Chapter 34 : No Need For Consideration

“Bryden is coming?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I haven’t even put on my makeup!”

As soon as Ravi realized she was about to meet Bryden unexpectedly, her heart filled with excitement.

After lightly blaming her father, Duke Rieve, for not informing her in advance, she immediately called for a few maids in the castle and rushed to put on makeup.

Meanwhile, Bryden, along with Robert, the commander of the 3rd division of the Goddess’s Sword, and Celine, a division member, arrived at the castle of the Carat Principality and bowed to greet Duke Rieve.

“Paladin Bryden greets Your Highness, Duke Rieve of the Carat Principality.”

“Robert, commander of the 3rd division of the Goddess’s Sword, greets Your Highness.”

“Celine, member of the 3rd division of the Goddess’s Sword, greets Your Highness.”

“Welcome, all of you. Our castle is too modest to receive such esteemed guests, which is quite embarrassing.”

At this, Bryden shook his head.

“Not at all. Unlike the Imperial Palace, this place feels rich with history, which is refreshing and wonderful. By the way, is Ravi here? It’s been months since I last saw her, and I’d like to say hello.”

“Haha, my daughter ran off to do her makeup just now, complaining that I didn’t tell her in advance about the paladin’s arrival.”

“Ravi, really…”

Celine chuckled, understanding the sentiment from a woman’s perspective.

“It looks like it’ll take some time, so instead of standing here, let’s move to the reception room. I’d also like to hear about the purpose of your visit.”

“Yes. Thank you, Your Highness.”

The conversation started in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

However, when Ravi finished her makeup and headed to the reception room, she was met with Duke Rieve’s furious voice echoing from within.

“In the end, isn’t it all the same?! Just changing the outer packaging doesn’t make the contents disappear!”

“Your Highness, I fully understand why you are angry, but please stay calm and listen to me as it is. A monarch exists to protect their nation and their people, don’t they?”

“Why do you even have a say in this?! You are a paladin of the Goddess, not a soldier of the Empire! Why are you getting involved?!”

“That is precisely why I came ahead of time to speak to you! An envoy from the Empire will undoubtedly arrive soon, and whoever comes will be far more forceful than I am! If the Principality ends up in direct conflict with the Empire, it will be a disaster. I am trying to prevent that, Your Highness!”

“Are you planning to repeat what you did in Liberta here?!”

“Dad? Why is it so loud in here? What are you talking about?”

Ravi pushed open the reception room door and stepped inside.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Ravi, who had just finished her lovely makeup.

She beamed at Bryden and waved cheerfully.

“Bryden~♡ It’s been so long! Oh, Celine, you’re here too?! It’s so nice to see you!”

“Hello, Ravi. It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Ravi! It’s been months! You look even prettier than before!”

Celine stood up and held Ravi’s hands joyfully, but Robert, the commander of the 3rd division, cleared his throat.

“Ahem, Celine. We are here on official business. It’s inappropriate to address a foreign princess so informally.”

“I-I apologize!”

“No, it’s okay! We’re friends, so I don’t mind! Anyway, Bryden, Celine, what brings you here? I heard loud voices echoing down the hallway earlier. Something about Liberta… What was that about?”

“Ah, that’s…”

“Oh, right! I’ve been curious about this! There’s this ridiculous rumor spreading in the kingdom that Bryden and the Goddess’s Sword division carried out a massacre in Liberta. That’s nonsense, right? I wonder who would spread such a malicious rumor…”

At Ravi’s words, Bryden and Celine both lowered their gazes simultaneously.

Robert, the commander, answered in their place.

“It is true, Princess.”

A few weeks earlier, in the lawless city of Liberta, at the southernmost end of the kingdom…

Upon arrival, Bryden immediately focused on securing the whereabouts of Renis.

“Renis’s appearance matches the sketch! If you find him, make sure he is secured safely and brought back! And also, we must track down those responsible for his abduction!”

The lawless inhabitants of Liberta, of course, resisted and cursed in defiance.

“Not long ago, some noblewoman showed up, and now who the hell are you guys supposed to be?”

“There’s way fewer of you than last time! What is this, a picnic? Get lost before you end up like the corpses that noble brat left behind!”

As Bryden stood among the outlaws of Liberta, who hurled insults and obscene gestures at him, he scanned the crowd for Renis—or anyone strong enough to have kidnapped her.

But nothing stood out.

“Where is Renis?! If you return her peacefully, we will leave. But if you deny her presence, we will break through by force and find her ourselves!”

At that moment, Baron Vector subtly jerked his chin toward a specific part of the crowd—an action invisible to Bryden and the members of the Goddess’s Sword.

