For the heart - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 6

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The Arsed Imperial Palace Knight Training Grounds were overwhelming in scale from the start.

They boasted grounds vast enough for all the knights in the capital to train simultaneously, with dozens of training areas systematically arranged.

At the center sat a massive sand-covered swordsmanship arena that served as the core space for training.

The Emperor enjoyed directly witnessing Arsed’s powerful military might from this place.

When Nina entered the training grounds, she could already see her direct subordinate knights maintaining formation.

Vice-Captain Bern, who had been standing at their front, approached with quick steps.

“Captain, I heard you collapsed yesterday. Are you feeling alright?”

“Where did you hear that story again?”

“Is there anything about you that I don’t know, Captain? Are you really okay?”

“More or less.”

Bern, who was a good 20 centimeters taller than Nina, bent down to examine her complexion.

He was someone who hadn’t slept a wink after hearing the news that Nina had collapsed last night.

Though they had rolled together on battlefields for 6 years, he could count on his fingers the times he’d seen Nina lose consciousness.

For her to suddenly collapse like that.

Moreover, despite her words of being “more or less” fine, her complexion looked terrible.

As Nina tried to pass by, Bern quickly stepped forward and blocked her path.

“Today, no matter what, I’ll go out instead.”

Looking at Bern’s face, hardened with firm resolve, Nina smiled weakly.

She knew that whatever it was, this was a place where she had something to show by going out herself.

Nina lightly tapped Bern’s shoulder and walked ahead again.

“Just provide support depending on the situation.”

“The atmosphere is strange today. It’s different from usual.”

“Why?”

“They haven’t divided the knights who will compete in swordsmanship.”

As if trying to persuade Nina, Bern moved to stand beside her again and spoke quickly.

When conducting swordsmanship matches, they would select knights to form opposing teams, and each time they would match appropriate limits so as not to seriously injure each other.

If they weren’t dividing into teams…

“The beast?”

“I couldn’t check inside our area, but the exterior has changed. They’ve torn down all of ours and made one large one.”

Often when they captured fierce beasts alive, they would cage them and abuse them until their venom reached its peak.

And when the beast’s killing intent reached its climax, the Emperor would release it to hold matches.

This was because there were people who particularly enjoyed watching knights get brutally torn apart by beasts.

Empress Catalina Arsed and Princess Lillien Arsed.

If they had combined all the cages they’d been expanding into one giant cage, it meant there was something correspondingly large inside.

Nina furrowed her brow with an ominous premonition and looked up at the viewing stands overlooking the training grounds.

Under a large umbrella meant to block the sunlight sat the Emperor and Empress, with nearly ten people lined up beside them.

They were ministers from small countries not yet conquered.

There was nothing better than this to give them a preview of the terror they would feel in the upcoming war with Arsed.

“Your Highness.”

At the rasping voice heard from behind, Nina and Bern turned around.

A middle-aged man wearing a hood that Arsed men did not typically wear on their heads.

With his hair completely wrapped in black cloth so that not a single strand was visible, he could be recognized at a glance even from afar—he was the Emperor’s sorcerer, Desmorak.

Unusually tall and gaunt, he approached close to Nina.

“Today I’d like to request that you participate in a somewhat special match.”

Desmorak, whose eyes weren’t smiling at all while only the corners of his mouth curved up gently, met Nina’s gaze.

His light brown eyes gleamed like those of a madman, giving off an eerie quality.

He stared intently at Nina’s eyes with a gaze that seemed to peer deep into her very soul.

Her blue eyes, which always shone with a clear, piercing light, were now filled with heavy fatigue.

‘The palace physician visited last night and even this morning… Even the Healer was useless.’

Nina, with her immortal body, had varying recovery times depending on her condition, but a Healer’s healing power would unfailingly get her back on her feet.

But last night she had completely lost consciousness and was so ill that even a Healer was useless.

Desmorak was actually satisfied with Nina’s poor condition today.

