Chapter 23
#23
The servants, who had been rushing around the garden in a frenzy, disappeared before the night dew settled. In the bleak darkness, the white cloth and the Royal Standard fluttered, breaking the silence.
So quiet, the deepest part of the Royal Palace.
Inside the audience chamber, where even the slightest sound had vanished, a small yawn echoed.
"What time is it... I'm so sleepy."
Lucy, who had been dozing in front of the passage hidden behind the curtain at the back of the audience chamber, yawned and rubbed her eyes. Huis, who had been holding his breath beside her, was horrified and covered her mouth.
"Your Majesty...! How can you make such a noise when we've barely hidden ourselves?"
"Nothing's going to happen anyway. There's no need to be nervous yet."
Huis glared at her with dissatisfied eyes before taking out a pocket watch from his pocket.
The operation had started a long time ago, but it was already three in the morning and there was no contact from the unit.
Unlike the restless Huis, Lucy, with her eyes half-closed, stared blankly into the air, completely unconcerned. Huis tapped his beak nervously.
Why haven't they contacted us?
Is it really going according to plan? I've been uneasy ever since I heard the Queen was the one who came up with the plan. What if it's all wrong?
"Huis. I told you not to be nervous."
"Aren't you nervous, Your Majesty?"
"Oh, well. I'm a little nervous."
At her nonchalant attitude, Huis let out a long sigh that seemed to extinguish itself.
"To be honest, I've never heard of such a reckless tactic."
"Ah. The Grand General said the same thing."
"...Are they really coming?"
"We'll know if we wait. It's only three o'clock, so let's wait patiently."
Lucy said in a relaxed tone, crinkling her eyes at Huis.
Lucy's gaze, which had been looking at Huis, slowly lowered and stopped at one point. Lucy stared at the blue necklace hanging around his chest and unconsciously reached out towards it.
Before her hand could touch it, Huis pulled back and said in an embarrassed voice.
"I can't let you touch it carelessly."
"Ah... I'm sorry. It's my first time seeing a Cooling Stone in person. Does it really freeze you if you touch it?"
Huis's eyes softened slightly. Huis cleared his throat and tapped his beak awkwardly.
"It's not like that. It doesn't drop below a certain temperature, and it's a stone, so it's not that cold to the touch... but it would be very troublesome if I lost it."
"What happens if you don't have a Cooling Stone?"
"You'll collapse from heatstroke. Even if the weather is cool for humans, it's like a heatwave for the Lafi."
The Lafi are very sensitive to heat. Very, very sensitive to heat.
Because of that, the Lafi cannot come down south of the Northern Territories except in winter. The only other way for the Lafi to live in the regions south of the Northern Territories is with the blue stone that lowers the wearer's body temperature, the Cooling Stone.
However, the mining method is extremely difficult, so only a very small amount can be obtained, and even that must be purchased through Antevassila's government. It was unavoidable since Antevassila monopolized the mining of Cooling Stones.
"If you're really curious, you can touch it once."
Huis puffed out his chest as if he were doing a favor, acting as if the military-supplied item was his own.
Lucy wondered if she should say something or just laugh it off, and chose the latter, reaching out to the necklace with a smile.
"Really. It's not particularly cold... it just looks like a jewel. Do all the Lafi soldiers have this Cooling Stone?"
"Yes."
"I heard the price is so high that comparing it to a diamond would be an insult, but you've managed to maintain the Lafi Legion."
"The Lafi are just twelve in total, including me and the members of our 8th Squad. All of them are search troops, not combat troops. And well, no matter how many Cooling Stones there are, it will be difficult to gather Lafi troops."
"Why can't you gather Lafi?"
"Why do you think?"
Huis scratched below his beak, acting as if he wanted her to think about it.
Lucy, who had been pondering the answer, made a face as if to say, 'Why are you showing off with something like that?'
"Because the Lafi don't like leaving their hometown? The Lafi I met in Pomnos were very proud of their homeland."
"Hmm... it's similar to the answer, but a little different."
"Then what's the answer?"
Huis picked up a protruding feather and fiddled with it carelessly.
"There are very few Lafi who want to come down south of the Northern Territories, even if they have a Cooling Stone. There are hardly any Lafi who want to entrust their lives to a pebble."
If the Lykan live closely together due to being oppressed, the Lafi, who have hardly any history of invasion, maintain a relatively loose social structure, except for people from the same hometown.
Perhaps it's because they have wings that can fly anywhere. Their characteristic is that they live as they please, rather than adapting themselves to others.
For Lucy, it was quite strange to see such Lafi living in the military, protecting humans in a foreign land where they could not survive without Cooling Stones.
