Filed To Story: Queen of the Battlefield Her Return to Glory Novel Online Free
On the evening’s farewell feast, Blake made an appearance.
The Sullivan family had not planned to invite him, but Davis had brought a message from Salvador, urging Blake to take a more active role in handling military matters. It was clear that Salvador still held him in high regard.
So, Wallace decided to extend the invitation.
There was no reason to avoid him now, especially since past grievances had long since faded. To do so would only make it seem as if Sophie had not truly let go of the past.
However, out of respect for Sophie, Wallace went to speak with her first.
When he had finished, he looked at her with tenderness and asked, “If you don’t want to see him, I can make sure he’s not invited. I’ll have Mr. Lloyd speak with him privately instead.”
When Sophie thought of Blake, she realized he no longer stirred even the faintest ripple in her heart.
“It doesn’t matter,” she replied. “If we are inviting the generals, he should be included. What happened between us is in the past. There’s no need to go out of our way to avoid him.”
Wallace laughed warmly. “Good. That’s all I needed to hear.”
At the start of the feast, Sophie noticed Blake. He arrived late and quietly found a seat in the corner, doing his best to go unnoticed.
She wouldn’t have noticed him if Violet hadn’t pointed him out. When Sophie’s gaze shifted over, she caught him looking her way as well. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Blake quickly looked away, his face paling slightly.
Throughout the feast, he remained silent. He ate when it was time to eat, and raised when it was time to drink. But with only one hand, his movements seemed a little awkward.
Every so often, he stole a glance at Sophie. The woman he once knew was now far beyond his reach.
Beside him, Davis murmured something in a low voice. Blake listened carefully, then gave a solemn nod.
At the break of dawn, the large procession set out for Orivenia.
Sophie didn’t feel much regret in leaving. After all, they would pass through Victory Pass on the way back, and she would have the chance to meet with her grandfather and his family again.
Once they had left Victory Pass, the road grew rougher. Many sections were full of deep potholes or had been intentionally damaged, making it difficult for the carriages to move forward.
However, Kendrick was determined not to ride a horse again. Even after days of rest, his legs were still sore from the relentless friction of the saddle. Walking was manageable, but sitting on horseback?
That was pure agony.
So, despite having earned his merit at Victory Pass for establishing an orphanage there, Kendrick insisted on traveling by carriage. When the wheels got stuck or the path became too treacherous, the Mystic Army soldiers dismounted and pushed the carriage forward, inching their way through the difficult terrain.
Fortunately, the roads had been cleared between the two kingdoms, and they were able to use the routes that had been established for such purposes. Had they needed to cross the high mountains, Kendrick’s noble rear end would have surely suffered greatly.
As they entered Orivenia territory, the officials and soldiers of Orivenia were there to greet them and escort them toward Fawnrun City.
Apart from the translator, everyone else from Starhaven was visiting Orivenia for the first time.
While it was still a border city, Fawnrun City was clearly in worse shape than Victory Pass. The streets were lined with dilapidated buildings and ragged beggars, and the faces of the common folk were marred with sorrow and worry.
Sophie was a little surprised. Despite the war between the two kingdoms, it seemed odd that Fawnrun City had been so badly affected. The conflict hadn’t reached this far, at least not directly. Even though Blake and Freya had passed through here before, causing the massacre in the nearby villages, the damage should have been limited to that area, not the entire city.
It wasn’t until they arrived at the guesthouse in Fawnrun City that Sophie learned from one of the escorting officials that the devastation was not merely from the war. During the previous battle between Leroy and Victory Pass, Leroy’s forces, struggling with supply shortages, had resorted to raiding Fawnrun City for provisions.
At that time, Leroy’s situation was not much better than Victor’s. Few in the then Westhaven supported the war, and the abdicated king, despite his title, lacked the strength to lead effectively. The war had been driven more by personal bravado than anything resembling strategy.
When it was heard that Leroy had perished in battle, his body had never been retrieved. Instead, it had been discarded in a mass grave. It was clear that the people and officials of Fawnrun City harbored a deep hatred for him.
The roads became a bit easier to travel after leaving Fawnrun City, though they were still not as smooth as the roads of Starhaven.
Along the way, many of the local Orivenia citizens watched the Starhaven delegation pass by. Some gazed with curiosity, while others looked on with hostility and disdain.
After years of conflict, with wars flaring up and dying down only to reignite, and now with the incident involving the former Westhaven’s crown prince Arthur, the people’s feelings toward Starhaven were far from friendly.
On the third day after leaving Fawnrun City, the envoy settled for the night at a relay station in Haverbrook. It was there, under the cover of darkness, that they were attacked by assassins.
The assailants came swiftly, their numbers overwhelming-34 in total. They were all dressed in black, with cloth masks covering their faces, leaving only their cold, murderous eyes visible.
Sophie had remained vigilant throughout their journey. Even after they had settled in the inn, she never let her guard down. Despite the large number of assassins, she was not caught off guard.
Violet protected Kendrick and the other officials while Sophie, Michael, and Travis led their people into battle. Orivenia’s guards also joined the fight to fend off the assailants.
The assassins were formidable. Their martial arts skills were advanced, their techniques intricate, and their ability to adapt quickly was remarkable.
Though Sophie and her companions were skilled in combat, the majority of the Mystic Army were not experts in this kind of high-level fighting. They were better suited for large-scale battles;-
against such highly assassins, they were at disadvantage.
This left Sophie and her group on the defensive. They couldn’t fully engage in combat, only managing to protect themselves while occasionally knocking down a few assassins. However, they didn’t deal fatal blows, and the assassins could still escape.
Fortunately, the assassins didn’t linger after realizing they were not making progress. Soon, they all disappeared into the night.
Sophie didn’t issue any orders to pursue them. They were in unfamiliar territory, and chasing blindly into the night could lead to ambush or an l.ne worse. But as she watched the assassins disappear into the shadows, she noticed something troubling-the Orivenia guards had deliberately left gaps in their defense, allowing the assassins to escape smoothly.
Thaddeus Maxwell, the commander of the Orivenia guards, seemed to have noticed this. After addressing the immediate aftermath, he began a thorough investigation.
Kendrick had been shaken by the attack, and the royal physician had already been called to prepare a sedative to calm his nerves.
When Sophie visited him, it was a pitiful sight. His face was as pale as paper, drained of all color. His lips trembled, and he shakily asked if the assassins were gone.
She reassured him, saying they had gone, and only then did his trembling subside slightly.
The people around him had already informed him that the assassins were driven off, but he hadn’t believed them. He needed to hear it from Sophie to feel any sense of security.
Sophie reminded him to rest and recuperate before she left.
Meanwhile, Davis was busy comforting the others. As the Defense Minister, he had seen his fair share of chaos and remained calm. Also, he trusted Sophie and the Mystic Army. He didn’t think there was much to fear-at worst, they had just risked losing a head.
It was Meadow Ridge’s members who gathered together, speculating that the black-clad figures they had encountered in Victory Pass might be the same as the assassins who had attacked them.
It was Violet who first brought up the theory.
She believed the way that group had disappeared was too strange there had to be some hidden passage they used to slip away. It all felt premeditated.
And then there was the matter of their black clothing. The number of them might not add up perfectly, but that was easy enough to explain. Some of them had probably stayed behind, lying in wait.