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–––Diaria’s viewpoint

Apparently they had taken Verna a short time after I left, and Simon followed to help. There had hardly been a delay, so it was possible they had been planning to attempt taking her for a while.

“…Did they know of our position this entire time then?”
“That’s the most likely option. Maybe they were tailing us from the moment we entered the city… Dammit! I should’ve looked around more carefully!”

Simon cursed as he punched the wall in frustration. Luckily his family was still safe. Verna had made the assailants agree to not touch the family if she did not resist capture.

“Blaming yourself won’t change anything, Simon. We don’t have time to regret the past, figuring out how to rescue her is more important.”
“…You’re right. We have to get her back.”

Since Simon was the most desperate, I was able to somehow keep a cool head. I tried to think about everything from the start, why would someone want to capture Verna? Stied had been ******* over her for a while, so were they trying to get in Stied’s good graces by bringing her to him? It was possible, but I felt like that was not a good enough reason.

That possibility would have been way more likely if I had not been attacking the castle at the same time. But things had taken a grim turn for them, so maybe they were trying to use her as a hostage against us?

“Did they say anything as they took Verna away?”
“First they spoke about going back to the castle, but then we heard a lot of noise outside… Then one of their friends came all exasperated, saying a monster had appeared…”

Simon’s mother looked pale as she recounted the events. A monster…that was probably Sol who ran on a rampage in the streets.

“What else?”
“They said the castle wasn’t safe, but they went out so I couldn’t hear anything more.”

Were they hiding in the streets then..? No, that was far too unlikely. Most of their comrades had been killed already, so I could not imagine they had the courage to remain in the city. Then…

“Maybe they’ve left the city already then?”
“What did you say?!”

Simon was shocked. I had no proof, but I felt like that was the most likely option. From what I learned, those knights had close to no loyalty for Stied. They were merely a group of avaricious and selfish people, so they were either trying to run away while using Verna as a meat shield, or as a way to appease Stied’s anger for their failure. Whichever their decision was, they needed to leave the city first. That was why my main conclusion was that the group had left the city.

“Not much time has passed, so they can’t be too far. I might be able to catch up to them. Are you coming too, Simon?”
“Of course I am! I can’t just sit idly when she has been captured like that!”

We both were decided, so now we just had to hurry. We left his family’s house and ran towards the castle. There were still the vestiges of the fight scattered all over the streets, and from time to time wary citizens would peek from the corner to see how things looked. There was still some time left before sunrise, so it would take some time before all the bloody remains were cleaned. We run past all the corpses and go to the castle’s front gates, heading in without hesitation and heading for the stables.

“Over here!”

Simon led the way. He had been there many times in the past, so he was a perfect guide. Luckily there were still horses there, so we climbed on them and rushed out of the castle. The city had two entrances, one to the north and one on the south. We went to the south one, as that was the direction to the capital where Stied was.

Going north would lead us to another country, so there was no way they took Verna there. It would be devastating if they actually went north, but we only had time to go one direction, so I decided to bet on the south.

There were no guards around the gates as we got closer. All their posts were empty and the gates were wide open. They had probably run away as well.

“Diaria!”

Simon pointed at the ground ahead, there were fresh tracks. If they were from a day prior the transit of people would have covered them completely, so if they were still clear it meant the horses had passed just a moment ago. Simon and I whipped our horses to make them gallop faster.

“Huff..! Huff..!”

I still had to take deep breaths. My mana had started recovering, but I was still in a far less than ideal shape. Apparently I had not calculated the time I had Sol out properly, and it took a bigger toll on me.

“I see them!”

Simon pointed ahead on the highway to a group of riders. There were three black knights, and one of them carried a large bundle behind. Or rather, a tied up person. I saw it moving and wriggling, clearly trying to come free.

“Milady!”

Simon shouted as he sped up. His voice reached the three riders, and they seemed to start panicking. I whipped my horse again to follow after Simon, while the knights seemed to come to a decision and stepped down from their horses with swords in hand.

“Stop! Or do you not care for this girl’s wellbeing?”

A black knight pointed his sword at Verna as he said that. Seeing that, Simon quickly pulled the reins and the horse came to a stop. Inertia threw his body forward, which rolled until it reached the black knights. That attracted the attention from the other black knights too, so I finished my preparations undetected.

“I know it was an accident, but good job Simon!”

I didn’t stop my horse even though I knew they had a hostage. I put an arrow in my bow and shot it at the horse Verna was tied to. There was a short whistling sound as the arrow traveled through the darkness of the night, and the arrowhead grazed the horse’s rear.

“Breeheeeheeee!”

The sudden pain made the horse go wild. A regular horse can be quite dangerous, but this was a military horse that was stronger and heavier. A hit from its hind legs could easily cost someone their life.

“D-Dammit!”
“Simon!”
“Milady!”

My second arrow follows right after, piercing the throat of the black knight and killing him instantly. Simon then attacked one of the two remaining black knights.

“Ahhhhh!”
“G-Get away kid!”

The black knights were clearly stronger than Simon. He would lose if his opponent collected himself. I had to take the chance while the black knight was still confused. I shot an arrow at the back of the black soldier Simon attacked, then let go of my bow and kept riding forward. Then when I reached the remaining black knight I jumped off the horse.

“Woah?!”
“Guh?!”

I cling onto him as we roll on the ground. I used the black knight as a cushion from my fall, imparting most of the momentum onto him, but it was still painful. I had bruises and scuffs all over my body, and the pain made me want to cry as I took my sword and hit his face with the hilt.

“You stupid bi-”

He wobbled on his feet and wiped the blood streaming from his nose. He tried insulting me, but before he could finish, his body was violently knocked down. His body was quickly buried halfway into the ground. The enraged horse had pushed him down before trampling on him with all its weight. Even though he was my enemy, I still felt like being trampled to death by a horse was a far worse way to go than to die by the blade. But I had little time to think about that, as the horse was charging towards me now.

“Awawawa?! Wait! Please go somewhere else!”
“Breeheeehee!”

There was no way an animal would understand my words, so I just started running. I took a quick glance at Simon and saw he was just finishing off the black knight with an arrow on his back. He had not expected an attack from me, so that left him even more open and Simon had little trouble defeating him. Simon started running after me and the horse, worried about Verna who was still tied to the horse. But the animal was too enraged to let me or Simon calm it down.

It took quite a while of running around before the horse finally calmed down and we were able to untie Verna. Once she came off from her restraints, Verna’s eyes were blank and there were traces of vomit all around her lips, which was quite unfortunate. There was no trace of the honor of a noble daughter in her, and I was not sure how to approach her in that state.

But Simon and I convinced ourselves it was fine since we managed to rescue her.