# Chapter 125
The girl's attire, visible beneath the sack, hinted at a noble status.
From a distance, the faint, slender silhouette looked remarkably like the Princess.
"Behold, dogs of the Royal Family! This is the true reality of the Baldina royals you protect! Your esteemed Princess is fleeing just to save her own skin!"
Horols shouted at the top of his lungs, pointing at the girl wearing the sack.
"Do you still offer your lives for this? Does justice still live in Baldina?"
"Waaaaah!"
The Rebels roared, siding with Horols. The crude terms they shouted—witch, dog, insect—reached all the way to the walls.
"The Princess fled?"
"And she was captured by the Rebels? While trying to get out to save herself?"
"Come to think of it, I don't think I saw Her Highness among those climbing the walls earlier...!"
The citizens inside the Royal Capital stirred at the Rebels' cries.
Since they were neither soldiers nor officials, they could not approach the walls. Naturally, they had no way of knowing the situation atop them.
"What should we do? If even Princess Her Highness has fled, does that mean there's no hope for this Royal Capital? If those Rebels intend to capture and kill us all...!"
With nothing to see and only things to hear, their anxiety grew as they listened to the fierce shouts of the Rebels.
However, the atmosphere atop the walls was one of complete bewilderment.
"What on earth is that man talking about? Captured Her Highness?"
Our Highness is right here.
Border Duke Monte looked back and forth between the outside of the castle and the Princess before his eyes.
At that moment, Medeia turned and gave a great command.
"Do not be deceived! I, Medeia de Baldina, am right here, so who exactly are you claiming to have captured!"
It was a voice so deep and majestic it was hard to believe it came from a young girl.
"As a member of the Baldina Royal Family, I do not abandon my people and flee!"
She stood front and center, facing the insurgent forces.
As her lofty and dignified command echoed, both camps fell into an uproar.
"Ha! You say you didn't flee! Don't lie! You're just putting up a fake Princess to deceive the foolish people! You rotten lords of Baldina!"
Horols, certain that they were the ones lying, walked triumphantly toward the kidnapped Princess.
"Behold! The real Princess is here!"
And with a violent tug, he whipped off the sack. He intended to reveal her alive before the people.
The moment the crude grey sack was removed, pink hair fluttered in the wind.
The moment she discovered the girl swaying like a reed as if unconscious, Catherine screamed.
"Aaaaagh! Birnaaaaa!"
Even at a distance, how could a mother fail to recognize her own daughter?
The moment Catherine realized it was Birna, not Medeia, who had been kidnapped by the Rebels, she fainted on the spot.
"Honey, pull yourself together!"
Even while supporting his wife, the Regent Duke could not hide his horror.
Why was his only daughter, Birna, captured in that spot?
'How did this happen!'
Why had his daughter, who should be at the Duke's house, gone all the way there? What happened to the knight of the Duke's family he had sent with Medeia?
While the Regent Duke was fallen into confusion and panic, Samon hurriedly ran forward and shouted toward Horols.
"Shut up! To think you'd try to shake this country with a conspiracy! I'll cut out that cunning tongue of yours! You men! Go and take their heads at once!"
'Father, we must shut their mouths first.'
It was to prevent the fact that the "fleeing Princess" the Rebels had shown to the whole world was actually the Claudio daughter from being revealed to the people.
However, Medeia had no intention of letting Samon's efforts succeed.
She gave a thin smile and shouted loudly.
"The one you have captured is not the Princess of Baldina! It is Birna Claudio, my cousin and the daughter of the Regent Duke!"
"Medeia!"
The Regent Duke let out a great roar of anger, as if wanting to gag her.
Then Siseo spoke as if he couldn't understand.
"Claudio Duke, did you not just say that the Rebels were targeting Princess Her Highness? To bring your daughter back quickly and safely, you must reveal the fact that the girl they are trying to capture and kill is not the Princess."
He had essentially received back the same hypocritical words he had used earlier while pretending to care for Medeia.
However, the logic was sound.
The Regent Duke, trapped in a dilemma, could only glare at Siseo as if he would kill him, not knowing what to do.
