There was a low hill to the west of the Achelos Plains.

  From its crest the entire battlefield was clearly visible.

  They were being pushed back.

  Fedra had been sending real-time updates: the battle had begun yesterday morning.

  Their forces were fighting well, but the enemy’s overwhelming numbers had them at a disadvantage.

  Yuria’s new weapons had not yet been used.

  No one knew the right moment.

  On the way they had linked up with three hundred cavalry from Aqueleos and had only just arrived.

  Anastasia left Yurika and ten guards on the hill and headed for the battlefield.

  “I’m off.”

  “Take care!”

  “Good luck!”

  After looking at everyone’s faces, Anastasia drew her naginata and rode toward the main camp.

  Felix was there.

  “Your Majesty!”

  “How is the situation?”

  He seemed more concerned about the queen’s sudden arrival than the battle itself.

  “Ah, don’t mind the armor. I just pulled some old pieces from the countryside.”

  That aside… why was there a cat on horseback…?

  “Your Majesty! We are honored by your presence on the field. We are somehow holding the line, but we are steadily being pushed back.”

  Remedios was commanding the army.

  He too noticed the cat on horseback.

  Then he spotted something familiar in Anastasia’s hair.

  Even though she was gone, they had to win this battle. His resolve hardened.

  “Felix, can the cannons reach the enemy’s second line?”

  “Easily. We’ll just need to advance them past our own second line, but it should be possible.”

  “Move the artillery forward. Load red shells.”

  Felix grinned.

  “Uncle, after the bombardment swing around behind the enemy center and hit them from the rear. Don’t push too deep.”

  “Understood. Will two volleys be enough?”

  “That’s exactly why we brought the artillery!”

  Anastasia had created the shells by applying the principle of fireworks.

  Black shells contained stones packed around the gunpowder.

  Red shells had dried red chili peppers stuffed into the gaps between the stones.

  Her plan was to neutralize two enemy waves at once.

  The enemy might have grown wary when something new appeared in front of their infantry, but it was already too late.

  The shells were made of oil-soaked paper. Gunpowder was loaded into the barrel, the fuse on the shell was lit, and once it caught, the shell was dropped inside. The gunpowder ignited and launched it. When the fuse reached the main charge, it exploded and scattered the stones.

  This time the stones would attack the enemy’s eyes, noses, and throats.

  Breathing would become agony, but this was war.

  “Red-shell battery, prepare to fire!”

  Felix gave the order.

  “Fire!”

  With a thunderous boom the shells flew and burst inside the enemy ranks.

  A blast of wind, stones, and red powder filled the air.

  The enemy’s right and left wings suffered the same fate.

  For a while they would be in no condition to send reinforcements.

  The wind was blowing from the west. The red mist drifted straight into the enemy main camp, robbing them of sight and breath.

  It was the worst kind of weapon.

  The artillery continued firing while slowly advancing.

  In the meantime Aqueleos’s cavalry charged into the rear of the enemy center and struck their backs.

  Seeing this, Remedios ordered the left and right wing cavalry forward.

  Once the horsemen had scattered the first enemy wave, Anastasia had Felix switch to black shells.

  Thanks to the red shells the enemy formation had collapsed, horses were panicking, and the whole line was in chaos.

  “Anyone who wants glory, follow me!”

  Anastasia thrust her naginata toward the sky and charged.

  “Take care of the horse for me, Basti.”

  “Leave it to me.”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  Anastasia slipped through the gaps in the ranks with the Moon Shadow at her back. Remedios had no choice but to move the reserve unit to follow the queen.

  Two enemy riders tried to cut in front of her.

  “Stay back! It’s dangerous in front of me!”

  The riders fell in beside her instead.

  A report reached the enemy that a rider in red had appeared. When they heard it was a woman with her hair up, the emperor himself moved.

  “I’ll make her mine! Follow me!”

  He spurred his horse forward.

  “You all right?” Aqueleos asked.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I’m fine! Now let’s see what we catch!”

  She unleashed an explosive spell at the enemy infantry in the center.

  The front of the enemy line blew wide open.

  Normally mages saved their power for the opening or used it only in support; in the thick of melee they refrained because they might hit allies.

  No one had expected a cavalrywoman to cast magic.

  The rider in red smashed straight through the infantry wall while the emperor rode out to meet her.

  “You little girl!”

  A rider in white leather armor decorated with gold leaf and a bright red cloak appeared.

  (***Plate armor is not used in this world. One spell to freeze it and the fight is over.)