Catching the signal, a mercenary from the Black Shadow Mercenary Corps, disguised among the crowd, sneered and jeered at Bryden.

“Hah, she must be your lover or something. Do you even have proof she’s here? And where the hell were you when she got kidnapped? Hiding in some hole? What difference does it make now, huh?”

“Seems like our holy warrior here doesn’t know squat. That chick was the one who stormed in here with an army and declared war on us!”

“Yeah, we were just defending ourselves! What else were we supposed to do?”

Another mercenary, also disguised in the crowd, picked up the taunt.

“If you’re that desperate, why don’t you pray to your goddess? Maybe she’ll whisper your lover’s location into your ear. Oh wait, shouldn’t you be begging her for some divine light first?”

“Puhahaha!”

“Yeah, this loser can’t even get a blessing from his own goddess!”

The outlaws of Liberta burst into laughter, mocking Bryden.

Rotten eggs and tomatoes flew through the air, splattering near the feet of Bryden and his knights.

His body trembled with rage.

“We have nothing to tell you! You think you can break in here by force? You really think we’ll just stand by and let you? If you’re planning to attack our hideout, you better be ready to die, you brat!”

“No wonder the goddess abandoned him! Hah!”

The members of the Goddess’s Sword clenched their weapons tightly, their grips white-knuckled from the insults hurled at them. Yet, they hesitated—because the outlaws were right.

There was no proof Renis was here.

“Paladin, what should we do? Their taunts are getting worse.”

“We have no evidence or justification to attack…”

All eyes turned to Bryden.

Then, Baron Vector spoke quietly beside him.

“Their resistance is far fiercer than expected. And… they have a point. We have no proof Lady Renis is being held here. Paladin, as much as it pains me to say this, we should withdraw for now.”

Bryden froze.

“…You want us to just turn back?”

“We should have gathered evidence before confronting them. That was my mistake. I apologize, Paladin. Let’s retreat for now and return with solid proof to pressure them—”

“Did you just say ‘next time’?”

Bryden felt his blood boil.

It was humiliating enough that the Holy Sword had failed to shine in front of the world’s elite.

Then came the disastrous expedition to Mount Presia, where they returned empty-handed, finding nothing but an abandoned gargoyle cave—leaving him branded a fool.

And now, he had come all the way to a foreign city, yet he couldn’t rescue Renis, nor fulfill the kingdom’s request to purge Liberta?

“A third failure is impossible. It cannot happen. I, who was chosen to lead, cannot allow myself to be treated like a joke!”

His frustration only deepened when Baron Vector spoke again.

“Ignore these outlaws. People will talk behind our backs, but that isn’t what matters.”

“Not what matters? You think letting them talk behind my back doesn’t matter? No, that is the most important thing!”

“Paladin?”

“I’m sick of it! Sick of standing by and waiting! Sick of enduring their whispers!”

Bryden drew his sword and swung it fiercely at the ground.

A sharp blade of energy shot forth, slicing a jeering outlaw clean in half.

His mocking expression remained frozen on his severed face as his body collapsed in a pool of blood.

“H-Heuuk!”

“That crazy bastard…!”

“Paladin?!”

“Bryden?!”

As outlaws cursed in horror and the Goddess’s Sword members gasped in shock, Bryden’s cold, steely gaze remained unshaken.

With another slash, he sent crescent-shaped energy waves sweeping through the crowd, indiscriminately slaughtering the outlaws of Liberta.

Baron Vector, stunned, shouted in alarm.

“Holy Knight, if you do this, there will be no way to turn back! We have no proof that they are actually holding Lady Valentine…”

“I don’t need proof anymore! The kingdom sent me here to purge this place anyway! If they refuse to tell me where they hid Renis, then I’ll just tear the whole city apart to find her!”

Bryden shouted, venting his accumulated frustration.

“I am!!! A Holy Knight chosen by the Goddess!!! I am not someone who can be ignored and looked down upon by a bunch of lowlifes who only crawl into this place after committing crimes elsewhere!!!”

Then he raised his sacred sword high.

“All members of the Goddess’s Blade, heed my command! From this moment, we will subdue Liberta by force! Kill anyone who resists—leave no one alive! Search every building and find Renis! Secure the kidnappers!”

The Black Shadow Mercenaries had already slipped away into the crowd the moment Bryden first swung his sword, but in his excitement, he failed to notice.

Baron Vector spoke in a subtly satisfied tone.

“You’ve made a difficult decision, Holy Knight. A leader must sometimes make ruthless choices. I always hold such individuals in high regard. Now that you’ve made up your mind, as a subject of the kingdom, I will do my utmost to assist in the military operation.”

Bryden, leading the charge, rushed forward with enthusiasm.