"Do you, who cannot even recognize me, dare to discuss the corruption of the Royal Family? Where exactly does your justification originate?"
Then, Medeia's question echoed through the sky once more.
No answer came back.
Ha. Medeia's snort soon spread into laughter among the soldiers.
"Exactly who have you captured while crying out for revolution?!"
The Rebels were thrown into confusion at the news that the kidnapped girl was the daughter of the Regent Duke.
"W-What, she's not the Princess?"
Horols looked back and forth between the girl standing atop the walls and the girl beside him.
They were of similar build, but first of all, the hair color was wrong. It was not the silver hair that was the trademark of the Baldina Royal Family.
"You should have checked beforehand!"
Horols threw a punch at his subordinate.
"F-From the moment she arrived, she was wearing a sack! Since the knight of the Claudio Duke Family handed her over, I thought she was the Princess!"
"Where is that knight? Where is he?!"
Horols looked around urgently, but the knight was nowhere to be seen.
This was because that knight—or rather, Zeta—had long since cast off the Claudio armor and leisurely returned to the Royal Capital.
"Damn it, someone snatched the Princess away. There's a spy!"
Horols, unaware of this, burst out in frustration.
However, he could not back down like this.
Maintaining this momentum was more important than catching a spy smuggled among the Rebels.
"That doesn't change the fact that your Royal Family has sucked our blood! What were you all doing until so many people rose up! We will not stop until the Royal Family, the hotbed of depravity and corruption, collapses!"
He shouted even louder. He gripped his sword and waved it wildly.
"Comrades! As a member of the people of Baldina, I stand here for our tomorrow! Are you going to entrust our precious lives to a King obsessed with war!"
"Woooooah!"
At the blood-boiling cry, the Rebels' momentum surged once more.
Just then, there was a presence behind Horols.
Seeing a tall young man clad in a helmet, armor, and weapons, his face brightened.
"Oh, Theo. You've come at the perfect time! You saw it too! They've put out a fake Princess to mock us!"
But as if he couldn't hear Horols's words, Theo blankly lifted his head.
Atop the white Castle Walls, he could see the Princess facing them.
Along with the small, brown-haired girl standing beside her.
'Saya...'
[Theo, is your revolution worth more than the life of your kin? I shall wait for the time to see your answer for yourself.]
The question took the form of kindness, but in reality, it was a wicked threat that she would kill Saya if he did not give up the revolution.
And that time was right now.
The Princess's words—that this revolution was a conspiracy between the Regent Duke and the leader to fill their own pockets—filled his head with confusion.
Theo bit his lower lip hard.
The Princess's letter also contained her exact demands.
The vivid letters of the message surfaced, binding him like a noose.
Even though she was so far away, the Princess's presence held Theo's entire body and ate away at his reason.
A metallic taste of blood seeped through his lips.
He could not give up either the revolution to which he had devoted his youth or his younger sister who was like his other half—
In that moment, a knight stepped behind Saya.
And soon, a light flashed near Saya's neck.
Theo's eyes flew open.
It was a blade reflecting the sunlight. A sharp, chilling sword capable of piercing his fragile sister's neck in a single stroke.
"...!"
A silent scream erupted.
Theo looked straight up at the walls.
Even though he knew it was impossible, he felt as if his eyes had met the Princess's.
There was no longer anywhere to run.
The helplessness of being a mouse driven into a corner oppressed him.
As if struck by lightning, his entire body suddenly trembled violently.
"Theo? Are you listening?"
And when that trembling completely stopped, Theo took a step forward.
"Tell me quickly with that clever head of yours, if we are pushed back by those Royal Capital bastards now—"
In an instant, blood sprayed.
Before he could finish his sentence, Horols's head rolled onto the ground.
"Aaaaaagh!"
"He's dead, he's dead!"
"What? Who's dead?"
Before the people's horror could even spread, Theo, with gritted teeth, held up the leader's head and shouted.
"The traitor has been executed! Regent Duke Claudio! Your plan has been exposed! The fake rebellion ends here!"
The boy's blood-soaked cry echoed across the sky.
