Lionheart (3)

"We, the Northern Army, declare our withdrawal from the Alliance effective immediately.

Grand Duchess Karina Dragonia, daughter of the current Lionheart King, Leon Dragonia Lionheart, and heir to the title of Grand Duke, which he abdicated upon the birth of his heir.

She was raised from birth to be the heir to the title of Grand Duke of Dragonia, which was also held by the Lionheart King, and assumed the title upon her coming of age, ruling the Grand Duchy for 40 years.

At 60, she's not exactly old in Lionheart, but she's not exactly young either.

Thanks to her eponymous dragon's blood, the ageless Grand Duchess of Dragonia is a Holy Knight, and with that comes a wisdom and experience that can never be judged by appearances.

For some reason, she has declared her intention to leave humanity's last alliance.

Leon didn't make eye contact with Karina, instead staring off into the whiteness of the holy water's steam.

"I cannot allow it. The Northern Army is a great pillar of the Alliance. Without you, our forces will inevitably be weakened."

"Addition does not make a difference."

"Your Highness...."

Anak sends her a sad gaze, but Karina only states the reality with blunt emotion.

"Your Majesty, the royal city has fallen and the entire continent is already in ruins. There are barely two hundred thousand men left in our army, and if you count the serfs, it's not even three hundred thousand. On the other hand, what about the enemy's army?"

There were ten million and even that was a conservative number.

The number of demons pouring out of the Demon Gates, which were opened in the entire world, was unfathomable.

"Your Majesty, agent of the Ten Thousand Gods and commander of all knights. Do you truly have a chance of winning this war?"

"...."

Leon did not answer. No, he couldn't. His position was not light enough to discuss irresponsible spiritualism.

"Your Majesty will win.

Right then and there, Ha-ri wanted to say, this man before her, Leon Dragonia Lionheart, would fight the demons to the very end, alone and win.

But Ha-ri could not bring herself to mention it, knowing that it was a hollow victory after everyone else was dead.

"What shall we do?"

"The Grand Duchy was the second place to burn after the Empire. Thirty thousand Northern soldiers lost their homes, lost their families, and now we are all that remains of the North."

Karina, the Archduke of Dragonia, said.

"We may not be able to tear them all to pieces, but we will pay back the enmity of our family, and we will slay the demons who dare to nest in the Grand Duchy and dishonor the dead."

It was a grudge everyone had. Who hadn't lost family and friends in this war?

"Do you blame me?"

And Leon was the man responsible for their families' death.

"Do you think it was wrong for this to prioritize destroying the demon's main army over the Archduke of Dragonia?"

Destroying the demon army to buy a year's time, or saving the Archduke from certain death?

Leon chose time for the sake of the kingdom…nay, for the sake of all of humanity.

"No, Your Majesty, you should have made that choice, for the duty you owe comes before the entire kingdom, not just the Archduke."

"Then how can...."

"This is a deeply personal vendetta, and this is the proof."

It was then. Karina tore off the shoulder blades of her uniform, revealing bare skin, and in that bare skin laid a dark power.

"Karina…!"

Leon jumped to his feet. His wide eyes glared at his daughter and yet, the Archduchess only opposes her father.

"I and the entire Northern Army have made a pact with the God of Vengeance. As of this hour, I am a Holy Knight in the service of Ventasis, the God of Darkness and Vengeance, and the Archduke of Dragonia, commanding thirty thousand Avengers."

Your Majesty, my duty is no longer to survive.

Leon shuddered at his daughter's harsh declaration, clenching his fists.

"Have it your way, Archduke of Dragonia! I don't even want to look at you! Disappear before this king's eyes!"

"...."

Archduke Karina closed her eyes for a moment, and then with a light bow, she left the room.

* * * *

"Are you going to be okay?"

Isabel asked, she looked worried for her niece and brother-in-law.

"It's too late, my dear. She made a pact with the God of Vengeance, and there is only one fate for that child."

Leon washed his face with a dry brush and vented his frustration.

"Did this king make the wrong choice?"

"I don't know. Your Majesty has never made a wrong choice."

"And you, and no one else, can say that?"

"Well, kidnapping and marrying my sister, who was a perfectly good chaste priestess, was… well, it was a two-way street, so let's just say."

Isabel giggled, squeezing Leon's shoulder. It was a rude gesture, but scolding her was the least he could do.

"But we'd better package the Northern Army's desertion as an official royal decree. Any unauthorized departure would threaten to tear the Union apart."

"The Northern Army will be publicized as exterminating the Beast God's cultists and the Archon's demons. What is Lord Antoine doing?"

"I hear he's working on a new suit of armor for the king. It was ruined in the fight against the Lord of Chaos."

"Tell him to forge a sword for the kid before the Northern army departs. This king's armor can wait."

While the conversation continued, Anak washed Leon's body in silence, cleaning away the stains. Ha-ri watched as she did so, and ignited her flame powers.

The curse of the Demon Archduke clung to Leon's body, and it took all night to remove it.

* * * *

Yappy knew that his fuselage would be noticed wherever he went, so he dropped it off at the tent assigned to Jae-hyuk and Soo-ho then traveled around the temple in his small body.

While Beatrice was away on her main mission, Yappy was given the task of researching the casting technologies of Lionheart in this era.

-Secure the artifact manufacturing technology. Recon mode on.

The drones are conspicuous, but Yappy's minimalist body allows him to spy without being seen.

Using the information he scanned upon entering the Temple, Yappy infiltrated a massive forge facility in the center of the city.

-Diverse!

Mechanical legs scaled the roof and entered the ceiling of the forge. It was filled with lightly dressed smiths.

"How much stardust do we have left?"

"We're running low. We need to summon a new star...."

