The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 125

At the southern gate, the troops had already gathered in masse.

The walls were teeming with activity, both above and below.

Above were soldiers armed with bows and crossbows.

Below were mercenaries who had come for work.

And amidst them were panicked citizens trying to flee.

Among the mercenaries, four noticed me and waved.

These were old acquaintances I had coincidentally met again in Jericho.

“Oh, Judas’s here!”

Brown and Connor.

The two who had badmouthed Eliza and me during the first trial while on night watch.

And the other two were Leo and Cooper.

They had blocked the way when I was searching for a guy named Vinyl.

The four of them, also working as mercenaries, had coincidentally reunited in Jericho, and I ended up joining their group.

After meeting and greeting on the first day, we had become fairly friendly.

Old grudges were left in the past.

Yes, what happened back then is now history.

It’s all water under the bridge.

“Did you all hear the news and come out?”

“Yeah, they said it’s a Gigantic Drake?”

“If we’re not careful, someone might not make it out alive today.”

“Well, that’s the mercenary life.”

A job where you earn money with your life on the line.

They weren’t wrong.

Nearby was Orpheus as well.

The husband of Eurydice.

He and Eurydice had stayed in Jericho to help me settle and adapt.

They lived in the house across from mine.

“Are you joining the fight too, Orpheus?”

“I can’t just ignore this.”

He was a skilled knight with a strong sense of justice.

Whenever the city was in danger, he would always step up.

‘Eurydice must be worried again.’

Eurydice always hated times like this.

But she never outwardly expressed it or tried to stop him.

She respected what Orpheus chose to do.

The captain of the guards was shouting instructions to the soldiers.

It seemed like they were about to open the gates.

I asked him, “Is there a mage in the city by chance?”

“I’ve already sent for one. They said they’re from the third floor, I think.”

The mage tower had a total of 33 floors.

How high you’d climbed was a measure of your skill.

“Third floor, huh… If it were even the sixth floor, they’d be a lot more useful.”

Nothing could be done about it.

We were in a situation where even a cat’s help was welcome.

“Got any bright ideas?”

The guard captain asked, watching me ponder.

He had often relied on my help in hunting monsters.

“Tell them to use heavy magic to solidify the Drake’s path. It’s massive, and its weight makes it difficult to move on unstable ground.”

I didn’t have high hopes.

Its sheer size meant its stride was enormous, and stabilizing ground wide enough to impede its movement would be a Herculean task.

For a third-floor mage, it was practically impossible.

“Nothing to lose by trying.”

At least it was better than a stray fireball from the mage causing friendly fire.

“I’ll relay the message. Anything else?”

“Fire arrows upward. Make sure not to hit those fighting below.”

With that, I began putting on my armor.

Compared to what I used to wear, it was unimpressive.

Creak…

The triple-layered gate rose with a laborious sound.

“Let’s go.”

I led the way.

Leo, Cooper, Brown, Connor.

The four, along with other mercenaries and soldiers, followed.

Beyond the walls lay an open expanse.

In the distance, the Gigantic Drake was visible.

Beneath the full moon hanging in the night sky.

Its ivory scales glowed faintly against the backdrop of a desolate desert.

It looked like a dragon-shaped moon descended to the earth.

Even from afar, its sheer size was overwhelming.

“Wow…”

Someone marveled blankly.

It was a size that deserved such awe.

Truly surreal.

“Is that thing… even killable?”

“We’ll find out.”

I drew my sword.

There was no need for a shield.

Defense was meaningless against this opponent.

Although I spoke with confidence, I wasn’t sure myself.

The enemy was overwhelmingly strong.

Our side was uncertain and mismatched.

To make matters worse, its attributes clashed with mine.

If it came down to it, the Gigantic Drake had the upper hand.

I might die in this fight.

‘Still, I have to try. If it comes to it, I’ll use that method….’

Whenever I step into battle, I think of Eliza’s face.

At first, I tried to ignore it, but now I’ve just grown accustomed to it.

I let it surface.

Struggling to suppress it is more exhausting.

[Magic Release (Lv. 65)]

An ivory light enveloped my sword.

***

Eliza barely managed to lift her trembling body.

She used the Moon’s Pupil in her hand as a support to brace herself.

Even so, her strength was failing, and her hands shook violently.

It was a dangerous move.

Using an unsheathed sword as a crutch was reckless.

If she fell, it could cut her.

Eliza knew all this yet ignored it.

Perhaps getting cut would be easier.

For a moment, her lifeless eyes stared at the ominous black blade, as if entranced.

If that sword cut her, everything would be over.

She quickly shook off the weak thoughts.

She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d slept properly.

Not that she wanted to—lying down only brought nightmares and bad memories that jolted her awake.

It was better not to sleep at all.

She hadn’t eaten in weeks.

The mere touch of food made her nauseous, forcing her to vomit.

At most, she occasionally drank water.

But her relentless march had been worthwhile.

She’d destroyed a major Imperial base and successfully killed Barak’s third spawn, Jezebel.

The blazing sun before her was the result.

The entire Imperial Army may not have been affected, but at least the Bevel family now stood on the brink of collapse.

They were moments away from ruin.

“Haa…”

With great effort, she stood upright, her gaze fixed on the brilliant sphere of light.

The massive glow had consumed Jezebel’s mansion.

Jezebel probably didn’t even realize how she’d died, consumed by fire.

Eliza’s golden eyes, blazing like the sun, captured the spectacle of the fiery orb born on the ground.

