An Archer's Promise

Chapter 7: I wanted to save you

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi

.

.

.

-Grünes Bergdorf-

"By the gods… what the fuck happened here?" Maia said as she surveyed her surroundings.

After galloping on her horse for the last hour, the Queen of Mercenaries made haste towards the village of Grünes Bergdorf, where before she could even reach it, traces of the destroyed land came to be seen.

The dirt path that led through a forest before reaching the village was gone and reduced to ashes. The ground itself turned darker the closer she got till it became blackened, scorched from the intense heat. The forest itself was nowhere to be seen, the stench of burnt wood, soot, and flesh filling her nose and watering her eyes. Maia had to stop for a while, to let the dense smoke disperse so that she could move forward and not just run blindly.

She coughed repeatedly, even her horse could not take the smoke and retreated from the area.

"Woah there! Calm down boy, Shh, Shh." She brought her water flask and dumped some water on her face and the horses before deciding to take a separate route. "Just where are those bastards?" A weird point she noticed as she searched for any signs of Orcs or demons—there were none. "Claudia's stationed Knights sent a report about there being hundreds of demons spotted near the area, yet I can't even find a single trace of those green-skinned fuckers." Those monsters had as much stealth capabilities as her when she got drunk… so hiding was impossible.

After a few minutes, Maia finally saw the village in front and to her immense relief, the place didn't look destroyed. At least partially. The main gates were completely obliterated, with black smoke coming off the ground near the entrance where an enormous crater could be seen. Her eyes widened as she caught a glance of what looked like a partially destroyed Knight's armor. "Shit!" Concluding that the enemy was most likely still present, Maia readied her twin blades and rushed forward inside.

"Maia-sama!" She heard the voice of someone calling for her, looking around, making sure that there were no demons nearby, the Princess Knight saw a group of lightly scraped naked girls calling for her from inside a stable.

"Just… just what exactly happened here?" She asked, jumping off her horse to speak with them, "And what are you all doing inside without clothes?" Her first thought was that she had reached too late, but one of the girls who presented herself as Brynn Deliha, captain of the Knight's squad came to kneel in front of her.

"It-it is an honour to be in your presence, Maia-sama!" Being in the presence of a high-ranking commander or a member of the clergy was an honour, let alone being in the presence of a Princess Knight! Brynn was trying her best to contain her excitement. Even though she and her Knights were nearly defiled by the Orcs if it weren't for the timely save from the archer in red.

"We salute you, Queen of Mercenaries!"

The remainder of her squad joined her kneeling while still naked in front of a fed-up Maia.

If she wasn't so stressed and confused with the whole situation, she might have just ended up bursting into a fit of laughter at their appearance.

Too bad she wasn't in a good mood.

"Oh, for the love of—will you knock that off and tell me what the heck happened here!?" She screamed in frustration. To this day, she still wonders if it was worth taking the title of Shield Princess.

…

After confirming that there weren't any Orcs or any other sort of danger near the area, Maia and her group, who joined them during the middle of the explanation, gathered around with Knights assigned to the village; she helped them patch up their injuries while bringing them somewhere where they could talk.