Noble Lady Reformation Guide

“Then order us to die at once.”

When Princess Roselin announced that she would personally enter the castle of Count Elvester, the armies and officers gathered in the camp turned completely pale.

In the current situation, having just lost Emperor Gatrell, sending a member of the imperial family into a place no different from a tomb was madness worthy of a lunatic.

Even so, Princess Roselin let out a mocking laugh before the assembled commanders.

Facing aide Lutein, who bowed his head in an attempt to dissuade her, she crossed her leg, rested her chin on her hand, and said.

“It’s ridiculous. If we’re talking about dangerous places, the throne of Gremport is, by comparison, less risky than this place.”

“Princess.”

“Well, let me at least say something sensible. While my troops are being uselessly wiped out out there, what would change if I sat cross-legged in a safe place? If the anti-magic mark that only I possess can be useful, then we must use it actively.”

Roselin shook her head once, then cast a glance at Dereck Ravenclaw, who remained silent with his arms crossed in a corner of the room.

“I won’t drag this out unnecessarily. Reorganize the camp’s forces under Lutein’s command. When Ravenclaw and I enter and open all the gates from the inside, you must immediately charge in and create chaotic combat.”

The military officers gathered around the conference table swallowed in unison.

Princess Roselin would personally enter the battlefield.

If anything happened to her, could those present there walk away unscathed?

Even though they should risk their lives to stop her, she emanated a presence that was impossible to reject.

She was almost certain to sit on the throne as the next empress.

To oppose her was equivalent to opposing the Empire itself.

Trapped in a dead end, Roselin raised her voice even further.

“When the battle descends into total chaos, whoever directly beheads the queen of the necromancers will be rewarded fairly, even if I must stake everything I have. If you revere war, then you too will wish to accumulate merits comparable to those of an imperial hero.”

She knew better than anyone how to deal with the military.

Those who had spent their entire lives in the army lived and died for the merits earned in war.

“When I formally sit upon the throne, I will need someone who becomes the idol of all. Undoubtedly, for a disaster like this to occur at this moment is like a revelation from heaven.”

If someone managed to subdue a necromancer capable of transcending even death, that person would become the most celebrated hero of the Palace of Gremport.

After that declaration, silence once again enveloped the place.

Tap, tap.

Hiiiih!

Roselin took the hem of her dress, lifted it up to her waist, and tied it firmly to one side.

With her legs completely freed, she immediately mounted the saddle and rolled up her sleeves.

Dereck, at her side, held the reins and directed his gaze toward Count Elvester’s mansion, devourer of countless corpses.

‘The troop formation is still not well organized. That means Miss Fina has not fully recovered yet.’

After the bloody battle with Melverot, while Fina focused on her recovery, the castle’s vigilance had loosened considerably.

Moreover, due to Dereck’s constant incursions, the density of the enemy forces had also decreased significantly.

“Well, now that I’m in the saddle, I finally feel it.”

Roselin laughed lightly and glanced sideways at Dereck.

“Not even when I was trapped in the same building with a rank 6 confusion mage did I feel this tense.”

“Why choose such a radical method? If we had continued attacking little by little from the outside, even if it took time, perhaps we could have broken through.”

Before spurring his horse, Dereck spoke to her.

Only there, on that plain heading toward the mansion, could they speak without prying ears.

“Didn’t I already tell you? If we make full use of my ability with the anti-magic mark, why fight a war of attrition and sacrifice more citizens?”

“…”

“As I thought, you don’t believe in pretty words. Fine, you’re right. Not only knights and lords need merits and legitimacy for having served the Empire.”

Roselin snapped the reins and galloped forward, with Dereck riding at her side toward Count Elvester’s mansion.

As they approached, Dereck would use confusion magic to infiltrate.

Once inside the walls, Roselin would act alone to activate the mechanism to open the gates.

Meanwhile, Dereck would wait outside.

If something seemed to go wrong, he would break in to rescue her or, if the mission succeeded and the gates were opened, he would charge straight to the front to kill Fina.