She imagined Jezebel’s suffering within.

Screams. Struggles. Shock. Fear. Such things.

It wasn’t particularly satisfying.

Though it had been something she had longed for, all she felt was emptiness.

Survivors spilled out from the estate.

They looked like swarming insects fleeing a disturbance.

Flames blocked many of their paths, limiting their escape routes.

Their escape was futile.

At the end of those paths, Eliza’s elite soldiers, including her personal guards, lay in wait.

It was like a hunting drive.

The desperate fugitives picked up weapons and resisted, but only briefly.

By the time the battle ended, the sun blazing on the ground had also faded.

Darkness quickly engulfed the surroundings.

This was the usual scenery, a night where stars filled the sky.

Eliza approached her guards and gave an order.

“Check for any survivors inside and deal with them. Don’t let a single one live.”

Her golden eyes burned fiercely, and her tone was razor-sharp.

Yet her eyes were shadowed, her lips dry.

Her limbs trembled faintly.

Dylan looked at her fragile figure and simply nodded.

Offering advice for her to rest was meaningless.

Not just him, but others had told her many times.

But Eliza hadn’t listened.

From the day she declared war, she had moved like a machine.

A killing machine designed solely to destroy her enemies.

Aside from that, she acted as if she had no other purpose, as if anything else was a luxury.

Though they called it the return of the mythological age, she was no god.

Her body accumulated fatigue.

Magic, too, could not be used indefinitely.

Using magic consumed her very body.

If she didn’t rest adequately, it was dangerous.

But Eliza rejected all rest.

She pushed herself to the limit, as if she were someone who would die tomorrow.

It seemed she would rather welcome death.

“…Understood.”

Even knowing all this, Dylan couldn’t stop Eliza.

He merely followed orders.

He simply remembered the last words left by Judas.

He had asked Dylan to look after the lady.

And yet, he was doing no such thing.

‘Where are you, Judas….’

Swallowing a sigh, Dylan led the royal guard.

Eliza felt the need to rest.

She wanted to cover the entire grounds of Jezebel with the sun.

But she was so exhausted that her magic didn’t display its full power.

It only managed to envelop a few mansions before fading.

Habitually, she pulled her scarf up to cover her nose.

Not a scarf, but this tattered blanket, she had no idea why she carried it around.

Nor could she understand why she compulsively sought it every time.

Eliza felt an unrelenting thirst at every moment and tried to soothe it with this scarf.

It was a meaningless gesture, and yet she didn’t know why she did it.

Especially this thirst.

She longed to feel a cold, calming energy wash over her entire body.

She had never received such a thing in her life.

She convinced herself it was just a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.

In just a few weeks, the war’s outcome seemed to be taking shape.

This was no war of soldiers clashing with swords and spears to seize land.

It was a war of indiscriminate, large-scale magical bombardment, leveraging Eliza as an asymmetric power.

The opposing side was barely holding out defensively.

Thanks to Barak and the captain of the Imperial Mage Corps, they hadn’t been entirely wiped out.

The captain of the Imperial Mage Corps, Geist, was much stronger than the other Imperial mages Eliza had killed so far.

Even so, he wasn’t someone capable of stopping her head-on.

‘Not much longer now.’

This war was essentially a civil conflict between Eliza and the Bevel family.

The empire had suffered no meaningful damage.

It didn’t matter to her.

Eliza’s goal for the war was simple.

The annihilation of the Bevel family.

That was enough.

Afterward, she would visit her mother’s grave and bring everything to an end there.

‘Whatever happens to the rest of the world, it has nothing to do with me.’

In truth, she thought it wouldn’t be so bad if she died before achieving her goal.

That was why, even while feeling the need to rest, she didn’t.

There was some time before the next operation.

Eliza used teleportation.

A dark space.

A place carved out inside a mountain behind the mansion.

She didn’t know why she came here, or sometimes to the adjacent bedroom, whenever she had a moment.

It wasn’t a conscious decision.

She just did.

She found it odd that she would bring furniture or household items whenever she visited this place.

The large bed over in the corner, big enough for two people, was something she had brought recently.

Today, she had brought two cups and placed them on a shelf.

Each time she came here, she brought items suitable for two people.

She couldn’t explain why, but since she wanted to, she didn’t stop herself.

Though her actions puzzled her, she didn’t dwell on them.

She simply found herself here because the place brought her more peace than usual.

Eliza unfolded a map in her mind.

She wasn’t here to rest.

She came to this quiet space to calculate her next move.

She envisioned the enemy’s potential routes of escape or paths of retreat.

‘It’s a long way, but if they use the roads or mountain paths near the outskirts of the Demon Realm, they can evade our surveillance. That won’t do. None can escape—they all must die.’

She traced the routes on the map until she paused at one spot.

A place separated from the human lands, like an isolated island.

A fortress city perched at the edge of the Demon Realm.

This is a place well-suited for enemies to secretly utilize.

Whether it’s a midway base for a detour or a hiding spot for key figures.

“Shall I check what kind of place it is?”

Using teleportation, I moved to a spot where I could observe the location from afar.

In the distance, a walled city came into view.

For some reason, a cold energy seemed to emanate from that direction.

Something that felt like it could quench her thirst.

But, as always, she dismissed it as an illusion.

“I have enough time to look around inside.”

Calculating the time, Eliza moved without hesitation.

To the fortress city surrounded by walls.

Toward Jericho.