Chapter 183
Splendid Like Fireworks (1)
It was two days before the capital was promptly besieged: The night after Montpellier’s execution was announced, with him tied to a pole in the plaza, trembling in the cold.
Queen Margarita then summoned a palace knight and instructed him to prepare for a situation.
“You must take the princes and princesses from the capital and protect them in the worst-case scenario.”
The palace knight knelt as he heard her words.
“Your Majesty, I have pledged my life to the blood of the Leonberger family. I am now being told to close my eyes and turn my back, by royal order.”
The queen boldly laughed at the palace knight’s request to give the order to someone else.
“I am not merely telling you to flee in shame. Yet also, it is not an order to hit their lines and enter battle. When worst comes to worst, I ask you to protect the children who will bear the future of the kingdom on their shoulders.”
The queen’s voice was abstracted, and the palace knight knew there could be no rejection.
“His Highness the First Prince, has asked me to remain with your Majesty, no matter what.”
Nevertheless, the palace knight did reject the queen’s order by bringing up the command from his master, even if he knew that he was likely going to offer up his life to fulfill it.
“You are Carls Ulrich?”
Carls bowed his head in regret as he heard those words and said, “Your Majesty’s son has an undeserving knight in his service.”
“His presence is an overwhelming one to follow, so it is enough if you just follow in his footsteps. There is no reason for your trembling humility, knight. Doesn’t my son have a temper? I don’t know, but it can’t be easy to follow such an unusual master.”
Carls grumbled. He wished to refute her words, but he dared not tell a lie in front of the queen.
The queen laughed again as she looked at his honest manner, but her smile didn’t last long.
“It is my fault that he grew up so weird,” she said in a sorrowful tone, and she smiled again.
Carls Ulrich listened to her with his head bowed, as if he was embarrassed.
“When that child was born, I wasn’t ready to be a mother.”
It was never a good place to be: In the position of a queen while having to take care of a child, like an ordinary mother. During the nights, Queen Margarita had to fight against blades hidden in the dark, and during days, she fought against those nobles who had become the empire’s dogs.
She lived every day as if she was walking on the edge of a blade. Far from properly disciplining her son, she didn’t even have the time to hug him in her arms. The raising of Prince Adrian was left to the nanny while the queen devoted herself only to supporting the king.
Time passed, and the toddler became a boy, and only then did she learn of all the scandals that surrounded her child.
“It was the servants who couldn’t dare report the wrongdoings of the royal prince. The child was never so insidious before his Majesty and me, so by the time I learned of his insidious nature, I could no longer heal him by my hand.”
Carls Ulrich’s face showed his discomfort and indecision as he listened to such gossip concerning his master. Whether he liked it or not, the queen pressed on.
“I tried to be stern. I tried to be soothing. But Adrian only lowered himself briefly before me, only for his depravity in places that I could not see to get worse.
“I tried to ask my brother to teach the child, but he only confirmed that the boy’s nature was unable to align with that of either his parents. And after his uncle left him, no one was there for Adrian, not even his father.
“By what right could I blame my own child for his ways? He has gotten to that point because I was not there to raise him properly.”
Carls carefully spoke up in sympathy.
“However, Your Majesty did not give up. While everyone in the kingdom failed to see his Highness’s strong will and spoke ill of him, only your Majesty the Queen believed in his Highness and arranged a meeting with Count Bale Balahard again. And so, his Highness became a new man.”
“It is not that everyone else failed to see the child’s strong will. There wasn’t such a thing in the first place,” the queen said.
“But his Highness saved the north and became a great hero in the kingdom.”
Queen Margarita did not respond to the words of the loyal knight. It had been a long while since she had donned iron armor and wielded a bow. She figured that she had become too sentimental and had already said too much.
It was a last-ditch effort that she had brought her brother to the palace to help a son she had almost written off. And if that last chance had failed…
“A lot has gone well, but the child is still unstable. If upright people like you don’t look after him, he will probably burn out in flames.”
