When the Princess was swallowed by the sand worm, the captain of the guard, Harold Stone, was standing at the very front of the guards. Watching that fiery-red figure vanish into the sandy ground, he felt his heart skip a beat.
He was forty-two years old and had served by the Princess's side for over fifteen years.
He had seen the Princess calmly commanding formations in the North when they were outnumbered five thousand to thirty thousand, and he had seen her back as she charged, bathed in blood, fighting one against a hundred in the south.
He thought he had long grown accustomed to seeing the Princess in all kinds of dangerous situations, but the moment she vanished, his heart clenched, feeling worse than if he had been struck by an arrow.
“Harold! What are you standing there dazed for?”
His deputy roared in his ear, and only then did he realize he was gripping his sword hilt so tightly that his entire forearm was trembling.
He was not afraid of death; from his very first day as the captain of the guard, he had been prepared to take a blade for the Princess. Yet, watching her get swallowed whole by that monster while he couldn't even catch up left him feeling a sense of despair.
“Your Highness...”
Harold opened his mouth, staring at the sand that had already settled. He suddenly remembered that Her Highness still carried an amulet from the Empire. The defensive barrier it generated might still hold for a while, so they had to find the sand worm's tracks as quickly as possible to rescue her.
Just as he was pondering how to track the sand worm to rescue the Princess, he saw the necromancer move.
When Shane Leynas vaulted onto his skeletal warhorse, Harold's brow furrowed involuntarily.
To be honest, he had never truly trusted this guy from the very beginning.
A necromancer, an exile of the Empire. Even though Shane had planted so many trees in the oasis, blocked the quicksand, and proven time and again that he meant no harm, a deep-seated barrier of distrust still remained in Harold's heart.
He had seen too many necromancers.
While serving in the North, he had personally cleansed a village contaminated by the undead. Even now, remembering that scene would wake him in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.
Thus, he had always maintained a degree of vigilance. No matter how harmless Shane behaved, Harold had never fully trusted him with his back.
But at this moment, when he saw that skeletal warhorse carrying Shane straight toward the sand worm's wide-open maw, Harold felt as though every judgment he had made in his life had been shattered.
“What... what is he doing?”
His deputy's voice came from beside him, filled with utter disbelief.
Harold, too, stared at Shane in shock, watching him leap into the air from his horse's back and plunge headfirst into that grayish-brown circular maw.
Without a single shred of hesitation or doubt.
He just jumped in like that?
Harold stood frozen in place. He stared at the closing mouth of the sand worm, his lips trembling, but he couldn't utter a single word.
A necromancer, jumping into the belly of a desert behemoth to save a member of the imperial family.
If such a story were written into a bard's ballad, Harold would have smashed his wine glass on the spot and spat, “What a load of rubbish.” Yet right now, it was happening right before his eyes.
“Madman,” Harold muttered under his breath, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth as he let out a low growl. “An absolute madman!”
The reactions of the surrounding guards were even more direct:
“He went in!”
“My God, he just jumped into the sand worm's belly like that?”
“To save Her Highness...”
Whispers broke out, but the emotions carried in their voices were completely different from before.
The glances that used to carry suspicion whenever they looked at Shane had now transformed into complex, indefinable expressions, laced with a newfound respect.
“Don't just stand there!” Harold roared, snapping everyone's attention back to the battlefield. “Lord Elon said we attack from the outside while he attacks from within! Strike the sand worm's underbelly! Create an opening for the guy inside!”
Ksaz had already charged forward, his broad, golden figure swinging his double-bladed axe, every strike landing precisely on the sand worm's underbelly.
The sand worm's body writhed violently, its circular maw snapping frantically in all directions, yet it could never lock onto any of its opponents.
Harold led the guards to flank the beast. He could feel the vibrations beneath his feet growing more intense as the sand worm struggled with increasing frenzy, kicking up clouds of sand with every twist and turn.
Then, the sand worm's body suddenly stiffened.
The entire grayish-brown behemoth suddenly went limp, and a muffled cracking sound echoed from deep within its abdomen.
“It's split open! They're here!” Ksaz bellowed, swinging his two-handed axe with a burst of golden light. The sand worm's grayish-brown carapace shattered into flying fragments, revealing the dark red, soft inner walls. Two figures tumbled out of the rift.
Shane was holding the Princess as the two of them rolled out of the tear, crashing heavily onto the sand.
Shane's sand-resistant robe was torn, and the Princess's light armor was damaged in several places, but both of them had their eyes open and were breathing.
Harold felt his knees go weak, almost losing his footing.
“Your Highness!”
He was the first to rush over, kneeling on one knee beside the Princess. His eyes swept over her body, and only after confirming there were no obvious external injuries did he let out a long sigh of relief. “Your Highness, are you alright?”
“I am fine.”
The Princess's voice sounded a bit hoarser than usual, but it was steady. She pushed herself up from the sand, straightened her back, and declared victory to everyone before turning to Harold beside her. “Recall the men. Dispose of the sand worm's carcass.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Harold stood up, his expression turning solemn once more. As he turned, his peripheral vision caught Shane. Through the tears in Shane's sand-resistant robe, he could see skin mottled from acid corrosion.
Yet Shane's face remained expressionless. He simply stood there quietly, watching the Princess's retreating figure.
The final barrier of distrust in Harold's heart was completely swept away at this moment.
He walked over and stopped in front of Shane.
Their eyes met. Harold remained silent for a couple of seconds before cracking a smile. He raised his hand and clapped Shane firmly on the shoulder. “Mr. Leynas.”
This was the first time he had ever addressed Shane as “Mr.”
“Forgive my past offenses.”
Looking at Shane, Harold's eyes held nothing but gratitude and deep admiration. “But from this day forward, if you ever need my help with anything, just say the word.”
Shane was jolted back half a step by the pat. He looked up at Harold, his mouth twitching as if he wanted to say something but thought better of it. In the end, he simply nodded and softly replied, “Sure.”
Harold turned around, waving his hand at the gathering guards, and called out, “Fall back! Process the spoils! Barton, take some men to harvest the carapace and meat. Don't damage the teeth. I heard from Lord Elon that those are valuable materials!”
Cheers erupted once again, but this time, the atmosphere was different.
As the guards passed by Shane, some would stop to nod in respect. Two of the bolder ones even walked straight up to him, asking if he wanted some water or a clean change of clothes.
Surrounded by the crowd, a rare trace of awkwardness appeared on Shane's pale face.
He was still not quite used to this sudden, unprompted warmth.
Rate on N.U.