  The emperor had taken the bait.

  Anastasia thought exactly that.

  He held a lance in his right hand and the reins in his left.

  Just before they passed, Anastasia guided her horse to the enemy’s right side, slipped past the lance, and slashed the emperor’s left arm with her naginata.

  As they crossed she stabbed the horse’s rump hard. The horse screamed in pain and threw the emperor—who had just lost his left arm—to the ground.

  His white leather armor turned crimson with blood.

  The moment he somehow staggered to his feet, a blade was pressed to his throat.

  “You attack while people are in mourning. How very considerate.”

  The emperor ground his teeth.

  Soldiers of the kingdom quickly surrounded Anastasia and the captured emperor.

  The emperor’s guards were nearby but could do nothing.

  An arrow flew at Anastasia, but Bernadia knocked it down.

  “Save His Imperial Majesty!”

  Imperial soldiers charged in wave after wave.

  At that instant a gigantic horizontal waterfall of lightning tore across the front of the enemy line.

  A blinding flash and deafening roar swallowed every sound, leaving only silence behind.

  It was unmistakably magic—and on an impossible scale.

  “Someone tie this man up.”

  One rider dismounted and bound the emperor. They even stopped the bleeding on his arm.

  “Take the emperor’s sword and plant it in the ground over there.”

  Anastasia took the emperor with her, returned straight to the main camp, and then rode all the way back to the capital.

  All that remained on the battlefield were the emperor’s severed arm and a sword stabbed into the dirt.

  The imperial main camp fell into pandemonium.

  On only the second day of the war, the emperor had been taken prisoner.

  Worse, the Aristeran army was already withdrawing in perfect order.

  Left behind and completely ignored, the imperial forces could do nothing but hold position and send a messenger to the imperial chancellor.

  When Chancellor Lucius read the letter he clutched his head and let out a deep sigh.

  The events were so absurd he could not speak them aloud and had sent the report in writing instead.

  At least the details had not leaked, but an emperor becoming a prisoner was unthinkable.

  “How did this happen?”

  The messenger answered the chancellor’s question.

  “His Majesty saw what appeared to be Queen Anastasia on horseback and declared he would capture her himself…”

  Lucius covered his eyes with his palm.

  What a foolish story.

  The emperor had brushed aside all restraint, saying he would erase last year’s humiliation, only to end up captured.

  And they said his arm had been cut off.

  He had crossed blades with Queen Anastasia, yet she was apparently a master.

  On top of that, she had displayed magic on a scale rivaling Lunafrea.

  Lucius had imagined the opponent as a still-innocent sixteen-year-old girl, but his expectations had been completely shattered.

  She was a battle-hardened veteran.

  The emperor was only twenty-six—young and hot-blooded—but he had trained extensively in martial arts.

  Yet in the very first exchange his arm had been taken.

  Lucius immediately gathered his staff to discuss countermeasures.

  In the end, the only option was to send someone to beg for the emperor’s return.

  The swift withdrawal had clearly been a message: Come to the capital and apologize.

  The queen was demanding they prostrate themselves.

  Both militarily and diplomatically, they had been utterly crushed.

  The question of who would go was settled at once: the chancellor himself.

  He had been on good terms with Lunafrea, but her sudden death had severed that connection.

  The one silver lining was that Count Aelius was still alive, but he was currently in mourning and unlikely to be in the capital.

  The timing could not have been worse.

  The meeting with the queen would surely involve ransom and war reparations.

  Depending on how the other side played it, they would have to prepare for an enormous sum.

  ◇

  For the second autumn in a row the kingdom was at war with the empire, but when word spread that the queen on her very first campaign had dueled the emperor, cut off his arm, and taken him prisoner, the entire capital erupted in celebration.

  The palace, however, was in chaos.

  They could not kill the emperor, so desperate treatment continued around the clock.

  He had lost a great deal of blood, but his youth saved him; somehow his life was preserved.

  Anastasia ordered condolence payments for the families of fallen soldiers and gathered the bereaved to thank them for their service.

  About a week after the battle, a letter arrived from the empire.

  The chancellor was coming.

  “Poor man. What a terrible position to be in.”

  “Can’t be helped. It’s his job,” Fiona said.

  Leda had taken over the Moon Shadow classroom at the magic academy, Fedra was guarding her grandfather, and Fiona was now attending Anastasia.

  “He’s actually a good person, though.”

  “You know him?”

