Moyin’s questioning was carried by the biting winds of the North, stabbing coldly into Ella’s heart.
“…Why should I… trust you?”
Before the words could fully dissipate into the air, the guard captain who had narrowly escaped death struggled up from the ground in the distance and reorganized his formation.
Looking at the shattered shackles and the corpses of his colleagues littering the ground, the terror on his face was replaced by a bone-deep fury.
“The witch has broken the Sealing Restriction! she has accomplices!”
He raised his longsword high, the tip pointing directly at Ella and Moyin in front of the stone gates.
“Everyone, heed my command! Royal Guard, form ranks!”
“Kill the witch and her accomplice! Leave no one alive!”
*Clang — clang —*
The well-trained soldiers responded instantly.
Shields slammed against shields, letting out heavy, muffled thuds as walls of steel rose from the earth. Spears protruded through the gaps in the shields, their grim tips gathering into a forest of death under the pale sky.
A massive, seamless steel encirclement began to contract slowly inward with a suffocating sense of pressure.
The time left for them was but a few breaths.
Facing Moyin’s questioning and this lethal military formation, Ella instead let out a very soft, cold snort.
“You don’t need to trust me.”
“You only need to believe in ‘interests’!”
Ella suddenly raised her arm. Her slender index finger did not point at Moyin or the approaching formation, but instead pointed toward the empty Golden Throne belonging to the Emperor high atop the platform.
Her voice was not loud, yet in the grim atmosphere, every word struck like a dagger to the heart.
“If my father successfully returns from the dragon temple, he will obtain eternal life and become a true dragon looking down upon all living things!”
“At that time, I, my brothers and sisters, and all the so-called successors of the Empire will be nothing but stepping stones beneath his eternal throne, never to see the light of day! We will be playthings he can discard at any time during his long life!”
“I want him to die in there more than you do!”
Ella smiled, but the expression on her face was extremely cold.
‘Perhaps I chose to turn a blind eye to Luo Lin’s attempt to assassinate the Emperor back then — or even secretly helped him — not out of love, but because of some calculated interest.’
‘From the very beginning, my feelings for him weren’t pure.’
In that sense, perhaps Moyin really was more qualified to stand by that man’s side than she was.
This naked, unmasked political ambition was far more persuasive than any tearful pleading.
Ella’s gaze quickly swept over the steadily advancing steel phalanx. In that instant, the sorrow of the Imperial Princess faded, and the absolute calm of the Dragon Slayer Corps’ Captain Chief of Staff returned.
“Your power is great, but you have just broken free from a Sealing Restriction. Your physical depletion is far beyond your imagination; you are like a lotus without roots.”
“They will not be foolish enough to duel you. They will use human lives to exhaust you and their military formation to grind you down until your last ounce of strength is spent.”
“You won’t be able to break in.”
Ella’s words were like cold water poured over the raging flames of Moyin’s revenge.
For the first time, her churning killing intent faltered. Ella made her realize that she was not omnipotent.
Seeing that the all-consuming fire in Moyin’s eyes had finally begun to focus rather than rage irrationally, Ella knew the timing was right. She proposed the crazy plan she had rehearsed in her mind countless times — a plan that used her own life and honor as a gamble.
“I will hold them back for you.”
Her tone was terrifyingly calm, as if she were not deciding her own life and death, but deploying troops for an ordinary battle.
“I, Imperial Princess Ella, will buy you time to charge inside on charges of treason.”
“You, save all your strength. Go in and help him.”
Moyin was completely stunned. She had imagined a thousand possibilities, but never this one.
“…Why?”
Moyin’s dragon flames flickered wildly around her body, yet they could not mask the tremor in her voice. She stared fixedly at Ella, her silver eyes filled with a confusion and scrutiny she had never shown before.
This was the first time since her return from hell that she had shown such intense emotional fluctuations toward someone other than the high-and-mighty Emperor or the “master” who had betrayed her.
“Why would you go this far?!”
For a man? For a man who doesn’t even love you?
Is it worth it?!
In that moment, Ella’s body trembled violently, though it was barely perceptible. Before her eyes, a scene she had deliberately tried to forget suddenly flashed by.
It was back at the Royal Training Ground in the Imperial Capital. The afternoon sun had been warm and gentle.
That man had held her hand, correcting her sword posture bit by bit. The pleasant scent on him and the dry warmth of his palm had made her heart skip a beat.
She thought that was the most tender moment between them, but he had only calmly remarked on her skill.
“Your sword is too cold; it has no heart.”
It turned out that even back then, he had already seen through everything. He had seen through the heart that was wrapped in ice and rationality — a heart that craved to be loved yet did not dare to love.
The illusion shattered abruptly.
Ella raised her head and looked at Moyin again. In those black eyes that were usually covered in frost, all the pride, all the schemes, and all the resentment melted away in this instant.
All that remained was a sorrow so pure that it was enough to completely consume her.
“Because I love him.”
She used the strength of a lifetime to speak the secret she had never told anyone, including herself. This was her answer, and also her most resolute final words.
Tears could finally no longer be suppressed. They burst from her reddened eyes and rolled down her pale, bloodless cheeks.
“With no regrets.”
The words “I love him” pierced into the deepest part of Moyin’s heart without warning. Then, they twisted hard.
She had once loved like that too. She had once regarded that person as the only light in her life.
In this moment, as she looked at the tear-streaked Imperial Princess who had completely abandoned all dignity and pride, she suddenly felt that Ella was no longer a high-and-mighty love rival. Instead, she was… a pathetic woman just like herself, who had fallen in love with the same bastard.
The hatred did not disappear. On the contrary, it burned even more fiercely.
But it had finally found its only, most fundamental outlet — the Emperor who had caused all these tragedies and was currently in the depths of the dragon temple, plotting to steal the power of a god!
Moyin did not say another word. She only gave Ella one last, deep look.
There were too many complex things in that gaze. There was pity, confusion, and even a hint of… a mutual sympathy between women that even she had not noticed.
Immediately, she spun around!
She faced the stone gates of the dragon temple, which were still vibrating violently and emitting the roars of wild beasts.
The silver dragon flames churning around her no longer spread outward wildly. Instead, they condensed inward at an alarming speed, transforming into a piercing, silver light spear that enveloped her entire body.
She let out a clear, high-pitched Dragon Roar that was enough to pierce through heaven and earth!
There was no longer a hint of hesitation in that sound!
She pressed her palms together and blasted them toward the center of the stone gates!
*Boom — !!!*
The Sealing Restriction runes flashing on the door evaporated instantly, snapping inch by inch! The incredibly heavy stone door was violently smashed open in the most arrogant and irrational manner!
Amidst the flying debris, she turned into a silver meteor and, without any hesitation, charged resolutely into the bottomless darkness.
“She went in! She went in!”
The guard captain let out a hysterical roar as he looked at the hole that had been violently blasted open.
“Forget about her! Take down the traitorous Princess Ella first!!”
The tide of soldiers finally closed in.
A forest of blades and the flash of cold steel pressed down from all directions toward the slender figure standing alone in the wind and snow.
Ella slowly drew her sidearm.
The sharp blade that had once cut off the heads of countless enemies for the Empire now reflected her beautiful face — tear-stained, yet wearing a smile of liberation.
She finally didn’t have to be the “always correct” Imperial Princess anymore.
She could finally swing her sword once for her own heart.
For the man who did not love her, she pointed her blade at the entire Empire she had once sworn to serve until death.
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