The Forgotten Field Novel - Chapter 231

Chapter 231

Garis clenched his fist so tightly that his nails dug into the palm of his hand.

Looking back, the refusal of that man—who had never shown resentment in the face of any injustice—to become that bastard’s escort knight had been a bad sign from the very beginning.

At that time, Garis thought he simply felt revulsion at serving the daughter of the woman who had driven his mother to her death, but perhaps that bastard had possessed a premonition since then. The premonition that this girl would one day become an existence capable of shaking his entire being…

Garis could not contain his fury and struck the window frame with force.

If not for the oath he had made to his mother, that damn wretch would have turned his back on him a long time ago.

Garis recalled the moment Bernadette had bound him with the sacred vow. In that instant, he knew with absolute clarity that Varkas’s fate had become tied to his own and Ayla’s.

He did not know how it was possible; perhaps, as the priests repeatedly claimed, a malignant mana ran through the blood of the Kahn people. He had noticed since his childhood that his mother possessed a strange power. At times she displayed an insight that bordered on the ability to predict the future, and she acted as if she saw clearly inside of people.

Did my mother predict a future in which Varkas would betray us?

Perhaps that was why she had chained him with the magic of the Kahn people; if Grand Duke Shierkan sided with the witch Genevieve, Garis and Ayla’s position would waver…

“But that bastard ended up trampling on the oath after all.”

He gazed outside the window with eyes bloodshot from anger.

The countless lights covering the mountainside were now gradually narrowing the siege and advancing toward the castle gate. When Garis saw that the army, which he thought would halt at a safe distance, was advancing directly toward the gate, he unconsciously held his breath; at the same time, the sound of horns resonated, announcing the enemy attack.

“Hahaha, it seems the imperial coalition forces have decided to abandon His Highness the Crown Prince.” A northern man who had approached from behind his back laughed in a low voice.

Garis glared at the man with eyes burning with fury, but froze upon seeing the intense murderous intent in the individual’s gaze.

The man grabbed Garis by the lapels with his vein-streaked hand and dragged him forcefully while growling:

“Command believes you are still useful as a hostage, but seeing this scene, I am beginning to doubt that assessment.”

“Insolent fool! Let go of me right now…!”

“I must drag you to the castle gate. If those people out there do not withdraw peacefully, I will cut off your head and hang it from the wall.”

Garis felt the blood freeze in his veins.

The man dragged him violently toward the door and, at that instant, a sharp scream resonated along with the sound of something breaking outside the room. The man dragging him like a dog turned his head suddenly and roared:

“What is going on out there!”

No answer came from the outside.

The northerner looked with sharp eyes toward the silent door, as if the commotion had been a lie; then he shoved Garis into a corner and walked toward the door with heavy steps.

“I asked you what is going on…!”

The man’s voice cut off abruptly as he violently threw the door open.

Garis watched flabbergasted as an object fell to the ground with a heavy impact. Only a few seconds later did he realize that the object was the man’s severed forearm.

The man, looking at his own hand with an expression as stunned as his own, clutched the elbow from which blood was gushing and let out a beastly shriek; however, his cry did not last long, as a longsword pierced his chest directly.

The northerner, who was attempting to extract the sword with his remaining hand despite having his heart pierced, collapsed lifelessly to the floor.

Garis, contemplating the scene as if frozen, raised his head slowly.

A tall man covered in blood stared at him silently with blue eyes that flashed coldly. Upon meeting those silver-blue eyes, Garis was able to recognize the attacker’s identity.

“Va… Varkas…”

The man did not answer.

With a completely expressionless face, Varkas shook the blood from his sword, returned the blade to its sheath, and then motioned with his head.

“Get outside.”

Then he turned his back without hesitation; seeing that, Garis got up hastily and in confusion. When he recovered the capacity to think that had been paralyzed by the sudden events, a wave of relief washed over his body.

He shouted with an agitated voice:

“Have you come to save me yourself? All the way here?”

“…….”

“Hahaha, you crazy bastard! I knew it, it was impossible for you to abandon me!”

Garis let out a spasmodic laugh and grabbed his cloak hanging on the wall. As he prepared to step over the corpse lying on the threshold of the door, his gaze fell upon the hallway flooded with blood.

He was on the verge of vomiting but contained himself with difficulty; corpses with decapitated heads or torn chests filled the dark corridor where the remnants of the torches flickered. Although he had spent years on battlefields and seen many bodies, he had never before witnessed such a gruesome sight.

He murmured in a stunned tone:

“How many soldiers did you actually bring with you?”

“…….”

“By the way, where are the other knights and what are they doing? Why aren’t they guarding me safely right away…!”

He deliberately raised his voice so as not to show his fear before that scene which looked like hell itself, but a hand as cold as ice gripped him by the lapels and slammed him forcefully against the wall.

Garis gasped with difficulty and looked at him with eyes full of terror.

The man, whose blood-stained face had drawn close to his own, whispered to him:

“Do my words seem amusing to you?”

“V… what is this…”

“I gave clear instructions to leave the suppression of the rebels in the hands of the northern alliance, and for the imperial army to retreat to the rear.”

Garis fell silent at once before that dismal voice; Varkas’s tone had become as sharp as a polished blade.

“If you are going to ignore everything I say and do the exact opposite, why do you keep me by your side?”

His breath, which sounded like a growl, hit Garis’s forehead.

Varkas tilted his head even further and whispered harshly:

“If you don’t need me, say so, because I don’t want to keep wasting my effort either.”

Garis, his face pale, looked into his eyes that gleamed with ferocity. The man gripped his neck tighter and shouted with greater violence:

“Say it quickly! Say that you don’t need me and that you no longer want my protection.”

In that instant, Garis understood that this man wished to free himself from the oath that bound him. He moved his pale lips with difficulty:

“I… I need you.”

The man’s sharp, glittering blue eyes darkened in an instant, as if a shadow had fallen over them. Garis looked directly into his eyes and added with a broken voice:

“I… I was wrong. Brother…”

Upon pronouncing the appellation they used to use in their childhood, the strength vanished from the hand squeezing his neck.

Garis brought a hand to his throat and began to cough. Varkas looked at him with dry eyes and finally turned around.

“Follow me.”

Garis, leaning his back against the wall to catch his breath, stood up and moved his trembling legs to follow him; then, his gaze fell upon the corpse of a soldier hanging from the stair railing. At that moment, the urge to vomit reached his throat: the soldier only had the lower half of his body left.

“I think you can use this.”

Garis’s shoulders, unconsciously searching for the soldier’s upper body, froze. Varkas had approached him once more and was offering him a blood-stained sword.

“This…”

“The quality doesn’t seem very good, but it’s the best we have right now.”

Garis took it with a trembling hand; the hilt of the sword was old, as if it had belonged to a dead soldier, and it had none of the metallic ornaments that were familiar to him.

He looked at Varkas with eyes full of concern:

“…Are the rest of the soldiers waiting downstairs?”

Varkas said while looking over his shoulder as he stepped onto the blood-soaked staircase:

“I am the only person who will accompany Your Highness.”

Garis’s body went rigid as if struck by lightning. The man turned around, went down the stairs, and added coldly:

“I will do everything possible to protect you, but it is difficult to assure you that we will get out of here alive.”

Garis looked with a stunned face at the dozens of corpses scattered across the staircase and the hallway. Everyone was heavily protected with iron armor; upon understanding what that meant, his back became soaked in cold sweat.

“The outside will be absolute chaos, so prepare yourself well.” Varkas added in a low voice while looking at Garis, who remained frozen on the stairs: “It is going to be a very long night.”

Chapter 231

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