Why?
When did she see him, that girl kissed my prince?
‘I haven’t even done that yet!’
Frennila glared at the thief who stole her beloved’s lips with a ghostly expression.
Even though her entire body was bound, the murderous aura emanating from her was enough to intimidate even the skilled shamans of the Staff Tribe.
Finally turning her head to face Frennila, Svioha was no ordinary person either, unfazed by Frennila’s menacing presence.
Instead, she tried to take control by engaging in a battle of wills.
“Really, how can you utter such vulgar words? Frennila, you’re now the leader of a faction, shouldn’t you choose more refined words?”
“I have no manners to spare for a woman who flirts with someone else’s man.”
“What? Ah, a woman? Hey!!! There’s only a four-year difference between us, do you even know what you’re saying?”
Caught off guard by Frennila’s attack, Svioha momentarily forgot her mystique and snapped back.
Realizing she had lost her composure, Svioha blushed and coughed lightly, then launched another attack.
“Fine. Since we’re on the topic, according to the laws of this great plain, what’s yours and what’s mine?”
The strong take all, isn’t that our rule?
“I found him first, and he likes me too. He’s my man, it’s all settled.”
It’s a basic issue before the law. Is it human to try to steal someone else’s man?
“……..”
“What, nothing to say?”
As the standoff continued, Svioha had nothing to say.
Even in a society where the survival of the fittest is the norm, there are basic boundaries that should be respected.
In this regard, Frennila had the moral high ground.
‘By the way, this girl, aside from everything else, has an excellent sense of wild instinct.’
Not only does she possess formidable combat skills, but she also has the ability to quickly claim a good mate, a true mark of wild instinct.
She had claimed this man before I even received the revelation.
Regardless of anything else, I had to acknowledge her instinct.
But whether she claimed him first or not didn’t matter to Svioha.
He was undoubtedly the chosen one, the star’s revelation after thousands of years.
‘I can’t give up the chance to receive a seed that will be remembered in history.’
Though Svioha lacked the moral high ground, she was confident she could win the heart of the chosen one over Frennila’s rough and straightforward nature.
Above all, the difference in the size of their hearts was vast.
Unlike Frennila, who specialized in archery, Svioha’s elegant and alluring charm would quickly win his side.
Thinking this far, Svioha decided to step back for now.
Time was on her side, so she would gather information slowly.
Stretching lightly, Svioha casually asked Frennila something she was genuinely curious about.
“By the way, when you say ‘my man,’ does that mean you and the chosen one are already in that kind of relationship? Husband?”
But even the fierce Frennila couldn’t answer this properly.
“Ah, well, he is my man, but not yet my husband. Lover? Well, not exactly lovers yet. We’ve greeted his mother? But we haven’t actually met. What should I call it?”
…What kind of relationship is that?
If he’s your husband, then he’s your husband.
If he’s your man, then he’s your man.
Why complicate it so much?
Svioha held back from making a sarcastic remark, not wanting to prolong the argument.
She just looked at Frennila, who was still mumbling, with pity.
“Ha, ha.”
“Huh? What’s that sound?”
The standoff between the two women ended because of a strange sound that came from somewhere.
Following the sound, they found Kenneth, his skin pale and sweating profusely.
“Ca, chosen one?”
He was fine just a moment ago, but something must have happened while Frennila and I were arguing.
Svioha panicked at the sudden situation.
His body trembled, his breathing became increasingly labored.
Thud, showing these symptoms, he eventually lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot.
“Pr, prince!”
With a strength that defied logic, Frennila broke the enchanted ropes that even the combined strength of oxen and horses couldn’t sever.
Her wrists bled from the friction, but she didn’t care and rushed to the prince.
Frennila remembered that due to the sudden chase, the prince hadn’t taken his usual medicine at this time.
“First, bring the saintess. She can handle simple measures. And the medicine, we need the medicine. The box I threw from the carriage earlier, it should have the medicine. We need to find it quickly. Hurry!”
