In This Life, I Will Be Your Dog - Chapter 76

“I didn’t expect someone to forfeit so soon.”

The Empress’s calm, murmured remark as she sipped her tea made Bellona spring to her feet. Her sharp gaze, honed with fury, fixed on Violentia, who wore a faint smile.

Bellona had anticipated the Empress might scheme something, but she hadn’t expected her to act so swiftly—and against a noble from Camirus, no less.

Holding her breath, Bellona rushed toward Lycaon. The cumbersome dress that kept tangling beneath her feet annoyed her greatly, but she gathered its fabric and dashed to the center of the grand arena. At last, she caught Lycaon, who collapsed with a thud.

“Sir Lycaon!”

“Your Grace… Fidentian nobles and knights, they… ugh!”

Net, who had been waiting nearby, ran over, panting heavily as he asked, “Your Grace, what is happening?”

“Your Grace… Valensis knights… they are in danger…”

So it wasn’t just a passing dream. Clenching her tingling fingertips, Bellona steadied herself and gave a stern command to Net.

“Take Sir Lycaon to the palace physician. Say it’s under the Grand Duke’s orders. Then discreetly escort the young nobles to the Imperial Prince’s Palace and lock them in the underground prison.”

“Your Grace?”

Having anticipated such a situation, Bellona had entrusted her sword to Net. She now pulled it without hesitation from his belt.

“Your Grace! You cannot go!”

“That’s an order, Net. Hurry!”

Her low, icy tone and fierce expression made Net grit his teeth as he supported Lycaon.

Turning briefly, Bellona cast a glance at the Emperor seated far above on the podium. There wasn’t even time to seek his permission. Bowing her head in the knightly manner while raising her sword high, she silently conveyed her resolve. Even if this action brought reprimands later, her sole focus now was to save the knights.

Caelus’s subordinates. She couldn’t let them perish pointlessly as they had in the past.

Bellona surveyed her surroundings quickly and dashed toward the horses prepared for the hunting contestants. The many layers of lace on her dress, which had been bothering her all day, were cut away with her sword without a care for the onlookers’ stares. She even discarded her shoes, leaving her calves exposed as she ran and leaped onto a horse.

There was no time to worry about her disheveled appearance. Her sole focus was on saving the knights as she spurred the horse toward the hunting grounds.

As she reached the edge of the hunting grounds, a dark figure suddenly emerged.

Recognizing the figure instantly, Bellona halted her horse. Mona, clad in a black robe, approached.

“Why are you here…?!”

“It’s a necromancer.”

“What?”

“Ether brought a necromancer.”

‘Necromancer?’

Bellona vaguely recalled the term—a sorcerer wielding the dark power to control the dead.

Her eyes sharpened with ferocity as fragmented memories suddenly surfaced. During the time when Caelus lost his hand, the Empress had secretly brought a wizard into the palace. At the time, it was dismissed as a means to divine the future, and Bellona hadn’t thought much of it. Now, it seemed far more sinister.

A sense of unease crept over her. Could the incident when Caelus lost his hand have been different from what she had known?

“Who told you?”

“…Ether.”

Mona’s evasive behavior, her downcast eyes avoiding Bellona’s gaze, appeared suspicious. Bellona dismounted quickly and approached her. Without warning, she yanked back the hood of Mona’s robe. Mona flinched, turning her head in embarrassment.

“Ha…!”

A bitter laugh escaped Bellona’s lips. Mona’s face bore signs of abuse: a bruised eye, a split lip, and red marks on her slender neck that resembled handprints.

“Did Ether do this?”

Mona bit her lip tightly, her gaze brimming with venom.

“Ether is in there. Please kill him. If you don’t, I’ll report every order the knight gave me to Her Majesty the Empress.”

Mona’s amber eyes glistened with unshed tears and unmasked murderous intent. Bellona, watching her intently, sighed and shook her head.

“Not now.”

“Sir!”

“Instead, I’ll take his other arm. That way, he won’t be able to strangle anyone.”

‘Though this isn’t the punishment he truly deserves.’

“But you want Ether dead too! Why won’t you kill him?!”

Tears streamed down Mona’s cheeks as she stood frozen, staring at Bellona in despair. Unmoved, Bellona turned away and remounted her horse.

“I promised Ether I’d gift him a torment worse than death. Still, if he loses his other arm, he’ll be easier to handle. Perhaps he’ll succumb to his frustration and take his own life.”

Bellona started to turn her horse but paused, closing her eyes briefly. Exhaling sharply, she turned back to Mona.

“If you’re truly desperate, strike when Ether is asleep. You might not know I’ve already weakened him. Seek your own revenge until you find peace.”

