Grant me Your Grace – Chapter 77

Author: Nikss

As Saltar, who had been charging toward the imperial palace in one breath, suddenly yanked the reins hard.

When he raised his arm high, the rebels who had been charging forward with great momentum also hesitated and stopped.

“Hah…! What is that now?”

Saltar curled his lip in a sneer.

Among the soldiers blocking the way in front of the imperial palace, a familiar face stuck in his vision like a thorn.

“Baran Dahlia, that wretched girl…!”

Gritting his teeth, Saltar stared at Dahlia standing at the head of the soldiers.

How was she, who should have been quietly confined to the imperial princess’s palace, leading such a massive army and blocking his path?

“Even so, she’s just a mere girl.”

Saltar drew his sword from his waist. Then, with a murderous glare fixed on Dahlia, he commanded his soldiers.

“All troops, charge!”

At the crown prince’s command, the soldiers, and rebels simultaneously stormed toward the imperial palace.

Seeing the massive horde of rebels charging like a sandstorm, Dahlia also shouted loudly.

“Defend the imperial palace! Not a single one of these traitorous felons who plotted rebellion shall be spared!”

“Waaaah!”

The private soldiers of the Mudhat family, the reinforcements from the Hayad Kingdom, and even the previously demoralized imperial army all joined forces. They began to fight against the crown prince’s rebels.

The area in front of the imperial palace instantly became a fierce battlefield, turning into a scene of chaos.

Swish—

Thud!

Amidst the intensely fighting soldiers, Dahlia also fought alongside them, firing her bow.

Although she couldn’t fight with a sword like the soldiers, she wanted to show that she was there with them, to boost their morale.

“Ugh!”

Fortunately, the archery Princess Dahlia had learned from Hovan that mental and physical discipline wasn’t half bad.

Calmly, she fired her bow, felling the enemy soldiers one by one.

“You damned wretches!”

Saltar couldn’t help but be flustered by Dahlia’s unexpected counterattack.

He had deliberately weakened the imperial palace by using the suppression of the rebels as a pretext to draw away even the Imperial Army.

Yet, he was infuriated to find Dahlia’s forces matching his own rebel army.

Saltar cut down Dahlia’s soldiers indiscriminately as he pushed forward.

“Dahlia Baran! How dare a little brat like you think you can stop me!”

At Saltar’s roar, Dahlia fixed a stern gaze on him. She pulled an arrow from the quiver on her shoulder and swiftly aimed her bow at him.

“I will not be manipulated by you any longer!”

Dahlia drew the string taut and released the arrow in one fluid motion.

But the distance was too great, and Saltar dodged quickly, causing the arrow to sink harmlessly into the ground.

“Now you can dodge all you want, but I swear I will kill you here and now and end this!”

With a face twisted by malice, Saltar wildly swung his sword.

Under the merciless onslaught of his blade, Dahlia’s soldiers fell helplessly.

As if Saltar’s bloodlust had infected his own troops, the rebels, who had initially been pushed back, began to regain their momentum and advanced once more toward the imperial palace.

“No!”

Watching the defensive line gradually crumble, Dahlia fought even more desperately.

But the tide of battle, once turned, is not easily reversed. The soldiers defending the imperial palace, unable to withstand the enemy’s ferocious assault, were gradually forced to retreat.

At that moment, an arrow flew from somewhere and struck the archer aiming at Dahlia.

Dahlia’s eyes widened, trembling at the sight of the familiar fletching.

‘Hovan?’

Just as she momentarily turned her eyes away from the battlefield.

“Aghh!”

“Your Highness, the Princess!”

A dagger, flown from somewhere, embedded itself in Dahlia’s left chest.

It was thrown by a rebel soldier during her brief moment of lowered guard.

The moment Saltar saw the staggering Princess, and smiled a triumphant smile.

“…”

A strange silence momentarily spread through the chaotically clashing soldiers.

The moment Dahlia pulled out the dagger that had narrowly missed her heart, her tattered wound began to slowly heal.

The red gash closed gradually, like a fish’s gills closing, until it disappeared without a trace, leaving only a bloodstain behind.

“How… how is that even possible…”

A rebel soldier who had muttered dazedly glanced toward Saltar.

The gazes, like a wildfire, gradually spread and turned toward the man they had firmly believed was the master of divine power.

Saltar, suddenly placed at the center of a storm of doubt, let out a hollow, bitter laugh.