Lucy lifted the hem of her dress and sat in a cross-legged position. Huis frowned at the action, which did not suit her elegant attire, but she didn't care and asked a question.
"Come to think of it, Huis, why did you come down to Parnassus? As the son of the Pomnos chieftain, you could have lived more luxuriously than most aristocratic children."
At the unexpected question, Huis tilted his head slightly to the side. After thinking for a moment, Huis made an ambiguous expression, as if he was smiling or not.
"Being the son of the chieftain doesn't really make much of a difference. Living and eating are all the same there, and there are hardly any Lafi who live pursuing wealth and glory. Of course, I'm the same."
"Then? Is there another reason why you came down to the Central Region?"
"Um..."
Huis scratched his neck, trying to hide his troubled feelings.
However, Lucy stared at him incessantly with a face that seemed to say she was dying of curiosity. At the desperate gaze of her lord, Huis tapped the tip of his beak with a troubled expression.
Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere did not last long. The sound of footsteps echoed roughly from inside the passage.
The rumbling sound grew louder and louder, and the curtain that had been covering the back of the throne fluttered. Zen, who had come out of the secret passage, caught his breath and arrived next to Lucy.
"Your Majesty...! They're, they're coming now!"
They're here.
Duke Kill had fallen into the trap. Lucy changed her expression and asked.
"What's the situation?"
"A large army is pouring in from the west port of the Royal Capital. There are about four thousand enemy soldiers heading for the Central Command, and a similar number of soldiers coming to the Royal Palace."
Four thousand to the Royal Palace, four thousand to the Central Command.
A total of eight thousand.
As Lucy had predicted, it was a large army four times the estimated number. Lucy recited the words quickly, without any arrogant air.
"Is the road to the Royal Palace well cleared?"
"We evacuated the civilians under the pretext of emergency training. Assuming they advance directly to the Royal Palace, they will arrive in an hour and a half."
Lucy tapped her chin and pondered.
She had said that there were four thousand soldiers heading for the Central Command. It was a considerable force, but they could somehow suppress that much.
The important thing was at what timing to push back the soldiers who would invade the Royal Palace. Lucy pulled back the curtain and walked towards the throne.
"The operation is as I said before. Lure the enemy into the Royal Palace. Pretend to be inferior and lure them in as much as possible, then return to the audience chamber. If you carry out the operation well, you can defeat the enemy with almost no casualties."
"Understood."
"Zen."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Lucy stopped in front of the throne and straightened her clothes.
Each time her sleeves fluttered, the hair she had let down behind her back shook finely. Looking at the golden eagle embossed on the floor of the audience chamber, Lucy asked in a probing tone.
"So far, everything is going according to plan. Do you trust me?"
Zen nodded, looking at Lucy's back.
"Like the Grand General's message, I also trust Your Majesty's insight."
Lucy turned around and raised her head towards the ceiling.
The moonlight, whiter than the pure white dress, lingered on it, casting a soft light. A mischievous smile that did not suit her slowly spread over her attire, which looked like a chaste priest.
"I admit that Godel Kill is a smart man, but he's still far from being able to face me. I'm a genius, and we won't lose. So don't worry and go wild."
Zen twisted up one corner of his mouth and smiled.
Lucy's relaxed expression and attitude seemed so bold and reckless that it was hard to believe that she was facing a war. Moreover, since a greenhorn human was doing it, he would have told her not to talk nonsense under normal circumstances.
However, Zen had gained confidence that all of this was under her control.
When he first heard the plan, he dismissed it as an absurd plan, but in the end, everything had gone as she had said so far. And it seemed that it would continue to go according to plan in the future.
"Don't worry. Leave the sheep to me, and Your Majesty, please take a nap until we return!"
Zen rubbed his nose. With that, he turned his back on the King, with all four feet on the ground, and ran out of the audience chamber.
As soon as he left the door, the Lykan soldiers who had been waiting in advance followed him, making a beastly thudding sound.
When they arrived at the main gate, the Lykan who had been waiting in the garden stood up one by one and lined up.
Under the dim moonlight, the expanded vertical pupils flashed with a fierce light, looking down at their commander.
Five hundred pairs of eyes gathered at one point, and Zen rose up, cutting through the flood of gazes, and shouted loudly.
"Fight to the death! I'll pay for one serving of lamb ribs for every enemy you catch!"
There was no cheer or response. The soldiers ignored the commander and moved to their designated positions to prepare.
In the countless rows of yellow eyes, the desire for blood and the desire for lamb ribs were mixed together, swirling like a tornado.
