“Haa… haa…”
The girl’s panting echoed through the gloomy forest.
Her once-pure white socks were now thoroughly blackened with mud, and the gorgeous princess dress she had always adored was, at this moment, nothing more than a hindrance to her escape.
Behind her, explosions and the rumbling of steel crushing everything in its path continued without pause.
Magitech Knights—the ultimate weapons humanity had developed to protect civilization and fend off magical beasts and foreign races—were, in this moment, demonstrating efficiency in slaughtering their own kind that far surpassed any magic or weapon in human history.
“Uu… uuuh…”
She didn’t know how things had come to this. Silent tears streamed endlessly from eyes that had once been bright and cheerful.
Just half an hour ago, she had been laughing and playing in the carriage with her favorite maid sister and her imperial guard uncle, on their way to attend the Emperor’s 380th birthday banquet.
And now, she could only flee alone.
All of it was because of those ten Magitech Knights that had suddenly burst from the forest—painted gold, styled like the Empire’s standard models.
Her maid sister and guard uncle had shoved her into the underbrush and piloted their machines to buy her time.
—But it was meaningless.
Two against ten—even as elite imperial guards, the cream of the crop, they had no chance of winning.
After all, who could have imagined that someone would dare ambush a personally invited VIP of the imperial family on a major road leading to the Empire?
She could only run, keep running.
“Wind… Wind Pressure Bullet!!”
Sensing her pursuers closing in, the girl shouted in desperation, releasing an unpracticed spell. She then used the recoil to slam heavily into the canopy of a tall tree.
“Guh!”
Ignoring the pain, she hurriedly clung to a nearby branch and held her breath.
For the first time in her life, she hated the lazy, unskilled version of herself.
As a member of the royal family, her bloodline possessed what was widely recognized on the continent as top-tier magical talent, with an immeasurable amount of mana within her.
Yet she had never thought to make use of that power, spending her days indulged in her father’s doting and everyone else’s pampering.
It was common knowledge that even the greatest talent, if unused, was nothing more than empty talk.
No matter how vast her internal mana reserves, without studying magical knowledge or practicing release and control techniques, the finest talent was no different from an ordinary person’s.
If… if only she knew stronger magic, she could have used the time her sister and uncle bought to escape.
Or even… even pilot a Magitech Knight and fight alongside them.
“Boom!!!”
A massive surge of wind magic erupted, instantly reducing several towering trees blocking the girl’s path to flying splinters.
Its monitor glowing a dangerous deep red, the four-meter-tall, fully golden Magitech Knight crushed the earth as it slowly emerged from the forest, scanning the surroundings.
Soon, six more units appeared from different directions, converging beneath this large tree.
—They were down three machines, and all seven remaining units bore varying degrees of damage. Her two loyal guards had etched horrifying scars upon them at the cost of their lives.
Realizing she had completely lost her protection, she felt her breathing nearly stop.
She flipped over to lie flat on the branch, letting the dense foliage fully conceal her form while clamping her hands tightly over her mouth to silence her heavy gasps, lest the enemies below discover her.
[“Have you found the princess?”]
[“No.”]
[“Tch, that little thing’s slippery. Didn’t they say she was useless and didn’t know any magic?”]
Cold voices emanated from the Magitech Knights’ speakers.
For some reason, though she had never heard these voices before, she could clearly sense the anger and resentment within them.
[“Damn it, those two cost us three Magitech Knights.”]
[“Dead or alive, we have to capture her.”]
[“If we can’t use her to spark conflict between the border kingdoms and the Empire…”]
[“Our rebel army…”]
Overhearing critical information, the girl’s pupils contracted sharply.
She understood—everything.
From the moment she left the Elze Kingdom to represent her father at the Empire’s invitation, she had been swept into this vortex.
The rebel forces within the Empire had targeted her.
They planned to use her death—the sole heir of the Elze Kingdom, a nation with top-tier comprehensive strength—to provoke conflict between the border nations and the Empire.
After all…
—The princess met with misfortune on the major road while traveling to your country for a banquet. With such an important status, and tragedy striking en route to your nation, who would believe there was no foul play?
Once the Empire clashed externally, the pressure on the domestic rebels would lighten considerably, naturally creating an opportunity for them.
[“Tch, search quickly.”]
[“Those imperial parasites will arrive soon.”]
[“We’re running out of time!”]
They called the people of the Empire parasites, yet remained utterly oblivious to how their own actions—dragging innocents into their scheme for personal gain—made them no different from those heartless nobles they despised.
Perhaps in the eyes of these extremists, anything in the world that couldn’t be used by them or didn’t stand on their side was disposable.
After all, their ideal was merely to become the next Empire, with themselves seated upon the throne of rule.
“Uu… uuuh…”
“Father… Mother…”
Recalling her father’s warnings and her mother’s concern before her first long journey, this princess raised in the palace—Isisra—felt an endless surge of grievance and confusion well up in her heart.
