“Hey bro! Where is Her Majesty the Queen right now?”

In the central command hall, Kaya strode toward a busy senior officer and grabbed his arm.

“—You should call him Colonel!” The officer broke free from her grasp.

“Okay, brother.”

“Tsk… Her Majesty the Queen, dressed in Valkyrie, has gone to support the transport convoy twenty kilometers to the east.” The colonel replied without looking up, his voice filled with undisguised anxiety. “They’ve even sent an attack helicopter there.”

Kaya was stunned for a moment after hearing this.

Serafina personally took action?

Something’s not right.

Based on her understanding of that woman, Serafina would absolutely not leave the core area of ​​Eisenburg at this time.

—Especially when the rice grains haven’t been properly stored.

When did she leave?

“Half an hour ago.”

Kaya frowned.

Half an hour…

Isn’t it similar to when artillery shells were bombarding the city?

Even earlier…

“Are there any other ways to contact me?” Kaya pressed.

“All communications are blocked. The fighting in the south is fierce, and we can’t spare any more manpower.”

The colonel looked up and stared at her wearily.

“Now we can only wait for His Majesty to contact us…”

“Sigh…” Kaya was silent for a moment, then turned and left. “Thanks, brother.”

officer:”……”

The Queen is no longer a reliable option; she must hurry back to the medical station.

As she stepped out of the command center, Kaya quickly ran towards the southeastern outer city area.

The streets were filled with people hastily evacuating and military vehicles speeding by, with sirens blaring incessantly in the night sky.

This war is far more intense than expected…

Why hide rice grains in the medical station?

She recalled what Serafina had said to her when she hired her yesterday—

“Kaya, I need your help.”

“I’ll do anything as long as the price is right.”

Kaya leaned back on the soft sofa, crossed her legs, and fiddled with a coin in her hand.

“It’s not about the money.” The other person turned around, their heterochromatic eyes gleaming coldly in the light.

“It’s trust.”

“oh?”

“There are traitors within Eisenburg, quite a few.” Serafina tapped the table heavily with the back of her fingers, her voice eerily calm.

“Let’s not even talk about the political circles; I just purged all the parasites in the Senate a couple of days ago.”

But the problem is—

She paused for a moment, her gaze fixed on Kaya.

“They’re also in the military.”

Kaya’s brows furrowed slowly, and the nonchalant look on her face faded.

She knew all too well what it meant to have an inside man in the army…

“Once Mili is exposed to their sight, she might be forcibly taken away if she’s not careful…” Serafina continued:

“We haven’t caught them yet—what I lack most right now is time.”

“Before that, I need someone to protect her.”

Serafina walked up to her and looked down at Kaya’s nonchalant sitting posture.

“Why are you looking for me?” Kaya looked up to meet her gaze:

“Aren’t your personal guards more reliable?”

“Because you are an outsider,” the Queen said frankly. “Besides, what about your reputation?”

“…”

Kaya remained silent for a moment, which was taken as tacit acceptance of this assessment.

“Price?”

“Eisenburg will cover all your food and equipment needs.”

“Five years,” Serafina added, extending five slender, pale fingers.

“make a deal.”

She agreed without hesitation.

Five years…

For a traveling merchant living a precarious life in the wilderness, this was almost equivalent to providing her with a guarantee for the rest of her life.

Kaya clapped her hands, opened her arms wide, and praised the Queen: “Seriously, wouldn’t it be safer for the two of you to stick together in the army? With you watching over things, who would dare to make a move?”

“I’m going to use this event as bait to drag out all the bastards hiding in the gutter and clean up my hands completely.”

“Moreover, I want her to be willing…”

“So greedy? You dare to gamble?” Kaya’s lips twitched, and she put her leg down.

Taking advantage of others and expecting them to be completely devoted to you…

Good or bad.

“I’ve already won once—”

“Besides, who said I was gambling?”

“A bunch of shrewd people…” Kaya muttered under her breath.

…

She immediately thought—this woman is absolutely insane!

But I’m just an employee who gets paid to do things; I have no real say…

But looking back now…

This is no longer just infiltration.

We’re only a hair’s breadth away from total war!

Perhaps Serafina had anticipated this situation, which is why she positioned herself as a “variable” outside the chessboard.

—A third party who belongs neither to the Eisenberg army nor to any faction, but only to principles and contracts…

Bang–

The gunshots in the street pulled her back to her memories.

At the crossroads ahead, a squad of Divine Court soldiers in gray combat uniforms were firing at fleeing civilians.

When did they all come in?!

Wasn’t it said that the walls of Eisenburg were impregnable?

I don’t have time to take a detour!

“Damn it—”

Kaya cursed, drew her scimitar from her waist, then crouched low and used the complex cluster of small houses and collapsed walls as cover to quickly approach.

Snap—

Before the first soldier could even see who it was, his throat was slashed open by the blade.

Blood spurted out.

“Enemy attack!”

The other soldiers immediately realized what was happening and turned their guns to aim at her.