“I should have killed that bitch first…”

The moment Saltar, laughing bizarrely, flashed a dangerous glint in his eyes, he began to take out all the vials of Dahlia’s blood he had brought and started scattering it indiscriminately.

It stained not only the corpses already lying dead but also the wounded, fallen rebel soldiers and Dahlia’s own soldiers, who were fighting desperately with their tattered bodies.

Then, the wounds of those still alive began to heal instantly.

Dahlia’s eyes shook violently as she saw the ground covered in her own blood in an instant.

“Ah, arghhhh…!”

In an instant, red spots spread from head to toe, covering Dahlia’s body, and she began to writhe in agony.

The pain, striking her from all sides simultaneously, felt as if it had been launched by dozens of people at once. She ultimately lost her balance and collapsed to the floor.

“Protect Her Highness, the Princess!”

“She is the true master of the Divine Power! She must not fall into the hands of the rebels!”

At the shouts of Osahar and Miftah, the soldiers desperately began to form a protective circle around her.

Centered on Miftah and Osahar, who surrounded the suffering, thrashing Dahlia, the soldiers formed a circular, iron-wall defense.

The rebels, now aware of the truth of the bloodline, could not help but have their morale broken more than before.

Their goal had been to overthrow the nation’s corrupt leaders and install the master of the Divine Power as the new emperor, yet the true master of the Divine Power was the Princess, who had been imprisoned deep within the imperial palace.

Even without asking, the events of the past painted themselves in their minds.

They now fought merely to survive, having lost sight of the very purpose for which they had begun to fight.

With the tide of battle reversed in an instant, Dahlia’s forces gradually began to suppress the rebels.

Countless rebels, upon learning the truth of the bloodline, laid down their swords voluntarily, and some even discarded the rebel insignia and turned to kill Saltar.

As more and more swords were gradually pointed his way, Saltar had no choice but to be driven into a corner.

“Damn it, damn it!!”

His eyes flashing crimson, he killed indiscriminately, cutting down anyone in his path, ally, or enemy.

Soaked in blood and slaughtering incessantly, his form was the very incarnation of a wrathful demon.

“Haa, ha, augh…”

In the midst of this dreadful war, Dahlia, covered in red stains, desperately clung to consciousness, enduring.

The pain had long since surpassed the limits of what her senses could bear. Her body, where even breathing was a struggle, was beyond control, unable to move a single finger.

‘I have to get up… I must end this war with my own hands, no matter what.’

Dahlia strained with all her might to rise.

“Haa…ugh…”

Despite the countless pains of slashed arms and a pierced torso, Dahlia pushed against the ground again and again to lift herself.

Whenever her vision darkened and her consciousness threatened to fade, she steadied her mind by looking at the layers of soldiers surrounding her.

For their sake, she had to become stronger.

For the sake of Baran’s people, swept up in chaos and fear, for the sake of Bertha, who was surely praying for her within the imperial palace.

And… for my pitiful salvation.

To protect… my Hissin…

Leaning on her bow, Dahlia barely managed to rise from her spot and straighten her body.

Miftah and Osahar firmly supported her on either side as she staggered.

Dahlia took her last remaining arrow and nocked it on the string. Her hand, covered in red stains, trembled violently, making even the act of drawing the bowstring seem arduous.

With her final strength, Dahlia drew the taut string back.

The arrowhead was aimed squarely at Saltar, who was raging, having lost his reason.

Whish—Thwack!

“Ack…!”

The arrow pierced precisely through the left chest of Saltar, who had raised his sword high.

Saltar, his heart pierced in an instant, gasped for breath and lifted his gaze.

Dahlia, who had been aiming her bow at him, slowly lowered her arm and met his gaze. Her face, covered in red spots, looked at Saltar with eyes that seemed detached from everything.

“The lies are over, brother.”

Clatter. His sword fell to the ground, and soon after, Saltar’s body also collapsed onto the floor.

The blood pooling on the dirt floor seeped past his trembling lips.

But that blood was the tears of the unjustly sacrificed people.

Tasting the profound bitterness of his sin, Saltar drew his last breath.

A deep twilight, like death itself, crept over his cooling body.

“The rebels have been defeated! The rebels have been defeated!”

With Saltar’s death, the rebellion had failed, and Dahlia’s soldiers began to cheer in joy.

At the resounding victory cries, Dahlia allowed a faint smile to touch her lips.

It’s all over now. The time of suffering, the time of oppression, all of it.

“What a… relief.”

Just as Dahlia relaxed her tension and was about to let go of her consciousness…