Despite being at odds just moments ago, Svioha immediately followed her instructions.
Regardless, the prince’s condition looked serious, and saving him was the priority.
The warriors of the Staff Tribe began searching along the path of the chase.
Meanwhile, Frennila, unaware that the murderous aura she had unconsciously emitted was the cause of the symptoms, started running desperately to save the prince.
*
In the Ger settlement, once the home of the Spear Tribe, infected individuals wandered aimlessly like zombies.
Now unmanaged, the pillars had collapsed, and the tents were full of holes.
Somewhere in a secret hideout, a conversation among dark figures was taking place.
“…The cavalry unit of infected we sent near the imperial territory has been annihilated.”
“What? They failed? I thought there was only a minimal escort.”
“W, well, it’s regrettable, but the Staff Tribe intervened this time. We did significant damage to the imperial supplies, but the woman from the Bow Tribe and the third prince are unharmed.”
Not just infantry, but cavalry wiped out?
Even if their numbers were small, each cavalryman is a precious resource.
The masked man cursed and kicked his subordinate.
Despite being the one who gave the orders and approved the plan, he blamed his subordinate when things went wrong.
But the subordinate didn’t dare speak a word.
He didn’t know what punishment he might face if he said the wrong thing, maybe even beaten to death.
“Why on earth did that disgraced prince decide to help these barbarians!”
The masked man was furious.
How much effort had they put into this grand plan behind the scenes!
They worked to instill negative perceptions of the ethnic groups among the imperial citizens.
It was easy since interactions between them were minimal.
They sowed discord among the ethnic groups, weakening their unity.
Once divided, they could easily create lasting animosity.
With all preparations complete, they unleashed the fruits of their research: the blood of the dead.
A product of combining black magic and voodoo, this liquid, when infected, allowed the caster to control the infected body.
The research was a great success.
They quickly subjugated one of the strongest ethnic groups, the Spear Tribe, and now only needed to infect the rest and conquer the great plain. …
Or so it should have been!
“Second Empress, starting with that commoner woman and now her son, why is this happening?”
The resistance from the ethnic groups was stronger than expected, but it was within the anticipated range, and time would solve it.
The crack in the plan started not from the ethnic groups but from a commoner woman in the empire.
Somehow, she rose to become the empress and began to notice our presence slowly infiltrating the palace.
How much trouble we went through to quietly deal with her.
It significantly delayed our plans.
But we weren’t worried.
The blood of the dead, to solve it, required someone skilled in holy power, which is antithetical to black magic, and someone skilled in shamanism, superior to voodoo.
The empire considered shamanism heresy, so cooperation between the two was impossible, close to zero.
But that was a miscalculation.
The commoner woman’s struggle didn’t end with her death.
As if carrying on her will, knowing everything about the current situation, her son, the third prince, somehow brought the saintess to the great plain and involved the Staff Tribe leader, who had been observing.
It’s impossible unless they knew our plan.
‘We thought he was quietly staying in the prince’s palace, but he was sharpening his blade!’
It’s time to change our judgment.
It’s absolutely impossible for an individual to grasp our plan to this extent.
There must be a spy or traitor somewhere leaking information.
A disgraced prince with no power or assets wielding such information, if he had power,
‘Gulp’
It was terrifying.
‘We need to eliminate him quickly.’
Any method will do. Kill, kidnap, or turn him into a vegetable, for the sake of the grand plan, we must quickly remove the third prince, Kenneth, our biggest threat.
“Gather all the executives.”
“Understood.”
Calling all executives, he began planning the assassination of the third prince.
In reality, bringing the saintess to the great plain and Svioha’s involvement weren’t Kenneth’s intentions, but the man had no way of knowing.
From the organization’s perspective, Kenneth’s evaluation and threat level were being reassessed.
Once again, unknowingly, the difficulty was rising sharply for Kenneth.