Troy was the most senior veteran in the Candela Knights.
He had been serving in the order long before Josephine and took great pride in his experience and skill.
That was why, when Josephine who had joined later than him was named the next captain of the order, he had challenged her to a duel and ended up losing a finger.
Before entering the order, he had been a highly regarded officer in the Capital Military Police. But after being framed due to his superior’s corruption, he resolved the matter with his blade and, as the price for that, was brought into the Candela Knights.
Though suspicious and somewhat twisted in temperament, once he was convinced of something, he never questioned it again. He was a man as sharp and decisive as a blade.
If only his occasional conflicts with other members could be kept in check, he was a dependable swordsman who contributed more than enough to any mission……
“Damn it. Am I really going to die like this?”
Lost in a daze of thought, Josephine’s mind came crashing back to reality at Troy’s mutter.
Hot, red blood ran down the blade and soaked the back of her hand.
Through the sword piercing his chest, she could almost feel the steady beat of Troy’s heart.
Josephine swiftly assessed the situation and accepted it with cold composure.
It was not difficult.
Not while holding a sword.
“Yes. With this amount of blood loss, there’s no chance of survival.”
“With my temper, I figured I’d get stabbed by you at least once someday, Captain… just didn’t think it’d be today……”
“Tell me everything you know. Do that, and at least I’ll send you off without further suffering.”
As she tightened her grip on the hilt, Troy let out a groan thick with pain.
Clear saliva dribbled from his mouth.
“Damn it. After all the years we’ve fought together, do you really have to go this far?”
“If you’ve known me that long, you should understand how meaningless it is to expect mercy from me.”
“Right… I forgot my opponent’s the Captain. Cold-blooded as ever. Ghhk!”
Troy’s eyes bulged as if they might burst.
Josephine had moved her hand again.
“I won’t repeat myself.”
Perhaps from blood surging back up his throat, Troy suddenly coughed up a mouthful of it.
Even so, he bared his teeth in a twisted smile.
“It might sound a bit cliché to say this… but I was only carrying out orders from above.”
“The only ones who can command the Candela Knights are the King of this nation and the Royal Council of Elders.”
“Then who do you think gave me the order?”
“……”
Josephine frowned.
The King had fallen into a coma.
That left only the Council of Elders.
“Is that truly what you’re saying? That the royal family tried to harm Princess Estelle? A princess who is royal in both name and blood?”
“For a scrap of power, people will turn on even their own parents or children. Why would those old men care about a motherless princess?”
“But the method… isn’t it too vile? Too disgusting?”
“What people do is disgusting by nature. Being of royal blood doesn’t make them any different.”
“That is an inappropriate remark. Are you trying to insult the royal house?”
“I’m about to die. Do I really have to watch my tongue over that?”
He had a point.
Josephine decided to move on to the next question.
“But why would the royal family do such a thing?”
“When a snake has two heads, they’re bound to fight each other.”
“You’re saying it’s over the succession? But King Richard is still alive.”
“Everyone’s alive until the moment they die. Same as me, isn’t it?”
With the King beyond hope, the Royal Council had decided to support Queen Bridget and Princess Roberta.
Troy said in a bleak voice that the attack on Princess Estelle was likely part of that plan.
Josephine let out a quiet sigh.
“If they’re willing to move even the Candela Knights for personal reasons… then the Royal Guard must also be dancing in the palm of their hands.”
She recalled everything that had happened to her that day.
The sudden reassignment ordered by the Royal Guard.
The imprisonment that occurred while she was separated from the princess.
And the two uninvited guests who had come to see Estelle.
All of it had been preparation for a single scheme.
“Then Queen Bridget must have orchestrated this to tarnish Her Highness Estelle’s honor.”
“That’s right.”
Josephine’s expression hardened.
As the Captain of the Candela Knights, Josephine had never once doubted the decisions of the royal family.
If she was ordered to eliminate, she eliminated. If she was ordered to seize, she seized. If she was ordered to destroy, she destroyed.
It did not matter who the target was or what it was.
But what if that target were Princess Estelle?
It was something Josephine had never once imagined.
“Didn’t you say it yourself once, Captain? That honor isn’t ours. That we simply obey the royal command and prove our worth through sacrifice and devotion. I’ve thought about it long and hard, but I still don’t understand. Is this what you meant by sacrifice and devotion?”
“……”
The metallic rasp in Troy’s voice grew harsher.
With death looming before him, Josephine found herself unable to lift her head.
“Well then, if you’re feeling sorry… since I’m dying anyway, grant me one favor, Captain.”