Gripping the reins tightly, Bellona turned away from Mona and headed into the hunting grounds to find the knights.

Perhaps it was the sight of Mona’s battered appearance that made her momentarily waver.  Or perhaps it was the memory of her own torment at Impes’s hands in the past.

Shaking off such thoughts, Bellona ventured deeper into the forest and came to a halt. Closing her eyes, she focused keenly on the sounds carried by the wind.

Then, from somewhere, Uta’s resounding voice echoed loudly.

“You damn monster bastards! I’m Uta of the Valensis Knights!”

Bellona urgently spurred her horse toward the direction of the voice. The closer she got to the clash of metal, the more her palms grew damp with sweat.

When the scene finally unfolded before her eyes, she was rendered speechless.

It was as if the entire forest had been painted red with blood. Every visible spot was saturated in crimson, strewn with bodies. Animal corpses and human corpses were grotesquely intermingled, creating a horrifying sight that was hard to behold. Judging by the number of bodies, it seemed nearly half the nobles and knights who entered the hunting grounds had been killed.

Amidst this carnage, the Valensis knights stood back-to-back, relying on each other to fend off the relentless attacks. They swung their swords with desperate fury to hold their ground. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be dead yet.

Then something unbelievable occurred before her eyes.

One of the dead bodies suddenly jerked and rose to its feet, creaking unnaturally. Another knight, whose face had been buried in a pool of blood, also began twitching and stood up.

“Damn it! These damn monsters are getting up again!”

Uta shouted in exasperation, his face contorted in frustration. Despite his words, his muscular arms holding the greatsword trembled, as though drained of strength.

The eyes of the knights who were barely holding their ground were filled with fear, as if staring death in the face. Yet they clung desperately to their swords, refusing to let go as they protected one another.

Bellona quickly assessed the situation, pulling a dagger from her thigh. She tied her hair back tightly with the dagger’s strap, tore the trailing ribbons of her dress, and fastened them firmly around the hand holding her longsword.

At that moment, a seemingly alive knight raised his spear to target Uta’s unguarded back. However, the knight’s eyes were void of focus, as though under a spell.

Preoccupied with fending off the frontal assault, Uta’s defenses were left vulnerable. Bellona swiftly hurled her dagger, embedding it precisely in the knight’s hand.

She shouted loudly, “Do not kill the living! Sever the heads of the dead and disable the limbs of the living so they can’t move!”

The knights’ eyes widened as they turned to see Bellona. Without a care for her tattered dress flapping in the wind, she darted through the battlefield, swiftly neutralizing enemies.

Her pale yellow gown, once elegant, was now drenched in crimson, dyed red with blood in mere moments. Barefoot, she tore through the chaos with relentless precision, cutting down foes one by one.

Watching her, Uta muttered in awe, his tongue clicking, “I must have been insane…”

At this moment, she didn’t resemble a goddess of the sword but rather a grim reaper. Her every strike was unerring, severing heads without hesitation.

The thought of having her as an enemy sent a shiver down his spine. Uta praised Caelus’s foresight and rallied his strength.

“Protect Her Grace the Grand Duchess!”

Uta’s commanding roar spurred the knights to fight with renewed vigor, cutting down the approaching enemies one by one. However, the seemingly endless revival of the corpses made it increasingly difficult to hold their ground.

Although the number of decapitated corpses and disabled foes around Bellona grew significantly, the sorcerer hiding nearby continued to control the battlefield. Without eliminating the sorcerer, there was no end in sight.

To make matters worse, even the dead animals were reanimated, further complicating the situation. Amid the chaos of distinguishing between the living and the dead, Bellona kept scanning for the sorcerer’s location.

Suddenly, a loud battle cry echoed. Turning around, she saw the Imperial Knights galloping toward them on horseback. Amidst the charging knights, silver hair billowed in the wind.

“Annihilate all enemies!”

Bellona’s eyes narrowed sharply as she tightened her grip on her longsword. At that moment, Impes’s voice rang out as he shouted her name.

“Bellona!”

Though his tone was filled with concern, Bellona didn’t let down her guard. Once was enough to have been caught off-guard.

Adjusting her grip on the sword, she suddenly noticed a gleaming blade aiming for her neck from the side. Twisting her body swiftly to dodge the attack, she extended her sword, but before she could strike, Impes leaped off his horse and shielded her.

Bellona hesitated, glancing at Impes before turning her gaze to the attacker who had hidden himself.

With a sinister smirk, Ether slashed his blade downward with a triumphant expression. Without hesitation, Bellona darted into Impes’s embrace, twisting her body to grab Ether’s arm wielding the sword.

In that instant…

“Aaaaargh!”

A bloodcurdling scream reverberated through the forest.