Da da da—

Bullets whizzed past her back, carving dense craters into the bunker and the ground beside Kaya.

The woman moved with the agility of a dragon, darting and weaving through the hail of bullets, her crossbows flashing and her eyes keenly capturing every detail of the soldiers’ movements.

Shoulders, eyes, raised arm…

These are all signs that a fire is about to be fired.

The scimitar and arrows seemed to come alive in her hands, and each attack took down an enemy.

She dispatched most of the dozen or so Divine Court soldiers in just a few minutes.

The remaining men were terrified by this illogical scene. They trembled behind their cover and could only stick their guns out and fire wildly.

“What the hell is that thing?!”

“A monster…”

Kaya ignored their fear, took out a homemade explosive charge from her pouch, snapped the fuse with her teeth, and then threw it forcefully.

“Grenade! Get out of the way!”

“Lie down! Lie down!”

boom—-!

Several Divine Court soldiers hiding behind cover were blown to pieces, their faces covered in hot rubble and metal fragments.

Kaya didn’t stop for a moment. Instead, she took advantage of the thick smoke and dust raised by the explosion and rushed out from behind the corner, pressing forward step by step!

A Divine Court soldier, feeling dizzy, squinted at the figure charging towards him.

He subconsciously reached out and touched his chest…

It was completely empty.

The soldier then belatedly realized that his gun had been flung off his body during the explosion because it wasn’t properly attached to his body…

He could only draw the dagger tucked into his thigh and thrust it forward to meet the opponent’s curved blade.

Clang—

Metal clashed, sparks flew.

The woman slammed her knee into the soldier’s jaw, cleanly swept her leg away from his hand, and in the instant he saw stars, she swung her knife at his neck.

Bang–!

The next second, a muffled gunshot rang out in the distance, and a piercing pain suddenly shot through my calf.

Kaya groaned, flung the knife handle aside, and rolled behind cover, her face contorted in pain, her vest soaked with cold sweat.

There’s a sniper?!

She dared not peek out to observe her surroundings, so she quickly tore off the waistband she was wearing, folded it up, and used it to tightly tighten around her bleeding calves.

The blood loss made her head spin, but she slammed her fist hard on the ground, the pain in her fist forcing herself to stay awake…

She has to go back!

Even if it means crawling, we’ll crawl back!

The rice grains are still there…

More Divine Court soldiers poured in from all directions through the streets.

They were no longer the half-baked group of the past, but had formed a larger and tighter tactical formation, advancing while taking turns providing cover.

The elite troops are all converging on this side.

“Over there! f*ck her!”

“For the Divine Court!”

Kaya took a deep breath, realizing she was entangled. She used her other foot to hook the rifle from beside the soldier’s corpse and fired continuously, temporarily suppressing the enemy’s charge.

Then he threw out the last small smoke grenade from his waist pack, dragged his injured leg, and limped into another alley.

At the end of the alley, several Eisenburg patrolmen were exchanging fire with another small group of Holy See soldiers.

The Divine Court’s forces surged like an endless tide, wave after wave…

They didn’t care about casualties at all; they used their bodies to block gun muzzles and used their lives to run out of bullets…

A Divine Court soldier roared and charged at the patrol, his body strapped with explosives. He was quickly shot through the forehead and then hurriedly kicked away by the patrol.

Boom—!

The massive explosion blew down the wall at the alley entrance, and rubble and dust covered everything.

Kaya was thrown to the ground by the shockwave, her ears ringing, and it took her a long time to recover.

She struggled to her feet, only to be met with an even more despairing scene…

The alleyway was completely blocked off by the Divine Court’s men, with dark gun barrels pointed at her.

Those Eisenburg soldiers had already fallen into pools of blood.

She was all alone now.

The gun is out of bullets…

The crossbow bolts were almost all gone…

The only thing he could rely on was the scimitar in his hand.

The Divine Court’s soldiers pounced on them like mad dogs.

Kaya chuckled helplessly and, dragging her injured leg, faced the attack head-on.

Her movements were no longer as agile as before; dodging and blocking became incredibly difficult…

A bayonet plunged into her side. She coughed and used her elbow to smash the other man’s nose.

Another bullet struck her shoulder, the force of which made it almost impossible for her to hold the knife.

Her clothes were soaked in blood, and her vision grew increasingly blurry…

She felt her strength rapidly draining away, and her body becoming increasingly heavy.

With her last ounce of strength, the woman thrust the scimitar backward, piercing the heart of yet another unknown person, before collapsing limply to the ground…

Lying atop a pile of corpses, Kaya gazed up at the night sky, tinged with a dark red by the smoke of battle, the sounds of gunfire and shouts of killing seeming to recede further and further away from her…

She seemed to see her father’s scarred face—

The old merchant who taught her how to survive in the wilderness, but ultimately fell victim to his employer.

“Dad…”

Gasping for breath, her vision blurred, and the world around her began to spin.

“Humans… are truly more powerful than mutated beasts…”

“So tough to beat…”

“This is terrible…”