Paladin, that was a term uncommonly used after the war had ended. Only a few of them remained and those that did were usually children of the previous title holders as it was passed down from father to son.

“Reinhardt Lorraine… paladin of the order of high knights of Arcadia.”

That name made both Krieg and Phoebe have second thoughts as the knight just passed out on Elaine’s arms.

“Wait… Lorraine?” The high elf questioned. “Wasn’t that the last name of that man who killed Leona’s father?”

“Just so.” Krieg answered as he put the unconscious knight on the ground against the flying ship. “Miss Elaine, tell us the truth, just why are you two here?”

While seemingly relaxed, he asked whilst resting his left hand on the longsword handle tied to his left hip. Her eyes seemed to quickly dart to the young woman sleeping against the ship’s hull and back to Krieg.

“Are you perhaps Princess Leona’s knight?”

The sound of steel sung amidst the rain pouring down, as Krieg drew his weapon and held it in a high guard stance prepared to attack at any second.

“Care to explain why you want to know that?”

“I never personally seen Lady Crossford.” She answered without flinching at the sight of the man holding his weapon. “But fret not, me and my sire are not by any means working alongside that schemer the people of Arcadia call king. If anything, we are in this situation because of him.”

“We should kill her and be done with it.”

The high elf voiced her opinion but as she drew closer, Krieg raised his arm in front of her.

“Calm down Phoebe. If what she says is true then Leona would want to hear more of it.”

“Then…” Elaine looked at the tactician who was still asleep. “She is Princess Leona? I don’t remember her ever having short hair.”

“A few things happened.” Despite trying to hide, Krieg’s disappointment in his voice was plainly clear. “Come on, let’s board the ship, lest we want to catch our deaths out in this blasted rain.”

He sheathed his blade and carried Leona between his arms while Elaine dragged the knight along while Phoebe kept a watchful gaze on them as she walked behind everyone. Once Krieg had boarded the ship he left Leona inside the engine room and helped the hooded woman to climb up with her friend. Just as she settled the unconscious knight down in the engine room on the opposite side where Leona was, she was escorted outside by Phoebe who held her at knife point.

“Drop all of your weapons, now.” The high elf said as she held the dagger against the woman’s back. “I’m not about to let anyone harm any of them.”

“Very well… remember that I can’t even raise my left arm above my shoulder.” Elaine began by dropping her belt which had multiple satchels with glass vials inside as they clinked against the ground alongside the short sword. “And despite that, do you still think I’d put up a fight against both of you?”

“Can never be too careful. After all you did mention you had poisons with you.” The high elf shoved the woman forward and kicked the belt up while catching it in the air. Upon inspecting the satchel closely she noticed bits of plant matter such as leaves and roots but it was practically empty just like the glass vials she carried. “You are an assassin aren’t you?”

“That condescending tone is rich coming from someone well versed in the art of killing.” Elaine turned around to face her. “Never once I expected to meet a high elf with hands so soaked in crimson such as mine.”

Phoebe let the satchel fall on the ground as she flicked her left hand and a magic gust of wind blew the hood off the woman’s head revealing the elongated ears, short blonde hair and green emerald eyes.

“An elf.” The high elf clicked her tongue in disgust. “You’re lucky I’m not supposed to kill you.”

“Funny, I was thinking of the same thing.”

While the two were burning each other with gazes, Leona was beginning to wake up from her forced slumber, her eyes had to slowly adjust from the blurry vision as she kept blinking, trying to focus her sight.

“Are you alright Leona?”

“Huh?” She turned to the familiar voice on the left. “Krieg…? What happened?”

“You were asleep. A woman named Elaine used sleeping poison in order to obtain supplies for her wounded friend.”

“Oh so that is what happened… what did you two do to them?”

Krieg pointed across the engine room and as she followed his hand she noticed a man clad in armor lying against the wall apparently sleeping.

“He claimed to be a paladin of house Lorraine. Reinhardt or something was his name.”

“Reinhardt… Reinhardt… ah!” Leona sat up and put both her right thumb and index finger between her nose ridge as she was attempting to recall the familiar name. “I think Luke told me once about him, an aspiring knight that would one day hold his father’s title as paladin… but then if he did become a paladin why would he be so far away from Arcadia?”

“I initially thought the same thing, but I decided to leave them both alive since you might know what to do with them.”

“I see…” She rubbed her face. Her body felt a bit wobbly from the time she was asleep but nevertheless she glanced at Krieg with confidence. “What about this other person named Elaine?”

“She’s right outside, Phoebe probably took her to shake down any possible weapons she might be carrying.” He stood up and approached the doorway. “Phoebe! Bring her here!”

“Coming.”

After a few seconds the high elf had brought Elaine inside the cabin while still holding a dagger close to the elf’s body. Seeing that made Leona speak up.

“You can put the weapon down Phoebe.”

The high elf didn’t even look away from the elf in front of her as she replied.

“With all due respect Princess, this woman is an assassin. If I was to let my guard down I’m sure she would try something again.”