“Speak.”
“That prisoner over there. The one I brought. If you can, take him in.”
“……?”
“I lured him here with a lie, promising a pardon if he did as he was told. If he’s taken back to prison, he’ll be killed. Even if he’d succeeded in the mission, they would’ve silenced him afterward.”
“Do you have any reason to save him?”
“No. None. But… now that it’s come to this, leaving him to die feels damn unpleasant. And you saw it, didn’t you? The way he lunged at me, ready to take a blade. He’s got a temper, sure, but his nature doesn’t seem bad. Unlike me…….”
Troy’s speech grew slower, his words beginning to slur.
The light was fading from his eyes.
“So raise him well, Captain. Once I’m gone, you’ll need to fill the ranks of the order anyway.”
“…Very well.”
“Then keep your promise and send me off. It’s starting to hurt too much to bear.”
“I will.”
“I’ll be waiting in hell.”
Shhk.
Josephine pulled the longsword from Troy’s chest and, without pause, swung her arm in a clean half-moon arc.
Thud.
A man’s head hit the floor with a heavy sound.
At the end of the direction where it rolled, a trembling prisoner lay sprawled on the floor.
When Josephine approached him with her blood-dripping sword in hand, the man began to hiccup.
A faint stench of urine drifted from between his legs.
“Hic!”
“You’ve heard things you were never meant to hear. Far too much. So you have only two choices. Be buried underground with those secrets… or become part of them.”
The man pressed his forehead to the floor.
“I want to live.”
Josephine tossed a sword toward him.
It was Troy’s.
“Then pick up that sword. From today onward, you will take Troy’s place.”
“…Yes.”
“What’s your name?”
“Jade.”
Josephine nodded.
“Follow me, Jade.”
“Where… where are we going now?”
“First, I’ll take you to one of the Candela Knights’ safe houses in the city. Then I’ll go find the princess.”
Jade’s eyes widened as he looked back and forth between Troy’s corpse and Josephine.
“What? Isn’t Her Highness here? He was targeting the princess……”
“No. Her Highness is not here.”
The fact that they had come here intending to harm Princess Estelle meant the enemy did not know she had already disappeared from this place.
Which meant she had not yet fallen into their hands.
Then who had rescued Estelle from her confinement and taken her away?
Josephine could think of only one person.
Winter.
Her fiancé must have received the signal she sent and come for her.
“I’m heading to the Royal Academy.”
***
In the dead of night.
The woman who had been tending to the unconscious patient in the king’s chambers snapped her eyes toward the sound of the door opening.
The person she had sent on an errand returned and reported what had happened.
The report agitated her.
“What? The plan failed?”
“Yes. A body believed to be a member of the Candela Knights was discovered in the palace where Princess Estelle was staying.”
“And that bitch Estelle?”
“She has disappeared. When we checked, Isola Palace was empty.”
Crash!
A vase flew past the reporting aide’s head and shattered against the wall.
Queen Bridget drew in ragged breaths, consumed by fury.
“How on earth are you handling things?!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“I should have killed her when I had the chance. That wretched Estelle survives every single time, like a filthy rat……. The old fools in the royal family are a problem too. They made such a fuss about the Candela Knights this and that, and in the end, they died pathetically. They should have accepted the help my father was offering from the start.”
“…….”
“Oh, right. Then who killed that Candela Knight?”
“We were unable to confirm it. However, the wounds appeared to have been inflicted by a sword.”
“That so-called escort knight of Estelle’s?”
“No. It is said that Sir Josephine was imprisoned in the Royal Guard headquarters’ jail at the time.”
“Good. So the Captain of the Royal Guard carried out what I ordered. After I punished him for ignoring my instructions last time, he’s become obedient again.”
Thinking of how Captain Donau of the Royal Guard had meekly backed down once she subtly took his family hostage and threatened him, Queen Bridget felt her mood lift slightly.
A capricious smile curved her lips.
“Well, this may actually be for the best. I can use this failure as an excuse to reduce the influence of those old men in the royal family even further. As for that wretched Estelle, I’ll simply deal with her in my own way.”
“Are you planning to use them? The ones the Duke introduced to you…….”
“Yes. The kind who will do anything as long as they’re paid. And my father’s duchy has more than enough money. Why don’t you take a guess? If I told them to bring me the princess’s head, how much do you think they’d demand? Hehe.”
At the queen’s chilling laughter, her aide lowered his head, careful not to show any fear on his face.
“Go at once and inform someone from the Thieves’ Guild. Tell them I have a commission.”
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