Return of the Female Knight

“Let’s go.”

At her words, the elite soldiers raised themselves from the ground and dove into the river. Elena followed after with a splash, swimming deep into the river bottom. Hidden there was a passage that a grown man could barely squeeze through. Elena was the quickest to make it there, and she pushed through with strong strokes.

After swimming for some time, and she quietly and carefully broke through the surface of the water. She blinked her red eyes as she lifted her head up and took in the scene. The Imperial Palace grounds were around her.

“Emergency!”

“Hurry up and move!”

The air rang with shouts, and the Imperial Palace soldiers were urgently rushing about. Their attention seemed to be focused on a battle happening elsewhere—likely Carlisle’s doing.

The rest of Elena’s team silently emerged from the water, and she gestured to them with her hand. Only the elite from each family was chosen for this task, and their movements were deadly silent and agile. None of them, however, were as experienced as Elena.

Determining the timing to be right, Elena moved forward, and the rest of the soldiers followed her like a shadow. Now that they had made it inside as planned, they had to release Carlisle’s forces as soon as possible, while avoiding detection by Ophelia’s soldiers. If they were discovered, a fight could waste them precious time and lives.

***

The area outside the Crown Prince’s palace was in a state of confusion because of the sudden night raid. Relatively few Imperial Palace soldiers had been stationed at the entrance to the Imperial grounds; most of them surrounded the Crown Prince’s palace, in order to contain Carlisle’s soldiers inside. Those at the entrance were caught off guard by the sudden assault, and a messenger hurriedly rushed towards the Crown Prince’s palace.

“My Lord, please hurry and send reinforcements to the entrance.”

Lord Danny was head of the Fifth Order of Knights, and currently in charge of monitoring the Crown Prince’s palace. He looked back at the messenger with an expression of disbelief.

“How many enemy troops are there to give you so much trouble?”

“I don’t know. There were so many soldiers that I couldn’t even count them…at this rate, they’ll break through the entrance.”

“Very well. I’ll send over troops now.”

The messenger looked on with a worried expression.

“My Lord, you’ll need to think about how you’re going to allocate your forces. If you send all of them, the ones inside the Crown Prince’s palace may break through.”

After a moment of thought, Danny gave a nod of agreement.

“It’s important to protect the Crown Prince’s palace, but that doesn’t mean I’ll abandon it completely. I’ll send half the troops for now, then make further decisions depending on how the fight develops.”

“Yes, My Lord!”

The commander turned towards his troops, and immediately dispatched half of them.

***

Inside the Crown Prince’s palace.

The people trapped inside sensed something strange happening. They had no knowledge of Carlisle’s whereabouts or status, so they quietly stayed in place. That didn’t mean they did nothing, however—here too, the soldiers were vigilantly watching for news of what was happening outside. From a distance, they had noticed forces clashing outside the Imperial Palace walls.

“What should we do, Sir Zenard?”

At the moment, several key figures had gathered together at the highest wall with the clearest view outside the palace. Zenard watched with shrewd eyes as Imperial Palace troops peeled away from the Crown Prince’s palace.

“I don’t know. It’s unusual that they’re moving suddenly, but I can’t make a judgment without more information.”

Kuhn, who was also present at the meeting, gave a small nod of his head.

“There’s nothing wrong with being cautious. It could be a trap.”

The Empress’ soldiers had threatened to kill them if they left the palace. Unless they wanted to fight a battle, it was safest to stay inside for now. However, they couldn’t stay like this forever, and they needed to come up with a plan…

Zenard’s expression was dark.

“…Let’s watch a little longer.”