“Haven’t you taken all her weapons? Just let me talk to her without the blade right at her back please, Phoebe.”

She sighed in response.

“Very well, but be warned, if she tries to do anything I’ll kill her on the spot.”

“Duly noted.” Elaine answered whilst raising both hands up. “I mean no harm to you Princess Leona, as a matter of fact my liege wished to know more about this rumor that began to circulate the capital before we were exiled from Arcadia.”

Two words of her sentence caught Leona’s attention. The first one was the rumor while the other was exile. The tactician raised her left hand and Elaine stopped talking.

“First let me ask you one thing, what is this rumor about?”

“The acting king made a proclamation on his coronation, one of which many doubted to be true but at the same time with your absence from the capital made so they wouldn’t voice their opinions.”

“Which is?”

“He said that you had killed your own father in order to become the head of the Crossford family. Not only that but he deemed you a traitor of Arcadia for helping the demi human populace that inhabited the capital ever since the end of the war.”

Despite her words, the tactician’s lack of reaction surprised everyone around her when she instead decided to press on for more information.

“I see, then what about your exile?”

“As you know, my liege holds the title of paladin that was passed down to him from his father, but as fate may have it, Alexander used this as an excuse to exile him as a potential threat to the throne.”

“Your liege, was he against the coronation?”

“To put it shortly, he does not trust Alexander in the slightest.” Elaine had a bitter expression on her face. “Some may say that my lord’s death was from the battle against the demons but I’m certain that schemer had his hands on it.”

“Very well… I think I have an idea of what is happening in Arcadia.” Leona stood up from her seat and looked Elaine in the eyes. “What will you two do from now on? If what you said is true then it’s practically impossible to live in any city that abides to the church of light.”

The elf nodded.

“That is why we were heading to the town of Arivaul, so we may find work as mercenaries there.”

Leona walked over to Phoebe who was standing on the doorway with her dagger still drawn. The tactician put her right hand on her right shoulder before saying.

“Give her weapons back. I’ll take us to the town and we'll leave them there before heading to our destination.”

“...understood.”

With that Krieg also stood up and decided to go outside to check a few things before they departed. Phoebe tossed the belt back to Elaine and turned around to leave.

“Can you at least trust us now?”

The elf asked.

“I will tolerate you, nothing more.”

She sheathed her dagger and decided to join Leona on the helm of the ship.

At the same time back in the dwarven citadel, the western wall that was being attacked by Arcadia’s army was given a brief respite after the cannons were destroyed and most of its army fled. From the top of the wall Frey was still commanding soldiers from house Loraexion in order to reinforce its already crippled gate.

“Shout in case you see them approach! Riflemen into position! We will not let them break through our defenses!”

She was about to run through the line of soldiers when one of them shouted.

“I see one of them coming towards us!”

“Why do you gotta be so dramatic? It’s just one.”

One of the soldiers reprimanded the squadmate.

“But-”

Frey looked over the cover of the wall and noticed something was odd with the single weaponless knight slowly making their way towards them. All of her instincts were screaming of danger as she commanded the soldiers with a shouting voice.

“Everyone take aim!” Most of them were surprised by how urgent she seemed to be but nevertheless followed her orders. “Fire!”

A volley of shots were fired at the sole target and most of them connected as the knight seemed to spasm from the impact of each bullet. However instead of falling down or even more surprising, not spilling any blood, the knight simply continued walking towards the wall.

“What in the world…?!” At that point even Frey had taken out her own rifle and aimed at the shambling knight. “Ready your rifles! Aim! Fire!”

Yet another volley hit the knight and with the captain’s marksmanship she was able to hit them right in the head which made the target fall flat on their back. The lack of motion made Frey discreetly sigh in relief but only lasted for a brief moment as shortly thereafter the body began to convulse on the ground.

Speechless, most of the soldiers started to look at one another as if trying to silently ask if they were seeing what could only be described as witchcraft.

“Hm?!” The captain squinted her eyes and noticed the body act strangely as its right arm began to swell and seemingly out of nowhere she shouted. “Get to cover!” She ducked behind the cover of the wall and as soon as she did, one of the soldiers who was standing in front of her just fell on the floor. “Hey! Soldier! What happened-!”

Upon crawling towards him, she noticed multiple bullet wounds around his chest, she tried to check for vitals but there was no breathing nor pulse.

“Captain! We have injuries amongst us!”

Behind her it was also the same, some of the soldiers who couldn’t take cover in time were lying in pools of their own blood.

“Curses!” Frey carefully peeked over cover and noticed the knight was in the process of standing up, but unlike a normal human, it didn’t use either of the arms and instead simply raised itself as if it was a sprouting plant. That was enough to tell her it wasn’t going to be a simple issue of just pelting it with bullets as she looked for one of the soldiers who was still standing. “Go to the general now! We desperately need spell casters here!”

“Y-yes ma’am!”

As he ran off with his order, Frey peeked in order to check on the Arcadian army and it didn’t seem like they would attack any time soon.

“Damn you Alexander…”