Behind him, the members of the Goddess’s Blade, including Celine, followed with hesitant expressions as if questioning whether this was truly the right course of action.

At the very rear, Baron Vector rode his horse at a leisurely pace, smirking as he muttered to himself.

“Kill every last one of them, huh? Such a bold and pleasing order. This Holy Knight of this generation is just as Bastol said—so easy to manipulate with just a little push. Hehehe…”

Though Ravi hadn’t heard the full details of what happened in Liberta, she had learned that Bryden had destroyed the city.

She stared at him and Celine with wide eyes, her voice trembling with disbelief.

“Bryden, did you really massacre and burn Liberta to the ground? Why would you resort to such extreme measures…?”

“…There was no other way.”

“……”

Celine averted her gaze, unable to meet Ravi’s eyes.

Seeing Ravi’s devastated expression, Bryden hurriedly changed the subject.

“Ravi, rather than dwelling on the past, let’s focus on what’s important—the future. That would be best for you and for the Duchy of Carat.”

“Something important?”

“Yes. I came here today to propose a path forward for the Duchy of Carat.”

“What do you mean? Father, what is he talking about?”

At that, Duke Lieb answered with a grim expression.

“With what happened in Baron Vector’s territory, the Andras Empire has concluded that some kind of sinister sorcery had been sustaining it all this time. Not long ago, there was an incident where a noble lady from the kingdom was kidnapped in Liberta, and now, with evidence of dark magic near the kingdom’s heartland, the empire has come to view Pratea Kingdom as a ticking time bomb.”

Though Duke Lieb had heard firsthand about the battle in Baron Vector’s lands from his daughter, he chose to phrase it carefully in the presence of outsiders.

“But isn’t that unrelated to our country?”

This time, Bryden answered instead.

“No, it’s not. The empire is determined to eliminate the kingdom before it explodes. Under the pretense of investigating Baron Vector’s incident, they plan to station imperial troops and mages near the area, which the kingdom vehemently opposes. The empire is set on removing the threat by any means necessary. War is only a matter of time. And when it begins, the empire will surely demand cooperation from the Duchy of Carat. Though they’ll call it ‘cooperation,’ it will essentially be forced compliance.”

“……!”

“The Duchy of Carat serves as a crucial foothold—crossing just one Presia Mountain leads straight to Liberta, the southernmost part of the kingdom. If war breaks out, the empire will never leave such a strategic point unattended. If you wait until then, you’ll be forced into an unfair treaty. That’s why it’s better to formally integrate with the empire now and receive their protection—”

“Receive their protection?”

Ravi’s voice turned sharp, different from before.

“Bryden, what do you mean by ‘receive protection’? Are you saying we should abandon the name of the Duchy of Carat and completely surrender our nation to the empire?”

“I’m not saying you have to go that far. But the empire already sees the Duchy of Carat as a vassal state at best. Rather than resisting and suffering later, it’s better to negotiate while you still have leverage—”

“This is the land of the Bani people. Even though we’re just a small duchy, we still have a king and citizens. What you’re saying amounts to telling us to give up our country to the empire just because war might spill over here!”

“Ravi, I understand how you feel, but you have to think realistically. The Duchy of Carat is weak. If you resist the empire, things could go even worse. The Bani people don’t have the numbers to wage a total war against the empire. If we want to protect the citizens from the flames of war, it’s better to step back and come under the empire’s protection.”

“Think realistically? What are you talking about?”

“If you’re worried about the aftermath, I can personally petition the empire to allow the Bani people to settle in unoccupied imperial lands. We can also station members of the Goddess’s Blade here for constant security and—”

Bryden’s words were cut off by Ravi’s furious outburst.

“So just because we’re a small, weak ethnic group, we have to rely on someone else’s protection? You’re saying we’re so weak and helpless that we can’t even protect our own land, can’t even find a place to live on our own, can’t even fight for ourselves, and always have to depend on the generosity of others? We don’t need that kind of ‘protection’!”

Ravi’s fists trembled with anger.

Bryden, Celine, and Robert were stunned into silence, having never expected such a reaction from her.

“I’m sick and tired of this so-called benevolent discrimination—treating us as helpless inferiors who can’t do anything without outside intervention! We are just as capable as anyone else! Bryden, is that how you’ve always seen the Bani people? As weaklings who need someone like you to lead them?”

Tears welled up in Ravi’s eyes.

“Is that why you were nice to me at the academy? Did you think we should be grateful for your charity? Did you expect us to bow down and thank you!? Bryden, I completely misjudged you! You’re the worst!”

Having grown accustomed to the way Alvis treated her as a true equal, Ravi, for the first time in her life, felt deep and burning anger toward Bryden.