Episode 117

It wasn’t the right time to discuss the ownership of territories, so we decided to put the issue of “my land, your land” aside for now.

We headed straight to the location of the self-defense corps’ base.

I had expected the hideout of those who had been shaking the Duke Tilender’s lands to be grand, but it was much smaller than I thought.

The ones who had settled in the abandoned castle and were acting as kings of the mountain where no tigers roamed were immediately terrified when they saw the Imperial Army flag.

“They’re not coming out?”

I asked, perplexed, in front of the tightly locked castle gate.

“We can just go in,” Aiden replied calmly, removing his gloves.

I had no idea why he was taking off his gloves in this cold weather, and I also couldn’t understand how we were supposed to get in with the gates shut.

I asked again, wondering if he planned to lay siege with 10,000 troops.

“Aiden, it wouldn’t look good if the Imperial Army attacked the Duke Tilender’s castle. Other lords might become uneasy.”

“The Imperial Army doesn’t need to move,” Aiden said, now removing his scarf and smiling broadly.

Looking back at Aiden’s words, the Imperial Army commander, who had been dutifully playing the part of a backdrop, nodded as if he understood.

Everyone seemed to know something that I didn’t, so I asked again.

“Then how do you plan to get in? And why are you taking off your cloak?”

Aiden, now without his gloves, scarf, or cloak, smiled brightly as he exhaled a puff of white breath.

He draped the cloak he had been wearing over my shoulders and lightly kissed my cheek.

“I’ll be back shortly, Your Highness. Please stay in the carriage.”

“Back? Where are you going?”

“Inside there.”

“No, Aiden. The gates are closed.”

Aiden only laughed heartily without answering.

After exchanging a glance with Amy, he waved cheerfully and walked off.

Not understanding what he was up to, I stared blankly at his retreating figure, but Aiden shouted loudly.

“Guard squad!”

The 30 carefully selected palace guards who had been assigned to protect me responded loudly.

“Yes!”

Looking closely, I saw that the knights had all removed their winter gear.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

Aiden and the knights shouted once more and galloped toward the abandoned castle where the self-defense corps was hiding.

“Aiden? Aiden!”

I stamped my feet and called out his name, but the horses they were riding had already gone far ahead.

Unable to decide what to do, I muttered in frustration.

“What in the world are they trying to do?”

“It seems they’re trying to scale the castle walls,” Amy, who had been standing by my side, answered my mutterings, which only made me more confused.

“Scale the castle walls? Who, Aiden and the knights?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“How? How are they going to climb up there without a ladder?”

“They are climbing right now.”

“What?”

At Amy’s words, I looked at the abandoned castle, and sure enough, the knights had reached the castle walls and were climbing up the vertical wall.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched them—climbing the wall with just their arm strength, using only their daggers to dig into the stone.

I rubbed my eyes and stared again at Aiden and the knights, who were clinging to the wall.

Climbing a castle wall with a dagger? I was sure I must have seen it wrong, but no, when I looked again, the same scene appeared.

“There are no archers, so they should be fine.”

Amy calmly narrated the situation.

A person is climbing that high with just their body, and she says it’s fine because there are no archers? Everyone else seemed fine with it, but I was the only one who was bewildered.

“The Duke has made it to the top of the wall.”

I saw it too.

Aiden was the first to reach the top of the wall. He looked in my direction briefly, then disappeared over the edge.

He didn’t take any other knights with him—he leaped into the castle alone.

Lauren had said there were over a thousand members in the self-defense corps.

I was worried with just thirty knights, and now the others were still hanging off the wall.

I was dizzy, and I couldn’t just stay there. I shouted at the Imperial Army commander, who still hadn’t moved.

“Shouldn’t the army be going in too? The Duke went in alone!”

“If we go in too, won’t it be too harsh?” he replied nonchalantly.

“Harsh? What do you mean?”

“Just one Duke alone will make that place hell, Your Highness.”

He was right.

The person I loved was probably fighting a one-to-a-thousand battle in there. It would indeed be hell.

Aiden was capable of cutting through steel, but that was when he could use the strength of a beast.

Now that the vow had been broken, Aiden was just a man.

And no man should fight a one-to-a-thousand battle.

