I desperately clung to my father’s hand while he slept. Each breath was longer and more laborious than the last. The physician must have done something to raise his Health, but there were no visible effects.
If only she had more time.
I clenched my eyes tightly shut. Just thinking about the physician brought her horrific death to the forefront of my mind; eaten alive by one of Cedric’s Barghests. Captain Antigone, Jacob, and the rest of the Goldfire Battalion stationed in that barracks were all probably brutally slain in such a gruesome fashion. Was such terrible cruelty and reckless hate necessary? There was no war to wage. No fields to burn. No villages to pillage. They were our countrymen. Cedric could have granted them a clean death, at the very least.
Cedric… I-I’ll make you pay for this. For all of it.
I ignored the wagon’s painful, jolting rattle and nestled myself against my father’s side.
“Father. Please. I-I can’t do this without you.” I closed my eyes to seal away the hot tears that started to rim them.
I suddenly heard muffled shouts from behind the wagon. I crawled on my hands and knees to the rear and peeked out from the covers. Seven men on horseback bearing House Hasting’s insignia bore down on us, not a few meters away. Despite Anna’s best efforts and the sacrifices of my loyal retainers, it wasn’t long before Cedric’s elite guards caught up. They rode us down on horseback. Our carriage could only go so fast.
I have to do something, anything!
I braced myself against the waist-high half-door and stuck both arms out, palms facing Cedric's riders, thumbs barely touching. Hot, golden Mana flowed from my chest into my hands and coalesced where my thumbs intersected.
With a roar, I unleashed a small fist-sized ball of condensed, golden flames. It whizzed through the air, but the foremost rider simply ducked out of the way and nocked an arrow into his recurve bow.
Blood drained from my face. I channeled the Spell faster and faster. I launch dozens more Firebolts. A trail of blood dripped from my nose and searing pain stabbed into my skull, but I persisted until my vision grew spotty.
But the riders deftly swerved back and forth and even used their swords and shields to deflect all my Spells with contemptuous ease. They must have been at least 3rd Level.
"Ah!"
An arrow lodged itself into the door, right where my chest would have been. I flung myself back and flinched away as a second arrow slammed into my shoulder blade and bounced away. My Health protected me, although it felt like a hot knife carved into my back. I fell forward onto the floor next to my father.
Anna was desperately trying to whip the horses faster, but Cedric's riders still outpaced us. We couldn't escape. Cedric won.
"Princess," Anna looked over her shoulder, smiling even as tears streamed down her face. "I will distract them. You must then take a horse and flee."
Again? Run away again? This time, by sacrificing Anna, my closest confidant? The person who cared for me in place of my own mother? But even if I fled, what could I do?
"W-we surrender! We surrender! Please, just no more death!" I shouted and fell to my knees. My heart broke. All the sacrifices up until now were in vain. Captain Antigone. Jacob. Father. I’m sorry.
At my command, Anna slowed the wagon to a halt, but my pleas for mercy went unanswered. Anna was yanked off the jockey chair by her hair and dragged along the road. In a twist of fate, her screams awoke my father just as Cedric's riders threw open the wagon's rear door. Father lunged forward and lashed out a wild animal before the men could touch me. His eyes were bloodshot and crazed. He tackled one of the guards into the dirt, clawing and biting with reckless abandon.
"Father, no!"
One of the guards drew a short spear and chambered his arm backward. I leapt out of the wagon but tripped on my blasted skirts.
"No! He's delirious! Stop! We surrender-"
A dull, wet thud echoed. My vision went red.
"NO!" I screeched until my voice broke. One of the guards snatched my scalp and shoved my head into the dirt. I was Manaless, powerless, and hopeless. I didn't resist. My strength bled out from me just as my father's blood pooled onto the road.
"Princess! Unhand her you wretched fiends! Kingslayers! Traitors, all of you! May your souls be condemned to the Abyss!"
A rider back-handed Anna with his metal gauntlet over and over again until she fell into sobbing submission.
I prayed. With my face pushed into the moist dirt, I prayed to whatever god would listen.
Thunder and lightning answered my pleas.
In less than a heartbeat, the men who killed Captain Antigone and his soldiers, hounded us for hours, and slew my father in cold blood were dead on the ground, like puppets with their strings cut.