The queen wanted Carls to remain with the prince so that he would not scorch himself into ashes.
“I, Carls Ulrich, swear that I will live by the sword for the prince until the day I die.”
Only then did Margarita laugh with satisfaction.
“Then our talk is done, and you have your mission,” said the queen.
“What is your Majesty talking about?” asked the now-confused Carls, and the queen replied with natural grace.
“Didn’t you say it yourself? You said you pledge your life and sword to him. In that case, you shouldn’t be throwing away your life in vain. When a situation arises, you should not forget your oath and plan the future in such a way that you can rejoin with the prince.”
“I did not mean it in such a way-“
“I don’t think a person like you will go back on your word. Or am I wrong about you?”
Carls Ulrich’s insides heated up. If he said the queen is correct, he would have to follow her command; if Carls said no, he would become a faithless person. Margarita gave a pleasant laugh as she looked at Carls’ innocent face.
* * *
“The enemy has begun to advance!”
Margarita was snapped from her thoughts by the garrison captain’s report.
Despite the knight’s mouth being shut by her arrow, the enemy’s morale did not seem to waver. They were indeed a sharpened dagger that the empire had hidden against the kingdom’s throat.
“Archers, do not fire until the order is given!” the queen shouted sternly, and the knights spread across the walls relayed her instructions.
‘Dum~ Dum~ Dum~’ the sound of marching drums came from all over.
“Hfoo~”
The sound of soldiers breathing heavily with tension and fear filled the walls, and even the strongest knights were exhaling hard, overwhelmed by the great force of the advancing enemy.
“A little more- Let them come closer.”
Margarita prevented those who wanted to release their arrows from doing so, again and again.
The soldiers’ breathing became a bit calmer as they listened to her calm voice, which did not match the situation’s urgency. However, once the enemy reached firing range, the sounds of heavy breathing flared up once more.
A hundred yards. Ninety yards.
“Must I give the instruction?” the tense captain asked.
“Not yet,” said Margarita, shaking her head.
Eighty yards. Now they reached the seventy-yard mark.
‘Dumtum~ Dumtum~ Dumtum~’
The slow drumming took on an urgent rhythm, and in turn, the enemy’s pace began accelerating.
Sixty-five yards.
The enemy’s blazing eyes could now be distinguished by the naked eye from under their helms.
Sixty yards.
“Queen!” came the tense shout of the garrison commander. Margarita raised not an eyebrow.
‘Dudududud~’ the enemies had increased their speed: They were now running.
And when they finally reached 50 yards, Margarita cried, “Fire!”
The archers let their bowstrings twang upon the queen’s order.
“Aaaahh!”
“Kyaap!”
Screams erupted from one enemy to the next. Those hit in vital spots dropped to the ground mid-run, and those who had suffered minor wounds sat down where they were as they grasped the parts of their bodies where the arrows had struck them.
Those who followed stumbled over the scattered corpses, becoming entangled with those who sat on the ground.
“Ready, second volley!”
The soldiers of the capital were half-enchanted by their first encounter with real battle. They mechanically drew back their bowstrings upon Margarita’s order.
“Fire!”
The confusion of the enemy advance peaked as they were once more baptized in a hail of arrows before they had managed to order their entangled lines.
Margarita continued to encourage the archers.
“Don’t stop! Draw and fire!” Margarita shouted, all the while letting the string of her own northern bow twang as she released arrow after arrow.
The archery of the white-haired queen was truly something to behold, and the knights and soldiers began shouting, their morale raised.
The number of enemies charging at the walls had reached their thousands, however. The archers on the wall numbered only three hundred. Even if there had been initial confusion, the imperial soldiers reached the walls of Leonberg’s capital.
‘Dwak!’ soldiers began striking at the gates with a siege ram.
‘Scklup!’ siege ladders were leveled against the walls.
“Archers, keep firing!” Leave the ladders to the infantry!” Margarita directed, and the defenders who had up till now only watched the archers now took up poles and pushed against the ladders.