  “Around the time of my fake funeral he came to Aelius and started buying beauty serums from my aunt. We had a nice relationship and it was quite profitable. Such a shame.”

  “I see. Shall we show him some mercy then?”

  “No. I will not forgive anyone who disturbed my aunt’s mourning.”

  One week later the imperial chancellor arrived by sea at Ternova and entered the embassy in the capital.

  After resting, he was scheduled to have an audience with the queen the next day.

  When Lucius asked about the queen at the embassy, he heard an unbelievable story.

  Since the beginning of the year the queen had been disguising herself as a boy named Denaris, personally tracking down the attackers, capturing them, then upon her coronation had dismantled the Kairos–Valerius feud, destroyed both houses, and solved every internal problem in one sweeping move.

  If true, she was an astonishing ruler.

  There was simply no comparison with Emperor Cassius II.

  Military officers had also reported that on the second day the tide of battle had suddenly turned.

  They had probably used gunpowder, but the technology to produce that much and the idea of loading it with red chili peppers was fascinating.

  Her timing for withdrawal had been perfect too. The empire had been reorganizing to counter a possible Aristeran regrouping when the enemy simply pulled out, leaving them swinging at empty air and losing any chance to attack.

  When he asked about the person named Denaris, he was told the boy was currently wandering the streets.

  He wore Haran-style indigo clothing, so he would be easy to spot.

  Lucius disguised himself as a commoner, took two guards, and left the embassy.

  The embassy stood along South Street, just south of the palace’s main gate.

  Because Ternova was undergoing expansion, the streets were full of craftsmen and supply wagons.

  The city was noticeably more lively than at the beginning of the year.

  Political stability had clearly boosted the economy.

  On top of that, investments in harbor expansion and other projects were aggressive.

  He could tell the queen possessed both political skill and economic sense.

  Even the Kairos trial—held publicly and with forced confession—had been reckless, yet public support was sky-high.

  Trisha too had been revived as a marquisate under the old royal house; the city was regaining vitality and ship traffic was increasing.

  That was why Ternova was expanding.

  All of it steered by a sixteen-year-old girl.

  She was nothing short of extraordinary.

  At that moment a cheerful boy’s voice reached his ears.

  “Hey, old man! Long time no see. Construction going well?”

  A long-haired boy in Haran clothing was chatting with the driver of a stone-laden wagon.

  That must be him, Lucius thought.

  “Hey, Denaris. Going great. It’s really coming together. The shipyard foreman’s all fired up too—might even finish ahead of schedule!”

  “Don’t push too hard, okay? That guy hurt his back before, remember? Tell him to take it easy.”

  “Got it. Come check on us sometime.”

  “Yeees! See you!”

  The boy waved cheerfully.

  He looked nothing like a queen.

  He spoke to commoners as equals.

  The wagon driver clearly had no idea he was talking to royalty.

  Lucius tailed the boy.

  The boy seemed to be checking the cargo wagons passing through, confirming supplies.

  Lucius decided to speak to him.

  “Excuse me…”

  “Oh? Did you need something?”

  “Are you supervising the supply transport?”

  “Yes. There was a collapse the other day and a child got hurt, so I’m making sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Was the child all right?”

  “Luckily, yes. Though it needed quite a few stitches. At least it wasn’t life-threatening.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “So… was there something else?”

  “Ah, no. I just thought Haran clothing was unusual.”

  “Yeah, it is. But once you wear it you realize how practical it is.”

  “We have a few people in my country who wear it too.”

  “Oh, you’re from abroad? Where from?”

  “Thracia.”

  “Ah, the empire. You might want to avoid saying that right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, you know… we captured your emperor. Lots of people will tease you about it.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  “There was even a fight the other day. But you look familiar, old man. Have we met before?”

  “Nya~” Basti meowed.

  “It’s the chancellor.”

  The boy picked up the cat and nodded.

  He did not look surprised at all.

  “No, it’s our first meeting.”

  “I see. Well, I have work to do, so if that’s all…?”

  “Yes, thank you very much.”

  “No problem. Take care.”

  The boy waved and walked off toward the north.

  At the very least, Lucius thought, this was a type of person who would never exist around him.

  He honestly could not read her.

  She showed not the slightest trace of royal status, yet personally inspected supply lines because a child had been injured.

  She was completely unpredictable.

  Lucius realized that even if the queen walked around alone, no one would ever suspect her identity.

  He had come to prepare for the audience, but instead the mystery had only deepened.

  Going in without a plan was utter recklessness.

  Thank you so much for reading! ??

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