I looked toward the source of the lightning and thunder to see a man in green, bloodstained clothes slowly step out of the shadowy foliage with a black, metallic staff held aloft like a crossbow.
He ran over to father and jabbed his fingers into father's neck. I did not know what he found in my father's flesh, but each move was precise and practiced. Even the stranger's response came out calculating and clinically analytical.
"Dead."
Any hope I still clung to died in in that moment. I numbly crawled along the ground while the stranger pried the spear from my father's corpse. I pushed the man away with what little strength I still had and rested my head on father's chest.
I begged. I bargained. I wept. I received no reply.
Anna led the stranger away. I was grateful. Finally, I could cry freely.
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When the tears finally stopped, I felt something snap within me. Something changed. I gave my father one final kiss on the cheek and stood.
The frigid, empty pit of despair within my soul now housed a flaming hatred so hot it consumed every other emotion.
Anna soon returned with the strangely dressed foreigner.
He looked harrowed, although he hid it behind an iron mask of discipline. He was a warrior, recently pulled from the battlefield. His aloof demeanor and the blood coating his clothes spoke easily even when he did not.
"Princess, this is Mister Levin. He has agreed to guard us."
I blinked once at Anna. To so quickly agree to protect us was folly, no matter what Anna promised. He must be just as desperate as we were.
"My name is Lydia. Thank you for your aid and assistance, Mister Levin." I curtseyed and gauged his reaction, of which there was none. He made no attempt to return the gesture even with the simplest of bows. What a strange man, truly.
"We need to leave. You're being chased and there'll be a response force sent when this squad fails to report in."
His tone was eerily similar to Captain Antigone's. There was no room for argument. Did this man not know who I was, dressed in such finery, no matter how marred?
"No, we shall cremate my father, first."
"If we do that, the light and smoke will expose our position for dozens of miles."
"It's what my father deserves."
To be bathed in dragonfire, like the warrior he was. My father was a veteran from crusades against the Endless Abyss. Although he long retired his sword, in his final moments, he was a champion - my champion.
I glared resolutely at Levin. I know not what he saw, but his cold expression melted and he quickly built a pyre using loose timbers from the forest nearby. At one point, he ripped a small tree out of the ground with his bare hands.
Isn't he a mage?!
Once the pyre was built, he and Anna carefully laid my father atop it while I siphoned Mana from my mother's signet ring. The black spots in my vision gradually vanished and the headache receded like the ocean tide.
With my reserves replenished, I ordered Anna and Levin back then unleashed a torrent of golden flames from my hands. Dragonfire burnt the pyre and my father's body to ash within minutes.
"It is finished."
I stared up from the pile of ash as the night wind picked it up and scattered it across the sky.
Goodbye, Father.
Once we were boarded onto the wagon, I occupied myself by barraging Levin with questions. He was surprisingly earnest. I expected a more caged response, but his candor brought a smile to my face. I entertained the notion of throwing away my titles and living a life of wonder and adventure alongside him. It was clear he was a far-flung traveler, from a place of democracy and freedom, the United States. I knew not of such a country in all of Valeria and he knew nothing of our customs, courtesies, nor even Magic Crystals. I laughed lightly whenever he floundered his way through our conversations. His open demeanor and attitude was endearing. I decided to play along and cede some information in order to build goodwill and trust between us. I could live like this, as Lydia, and leave Lyudmilia behind, to have died with her father on the road.
I planned such a course of action and had no intention of revealing my true origins until-
"I’m a Ranger."
I blinked. My body froze. I heard Anna's breath hitch even from the jockey box.
Did he know what that meant? Was he deceiving me? What kind of game was he playing at?
Despite my disbelief, I sensed no lie from his words or body language. I was trained to read such things and Levin was a terrible liar.
If I entered his graces, promised him a reward, then retaking my kingdom and exacting my revenge was within my grasp.
I folded my arms and restored my royal composure. Levin tilted his head in apprehension at the transformation and I was glad that my beauty was preserved despite the violence. If necessary, I would tie Levin down to me and Renalis by marriage.
"It's an honor to meet you, Ranger Levin."
I smiled as his face fell. At that moment, I gave up on living the rest of my life in exile. Levin would be mine. And with his power, my birthright restored.