Selene along with the help of other adventurers who can use healing magic are working together to tend on the wounded and injured men from the fight.

Their war cry echoed through the town square as they charged into the black armored knights of Kruule.

"Everyone, back away!"

The magic casters launches their long range spells, pushing and knocking down the enemies one by one. While Christa takes the lead as she and the other melee fighters mop up the rest. Shortly after, the wave of enemies have stopped and the ones who protected the area can finally have a time to breathe.

Christa talks to a Reilaean knight.

"Hey, are there any place for everyone to be evacuated?"

"Yes, adventurer Christa! This town square and the north district should be a viable area for evacuation. But the number of people and soldiers who passed out are too many for us to bring all at once. There's also the injured men and adventurers who fought with us."

"I see. This is troublesome..."

Christa takes a glance at the line of people who mysteriously fell asleep right when the attack happened. Even some of the knights have fallen asleep and is lined up alongside them. The number of them combined with the people who received injuries from the fight greatly outnumbers those who are keeping them safe.

They simply can't carry the unconscious people and the injured without leaving some of them behind and end up being cornered by the invading knights.

"Where are the other Reilaean knights?"

"Most of us are intercepting a huge number of invading Kruule knights coming from the western and southern side of the capital. But it seems like were being outnumbered with how some of the Kruule knights managed to get here."

Suddenly, it hit her, she thought to herself if they managed to evacuate everyone from the outer districts. Specifically Raiha, Reika and Rose who are supposedly at the Inn in the southern district.

"H..hey! Have they evacuated everyone from the southern district?"

"N-no, the evacuation is supposed to be going until now. I'm not seeing any evacuees coming from the southern district for a while now."

Christa began looking around at every corner of the area, but she can't see Raiha, Reika and even Rose around the town square.

"Tch..."

Christa stomped the ground and jumps with great force, leaving behind a broken area of the concrete ground as she flies with incredible speed. She soared through the dark sky, keeping a close eye on the ground. Hoping that she sees the three somewhere down the road.

Out of dumb luck, she actually sees Raiha holding Reika running away from the southern district just right below her.

Christa joyfully flies down to them.

"Miss Raiha! Little Reika! Hey!"

"Christa...?"

The two both look up and was surprised to see Christa landing on the ground and ran to them.

"Miss Christa, it's really you!"

"Yo, Reika, Miss Raiha, it's been a whi-!"

Raiha's hands stopped Christa from stopping as she grabbed the hand of the girl with the crimson red eyes. With tears right around the corners of her eyes, she begs on Christa to save Rose.

"Please, save my daughter, Christa... save Rose!"

After realizing Rose is nowhere near around the two, Christa quickly picks up the situation. She asks Raiha where Rose is. The Innkeeper points the place to their Inn.

"She's inside the basement in the Inn. We couldn't bring her with us because she passed out. And before we realized it, the invasion is right around us, so we had no choice but to run! Please, Christa...!"

"Don't worry, I'll get her. Please go to the inner district, it's much safer there."

Raiha never felt more relieved than ever, thanks to Christa. She agreed to her and decided to go to the town square along with Reika. Before it all, the little girl tugged Christa's dark red tunic.

"Miss Christa... be careful."

"Okay. I'll get Rose!" She said with a grin.

Raiha and Reika went on ahead towards the town square. Christa watches them moving away from her before she took a step to the Inn.

"Alright..."

...

On the side of the prince and the king of Cartha, the two of them went straight to the castle right after they seperated with Christa and the others. Edle has his hand grabbed tight on king Ordeus's shoulder as they skim through the houses.

After a moment of flying, Ordeus and Edle are now fairly close to the giant plateau standing almost in the middle of the entire city. Because of the height, they can clearly see the royal castle up top.

"We're almost there."

"Wait, those are... people."

The two landed on the castle grounds to check the people lying on the ground if they are still alive. Edle checks up some of them and was relieved to hear a pulse coming from all of the people he observed.

"These people are still alive, but are deep asleep or unconscious."

"Yeah. But more than that, this place is..."

The people lying in the ground seemed strange enough. But Ordeus finds it even more odd that the royal castle is so quiet despite the southern and western side is in a sea of fire and ruin.

"This silence is creeping me out." Edle said while cautiously looking around, keeping his guard up against any surprise attacks. But, right in the most blindest spot of Edle is where the enemy is waiting to strike.

Ordeus was a short distance away from Edle. That's why when the brightest moon shined upon them, a sharp edge sticking out from the ground behind the prince caught the king's eyes after it reflected the light.

The sharp point comes out of hiding, shooting towards Edle's back.

"Edle!"

"...!"

But with the king's swift action, Ordeus pushes Edle out of the way. But that resulted to him being grazed by the sharp edge on his waist.

"Ugh...!"

"Ow! My face..."

Edle was pushed down with his face smacked on the ground while Ordeus falls on his knees. He pulls up his clothes to see a cut bleeding out from his left waist.

"It got me..."

Then, a sound of hands clapping repeatedly echoes from the roof of the royal castle.

"Amazing~ as expected of the King of Cartha. Always quick to react." That same suggestive voice spoke from above the royal castle.

"You... Celestine...!"