Chapter 601: THE LEGION ON THE HORIZON, THE QUESTION THAT UNMASKED THEM, AND THE PRINCESS’S ANSWER

The courier eagle landed in the governor’s mansion courtyard close to midnight, panting, its blue-silver feathers wet with dew. The Tamer riding it, the same young courier from Quiet Bay, nearly fell from the saddle as he jumped down.

“Report from the northern lookout post!” he cried hoarsely to the gate guard. “A huge convoy is moving south! Twelve mana-crystal ships, over two hundred wyverns, and mages beyond counting! The banners of the Noble Council’s Guard Legion!”

Within minutes, the news reached Celes’s ears, then Sylvia’s, then Zhaoyue’s. There was no panic in the governor’s mansion. Sylvia merely listened to the report while sipping warm tea in the dining room, with Noir asleep in her shadow.

“Twelve ships,” Sylvia repeated. “Yet Mo Lan said seven days.”

“Perhaps the Second Prince was impatient,” Celes answered without expression. “Or perhaps Mo Lan deliberately gave a false deadline.”

“Mo Lan isn’t good at lying. He wets himself when he’s scared.” Sylvia set down her cup. “They must have been sent early after the Council received word that the first fleet never returned.”

“Estimated arrival?”

“That courier eagle covered their distance in six hours. Mana-crystal ships are slower.” Celes calculated quickly. “Tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

Sylvia nodded at the very hour when Zhaoyue had to give her answer.

Dawn broke without mist. From atop the new fortress wall, only forty percent complete, Zhaoyue gazed at the northern horizon with swollen but upright eyes. Her dark red gown and simple silver crown looked heavier than usual. She hadn’t slept all night, and Sylvia knew it without needing to ask. Beside her, Sol in cat form sat on the wall’s parapet, swishing his tail slowly, without a single grumble.

“They’re coming sooner than expected,” Zhaoyue said quietly, without turning.

“Yes.”

“And I don’t have an answer yet.”

“I know.”

“Is this a coincidence?”

Sylvia shook her head. “In politics there are no coincidences, Zhaoyue. Maybe they really did get reports about our gate. Maybe the Council knows Baihu was disturbed, and connected it to my trip north.”

Zhaoyue fell silent. Then she clenched her fists on the parapet. “Then my questions are now two. What should I do about Baihu… and what should I do about them?”

“One thing at a time.”

The two waited in silence as the sun rose and small lines began to appear in the distance. At first they were only faint black dots on the northern horizon. Then the dots grew, becoming large round shapes drifting slowly with banners streaming. Twelve giant mana-crystal ships, moving in a tight triangular formation, escorted by hundreds of wyverns circling like a swarm of bees, and below them, hundreds of flying mages in white robes edged in gold, the emblem of the Noble Council.

The guards along the wall began to shift uneasily. Several young soldiers swallowed, their hands gripping spears tighter. The sight was enough to make anyone quail.

“Five hundred Tier Seven and Eight mages,” Zhaoyue whispered in a hoarse voice. “This city doesn’t have a single Tier Seven mage.”

“This city has Celes,” Sylvia answered calmly. “And you.”

Celes, standing behind with fifty of Nocture’s elite troops in black armor, only nodded without a sound. Those troops showed not the slightest fear. They stood in neat rows like statues, their eyes cold and focused.

The line of crystal ships finally stopped above an open plain three kilometers from the city wall. From the largest ship in the center of the formation, a crystal platform descended slowly, carrying a dozen or so robed figures. A tall man in white-gold robes stepped forward in front. On his left walked a gray-bearded general in silver armor. On his right was a handsome young man with an arrogant face, wearing a small silver crown he clearly wore to show off his status.

“Second Prince Hua Tianming,” Zhaoyue murmured, her jaw tightening. “And Grand General Wei Zhan, commander of the Guard Legion. A peak Tier Eight mage.”

‘They don’t even bother hiding the crown,’ Sol commented from the parapet.

Tianming’s voice boomed, amplified by a loudspeaker spell, filling the entire plain and penetrating the city wall.

“HUA ZHAOYUE! COME OUT AND WELCOME THE SECOND PRINCE OF THE KINGDOM OF TIANHUA!”

Zhaoyue closed her eyes briefly, took a long breath, then stepped to the highest edge of the wall. Her voice, amplified by a small crystal on the shoulder of her gown, sounded firm and clear.

“I’m here, Brother. Why not greet me more politely?”

“Politely?” Tianming laughed cynically. “You detained the Council’s fleet, humiliated General Mo Lan, and let foreigners build a port on the kingdom’s land without the Council’s permission! That is hardly worthy of being called polite, my sister. That is treason!”

“This is my territory.”

