TRFS 2

Chapter : 2

Her head was ringing.

Even the smallest sound made her skull throb as though she’d drunk herself stupid the night before. Cleora sat in a chair and pressed her forehead hard.

Ha… what is this.

When the mercenaries, who had briefly gone out bickering, returned and saw the girl—who had been lying like a corpse—sitting up alive, they fluttered back as if they’d seen a monster.

They kept their distance, whispering while sneaking glances at Cleora, then cautiously approached to speak—only to recoil in shock a second time.

After staring at Cleora for a long while, they finally opened their mouths.

“So, in other words…”

A middle-aged woman sat across from Cleora.

Adrian, leader of the mercenary company, frowned at the shabby-looking girl.

“This corpse—no, this girl was dumped in the company’s backyard?”

“Yes! It’s true!”

“In this wrecked condition?”

“Yes!”

Being interrogated by Adrian, Jade shouted, his face swollen like a panda.

His eye had turned a dark bruise after the mercenaries roughly restrained him when he tried to run away.

Even after hearing the answer, Adrian looked unconvinced.

He stared skeptically at Jade, then turned his gaze back to Cleora.

She doesn’t look like she’s been assaulted.

Her clothes and appearance were filthy, sure, but she wasn’t injured.

Sensitive to crimes of that type, Adrian glanced again at Jade.

“Then why did you run?”

“I already said! If they found me there, you’d think I did it!”

“You could’ve just said you didn’t.”

“I have been saying that! But none of you believe me!”

“Idiot! Criminals always say they didn’t do it!”

A mercenary nearby scolded him, and Jade whipped his head around.

“People who aren’t criminals say they didn’t do it too!”

“…”

…Fair enough. The mercenary coughed awkwardly and stepped back.

Jade looked desperately up at Adrian again.

“At first I thought she was a corpse, so I just tried to get rid of her. That’s all. Please believe me!”

“Captain, I don’t think he’s lying. Maybe we should drop it? He really looks wrongfully accused.”

When a young man at his side spoke cautiously, Adrian sighed and nodded.

“Fine. I’ll trust you. Now get out—but if you run again, I will assume you’re the culprit and turn you in.”

“I won’t! I’m staying right here!”

Jade stomped away, furious that he’d been suspected at all.

The door slammed shut, and Adrian let out another long sigh.

What on earth had happened? A girl discovered like a corpse overnight in a backyard that was locked tight unless you opened the door?

He was pondering what to do with this absurd situation when—

“Excuse me.”

Cleora, who had been looking at herself in a mirror, spoke up.

“Where am I?”

Everyone in the room froze.

Where…? Adrian blinked, then slowly answered.

“This is a mercenary company.”

“No, not that. What country is this?”

As the throbbing in her skull began to fade, Cleora frowned and raised her head.

One look at the people around her and you knew they were mercenaries.

And they were using the same Western common tongue she spoke.

So her question was reasonable—but the mercenaries were stunned.

She didn’t even know what country she was in?

Adrian exchanged looks with the man beside him.

“This is the Neirad Empire.”

“Neirad…”

Cleora muttered the familiar name and winced at the pulsing pain.

It was the country she had lived in. That familiarity was the problem.

Why am I here? Didn’t I die?

Her last memory was dying in battle against Kellaeagos.

After that, she woke up in a mercenary yard filled with brawling soldiers?

Cleora pressed her head and sighed.

Trying to make sense of the nonsensical, Cleora suddenly recalled Kellaeagos’s last words.

So that you may realize how hollow and meaningless the values you spoke of truly are…

What had he meant?

Cleora slowly lifted her head.

“Hey… I understand your head hurts and you’re confused, but may I ask something? Who are yo—”

“Is the war over?”

“War?”

Adrian tilted his head.

What war? Recently, only the civil war in the West came to mind. Was she from there?

“Are you by chance from the western regions? That place—”

“Wait. What region is this?”

“…”

She answers nothing and only asks questions.

Adrian, who valued courtesy, felt a vein bulge, but he couldn’t hit a young girl who might have gone through God knew what.

Deep breath. Calm voice. Crumpled expression.

“Here? This is Gevena City, in the province of Sondrom. Now anyway—who exactly are yo—”

“What happened to Aizenbold? Is it still standing?”

“This brat is reall—!”

Adrian finally snapped as Cleora cut him off again, but just as he exploded, the young man beside him squeezed between them with an awkward laugh.

“Haha, Captain… please. She’s just a kid, right?”

“She’s ignoring me—!”

“Calm down…”

He forced Adrian back and smiled helplessly at Cleora.

What on earth is wrong with them?

While Cleora stared blankly, a bald mercenary nearby spoke quietly.

“Aizenbold has all but fallen.”

“Fallen…?”

Cleora snapped her head up, and the mercenary nodded.

“Seventy years ago, after the Battle of the Golden Plains. With Cleora, the last head, dead, there was no one left to succeed. The house slowly declined.

Fighting broke out over the vacant headship; some branch families split off and claimed their own lands.”

“…”

“With the power fractured and a young branch brat taking over, of course it collapsed. That’s already thirty years ago. Why ask about a dying noble house anyway?”

Utterly absurd.

Cleora could not shake her shock.

Because she’d woken seventy years in the future? No.

Because she’d apparently come back to life? No.

What floored her was hearing that her own house—Aizenbold—was crumbling.

But…

Aizenbold had been the shield and spear of the Neirad Empire.

Not for five or ten years—three hundred years, since Neirad’s founding.

And the imperial family had sworn by decree to protect it.

Even if every direct heir died, the line would be preserved to the last drop of blood.

She had carried that oath on her back into every battlefield.

And they broke it—not in 200 years, not 100—but in seventy?

No—if it was already ruined, that meant they tossed the oath aside the moment the war ended.

Cleora barked a bitter laugh and sprang to her feet.

“So they just—! Huh?”

“?”

Adrian and the young man froze mid-scuffle at her sudden movement.

“I’ll be going now. Thank you.”

Cleora bowed politely, then turned.

Leaving? Just like that? Adrian stared blankly, then called out in panic.

“Wait! Where are you even going?”

“The west.”

“Why?!”

Why?

“To take back my position.”

And crack open the skulls of those bastards who didn’t keep their promise.