When Rose returned home, she found Lester leaning against the hearth, reading a parchment scroll.
She herself had casually collected many such scrolls—old records of strange myths or fragments of Valoran's history. Letting Lester, whose thirst for knowledge had grown fiercer by the day, practice his reading on them wasn't a bad idea.
"You're up already? Weren't you sleeping so soundly?"
Wrapping her arms around his neck from behind, Rose pressed her cheek lightly to his ear, searching for warmth.
Lester responded with a tiny ambush kiss on her pretty cheek, setting the scroll aside and leaning back against her shoulder.
"You left. How was I supposed to stay asleep?"
"You really know how to say nice things… but I like hearing them~ So here's your reward~"
Letting him go, Rose twirled once, slipped off her heels, and seated herself directly on his lap.
She didn't know if it was an illusion, but lately she felt increasingly attached to him—not just she, Rose, but something deeper, hidden in a dark corner of herself. Even the frequency of her baths had become… suspiciously high.
It felt as though there was something beyond magic clinging to this man—something she could never quite detect no matter how she probed with spells, as if it were all her imagination.
"Leaving in the middle of the night for a meeting… something big must've happened, right? I heard from Meredith that the fighting hasn't been going well lately."
Gently patting her smooth stomach, Lester's expression grew a little worried in the firelight.
"Yeah. Barbarians and bandits from the north are pushing in. Immortal Bastion doesn't have enough soldiers."
"You're not going to the battlefield, are you? I forbid it. If anyone goes, it should be me."
Seeing the concern in Lester's eyes, Rose's heart trembled. She glanced aside, avoiding his gaze, but her lips still held a bright smile as she clasped the hand resting on her stomach.
"How could I? I'm a senior member of the Black Rose Academy. Going to the front lines isn't something they'd assign me."
"That's good."
Because Lester had added fresh kindling, the hearth crackled with the occasional pop, filling the quiet night with a strangely intimate atmosphere. The two of them simply enjoyed the warmth and silence together.
After a long while—
"Lester?"
"What is it?"
"In the memories you still have… are there any tactics for dealing with cavalry?"
Lester paused, then looked thoughtful.
"There are a few ways, but…"
"Tell me~"
Rose shook his shoulders gently, attempting a charm attack to fluster him.
"H-hey—stop shaking me, I'm getting dizzy."
After their little scuffle, Lester pulled her back into his arms and finally spoke.
"First, tell me the situation. Different circumstances call for different methods."
Rose sighed, lowering her head, her voice becoming muffled.
"A bandit group came down from the western side of the Gorrel Mountains. They bypassed the Noxian defense line on the eastern side and have been raiding all the way south. They have about a hundred riders. Not easy to deal with… and we're out of cavalry."
"Do these bandit riders have stirrups? Can they shoot from horseback? What's their main weapon?"
"Stirrups? What are those?"
Looking puzzled, Rose continued, "If I'm guessing correctly, their weapons are probably long wooden spears they made themselves, or single-edged blades. Almost none of them can shoot from horseback. Even if they have shortbows, they're not very threatening on horseback."
"I see."
As Lester fell into deeper thought, Rose puffed her cheeks and tugged at his smug face.
"Hurry up and say it!"
"In that case it's easy. If you have strong bows or heavy crossbows, you just use long spears and barricades to keep the riders at bay and shoot them down. If you don't have strong bows, then you dig horse traps, set trip lines, scatter their formation, and once they're dismounted, use long-handled hook-blades to hamstring the horses and finish the fallen riders—"
Lester stopped. Rose's eyes had gone blank, making her look adorably confused.
"Rose?"
"Lester, I don't understand whatever you mean by 'fall-in horse holes' or 'trip-over horse ropes'… but I believe you have a way."
Standing up from his arms, Rose's expression turned serious… and hesitant.
"Tomorrow, I'll be sending five magi to join the Noxian levy heading for the Gorrel Mountains to intercept the bandits. You… do you want to go? If you can play a decisive role and defeat the raiders, Noxus will grant you a place."
Lester smiled, raising a brow.
"Noxus and all that isn't particularly important to me… But if it helps you, I'll go."
Rose's eyes shimmered with moisture.
"Lester… I'm so afraid that one day you'll leave me, go somewhere I'll never find you…"
"If I ever have to leave… I'll go somewhere you are."
The fire roared. The crackling of kindling was slowly drowned beneath soft, intoxicating sounds.
No one knew how much time passed.
Somewhere in the underground city beneath the Immortal Bastion, a woman with long disheveled hair—someone who had secluded herself for far too long—suddenly opened her eyes. She tore off her light leather armor, tossed aside her staff, and with a complicated expression stepped into the magically heated bath…
—
The next day, before dawn broke, the conscripted Noxians gathered at Conqueror's Square.
Outside the square, hundreds of children and youths cried until their eyes were red. Through their blurred vision, their loved ones seemed to grow farther and farther away… until they were gone forever.
Standing before Conqueror's Square, Nadalz felt instead that she was standing before an abyss—an endless pit yawning beneath her feet.
The old man struggling to pull ragged leather scraps over his body.
The girl trying to widen her eyes to look fierce, clutching a short, notched dagger.
The limping old woman gripping a wooden club studded with nails…
How many of these people would survive?
A sting shot through Nadalz's eyes. She lowered her head.
Her "leather armor" was nothing more than a piece of rotting hide—because there were simply no real cuirasses left.
Her notched dagger was the only keepsake her mother had left her… and now, like her mother once had, she would bring it with her into battle.
The old woman had no family left. She came to offer her final bit of strength…
Stendal stood nearby, gaze deep and steady.
"No matter how many return, Noxian will and Noxian glory will be carved into every soul. After this battle, 'Noxus' will become the blood running through their veins."
Hearing this, Nadalz lifted her head.
"Four hundred twenty-one people. Fifty disabled veterans. Two hundred twenty-five elderly. One hundred forty-one youths just past twenty and middle-aged women. Five Black Rose mages…"
"No—four hundred twenty-two."