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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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The Royal Castle of the Lodreim kingdom consisted of two buildings.
The Inner Castle, where the royal family resided, and the Outer Castle, which surrounded the Inner Castle.
And between the Inner and Outer Castles, there were other buildings.
One of these buildings was a tower, originally built to imprison high-ranking criminals.
However, with the royal dungeons now full, commoners had also been imprisoned in the tower for quite some time.
On the rooftop of this tower, now stripped of its original meaning, she was confined.
Lying on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Muttering incomprehensible words.
She didn’t even glance at the Knight Commander who came to see her.
The Knight Commander said to her,
“You’ve become even more beautiful, Your Highness.”
Her hair wasn’t as long as the fake princess’s, but compared to the dull, lifeless hair of the imposter, Elsie’s hair was vibrant, like shimmering golden waves.
Her childish face had matured into that of a woman, yet her pearly white skin remained unchanged. Though he wouldn’t know about the numerous scars hidden beneath her clothes.
And above all…
Elsie, feeling the Knight Commander’s gaze sweep over her body, suppressed the rising disgust and said,
“Your Highness? Don’t you have another princess now?”
The Knight Commander sighed.
“Are you referring to that fake princess?”
“Now you’re even calling her a fake yourself.”
“Of course. She’s just something wearing human skin, hardly worthy of being called a person.”
Rage surged at his hypocrisy, but she knew it wasn’t time yet.
Just a little longer.
If she waited just a little longer, the time would come.
“So, what do you want to say?”
The Knight Commander had been pacing in front of her cell.
He clearly had something to say.
Then she wished he would just say it quickly and leave.
Even though she tried to keep her gaze fixed on the ceiling, his disgusting face kept intruding on the corner of her vision.
“What I want to say is, Your Highness, are you aware of your current situation?”
“I am. I lost to the fake princess and I’m imprisoned.”
“Then are you aware that your life is in my hands?”
As if.
That wasn’t true in the first place.
It was the fake princess who kept her alive, not the Knight Commander.
And likewise, it was the fake princess, not him, who could kill her.
But there was no need to provoke him here.
“So what?”
“Honestly, I regretted letting you go. I ordered your immediate execution if found, but even then, I regretted it. I wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t let you go, if I had kept you alive and made you mine…”
Crazy bastard.
The “something wearing human skin” he mentioned earlier was himself.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so casually expressing such thoughts.
“But such fortunate luck. You walked right back to me. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have agreed to the fake princess.”
With those words, he laughed deliriously.
He seemed both happy and regretful.
In any case, there wasn’t much difference; he looked like a madman.
Elsie glanced at him coldly and said,
“So you want me?”
The Knight Commander finally stopped his unpleasant laughter.
He leaned against the bars and said,
“Correct. If you give yourself to me, I will eliminate that monstrous fake princess. Then your life will be spared.”
It was a tempting offer, at first glance.
Indeed, submitting to the Knight Commander immediately after the coup was one of her possible routes.
The problem was that to her, who knew the truth, it sounded utterly repulsive.
‘Eliminate the fake princess? You?’
That was ridiculous.
The fake princess wasn’t an ordinary being, as he thought.
And after being defeated and intentionally captured like this, she had no intention of submitting to the likes of the Knight Commander.
‘Even if it costs me my life.’
Between dying rather than submitting to such a man, and surviving even if it meant submitting,
Allen briefly wondered which she would choose, but at least from her perspective, the former seemed better.
Anyway, since she trusted Allen, she wouldn’t have to worry about such a choice.
So, she said to the Knight Commander,
“Get lost.”
“Huh?”
“I said get lost, you pervert.”
The Knight Commander’s face flushed instantly.
His grip on the bars tightened.
“Your Highness, it seems you haven’t grasped the situation yet,” he threatened.
“I am the only one who can save you. That means I am also the only one who can kill you.”
But Elsie responded nonchalantly,
“If you’re so confident, then come in. You’re a Knight Commander, yet you’re too scared of a woman to even step inside the cell.”
There was a clear venom in her eyes.
It was the calm venom of a caged beast.
Quiet for now, but ready to strike the moment the opponent entered the cage.
“You…”
The Knight Commander couldn’t actually enter the cell.
He had heard the rumors about her rampage as the Masked Hero, and he had witnessed it himself.
So, he had no choice but to step back from the bars and say,
“Fine, it seems you haven’t grasped the concept of death yet. Let’s see if you can remain so composed until Nameless Day.”
He kicked the bars as a warning, turned around, and disappeared.
Elsie, finally free from his presence, smiled and said,
“That’s better.”
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“It’s been so long since I’ve breathed fresh air…” Yuseora said.
It was her first time outside in almost a week.
Since it was the festival period, and the curfew had been lifted with the capture of the Masked Hero, the atmosphere had relaxed considerably, so he decided it was safe to bring her out.
There was no longer any risk of being suspected just for being a recently arrived hero.
‘Thanks to Elsie’s plan.’
And her plan would also play a crucial role in the place he was visiting now.
It was the Knights’ building, located outside the castle, just like the Reedval mansion.
