"I have confirmed the banner. The ones conducting the forest hunt are undoubtedly Count Ketzer's domain army."
Lucas spoke the anticipated words, his face twisted as though he had bitten into something foul.
"Our escape route?"
"We are completely surrounded. They have likely pinpointed our location as well. Many among the Wind Cats are elderly with frail legs or children too young to fend for themselves. Escaping with every single resident is out of the question."
"I know that! But we must do it nonetheless!"
If they failed, the Wind Cats were finished. They would be trampled underfoot by that pig of a count, and the hard-won peace and smiles of the residents would be shattered to dust. All to satisfy the lust of such a wretched piece of trash!
"Princess, allow me to state it once more. It is impossible for all the residents of the Wind Cats to escape. That is an absolute certainty."
Lucas spoke with uncharacteristic finality. For him to state it so flatly, it had to be the undeniable truth.
They could not all escape. Then what were they supposed to do?! Was he telling her to pick and choose who lived and who died?!
"Lady Felice, we're fine staying here. Please, just let the young ones get away."
At the pleading words of an elderly man—one of the Wind Cats' elders—an old woman nodded deeply in agreement.
"Aye, indeed. Thanks to you, Lady Felice, we've lived full lives. We even got to know the joy of having grandchildren. It's more than enough for us."
"Don't be absurd! How could I possibly abandon you?!"
"However, if we remain as we are, everyone will die."
Goaded past her limit by Lucas's callous words, she grabbed him by the collar and shouted in his face.
"Shut your mouth for a moment, will you?!"
"..."
Just as Lucas fell silent, the entire cave violently shuddered, and a piercing shriek tore through the air.
"Princess!"
"I know! The rest of you, stay put!"
Snatching the longsword at her waist, she drew the blade and dashed toward the cave entrance.
At the threshold, she was greeted by the sight of blood-soaked Wind Cats residents sprawled across the ground, trampled and kicked by men dressed as mercenaries. A fury so intense it shook her to the core surged within her.
"You bastards!!"
Letting out a feral roar, she kicked off the ground with all her might.
The surrounding scenery blurred into a streak behind her. She thrust her longsword straight toward the throat of a hulking man wearing an iron mask that exposed only his mouth, who was currently grinding his boot into Maaya—the black-haired girl she considered family, who had been on lookout duty.
Metal shrieked against metal.
(—Kh?!)
Felice's full-force thrust was deflected with trivial ease.
Spotting a massive greatsword sweeping toward her in the same breath, she leaped backward. The tip of the heavy blade sliced through the air mere inches from her nose, and the resulting gust whipped her hair wildly, throwing her off balance.
She quickly recovered her stance to launch another assault, but—
"Don't move a muscle!"
The triumphant, savage roar of the iron-masked man echoed out. The edge of his greatsword was pressed flush against Maaya's throat.
As Felice froze mid-stride, she saw blade tips being held to the throats of her other family members one after another.
This was a nightmare. They had been taken hostage. Now, Felice could make no overt moves.
"Princess, forget about us! Take the others and run!!"
Even as Maaya screamed those intolerable words, cries of agreement rose from the other captives.
"Whoa there, don't go running, little Princess. Drop the steel."
The iron-masked man bore down harder with the boot on Maaya's chest, drawing a gut-wrenching scream from the girl.
"S-Stop! I will not run!"
She cast the longsword in her right hand to the ground, glaring daggers at him.
"Good girl. After all, you're our precious, precious bait."
The iron-masked man curled the corners of his mouth into a grotesque, satisfied smirk.
Bait? Was his target not Felice?
"Come on out, Commander Lucas!"
Cutting through Felice's racing thoughts, the iron-masked man turned his gaze toward the depths of the cave and bellowed at the top of his lungs.
When Lucas still did not appear, the man clicked his tongue, leveled the point of his greatsword straight at the bridge of Felice's nose, and shouted with a force that shook the surrounding trees.
"If you don't show yourself, I'll take this princess's head! You know damn well I'll do whatever it takes to kill you!"
"It has been a long time, Caesar."
Emerging from the darkness of the cave with a longsword gripped in his right hand, the elderly gentleman—Lucas—replied in an ice-cold tone.
The giant spat on the ground, stripped off his iron mask, and cast it aside. Beneath the metal lay the mangled, melted ruin of the left side of his face.
"It aches, you know. This face that you burned."
His voice trembled with venom as his bare fingernails scraped against his festering left cheek. His face contorted between sadistic joy and blinding fury, radiating a madness so thick that Felice swallowed hard despite herself.
"I am glad to hear it. It seems charring you was well worth the effort."
At Lucas's disdainful taunt, leveled alongside his blade, thick veins bulged across Caesar's forehead. He shot a sidelong glare toward a stubbled man in a pointed hat and navy robe, who was observing the scene with amusement from the rear.
"Ruby! This one is mine. Don't you dare touch him!"
He barked the order with absolute authority.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like our victory is in doubt anyway. Have your fun."
The navy-robed man muttered a brief incantation, and the ground surged unnaturally, binding Felice, Maaya, and the rest of the Wind Cats in stone restraints.
"Princess Felice, it would be in your best interest not to play your trump card. That is, unless you want these little monkeys torn to shreds."
Speaking in a cruel drawl, the man completed a second chant. Intricate magic circles ignited across the earth. From each one crawled a massive black scorpion, raising its venomous stinger toward the immobilized captives.
This man, like Felice, was a summoner by trade. Furthermore, the pendant engraved with a phoenix around his neck proved he had graduated from the towers of the World Mage Academy Babel.
If so, his threat was no bluff; she had to assume he already knew of one of her trump cards.
Worse still, his eyes were of the exact same breed as that cold-blooded prime minister's—eyes that attached zero value to human life, utterly detached and merciless. This was no empty warning. If Felice attempted to summon that child, the scorpions would slaughter her people before she could finish.
Though the situation seemed utterly hopeless, Felice still harbored a desperate, secret measure to turn the tides. That child was not the only entity with whom she had forged a contract. Furthermore, those who even knew of its existence were vanishingly few across the kingdom; the odds that these mercenaries knew of it were next to nothing.
If she awakened that, not even Felice would emerge unscathed. The price demanded of her might very well claim her life. But if her precious family could be saved, she would gladly pay it. She would protect them no matter the cost. That was Felice's final, unyielding pride.
(Lucas will surely buy me the time I need.)
All that remained was to awaken that and name her desire.
Conveniently, the navy-robed summoner seemed content to stand by and watch. She would begin the ritual under their noses. Closing her eyes, Felice let her consciousness plunge into the deepest recesses of her mind.