It was an extremely dangerous plan.

The desperate objections of the officers were completely understandable.

However, Roselin shook her head, convinced that she could not allow any more pointless sacrifices, and launched herself into the battlefield.

Clack-clack! Clack-clack!

“Kohella and the bureaucrats aligned with the magic faction are settled in the Palace of Gremport, and the more radical nobles, led by President Damon, even dare to challenge imperial authority. For a crisis of this magnitude to erupt now is deeply significant. I do not intend to let this opportunity slip away.”

“…”

“You know better than anyone how symbolic it is for the one at the pinnacle of the Empire to lead from the most dangerous place. My father, the former emperor, was respected all his life simply because, in his youth, he fought in the fiercest battlefields.”

To become empress, the most important thing was legitimacy.

However, that legitimacy was sometimes built through authority and deeds.

To possess legitimacy and, at the same time, demonstrate responsibility and authority.

That Roselin, even as a woman, would place herself alone at the forefront of a battlefield where countless people were dying would make it impossible for anyone to look down on her.

That was precisely what she desired.

This colossal disaster caused by the necromancer around Count Elvester’s mansion would raise Princess Roselin to a place no one could ignore.

To reach a position that neither Kohella nor Damon could aspire to.

“One must stake one’s life.”

Clip-clop! Clip-clop!

Dereck glanced sideways at Princess Roselin’s hand, which tightly gripped the horse’s reins.

As he looked at that immense horde of corpses and the spirits covering the sky, her white hand was visibly trembling.

“Are you afraid?”

“Haha. Do you already start speaking insolently just because we’re alone on the battlefield?”

Princess Roselin laughed loudly and then, as if something had suddenly snapped, she lowered her head sharply.

Dereck understood immediately.

She was clenching her teeth to avoid showing her fear.

“Yes… I am afraid. Death, after all, is something terrifying.”

Surely, when she was trapped in that chaos at the Ravenclaw Academy, she had felt something very similar.

And yet, no one there had ever noticed her unease.

“But what can be done. Even if I’m afraid, it still has to be done.”

Saying it as if it were nothing, Princess Roselin and Dereck spurred their horses and launched themselves across the plain.

— Hiiing! Hiing!

When the outer wall surrounding Count Elvester’s mansion drew near, Dereck dismounted and concealed himself among the bushes.

Princess Roselin also tied her horse in a covered area and, for a moment, lifted her gaze toward the moon.

“The east of the continent is this dark at night. When you’re always in the Palace of Gremport, you don’t notice it as much.”

“From here on, you must enter inside.”

“Yes. They explained the internal structure of the mansion to me more or less. I memorized the map, but who knows how the interior may have changed…”

The wall destroyed by Melverot was the point where enemy forces were most concentrated.

The border count Elvester, already turned into part of the corpse horde, was also stationed there.

Entering through that point was practically suicide, so it was more reasonable to attack the opposite side, where vigilance was relatively looser.

It would be difficult for an army to enter that enormous mansion, but for a small young woman to infiltrate, even without being detected by magic, was not entirely impossible.

Corpses, by nature, hardly made active decisions unless they received direct orders, so as long as they were not directly detected by key figures such as the Archlich, the border count Elvester, or the bone dragon, there was still room to maneuver.

Dereck took a large mace from the horse’s harness and handed it to Princess Roselin.

Roselin tried to take it, but it was heavier than she expected, and she let out a small groan.

“This… is for me to use…?”

“It would be best not to have to use it.”

“With this weight, I’ll have to carry it on my back. I don’t know if I’ll be able to swing something like this.”

“It’s the lightest one. And, in a situation like this, wielding a blunt weapon is usually better than using one that requires complex techniques.”

“Are you treating me like I’m useless?”

“In a battlefield as brutal as this, you should follow the advice of someone who used to be a mercenary.”

“Exactly. That’s why I brought you with me.”

Princess Roselin nodded and looked at Dereck with a serious expression.

“And after that?”