“Your Highness, in today’s match you absolutely must not kill your opponent. Even if Your Highness gets seriously injured.”

At Desmorak’s shameless words, Bern glared at him.

His blood boiled every time they treated knights who had risked their lives fighting on battlefields this way, but it was the Emperor’s command.

And it was always Nina, who prioritized her role as Knight Captain over even being a princess, who bore the brunt of it.

Bern knew that Nina always overworked her own body to ensure not a single knight was lost in these meaningless swordsmanship matches.

“What’s the opponent?”

“You’ll know when you see it. And today, I’d like Your Highness to face it alone. To make this moment… stand out more and shine brighter.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. By His Majesty’s arrangement, we’ve brought out all the runaway Healers, so use as many as you need.”

Nina’s hand gripping her sword tensed until her knuckles stood out prominently.

Someone’s pain, someone’s life—all of it was so light, so trivial to this person before her.

Nina stared long into the eyes of Desmorak, who was looking down at her with a smile as if all this was the Emperor’s command, and eventually complied with his request.

“Vice-Captain. Maintain formation, standby.”

“…Yes, Captain.”

At Nina’s command, Bern, grinding his teeth, finally turned and moved toward where the knight order stood in formation.

Watching this scene, Desmorak whispered to Nina once she was left alone.

“You must hold tight to your reason so you absolutely don’t kill it. It’s the first demon beast to be used as Arsed’s weapon.”

Nina’s eyes widened slightly.

Did this mean they had actually succeeded in casting sorcery on a demon beast? It was something everyone believed would be impossible…

Desmorak laughed with a triumphant expression, stretching out his arm to point toward the center. As if telling her to hurry up and go out.

It wasn’t something she could avoid anyway.

She had to show them what they wanted to see for this to end quickly.

Clang.

As Nina lightly drew her sword tip across the ground, a cold light rippled along that line on the earth.

When her long, slender fingers gripped the sword’s handle tightly, the transparent gem embedded in the crossguard turned red and glowed.

Then the blade quickly froze and sparkled transparently, instantly radiating frost and cold air.

Gasps from the foreign ministers in the viewing stands and the Healers gathered at the edge of the arena could be heard softly.

It would be a sight they had never seen anywhere before.

Nina raised her head and saw two people just entering the viewing stands.

It was Lillien, dressed more splendidly than ever, and Casian escorting her.

“If I become consort, I will let Your Highness live as an ordinary woman, not as a weapon of war.”

Nina suddenly remembered what Casian had said to her yesterday and watched the two of them for a moment.

It seemed Casian’s words that Lillien was already smitten with him weren’t entirely boastful.

Until yesterday, Lillien had been giggling about seeing the humiliating face of Montregger’s First Prince, but now she was shyly tilting her head to the side, unlike her usual self.

‘Well. Even if we unified the entire continent, we might never find another person like him.’

Seeing Casian and Lillien looking so well-matched together, Nina’s feelings became complicated again.

Because yesterday’s events came to mind.

“I will become Your Highness’s dedicated Healer and accompany you to whatever battlefield you march to, and I will actively help Arsed unify the entire continent. Your Highness just needs to prove that I am sincere about Arsed.”

A foreign First Prince voluntarily going to war for continental unification. It would be perfect for dispelling the Emperor’s wariness and building his favor.

Even more so if another princess who fought alongside him gave her support.

Nina took a shallow breath, then shook her head and walked forward again.

An alliance with someone trying to devour Arsed was out of the question.

And this wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things. She didn’t know what kind of weaponized monster would emerge, and with her body in poor condition, she needed to focus on this moment.

Clank—!

As Nina stood in the center, Desmorak raised his hand as if he had been waiting.

Four waiting strong men split into pairs on each side and pushed the thick iron bars open with all their might.

At that moment, a lightning-like chill ran down Nina’s spine.

A hand gripping the iron cage as it emerged.

Three fingers with long claws as sharp and gleaming as blades.

‘Damn it…’

It was a Baraguz, a monster that devoured human hearts.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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