He had simply followed the information he received at the Reedval mansion. The building was so small and unassuming that it didn’t even have a flag.
‘The Black Knights.’
If the Royal Knights were the ones who openly appeared before the public and handled the royal affairs, the Black Knights were the ones who dealt with the dirty work the public wasn’t supposed to know about.
He knocked on the door of the Black Knights’ building.
But there was a specific pattern to the knocking.
This too, he had learned at the Reedval mansion.
Knock, knock-knock, knock-knock-knock.
A voice came from inside,
“Who is it?”
A rather gruff voice.
The atmosphere was different from the Reedval mansion.
But he didn’t falter and replied,
“I want to see the Knight Commander.”
“The Commander… what for?”
“The real Masked Hero has something to discuss with him.”
“The real Masked Hero…?”
“Yes, the real one, not the princess disguised as the Masked Hero.”
After a brief silence, laughter echoed.
Then, footsteps approached, and the door opened.
“Interesting,” a tall man in all black said.
He introduced himself,
“Yes, I’m the Commander.”
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“Where are all the other members?”
The Black Knights’ building was strangely empty.
The only person here was the man who introduced himself as the Black Knights Commander.
He sat on the sofa opposite me with a relaxed expression.
“Members? I sent them all home. There’s nothing left for them to do here.”
“Nothing left to do…”
“We are a knight order that only takes direct orders from the royal family. After the royal family fell, the orders disappeared. Other knight orders started taking over the dirty work.”
“I see.”
Moreover, since the Black Knights mainly handled direct executions in the field, their public image wasn’t very good.
From the perspective of the Royal Knights, who were trying to improve their image after the coup by distributing wealth and such, using the Black Knights would have been undesirable.
So they used the closed-door policy to cleverly and legally round up dissidents.
“So, what did you want to say to me? Mr. Real Masked Hero.”
“I’ll get straight to the point. I want you to recall the members of the Black Knights and have them assist me and the enemy knights.”
The smile on his face faltered.
“Enemy knights? Are you talking about that foolish plan?”
According to the head of the Reedval family, she had already tried to persuade him.
And he had rejected the plan back then.
“Go back and tell her. I haven’t changed my mind.”
But this wasn’t that plan.
“No, this is different. I thought that plan was foolish too, so I modified it a bit.”
It might have been more than “a bit.”
But in any case, it was definitely a different plan.
So, it was worth trying to persuade him again.
“Modified?”
“Yes, the plan you heard must have involved using the underground passages of the Lodreim kingdom.”
“That’s right.”
But that plan had been changed.
“The new plan is a frontal assault.”
“A frontal assault?”
Before he could scoff, I continued,
“We will breach the walls. We will handle the Demon Lords inside. All you have to do is deal with the Royal Knights, weakened by Nameless Day.”
A plan delivered in a single breath.
It wasn’t a complicated plan, but each element could sound absurd.
But my expression was more serious than anyone else’s.
The Knight Commander seemed to realize I wasn’t joking.
He probably knew that the current Royal Knights were borrowing external power, such as the power of the Demon Lords.
But he wouldn’t have guessed that I knew that too.
“Who… are you?”
“I am the Masked Hero.”
“I’ll believe that. You’re strong enough to be called the Masked Hero. But…”
He continued, his eyes serious,
“That’s not enough for me to help you.”
“What do you mean?”
“For the past three years, the knights have returned to their families. Because our knight order is anonymous, they were able to return to their normal lives, however clumsily. Most of them are living peacefully, raising children, running shops.”
Indeed, they might have been among the ordinary people he had met in the kingdom.
Thinking about that, I continued to listen.
“Of course, they know deep down. What state the kingdom is in. The kingdom looks peaceful, but it’s actually slowly collapsing. And they all share the same feeling. They want to save the kingdom if they can. Our Black Knights are a knight order that wouldn’t exist without loyalty to the kingdom.”
But reality was different.
“We had no way to reclaimed the kingdom on our own. As you said, it was clear that external forces were involved. Moreover, the plan brought by the enemy knight had a very low probability of success. No, it wasn’t just low; it was impossible. That’s why I rejected her plan. The lives of my knights were too precious to risk on something like that.”
So, he pointed at me and said,
“Therefore, if you want our help, you have to prove it. That the plan has a chance of success worth risking the lives of my knights. If you can really breach the walls and face the Demon Lords, tell me a name that can prove it.”
A name…
Actually, Yuseora was the one who would mainly breach the walls.
The important thing was whether he could face the Demon Lords.
‘High-ranking Hero Allen Blake?’
He would know that a high-ranking hero could face a Demon Lord.
But he wasn’t sure if that would be enough to convince him.
The name “High-ranking Hero Allen Blake” didn’t convey the will to protect the Lodreim kingdom.
So, he needed a name that conveyed not just his strength, but his sincere will to protect the kingdom.
Only then could he persuade him.
And he had prepared that name in advance.
“The Last Knight of the Lodreim kingdom.”
The Black Knights Commander’s eyes widened.
“I inherited his sword.”
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