"The timing is not good. Didn't Mother Anak say anything?"

In the Kingdom of Lionheart, the forges are run by priests who believe in the God of Iron and Blacksmiths.

Their tone is more polite and less harsh than that of other smiths, as the profession of blacksmithing itself is one of priesthood.

-Kiruk.

The facility is also very neat and organized for a medieval forge. There were separate sections for separating and disassembling the iron, priests to bless the iron, and a division of labor rather than a single blacksmith working from start to finish.

But that's just the knowledge that comes with human skill and wisdom. The real deal is the central core foundry.

-Record video. Begin analyzing behavior and downloading backups.

Among them, Yappy saw a blacksmith priest.

A man over two meters tall, with a hammer the size of a man's torso and his hammering is flawless, even for a machine.

Only his workbench was alone, with no one else around, so he must be categorized as a master craftsman.

"There's a rat."

At the same time, the blacksmith priest stretched out his hand into the air toward the exact spot where Yappy was.

-Rat!

Yappy gripped the ceiling so tightly that it tore it apart, and was dragged away.

Grasped by a force that even Yappy, the Holy Knight of the God of Iron and Blacksmiths, could not resist, he locked eyes with the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Who are you?"

-Crack!

Yappy tried to wriggle out of the man's grasp, but couldn't.

-Let go, organic…!

Yappy's mechanical arm stretched out a steel wire that quickly became a whip and lashed out at the man and the man was surprised by the power it contained.

"Hooo…."

But at that moment, the wires that he swung to threaten crumble to the ground in unison as if under immense pressure.

-Boom!

The weight of the fuselage has become abnormally heavy and Yappy tries to fight it off, but at his current size, he doesn't have enough power.

"I thought you were a rat, but this…you're a cute priest."

The man released the pressure on Yappy and in a flash, Yappy scrambled to the ceiling and assumed a combat stance.

"Stop it. There is no reason for priests of the same deity to antagonize each other."

Antoine waved his hand to calm Yappy.

"My name is Antoine, Holy Knight of the God of Iron and Blacksmith."

-Hmm?

Yappy had heard that name before. He was a friend from the past that Leon sometimes spoke of.

"Antoine the Mine Guardian, do you recognize me?"

* * * *

It wasn't until late at night that the group assigned to tents by Holy Knight Gillingham of Thunder gathered together.

"I don't see Lord Yappy."

"The queen hasn't returned either."

Jae-hyuk and So-yeon were the first to arrive and organize their quarters. Yappy's large fuselage was in the middle of the tent, making it more cramped than they expected.

"Boys, have you seen my sister?"

Soo-ho asked, looking for Ha-ri, who wasn't there. The entrance to the tent opens and a familiar bushy-haired girl enters.

"Sorry, I'm late, right?"

"Sis!"

Ha-ri had brought a basket full of ingredients.

"The Temple gave me this for my hard work."

"Did you go to the temple?

"Yes. I met His Majesty there."

"His Majesty?"

Their eyes widened at the mention of meeting Leon but Ha-ri interjected.

"The King from this gate, to be exact. Not the King we knew."

"So…this world was the Gate of His Majesty Leon."

The four shared the information they had gathered.

"The kingdom has been occupied for quite some time. It is said that most of the kingdom has been taken over by demons and this is almost the only city left."

"I've heard of the Last Battle and I wonder if it's the main focus of this gate?"

"I overheard the part where the king was talking about it, and he said that the northern army is leaving this place."

The overall theme is one of war.

The forces of the demons that invaded Leon's world and the forces of the Lionheart Kingdom that formed the last alliance of humanity.

The struggle is between the allies and the demons, who are gradually expanding their power.

""....""

They know how this fight will end. Leon will emerge as the survivor of the Black Gate, and while all the demons have been defeated, Leon's world will eventually perish.

But what are the conditions for the closing of this gate? Everything about this gate, from the quest to what they need to find out, is esoteric.

"There...."

At that moment, Soo-ho raised his hand.

"Does anyone else have a connection to the Ten Thousand Gods? I can use the Holy Law, but Arianna's response is a little weak, like there's a lot of noise."

"Ah...."

I had forgotten about that. I hadn't thought about it because I used the holy law naturally.

"Speaking of which…! Ouch!"

Ha-ri remembered the voice he had heard during Leon's consecration ceremony. The voice of Petos asking her who she was but she hadn't heard it after leaving the temple, so she'd forgotten about it.

"I see, so why can't I connect now-"

"Wait, isn't it too quiet around here?"

Everyone sensed the discomfort in Chun So-yeon's words. Thousands of tents had been erected to accommodate the overflowing population, and chattering human voices could be heard everywhere.

But now, outside the tent where Ha-ri and the others were, it was too quiet. It was as if──

-Thump!

At that moment, the entire tent was torn down. It was a giant tree man who pulled it down, and soldiers all over the place kept their eyes on Ha-ri's group.

"...."

"...."

As Ha-ri and the others rolled their eyes, unable to comprehend what was happening, a knight in sleek coppery armor stepped forward.

"I am Loxley, Holy Knight of the Kingdom of Lionheart and servant of Tatar, God of Sun and Judgment, and I command you, sinners, to receive your punishment in silence!"

"Sinners?"

"Sins, sinners, what did we do-─?"

"Shut up, sinners! I have not granted you permission to open your mouths!"

Lord Loxley drew his sword and pointed it, his voice crackling all around.

"If you resist, I'll cut off a limb or two!"

If there's one piece of wisdom they gleaned from working alongside Leon, it's to shut up and surrender.

"Nothing, I've dropped my weapon!"

""We surrender!""

Because they've seen too many demons and orcs with their skulls crushed or their limbs blown off because they refused.