But beyond pressing her hands harder over her mouth, she could do nothing.
Intense regret and unwillingness rose from her young heart.
Below the tree, one Magitech Knight remained on guard while the other six dispersed in six directions for a carpet search.
Without doubt, when they returned empty-handed, they would search this area again. Discovery was only a matter of time.
Isisra didn’t want to die—she couldn’t die. She still had her country, her father and mother waiting for her return.
She knew full well that if she died here, her prosperous and beautiful homeland would inevitably be engulfed in war.
“If… if only someone could save me, even…”
In her desperation, Isisra even prayed to the legendary “God of the Sun”—that elusive deity said to symbolize glory and abundance, yet who had never once protected humanity since the dawn of civilization.
However, at that very moment…
“Bang!!!”
“Crash— ”
“Caw! Caw! Caw!”
Accompanied by a shockwave, a massive explosion suddenly rang out from the distant forest. Startled birds flocked out of the trees in droves, fleeing into the far sky.
Because it was too far away, at first it wasn’t clear here.
But…
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Immediately after, five more explosions sounded in rapid succession. In the blink of an eye, a total of six blasts thundered almost simultaneously from the other six directions.
Isisra and the Magitech Knight below the tree both looked toward the sources in shock.
And in that instant…
“Hum— ”
“Boom!!!”
Terrifying mana fluctuations rose alongside a night-purple glow from the monitors, ascending from the shadows of the forest.
[“Who goes there?!?!”]
The guarding Magitech Knight had barely reached for the magitech sword on its back when, in the next moment, a ghostly shadow lunged from the darkness.
It was a Magitech Knight with an all-pink paint scheme—slender, extraordinarily beautiful.
In the future, Isisra would learn that this was the prototype of the first Eternal Night Knight, later known as “Butterfly,” the foremost of the world-shaking “Nine Eternal Night Knights.”
But in this moment, she could only stare blankly at the magnificent night-purple light emanating from its monitor, momentarily lost in a daze.
[“Gueeeeh!!!”]
The pink Magitech Knight’s attack was lightning-fast and utterly lethal.
As its arm blade—formed of pure mana—slashed down, the golden Magitech Knight below could only raise its sword in a desperate full block.
With just one strike, the previously imposing fake imperial knight emitted the wail of tortured steel from within, mana sparks spilling endlessly from its joints.
[“This… this astonishing output…”]
[“You… who exactly are…”]
[“Why interfere with our rebel…”]
[“Aaaaaah!!!”]
The pink Magitech Knight gave its opponent no more time and deigned not to answer.
Dreamlike pink light wings unfolded from its transforming back armor—beautiful constructs of pure mana, resembling butterfly wings.
Then, countless butterfly-shaped magical creations swarmed from the light wings, surging toward the golden knight that was barely holding on, powerless to fight back.
In mere moments, the opponent’s voice was drowned in the radiance formed by the pink butterfly swarm…
Within the light, Isisra faintly heard one line:
[“You lot aren’t fit to call yourselves a rebel army.”]
Then, the battle ended.
“Seven units in total. All pilots killed in a single strike.”
“Bodies relatively intact.”
“Congratulations, Ye. Your piloting skills grow ever more refined.”
Before she could process what had just happened, a girl about her age—yet with even more outstanding appearance and temperament, delicate as a doll—emerged from the forest and reported the results to the pink Magitech Knight.
[“Mm.”]
A calm response came from within the Magitech Knight.
At that moment, the sound of “click-click-click” mechanisms echoed from inside the machine.
The cockpit slowly opened, and a night-purple figure leaned out. By age, not much older than her.
As the uniquely designed Magitech Knight gently extended a hand to catch the youth emerging from the humanoid cockpit snug against its body, Isisra witnessed a scene she would never forget.
Short hair of refined black tinged with purple, amethyst eyes as deep and beautiful as a starry sky. Clearly a boy, yet possessing a porcelain-doll face so exquisite that even girls would envy it.
He slightly bowed his head, reaching to smooth the wrinkles in his clothes caused by the intense battle inside the cockpit.
The moon, rising at some unknown point, chose that moment to cast its clear glow through the gaps in the leaves onto him.
In that instant, Isisra felt her heart pound like a drum.
The youth below the tree—who had just saved her—appeared in her eyes as the darling of this moonlit world, as if the entire world existed for him alone.
With a racing heart, Isisra slowly slid down the trunk and approached the boy and girl, who showed no surprise at her appearance.
Then…
“Hey! You two! Taking this long to save me—do you realize how derelict that is!”
“I…”
Never taught by her father or mother how to face this fluttering in her heart, spoiled words escaped her mouth without thought.
Watching the calm in the other’s eyes shift to confusion, then tint with a trace of disdain, Isisra forcibly swallowed the rest of her words.
She slowly lowered her head, tightly clutching her soiled skirt hem.
“It’s over…”
Her eyes nearly spiraling from nerves, cheeks burning red, Isisra’s mind was utter chaos.