“One, two! Heave! Heave!” two or three soldiers supported each other as they pushed the ladders back, and the ladders which had been placed on the walls fell back one after another. Imperial soldiers climbing the ladders screamed as they fell onto their comrades’ heads.
The ladders were quickly righted and pushed back, however. The imperials began climbing to the wall again, and when the royal soldiers tried to push back the ladders with their poles, they found that ladders weighed down with the bodies of many men could not be pushed back as easily as the first time.
“Block them!”
“Die!”
The defenders attacked with sword and spear, and those enemies climbing the ladders and sticking their heads over the wall fell under the strikes of these weapons.
However, the forces defending the capital did not number enough to closely guard the vast circumference of the outer wall. Enemies eventually squeezed through the gaps and gained the walls.
“Your Majesty, we have to give up the outer walls!” the royal guard commander shouted.
“Is this a ruined castle in the countryside! This is the capital of our kingdom! How can the soldiers in the front fight if those in the rear abandon them! And what will happen to the people outside the palace!” came the queen’s sharp reply, and she looked at the walls. Margarita knocked an arrow, drew back her bowstring, and released the arrow with such swiftness that the action seemed invisible. Her arrows flew like beams as they pierced into the heads and chests of the enemies who had climbed to the wall.
“The knights must first deal with enemies on the wall!”
“But then the queen-“
“If the outer walls collapse, I will not be safe either! For now, the priority remains the protection of the city walls!”
The knights scattered to the walls upon Margarita’s command, leaving only a small of their number by her side.
“I will sacrifice my life to protect this city!”
“Believe only in your swords!” the queen replied coldly as the knights roared their martial cries. All the while, her hands were never still, and the number of enemies killed by her bow had already reached a staggering amount. The blisters on Margarita’s finger grew bigger all the while.
Her natural sense for archery has remained the same even after so many years, but her fingers had indeed become those of a retired lady, and they could not easily withstand the strain. The queen’s fingers soon become bloody.
“Queen! Stop firing the bow!” the junior palace knights pleaded, but she gave them no heed.
“The soldiers on the walls are getting their blood spilled! How can I worry about my skin, about scratches that bleed not even a handful of blood!”
The palace knights shut their mouths at her stern words, while the capital guards pushed back hard at the enemy, their morale raised.
It was now the central portion of the wall, where the defenders had the greatest morale, which attracted the attention of the assailants. The offensive began to focus on that portion at some point, and the imperial knights started to charge in, hoping to capture the queen and end the battle.
In the next instant, dozens of knights and soldiers began to climb toward the central wall. Five palace knights swung their swords, trying to stem the tide, and Carls Ulrich was one of the five.
“Your Majesty! Their offensive is intensifying! Please step back and support us from the rear!” Carls begged the queen as he swung his sword in frantic arcs.
‘Schoof!’ he heard a sharp sound instead of an answer as a black blur neatly passed through the gap between him and his sword.
‘Qlchup~’ and an enemy knight, sword raised in mid-strike, was somersaulted back as the arrow pierced his eye through the slit in his helm.
Carls could not help but look back, seeing that the queen remained there even in the intense offensive by an increasing number of enemies.
“Get down!” came the queen’s icy shout, and as Carls instinctively ducked his head, the queen’s fingers danced over her bow.
‘Tung~ Tung~’ Carls heard as the bowstring twanged twice in the blink of an eye.
“Kaargh!”
“No! My eye!”
There came two screams, and Carls looked back, seeing an imperial soldier with an arrow in his eye and a knight with one stuck into his armpit. Carls hurriedly struck out with his sword and sliced through the throats of the two warriors who had survived.
“Do not worry about my comfort! Focus on the battle!”
The queen sounded like she was scolding him rather than giving advice, and Carls smiled bitterly.
And even amid the tumult of battle, the queen’s personality of not losing her spirit whatsoever made Carls think of someone else. Someone familiar.
Indeed: Like mother, like son.
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