“A territory granted by Father out of the foolishness of being swayed by a foreign sorceress!” Tianming snapped. “But I am not Father. I am here in the name of the Grand Noble Council to take over Fallen Star City, detain those foreign newcomers, and bring you home to the capital to stand trial!”

A wave of unease spread among the soldiers on the wall. Some turned to Zhaoyue with tense faces. But Zhaoyue stood upright. Her hands were clenched at her sides, but her voice did not tremble.

“Brother,” she said. “Before we talk about treason, may I ask one thing?”

“There is nothing to discuss!”

“Just one thing.” Zhaoyue took a breath. “Do you know what is inside the marble mountain in the Deathcloud Mountains?”

Silence.

The silence did not come slowly. It fell like a stone. Down on the crystal platform, Tianming froze in place. His arrogant face, full of cynical smiles a moment ago, suddenly lost all its color. Beside him, General Wei Zhan, who had been standing erect, flinched, and his hand automatically touched the hilt of the sword at his waist.

Several of the Council’s mages behind them exchanged quick, panicked glances, then hurriedly pretended not to have heard anything.

“…How do you know?” Tianming’s voice finally came, low, rough, trembling, without the loudspeaker. But Sylvia’s ears, able to catch whispers even from afar, heard every word.

Zhaoyue closed her eyes, and a single tear fell from the corner. She had known the answer before asking, but hearing it directly from her brother’s mouth still felt like a dagger piercing her chest.

“So you know,” she whispered.

“Answer my question!” Tianming nearly shouted. “Who told you?! Was it that woman?! The foreign woman who’s always with you?!”

“That isn’t my question, Brother. My question is whether you know that beneath that mountain there is a living creature bound in chains, betrayed by a false covenant, its energy drained for years to prop up the splendor of the capital?”

A shockwave ran through the Legion’s ranks. Several young mages, who clearly had never heard that truth, looked at their superiors with faces of shock, confusion, and growing suspicion. Others bowed their heads, faces pale.

“Silence!” Tianming roared. His eyes were red. “Don’t talk nonsense! That’s a lie! It’s slander from a foreigner who wants to divide the kingdom!”

“If it’s a lie, why is your face as pale as a corpse?”

“SILENCE!”

Zhaoyue looked at her brother for a long time, and the princess’s face changed. Not angry, not sad, but something quieter and older. Something born of the realization that someone you’ve known all your life turns out to be someone else.

“You know,” she repeated, more softly. “And you never told me anything.”

“Because there was no need!” Tianming shouted. “That’s the affair of the Council and Father! That’s the price that must be paid for the kingdom to endure! Millions of lives depend on the capital! Do you think the world is as simple as the fairy tales you read in the library?!”

“I never thought it was simple,” Zhaoyue answered. “That’s why I couldn’t sleep last night.”

Tianming fell silent, not knowing how to respond. But General Wei Zhan had already stepped forward. The old general looked at the city wall with cold eyes, then whispered to Tianming, loudly enough for Sylvia to read his lips: “Your Highness, she already knows too much. We must silence her now, before the others hear.”

Tianming’s face quivered. He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, something had changed; the uncertainty was gone, replaced by the cold desperation of someone cornered.

“Guard Legion!” he shouted, this time through the loudspeaker. “Prepare battle formation! Fallen Star City has betrayed the kingdom! Capture the First Princess alive, and destroy anyone who resists!”

The twelve mana-crystal ships began to hum. Magic circles glowed along their hulls, and five hundred flying mages began igniting spells in unison, multicolored light filling the sky.

Zhaoyue’s soldiers raised their spears with trembling hands. Celes took one step forward and drew her silvery-gleaming spatial sword, ready to give the order to her fifty elite troops.

“My Queen?” Celes asked without turning. “Permission to act?”

Sylvia did not answer yet. She stood beside Zhaoyue, looking at the girl’s face from the side. Tears still ran down her cheeks, but her jaw had hardened. Her small hands, clenched a moment ago, now slowly opened.

“Zhaoyue,” Sylvia called gently. “Time’s almost up. They’re about to attack.”

“I know.”

“You can delay your answer until the battle is over.”

“No.”

Zhaoyue turned. Her eyes were red, but there was no more hesitation in them. Only the calm of someone who has just passed through a storm within herself and found a shore on the other side.

“I’ve decided,” she said.

Beside her, Sol, who had been silent all along, suddenly straightened and flicked his tail. Golden light began to creep along his fur. Below, hundreds of spells blazed toward the city, flashes of fire, lightning, ice, and swirling wind merging into a single wave of destruction streaking toward the wall.

Sylvia smiled faintly. She raised one hand.

“In that case,” she whispered, “tell me your answer later. For now, let me take care of our guests.”