At Least the Body
Edric cut swiftly through the throng of soldiers bustling back and forth.
Less than an hour after the battle's end, the campsite that had been little more than a shambles was already being restored to order with remarkable speed. While the soldiers recovered weapons from the wyvern carcasses and cleared away the wrecked tents, laborers loaded crates and bundles of supplies onto carts, and the maids gathered the corpses into one place before wrapping them carefully in silk cloth.
Moving at a brisk pace through the camp, Edric estimated the number of bodies by eye.
Seventeen in total.
Adding those who had been swallowed whole by the wyverns, roughly twenty-five to thirty seemed to have perished. Factoring in the wounded, the scale of the damage was far from trivial. He clenched his fist.
Wyverns appearing in a pack during the Fire Season…
Ordinarily, wyverns woke from hibernation near the end of the Season of Rest and only began forming packs once the Water Season arrived. After the breeding period passed, they would pair off and scatter — so for more than a dozen wyverns to appear all at once during the Fire Season was an exceedingly rare phenomenon. Moreover, this region was hardly a suitable habitat for large magical beasts like wyverns.
To dismiss it as nothing more than rotten luck feels somehow incomplete.
With narrowed eyes, Edric surveyed the wyvern carcasses strewn across the hills, then pushed the questions rising in his mind aside. This was no time for idle speculation. He strode on long legs without hesitation toward where the knights had gathered.
"Commander!"
Barcas, who had been issuing instructions to the knights, turned his head toward him.
Edric flinched involuntarily and stopped mid-stride. His superior's face, revealed beneath the wavering firelight, was streaked with dark crimson blood. Edric's own appearance was likely little better — yet the sight of that cool, marble-carved face, drenched in blood and gleaming with cold eyes, carried an uncanny, almost eerie quality.
"Did you find anything?"
Sir Siurkan asked in his characteristic flat, toneless voice.
Snapping back to himself, Edric hurriedly delivered his report.
"We've discovered traces of a wyvern that crashed to the north. It appears to have fallen into the canyon below."
Barcas turned his head to look northward. The torches in the knights' hands cast a murky light over the shadows of the ominous forest. There was no telling what other savage magical beasts might be lurking within.
Edric spoke with urgency.
"We must form a search party at once. We have no time to—"
"A search? What search!"
A fierce voice cut in abruptly, and Edric whipped his head around. The Crown Prince, his thick black hair disheveled like a lion's mane, was approaching them with his retinue in tow.
Edric hastily bowed in salute. The Crown Prince paid him no mind whatsoever and strode up to Barcas.
"She's obviously dead already! Stop wasting time on pointless nonsense and get ready to leave at once! What are you going to do if we dawdle and get attacked by another pack of monsters?"
Edric's face hardened at the utterly heartless words.
The Crown Prince's face was paler than usual — perhaps still shaken by the sudden calamity. A man who had never in his life faced so much as a single ogre, let alone a wyvern, had just lived through that chaos; it was only natural he would be frightened. Yet Edric could feel not even a shred of sympathy for the Crown Prince, who looked wound so tightly he seemed almost pitiable.
Glaring at the Crown Prince with open hostility in his eyes, Edric then rolled his gaze to gauge Barcas's reaction. The man was strangely silent.
Surely he doesn't mean to go along with the Crown Prince's wishes?
Even if she had been born a bastard, Talia Roem Guerta was still the Emperor's daughter. Moreover, was she not the eldest daughter of the current Empress? They could not simply abandon an Imperial Princess of the Empire to become prey for magical beasts over the Crown Prince's personal grudge. This was a matter of a knight's honor as well.
Edric spoke urgently.
"If you would form a search party, I will go myself and find Her Highness the Second Princess. So please—"
"You insolent little bastard, who do you think you are, stepping forward like that!"
The Crown Prince exploded in rage and seized him by the collar.
Edric looked up at him with calm eyes. He was long accustomed to the man's violent outbursts. Edric spoke with the utmost courtesy.
"I beg your pardon. But we cannot simply leave Her Highness the Princess like this—"
"Princess?"
Ha — the Crown Prince let out a dry laugh and forced out each word right in his face.
"Listen carefully, you whelp. In this empire, there is only one princess — Ayla Roem Guerta. That bitch Talia should never have been born into this world in the first place. Being left as monster bait is a fitting end for that bas—"
"Enough."
At the low voice, Edric flinched and looked at his superior. No matter how high-handedly Gareth behaved, Barcas had always addressed him with proper formality. The fact that he had not only cut off the Crown Prince mid-sentence but spoken down to him left Edric momentarily dumbfounded.
He was not the only one startled — the Crown Prince also turned to stare at him with wide eyes. But Barcas's face remained composed.
"Your Highness would do well to return to your quarters and rest."
Barcas spoke flatly, then gave a nod toward the knights standing ready behind the Crown Prince.
"Bring a mage at once. Select about ten men with agile movements and form a search party."
The knights scattered immediately to carry out his orders. Watching this with a dazed expression, the Crown Prince released Edric's collar as if throwing him aside and stepped up to Barcas.
"Are you… raising a banner against me over that woman?"
"I received orders from His Majesty the Emperor to guard three people."
A dry, flavorless voice flowed from Barcas's lips.
"Your Highness's instructions cannot take precedence over His Majesty the Emperor's commands, can they?"
"Don't give me excuses!"
The Crown Prince blocked Barcas's path.
"You think I haven't noticed how you've been oddly protective of that girl Talia all this time? Be honest. You—"
"Gareth!"
At that moment, a sharp, high, beautiful voice cut through the taut air.
Edric, who had been watching the two men with anxious eyes, whipped his head around. The First Imperial Princess, accompanied by two attendants, was crossing between the knights with elegant steps.
She was the princess who, from the moment the last wyvern had been defeated, had taken personal command of the maids and seen to every last one of the wounded. Still wearing the heavy fatigue she had not yet managed to wash away, the princess approached her younger brother and fixed him with a resolute gaze.
"Sir Siurkan is right. We cannot leave Talia behind like this. Whatever else she may be, that child is our own flesh and blood."
"Are you out of your mind right now?"
The Crown Prince glared at his sister with eyes full of betrayal.
"After all the humiliation our mother suffered because of that bitch, how can you say something like that!"
"Please, be rational."
The princess cut off her brother's words in a voice heavy with dignity. Though she had entered the world only a few minutes apart from him, she seemed far more mature than the Crown Prince.
Looking straight up at her brother, she continued carefully.
"If we return to the Imperial Palace leaving Talia behind like this, not only Sir Siurkan but you as well will become the subject of unnecessary scandal. Why take that kind of risk?"
At the cold words that had come from the mouth of the First Princess, whose gentle and benevolent nature was widely renowned, Edric found himself momentarily speechless.
She added softly, as if soothing her fuming brother.
"At the very least, let us recover that child's body properly so that we may hold a funeral."