“I’ll head toward the eastern gate and cast a large spell. At least the troops defending that side will come toward me. Take advantage of that moment to scale the outer wall.”

“With my bare hands?”

“Before you enter, I’ll throw a rope with a hook to secure it.”

“If I fall, I die.”

“Exactly.”

At Dereck’s blunt affirmation, Roselin swallowed.

At the camp, surrounded by subordinates, she always laughed with arrogance and pride.

But now, in the middle of the night, at the vanguard of the battlefield and with no one watching for the first time, the corners of her lips lowered slightly.

“It’s frightening.”

“You can still back out. If you say you tried but it didn’t work, the soldiers will accept it and still acknowledge your bravery.”

“Wow… what a temptation worthy of a demon. If your goal was to make me want to run away, you’ve succeeded.”

Princess Roselin adjusted the mace firmly, let out a dry laugh, and said.

“Of course, having come this far, I can’t turn my back and flee.”

“No one is watching. Even if you ran away in fear now, who would criticize you?”

“What do you mean no one is watching? You’re here, aren’t you?”

“…”

Roselin placed her hand on her waist and spoke as if it were absurd to even suggest such a thing.

“You are also part of the people. At a glance, it’s clear you will become someone who holds up a part of the Empire. It would not be worthy of me to cry in fear in front of someone like that.”

“What I saw today can be considered unseen. It’s night and visibility is poor.”

“Enough with the pretty words. I am someone destined to be queen, so I have to go hunt that false queen.”

Princess Roselin took the large hook hanging from Dereck’s saddle and handed it to him.

It was a silent order for him to act.

Her hand was still trembling slightly, but her face radiated absolute arrogance and confidence, as if no one in the world were more prideful.

Those who occupy high positions are often like that. For Dereck, who had spent half his life educating young nobles, it was a familiar sight.

Whoosh!

Using magic, Dereck threw the hook and secured it at the top of the wall, tugging several times to make sure it was firmly fixed.

Then he handed the rope to Roselin.

“All right… then you’ll go to the eastern gate and cast magic, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Thinking about it, you’re also staking your life. I already noticed it at the academy, but it seems your fear of death has completely faded. How is that possible?”

“…”

Dereck reflected calmly.

Did he truly not fear death?

Not exactly.

But when he wandered through the slums, death had not seemed so terrifying.

He had had nothing to lose.

Thinking about it the other way around, now he did have much to lose.

There were still far too many goals he had not yet achieved.

“I’m the same as you, Princess.”

He said it with a dry laugh that did not quite suit him.

“Even if we’re afraid, we simply do it.”

At those words, Princess Roselin opened her eyes as if she had seen something strange and, shortly after, let out a soft laugh.

“It’s been a long time since I felt I connected with someone like this.”

Having said that, Princess Roselin propelled her body upward and began climbing the wall while Dereck advanced with steady steps toward the eastern gate.

Though they had their backs to one another, the destination of both was the same—the audience hall of the queen who commanded that horde of corpses.

The night was deep.

In Count Elvester’s mansion, submerged in tense calm, only the occasional chirping of insects could be heard.

Boom!

And, as if announcing the resumption of battle, a thunderous crash shook the area of the eastern gate.

Creeeeak!

Kyaaaaaaak!

At the sudden disturbance, the Archlich guarding the central garden emerged among the spirits.

Before him, protecting the eastern gate, stood a mage covered in wounds, alone in the middle of that desolate plain.

Dressed like a mercenary and without a single soldier at his side, that young mage was not someone he faced for the first time.

The same one he had already fought once in the great battle of the Beltus family looked up at the Archlich and said.

“It’s been a while, Happy.”

Countless spirits spread toward the top of the eastern gate.

It was Fina’s most cherished creation and an existence that had tormented Dereck for a long time—but it was time to put an end to it.

Crack!

Booooom!

Dereck’s 2-star combat spell, Fireball, struck the eastern gate once again.

The red flames dyed the night sky as if they were fresh blood.