I was about to give orders to the commander, who was still not grasping the situation, when he added lazily:

“A tiger has entered a rabbit’s den. If we go in, it won’t look good, Your Highness.”

“You don’t need to worry, the knights have joined him.”

When Amy said that, I started to wonder if I was the one who didn’t trust Aiden enough.

If, as the commander said, he was the tiger in the rabbit’s den, then it would be excessive for us to get involved.

Come to think of it, Aiden had said before that he could handle the self-defense corps on his own.

Had he meant it seriously?

Just as I was starting to calm down, Amy added reassuringly:

“He’s someone who has fought one hundred against one, Your Highness. People like the local thugs won’t be a match for him, no matter how many come.”

“One hundred… what?”

“He’s fought one hundred before. I’ve seen it a few times. His swordsmanship is truly…”

Amy trailed off as she seemed to imagine some scene in her head, gazing in awe.

The commander, curious, asked:

“Wow, Lady. You’ve seen the one hundred against one battle firsthand? Did one hundred really come at him at once?”

“They lined up and charged at him. I saw it before, and he even shot arrows at them. Oh, Your Highness!”

As I swayed, imagining the scene of one hundred knights shooting arrows at Aiden, Amy suddenly grabbed my arm in shock.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

I wasn’t alright.

I had prided myself on not getting easily shocked while playing the role of the Emperor’s representative in the great Empire, but this time, I wasn’t fine.

Arrows! Arrows! What in the world was Aiden doing?

As I thought about discussing the training manual with Rocktania and the palace guards after returning, the commander’s voice interrupted me:

“I think it’s over.”

I looked back at the castle and saw Aiden confidently coming out through the castle gates.

I couldn’t see the knights or the self-defense corps, just Aiden riding toward me on his horse.

His face, as he got closer, looked unusually refreshed.

“Your Highness, why are you outside in this cold?”

He had told me to stay in the carriage, but now he was holding my cold cheek in both of his hands.

He had always had warm hands, but today they seemed warmer than usual.

“What happened? Are you alright? Why did you come alone?”

“I’ve subdued the self-defense corps. My subordinates are cleaning up the rest.”

“Subdued? That quickly?”

“I told you I’d be back soon.”

Aiden smiled brightly like a boy, and he had been looking strangely happy since earlier.

He took my hand and led me toward the carriage, speaking to the commander:

“The remaining ones have all volunteered to join the Imperial Army. Take them and enlist them as recruits.”

“Yes, Duke. We’ll train them to become workers for the Empire.”

And with that, the last of the self-defense corps had been dealt with.

The ten thousand Imperial troops, along with the new recruits, returned to the northern military post.

I was curious about the small number of remaining members and the fact that those who volunteered were dragged off like prisoners, but I decided not to dwell on it since I hadn’t known about it.

After cleaning up the filth that had tainted Tilender’s lands for so long, we returned to the Duke’s castle.

Lauren, who had heard the good news, bowed deeply to us, her face full of gratitude.

“Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you, Duke Tilender.”

Aiden, who had acted as a lord for the first time, seemed a little embarrassed and tried to avoid the praise, so I comforted the head maid instead.

“Everyone knows that the Duke and the Imperial Army are protecting this land, so no more unseemly people will appear. Once we return, I’ll send funds to restore the Duke’s castle.”

“Thank you so much, Your Highness.”

Lauren bowed even deeper to show her gratitude.

Once everything in the Tilender Duchy was settled, even the slow spring arrived in the cold north.

I looked at the fresh green shoots that had sprouted through the frozen earth, and I found myself liking this land more than I expected.

“When Lottie becomes an adult, I think it would be fine for us to live here.”

“Anywhere is fine as long as I’m with you, but I do like this place too.”

As we leisurely toured the lands of the Tilender Duchy and headed toward Brincia in the carriage, Aiden and I shared a smile, both of us thinking the same thing.

* * *

After Sione and Aiden finished their long journey and returned, Brincia was in full bloom, bathed in the warmth of April.

The city was covered in flowers and white lace.

Everyone was excited in anticipation of the festival, which the Emperor had spent an entire month preparing for, as well as the royal wedding that would take place shortly after.