It was well past midnight, the darkest hour of the night, when Lucia was jolted awake by a frantic alarm bell. She shot upright in bed and saw firelight flickering along the distant village road, shadows of countless figures moving beneath it.
Though she had no idea what had happened, she immediately changed clothes and grabbed her sword. By the time she opened her door, her father was already preparing to leave on the first floor. He had donned leather armor and strapped a longsword at his waist. With a deeply furrowed brow, he said to Lucia in a low voice, "Stay home. I'll go take a look."
"I'm coming with you!" Lucia said at once.
Considering that Lucia was no longer what she used to be, Aimon hesitated for a moment but did not refuse.
The moment father and daughter stepped outside, they saw a fully armed militiaman running toward them along the village road. Panting hard, he gasped, "Captain—they're here—so many knights—" Aimon's expression immediately turned grave. In Eagle's Perch Kingdom's feudal system, knights belonged to the noble class and were usually Junior Magic Swordsmen. For so many knights to arrive at once, this was no trivial matter. It was very likely a military operation of considerable scale.
He hurried toward the village entrance.
Quite a few people had already gathered there, all of them militiamen, all looking in the same direction. Aimon and Lucia looked as well. Before them stood the village's watchtower, burning fiercely outside the settlement, while an enemy army surged forward like a tide, their armor reflecting a cold gleam in the firelight.
"They actually got this close already!" Lucia covered her mouth in shock. "And there are so many of them!"
In the past, conflicts with Eagle's Perch Kingdom had mostly broken out